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454	https://historysoa.com/items/show/454	The Author, Vol. 04 Issue 04 (September 1893)	<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.+04+Issue+04+%28September+1893%29"><em>The Author</em>, Vol. 04 Issue 04 (September 1893)</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>	1893-09-01-The-Author-4-4					109–148																		<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=89&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=4">4</a>											<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=76&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1893-09-01">1893-09-01</a>							4			18930901	Che HMuthor.<br /> <br /> (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)<br /> <br /> CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Vou. IV.—No. 4.] SEPTEMBER 1, 1893. [PRICE SIXPENCE.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> CONTENTS.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> PAGE PAGE<br /> Warnings ae wee aoe Feuilleton—<br /> <br /> ; . 1.—Confessions of a Critic ... aes see ose oe wee 134<br /> How to use =o pomey : ae! R= - Modern Comedy () 2.6 ee ola ks 86<br /> The Authors Syndicate ... ime ase ee woe con se me So-So Sociology = a ee ae ee oe - ... 136<br /> Notices ... eee + 112 | Ugolino’s Love. By N. Chester... ... 0 ns tos SLB<br /> Literary Property— Literature in Oxford ... sea fee a. soe oe ss ce Lod<br /> <br /> 1.—Authors’ Rights in Germany ... ae as see pieclie Correspondence— :<br /> <br /> 2.—Cost of Production a ile 1.—A Novel Experience wee toe sas one tee 5 kao<br /> Omni Gath POR RCaInh 15 2.—A Dread Tribunal ... oes cS ses a8 ees nen koe<br /> <br /> mum Gatherum for september eee vee see nee eee 2 3.—George Eliot... as oe ey eee fe cs —g8<br /> The Literary Conference at Chicago... a one oe seen ba. 4.—The Sweating of Authors... me as Be rea auc bee<br /> The Relati Z 8 isher. A P: Read at the 5.—Reviewing ... ae bbe aps are ea ae ose a0<br /> <br /> os a f Whe bebo Uae 6 agp<br /> ey ee ere ee Pi -Autiorama diel. ce Pe al on, TAO<br /> The Sinner’s Comedy See ae ed owe eee at LT 8 “Thoetranster of BOOKS... i a ee 1<br /> An American Statement. By Grace Greenwood ... eee +» 128 | ‘At the Sign of the Author’s Head” ... is ce wee oe UAL<br /> Notes and News oe oS ee See coe ace see ac aed New Books and New Editions ... ees is eS ce ... 143<br /> <br /> 1. The<br /> 9. The<br /> <br /> 3. The<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Annual Report. That for January 1892 can be had on application to the Secretary.<br /> Author. A Monthly Journal devoted especially to the protection and maintenance of Literary<br /> Property. Issued to all Members.<br /> <br /> Grievances of Authors. (The Leadenhall Press.) 1s. The Report of three Meetings on<br /> the general subject of Literature and its defence, held at Willis’s Rooms, March, 1887.<br /> <br /> 4. Literature and the Pension List. By W. Morris Cotes, Barrister-at-Law. (Henry Glaisher,<br /> <br /> ou<br /> <br /> . The<br /> 6, The<br /> <br /> 7. The<br /> <br /> g5, Strand, W.C.) 3s.<br /> <br /> History of the Société des Gens de Lettres. By S. Squrrm Spricen, late Secretary to<br /> the Society. 1s.<br /> <br /> Cost of Production. In this work specimens are given of the most important forms of type,<br /> size of page, &amp;c., with estimates showing what it costs to produce the more common kinds of<br /> books. Henry Glaisher, 95, Strand, W.C. 2s. 6d.<br /> <br /> Various Methods of Publication. By S. Squrrz Spriaex. In this work, compiled from the<br /> papers in the Society’s offices, the various forms of agreements proposed by Publishers to<br /> Authors are examined, and their meaning carefully explained, with an account of the various<br /> kinds of fraud which have been made possible by the different clauses in their agreements.<br /> Henry Glaisher, 95, Strand, W.C. 3s.<br /> <br /> 8. Copyright Law Reform. An Exposition of Lord Monkswell’s Copyright Bill now before Parlia-<br /> <br /> 9. The<br /> <br /> ment. With Extracts from the Report of the Commission of 1878, and an Appendix<br /> containing the Berne Convention and the American Copyright Bill. By J. M. Leny. Eyre<br /> and Spottiswoode. 1s. 6d.<br /> <br /> Society of Authors, A Record of its Action from its Foundation. By Water Besant<br /> (Chairman of Committee, 1888—1892). 1s.<br /> IIo<br /> <br /> ADVERTISEMENTS.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The Society of Authors (Sncorporated).<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> PRESIDENT.<br /> <br /> GHORGH MEREDITH.<br /> <br /> COUNCIL.<br /> <br /> Sir Epwin ARnoxp, K.C.LE., 0.8.1.<br /> ALFRED AUSTIN.<br /> <br /> J. M. Barrie.<br /> <br /> A. W. A Beckert.<br /> <br /> Ropert BATEMAN.<br /> <br /> Sir Henry Berane, K.C.M.G.<br /> WALTER BESANT. :<br /> AUGUSTINE BIRRELL, M.P.<br /> <br /> R. D. BuacKMORE.<br /> <br /> Rev. Pror. Bonney, F.R.S.<br /> Ricut Hon. James Bryce, M.P.<br /> Hawt Caine.<br /> <br /> EGERTON CASTLE.<br /> <br /> P. W. CLAYDEN.<br /> <br /> EDWARD CLODD.<br /> <br /> W. Morris Couzs.<br /> <br /> Hon. JoHN COLLIER.<br /> <br /> W. Martin Conway.<br /> <br /> F. Marion CRAWFORD.<br /> <br /> Austin Dosson.<br /> A. W. Dusoura.<br /> <br /> EpmunD Gossk.<br /> <br /> Tuomas Harpy.<br /> <br /> J. M. Lety.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> OswaLD CRAWFURD, C.M.G.<br /> Tue Haru or DEsaRrt.<br /> <br /> J. Eric Exicousen, F.R.S.<br /> <br /> Pror. MicHaEt Foster, F.R.S.<br /> Ricut Hon. HERBERT GARDNER, M.P.<br /> Ricuarp Garnett, LL.D.<br /> <br /> H. Riper Haeearp.<br /> <br /> Jerome K. JEROME.<br /> RuDYARD KIpPuine.<br /> Pror. E. Ray LAnKESTER, F.R.S.<br /> <br /> Ruv. W. J. Lorrie, F.S.A.<br /> Pror. J. M. D. MEIKLEJOHN.<br /> Herman C. MERIVALE.<br /> <br /> Rev. C. H. MippLEToN-WAKE.<br /> <br /> Lewis Morzis.<br /> <br /> Pror. Max MULLER.<br /> <br /> J. C. PARKINSON.<br /> <br /> Tue EARL OF PEMBROKE AND Mont-<br /> GOMERY.<br /> <br /> Sir FreprricKk Pouiock, Bart., LL.D.<br /> <br /> Water Herrizs PoLLock.<br /> <br /> A. G. Ross.<br /> <br /> GrorGEe AUGUSTUS SALA.<br /> <br /> W. Baptiste Scoonses.<br /> <br /> G. R. Sus.<br /> <br /> S. SqurrE SPRIGGE.<br /> <br /> J. J. STEVENSON.<br /> <br /> Jas. SULLY.<br /> <br /> Witiiam Moy THomas.<br /> <br /> H. D. Trait, D.C.L.<br /> <br /> Baron HENRY DE WoBRMs,<br /> E.B.S.<br /> <br /> EpMunD YATES.<br /> <br /> MP.,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Hon. Counsel—E. M. UNDERDOWN, Q.C.<br /> Solicitors—Messrs Fretp, Roscoz, and Co., Lincoln’s Inn Fields.<br /> Accountants—Oscar BERRY and CARR, Monument-yard, E.C.<br /> Secretary—G. HERBERT THRING, B.A.<br /> <br /> OFFICES.<br /> <br /> 4, PortuagaL STREET, Lincoun’s Inn Frenps, W.C.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Third Edition, with Additions throughout, in demy 8vo., 700 pages, price 15s.<br /> <br /> AN ANECDOTAL HISTORY OF THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT,<br /> <br /> From the Earliest Periods to the Present Time.<br /> WITH NOTICES OF EMINENT PARLIAMENTARY MEN, AND EXAMPLES OF THEIR ORATORY.<br /> <br /> ComPpiLED FROM AUTHENTIC SouRCcES BY<br /> <br /> GHORGE HHNERY JENNINGS.<br /> CONTENTS.<br /> <br /> Parr I—Riseand Progress of Parliamentary Institutions.<br /> <br /> Part Il.—Personal Anecdotes: Sir Thomas More to John<br /> Morley.<br /> <br /> Part Ill.—Miscellaneous. 1. Elections. 2. Privilege; Ex-<br /> clusion of Strangers; Publication of Debates.<br /> 3. Parliamentary Usages, &amp;c. 4. Varieties.<br /> <br /> Apprnpix.—(A) Lists of the Parliaments of England and<br /> of the United Kingdom.<br /> (B) Speakers of the House of Commons.<br /> (C) Prime Ministers, Lord Chancellors, and<br /> Secretaries of State from 1715 to<br /> { 1892.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Opinions of the Press<br /> <br /> ‘“« The work, which has long been held in high repute as a repertory<br /> of good things, is more than ever rich in doth instruction and amuse-<br /> ment. ’—Scotsman.<br /> <br /> (Tt is a treasury of useful fact and amusing anecdote, and in its<br /> latest form should have increased popularity.” —Globe.<br /> <br /> ‘Its advantage to those who are seeking seats in Parliament, or<br /> who may have occasion to assist as speakers during the electoral<br /> eampaign, is incomparable.”—Sala’s Journal.<br /> <br /> of the Present Edition.<br /> <br /> “Tt is a work that possesses both a practical and an historical<br /> value, and is altogether unique in character.”—Kentish Observer.<br /> <br /> “We can heartily recommend this work to the politician, whatever<br /> may be his party leanings.”—WNorthern Echo.<br /> <br /> ‘Here we have the whole company of Parliamentary celebrities,<br /> past and present, reduced to puppets, so to speak, and made to<br /> repeat their best and most approved rhetorical performances for our<br /> leisurely entertainment, which is not less enjoyable from being allied<br /> with edification.”—iverpool Courter.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> KS Orders may now be sent to HORACE cox,<br /> <br /> “Law Times Office,” Windsor House, Bream’s-buildings, E.C.<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> ‘ERTS SN<br /> <br /> 1<br /> <br /> 4<br /> 3.8<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Che #Huthbor.<br /> <br /> (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)<br /> <br /> CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Vou. IV.—No. 4.]<br /> <br /> For the Opinions expressed in papers that are<br /> signed or initialled the Authors alone are<br /> responsible. None of the papers or para-<br /> graphs must be taken as expressing the<br /> collective opinions of the committee unless<br /> <br /> they are officially signed by G. Herbert<br /> Thring, sec.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> a Nees Secretary of the Society begs to give notice that all<br /> remittances are acknowledged by return of post, and<br /> requests that all members not receiving an answer to<br /> important communications within two days will write to him<br /> without delay. All remittances should be crossed Union<br /> <br /> Bank of London, Chancery-lane, or be sent by registered<br /> letter only.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> res<br /> <br /> AGREEMENTS.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> [ is not generally understood that the author, as the<br /> vendor, has the absolute right of drafting the agree-<br /> ment upon whatever terms the transaction is to be<br /> carried out. Authors are strongly advised to exercise that<br /> right. Inevery other form of business, the right of drawing<br /> the agreement rests with him who sells, leases, or has the<br /> control of the property.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ec.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> WARNINGS.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> EADERS of the Author and members of the Society<br /> R are earnestly desired to make the following warnings<br /> as widely known as possible. They are based on the<br /> experience of nine years’ work by which the dangers<br /> to which literary property is especially exposed have been<br /> discovered :—<br /> <br /> 1. SeR1AL Riauts.—In selling Serial Rights stipulate<br /> that you are selling the Serial Right for one paper at a<br /> certain time only, otherwise you may find your work serialized<br /> for years, to the detriment of your volume form.<br /> <br /> VOL. Iv.<br /> <br /> SEPTEMBER 1, 1893.<br /> <br /> [Price SIxPence.<br /> <br /> 2. STAMP YOUR AGREEMENTS. — Readers are most<br /> URGENTLY warned not to neglect stamping their agreements<br /> immediately after signature. If this precaution is neglected<br /> for two weeks, a fine of £10 must be paid before the agree-<br /> ment can be used as a legal document. In almost every<br /> case brought to the secretary the agreement, or the letter<br /> which serves for one, is forwarded without the stamp. The<br /> author may be assured that the other party to the agree-<br /> ment never neglects this simple precaution. The Society,<br /> to save trouble, undertakes to get all the agreements of<br /> members stamped for them at no expense to themselves<br /> except the cost of the stamp.<br /> <br /> 3. ASCERTAIN WHAT A PROPOSED AGREEMENT GIVES TO<br /> BOTH SIDES BEFORE SIGNING IT.—Remember that an<br /> arrangement as toa joint venturein any other kind of busi-<br /> ness whatever would be instantly refused should either party<br /> refuse to show the books or to let it be known what share he<br /> reserved for himself.<br /> <br /> 4. LirrrARy AGENTS.—Be very careful. You cannot be<br /> too careful as to the person whom you appoint as your<br /> agent. Remember that you place your property almost un-<br /> reservedly in his hands. Your only safety is in consulting<br /> the Society, or some friend who has had personal experience<br /> of the agent. Do not trust advertisements alone.<br /> <br /> 5. Cost or Propuction.-—Never sign any agreement of<br /> which the alleged cost of production forms an integral part,<br /> until you have proved the figures.<br /> <br /> 6. CHOICE oF PuBLIsHERS.—Never enter into any cor-<br /> respondence with publishers, especially with those who ad-<br /> vertise for MSS., who are not recommended by experienced<br /> friends or by this Society.<br /> <br /> 7. Futurr Worx.—Never, on any account whatever,<br /> bind yourself down for future work to anyone.<br /> <br /> 8. Royaury.—Never accept any proposal of royalty until<br /> you have ascertained what the agreement, worked out on<br /> both a small and a large sale, will give to the author and<br /> what to the publisher.<br /> <br /> 9g. PERSONAL RisK.—Never accept any pecuniary risk or<br /> responsibility whatever without advice.<br /> <br /> 10. RusecteD MSS.—Never, when a MS. has been re-<br /> fused by respectable houses, pay others, whatever promises<br /> they may put forward, for the production of the work.<br /> <br /> 11. AMERICAN Riaurs.—Never sign away American<br /> rights. Keep them by special clause. Refuse to sign any<br /> agreement containing a clause which reserves them for the<br /> publisher, unless for a substantial consideration. If the<br /> publisher insists, take away the MS. and offer it to<br /> another.<br /> <br /> K 2<br /> 112<br /> <br /> 12. Cesston or CopyrigHt.—Never sign any paper,<br /> either agreement or receipt, which gives away copyright,<br /> without advice.<br /> <br /> 13. ADVERTISEMENTS.—Keep control over the advertise-<br /> ments, if they affect your returns, by a clause in the agree-<br /> ment. Reserve a veto. If you are yourself ignorant of the<br /> <br /> _ subject, make the Society your adviser.<br /> <br /> 14. NevER forget that publishing is a business, like any<br /> other business, totally unconnected with philanthropy,<br /> charity, or pure love of literature. You have to do with<br /> business men. Be yourself a business man.<br /> <br /> Society&#039;s Offices :-—<br /> <br /> 4, PORTUGAL STREET, Lincoun’s Inn FIELDs.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Secs<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1. Every member has a right to advice upon his agree-<br /> ments, his choice of a publisher, orany dispute arising inthe<br /> conduct of his business or the administration of his pro-<br /> perty. If the advice sought is such as can be given best by<br /> a solicitor, the member has a right to an opinion from<br /> the Society’s solicitors. If the case is such that Counsel’s<br /> opinion is desirable, the Committee will obtain for him<br /> Counsel’s opinion. All this without any cost to the member.<br /> <br /> 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright<br /> and publisher’s agreements do not generally fall within the<br /> experience of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not seruple<br /> to use the Society first—our solicitors are continually<br /> engaged upon such questions for us.<br /> <br /> 3. Send to the office copies of past agreements and past<br /> accounts with the loan of the books represented. This isin<br /> order to ascertain what has been the nature of your agree-<br /> ments, and the results to author and publisher respectively<br /> so far. The Secretary will always be glad to have any<br /> agreements, new or old, for inspection and note. The infor-<br /> mation thus obtained may prove invaluable.<br /> <br /> 4. If the examination of your previous business trans-<br /> actions by the Secretary proves unfavourable, you should<br /> take advice as to a change of publishers.<br /> <br /> 5. Before signing any agreement whatever, send the pro-<br /> posed document to the Society for examination.<br /> <br /> 6. The Society is acquainted with the methods, and—in<br /> the case of fraudulent houses—the tricks of every publish-<br /> ing firm in the country. Remember that there are certain<br /> houses which live entirely by trickery.<br /> <br /> 7. Remember always that in belonging to the Society you<br /> are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you are<br /> reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are advancing<br /> the best interests of literature in promoting the indepen-<br /> dence of the writer.<br /> <br /> 8. Send to the Editor of the Author notes of everything<br /> important to literature that you may hear or meet with.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHORS’ SYNDICATE.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> EMBERS are informed :<br /> <br /> 1. That the Authors’ Syndicate takes charge of<br /> <br /> the business of members of the Society. With, when<br /> <br /> necessary, the assistance of the legal advisers of the Syndi-<br /> <br /> cate, it concludes agreements, collects royalties, examines<br /> <br /> and passes accounts, and generally relieves members of the<br /> trouble of managing business details.<br /> <br /> 2. That the expenses of the Authors’ Syndicate are<br /> defrayed mainly out of the commission charged on rights<br /> placed through its intervention. This charge is reduced to<br /> the lowest possible amount compatible with efficiency.<br /> In consequence of the immense number of MSS. received, it<br /> has become necessary to charge a small booking fee to<br /> cover postage and porterage expenses, in all cases where<br /> there is no current account.<br /> <br /> 3. That the Authors’ Syndicate works for none but those<br /> members of the Society whose work possesses a market<br /> value.<br /> <br /> 4. That the business of the Syndicate is not to advise<br /> members of the Society, but to manage their affairs for<br /> them.<br /> <br /> 5. That the Syndicate can only undertake arrangements<br /> of any character on the distinct understanding that those<br /> arrangements are placed exclusively in its hands, and that<br /> all negotiations relating thereto are referred to it.<br /> <br /> 6. That clients can only be seen personally by appoint-<br /> ment, and that, when possible, at least four days’ notice<br /> should be given. The work of the Syndicate is now s0<br /> heavy, that only a limited number of interviews can be<br /> arranged.<br /> <br /> 7. That every attempt is made to deal with the corre-<br /> spondence promptly, but that owing to the enormous number<br /> of letters received, some delay is inevitable. That stamps<br /> should, in all cases, be sent to defray postage.<br /> <br /> 8. That the Authors’ Syndicate does not invite MSS.<br /> without previous correspondence, and does not hold itself<br /> responsible for MSS. forwarded without notice.<br /> <br /> 9. The Editor will be glad to receive the titles of pub-<br /> lished novels available for second right serial use.<br /> <br /> Tt is announced that, by way of a new departure, the<br /> Syndicate has undertaken arrangements for lectures by<br /> some of the leading members of the Society; that a<br /> “Transfer Department,” for the sale and purchase of<br /> journals and periodicals, has been opened ; and that a<br /> “ Register of Wants and Wanted” has been opened. Terms<br /> on application to the Manager.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> There is an Honorary Advisory Committee, whose services<br /> will be called upon in any case of dispute or difficulty. It<br /> is perhaps necessary to state that the members of the<br /> Advisory Committee have no pecuniary interest whatever in<br /> the Syndicate.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> —_—— rs<br /> <br /> NOTICES.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> hae Editor of the Author begs to remind members of the<br /> Society that, although the paper is sent to them free<br /> of charge, the cost of producing it would be a very<br /> heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great<br /> many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest<br /> 6s. 6d. subscription for the year.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> The Editor is always glad to receive short papers and<br /> communications on all subjects connected with literature<br /> from members and others. Nothing can do more good to<br /> the Society than to make the Author complete, attractive,<br /> and interesting. Will those who are willing to aid in this<br /> work send their names and the special subjects on which<br /> they are willing to write?<br /> <br /> Communications for the Author should reach the Editor<br /> not later than the 21st of each month.<br /> <br /> All persons engaged in literary work of any kind, whether<br /> members of the Society or not, are invited to communicate<br /> to the Editor any points connected with their work which<br /> it would be advisable in the general interest to publish.<br /> <br /> Members and others who wish their MSS. read are<br /> requested not to send them to the Office without previously<br /> communicating with the Secretary. The utmost practicable<br /> despatch is aimed at, and MSS. are read in the order in<br /> which they are received. It must also be distinctly under-<br /> stood that the Society does not, under any circumstances,<br /> undertake the publication of MSS.<br /> <br /> The Authors’ Club is now open in its new premises, at<br /> 3, Whitehall-court, Charing Cross. Address the Secretary<br /> for information, rules of admission, &amp;c.<br /> <br /> Will members take the trouble to ascertain whether they<br /> have paid their subscriptions for the year? If they will do<br /> this, and remit the amount, if still unpaid, or a banker’s<br /> order, it will greatly assist the Secretary, and save him the<br /> trouble of sending out a reminder.<br /> <br /> Members aré most earnestly entreated to attend to the<br /> warning numbered (7). It is a most foolish and a most<br /> disastrous thing to bind yourself to anyone for a term of<br /> years. Let them ask themselves if they would give a<br /> solicitor the collection of their rents for five years to come,<br /> whatever his conduct, whether he was honest or dishonest?<br /> Of course they would not. Why then hesitate for a moment<br /> when they are asked to sign themselves into literary bondage<br /> for three or five years ?<br /> <br /> Those who possess the “Cost of Production” are<br /> requested to note that the cost of binding has advanced 15<br /> per cent. This means, for those who do not like the trouble<br /> of “doing sums,” the addition of three shillings in the<br /> pound on this head. In other words, if the cost of binding<br /> is set down in our book at eight pounds, to this must now be<br /> added twenty-four shillings more, so that it now stands at<br /> £9 4s. The figures in our book are as near the exact truth<br /> as can be procured; but a printer’s, or a binder’s, bill is so<br /> elastic a thing that nothing more exact can be arrived at.<br /> <br /> Some remarks have been made upon the amount charged<br /> in the “ Cost of Production” for advertising. Of course, we<br /> have not included any sums which may be charged for<br /> inserting advertisements in the publisher’s own magazines,<br /> or in other magazines by exchange. As agreements too<br /> often go, there is nothing to prevent the publisher from<br /> sweeping the whole profits of a book into his own pocket,<br /> by inserting any number of advertisements in his own<br /> magazines, and by exchanging with others. Some there are<br /> who call this a form of fraud; it is not known what those<br /> <br /> who practise this method of swelling their own profits<br /> call it.<br /> <br /> 113<br /> LITERARY PROPERTY.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> L<br /> <br /> Tue Protection or AutHors’ Ricuts IN<br /> GERMANY.<br /> <br /> HE Congress of German Journalists and<br /> Authors, which met at Munich in the<br /> second week of July, dealt, among other<br /> <br /> things, with the question of the protection of the<br /> rights of authors and “ mental property” (Das<br /> Urheberrecht and Das geistige Eigenthum). The<br /> result of the deliberations on this subject was<br /> embodied in the form of a projet de lot, or bill,<br /> which has been addressed to the Legislatures of<br /> all the States in the German Empire, with a<br /> recommendation from the Congress that it should<br /> be passed into law. The following is a transla-<br /> tion of the proposed measure:<br /> <br /> Sect. 1. The rights of authors comprise (a)<br /> the protection of every author in his personal<br /> relations to the intellectual work produced by<br /> him, and (6) mental property.<br /> <br /> Sect. 2. As mental property within the<br /> meaning of the present law is to be regarded<br /> every intellectual creation (getstige Schipfung)<br /> which has been put forth in external form. Any<br /> part, too, of a mental work is to be treated as<br /> such, if, when taken by itself, it represents a<br /> mental creation. Productions which result<br /> from working up or remodelling (existing<br /> works), and which are not new creations, are<br /> only to be treated as mental works in so far as<br /> the original creation does not come into con-<br /> sideration.<br /> <br /> Sect. 3. Every author is protected, according<br /> to the provisions of the present law, against<br /> unauthorised dealings with the mental work<br /> produced by him.<br /> <br /> Sect. 4. The following proceedings, when<br /> entered upon without the assent of the author,<br /> are to be regarded as unlawful dealings with a<br /> mental work: (1) the publication of any mental<br /> work not yet published; (2) enlarging the com-<br /> pass of a publication or changing the mode of<br /> publication ; (3) making any change whatever in<br /> a mental work.<br /> <br /> Sect. 5. In the absence of any special reserva-<br /> tion, the assent of an author is deemed to have<br /> been tacitly given for the reproduction of political<br /> articles and political speeches in newspapers, and<br /> likewise for quoting any special portion of a<br /> mental work in independent works devoted to a<br /> particular scientific or pedagogic object.<br /> <br /> Sect. 6. The reproduction of public transactions,<br /> as well as the publication of any State docu-<br /> ments and of any announcements made by the<br /> public authorities, is free.<br />  <br /> <br /> 114 THE<br /> <br /> Sect. 7. The author of a mental work, or his<br /> successors according to law, possess a mental pro-<br /> perty in such work. Mental property is the right<br /> of the exclusive and unrestricted economic owner-<br /> ship and disposal of a mental work.<br /> <br /> Sect. 8. Mental property is divisible in so<br /> far as various methods of deriving economic<br /> advantage from a mental work, can be pursued<br /> at the same time and independently of each<br /> other.<br /> <br /> Sect. 9. Mental property may be transferred,<br /> wholly or in part, from one living person to<br /> another, or on account of death. The use of<br /> mental property may also be granted for a pecu-<br /> niary consideration (usufruct) or it may be<br /> pledged (or mortgaged).<br /> <br /> Sect. 10. Those illegal dealings with 4 mental<br /> work which are designed to make a profit out of<br /> it, or which are detrimental to the mental owner’s<br /> interest in the property, or which injure the<br /> economic value of a mental work, are to be<br /> regarded as encroachments upon such mental<br /> property.<br /> <br /> Sect. 11. Mental property of which no use has<br /> been made tor thirty years 1s to be held to have<br /> been renounced. This assumption may, however,<br /> be invalidated at any time by a declaration on the<br /> part of the mental owner (claiming his former<br /> property) but without prejudice to the rights<br /> that any third person may have acquired in the<br /> meantime. Mental property expires after having<br /> been actually utilised for thirty years.<br /> <br /> Sect. 12. In contracts, the purpose of which<br /> is to transfer, utilise, or otherwise make money<br /> on mental property, the following regulations will<br /> have force in the absence of other arrangements<br /> between the contracting parties—first, during<br /> the life of the author, the rights derived from<br /> a contract, to deal with a mental work are<br /> only to be exercised in accordance with the<br /> consent given by the author (sects. 3 to 6 of<br /> this draft); second, after the death of the<br /> author, third parties, in dealing with a mental<br /> work, are only restricted in reference to the<br /> mental property.<br /> <br /> Sect. 13. Unlawful dealings with a mental<br /> work as contemplated in- paragraphs 3 to 6 of<br /> this statute are punished with a money fine up<br /> to 15,000 marks (£750), or by arrest or imprison-<br /> ment up to six months. A criminal prosecution<br /> <br /> is only to be undertaken when proposed by the<br /> author.<br /> <br /> Sect. 14. If the author proposes it, any person<br /> who is guilty of a transgression against the 13th<br /> paragraph of this statute, may be condemned by<br /> the Court to pay to the author such compensa-<br /> tion as it may think fit to impose.<br /> <br /> AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Sect. 15. If the author should propose it, the<br /> publication of a sentence may be ordered in<br /> accordance with the provisions of paragraph 200<br /> of the (German) Criminal Law Book.<br /> <br /> Sect. 16. Whoever, for the purpose of secur-<br /> ing to himself or to any other person a pecuniary<br /> advantage in violation of the law, encroaches on<br /> the mental property of another (paragraphs 7,<br /> et seq. of this statute) shall be punished with<br /> imprisonment. The attempt to do this is also ~<br /> punishable.<br /> <br /> Sect. 17. The provisions of this statute are<br /> also applicable to mental works by foreign<br /> authors.<br /> <br /> Sect. 18. In case this statute clashes with the<br /> legal prescriptions of any foreign country, the<br /> provisions concerned in the Convention of Berne<br /> are to be applied as a constituent part of this<br /> law.<br /> <br /> Sect. 19. The penal prescriptions of this law<br /> have no retrospective effect.<br /> <br /> Sect. 20. Impressions of a mental work pro-<br /> duced before the official publication of this law,<br /> and which, according to its provisions, are unlaw-<br /> ful, may, if bearing an official stamp prior to<br /> this statute coming into force, be circulated<br /> afterwards in case the mental proprietor does not<br /> prefer to acquire them by payment of the cost of<br /> their production.<br /> <br /> Sect. 21. The benefit derived from an amplifi-<br /> cation of a piece of mental property belongs to<br /> the mental proprietor. The person who is to be<br /> regarded as such proprietor is determined in<br /> accordance with the contracts that have been<br /> entered into.<br /> <br /> II.<br /> Cost or PropuctTion.<br /> <br /> An account received only recently for a book<br /> published a short time ago is instructive in com-<br /> parison with the prices given in the “Cost of<br /> Production.”<br /> <br /> The book contained twenty-four sheets, printed<br /> in small pica, 272 words to the page (see “ Cost.<br /> of Production,” p. 27). The following are the<br /> accounts (1) as furnished by the publisher, whose<br /> figures there is no intention of questioning ; (2)<br /> as given in our estimate. The edition was of<br /> L000 copies.<br /> <br /> (1.) Publisher’s account : £ s. da.<br /> Composition and printing... ... ... 62 4 9<br /> Paper a a<br /> Moulding 6. 4. ee<br /> Binding 700 at 83d. i 24 IS fo<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 11s<br /> <br /> (2.) As by the “Cost of Production,” altered<br /> for the number of words in the page.<br /> <br /> &amp; s. ad<br /> Composition and printing ... 53.120<br /> apene 68 2t 12 0<br /> Woutdmo 6 ©: ©<br /> Binding 700 at 4d. a vol. ... Tr 134<br /> <br /> The binding actually used was much superior<br /> to that contemplated in the estimate, which was<br /> a perfectly plam boarding. Moreover, since our<br /> estimate, binding, as we have elsewhere stated,<br /> has gone up some 15 per cent.<br /> <br /> It will be seen, therefore, that our estimate was<br /> very nearly that charged for printing and paper ;<br /> and that the moulding was much lower than in<br /> our estimate.<br /> <br /> eo<br /> <br /> OMNIUM GATHERUM FOR SEPTEMBER.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Subjects for Treatment. — The Red-legged<br /> Partridge ; the Local Guide Book; the Compara-<br /> tive Value of Sea, Lake, and River Bathing;<br /> Facilities for Riding Lessons in public schools;<br /> the Abolition of Second Class Railway Carriages ;<br /> the Printers’ Reader; a Bray September; ‘“ Not<br /> to be forwarded ” ; a Short Way with the Game,<br /> or Single-barrelled Guns for New Beginners.<br /> <br /> V’s for U’s.—In many inscriptions the curious<br /> habit of carving a “v’’ where a “u” is needed<br /> (e.g., Publicvm for Putlicum) has been, and is<br /> still (see, e.g., the new Shaftesbury fountain in<br /> Piceadilly-arcus) in vogue. The cause of this<br /> is believed to be either the ease of the lapidary<br /> or an unreasoning fondness for the art of ancient<br /> Rome, but surely the habit is an abnormally<br /> foolish one. And for that matter, why have<br /> Latin inscriptions at all?<br /> <br /> Lady Burton’s Book.—An entrancing bio-<br /> graphy, but sadly marred, as pointed out in the<br /> Athenzum review, by interpolations of letters to<br /> newspapers and other superfluous matter of<br /> every kind. Could not all this (except the one<br /> letter from Lady Burton to her mother in<br /> defence of her engagement) be swept out, and<br /> the reader swept along through Lady Burton’s<br /> picturesque pages without a check ?<br /> <br /> The Bill of Fare.—‘ French,” it is observed in<br /> the preface to Liddell and Scott’s Greek Lexicon,<br /> “is confessedly the language of mathematics,”<br /> and, it may be added, that it is also the language<br /> of light comedy. But it is only historically the<br /> language of cookery, and I submit that the time<br /> is come, for us in England at all events, to re-<br /> place “ menu” (a hard word for English lips) by<br /> <br /> “bill of fare,” and for the dishes served to substi-<br /> tute English titles for French. Few, indeed, are<br /> the cases where, as with ennui (by which we “ let<br /> the French translate the awful yawn which sleep<br /> cannot abate”), a title other than English for a<br /> dish or set of dishes is necessary or desirable. Hors<br /> d’ceuvres might perhaps be rendered by “ uncooked<br /> morsels.” At any rate, every kind of fish or<br /> bird should be Englished. Fairly good render-<br /> ings can be found in Mrs. Matthew Clarke’s<br /> translation of the 366 menus of the Baron Brisse ;<br /> but the whole work of producing English bills of<br /> fare (which I respectfully commend to the atten-<br /> tion of the cooks of English speakingdom) is one<br /> requiring a rare combination of culinary know-<br /> ledge and linguistic skill.<br /> <br /> Spooks.—Beyond all doubt these are greatly on<br /> the increase. Hven Miss Yonge and Miss Cole-<br /> ridge in the Monthly Packet must needs have<br /> their ghost story. I myself have seen three appa-<br /> ritions of persons well known to me during the<br /> last fortnight, and have carefully noted the<br /> hour (2.45 a.m. in one case, 3.15 a.m. in another,<br /> and 3.47 a.m. in the third), but the persons them-<br /> selves were and are alive. This strange expe-<br /> rience ought to be chronicled ;* if only to depart<br /> from “ the method” (I quote from Bacon’s Novum<br /> Organom, par. 46, Kitchin’s translation) “of<br /> almost every superstition, as in astrology. in<br /> dreams, omens, judgments, and the like, in which<br /> men who take pleasure in such vanities as these<br /> attend to the event when it is a fulfilment, but<br /> where they fail (though it be much the more fre-<br /> quent case) there they neglect the instance, and<br /> pass it by.”<br /> <br /> The Authors’ Club.—The library of this club<br /> is not quite up to the mark of its dinners.<br /> <br /> J. M. Lety.<br /> <br /> Ce<br /> <br /> THE LITERARY CONFERENCE OF<br /> CHICAGO,<br /> <br /> (Reprinted from the Times.)<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> HE Literary Congress held at Chicago from<br /> July 10 to July 15 was divided into five<br /> departments or sections, named respectively<br /> <br /> after the Authors, the Librarians, History, Philo-<br /> logy, and Folk Lore. All these separate confer-<br /> ences were held simultaneously at the Art Insti-<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> * By the way, are they rhymed with “snooks” or with<br /> “books,” &amp;c.? The author of the cruelly clever lines in<br /> Punch, or the London Charivari for Aug. 5 has boldly<br /> rhymed them with ‘“ Cooks;’’ but he may have been a<br /> Lincolnshire man.<br />  <br /> <br /> 116<br /> <br /> tute, a large and convenient pbuilding in the city<br /> itself, and not in the buildings of the Exhibition<br /> itself, which, as everybody knows, is seven miles<br /> distant from the city. There were many advantages<br /> in this arrangement. The congress, although an<br /> integral part of the programme of the World’s<br /> Fair, belonged to the city rather than to the<br /> Exhibition ; it could hardly be expected that the<br /> general run of visitors at the latter—as yet<br /> mainly Americans from the Mississippi Valley<br /> and the west—would care to assist at discussions<br /> on copyright, on realism in Art, or on the rela-<br /> tions of literature and journalism. Moreover, a<br /> congress must have its social side, and in 4 mere<br /> summer camp. such as_ that created by the<br /> temporary hotels round the Worlds Fair, there<br /> can be no social side at all. Therefore the<br /> librarians and authors and folk-lorists met quietly<br /> and peacefully in the halls of the Art Institute ;<br /> their papers were read before an audience largely<br /> composed of Chicago ladies, and their proceedings<br /> were only interrupted by the bells of the tram and<br /> the electric trolly and by the horn of the railway<br /> train—noises which in an American city must<br /> not be considered as any interruption, because<br /> they are part and parcel of the city itself, just as<br /> in medieval times London boasted its mingled<br /> roar of many industries, church bells and rum-<br /> bling wheels, which could be heard as far off as<br /> the slopes of Highgate.<br /> <br /> The project of a Literary Conference was first<br /> formed in the autumn of last year, when a rough<br /> draft of the proceedings was drawn up and sent<br /> about tentatively to literary men and women of<br /> America and Great Britam. At first the re-<br /> sponse was extremely disappointing. Very few<br /> writers took up the scheme at all; still fewer<br /> offered to send papers; none, at first, proposed<br /> to be present in person, It seemed as if the pro-<br /> posed Conference must fall through because there<br /> would be no authors to confer. Two fortunate<br /> accidents saved it. In London, the Society of<br /> Authors thought that good might come out of<br /> such a public Conference and offered to send<br /> papers on some of the more practical subjects<br /> proposed, leaving the ornamental part to the<br /> Americans themselves. Two members of the<br /> Society also offered to attend the Conference as<br /> delegates, if possible. At the same moment it<br /> occurred to a few literary men in New York,<br /> for much the same reasons, that the Congress<br /> ought to meet with the support of American<br /> authors. They therefore formed themselves into<br /> a committee, of which Oliver Wendell Holmes,<br /> in order to emphasize the importance of the<br /> occasion, was invited to become nominal chair-<br /> man, On the list of the committee are the well-<br /> known names of Aldrich, Cable, Furness, Gilder,<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOK.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Howells, Higginson, Stedman, and Dudley<br /> Warner, while Professor Woodbury, of Columbia<br /> College, acted as secretary. The result of their<br /> labours, together with those of the English<br /> society, was that the Congress became a truly<br /> representative meeting, and that most of the<br /> papers produced were written by men whose<br /> experience in the subjects treated and whose<br /> position in the world of letters entitled them at<br /> least to a respectful hearing. The editor of the<br /> Dial, a literary and critical paper of Chicago—<br /> Mr. Francis F. Browne—was the chairman of the<br /> local organising committee, and there was ap-<br /> pointed a women’s auxiliary committee, on which,<br /> among others, was Miss Harriet Monroe, the<br /> author of the ode spoken on the opening of the<br /> Exhibition.<br /> <br /> What is the good of holding such a Conference ?<br /> A certain English man of letters has asked this<br /> question, adding, as his answer, that an author<br /> has notuing to do but to sell his wares and have<br /> done with it. But suppose he will not sell his<br /> wares and so have done with it. Suppose he<br /> understands—what many men of letters seem<br /> totally unable to understand—that his wares may<br /> represent a considerable, even a great, property,<br /> which is going to yield a steady return for many<br /> years; that he ought no more to sell this property<br /> “and have done with it” than he would sell a<br /> rich mine, or a mill, or a row of houses, and have<br /> done with it, unless for a consideration based on<br /> business principles. To such as understand this<br /> axiom—i.e., to all who are concerned in the<br /> material interests of literature—such a Conference<br /> may prove of the greatest possible use. _<br /> <br /> For instance, among the questions to be con-<br /> sidered were (1) all those relating to copyright,<br /> international and domestic; (2) all those which<br /> relate to the administration of literary property ;<br /> (3) all those which are concerned with literature<br /> itself{—its past, its present, its tendency. In<br /> this paper 1 purposely keep the third branch in<br /> the background, because, unless a Congress is to<br /> attempt the function of an Academy, this must<br /> be either an ornamental section or the battle-<br /> ground of opinions and fashions of the day.<br /> <br /> Tt is manifest that the first two branches may<br /> be most important to those concerned with<br /> literary property—too. often any one but the<br /> producer and creator of it. There is, however,<br /> another point. It is greatly to be desired that<br /> those who belong to the literary profession should<br /> from time to time gather together and recognise<br /> the fact that they do belong to a common calling.<br /> Hitherto the author, though he calls himself a<br /> man of letters, has been too apt to refuse the<br /> recognition of a profession or calling of letters.<br /> He has sat apart—alone ; nay, in many cases his<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> fv<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE<br /> <br /> only recognition of his brethren has been a cheap<br /> sneer or a savage gibe. To this day there remain<br /> a few of those of whom Churchill wrote, who<br /> can never speak of their brethren but with bitter-<br /> ness or derision. Sucha man at such a Conference<br /> is out of place; much more important. his very<br /> existence comes to be recognised as an anachro-<br /> nism: he will no longer be tolerated.<br /> <br /> Another kind of literary man is he who is con-<br /> tinually inveighing against the baseness of con-<br /> necting literature with lucre. He appears in this<br /> country, on an average, once a year, with his<br /> stale and conventional rubbish. Where this<br /> kind of talk is sincere, if ever it is sincere—<br /> mostly it comes from those who have hitherto<br /> failed to connect literature with lucre—it rests<br /> upon a confusion of ideas. That is to say, it<br /> confuses the intellectual, artistic, literary worth<br /> of a book with its commercial value. But the<br /> former is one thing, the latter is another. They<br /> are not commensurable. The former has no<br /> value which can be expressed in guineas, any<br /> more than the beauty of a sunset or the colours<br /> of a rainbow. The latter may be taken as a<br /> measure of the popular taste, which should, but<br /> does not always, demand the best books. No one,<br /> therefore, must consider that a book necessarily<br /> fails because the demand for it is small; nor, on<br /> the other hand, is it always just or useful to<br /> deride the author of a successful book because it<br /> is successful. In the latter case the author has<br /> perhaps done his best; it is the popular judg-<br /> ment that should be reproved and the popular<br /> taste which should be led into a truer way.<br /> <br /> A book, rightly or wrongly, then, may bea<br /> thing worth money—a property, an estate. It is<br /> the author’s property unless he signs it away;<br /> and since any book, in the uncertainty of the<br /> popular judgment, may become a valuable pro-<br /> perty, it is the author’s part to safeguard his<br /> property, and not to part with it without due<br /> consideration and consultation with those who<br /> have considered the problem. And it is the<br /> special function of such a Conference to lay down<br /> the data of the problem, and so to help in pro-<br /> ducing, if possible, a solution. But as for the<br /> question—is it sordid, is it base, for an author—<br /> a genius—to look after money? Well, a popular<br /> author is not always a genius. But even those<br /> who are admitted to have some claim to the<br /> possession of genius have generally been very<br /> careful indeed with regard to the money pro-<br /> duced by their writings. Scott, Byron, Moore,<br /> Dickens, George Eliot, Thackeray, Trollope,<br /> Tennyson, Wilkie Collins, Charles Reade—almost<br /> every man, or woman, of real distinction in<br /> letters can be shown to have been most careful<br /> about the money side of his books. It is left for<br /> <br /> VOL. IV.<br /> <br /> AUTHOR. 1T]<br /> <br /> the unsuccessful, for the shallow pretenders, or<br /> for some shady publisher’s hack, to ery out upon<br /> the degradation of letters when an author is<br /> advised to look after his property. Let us<br /> simply reply that what has not degraded the<br /> illustrious men who have gone before will not<br /> degrade those smaller men, their successors.<br /> <br /> The Conference called together in order to<br /> throw the light of publicity upon these and<br /> similar questions held its first meeting, its open-<br /> ing meeting, on the evening of Monday, July to.<br /> The speeches were complimentary; the English<br /> delegates, Dr. Sprigge, formerly secretary of our<br /> Authors’ Society, and myself, were duly welcomed,<br /> and we separated till the next morning. The<br /> subject of the first day’s conference was literary<br /> copyright, under the presidency of the Hon.<br /> George H. Adams. This meeting was from the<br /> practical point of view the most useful of any.<br /> The chairman asked for a fair trial of the present<br /> International Copyright Bill; he admitted, how-<br /> ever, that the tendency was growing more and<br /> more in favour of giving the author larger and<br /> fuller rights over his own book. Then one of the<br /> papers brought over by the English delegates was<br /> read—that by Sir Henry Bergne on the Berne<br /> Convention of 1887, in which the author, after<br /> explaining what was meant by that convention,<br /> earnestly invited America to send a delegate to<br /> the Convention of 1894. Mr. George Cable, the<br /> novelist, of Louisiana, read a paper in which,<br /> among other points, he contended that authors<br /> have a right to demand nothing more than “ what<br /> will be best for the whole people.” As it is<br /> certainly best for the whole people that every man<br /> should enjoy what is his own, we may cordially<br /> agree with Mr. Cable.<br /> <br /> Mr. Gilder, the editor of the Century, made a<br /> forcible appeal in his paper for an extension of<br /> the term of copyright. The important paper of<br /> the day followed, one which was for the most<br /> part quite new to the audience—that, namely, by<br /> Dr. Sprigge on the copyright question in Great<br /> Britain. No one had suspected or realised the<br /> present condition of muddle and mess in which<br /> this important subject now stands in our country.<br /> The speaker analysed and explained the new Bill<br /> already read by Lord Monkswell in the House of<br /> Lords and drafted by the Copyright Committee<br /> of the Society of Authors. He pointed out that<br /> it is intended in this Bill to reduce eighteen<br /> separate Acts, all confused and contradictory,<br /> which now contain the law of copyright, such as<br /> it is, into one comprehensive and intelligible Act.<br /> The principal clauses of that Act are (1) the<br /> adoption of a uniform term of copyright—the<br /> author’s life and thirty years beyond—for every<br /> class of work; (2) the right of abridgment to<br /> <br /> L<br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> 118<br /> <br /> remain with the author—this is the so-called<br /> “ mutilation ” clause, not intended to trespass at<br /> all on the fair right of fair quotation, but to pro-<br /> tect the author from such mutilation of his work<br /> as in his opinion is calculated to injure the book<br /> or himself; (3) the right of a novelist to<br /> dramatise a story, and the converse; (4) the<br /> period for which the proprietor of a magazine<br /> may keep an article locked up to be reduced<br /> from twenty-eight years to three ; (5) registration<br /> to be compulsory; this provision, for instance,<br /> would enable officials to enforce the law of piracy<br /> by giving them a list of books which must not be<br /> pirated; at present there is no such list ; (6)<br /> provision for the seizure of piratical books.<br /> <br /> Mr. R. R. Bowker, whose paper was read on<br /> the following day, advocated, among other things,<br /> the protection of the author by making it illegal<br /> to sell a copyright for more than a limited period,<br /> so that the author should not be allowed by law<br /> to give away for a song a work which in after<br /> years may perhaps become a property of great<br /> value to himself or to his heirs.<br /> <br /> The following day, under my own presidency, a<br /> paper was read by myself—(1) on the history of<br /> the relations between author and publisher ; and<br /> (2) on the recent investigations of the British<br /> Society into the meaning, the extent, and the<br /> value of literary property. In this paper I ven-<br /> tured to offer a solution of the difficulties now<br /> existing in the administration of literary property<br /> —a solution advanced solely as a personal sug-<br /> gestion, and in no way pretending to represent<br /> the official opinion of our Society. Papers on the<br /> same questions were read by Mr. Maurice Thomp-<br /> son, a Western poet, and Mr. Stanley Waterloo,<br /> a Western novelist. Papers by Sir Frederick Pol-<br /> lock (a paper which had already appeared in the<br /> Pall Mall Gazette), by Mr. J. M. Lely,<br /> barrister-at-law, by Mr. W. Morris Colles on<br /> “ Syndicating,” and by Mr. J. Stuart Glennie on<br /> “The Necessity of a Trades Union,” were read<br /> for the writers, in their absence. The absence<br /> of all the American publishers from this day’s<br /> Conference was marked, with ominous consent<br /> they stayed away from the discussion. It may<br /> be noted, however, that the position of the<br /> American author is not so independent of the<br /> publisher as with us. In the States most literary<br /> men either have some interest in a publishing<br /> house, or they are the salaried servants of pub-<br /> lishers; with us in England it is, of course,<br /> exceptional, though not unknown, to find a suc-<br /> cessful man of letters taking a salary from a<br /> publisher.<br /> <br /> These were the two meetings of the chief import-<br /> ance. Then followed other meetings at which<br /> papers were read upon purely literary points.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Charles Dudley Warner (president of the Critical<br /> Section), John Burroughs, Professor Moses Coit<br /> Tyler, Miss Marian Harland, Miss Molly Seawell,<br /> “Margaret Sidney,” Eugene Field, George Cable,<br /> “Octave Thanet,” Mrs. Catherwood, Mrs. Anna<br /> Rohlfs, and Thomas Nelson Page among the<br /> Americans read papers. Among English authors<br /> papers were read from Mr. Henry Arthur Jones,<br /> on the future of the drama; from Mr. H. D.<br /> Traill, on the relations of literature to journalism ;<br /> and from Mr. Douglas Sladen, on realism. If it<br /> is the intention of the promoters of this Congress<br /> that the papers should be edited, condensed, pub-<br /> lished, and sent to all the libraries of the United<br /> States and Great Britain, the Conference cannot<br /> fail to do great good by calling attention to the<br /> various points for which the English Society of<br /> Authors is responsible for bringing them to<br /> light.<br /> <br /> The Congress of Literature was held at<br /> Chicago ata fitting moment. It may be taken<br /> as the inauguration of a new Literature which<br /> has just begun to spring up in the West; a<br /> Literature of which I for one was profoundly<br /> ignorant until I learned about it on the spot.<br /> At present it exists chiefly in promise; but if it<br /> is a bantling, it is a vigorous bantling. In what<br /> direction this new Literature of the West will<br /> develop it would be quite impossible, even for<br /> one who knows the conditions of Western life,<br /> to predict. Enough to place on record for the<br /> moment, the fact that there has sprung. into<br /> existence during the last year or two a company<br /> of new writers wholly belonging to the West.<br /> All over the broad valley of the Mississippi and<br /> on the Western prairies there are farmers im vast<br /> numbers living for the most part in solitary<br /> homesteads; their chief recreation is reading ;<br /> there are also small towns and villages by the<br /> thousand; places whose population is between<br /> one and two thousand, in every one of which will<br /> be found a ladies’ literary society and a library.<br /> The former holds meetings, receives papers, and<br /> is, generally, a centre of a certain intellectual<br /> activity; for the latter, the ladies who manage<br /> it endeavour to procure as many new books as<br /> possible. The whole of this enormous district,<br /> together with the North-West country—Alberta,<br /> British Columbia, and Manitoba — contains as<br /> many readers as there are people. Hitherto<br /> they have read the literature of England and<br /> the Eastern States. They are now beginning to<br /> create their own. To meet this newly-born<br /> literature, there has been established in Chicago<br /> a large number of publishing houses—more than<br /> fifty. If we remember that the Directory shows<br /> for London, the centre of the book trade for the<br /> whole British Empire, no more than 400 pub-<br /> <br /> e<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Se<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> lishers, speaking from memory, and not more<br /> than twenty-five or so who may be considered by<br /> literary men as serious and responsible pub-<br /> lishers, the fifty of Chicago may be taken to<br /> represent a very considerable bulk of business.<br /> They are publishers of various kinds, as we<br /> find in London—good and bad; those who sail<br /> near the wind and those who sail at large. One<br /> of them, for instance, has done me the honour to<br /> put my name to a work which I never saw, and<br /> to advertise it as a new book by myself. Others<br /> of them, owing to the trouble and expense<br /> of bringing the long arm of the law upon<br /> them, too often ignore the law of international<br /> copyright, and “chance it.” There are, how-<br /> ever, honourable firms, as is reported by those<br /> who ought to know, among the Chicago<br /> publishers. Meantime, what concerns us is that<br /> there has arisen, quite unknown to ourselves<br /> and not yet reported, so far as I know, by any<br /> literary paper, a new centre of publishing,<br /> and a new company of literary men and women.<br /> How great this new branch of Letters has<br /> already become may be inferred from the fact<br /> that some of the recent books issued by Chicago<br /> houses have arrived at sales numbering nearly<br /> 100,000—comparing favourably with the greatest<br /> successes of English books—and that I learned<br /> from one writer of standing and reputation that a<br /> work of his, beginning with one edition of 4000,<br /> has now gone, within a short period of three<br /> months, and apparently with a local success<br /> alone, to 18,000. Again, when the writing of<br /> books was first attempted in the West by the<br /> sons of the original settlers, it was with self-<br /> distrust and trepidation. They published their<br /> books by subscription; the men who managed<br /> their business for them have mostly retired with<br /> handsome fortunes. As I have heard no com-<br /> plaints from the authors, it may be supposed<br /> that they, too, have retired with handsome<br /> fortunes. But this I doubt.<br /> <br /> Some of the names of these western writers<br /> have gone eastward and have even reached<br /> English shores. Most of them, however, are as<br /> yet unknown. There are already about a hun-<br /> dred, or perhaps more, who are known in the<br /> West as writers. Whitcombe Ryley, Maurice<br /> Thompson, Eugene Field, Harriet Munroe—who<br /> wrote the Ode on the opening of the Exhibition<br /> —and W. V. Byers are among the poets. From<br /> the rest I learn the names of Sladen Thompson,<br /> Hamlin Garland, Opie Reid, and Stanley Water-<br /> loo. The most popular author is Opie Reid,<br /> novelist and writer of short stories of Western<br /> life. His best book is a highly successful work<br /> called “The Kentucky Colonel.” Mr Stanley<br /> Waterloo has also written a novel which is now,<br /> <br /> VOL. Iv.<br /> <br /> 119<br /> <br /> deservedly, I believe, enjoying a very considerable<br /> success, called ‘“‘ An Odd Situation.”<br /> <br /> The works of these writers are said to be<br /> characterised, as one would expect, by vigour<br /> rather than by style. I have not yet read any<br /> of their books, because I do not desire in this<br /> place to criticise the works, but only to note the<br /> point that a new literature is beginning, free<br /> from the old English traditions and the continuity<br /> which makes Holmes and Longfellow direct suc-<br /> cessors of Goldsmith and Pope. It will also be<br /> quite free from the old traditions of publishing,<br /> and may make a departure of its own on condi-<br /> tions to be laid down by an association of their<br /> own. I have talked, further, with one of the<br /> leading Chicago publishers, and I found him<br /> ready to discuss the whole question openly and<br /> fairly; and, above all, ready at the outset to<br /> concede the principles for which our own Society<br /> has always contended—the right of audit; the<br /> right of open dealing, so that both parties to the<br /> agreement may know what it means to both<br /> sides; the absolute abolition of secret profits ;<br /> and the recognition of the simple moral law that<br /> he who secretly falsifies his partner’s accounts to<br /> his own advantage is—whatever you please to<br /> call him. On these points my Chicago friend had<br /> no doubts whatever. Wauter Besant.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Fao eet —____. ___<br /> <br /> THE BRITISH AUTHORS SOCIETY AND<br /> THE RELATIONS OF AUTHOR AND PUB-<br /> LISHER.<br /> <br /> (A Paper read before the Literary Congress of Chicago by<br /> WALTER BESANT.)<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> EFORE I proceed to the main subject of<br /> this paper, which is the actual relation<br /> existing in Great Britain between authors<br /> <br /> and publishers, [ beg permission to read a brief<br /> apology for considering the material side of<br /> literature at all. I do so because one of the<br /> greatest difficulties with which our Society of<br /> Authors has had to contend is the charge of<br /> sordidness in considering money in connection<br /> with literature. I do not know whether that<br /> prejudice exists here. I hope not. In my own<br /> country it vanishes from the mind of a man of<br /> letters the moment that he finds his work to<br /> possess a marketable value. I venture, however,<br /> in case there may be any here to-day who think<br /> that a man of letters must not take thought for<br /> the commercial side of his work, must not inquire<br /> who is to enjoy the property created by his brain,<br /> to read a few words from an address delivered by<br /> myself to the English Society of Authors in<br /> L2<br /> 120<br /> <br /> December last. What I then said was as<br /> follows :—<br /> <br /> «There has existed for 150 years at least, and<br /> there still lingers among us, a feeling that it is<br /> unworthy the dignity of letters to take any<br /> account at all of the commercial or pecuniary<br /> side. No one, you will please to remark, has<br /> ever thought of reproaching the barrister, the<br /> solicitor, the physician, the surgeon, the painter,<br /> the sculptor, the actor, the singer, the musician,<br /> the composer, the architect, the chemist, the<br /> physicist, the engineer, the professor, the teacher,<br /> the clergyman, or any other kind of brain worker<br /> that one can mention, with taking fees or salaries<br /> or money for his work; nor does anyone reproach<br /> these men with looking after their fees and<br /> getting rich if they can. Nor does anyone suggest<br /> that to consider the subject of payment very<br /> carefully—to take ordinary precautions against<br /> dishonesty—brings discredit on anyone who does<br /> so; nor does anyone call that barrister unworthy<br /> of the Bar who expects large fees in proportion<br /> to his name and his ability ; nor does anyone call<br /> that painter a mere tradesman whose price<br /> advances with his reputation. I beg you to<br /> consider this point very carefully. For the<br /> moment any author begins to make a practical<br /> investigation into the value—the monetary value<br /> —of the work which he puts upon the market—a<br /> hundred voices arise from those of his own craft<br /> as well as from those who live by administering<br /> his property—voices which cry out upon the<br /> sordidness, the meanness, the degradation of<br /> turning literature into a trade. We hear, I say,<br /> this kind of talk from our own ranks—though,<br /> one must own, chiefly from those who have never<br /> had an opportunity of discovering what literary<br /> property means, Does, I ask, this cry mean any-<br /> thing at all? Should it be considered ? Should we<br /> pay any attention at all to it? Well, first of<br /> all, it manifestly means a confusion of ideas.<br /> There are two values of literary work—distinct,<br /> separate ; not commensurable—they cannot be<br /> measured—they cannot be considered together.<br /> The one is the literary value of a work—its<br /> artistic, poetic, dramatic value; its value of<br /> accuracy, of construction, of presentation, of<br /> novelty, of style, of magnetism. On that value<br /> is based the real position of every writer in his<br /> own generation, and the estimate of him, should<br /> he survive, for generations to follow. I do not<br /> greatly blame those who cry out upon the connec-<br /> tion of literature with trade; they are jealous,<br /> and rightly jealous, for the honour of letters.<br /> We will acknowledge so much. But the confu-<br /> sion lies in not understanding that every man<br /> who takes money for whatever he makes or does<br /> may be regarded, in a way, and not offensively, as<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> a tradesman; but that the artistic worth of a<br /> thing need have nothing whatever to do with the<br /> the price it will command; and that the com-<br /> mercial value in the case of a book cannot be<br /> measured by the literary or artistic value.<br /> <br /> “ Tn other words, while an artist is at work upon<br /> a poem, a drama, or a romance, this aspect of his<br /> work, and this alone, is in his mind, otherwise his<br /> work would be naught.<br /> <br /> “But, once finished and ready for production,<br /> then comes in the other value—the commercial<br /> value, which is a distinct thing. Here the artist<br /> ceases and the man of business begins. Either<br /> the man of business begins at this point or the<br /> next steps of that artist infallibly bring him to<br /> disaster, or at least the partial loss of that com-<br /> mercial value. Remember that any man who has<br /> to sell a thing must make himself acquainted<br /> with its value, or he will be—what? Call<br /> what you please—over-reached, deluded, cheated.<br /> That is a recognised rule in every other kind of<br /> business. Let us do our best to make it recog-<br /> nised in our own.<br /> <br /> « Apart from this confusion of ideas between<br /> literary and commercial value, there is another<br /> anda secondary reason for this feeling. For 200<br /> years, at least, contempt of every kind has been<br /> poured upon the literary hack, who is, poor<br /> wretch, the unsuccessful author. Why? We<br /> do not pour contempt upon the unsuccessful<br /> painter who has to make the pot boil with<br /> pictures at 15s. each. Clive Newcome came<br /> down to that, and a very pitiful, tearful<br /> scene in the story it is—full of pity and<br /> of tears. If he had been a literary hack,<br /> where would have been the pity and the<br /> tears? In my experience at the Society, 1<br /> have come across many most pitiful cases, where<br /> the man who has failed is doomed to lead a life<br /> which is one long tragedy of grinding, miserable,<br /> underpaid work, with no hope and no relief<br /> possible. One long tragedy of endurance and<br /> hardship. I am not accusing anyone ; I call no<br /> names; very likely such a man gets all he<br /> deserves ; his are the poor wages of incompetence ;<br /> his is the servitude of the lowest work ; his is the<br /> contumely of hopeless poverty ; his is the derision<br /> of the critic. But we laugh at such a wretch,<br /> and call him a literary hack. Why, I ask, when<br /> we pity the unsuccessful in every other line, do<br /> we laugh at and despise the unsuccessful author ?<br /> <br /> “Onee more, this contempt—real or pretended<br /> —for money. What does it mean? Sir Walter<br /> Scott did not despise the income which he made<br /> by his books; nor did Byron, nor did Dickens,<br /> Thackeray, George Eliot, Charles Reade, Wilkie<br /> Collins, Macaulay—nor, in fact, any single man<br /> or woman in the history of letters who has ever<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> succeeded. This pretended contempt, then, only<br /> belongs to those who have not succeeded. It is<br /> sometimes assumed by them; more often one<br /> finds it in articles written for certain papers by<br /> sentimental ladies who are not authors. Where-<br /> ever it is found, it is always lingering somewhere<br /> —always we come upon this feeling, ridiculous,<br /> senseless, and baseless—that it is beneath the<br /> dignity of an author to manage his business<br /> matters as a man of business should, with the<br /> same regard for equity in his agreement, the<br /> same resolution to know what is meant by both<br /> sides of an agreement, and the same jealousy as<br /> to assigning the administration of his property.<br /> “Again, how did the contempt arise?<br /> It came to us as a heritage of the last<br /> century. In the course of our investigations<br /> into the history of literary property — the<br /> result of which will, I hope, appear some day<br /> in a volume form—TI recently caused a research<br /> to be made into the business side of literature in<br /> the last century. Publishers were not then men<br /> of education and knowledge, as many of them are<br /> at the present moment; they were not advised<br /> by scholars, men of taste and intuition; the<br /> market, compared with that of the present day,<br /> was inconceivably small; there were great risks<br /> due to all these causes. The practice, therefore,<br /> was, in view of these risks, to pay the author so<br /> much for his book right out, and to expect a suc-<br /> cessful book to balance, and more than balance,<br /> one that was unsuccessful. Therefore they<br /> bought the books they published at the lowest<br /> price they could persuade the author to accept.<br /> Therefore—the consequence follows like the next<br /> line in Euclid—the author began to appear to<br /> the popular imagination as a suppliant standing<br /> hat in hand beseeching the generosity of the<br /> bookseller. Physician and barrister stood up-<br /> right taking the recognised fee. The author<br /> bent a humble back, holding his hat in one<br /> humble hand, while he held out the other humble<br /> hand for as many guineas as he could get. That,<br /> J say, was the popular view of the author. And<br /> it still lingers among us. There are, in other<br /> callings, if we think of it, other professional con-<br /> tempts. Everybody acknowledges that teaching<br /> is a noble work, but everybody formerly despised<br /> the schoolmaster because he was always flogging<br /> boys—no imagination can regard with honour<br /> and envy the man who is all day long caning and<br /> flogging. The law is a noble study, but every-<br /> body formerly despised the attorney, with whom<br /> the barrister would neither shake hands nor sit<br /> at table. . Medicine is a noble study, but the<br /> surgeon was formerly despised because in former<br /> days he was closely connected with the barber.<br /> Do not let us be surprised, therefore, if the author,<br /> <br /> 12]<br /> <br /> who had to take whatever was given him, came to<br /> be regarded as a poor helpless suppliant.”<br /> <br /> These words, I repeat, were addressed to our<br /> members as an apology for our very existence.<br /> If they are not sufficient, if any other apology<br /> be needed, I would submit this consideration.<br /> Some branches of the literary calling — say,<br /> rather, some literary men—demand for their<br /> work absolute freedom from every other kind of<br /> work. Whether their work is successful or not,<br /> good or bad, popular or unpopular, it must<br /> absorb all their day, all their thoughts, all their<br /> strength. They must live by their work, whether<br /> they live poorly or richly. They must live upon<br /> it. Now, the whole history of letters shows<br /> that the best work has been always produced<br /> under the influence of a certain material well-<br /> bemg. The most illustrious writers in our lan-<br /> guage—whether Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Dry-<br /> den, Pope, Fielding, Smollett, Johnson, Words-<br /> worth, Coleridge, Lamb, Scott, Washington<br /> Irving, Longfellow, Emerson, Lowell, Tennyson,<br /> Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot, Browning—<br /> have written from their own studies, in physical<br /> ease, with little thought about the morrow’s<br /> dinner ; yet all witha certain driving of necessity.<br /> Thackeray could never sit down and say, “I<br /> will only write when I feel disposed to write.”<br /> Had he been able to say it, the world would have<br /> been the poorer by the ‘‘ Newcomes ”’ at least.<br /> Genius starving; genius mendicant; genius<br /> holding out his hand for another guinea from<br /> the publisher; genius in rags—genius under<br /> these conditions has produced very little work<br /> which the world cares to preserve. Who are<br /> they—the starving poets—the Budgells and<br /> Savages of the last century? They area ragged,<br /> drunken company, whose names are already—<br /> as well as their work—things of the dead and<br /> forgotten past. Like the flowers of the field and<br /> hedge, the flowers of literature want sunshine<br /> and warm showers, and the soft breezes of<br /> summer.<br /> <br /> We are, then, I hope, agreed to discuss, in<br /> the highest interests of literature, its material<br /> side.<br /> <br /> The main facts in the history of publishing<br /> are these :<br /> <br /> a. Publishers, who were also booksellers, began<br /> by buying their works of authors for a<br /> certain sum. In order to protect them-<br /> selves, several joined in the—then real—<br /> risk.<br /> <br /> b. Authors sometimes issued their books by<br /> subscription—a very good plan, which<br /> seems still capable of wide application.<br /> <br /> ce. The plan of sharing profits was introduced<br /> towards the end of the last century.<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 122<br /> <br /> Profits meant the simple difference be-<br /> tween proceeds and cost of production.<br /> <br /> d. The general rule was to share profits equally.<br /> There were, however, some authors—e.g.,<br /> Gibbon—who received two-thirds of the<br /> profits.<br /> <br /> e. This system, which still seems to many<br /> the most equitable, fell into disfavour<br /> entirely through the practice, secretly<br /> introduced about sixty years ago, of secret<br /> and fraudulent profits. Publishers began<br /> to falsify their accounts.<br /> <br /> f. Then some form of royalties was invented ;<br /> and authors jumped eagerly at this<br /> method, being now sure of getting some-<br /> thing.<br /> <br /> g. Observe that no British publisher, even in<br /> the most risky venture, has ever dared to<br /> claim, as his share, more than half of the<br /> profits. But the royalty system now<br /> enables him to pocket, unknown to the<br /> author, a very much larger share, amount-<br /> ing to three and four times the author’s<br /> share.<br /> <br /> h. In purchasing books, some houses withhold<br /> from the author the actual value of his<br /> work, and pay hima tenth of what they<br /> know the book will bring in.<br /> <br /> Here we come upon another and a wholly<br /> <br /> unexpected difficulty.<br /> <br /> This is the difficulty of persuading people,<br /> especially our own people, those most interested<br /> in it, that there is any such thing as Literary<br /> Property. They can’t see it; houses, lands,<br /> warehouses full of things, they can see that is<br /> property, but—a book or a thousand books—<br /> they cannot understand that they mean real,<br /> tangible, marketable property; nay, in some<br /> cases, like Mr. Thrale’s Brewery, the potentiality<br /> of wealth beyond the dreams of avarice, the<br /> average person cannot understand. You think,<br /> perhaps, that such blindness is impossible. In<br /> America you are credited with a keener vision<br /> and a stronger common sense than our people<br /> possess. Doubtless you can all understand that<br /> Literary Property is a very real thing; but I<br /> assure you that very many of our literary people<br /> cannot. It is in vain that we point out to them<br /> publishers who live in great houses ; publishers<br /> who die worth great fortunes; publishers, now<br /> rich, who, thirty years ago, had nothing at all.<br /> They think it is successful gambling that has<br /> made them prosperous. They cannot believe in<br /> literary property at all. Actually our own<br /> <br /> brothers—the men who create the property—are<br /> rising up against us, saying that it is all very<br /> well to talk, but there is no such thing as literary<br /> property.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> If you tell them that certain men by writing<br /> history, novels, scientific works, educational works,<br /> religious works, have made great fortunes, and<br /> are making great incomes, they still cannot<br /> understand —they cannot understand that the<br /> literary man should be anything but a starving<br /> and dependent hack. That view, indeed, was.<br /> never wholly true, and is now absolutely futile.<br /> I will give you an illustration. The man con-<br /> cerned is a very distinguished writer; you all<br /> know his name. He was told some time ago<br /> that, for his share in a certain work he would<br /> receive a certain royalty. “I would rather,” he<br /> said, “have a ten pound note down.’ That was<br /> his view of literary property.<br /> <br /> In plain words we have against us certain<br /> rooted prejudices.<br /> <br /> 1. That’ it is beneath the dignity of Literature<br /> to consider the question of money. Of<br /> course, this opinion has been carefully<br /> nursed by those who want to have all the<br /> money.<br /> <br /> 2. That publishing is a great gambling game,<br /> and that the production of every book<br /> means the risk of an enormous sum of<br /> money.<br /> <br /> 3. That there is no such thing as literary<br /> property.<br /> <br /> 4, That authorship is a beggarly and contemp-<br /> tible trade.<br /> <br /> These prejudices we have found rooted in the<br /> minds not only of the outside world at large, but<br /> also of the journalists who move the world, and<br /> even, in many cases, of those who follow the lite-<br /> rary profession.<br /> <br /> Tt has been the work of the Society of Authors<br /> to uproot and destroy these prejudices. So far<br /> we have, I think, quite succeeded with the<br /> younger generation of writers, but only partially<br /> with the old. One writer with a great name—a<br /> name that you all respect—has always held aloof<br /> fromus. I hayeonly recently discovered the reason.<br /> Tt is that he has never succeeded in making any<br /> money at all by his own books, and therefore he<br /> cannot be persuaded that anybody else can.<br /> <br /> ‘As for our friends the journalists, they follow<br /> the younger men and the newer ideas, and so may<br /> be left, and little by little I think that we shall<br /> destroy the Grub-street ghost. Grub-street itself<br /> is now transformed into a street of warehouses.<br /> The denizens of Grub-street shall be transformed<br /> into an orderly and clean living race of men who<br /> occupy the lower paths of literature.<br /> <br /> The task which the Society of Authors pro-<br /> <br /> posed to itself was threefold. First, it desired -<br /> <br /> to remove these prejudices and ignorances con-<br /> cerning the literary calling; next to expose and<br /> to present to men and women of letters the mean-<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> ing and condition of literary property and the<br /> actual share possessed by those who create that<br /> property ; thirdly, to maintain the rights of lite-<br /> rary men over their own property; and, lastly, to<br /> establish the material side of literature upon an<br /> equitable basis, or, at least, on a basis recognised<br /> and accepted by authors and publishers alike as<br /> satisfying the claims of both.<br /> <br /> The Society has been in existence for eight<br /> years. What it has done so far I will tell you<br /> immediately. What it is in point of members<br /> and of numbers you ought first to know.<br /> <br /> It contains, to begin with, over a thousand<br /> members. We have not, of late, published a list<br /> of members and, for many reasons, we shall not<br /> publish a list.<br /> <br /> A very common charge is made against us by<br /> our enemies, who are the fraudulent members of<br /> the publishing trade, that wedo not contain in<br /> our body the leading men and women of the day.<br /> Very well! I will suppose this charge to have<br /> been made in this place. Who, let me ask, are<br /> the leading men of the day ?<br /> <br /> [Here followed a list of the principal members<br /> of the Society, which can here be omitted. ]<br /> <br /> In short, the Society has attracted to itself by<br /> far the greater number of the better kind of<br /> living English writers, and the fact that at every<br /> meeting we elect more members proves, not only<br /> that we are trying to do work that was wanted,<br /> but that we are trying in a way that recommends<br /> itself to these leaders. There are our leaders and<br /> our officers. In the rank and file of our regiment<br /> are many menand women that you have never heard<br /> of, many that you will never hear of. In the same<br /> way there are hundreds called to the Bar who<br /> never achieve distinction, and hundreds ordained<br /> to the Church who do not become leaders and<br /> prophets. There must be everywhere rank and<br /> file. We admit all those who call themselves<br /> literary mean and women without question. In<br /> our profession more than any other, out of the<br /> ranks will step forth the officers of the future.<br /> We should not be a representative body did we<br /> not number those who only carvy a rifle as well as<br /> those who carry a sword. I want you, this day,<br /> to accept the British Society of Authors as, in<br /> fact, it is—the only existing representative body<br /> of modern British literature.<br /> <br /> The first difficulty which met us was our own<br /> ignorance of the meaning of things. What did a<br /> book cost to produce? What should be spent in<br /> advertising it? What is the price of it to the<br /> retail trade? Until we had learned these things<br /> —-apparently quite simple things—it was useless<br /> attempting anything. We therefore attacked the<br /> printer, and after, considerable difficulty and<br /> labour and getting estimates from many people,<br /> <br /> 128<br /> <br /> we succeeded at arriving ata fair. average esti-<br /> mate of the cost of almost every kind of book,<br /> with the average amounts actually expended in<br /> advertising them and the actual price to the<br /> retail trade. This knowledge we did not keep to<br /> ourselyes—we printed it and published it, greatly<br /> to the benefit and advantage of authors.<br /> <br /> This so-called ‘‘ Cost of Production”—a copy<br /> of which I lay before you—is a little book, the<br /> figures of which, though only approximate, are<br /> closely approximate. A printer’s bill is an elastic<br /> thing. But the figures given in our book have<br /> never been seriously attacked ; one publisher who<br /> ventured to dispute them was silenced by the offer<br /> to conduct the whole of his printing on these<br /> terms.<br /> <br /> We are thus able to consider the question from<br /> the same point of view as the other side. We<br /> know what any book of any form is going to<br /> cost. :<br /> <br /> The next thing was the application of this<br /> knowledge. Our-secretary, Mr. Sprigge, began<br /> and conducted exhaustively an examination into<br /> all the methods of publication in use. There are,<br /> as perhaps you know, a great many. There are<br /> the various forms of sharing profits ; there are the<br /> various forms of royalty ; there is the purchase of<br /> copyright; there is the commission business ; and<br /> there are the agreements framed to meet all these<br /> forms. In our book called “Methods of Pub-<br /> lishing” all these are considered, and the tricks<br /> and frauds practised in connection with each are<br /> exposed.<br /> <br /> I have used the words “tricks and frauds.”<br /> They are not pretty words. I use them, however,<br /> deliberately. I say, “tricks and frauds.” This<br /> is not an occasion on which we should disguise<br /> the truth, and the melancholy truth is that<br /> among British publishers we find, on investiga-<br /> tion, that tricks and frauds were widespread.<br /> Every kind of trick, every kind of fraud, was<br /> carried on with impunity upon the helpless and<br /> ignorant author. The accounts were systemati-<br /> cally falsified, the cost of everything was over-<br /> stated, the profits were swamped by advertising<br /> in the publisher’s own magazine, which cost him<br /> nothing, or. in other magazines by exchange,<br /> which cost him nothing; very large discounts<br /> were swept into his own pocket, the sales were<br /> understated—in fact, whatever you can imagine<br /> in the way of robbery was carried on with<br /> impunity, because the author did not know, and<br /> there was no one to tell him or to help him,<br /> <br /> We have stated these facts openly ; we have<br /> never tried to conceal them; they have never<br /> been denied. All that the sharks have done in<br /> reply is to raise the cry that we call all publishers<br /> thieves, which is false, because we have never<br />  <br /> <br /> 124<br /> <br /> brought any such sweeping charge. We have<br /> said, and we shall repeat it, that we have found a<br /> widespread system of fraud among publishers.<br /> It is still going on, but in a greatly mitigated<br /> form.<br /> <br /> These facts, I say, never have been denied. We<br /> did expect, however, that the better-class pub-<br /> lishers would, for their own credit, and for the<br /> honour of their calling, and out of self-respect<br /> and having regard for their own honour, join with<br /> us in our attempt to enforce openness and honesty<br /> of dealing. They have not done s0. Messrs.<br /> Longmans, it is true, most honourably justified<br /> the traditions of their house by publicly accepting<br /> our claim that all accounts between author and<br /> publisher should be open to audit. They now<br /> send out vouchers with every account, thereby<br /> setting an example to honourable houses which<br /> should become a law to all others. With most<br /> publishers, however, I am sorry to say that hosti-<br /> lity and misrepresentation have met our labours.<br /> We are none the worse, collectively or individually,<br /> because, as you may also remember to your own<br /> advantage, modern literature may be bought,<br /> modern authors may be tricked, by publishers—<br /> but modern literature is neither created nor con-<br /> trolled by them. For the most part they consti-<br /> tute a machinery of distribution only, and a<br /> machinery which may be changed or placed in<br /> other hands at the will of the creators. Should<br /> there be any doubt in your minds as to the<br /> truth of these statements, you may consider the<br /> position. Hitherto a game of blind confidence<br /> has been carried on and demanded: the pub-<br /> lisher rendered accounts which he refused to have<br /> audited: no one must question his word: he<br /> alone among living mortals, must hide his books<br /> from his partner. That was the position. Next<br /> consider the subject of human weakness under<br /> such conditions. Is it possible that such a power<br /> should be deposited in any man, or body of men,<br /> without its abuse? Who among us could resist<br /> this temptation in a time of difficulty, when to<br /> falsify a few accounts would smooth over every-<br /> thing, and could never be found out? Ever<br /> since I began to understand the situation I have<br /> been inclined to think that there is a certain<br /> clause in the Lord’s Prayer which must be uttered<br /> by publishers with more than common fervency.<br /> Other thieves are sure of being found out—he<br /> who falsified an author’s accounts was sure never<br /> to be found out. Therefore the temptation to<br /> this unfortunate class of persons was far stronger<br /> than to other men, and the backslidings have<br /> been more frequent.<br /> <br /> We have, then, therefore taught the world of<br /> letters exactly what is meant by the agreements<br /> which authors have hitherto signed in ignorance.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> We have shown them what it costs to produce<br /> any kind of book; we have shown what books<br /> are sold for to the retail trade; we have shown<br /> the profits made by publishers, where agreements<br /> are honestly carried out, and what are made by<br /> dishonest persons. We have therefore prepared<br /> the ground in the minds of authors for the<br /> question to be argued on fair grounds, and the<br /> data known to both sides—what should be the<br /> equitable relations between authors and pub-<br /> lishers ?<br /> <br /> At present, and while this question awaits<br /> debate and settlement, we limit our demands to<br /> three points— :<br /> <br /> 1. The right of audit.<br /> <br /> 2, That in any agreement based on royalties<br /> we must know what this agreement gives<br /> to either side<br /> <br /> 3. That there must be no secret profits, 7.e.,<br /> no falsification of accounts.<br /> <br /> What else has the Society done during its eight<br /> years of existence ?<br /> <br /> We have investigated and published an account<br /> of the administration of the Civil List from its<br /> beginning. The Civil List is an anoual grant of<br /> £1200 made to literature, science, and art. It is<br /> annually diverted from its purpose by successive<br /> First Lords of the Treasury, and given to widows<br /> of men in the army and navy and civil service.<br /> We opened up a correspondence on the subject<br /> with the late W. H. Smith, then First Lord of the<br /> Treasury. It began with a letter from his private<br /> secretary, in. which that gentleman made the<br /> astonishing statement that the “ regulations ’ did<br /> notallow of any novelists, except historical novelists,<br /> being placed upon the List. We pointed out that<br /> this rule was not followed in former lists, which we<br /> copied for Mr. Smith’s information. This did no<br /> good. We then asked Mr. Gladstone if he knew<br /> of these regulations. He replied that he did not.<br /> We then respectfully invited the First Lord of<br /> the Treasury to let us see those regulations. He<br /> refused, We then caused certain questions to be<br /> asked in the House, when Mr. Smith had to<br /> state publicly that, in spite of his private secre-<br /> tary’s statement, there were no such regulations.<br /> An attempt, therefore, probably made by some<br /> subordinate, without Mr. Smith’s knowledge at<br /> <br /> ‘all, to exclude novelists from the Civil List, was<br /> <br /> happily defeated.<br /> <br /> We have made a careful and prolonged inquiry<br /> into the very difficult subject of the present<br /> nature and extent of literary property. By the<br /> passing of the American International Copyright<br /> Act a writer of importance in our language<br /> may address an audience drawn from a<br /> hundred million of English-speaking people.<br /> Remember that never before in the history of the<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE<br /> <br /> world has there been such an audience. There<br /> were doubtless more than a hundred millions<br /> under the Roman rule round the shores of the<br /> Mediterranean, but they spoke many different<br /> languages. We have now this enormous multitude,<br /> all, with very few exceptions, able to read, and all<br /> reading. Twenty years ago they read the weekly<br /> paper; there are many who still read nothing<br /> more. Now that no longer satisfies the majority.<br /> Every day makes it plainer and clearer that we<br /> have arrived at a time when the whole of this<br /> multitude, which in fifty years time will be two<br /> hundred million, will very soon be reading books.<br /> What kind of books? All kinds, good and bad,<br /> but mostly good; we may be very sure that they<br /> will prefer good books to bad. Even now the<br /> direct road to popularity is by dramatic strength,<br /> clear vision, clear dialogue, whether a man write<br /> a play, a poem, a history, or a novel. We see<br /> magazines suddenly achieving a_ circulation<br /> reckoned by hundreds of thousands while our old<br /> magazines creep along with their old circulation<br /> of from two to ten thousand? Hundreds of<br /> thousands? How is this popularity achieved?<br /> Is it by pandering to the low, gross, coarse taste<br /> commonly attributed to the multitude? Not at<br /> all. It is accomplished by giving them dramatic<br /> work—stories which hold and interest them—<br /> essays which speak clearly—work that somehow<br /> seems to have a message. If we want a formula<br /> or golden rule for arriving at popularity, I should<br /> propose this. Let the work have a message.<br /> Let it have a thing to say, a story to tell, a living<br /> man or woman to present, a lesson to deliver,<br /> clear, strong, unmistakable.<br /> <br /> The demand for reading, then, is enormous,<br /> and it increases every day. I see plainly—as<br /> plainly as eyes can see—a time—it is even now<br /> already upon us—when the popular writer—the<br /> novelist, the poet, the dramatist, the historian,<br /> the physicist, the essayist—will command such<br /> an audience—so vast an audience—as he has<br /> never yet even conceived as possible. Such a<br /> writer as Dickens, if he were living now, would<br /> command an audience—all of whom would buy<br /> his works—of twenty millions at least. The<br /> world has never yet witnessed such a popularity<br /> —so wide-spread —as awaits the successor of<br /> Dickens in the affections of the English-speaking<br /> races. This consideration must surely en-<br /> courage us to persevere in our endeavours<br /> after the independence of our calling. For<br /> you must not think that this enormous demand<br /> is for fiction alone. One of the things charged<br /> upon our society is that we exist for novelists<br /> alone. That is because literary property is not<br /> understood at all. Asa fact educational litera-<br /> ture isa much larger branch than fiction. But<br /> <br /> VOL. Iv.<br /> <br /> AUTHOR. 125<br /> <br /> for science, history—everything—except, perhaps<br /> poetry — the demand is leaping forward year<br /> after year in a most surprising manner. Now,<br /> in order to meet this enormous demand, which<br /> has actually begun and will increase more and<br /> more—a demand which we alone can meet and<br /> satisfy—I say that we must claim and that we<br /> must have a readjustment of the old machinery<br /> —a reconsideration of the old methods—a new<br /> appeal to principles of equity and fair play.<br /> <br /> Well: we have taken another step to assist us<br /> in this new appeal. We have founded for our own<br /> purposes a paper which is devoted entirely to the<br /> accumulation of facts and the dissemination of<br /> teaching in our own business relations. This<br /> paper has now been running for two years and a<br /> half. I have just been turning over the leaves<br /> of the paper, and I am amazed at the mass of<br /> material that has been brought together and the<br /> number of contributors who have assisted in<br /> bringing together that mass of material. Expo-<br /> sures of swindlers who advertise for MSS.:<br /> exposures of iniquitous agreements: discussions<br /> on reviews and reviewers: the discovery of tricks :<br /> the meanings of royalties: the law as to diffi-<br /> cult points which turn up day by day: warnings :<br /> advice: controversies—there has never been pub-<br /> lished anywhere any paper like our own, so<br /> entirely devoted to things which four or five<br /> years ago were carefully concealed from us or<br /> supposed to be beyond our own province.<br /> <br /> Add to the books we have published, and the<br /> paper we issue, the great fact that our Office has<br /> become the recognised Refuge for all who are in<br /> trouble or doubt. People come to us for advice<br /> on all subjects connected with literary property.<br /> The cases always in the Secretary’s hands average<br /> at any moment about a dozen. As fast as one is<br /> cleared off, another one comes in. The corre-<br /> spondence increases daily; from all parts of the<br /> country, and from the Colonies, the letters<br /> pour in.<br /> <br /> Our secretary, Mr. Thring, told me, a short<br /> time ago, that he dealt with sixty-two cases in<br /> six months, all of them being disputes between<br /> author and publisher, or author and editor.<br /> <br /> Of these, thirty were cases in which editors of<br /> third-rate journals refused to pay for published<br /> contributions, refused to return MSS. offered, or<br /> refused to answer letters.<br /> <br /> Of these thirty, he succeeded in twenty cases ;<br /> and in the other ten he failed, either because the<br /> paper could not pay, or the author declined to<br /> give evidence in court.<br /> <br /> Of the other thirty-two cases, between auth r<br /> and publisher, all, with one or two exceptions,<br /> were settled satisfactorily.<br /> <br /> He had also in his hands the claims of certain<br /> <br /> ra<br />  <br /> <br /> 126<br /> <br /> authors against a bankrupt. These debts he<br /> proved, and the dividends which they would<br /> otherwise only have obtained by every man<br /> employing a solicitor for himself at heavy cost,<br /> had been secured for the claimants at no cost to<br /> themselves at all, and no trouble.<br /> <br /> This, then, is something of what we have done<br /> for the members of the Society, and for the cause<br /> of literature generally, during the nine years of<br /> our existence.<br /> <br /> What has still to be done? First of all, to<br /> maintain an attitude of vigilance; and next, to<br /> persevere in our attitude of aggression until we<br /> succeed in placing the relations of author and<br /> publisher on a footing which will be accepted<br /> and recognised by honourable men on either<br /> side. This done, it will only remain for us to<br /> maintain, as I said before, that attitude of vigi-<br /> lance, because property cannot be defended once<br /> for all. Where riches are stored up thieves will<br /> break in and steal. Property of every kind must<br /> be always under watch and guard; the Society of<br /> Authors has, therefore, come to stay.<br /> <br /> Next, we have, if possible, to procure this<br /> adjustment of the relations between author and<br /> publisher. Remember that we have never ques-<br /> tioned the right of the latter to a substantial<br /> share in the work. The question is, what he<br /> does for a book, and what should be his share.<br /> So far we have only arrived at vague statements<br /> totally unconnected with practical claims. We<br /> have been told of enormous risks and frightful<br /> losses. We have ascertained that the risk, as a<br /> rule, does not exist, and that when it does exist,<br /> it is generally very small, and that neither risk<br /> nor loss need be encountered by a cautious house.<br /> To say that risks are never run would be ridicu-<br /> lous, though we are constantly charged with<br /> saying so. To say that there are no losses would<br /> be ridiculous, but it is certain that with the great<br /> majority of publishers the only loss is the failure<br /> of expectation, z.e., that the big success fondly<br /> anticipated did not arrive.<br /> <br /> But some answer to these questions must be<br /> given. Here is a great body of men and women<br /> always producing property of a most valuable<br /> character. Very rightly, as we have shown, and<br /> for very good cause they are profoundly dissatis-<br /> fied with the machinery that distributes their pro-<br /> perty, and the persons who run that machinery<br /> have hitherto turned a contemptuous ear to<br /> their complaints. It is, however, always com-<br /> petent for the dissatisfied to set up new machi-<br /> nery for themselves.<br /> <br /> This is the first occasion on which English-<br /> speaking writers have ever met in congress. It<br /> will not, I am sure, be the last. I hope that<br /> something very practical, something very definite,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> may come out of this congress. I do not expect<br /> from an American Conference the solution of<br /> difficulties which are distinctly English. Your<br /> problems are not always ours, yet some of them<br /> are the same. I hear complaints of false returns<br /> in royalties. I hear of suspicions; there are,<br /> doubtless, hard cases with you as well as with<br /> us. It will help if you accord to us your<br /> sympathy and your advice. On our part, since<br /> the works of those who write in our language<br /> are now published with equal popularity on<br /> both sides of the Atlantic, I venture to offer<br /> you the practical assistance of the Society in<br /> advising you how and when to publish. I<br /> venture to promise you the agency of the<br /> Society’s syndicate in order to place your works,<br /> and I am instructed by my committee to lay<br /> before you all our papers and the results of our<br /> investigations.<br /> <br /> But suffer me to submit my own proposal for<br /> the solution of the problem. It is a very simple<br /> proposal; it is based upon a long consideration of<br /> present and past usage, and of the figures<br /> involved. It is not, again, a new thing. I pro-<br /> pose, therefore, that, in the case of books by<br /> authors whose names alone is a guarantee of the<br /> demand exceeding the actual cost of production,<br /> the principle to be adopted should be that the<br /> publisher be allowed one-third of the actual profits<br /> —meaning by profits the excess of proceeds over<br /> actual cost of production—the author taking two-<br /> thirds. I may explain that in two or three of the<br /> foremost houses in London this method is already<br /> practised. The plan in honest hands seems to<br /> me one that is as just and fair as could be<br /> desired, and one that should work well. Of<br /> course, one cannot by any plan on paper provide<br /> altogether against the robber. There must be a<br /> few simple safeguards. The return of accounts<br /> must be accompanied by an audit in the interests<br /> of the author. There must be absolutely no<br /> secret profits. No advertisements must be<br /> charged except those actually paid for, 1.€.,<br /> neither advertisements in the publishers’ own<br /> magazines nor in exchanges.<br /> <br /> Next, as regards books which carry risk.<br /> English publishers, as we have said—in fact, all<br /> publishers—naturally avoid risk as much as<br /> possible. But there are many books—a very<br /> large proportion of them published—which,<br /> though they are certain to pay their bare<br /> expenses, are not certain to give the publisher<br /> such a return as will make it worth his while to<br /> take them up on such terms as those proposed<br /> above. The great mass of new books belong, in<br /> fact, to this class. For instance, I take at<br /> <br /> random, and without choice of any particular day,<br /> those columns of the London Times, which are<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 127<br /> <br /> devoted, on one day, to advertising new publica-<br /> tions. I find forty-one new books advertised.<br /> Among these there are four books of biography,<br /> which are certain to prove a valuable success.<br /> There are three religious books, which will also<br /> be successful, but not greatly. There are sixteen<br /> books of essays, history, and general literature,<br /> which certainly cannot be expected to pay either<br /> author or publisher anything worth consideration.<br /> There are eighteen novels, of which four are new<br /> editions of a very popular writer; three more<br /> are certain to run into cheap editions; and the<br /> rest (eleven in number) are published just to fill<br /> the boxes of Mudie’s circulating library or at the<br /> cost of the writers. It is quite certain that there<br /> will never be second editions of any, and it is<br /> also evident, to those who know, that, by the<br /> circulating library system, they are issued in<br /> order to give the publishers about £100 apiece<br /> and the author about half that sum.<br /> <br /> We must, therefore, meet this case, because the<br /> publisher, like the solicitor, must be paid first.<br /> 1 would propose, therefore, that a first charge be<br /> made on the proceeds, a first charge to be agreed<br /> upon ; that this sum be taken out of the proceeds<br /> by the publisher ix advance of his profits; that<br /> is to say, to take simple figures, the first charge<br /> agreed upon being £20, and the actual profits<br /> proving no more than £30, the author’s profits<br /> bemg under the agreement, two-thirds the<br /> whole, less this sum agreed upon, he must pay<br /> over to the publishers first this £20. If, on<br /> the other hand, the profit should amount to<br /> £60, the share of the author would be £40 and<br /> of the-publisher £20. But the publisher would<br /> draw that £20 out of the proceeds as a first<br /> charge.<br /> <br /> I advance the plan, not as a new thing, but<br /> as a method already tried. It is better than a<br /> royalty, because it leaves the publisher’s hand<br /> free to deal with the book as he wishes, i.e.,<br /> to make bargains with it at special prices to<br /> meet special conditions of sale. It is not so con-<br /> venient as a royalty because it necessitates, for<br /> the sake of the audit, greater care in accounts than<br /> has hitherto been customary. If a royalty is<br /> preferred it should be based on this principle of<br /> proportion in accordance with the actual cost of<br /> production.<br /> <br /> T advance this method as my own solution. I<br /> have submitted it as yet to none of my friends<br /> on the council of our Society. I lay it before<br /> you as my personal contribution only—as a pro-<br /> posal which, I submit, is worthy of serious con-<br /> sideration and argument as a proposal not alto-<br /> gether new, because it is already practised to a<br /> sale extent by at least three leading English<br /> <br /> rms,<br /> <br /> THE SINNER’S COMEDY.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> HE appearance of a new book by the lady<br /> who calls herself John Oliver Hobbes is one<br /> of those minor literary events the noting of<br /> <br /> which assigns to the writer a certain place on the<br /> literary ladder. The author of “Some Emotions<br /> and a Moral” has, in fact, seized upon the place<br /> which belongs to one who can write epigrams.<br /> Therefore one took up the “Sinner’s Comedy,”<br /> which is her latest work, with the pleasurable<br /> anticipation of things clever and things sparkling.<br /> That there was going to be a story, in the ordinary<br /> sense of the word, one did not expect. Therefore<br /> there was no disappointment. In about a hundred<br /> and sixty small pages of large type the author<br /> introduces some seventeen characters. They are<br /> all quite distinct, all carefully drawn in a very<br /> few lines, and, with perhaps one exception, all<br /> seem to come out exactly as the artist intended.<br /> The characters include a noble lord who is<br /> ambitious of being accepted as an authority,<br /> and therefore starts a daily paper, which is<br /> very funny, and only anticipates what will happen<br /> in the future by ten years or so; a woman,<br /> his sister, who is very carefully drawn, but yet,<br /> somehow—it may be the fault of the reader—<br /> remains blurred; a truly admirable baronet—<br /> “ his views on Woman were perhaps more remark-<br /> able for their chivalry than their reverence ; that<br /> she lost her youth was a blot on creation; that she<br /> could lose her virtue made life worth living ;”<br /> one Anne Christian, a wife separated from her<br /> husband—* an actor; a gentleman with strong<br /> feelings and a limp backbone. He was an un-<br /> speakable man ; and, having endured all things,<br /> she left him. It was a bad beginning, but two<br /> years’ companionship with the Impossible had<br /> taught her to bear the Necessary with patience ” ;<br /> an artistic couple. As for the man, “the ends of<br /> his pale yellow necktie were hid with artistic<br /> abandon, his short serge coat was of the finest<br /> texture, and his loose trousers, of the same mate-<br /> rial, hung with an idea of drapery about his<br /> elegant legs. Mr. Digby Vallance was<br /> a gentleman of some fame, who had translated<br /> Theocritus out of honesty into English, and in<br /> his leisure bred canaries. His celebrated paradox,<br /> ‘There is nothing so natural as Art,’ was perhaps<br /> even more famous than he.” There is, again, a<br /> dean; and there is the sister of a dean; there is<br /> a literary hack of some genius; so that in real<br /> life he would have ceased to be a literary hack<br /> and commanded righteous royalties in a cheap<br /> issue.<br /> <br /> As for the story, the Baronet loves the sepa-<br /> rated wife innocently (¢) for four years. Then he<br />  <br /> <br /> 128<br /> <br /> marries. The separated wife consoles herself by<br /> falling in love, innocently, (?) with the Dean, who<br /> becomes a Bishop. The literary hack dies ; so<br /> does the separated wife. That seems to be all<br /> the story.<br /> <br /> The book, nevertheless, carries the reader along<br /> by its wealth of epigram and its clear sketches<br /> of persons and character, who have nothing what-<br /> ever to do with the thin thread of a story. The<br /> principal character is the separated wife. But,<br /> in fact, nobody has much to do with the story.<br /> <br /> Now, seeing that the author is distinctly very<br /> clever—seeing, besides, that she deliberately<br /> chooses fiction as her medium of expression, and,<br /> moreover, that she possesses, apparently, most of<br /> the qualities required to make a writer of the<br /> first class, would it not be well for her to treat<br /> her fiction seriously? The kind of thing that<br /> she has on three separate occasions put before us,<br /> is very pleasant reading ; it is pleasant because<br /> it is clever, but as fiction it is naught. The<br /> Art in it is the delineation of character by<br /> description without necessary incident, or by<br /> dialogue which does not forward or advance any<br /> kind of story. One would not propose seriously<br /> to such a writer that she should imitate anyone ;<br /> but there are a few simple rules in every work of<br /> Art; as that there should be a central thought,<br /> intention, or motif in the work; that characters<br /> should only be introduced which belong to that<br /> central intention; and that dialogue, description,<br /> incident, and everything should belong to that<br /> central intention. At present itis truly deli ehtful,<br /> and a man may read it twice through in an evening,<br /> and bubble and simmer gently over it like a<br /> kettle on the old-fashioned hob. Yet it isn’t<br /> Fiction. The writer, since she is so clever, has,<br /> perhaps, the right to do exactly what she pleases.<br /> ‘And whatever she does she is sure to please.<br /> Yet—one cannot help thinking—there is such a<br /> thing as Art in Fiction, and these little books are<br /> not Art in Fiction.<br /> <br /> e———_——<br /> <br /> AN AMERICAN STATEMENT.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> TRCUMSTANCES are terrible tyrants ; and,<br /> they having forbidden me to take my<br /> humble place in the most noble Columbian<br /> <br /> Congress of representative women, and even from<br /> that session of it accorded to our gallant little<br /> band of recalcitrant authors, I have resolved<br /> nevertheless to have my say, though in writing—<br /> to tell my experience by proxy.<br /> <br /> I would like to take more time than can well<br /> be allowed ‘me. I would willingly preach a<br /> double-headed sermon—or one based on two<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> distinct texts, yet not without spiritual con-<br /> nection—namely, “ Put not your trust in pub-<br /> lishers!’”” ‘Train up your daughters in the way<br /> they should go, as—not for—business men.”<br /> <br /> Tn treating both texts, I should be compelled<br /> to stand forth as the “awful example.” I shrink<br /> with actual shame from revealing, as I must in a<br /> truthful statement, my own weakness, ignorance,<br /> and eternal verdancy in matters of business. I<br /> have been almost from the beginning of my book-<br /> making experience a meek sheared sheep —a<br /> bewildered, plucked goose, subject to all the<br /> inclemencies of the book markets and trade sales<br /> —Jost in “the ways that are dark ”—done for<br /> by “the tricks that are vain” of the masters of<br /> the Guild.<br /> <br /> Still, for the truth’s sake, and the good of<br /> younger writers, I have made up my mind to “a<br /> yound unvarnished tale deliver,” wherein I shall<br /> “naught extenuate, and naught set down in<br /> malice.”<br /> <br /> My first publishers, a distinguished Boston<br /> house, who took me up in 1850, perhaps spoiled<br /> me a little by their kindness. They were my<br /> personal friends, and fair and considerate, as<br /> publishers go. I was really very popular in those<br /> days, when clever young women, ambitious for<br /> literary honours, did not beset publishers in such<br /> ravenous hosts as office-seekers beset Congress-<br /> men now, and I don’t think that Messrs. Ticknor<br /> and Fields, who continued to publish for me some<br /> twenty-five years, lost by me at any time. But<br /> the house changed hands, and durmg my absence<br /> of a year in Europe, their successor, without con-<br /> sulting with me (a lordly way these potentates<br /> have), sold the plates of all my books, some fourteen<br /> volumes, to a certain New York publisher also<br /> distinguished, who, I was assured, would continue<br /> for me, keeping the books in the market, as far<br /> as possible, and paying me my royalty on all<br /> copies sold.<br /> <br /> T never received from this New York house<br /> one penny, nor was any account ever rendered,<br /> even of the copies printed, which were, I was told,<br /> sold with the plates. Had I not been crippled<br /> by some pecuniary losses, and discouraged by<br /> more serious illness, I should myself have bought<br /> the plates, and resumed the publication of at<br /> least the juvenile story-books, which were and<br /> are the most popular of my writings — my<br /> readers as they grew beyond them, kindly handed<br /> them down to children of a smaller growth. As<br /> it was, I had to let them remain in the hands of<br /> that very respectable concern, hoping always that<br /> they had “a good holt” on them, and would see<br /> their way to resume their publication and do<br /> justly by me. For generosity, I was not quite<br /> <br /> simple enough to look,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> “Tt never rains but it pours” disasters on the<br /> poor, unprotected female orphan-author.<br /> <br /> On my return from that visit abroad I ascer-<br /> tained that another New York house, which had<br /> published my two last volumes, bringing them<br /> out handsomely, and reporting good sales, had,<br /> in a stress of adverse fortune, sold, not only the<br /> plates of both books, but the copyrights. My<br /> copyrights! Still I did nothing. I did not see<br /> that I could do anything but harm others without<br /> benefiting myself. If before sailing for Europe,<br /> Thad intrusted my modest store of family plate<br /> to the care, left it in the hands of certain Boston<br /> and New York friends, and if on my return I<br /> had found that one party had pawned my paternal<br /> teapot, and the other party had sold my grand-<br /> mother’s spoons, I should have roundly declared<br /> that such conduct was mean, unjustifiable, abso-<br /> lutely dishonest, and ought to be looked into!<br /> But these gentlemen were publishers, respectable<br /> citizens, honourable men — “all honourable<br /> men.”<br /> <br /> During another, and prolonged visit to Europe,<br /> I was informed that a certain book-concern had<br /> exhumed the long-buried plates of my juvenile<br /> books, and were publishing them, in a cheap,<br /> much mixed up edition. I winced a little at the<br /> inelegant new dress of the Boston-born volumes,<br /> but was comforted somewhat by a modest<br /> royalty, which was regularly paid me, for two or<br /> three years, till that company failed, owing me<br /> several hundred dollars! This time, a court<br /> awarded me judgment for the amount due, but<br /> the sheriff reported that he could only collect<br /> sufficient from the wreck to pay his own fees!<br /> Still I believe the company soon revived, and<br /> went on as before—even better, lightened of its<br /> tiresome obligations.<br /> <br /> Then the big scoop-net of another big Book<br /> Company gathered up my poor little floating<br /> volumes. ‘T&#039;o pacify me, who tearfully demanded<br /> my rights, they brought out a new edition, on<br /> which I bestowed a great amount of new work,<br /> and was beginning to receive something in the<br /> way of royalty when that stupendous publishing<br /> concern was suddenly wound-up or tied-up,<br /> leaving me again in the lurch. It was in debt to<br /> me, though not to such an extent as to have pre-<br /> cipitated the grand catastrophe.<br /> <br /> One or two of my volumes are in the hands of<br /> Tait, Sons, and Co. They are also New York<br /> publishers, and yet I have hope in their justice<br /> and fair dealings.<br /> <br /> “ Hope springs eternal in the human breast.”<br /> <br /> Since the failure of that gigantic book company,<br /> the Juggernaut of smaller publishing concerns,<br /> I have ascertained that they are publishing two<br /> additional volumes, bearing my name, one of<br /> <br /> 129<br /> <br /> which I had heard of, and denounced to them as<br /> “a, piracy ’’—an early book, reprinted with a new<br /> title, the other was one on which I had received<br /> no royalty since the first year, when the payments<br /> were quite satisfactory.<br /> <br /> The other volume, wherein it is held I have no<br /> rights which a publisher is bound to respect, is a<br /> “ Life of Queen Victoria,” published by a certain,<br /> or uncertain, transitory firm. This firm dissolved<br /> partnership in 1884, since which time the remain-<br /> ing partner has given me no returns, vouchsafed<br /> me no account, though he did make to me, some<br /> four years after the dissolution of partnership,<br /> the astonishing statement (which I have in<br /> writing, as a curiosity in a business way) that<br /> he had destroyed his old account books so that<br /> he knew nothing of what was due to me, if any-<br /> thing, and had no way of finding out. He has,<br /> however, offered to sell me at a third of their<br /> cost (a considerable sum at that) the plates of<br /> the biography—a book which was certainly very<br /> well received by the public, both here and in<br /> England, and approved by the Royal Family, but<br /> the sale of which was injured by a gaudy style of<br /> binding and by exceptionally bad management.<br /> <br /> During the Jubilee year, however, it revived,<br /> and did well, as the party most concerned him-<br /> self admitted ; but not then, nor in any year since<br /> 1884, has the value of one of the Queen’s own<br /> penny postage stamps been poured into my<br /> coffers by a grateful publisher. Still I doubt<br /> not but that in the eyes of his kind, he is an<br /> honourable man.<br /> <br /> “So are they all, all honourable men.”<br /> <br /> Grace GREENWOOD.<br /> <br /> Washington, May 16th, 1893.<br /> <br /> ee<br /> <br /> NOTES AND NEWS.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> HF following paragraph is taken from the<br /> Times :-—<br /> <br /> The seventieth birthday of Miss Yonge has been marked<br /> by a presentation to her from admirers in all parts of the<br /> world. An album containing 5000 autographs and criticisms<br /> of her writings was left on her birthday at her dwelling in<br /> the village of Otterbourne. On the front page is the fol-<br /> lowing inscription in an illuminated border :—‘ Charlotte<br /> Mary Yonge.—We offer our hearty congratulations on your<br /> seventieth birthday, and desire to express to you the great<br /> enjoyment that we have received from your writings, and<br /> our belief that they have done much good in this genera-<br /> tion. August 11, 1893.” Amongst the signatures are<br /> those of the Archbishop of York, the Earl of Selborne, the<br /> Marquis of Salisbury, Viscount Wolmer, the Bishops of<br /> London, Manchester, Salisbury, Chester, Bath and Wells,<br /> Chichester, Leicester, Reading, Southwell, Cape Town, Con-<br /> necticut, and St. Helena, Bishops Selwyn, Jenner, and Hob-<br />  <br /> <br /> 130<br /> <br /> house, the Deans of Winchester, Windsor, and Salisbury,<br /> Canon Scott Holland, the Warden of Keble College, Mr.<br /> Balfour, and several members of Mr. Gladsdone’s family,<br /> besides the local clergy and gentry. The Queen of Italy<br /> sent a large photograph of herself, bearing her autograph and<br /> accompanied by a congratulatory note. Local presentations<br /> were made to Miss Yonge on the eve of her birthday.<br /> <br /> May we, too, members of an association<br /> honoured by the membership of Miss Charlotte<br /> Yonge, venture to add our congratulations and<br /> our best wishes for a long continuance of work<br /> from this accomplished hand? Great as have<br /> been the achievements of women in the world of<br /> fiction, it will be admitted by all that no one has<br /> surpassed Miss Charlotte Yonge in the lifelike<br /> reality of her characters, nor in the interest with<br /> which she can surround a group, a family, a<br /> little company of girls in whose lives there occurs<br /> no incident except, perhaps, the disturbing<br /> element of love. And certainly no one man or<br /> woman has done more than Miss Yonge for the<br /> Church of England, and for that part of the<br /> Church represented by the teachers of Miss<br /> Yonge’s youth, Keble and _ his friends. We<br /> may add that the type of gentlewoman, high-<br /> minded, pure, religious, charitable, artistic,<br /> delicate in speech and thought and manner,<br /> created by Miss Yonge, has done more to<br /> elevate the women of our middle class than<br /> anything else ever invented or taught Girls by<br /> the thousand have tried to reach that standard ;<br /> they have not, perhaps, quite succeeded, but the<br /> endeavour has transformed them. It is forty<br /> years since the “ Heir of Redclyffe ” captured the<br /> world. The author has held her own ever since<br /> that first success without a note of weariness or<br /> of “ writing out.” The world has nothing but<br /> praise and gratitude for this novelist. She has<br /> written nothing that she can herself regret or<br /> that the world would wish had never been written.<br /> Of what other living writer can so much be said ?<br /> And since her work is still so young and strong,<br /> we may hope for more and still for more.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Sir Edward Hamley is dead. Soldier, poli-<br /> tician, and novelist, had he been one instead of<br /> three, he might have made a greater mark. His<br /> “Lady Lee’s Widowhood”’ was the most success-<br /> ful thing he wrote. The “Story of the Cam-<br /> paign of Sebastopol,” ‘ Wellington’s Career,”<br /> the “ Operation of War,” ‘‘ Our Poor Relations,”<br /> and an Essay on Thomas Carlyle exhaust his<br /> literary baggage, unless we include work lying<br /> concealed in back numbers of Blackwood, which,<br /> for some reason, he was contented to leave there.<br /> Perhaps, now that he is dead, these papers of his<br /> will be collected.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> I see that a writer in the Sketch cannot agree<br /> with me as to the magnitude of the audience<br /> commanded by a popular author now compared<br /> with that enjoyed by Dickens. He says he will<br /> give figures. He then says that Dickens went<br /> into 30,000 copies, after which the copies could<br /> not be counted. Where are his figures, then?<br /> That is not reasoning by figures; therefore, now<br /> I will give my figures.<br /> <br /> The population of Great Britain and Ireland in<br /> 1835 was 24,000,000. In 1893 it is 37,000,000.<br /> <br /> The population of the United States in 1835<br /> was 15,000,000. It is now 60,000,000, @.e., four<br /> times as great.<br /> <br /> The population of Australia was in 1835 nothing<br /> to speak of ; it is now 4,000,000.<br /> <br /> The white population of New Zealand in 1835<br /> was nothing at all; it is now nearly a million.<br /> <br /> The population of Canada in 1835 was about a<br /> million ; it is now six millions.<br /> <br /> The population of South Africa in 1835 was<br /> about 200,000; it has now reached a million.<br /> <br /> The population of India is about 250,000,000.<br /> In 1835 none of these people could read English,<br /> At the present moment there are hundreds of<br /> thousands who read English literature new and<br /> old.<br /> <br /> In other words, there were in 1835 about<br /> 40,000,000 of English-speaking people. There are<br /> now, without counting the scattered islands and<br /> small settlements, about a hundred and ten<br /> millions, and will soon be a hundred and twenty<br /> millions. The number of possible readers has<br /> therefore trebled.<br /> <br /> But the proportion of readers to population has<br /> also enormously increased. The whole of England<br /> and Scotland now reads; the whole of the United<br /> States, except the negroes of the south ; the whole<br /> of Australia and New Zealand; the whole of<br /> Canada.<br /> <br /> Again, there were no free libraries at all in<br /> 1835; there are now in Great Britain and<br /> America and the colonies about 4000. How<br /> many readers must be reckoned for one popular<br /> book before it falls to pieces? A thousand ?<br /> Thena single popular writer gets 4,000,000 readers<br /> for 4000 copies of his books.<br /> <br /> These are my figures ; and with them before me<br /> I have no hesitation whatever in saying that<br /> Dickens could not command a quarter—perhaps<br /> not an eighth—of the audience that one who<br /> successfully appeals to the popular imagination<br /> already commands—and that is nothing com-<br /> pared with the audience which he will command<br /> in a future by no means distant.<br /> <br /> ——<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> I find that during my absence in America I<br /> have been the object of some delicate and<br /> appreciative courtesies from the delicate and<br /> courteous pen of Mr. Robert Buchanan in the<br /> Daily Chronicle, and, by an interesting coinci-<br /> cidence, at the same time, the subject of certain<br /> pages in Longman’s Magazine from the pen of<br /> Mr. Andrew Lang. It is not often that one can<br /> enjoy the privilege of coupling these two writers<br /> together. Indeed I never remember any instance<br /> before in which the opinions of Mr. Lang or his<br /> methods coincided with those of Mr. Buchanan.<br /> It would be interesting to discover, if one could,<br /> the mental process which could lead these two<br /> poets to this simultaneous attack—surely, a<br /> coincidence—upon the Society which does its best<br /> to maintain the interests of those who follow, as<br /> they themselves follow, literature as a profession.<br /> What Mr. Buchanan says, however, is what one<br /> expects from Mr. Buchanan. What Mr. Lang<br /> says is not what one expects from Mr. Lang. That<br /> is the main difference. For instance, one does<br /> not expect from Mr. Lang the perversion of words.<br /> “The writer in the Author,” says Mr. Lang,<br /> “ decides that there is a prejudice against literary<br /> men as against needy mendicants.”’ The writer<br /> in the Author did not decide anything of the<br /> kind: he lamented the fact of a prejudice. Mr.<br /> Lang then proceeds to alter his position. “We<br /> are,” he first said, “to sell our wares and there’s<br /> an end.” He now says “ we are to dispose of our<br /> wares toan advantage.” Very good. Thealtera-<br /> tion makes a considerable difference. Mr. Lang<br /> next points out, very justly, that a mendicant does<br /> not sell, but begs. He also pretends that in the<br /> Author begging and selling are confused. Of<br /> course they are not. But, unhappily, the history<br /> of our literature is full of begging. I have seen<br /> the most astonishing begging letters, borrowing<br /> letters, letters entreating for more money—an<br /> advance—a further advance—stiil more money.<br /> We do not wish the practice of mendicancy to<br /> continue; we desire that those who write shall<br /> learn that their material interests are not<br /> dependent on the caprice of a publisher, but on<br /> the demand of the public. We do say—what is<br /> perfectly true—that some writers in the past and<br /> in the present have been mendicants and are<br /> mendicants; that the thing degrades literature ;<br /> and that it can only be stopped when writers<br /> cease to think, or to speak, or to appeal to the<br /> “ generosity’ of the publisher.<br /> <br /> Mr. Lang says, further, “ we are dependent on<br /> the public, dependent for the commercial profits,<br /> but we are dependent on no other thing under<br /> Heaven.” Is it possible that any man who has<br /> ever written books could deliberately write such<br /> a sentence and believe it to be true? Dependent<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 131<br /> <br /> on the public? Why, if so, there would be<br /> nothing to be said. Authors would be indepen-<br /> dent. Observe that I say independent, not rich,<br /> or prosperous. They would be independent—poor,<br /> perhaps, which does not so much matter—but<br /> independent, which is the main thing. At<br /> present authors are dependent, all but a very<br /> few, on the publisher. There is no independence<br /> of authors save for this very small number. They<br /> are dependent on the publisher. They have got<br /> to go to the publisher and ask him on what terms<br /> he will consent to administrate their property.<br /> Why, if authors were only dependent on the<br /> public they would no longer—any of them—have<br /> to stand in the attitude of the needy mendicant<br /> with bending knees and bowing back, entreating<br /> the “ generosity ” of the men with the bag. The<br /> change from dependence upon the publisher to<br /> dependence upon the public is the one great end<br /> and aim of all our efforts—the end and aim which<br /> have aroused the indignation of these two poets.<br /> Mind—not the abolition of the publisher at all,<br /> but the establishment of systematic and recog-<br /> nised methods of publishing. Consider. A man<br /> has a book. He now takes it to a publisher, or a<br /> publishing company, or a religious society. He<br /> endeavours, as Mr. Lang advises, to “ dispose of<br /> his wares to an advantage.’’ He wants, perhaps,<br /> to sell. He is offered a sum of money ; he knows<br /> not why this sum, or that sum, or any other sum<br /> should be offered ; he has to take that sum because,<br /> you see, a man cannot go hawking literary wares<br /> about; he cannot; he is ashamed ; he takes that<br /> sum. Or, if he tries to get better terms—on<br /> what grounds is he to base his objection?<br /> Because the book will fetch much more in the<br /> market? No; because this he does not under-<br /> stand, and it is not explained to him; he must<br /> depend upon the “ generosity ” of the publisher.<br /> According to the old ideas—which are still<br /> struggling for existence—what a publisher gave<br /> for a book was prompted by his mood of the<br /> moment, without the least reference to the com-<br /> mercial value of the book! And this is what<br /> Mr. Lang calls being dependent on the public!<br /> Or, say that he does not wish to “ sell his wares.”<br /> Then he is offered some kind of royalty, and<br /> an agreement is placed before him which he is<br /> called upon to sign blindly, without the least<br /> inquiry into the meaning of the royalty or the<br /> proportion of his own estate which he gives up<br /> to his partner or his agent, as the case may be.<br /> Nor is he ever told what proportion he is<br /> receiving for this concession of the sole per-<br /> manent administration of his estate.<br /> <br /> Mr. Lang says that he does not dispute the<br /> existence of literary property. He assumes, how-<br /> ever, that the average author knows what it<br />  <br /> <br /> 130<br /> <br /> house, the Deans of Winchester, Windsor, and Salisbury,<br /> Canon Scott Holland, the Warden of Keble College, Mr.<br /> Balfour, and several members of Mr. Gladsdone’s family,<br /> besides the local clergy and gentry. The Queen of Italy<br /> sent a large photograph of herself, bearing her autograph and<br /> accompanied by a congratulatory note. Local presentations<br /> were made to Miss Yonge on the eve of her birthday.<br /> <br /> May we, too, members of an association<br /> honoured by the membership of Miss Charlotte<br /> Yonge, venture to add our congratulations and<br /> our best wishes for a long continuance of work<br /> from this accomplished hand? Great as have<br /> been the achievements of women in the world of<br /> fiction, it will be admitted by all that no one has<br /> surpassed Miss Charlotte Yonge in the lifelike<br /> reality of her characters, nor in the interest with<br /> which she can surround a group, a family, a<br /> little company of girls in whose lives there occurs<br /> no incident except, perhaps, the disturbing<br /> element of love. And certainly no one man or<br /> woman has done more than Miss Yonge for the<br /> Church of England, and for that part of the<br /> Church represented by the teachers of Miss<br /> Yonge’s youth, Keble and _ his friends. We<br /> may add that the type of gentlewoman, hirgh-<br /> minded, pure, religious, charitable, artistic,<br /> delicate in speech and thought and manner,<br /> created by Miss Yonge, has done more to<br /> elevate the women of our middle class than<br /> anything else ever invented or taught Girls by<br /> the thousand have tried to reach that standard ;<br /> they have not, perhaps, quite succeeded, but the<br /> endeavour has transformed them. It is forty<br /> years since the “ Heir of Redclyffe”’ captured. the<br /> world. The author has held her own ever since<br /> that first success without a note of weariness or<br /> of “ writing out.” The world has nothing but<br /> praise and gratitude for this novelist. She has<br /> written nothing that she can herself regret or<br /> that the world would wish had never been written.<br /> Of what other living writer can so much be said ?<br /> And since her work is still so young and strong,<br /> we may hope for more and still for more.<br /> <br /> ——<br /> <br /> Sir Edward Hamley is dead. Soldier, poli-<br /> tician, and novelist, had he been one instead of<br /> three, he might have made a greater mark. His<br /> “Lady Lee’s Widowhood”’ was the most success-<br /> ful thing he wrote. The “Story of the Cam-<br /> paign of Sebastopol,” ‘“ Wellington’s Career,”<br /> the “ Operation of War,” ‘‘ Our Poor Relations,”<br /> and an Essay on Thomas Carlyle exhaust his<br /> literary baggage, unless we include work lying<br /> concealed in back numbers of Blackwood, which,<br /> for some reason, he was contented to leave there.<br /> Perhaps, now that he is dead, these papers of his<br /> will be collected.<br /> <br /> ee<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> I see that a writer in the Sketch cannot agree<br /> with me as to the magnitude of the audience<br /> commanded by a popular author now compared<br /> with that enjoyed by Dickens. He says he will<br /> give figures. He then says that Dickens went<br /> into 30,000 copies, after which the copies could<br /> not be counted. Where are his figures, then?<br /> That is not reasoning by figures; therefore, now<br /> I will give my figures.<br /> <br /> The population of Great Britain and Ireland in<br /> 1835 was 24,000,000. In 1893 it is 37,000,000.<br /> <br /> The population of the United States in 1835<br /> was 15,000,000. It is now 60,000,000, z.e., four<br /> times as great.<br /> <br /> The population of Australia was in 1835 nothing<br /> to speak of ; it is now 4,000,000,<br /> <br /> The white population of New Zealand in 1835<br /> was nothing at all; it is now nearly a million.<br /> <br /> The population of Canada in 1835 was about a<br /> million ; it is now six millions.<br /> <br /> The population of South Africa in 1835 was<br /> about 200,000; it has now reached a million.<br /> <br /> The population of India is about 250,000,000.<br /> In 1835 none of these people could read English.<br /> At the present moment there are hundreds of<br /> thousands who read English literature new and<br /> old.<br /> <br /> In other words, there were in 1835 about<br /> 40,000,000 of English-speaking people. There are<br /> now, without counting the scattered islands and<br /> small settlements, about a hundred and ten<br /> millions, and will soon be a hundred and twenty<br /> millions. The number of possible readers has<br /> therefore trebled.<br /> <br /> But the proportion of readers to population has<br /> also enormously increased. The whole of England<br /> and Scotland now reads; the whole of the United<br /> States, except the negroes of the south ; the whole<br /> of Australia and New Zealand; the whole of<br /> Canada.<br /> <br /> Again, there were no free libraries at all in<br /> 1835; there are now in Great Britain and<br /> America and the colonies about 4000. How<br /> many readers must be reckoned for one popular<br /> book before it falls to pieces? A thousand ?<br /> Thena single popular writer gets 4,000,000 readers<br /> for 4000 copies of his books.<br /> <br /> These are my figures ; and with them before me<br /> I have no hesitation whatever in saying that<br /> Dickens could not command a quarter—perhaps<br /> not an eighth—of the audience that one who<br /> successfully appeals to the popular imagination<br /> already commands—and that is nothing com-<br /> pared with the audience which he will command<br /> in a future by no means distant,<br /> <br /> =e<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> fied Ef<br /> <br /> Poy 52<br /> <br /> i<br /> <br /> Ge. ce<br /> <br /> bo<br /> <br /> =o<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> I find that during my absence in America I<br /> have been the object of some delicate and<br /> appreciative courtesies from the delicate and<br /> courteous pen of Mr. Robert Buchanan in the<br /> Daily Chronicle, and, by an interesting coinci-<br /> cidence, at the same time, the subject of certain<br /> pages in Longman’s Magazine from the pen of<br /> Mr. Andrew Lang. It is not often that one can<br /> enjoy the privilege of coupling these two writers<br /> together. Indeed I never remember any instance<br /> before in which the opinions of Mr. Lang or his<br /> methods coincided with those of Mr. Buchanan.<br /> It would be interesting to discover, if one could,<br /> the mental process which could lead these two<br /> poets to this simultaneous attack—surely, a<br /> coincidence—upon the Society which does its best<br /> to maintain the interests of those who follow, as<br /> they themselves follow, literature as a profession.<br /> What Mr. Buchanan says, however, is what one<br /> expects from Mr. Buchanan. What Mr. Lang<br /> says is not what one expects from Mr. Lang. That<br /> is the main difference. For instance, one does<br /> not expect from Mr. Lang the perversion of words.<br /> “The writer in the Author,” says Mr. Lang,<br /> “ decides that there is a prejudice against literary<br /> men as against needy mendicants.” The writer<br /> in the Author did not decide anything of the<br /> kind: he lamented the fact of a prejudice. Mr.<br /> Lang then proceeds to alter his position. ‘“ We<br /> are,” he first said, “to sell our wares and there’s<br /> an end.” He now says “ we are to dispose of our<br /> wares toan advantage.” Very good. Thealtera-<br /> tion makes a considerable difference. Mr. Lang<br /> next points out, very justly, that a mendicant does<br /> not sell, but begs. He also pretends that in the<br /> Author begging and selling are confused. Of<br /> course they are not. But, unhappily, the history<br /> of our literature is full of begging. I have seen<br /> the most astonishing begging letters, borrowing<br /> letters, letters entreating for more money—an<br /> advance—a further advance—stiil more money.<br /> We do not wish the practice of mendicancy to<br /> continue; we desire that those who write shall<br /> learn that their material interests are not<br /> dependent on the caprice of a publisher, but on<br /> the demand of the public. We do say—what is<br /> perfectly true—that some writers in the past and<br /> im the present have been mendicants and are<br /> mendicants; that the thing degrades literature ;<br /> and that it can only be stopped when writers<br /> cease to think, or to speak, or to appeal to the<br /> “ generosity ’ of the publisher.<br /> <br /> Mr. Lang says, further, “we are dependent on<br /> the public, dependent for the commercial profits,<br /> but we are dependent on no other thing under<br /> Heaven.” Is it possible that any man who has<br /> ever written books could deliberately write such<br /> a sentence and believe it to be true? Dependent<br /> <br /> 131<br /> <br /> on the public? Why, if so, there would be<br /> nothing to be said. Authors would be indepen-<br /> dent. Observe that I say independent, not rich,<br /> or prosperous. They would be independent—poor,<br /> perhaps, which does not so much matter—but<br /> independent, which is the main thing. At<br /> present authors are dependent, all but a very<br /> few, on the publisher. There is no independence<br /> of authors save for this very small number. They<br /> are dependent on the publisher. They have got<br /> to go to the publisher and ask him on what terms<br /> he will consent to administrate their property.<br /> Why, if authors were only dependent on the<br /> public they would no longer—any of them—have<br /> to stand in the attitude of the needy mendicant<br /> with bending knees and bowing back, entreating<br /> the “ generosity ” of the men with the bag. The<br /> change from dependence upon the publisher to<br /> dependence upon the public is the one great end<br /> and aim of all our efforts—the end and aim which<br /> have aroused the indignation of these two poets.<br /> Mind—not the abolition of the publisher at all,<br /> but the establishment of systematic and recog-<br /> nised methods of publishing. Consider. A man<br /> has a book. He now takes it to a publisher, or a<br /> publishing company, or a religious society. He<br /> endeavours, as Mr. Lang advises, to “ dispose of<br /> his wares to an advantage.’ He wants, perhaps,<br /> to sell, He is offered a sum of money ; he knows<br /> not why this sum, or that sum, or any other sum<br /> should be offered ; he has to take that sum because,<br /> you see, a man cannot go hawking literary wares<br /> about; he cannot; he is ashamed; he takes that<br /> sum. Or, if he tries to get better terms—on<br /> what grounds is he to base his objection?<br /> Because the book will fetch much more in the<br /> market? No; because this he does not under-<br /> stand, and it is not explained to him; he must<br /> depend upon the “ generosity ” of the publisher.<br /> According to the old ideas—which are still<br /> struggling for existence—what a publisher gave<br /> for a book was prompted by his mood of the<br /> moment, without the least reference to the com-<br /> mercial value of the book! And this is what<br /> Mr. Lang calls being dependent on the public!<br /> Or, say that he does not wish to “ sell his wares.”<br /> Then he is offered some kind of royalty, and<br /> an agreement is placed before him which he is<br /> called upon to sign blindly, without the least<br /> inquiry into the meaning of the royalty or the<br /> proportion of his own estate which he gives up<br /> to his partner or his agent, as the case may be.<br /> Nor is he ever told what proportion he is<br /> receiving for this concession of the sole per-<br /> manent administration of his estate.<br /> <br /> Mr, Lang says that he does not dispute the<br /> existence of literary property. He assumes, how-<br /> ever, that the average author knows what it<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 132<br /> <br /> means. For he depicts the author saying airily,<br /> as one strong in the possession of full and<br /> accurate knowledge. ‘‘ You offer me too much<br /> or too little”? But the author must know<br /> what literary property means, else how should he<br /> be able to say “too much” or “too little P”<br /> Before he can say this, the author must know<br /> (1) the cost of printing, paper, binding, cor-<br /> rections, advertisements—all the details which<br /> o to the manufacture of a book; (2) the price<br /> of the book to the trade; (3) the probable<br /> circulation of the book; (4) the fair proportion<br /> of the proceeds between publisher and author.<br /> With this knowledge the author is certainly able<br /> to say “too much” or “too little.” Without<br /> that knowledge he cannot, as a wise man, say<br /> anything at all.<br /> <br /> The working man, with whom Mr. Lang<br /> compares the literary man, sells his wares for<br /> what he can—but with a difference. For the<br /> working man, dependent on the master trades-<br /> man, has his Union, which, in a rough and ready<br /> way, does regulate prices. We have no such<br /> union; we are like the working man as he was ; we<br /> are dependent upon the publisher. Our depen-<br /> dence is mitigated, it is true, by the competition<br /> between publishers, and that 1s doubtless a very<br /> great thing, but. still the author is dependent<br /> upon the publisher.<br /> <br /> The position we have always maintained cannot<br /> be too often repeated :<br /> <br /> 1, A book may be a very considerable property.<br /> <br /> 2. An author should recognise this possibility,<br /> and should be as careful in the disposition of<br /> this kind of property, as he is in the disposition<br /> of any other kind of property.<br /> <br /> _ ‘He must ascertain for himself, or learn from<br /> others, what the administration of such property<br /> means, namely, what are the expenses incurred,<br /> and what are, or may be, the returns realised.<br /> <br /> 4. He must not sign away any rights unless he<br /> knows exactly what these rights mean.<br /> <br /> “How,” asks Mr. Lang, “can a hundred<br /> Congresses at Chicago secure these conditions ”—<br /> i.e., of independence for the author ?<br /> <br /> The author’s independence will be secured for<br /> him from the moment that his pay—the com-<br /> mercial side of his work—is put, once for all, on<br /> such a footing of recognised terms and propor-<br /> tions as will make him absolutely independent of<br /> the publisher and dependent solely on the public,<br /> as a physician, or a barrister, or an architect, or<br /> a solicitor, is independent. This can be done,<br /> and will be done, by the arrival at an understand-<br /> ing between honourable publishers and leading<br /> writers. Whatever understanding this may be, it<br /> must rest upon the basis of the demand for a<br /> book by the public. Our efforts have been all<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> along directed to showing the literary profession<br /> the meaning of their property so that they may<br /> see the necessity of coming to such an under-<br /> standing.<br /> <br /> Mr. Lang does his best—Mr. Buchanan does<br /> his best—to retard this most desirable condition<br /> of things ; the former by representing the author as<br /> already, and actually, dependent upon the public<br /> alone; and by supposing him already possessed<br /> of so much technical knowledge as to enable him<br /> to know what he should receive for an unpublished<br /> book, The latter does his little best to darken<br /> counsel by prating foolishness about Literature<br /> and Luere. When we do come to that attempt,<br /> however, I have hopes that we may find Mr.<br /> Andrew Lang in the conference—or congress— OF<br /> committee—or meeting. Mr. Buchanan, I am sure<br /> —that is, I hope and trust—will not be present.<br /> Meantime we are not dependent on the public<br /> —no—no—a thousand times No—we are depen-<br /> dent on the publishers, which is the reason why<br /> some of us dispose of our wares through the<br /> agency of a third person.<br /> <br /> And as to those material interests which are<br /> so sordid .to the Scottish bard —I mean Mr.<br /> Buchanan—let us take courage and go on safe-<br /> guarding them and so degrading Literature with<br /> Lucre, in the company of Scott, Byron, Dickens,<br /> Thackeray, Reade, Wilkie Collins, George Eliot,<br /> Tennyson, and a goodly number of living men<br /> and women into whose company it is an honour<br /> and a distinction to be received.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> I cut the following from an American paper,<br /> I wonder how many of our readers know anything<br /> about Mr. FitzJames O’Brien :—<br /> <br /> That reminds me of a story told about FitzJames<br /> O’Brien and Fletcher Harper, then the head of the Harper<br /> publishing house. O’Brien had a habit of always finding<br /> his way down to the Harper office when he was unsteady,<br /> as you call it, and borrowing money. One day the poet<br /> went down to Franklin-square and begged Fletcher Harper<br /> to let him have 25 dollars. Harper refused, and this made<br /> O’Brien mad. He swore around, and finally seeing a large<br /> placard with “ Livingstone’s Africa ”’ printed on one side,<br /> he took it, turned it over, and on the blank side drew in<br /> large black letters the words :<br /> <br /> “ One of Harper’s Authors.<br /> T am starving.”<br /> <br /> Before any one was aware of his intention, O’Brien had<br /> attached a string to the cardboard, hung it about his neck,<br /> walked down to the street, and was parading up and down<br /> before the publishing-house. Of course, a large crowd<br /> <br /> gathered, but O’Brien was obdurate against all entreaties.<br /> “Won&#039;t stop till I get some money from Harper,” said he,<br /> and he didn’t.<br /> A compromise was effected through the medium of a<br /> 5-dollar bill, and O’Brien went on his way for that day.<br /> <br /> FitzJames O’Brien, poet, journalist, story-<br /> teller, and politician, was an Trishman by birth.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> emai<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Pte ee<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> He was born in 1828, and in 1852, after a brief<br /> career in London, he went to America, where he<br /> lived and wrote till the outbreak of the Civil<br /> War. He joined the Army of the North, and<br /> was killed in action in the year 1862. This is<br /> the brief record of a man possessed of a rare<br /> genius. Some of his short stories have been<br /> collected and published in this country (Ward<br /> and Downey, 1887), but none of his verses, so far<br /> as I know. The collection of stories is called<br /> “The Diamond Lens.” I do not know whether<br /> they have become popular, but they deserve a<br /> very wide popularity.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> There is a magazine in the United States—L<br /> believe it is newly started—which is founded for<br /> the purpose of publishing MSS. “rejected by<br /> publishers” —or editors—which? This invaluable<br /> journal will be called Happenchance.<br /> <br /> It will probably be followed by the foundation<br /> of another magazine to contain articles rejected<br /> by Happenchance. This will be called Happen-<br /> chance-by-luck. Then a third magazine will be<br /> founded for articles rejected by Happen-chance-<br /> by-luck. This will be called Happenchance-by-<br /> luck-and-lottery. Others will follow, and there<br /> is no limit possible to the series, each an advance<br /> upon its predecessor in literary excellence.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> After the iron has entered your soul, try it on your<br /> manuscript. In other words, when an unappreciative<br /> editor has returned your contribution with the paper<br /> creased by folding, so that it has a worn and weary look,<br /> take it to the kitchen, get Mary to give you a hot flat-iron,<br /> and iron the offending creases out. Then send the manu-<br /> script out again.<br /> <br /> The preceding is from the Writer, an American<br /> paper. Everybody who remembers the Days of<br /> Rejection—who does not ?—must acknowledge the<br /> appropriateness of the adjectives, the ‘‘ worn and<br /> weary ” look of the unlucky MS. returning once<br /> more unsuccessful. It has a guilty look as well<br /> —an ashamed and guilty look. Perhaps the hot<br /> iron may restore its self-respect as well as its<br /> early freshness.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The bogus publisher is with the Americans as<br /> wellas with us. His methods are apparently the<br /> same there as here. His reader returns a highly-<br /> flattering opinion of the MS., and the publisher,<br /> wholly influenced, of course, by this disinterested<br /> reader, who is a noble Patron of Literature,<br /> makes what he calls a ‘“ highly advantageous ”<br /> offer : ‘You to pay us the sum of so much—one-<br /> half the cost of publishing—we to produce the<br /> book, &amp;¢., and the proceeds to be divided equally<br /> between us.” And there never are any pro-<br /> ceeds, and the unlucky author finds at the end<br /> <br /> 133<br /> <br /> that he has paid the whole, instead of the half of<br /> the cost, with something over. The following is<br /> from the Writer :<br /> <br /> While reading in the Writer for April, 1892, the article<br /> entitled ‘Shall Writers Combine,’ by John Bancroft, I<br /> determined to tell you my ‘tale of woe.” In November,<br /> 1890, seeing the advertisement of the Welch-Fracker Com-<br /> pany, I determined to put a book manuscript of humorous<br /> sketches, entitled ‘‘ Mirandy and Dan’el,” into their hands.<br /> If they thought it worth publication, I would see what<br /> arrangements could be made. I had written quitea number<br /> of these sketches for the Burlington Hawkeye. After the<br /> very flattering comments of the Welch-Fracker reader, I<br /> decided to allow publication. J. L. Waite, of the Hawkeye,<br /> wrote an able introduction for the forthcoming book. The<br /> proof was sent to me for correction, and the contract be-<br /> tween us was that the book was tobe sent out May 6, 1891,<br /> I to send check for the 300 dollars—one-half of the expense<br /> of publishing—that day. I fulfilled my part of the agree-<br /> ment, but, alas for the honour of that firm ! the firm, money,<br /> manuscript—all have disappeared, and I am left, without<br /> either. I took every precaution, and was referred to Hon.<br /> Francis Sessions, of Ohio, and he wrote me that he had<br /> found the Welch-Fracker Company all right. But since<br /> his decease, I have been informed that before his death, he,<br /> too, found them unreliable. Yes, it is quite time there was<br /> some plan by which an author may save his money and<br /> manuscripts from such misfortune.<br /> <br /> Maria M. Van DERVEER.<br /> <br /> Long Branch City, N.J.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> All the American magazines do not come over<br /> here; there is for instance, Godey’s, which has<br /> been running for sixty-three years, as long as<br /> any of the English monthlies except the Gentle-<br /> man and Blackwood. Ifound it in America, and<br /> looked at a number, and was rewarded with a<br /> pleasant and well written story, called “ Judy<br /> Robinson-Milliner,” by Lee C. Harby. It is a<br /> story of American life— quite through and<br /> through American—and therefore, perhaps, the<br /> more interesting to me after seeing something—a<br /> little—of American ways. There was also in the<br /> number a paper on Francis Saltus, musician,<br /> composer, dramatist, linguist, traveller, and poet.<br /> He wrote ten complete operas, and over a<br /> thousand pieces of music. Whether he was a<br /> great musician or not I know not. That he<br /> was not a great poet is obvious from the<br /> specimens given; but that he was a real, though<br /> a minor, poet seems certain. The paper conveys<br /> the impression of a richly gifted nature and of<br /> wide and singular abilities and activities. He<br /> died at the age of forty.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The verses of the minor singers are sometimes<br /> pleasant to read. Here and there among the<br /> rhymes and the thoughts, and the lines dragged<br /> in for the rhyme, are phrases that strike the eye.<br /> “DPD. M. B.” sends me a small volume of verse<br /> called ‘‘ London Sketches,” published at Maid-<br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> 134<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> stone—the bard must be very modest who does<br /> not publish in London, where the writer, like so<br /> many others, finds his inspiration. There is<br /> sometimes—not always—the real ring about<br /> “TD. M. B’s” verses. For instance:<br /> The light is low ;<br /> The sea to night is like a silver lake ;<br /> The weary reapers harvest fields forsake,<br /> And homeward go—<br /> Till I alone<br /> Am left with the young moon and the still sea ;<br /> The green bents shimmering along the lea<br /> In one grey tone.<br /> No burning glow<br /> Of sunset glory changing grey to gold,<br /> But cloudless opal—clear and crystal cold<br /> The shadows grow.<br /> Alone I stand<br /> Within the magic of the northern light,<br /> While all my senses seek a southern night<br /> When shining sand<br /> And deep blue wave<br /> Are whispering to another soft and sweet ;<br /> Our spirits in the twilight stillness meet,<br /> And meeting—save<br /> For this brief hour<br /> All heartache and all yearning of the day,<br /> Soothing and tender—soon to pass away<br /> In night’s dark power.<br /> The light is gone:<br /> The sea is toneless and as quiet as fate.<br /> The moon and I, we are not desolate,<br /> Though all alone.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> There was anarticle in the Speaker a week or<br /> two ago with which there was little to disagree,<br /> pleading, as it did, that the reason why books do<br /> not succeed lies with the public and not with the<br /> publisher. But who ever said otherwise ? What<br /> man in his senses could possibly suppose that a<br /> publisher would not “boom” everyone of his<br /> books if he could? What was the good of<br /> advancing such a self evident proposition? I<br /> only notice the paper here because of the use<br /> made of my name. I am told that I “ will not<br /> see it”—see, that is, that a certain amount of<br /> work is produced which is “too delicate, too<br /> imaginative, or too bizarre” to please the public.<br /> I do see it, and I also know under what circum-<br /> stances and conditions this kind of work is<br /> produced. I know, in fact, what the writer of<br /> this article advances as a new thing, that pub-<br /> lishing is a business. The writer then pretends<br /> that I “dream of the time when thousands<br /> of royalty-paid writers will be reeling off<br /> high-class works of fiction for the millions<br /> of English speaking readers.” Where did he<br /> find that dream? My dream is of a much simpler<br /> and more practical kind. It is of a time, not far<br /> off, when a popular writer of English—there can<br /> never be more than two or three at a time—will<br /> command an audience of as many millions as<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Dickens had thousands, or Fielding hundreds.<br /> Having thus made me say what I have never said,<br /> this truthful person adds, “ Yet Mr. Besant paints<br /> the public with a halo round its great stupid head,<br /> and puts a lily in its horny hand.” Where have<br /> T executed this remarkable work of art? From<br /> what words, metaphorically, can the writer justify<br /> this statement? He cannot. But of course it is<br /> “all ofa piece.” The Society can only be attacked<br /> by misrepresentation, Therefore those who<br /> attack it must misrepresent.<br /> <br /> A circular has been sent me stating the in-<br /> tention of erecting a bust of Lord Tennyson in<br /> the Abbey, for which permission has been granted<br /> by the Dean. It is believed that the bust will<br /> cost £300. The circular is signed by the Duke<br /> of Argyll. Subscriptions will be received by Mr.<br /> G. L. Craik, at Messrs. Macmillan’s, Bedford.<br /> Street.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The books of the month are the new edition<br /> after more than twenty years, of Mrs. Webster&#039;s<br /> “ Portraits”; “ Selections” from the same poet’s<br /> verse; and Forrest’s ‘‘ History of the Indian<br /> Mutiny.” One notes also Mr. Le Gallienne’s<br /> “Poems of Arthur Hallam,” It seems as if this<br /> book had been wanting all along to supplement<br /> the works of Tennyson.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> There is a field for the novelist, almost new, in<br /> the West Indian Islands. A young writer, Mr.<br /> W.R. H. Trowbridge, is attempting this field.<br /> He sends me a book of sketches and stories called<br /> ‘Gossip of the Caribbees,” published in New<br /> York; Ihave read it with considerable interest<br /> and pleasure. I mention it here because he tells<br /> me that itis about to appear in this country. I<br /> hope it will meet with a kindly reception. The<br /> workmanship is good for a beginner—promising<br /> for the future—and the people and the scenes are<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> novel. Water Besant. ©<br /> sec<br /> FEUILLETON.<br /> L<br /> <br /> CoNFESSIONS OF A CRITIC.<br /> <br /> BEGIN with a letter. A letter written ina<br /> bold round hand, full of character, and<br /> evidently connected with a firm wrist.<br /> <br /> Nothing has ever amazed me so much as that<br /> letter. It came from an unknown lady, who told<br /> me that she was the secretary of a women’s<br /> literary society. The members, she said, num-<br /> bered twenty-four damsels, whose ages began at<br /> <br /> ea reread<br /> oe SS :<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> me<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> nineteen and left off at twenty-five. They were<br /> pledged, by the rules of this society, to submit<br /> twelve manuscript stories each month—that is,<br /> one manuscript per member per two months—to<br /> a critic, whose business it was to point out defects,<br /> encourage good qualities, reprimand eccentricities<br /> of style, grammar, and composition, and endea-<br /> vour to make himself generally useful. The<br /> honorarium for these benefits was represented by<br /> the symbol zero. It was all for love—naturally<br /> love—and nothing for reward.<br /> <br /> Now, the presiding critic had come to the con-<br /> clusion that he had bestowed sufficient largess<br /> upon this club by the simple method of unpaid<br /> services. He therefore retired. Some kind friend<br /> advised the secretary to invite me to try on the<br /> empty shoes. He said I was a benevolent, com-<br /> passionate, genial soul, and ready at all times to<br /> succour the friendless. Hence the secretary’s<br /> letter, setting forth the foregome facts. The<br /> letter ended by saying that the burning hearts of<br /> the society were quivering for my answer. If I<br /> should comply with their secretary’s request, how<br /> grateful—and so on. If I should decline—but<br /> then it was not possible for so kindly a heart as<br /> mine to think of declining.<br /> <br /> I looked this communication squarely in the<br /> face. It asked me to instruct a school of ladies<br /> in the art of letters. It meant that I must teach<br /> them composition, scheme, technique, develop-<br /> ment, plot, counterplot, the difference between<br /> marionettes and human beings, conversation,<br /> repartee, a general insight into the ways and<br /> manners of all grades of society, geography<br /> (including the use of the globes), history (omit-<br /> ting, perhaps, the times of the Jacobites), and—<br /> but that would be sufficient for the present.<br /> Whether or not I could claim to be sufficient for<br /> these things was a question which passed me by,<br /> because of the dazzling halo around the title of<br /> critic. Oh, to be a critic! To possess the un-<br /> limited power of slanging—even as one’s self had<br /> been slanged. To know the luxury of ripping<br /> things to pieces. To be the happy owner of a<br /> thick blue pencil, warranted to obliterate choice<br /> bits with such a mark as should defy the attack<br /> of any yet known ink-eraser. Then to be able to<br /> write a critique, with a pen of pity and a hand of<br /> scorn. To realise the joy of gibbetting slips of<br /> the memory, venial errors, little flights of fancy<br /> betokening the first faint flutter of unfledged<br /> wings—yet giving promise of a bolder and more<br /> successful power. ‘ Revenge, revenge! ” Timo-<br /> theus cried; and so did I. I accepted the post<br /> of critic, and lay in wait for manuscripts. I was<br /> not asked to review—only to criticise. And<br /> there was no pay attached to my office, eh?<br /> Very well!<br /> <br /> 135<br /> <br /> The manuseripts came ; twelve maiden stories<br /> told upon sheets of virgin white ; no erasures, no<br /> blots; fair as an unblemished snowdrift recently<br /> liberated from a glass case. Well, two or three<br /> were very bad. Some of them, with a little<br /> dressing, might have found a home in this or<br /> that magazine. All of them smacked of remi-<br /> niscences: of Dickens, of Victor Hugo, of Zola,<br /> Ouida, Girton, Newnham, Somerville Hall. But<br /> I missed some old friends. Not a single hero was<br /> described as a Greek god; neither were his ivory<br /> limbs—indistinctly observable through the lining<br /> of his pantaloons—tinged with the roseate hues<br /> of conscious integrity. It grieved me to see that<br /> there was nothing of this sort of thing. More-<br /> over, I was disgusted to find that no heroine<br /> hurled herself into the arms of her lover before<br /> she had known him for at least a week. In fact<br /> there was nothing for a critic to lay hold of<br /> which could afford him any real delight. True,<br /> there were errors of judgment, style, motive,<br /> and the happy-go-lucky deviation into reverie so<br /> dear to the unmasculine mind. But whatever<br /> there was of fault only required a little snipping<br /> and trimming; and of what use is a critic with-<br /> out his steam hammer ?<br /> <br /> This question vexed me, until Madam Con-<br /> science paid me a visit. Said she, “ You were<br /> once an ignorant fool. I have not observed that<br /> any other title rightly belongs to you now.<br /> When you were prevailed upon to submit your<br /> manuscript to a really qualified opinion—because<br /> I asked you to deduct 75 per cent. from the<br /> opinion of your friends—you approached to<br /> reason and sanity as nearly as I ever remember.<br /> The Authors’ Society helped you and sent your<br /> trash to a reader who knew things. When it<br /> came back, with a criticism pinned to the corner,<br /> you called the reader a dolt, a booby, a fraud, a<br /> know-nothing, a make-believe, a _ blind-eyed<br /> ignoramus, a fellow, a person who could not<br /> recognise a good thing when he sawit. Oh, yes,<br /> you did. I heard you. But why? Because he<br /> was a wise andtalented man. You raved against<br /> a student and a scholar, because you were<br /> neither. I, who know you better than you know<br /> yourself, recognise in the hard names you called<br /> him a-splendid description of yourself. But for<br /> the gentle nature of that reader, he might easily<br /> have chopped you into little bits. And now---<br /> what are you going to do with these manu-<br /> scripts P”’<br /> <br /> If anybody has ever studied the gingerly,<br /> leisurely, daintily-fluffy, don’t-ye-mind-me-dear<br /> kind of fashion in which an old hen lets herself<br /> down upon a newly-hatched brood of chickens,<br /> he will understand the qualities which charac-<br /> terised me as the critic of this Ladies’ Literary<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 136<br /> <br /> Society. I even went so far as to offer the secre-<br /> tary —after I had despatched the first lot of<br /> criticisms—the few scattered locks of hair still<br /> left to me for submission to the vengeance of the<br /> members. Further, and as a lover of fair play,<br /> I wrote a story, and invited the members to<br /> criticise it. The result was to enlarge my<br /> vocabulary of phrases ; because all the criticisms<br /> were tentative. Asthus: “Don’t you think the<br /> story—very good as a whole—would run better<br /> if,” &amp;¢e; “How would it be if you made the<br /> story run upon this sort of line,” &amp;c.; “I ques-<br /> tion if a girl, under similar circumstances, would,’<br /> &amp;e.; “The whole thing might be improved,<br /> perhaps, if,” &amp;c.<br /> <br /> So that the sweet solicitude of Woman taught<br /> me how to stand in the position of other people.<br /> T understood the Power of Sympathy. It is<br /> better to tickle than to thump in a case of this<br /> kind, A critic may bang an author back into<br /> his shell; but he may, with a little trouble,<br /> wheedle him out of it, and cause him to exhibit<br /> his proportions. Evena peacock will expand his<br /> beautiful tail if you but whistle softly to him.<br /> And I take no merit to myself in the last<br /> confession that I am still the critic of a Ladies’<br /> Literary Society, whose members have taught me<br /> how to see with their own eyes.<br /> <br /> Bennett Coue.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> I.<br /> A Moprrn Comepy (?).<br /> (Enacted Daily.)<br /> <br /> Scene: Fleet-street. A large shop, bearing on<br /> the signboard the announcement “ Furniture<br /> pought and sold.”<br /> <br /> Enter Mr. Young Author. (Reads announce-<br /> ment.) “Ha! the very thing for me. I have<br /> some nice chairs at home I should like to dispose<br /> of. I&#039;ll bring them here.”<br /> <br /> (Goes home, gets a chair, and brings it to the<br /> shop.)<br /> <br /> Mr. Y. A.: “Good morning, sir; I see you<br /> deal in furniture. I have just brought you a<br /> nice chair of a new pattern which I am making a<br /> <br /> number of at present. I’ll be very glad to sell .<br /> <br /> you this one. What’ll you give me for it?<br /> <br /> Mr. Cute Editor (proprietor of the business) :<br /> “No time to discuss matter with you at present.<br /> You can leave the chair though.”<br /> <br /> Mr. Y. A.: “Oh thanks! I&#039;ll leave it, and<br /> take the liberty of calling again.” (EHxit.)<br /> <br /> (Six months elapse.)<br /> <br /> _Mr. Y. A. (timidly): “I have taken the<br /> liberty, Mr. Editor, of calling to know whether<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> you have agreed to purchase my chair. I sent<br /> it you six months ago, you will perhaps re-<br /> member.<br /> <br /> Mr. C. E. (surprised): “ Your chair! Why,<br /> my dear sir, it was of no earthly use to me, and I<br /> sent it off with my rubbish to be made into fire-<br /> wood.<br /> <br /> Mr. Y. A. (groaning): But, surely you might<br /> have returned it to me; I would willingly have<br /> paid the cost of carriage, or come for it myself if<br /> you had let me know.”<br /> <br /> Mr. C. E. (offended) : You ought to have kept<br /> a copy. You can surely easily make another of<br /> the same pattern, just a little more wood, and a<br /> few hours’ labour ; and yet you come and annoy<br /> me and take up my precious minutes about a<br /> paltry chair!”<br /> <br /> Mr. Y. A.: “Allow me to reason out the<br /> matter with you calmly, sir. The chair was my<br /> property, not yours. It may have been a poor<br /> thing, but it was my own—my own idea and my<br /> own labour, to say nothing of the wood. If it<br /> was of no value to you, it might have been of<br /> value to some other dealer; it was at least of<br /> value to me; and I shall thank you to pay me<br /> that value, or produce the chair.”<br /> <br /> Mr. C. B.: “As L already said, I have no time<br /> to waste discussing matters with you; but before<br /> you take any legal action you had better direct<br /> your attention to this notice. Perhaps you didn’t<br /> see it, but that wasn’t my fault. Underneath<br /> my name on the signboard you will see, if you<br /> look carefully, the words ‘ We cannot undertake<br /> to return any furniture sent us for approval;<br /> makers send at their own risk.’ And now, sir,<br /> you will please remember that I have the law on<br /> <br /> my side. Good morning.”<br /> Evit Mr. Y. A., aghast and threatening<br /> vengeance.<br /> <br /> — re<br /> <br /> $0-S0 SOCIOLOGY.<br /> <br /> (Continued from page 97-)<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 25. Melancholy is oftener due to poverty of<br /> body than to piety of soul.<br /> <br /> 26. The morbid soul would rather cherish a<br /> grievance than welcome a benefit.<br /> <br /> 27. The saner the soul, the sounder the<br /> sympathy.<br /> <br /> 28. Marriages are angel-made, man-made, or<br /> devil-made: of heaven, earth, or hell.<br /> <br /> 29. Hell often apes heaven to please earth.<br /> <br /> 30. It is generally far easier to disapprove<br /> than to disprove.<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 3k<br /> <br /> VG<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> 31. Proof is less a matter of accuracy than of<br /> acceptance.<br /> <br /> 32. All truth is not beautiful, all beauty good,<br /> nor all goodness true, to an imperfect race.<br /> <br /> 33. Happiness, like beauty, is less a duty than<br /> a harmony.<br /> <br /> 34. Fashion may be only a matter of tense;<br /> taste is more a manner of temperament.<br /> <br /> 35. Constancy is no more a matter of sex than<br /> charity is of sect.<br /> <br /> 36. It is far easier to forget conduct than to<br /> forgive character.<br /> <br /> 37. Inconsistency of character is a mere myth.<br /> <br /> 38. Nature never fully forgives where she has<br /> once injured.<br /> <br /> 39. Fancies of the present are popularly<br /> credited to facts of the other tenses.<br /> <br /> 40. Credulity is not always a reliable gauge of<br /> veracity.<br /> <br /> 41. But for extremes, the mean would never<br /> rise.<br /> <br /> fz. The value of a civilization is estimable by<br /> the due culture of its children.<br /> <br /> 43. Misuse the rod—damn the child.<br /> <br /> 44. The main difference between saint and<br /> sinner is self.<br /> <br /> 45. Even personal experience fails to teach<br /> hopeless fools.<br /> <br /> 46. Relative truth is less a matter of reflection<br /> than a manner of refraction.<br /> <br /> 47. &quot;Tis but a feeble fiction that cannot outbid<br /> fact, in fancy and in flattery.<br /> <br /> 48. The past is always greater than the<br /> present: there was ever so much more of it.<br /> <br /> 49. The weak vainly try to recover by<br /> obstinacy what they have lost by credulity.<br /> <br /> 50. When health goes, hell grows.<br /> <br /> 51. Who physics himself poisons a fool.<br /> <br /> 52. Bigotry is the devilry of temporary<br /> theology.<br /> <br /> 53. Charity is the archangel of right religion.<br /> <br /> 54. There is one vice—selfishness: and one<br /> virtue—sacrifice.<br /> <br /> 55. There is no sex in courage, devotion,<br /> wisdom, or wickedness.<br /> <br /> 56. Personal purity is essential to perfect<br /> poetry.<br /> <br /> 57. A minim of sympathy is worth a tun of<br /> theology.<br /> <br /> 58. Nature admits no claim to compensation ;<br /> she punishes—as she rewards—with compound<br /> interest.<br /> <br /> 59. Living nature shows neither equality nor<br /> identity.<br /> <br /> 60 The majority is usually more concerned<br /> with consistency than with accuracy.<br /> <br /> 137<br /> <br /> 61. The insane soul reveres power more than<br /> virtue.<br /> PHINLAY GLENELG,<br /> <br /> Erratum on p. 96: Delete “or proof.”<br /> <br /> (To be continued.)<br /> <br /> UGOLINO’S LOVE.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ‘* Poscia piu che ’l dolor pote il digiuno.”<br /> Inf., XX XTIL., 75.<br /> Thrice cruel grief since thou refus’dst to stay,<br /> <br /> When Ugolino’s sons lay on the ground,<br /> <br /> Mute chilly corpses, whence no more should sound<br /> The voices welcome as the dawn of day ;<br /> <br /> Shall even famine rob thee of thy prey,<br /> <br /> And in her heart more tenderness abound,<br /> <br /> By her shall freedom for the soul be found,<br /> Whom thou wouldst keep in tenement of clay !<br /> Alas! the groping o’er those dear dead sons,<br /> <br /> Alas! the horror of the midnight tomb !<br /> <br /> Why e’en in traitors, fathers’ hearts blood runs,<br /> <br /> And Ugolino from thy awful doom,<br /> <br /> Which with dismay the hardest spirit stuns,<br /> <br /> Thy human love still shines above the gloom.<br /> <br /> NoRLEY CHESTER.<br /> <br /> LITERATURE IN OXFORD.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> URING the summer term the following<br /> D lectures were held at Oxford—the Taylor<br /> Institute: —One by the Professor of<br /> Poetry on the influence of the Renaissance in<br /> English Poetry, which included the reading of<br /> many poems of that period; one on Russian and<br /> Old Russian Ballads, by the Reader in Slavonic<br /> Languages; one on Molitre, by Mr. Markham, of<br /> Queen’s College ; one on the importance of Lan-<br /> guage Teaching in Education, by Professor<br /> Blackie, of Edinburgh; two on Scandinavian<br /> Literature, by Dr. Lentzner—the first treated of<br /> Danish Language and Literature, the second of<br /> Bjérnstjerne Bjornson. Dr. Lentzner will also<br /> deliver two more lectures next term—one on the<br /> Danish poet, Paludan Miiller, and the second on<br /> Henrik Ibsen.<br /> CORRESPONDENCE.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> I.<br /> A Novet EXPERIENCE.<br /> <br /> We have had here far more failures than<br /> successes, but I am content to put the failures<br /> down to bitter bad luck, or to lack of under-<br /> standing in regard to the artfulness and mysteri-<br /> ousness of the craft of publishing. But this is<br /> not quite what I sat down to write about. This<br /> morning’s post brings an unasked-for and most<br /> acceptable cheque towards recouping publishers’<br /> losses from one whose book—a really good book<br /> that was much praised—failed to ‘catch on.” I<br /> want to place on record that this is our first and<br /> only experience of the kind. Gladly would I<br /> help in placing the effigy of so generous hearted<br /> a man on a pedestal in the sanctum sanctorum of<br /> the Society of Authors. Anprew W. Turr.<br /> <br /> The Leadenhall Press Limited.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> TI.<br /> Toe Reat “ Dreap TRIBUNAL.”<br /> <br /> Among all the utterances about the trials of<br /> authors, their most real and most formidable<br /> adversaries are rarely alluded to. These I con-<br /> ceive to be those familiars of the inquisition<br /> who, while keeping out of sight themselves,<br /> superintend and direct the tortures that are in-<br /> flicted on the uphappy aspirants to literary fame.<br /> I mean the readers employed by the publishers<br /> to judge the manuscripts. These are “the gods<br /> who kill and make alive ”—for is it not often a<br /> matter of life and death to a poor author, whether<br /> his work is accepted or rejected P—and the blow<br /> is struck in secret, we never see the hand by<br /> which it is dealt. An author seeks an interview<br /> with a publisher, and is somewhat reassured in<br /> his trepidation by the kindness of the suave<br /> gentleman who, in spite of a preoccupied look<br /> which he cannot quite suppress, receives him<br /> politely, and listens to him with attention, taking<br /> the MS. from his hand, and laying it carefully<br /> on his own particular table, before he graciously<br /> bows his visitor out. The author, if he or she be<br /> young, goes away more happily, fondly cherishing<br /> the idea that Mr. A. or B.—the publisher—is<br /> going to make an exception in his favour, and<br /> look at this author’s work himself. Alas! how<br /> different is the fate of the unhappy MS.! It<br /> goes we know not whither, to be tried we know<br /> not by whom. The unseen foe that we have to<br /> encounter is omnipotent, from his tribunal there<br /> is no appeal. The reader may be a prejudiced<br /> man, an ignorant man, an interested man,<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> even a dishonest man, but there is none to<br /> call him to account. Surely authors have<br /> some ground of righteous complaint here;<br /> surely the readers, in whose hands all the power<br /> really is, ought to be, like other experts, known<br /> to the public, so that those who refer to them<br /> may feel sure that they will be honestly dealt<br /> with. They should be formed into a separate<br /> association, admitted only after an examination,<br /> so that authors may no longer feel that their<br /> works—which, perhaps, is the only property they<br /> possess, and which means often their very life-<br /> blood itself—is not being judged by incompetent _<br /> or prejudiced persons who are acting only in the<br /> interests of the one publisher whom they serve.<br /> Surely, considering the fact that authorship is<br /> a calling involving great responsibility and<br /> great anxiety, with but small reward, except in<br /> few cases, those who are treading its thorny<br /> path ought to feel assured that their work<br /> will be honourably and justly dealt with by<br /> persons fully qualified and competent to form a<br /> right judgment as to its merits and its value.<br /> L. C. Sry.<br /> <br /> [The writer must remember that a reader who<br /> passed. by or rejected good work would very soon<br /> cease to be a reader. ‘That is to say, a reader—<br /> even the best reader—may make a mistake, but<br /> such incompetence, or neglect, or malignity as<br /> our writer imagines, is not conducive to the<br /> interests of a publishing house and would not be<br /> endured.—Ep. |<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> IT.<br /> Grorce Evior AND RESPECTABILITY.<br /> <br /> In his interesting paper on “ The Profession of<br /> Letters,” in the July number of the Author, does<br /> not Mr. Besant somewhat exceed the mark when<br /> he says that George Eliot’s “ whole life was a<br /> protest against respectability ?”<br /> <br /> There are some female writers—notably Georges<br /> Sand—whose life and writings amply justify such<br /> a description. But, notwithstanding her connec-<br /> tion with Mr. Lewes, I have never regarded<br /> George Eliot as one who delighted to outrage<br /> public opinion ; nor do I think that she wished<br /> her example to be regarded by others as a prece-<br /> dent. Her connection with Mr. Lewes seems to<br /> to have been the result of exceptional circum-<br /> stances in her environment, rather than the pro-<br /> duct of natural character.<br /> <br /> Georges Sand held peculiar views upon mar-<br /> riage, deliberately acted upon them, and sought<br /> to justify them through the medium of her<br /> novels.<br /> <br /> George Eliot, I think, wished so far as possible<br /> to ignore her anomalous position. She desired<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> I a Sag ce<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> in all respects to be treated ag Mr. Lewes’s wife,<br /> and nothing distressed her more than being<br /> addressed as Miss Evans instead of Mrs. Lewes.<br /> It even seems to me that the almost startling and<br /> painful suddenness, with which she entered into<br /> marriage after Mr. Lewes’s death may be traced<br /> to her keen susceptibility concerning the position<br /> in which she had been placed by that death.<br /> <br /> Again, with her religious opinions; though<br /> she held views upon religion that, when held by<br /> a woman, were considered a few years ago to be<br /> less “‘ respectable ” than they are rapidly growing<br /> to be now, yet in no sense can she be described<br /> as openly inculcating them. They were studiously<br /> ignored in her novels—somewhat too much SO, as<br /> I venture to think.<br /> <br /> I have often regretted that one who could<br /> draw so sympathetically and finely the characters<br /> of the Methodist Dinah Morris and the Catholic<br /> Savanarola should not have devoted time to the<br /> delineation of a character holding views similar<br /> to her own. It seems to me that her susceptibi-<br /> lity about her position may have made her<br /> anxious to do nothing further to outrage public<br /> opinion, and thus rendered her less courageous in<br /> her convictions than she would otherwise have<br /> been. So far from holding revolutionary views<br /> upon marriage, I agree with Mr. Hutton that<br /> “in story after story, she attempted to impress<br /> upon others the absolute sacredness of the rela-<br /> tions to which her own action had apparently<br /> shown her to be indifferent.”<br /> <br /> Would one whose “whole life was a protest<br /> against respectability ” have thought it necessary<br /> to do this?<br /> <br /> Aug. 7. C. E. Puumerre.<br /> <br /> [I should be sorry, indeed, to say one word in<br /> disrespect of George Eliot. But I have always<br /> understood her open, unconcealed connection<br /> with G. H. Lewes to mean a defiance of the laws<br /> and conventions which govern the world in the<br /> matter of marriage. In that sense, if I am right,<br /> it was a long “protest against respectability.”<br /> But, if I am wrong, Iam most willing to be put<br /> right, and therefore I publish Mr. Plumptre’s<br /> remonstrance without hesitation.—W. B.]<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> IV.<br /> Tue Sweating or AvtHors.<br /> <br /> Mr. R. H. Sherard complains, with reason, of<br /> the sweating to which translators are subjected ;<br /> but, as a writer of original matter, my case—and<br /> that of hundreds of others no doubt—is little<br /> better. For short stories, of between three and<br /> four thousand words, I receive one guinea (less<br /> percentage), my remuneration being thus about a<br /> <br /> 139<br /> <br /> halfpenny a line. On the whole, I think the<br /> translator is the better paid of the two, for he<br /> has not to wear out his brains trying to hit on<br /> novel subjects. His work is more or less<br /> mechanical, and demands little thought. Truly<br /> it is no wonder we should all have periodical fits<br /> of discouragement. The wonder is that the<br /> periodicity does not merge in continuity.<br /> <br /> H. R. G.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> V.<br /> Reviewine.<br /> <br /> In the current number of the Author Mr.<br /> Sherard concludes an article with some remarks<br /> on the inappropriateness (I will not use a word of<br /> a different shade—impropriety) of one author<br /> reviewing the work of another.<br /> <br /> Now, if an author should be forbidden to eriti-<br /> cise the book of his brother, how much more is<br /> he falsely and meretriciously employed in acting<br /> as a publishers’ reader, standing at the very<br /> fountain head, and either letting pass, or im-<br /> peding, work that should flow to the public for<br /> them to taste. How entirely wrong is it that<br /> an author—who must of nature (he must be<br /> greatly ignorant of the history of literature<br /> who does not know this) be a creature of the<br /> strongest prejudices—should be arbiter as to<br /> what order of, or predilection in, literature shall<br /> reach the public, and be in a position to colour,<br /> to a vast extent, the work set before us.<br /> <br /> I believe we have sufficient record that the<br /> very greatest and most illustrious of English<br /> writers have left behind them abundant instances<br /> of such prejudices. I would ask, what would<br /> have resulted had Johnson been a publisher’s<br /> reader? I do not think he would have let us<br /> have Sterne or Fielding. I do not think Sterne<br /> would have let us have Johnson. I do not think<br /> Byron would have permitted Wordsworth. I<br /> think Scott would have allowed a flood of rather<br /> mawkish stuff. We have seen how Milman tried<br /> to squelch Keats, as a critic—what would he<br /> have done as a publisher’s reader of his work ?<br /> <br /> The fact is, the author is, and must be, ever-<br /> more particularly narrow in his vein of ideas—<br /> he cannot have the insight into, the genuine<br /> toleration for, other work that a perfectly im-<br /> partial publisher’s reader should have.<br /> <br /> INGENUE.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> VI.<br /> Tue Pousuic Taste.<br /> <br /> I wonder if it is true (as we are constantly<br /> assured) that there is always a remunerative<br /> market for good literary work, no matter what its<br /> genre may be.<br /> <br /> <br /> 140 THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> About two years ago I wrote a “ study,” which<br /> the publishers were kind enough to tell me was<br /> extremely clever, and which they would have been<br /> only too delighted to bring out had they been in<br /> Paris, but that the book (which I must hasten to<br /> add was not the least improper) would not do for<br /> England. It hadn’t swing enough. It was with-<br /> out the elements of popularity.<br /> <br /> I, therefore, entirely rewrote it; trying<br /> to work it up (I daren’t say down) to the<br /> public taste. And now they write again as<br /> follows :<br /> <br /> “T have carefully reread (your MS.) and have<br /> reluctantly come to the conclusion that it is stilla<br /> work which the English novel reader would fail<br /> altogether to appreciate. You have certainly<br /> improved the story by making it less diffuse and<br /> giving it more plot; but it is still much too<br /> delicate and much too subtle for English tastes. I<br /> should have-greatly liked to accept the book if I<br /> had been able to anticipate any success for it ; but<br /> there is really no place in this country for work of<br /> this kind.”<br /> <br /> T don’t in the least complain of the publishers,<br /> andif the book would have no sale they are only<br /> acting rightly in refusing it. I am writing this<br /> merely to ask if it be true that the English public<br /> are so narrow as to neglect work because it is<br /> “ delicate and subtle,’ and whether there is, there-<br /> fore, really “no place in this country for work of<br /> thiskind” ? If this be so (and I, myself, cer-<br /> tainly think it is), howand what must I write in<br /> future ? If it be not so; what shall I do with my<br /> MS.?<br /> <br /> An INEXPERIENCED AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Vil.<br /> AvtHOoR AND EpITorR.<br /> <br /> “M. B.” writes: “An author forwards a MS.<br /> accompanied by an envelope directed and stamped<br /> to the tune of 2d. or 3d. He receives back the<br /> MS. torn and dirty, perforated with pins and<br /> tacks, not in the envelope sent for the protection<br /> of his property, but in a rolled wrapper of skimpy<br /> dimensions, and stamped to half the amount sent<br /> by him for postage.” He goes on to say that, if<br /> this is the general practice, somebody must make<br /> aw nice little addition to his salary by the differ-<br /> ence in the postage.<br /> <br /> He points out further that, so long as the MS.<br /> is the author’s property, no one has the right to<br /> make marks or remarks on the pages.<br /> <br /> Perhaps there are editors and editors, those<br /> who treat the contributor with courtesy and those<br /> who treat him as if he were a mendicant. The<br /> latter, let us hope, are the exceptions.<br /> <br /> VIII.<br /> TRANSFER OF Books,<br /> <br /> Tt often happens that a publisher—more<br /> especially one who has not a very large business<br /> —sells the whole or part of his stock to another<br /> publisher without giving any notice of the<br /> transaction to the authors of their publications.<br /> In certain cases this unmannerly proceeding may<br /> not be productive of any harm to the respective<br /> authors, but frequently it may inflict material<br /> loss—when the author has to expect a “ royalty ”<br /> —or cause moral injury or personal annoyance.<br /> It is a well-known fact in the publishing trade<br /> that publishers sometimes purchase the copyright<br /> of books merely with the view of suppressing<br /> them, so that they should not compete with their<br /> older and perhaps more profitable publications.<br /> This is in particular the case with works relating<br /> to special subjects, such as scientific and educa-<br /> tional books, works on art, &amp;c. Now most authors<br /> are not satisfied with the remuneration alone<br /> which they receive, however liberal it may be,<br /> but they want their books to live, as it were, and<br /> to effect some good—which, of course, they<br /> cannot do if silently suppressed.<br /> <br /> It may also be that a publisher disposes of his<br /> stock to a person between whom and the author<br /> of some of the books unfriendly or downright<br /> hostile relations prevail, and the thought that the<br /> productions of his labours should enrich an enemy<br /> of his must be painful to him, however humanely<br /> disposed he may be.<br /> <br /> I beg, therefore, to suggest that the attention<br /> of authors should be called to the advisability of<br /> stipulating in certain cases “that, whenever the<br /> publisher of their books should sell, during their<br /> lifetime, his copyright stock to someone else, they<br /> should be consulted on the matter, and if they<br /> can produce any valid objection, the publisher<br /> should not be allowed to sell the copyright of the<br /> respective books to the person in question.”<br /> <br /> I think that when an author has to expect a<br /> “royalty ” on his works he has, of course, a legal<br /> claim to be consulted about the disposal of his<br /> works, and when he has unfortunately sold the<br /> copyright once for all, he ought at least to retain<br /> a moral veto in the transaction.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ——<br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> “AT THE SIGN OF THE AUTHOR&#039;S HEAD.”<br /> <br /> eat ee<br /> <br /> [We propose for the convenience of members who do<br /> not see all the papers containing literary intelligence, to<br /> compile as complete a list as possible every month. We<br /> shall endeavour to acknowledge the source of our news in<br /> every case; and we must beg our readers to bear in mind<br /> that when no acknowledgment is set down they must credit<br /> us with having received it independently. ]<br /> <br /> NEW novel is about to be produced by<br /> Cecil Cole. It will be called “A Norse-<br /> man’s Wooing.”<br /> <br /> The second edition of Mr. Theodore Bent’s<br /> “Ruined Cities of Mashonaland ” will shortly be<br /> ready. It is chiefly remarkable for additional<br /> notes in the Preface by Professor D. H. Miiller,<br /> of Vienna, and Mr. A. St. Chad Boscawen.<br /> There is also an appendix on the present state of<br /> Mashonalind and the progress it has recently<br /> made, by the secretary of the Chartered Company.<br /> <br /> The Newcastle Daily Journal now devotes<br /> several columns a week to current literature, and<br /> signed articles are written by a member of the<br /> Society of Authors. Books intended for review<br /> or literary notices from authors or publishers<br /> will receive attention if addressed “ Hirondelle,”<br /> Daily Journal Office, Newcastle-on-Tyne.<br /> <br /> With the July number of the Art Amateur<br /> the English supplement will be increased to<br /> eight pages, and, in addition to giving brief<br /> accounts of the chief doings of the Art world in<br /> England, it will contain the first instalment of a<br /> serial story, entitled “A Cruel Dilemma,” by<br /> Mary H. Tennyson. This story describes the<br /> struggles of an art amateur who is suddenty<br /> thrown entirely on her own resources. Her art<br /> difficulties are great, and her ignorance of the<br /> world leads her into many perilous positions.<br /> <br /> Messrs. J. EH. Nixon and E. H. C. Smith, of<br /> King’s College, Cambridge, are about to produce<br /> a Book of Parallel Verse Extracts (Latin), being<br /> extracts for Verse Composition for Higher Forms,<br /> with Prefaces on Idioms and Metres. Macmillan<br /> (pp. Ixxxvilit152). 5s. 6d.<br /> <br /> The poem addressed by Mowbray Marras to<br /> Arrigo Boito, which appeared in our July number,<br /> is quoted in the Gazzetta Musicale of Milan otf<br /> the 6th August, together with an Italian trans-<br /> lation and a eulvgistic paragraph, referring in<br /> flattering terms to the English author.<br /> <br /> The Rey. Professor Momerie sailed for Canada<br /> from Liverpool on Aug. 24, en route for Chicago,<br /> to attend the great International Church<br /> Congress which is to be held in September. Dr,<br /> Momerie has been appointed a member of the<br /> Council. He will read a paper on Theism,<br /> <br /> 141<br /> <br /> Mr. H. Johnson, editor of “On Sledge and<br /> Horseback to Outcast Siberian Lepers,” which<br /> has already reached a fifth edition, and a popular<br /> edition being now in the press, is preparing a<br /> short “ Life of Miss Kate Marsden.” The volume<br /> will be published simultaneously in England and<br /> America, the Record Press, Limited, 376, Strand,<br /> London, WC., being the publishers in this<br /> country.<br /> <br /> The second edition of a Treatise on *‘ Dynamics,”<br /> by W. H. Besant, Se.D., F.R.S., has just been<br /> published by Messrs. Bell and Sons. Many<br /> improvements on the first edition have been<br /> effected by careful re-arrangements and con-<br /> siderable additions.<br /> <br /> A play from the pen of Mr. F. H. Cliffe is in<br /> the press, and will shortly be published by Messrs.<br /> Remington and Co.<br /> <br /> “ Four Centuries After; or, How I Discovered<br /> Europe,” by Ben Holt, published in New York,<br /> is a fairly amusing book of modern travel in<br /> Europe. It is, however, lacking in sustained<br /> interest, and the humour does not flow with suffi-<br /> cient strength to carry the reader to the end.<br /> “The Discovery of Europe” does not throw any<br /> new light either on the aborigines of that conti-<br /> nent or their manners and customs.<br /> <br /> A four-act play of serious interest, by Charles<br /> Thomas and Walter Ellis, entitled “Troubled<br /> Waters,” has been purchased by the American<br /> actress Miss Frances Drake, who preposes to<br /> make it the leading feature of her coming season<br /> in the United States. The play will probably be<br /> presented in London next year. Miss Drake has<br /> for the past few seasons played all the leading<br /> parts in one of Daniel Frohman’s companies, and<br /> is said to be an actress possessed of unusual<br /> emotional powers.<br /> <br /> “The Transgression of Terence Clancy ” is the<br /> title of the new novel, in 3 vols., by Harold<br /> Vallings, author of ‘The Quality of Mercy,” &amp;c.<br /> The publishers will be Bentley and Son.<br /> <br /> Mr. F. Bayford Harvcison is taking a new de-<br /> parture in the shape of a novel, which will be<br /> published early in the autumn by Messrs. Hurst<br /> and Blackett.<br /> <br /> “ Who Wants Home Rule?” The question is<br /> answered in blank verse in six pages. There is<br /> no author’s name ; but as the brochure advertises<br /> other works by William Alfred Gibbs, it is rea-<br /> sonable to suppose Mr. Gibbs is also the author<br /> of these lines, which are at least vigorous,<br /> <br /> The title of Mr. J. HE. Muddock’s forthcoming<br /> novel, to be published by George Newnes<br /> Limited in the autumn, is “Only a Woman’s<br /> Heart.”<br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> i<br /> i<br /> 1<br /> tt<br /> |<br /> 4<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |<br /> {<br /> <br /> |<br /> i<br /> |<br /> |<br /> |<br /> <br /> 142<br /> <br /> A few days ago, Mr. J. E. Muddock, the nove-<br /> list, who is also known as “ Dick Donovan,” was<br /> presented with a handsome and valuable diamond<br /> ring, by a numerous circle of friends, on the<br /> oceasion of his fiftieth birthday, and as a token<br /> of his many excellent qualities as a man, and his<br /> ability as a writer.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Chatto and Windus have the thir-<br /> teenth volume of the Dick Donovan series of<br /> detective stories in the press, and will issue it<br /> shortly under the title of “Suspicion Aroused.”<br /> Thirteen volumes in something like four years is<br /> not a bad record even for the exhaustless Dick<br /> Donovan.<br /> <br /> A new novel by Annabel Gray, called “A<br /> Spanish Singer,” will appear in Theatricals of<br /> October next.<br /> <br /> “ Verses Grave and Gay,’ is the title of a new<br /> volume of verse, which Mr. F. B. Doveton has<br /> compiled, and which will be published by Mr.<br /> Horave Cox. Many of the pieces included in<br /> this collection are old friends. The dexterity<br /> and effectiveness of Mr. Doveton’s work is well-<br /> known to the readers of the Author. The verses<br /> entitled “The Outcast,’ “Why not Women<br /> Solicitors ?” “Flee the Flask,” “A Melody of<br /> Mars,” and “A Modern Fatima ” (in part), are<br /> reprinted by permission from the P. M. G., and<br /> “Mag on the Moor” and “The Old Fisherman,”<br /> from Bailey’s Magazine.<br /> <br /> Mr. Lawson Johnstone has completed a new<br /> story of adventure entitled “In the Land of the<br /> Golden Plume.” It will be published in October<br /> by W. and R. Chambers.<br /> <br /> Mr. Charles Ashton, of Dinas Mawddy, North<br /> Wales, is performing a useful but laborious task<br /> for his compatriots. This is nothing less than a<br /> complete bibliography of Welsh books, pamph-<br /> lets, periodicals, and newspapers, including books<br /> about Wales in other languages. He intends to<br /> give the title-page in full, with an added note<br /> stating the size, number of pages, and biographi-<br /> cal details. Mr. Ashton is appealing to all who<br /> own Welsh books to send him a list of short<br /> titles, in order that he may mark those about<br /> which he desires fuller information. Nine<br /> thousand entries have already been made.—<br /> Literary World.<br /> <br /> Miss Annie Swan, the novelist, has been<br /> appointed editor of a new magazine for women,<br /> entitled Woman at Home, the first number of<br /> which will appear on September 20th. Illustrated<br /> interviews with women will form a great feature<br /> of the periodical, which will also devote a portion<br /> of its space to the interests of children.—Sé.<br /> James’s Gazette.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Mr. John Southward, author of various books<br /> on printing, has in preparation an entirely new<br /> work for the use of students and practitioners,<br /> entitled “ Typography : a Synopsis of the History<br /> and an Account of the Processes of Letterpress<br /> Printing,” with many original illustrations. The<br /> author has devoted many years to the subject of<br /> printing, and has had considerable experience in<br /> conducting and contributing to trade journals.<br /> Mr. Southward will endeavour to describe the art<br /> in its multitudinous modern developments, as<br /> practised by the best printers of the present day.<br /> —Literary World.<br /> <br /> Miss Hannah Lynch is engaged upon a new<br /> novel dealing with modern French provincial<br /> life. An interesting article from her pen, dealing<br /> with the Spanish dramatist Echegaray—who<br /> may be called the Ibsen of Spain—will appear in<br /> the October number of the Contemporary<br /> Review.<br /> <br /> Mr. Hare’s new book, “The Story of Two<br /> Noble Lives: Charlotte, Countess Canning, and<br /> Louisa, Marchioness of Waterford,” will be<br /> issued in three volumes shortly by Mr. George<br /> Allen. The first volume will shed fresh light on<br /> some obscure points of French history, particu-<br /> larly about the period of the accession of Louis<br /> Philippe. The second volume will contain some<br /> interesting particulars of the Indian Mutiny, and<br /> of Lord Canning’s experiences and trials as<br /> Governor-General of India; while the last volume<br /> will deal chiefly with matters of personal interest<br /> connected with the life of Lady Waterford.—St.<br /> James’s Gazette.<br /> <br /> A new book of travel, entitled “In Search of<br /> a Climate,’ by Charles G. Nottage, LL.B.,<br /> F.R.G.S., will be published in the early autumn<br /> by Messrs. Sampson Low, Marston and Co. It<br /> will deal chiefly with the Sandwich Islands and<br /> Southern California; and will give various data<br /> relating to the different health resorts of the<br /> world. The author was in Honolulu during the<br /> Revolution, and the true state of affairs as<br /> between Queen Liliuokalani and the American<br /> Minister will be given. Ina chapter on Ancient<br /> Hawaii, the author will show that the native idea<br /> of the creation is very similar to that set forth in<br /> Genesis. The book, which should appeal both to<br /> the invalid and traveller, will be illustrated by<br /> over thirty pictures done by the photomezzotype<br /> process.— Westminster Gazette.<br /> <br /> Miss Annie E. Holdsworth, better known by<br /> her pseudonym ‘Max Beresford,’ has written a<br /> serial .story for the, Woman’s Herald, under the<br /> name of “Johanna Traill, spinster.” It is a tale<br /> of modern London life, and deals with the<br /> problem of female work and independence.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 143<br /> <br /> Mrs. Steel, the writer of a number of admirable<br /> sketches of Indian life which have lately appeared<br /> in’ Macmillan’s Magazine, has written a new<br /> volume of stories dealing with phases of Indian<br /> life hitherto undepicted. The book is called<br /> “From the Five Rivers,” and is published by<br /> Mr. Heinemann.<br /> <br /> A collection of biographical, critical, and<br /> topographical sketches entitled “In the Foot-<br /> steps of the Poets,’ to which Professor Masson,<br /> Mr. R. H. Hutton, the Bishop of Ripon, and<br /> others have contributed, will be published next<br /> month by Messrs. Isbister. The same publishers<br /> will also bring out a volume dealing with the<br /> English cathedrals, to which Archdeacon Farrar,<br /> Canon Fremantle, and others have contributed.<br /> Mr. Herbert Railton has illustrated the book.<br /> <br /> Dr. J. Woodward, says the Daily Chronicle,<br /> has just completed a book on “ Ecclesiastical<br /> Heraldry,” with numerous emblazoned and other<br /> plates, which will shortly be published by Messrs.<br /> W.and A. K. Johnstone.<br /> <br /> We are glad to observe that Mr. Walter Low’s<br /> admirably written and accurate little book on the<br /> “ English Language ” has just gone into a second<br /> and larger edition. Though primarily intended<br /> for London University students, its scholarship<br /> makes it something more than a text-book, and<br /> it will be found of use by every literary man who<br /> knows less about the English language than he<br /> should. The book is published by Messrs. Cave<br /> and Co.<br /> <br /> “Bay Ronald,” a novel by Miss May Crom-<br /> melin, has just been published by Messrs. Hurst<br /> and Blackett. The scene is laid in Kent; time,<br /> the end of the last century up to the date of<br /> Waterloo. All the scenery is copied from a well-<br /> known moated house in Kent.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> es<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Theology.<br /> <br /> Hicxiz, W. J. Greek-English Lexicon to the New Testa-<br /> ment, after the latest and best authorities. Macmillan.<br /> <br /> THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE BIBLE AND THE Koran.<br /> Watts and Co.<br /> <br /> History and Biography.<br /> <br /> Apkins, W. Rytanp. Our County. Sketches in Pen and<br /> Ink of Representative Men of Northamptonshire,<br /> Illustrations by W. B. Shoosmith. Elliot Stock.<br /> <br /> Beacu’s Historica, READER. Standard 5-6. W. H.<br /> Allen. 1s. 3d.<br /> <br /> CHUNDER BHOLANAUTH. Raja Digambar Mitra, his Life<br /> and Career. Hare Press, Calcutta.<br /> <br /> Forrest, G. W., B.A. Selections from the Letters,<br /> Despatches, and other State Papers preserved in the<br /> Military Department of the Government of India,<br /> 1857-58. Hdited by. With a map and plans. Vol. 1.<br /> Calentta, Military Department Press, 1893.<br /> <br /> Gasquet, F. Arpan, D.D. Henry VIII. and the English<br /> Monasteries. Parts xv. and xvi. John Hodges, Agar-<br /> street, W.C. 2s.<br /> <br /> Ty Memoriam: Georce HERBERT. A collection of papers<br /> relating to the parish of Bemerton. Salisbury.<br /> Edward Roe and Co.<br /> <br /> Macxintuay, Rev. J. B. Saint Edmund: King and Martyr.<br /> A history of his life and times; with an account of<br /> the translations of his incorrupt body, &amp;c., from<br /> original MSS. London and Leamington Art and Book<br /> Company. New York, Cincinnati, and Chicago.<br /> Benziger Bros. tos. 6d.<br /> <br /> Mauuxson, Coronet G. B. Lord Clive, and the Establish-<br /> ment of the English in India. (Rulers of India Series,<br /> edited by Sir W. W. Hunter.) Oxford, at the Claren-<br /> don Press. London: Henry Frowde. 2s. 6d.<br /> <br /> Marsuam, J. C. Abridgment of the History of India.<br /> Third edition, with map. Blackwood, 6s.<br /> <br /> Moserty, G. Hersert. Life of William of Wykeham.<br /> Second and enlarged edition, published for the quin-<br /> gentenary celebration. Winchester: Warren and Son.<br /> London: Simpkin and Co. Limited.<br /> <br /> SANDoRN, F. B., anp Harris, W. T. A. Bronson Alcott:<br /> His Life and Philosophy. 2 vols. T. Fisher Unwin.<br /> <br /> TopuuntTeER, Isaac. A History of the Theory of Elasti-<br /> city and of the Strength of Materials from Galilei to<br /> the Present Time, by the late Isaac Todhunter, D.Sc.,<br /> F.R.S., edited and completed for the Syndics of the<br /> University Press by Karl Pearson,.M.A. Vol. II.<br /> Parts I. and II. Cambridge, at the University Press.<br /> <br /> Weir, Preston. The Invaders of Britain. An Intro-<br /> duction to the Study of British History. J. Baker<br /> and Son, Clifton. Simpkin, Marshall.<br /> <br /> WeLcH, CHARLES, F.S.A. History of the Monument.<br /> Published under the authority of the City Lands Com-<br /> mittee of the Corporation of the City of London.<br /> Is. 6d.<br /> <br /> General Literature,<br /> <br /> ABERDEEN, THE CouNTESs or. Through Canada with a<br /> Kodak. Edinburgh: W. H. White and Co.<br /> <br /> AnnUAL REpoRT oF THE SANITARY COMMISSIONER<br /> WITH THE GOVERNMENT oF INDIA, 1891. Calcutta,<br /> office of the Superintendent of Government Printing.<br /> 5 rupees.<br /> <br /> BarDEKuR’s SWITZERLAND, and the adjacent portions of<br /> Italy, Savoy, and the Tyrol, with thirty-nine maps,<br /> twelve plans, and twelve panoramas. 15th edition.<br /> London: Dulau. 8 marks.<br /> <br /> BaRTHOLOMEW, J. Plan of Bournemouth, with Environs.<br /> New and revised edition, on cloth. W.H. Smith and<br /> Son, ts.<br /> <br /> Bent, J. THeoporn, F.S.A. The Ruined Cities of Mashona-<br /> land, being a Record of Excavation and Exploration in<br /> 1891, with a chapter on the Orientation and Mensura-<br /> tion of the Temples, by R. M. W. Swan, new edition.<br /> Longmans. 7s. 6d.<br /> <br /> Brrp, Rey. A. Ryper. Boating in Bavaria, Austria, and<br /> Bohemia, Down the Danube, Moldau, and Elbe.<br /> Simpkin, Marshall. 6s.<br /> <br /> Boot’s District GuipEr To Lonpon, 6d.; issued with the<br /> authority of the District Railway Company; A B C<br /> Holiday Guide and Hotel, Boarding-house, and Apart-<br /> ment Directory, 3d.; The Thames from Hampton<br /> Court to Clacton, Harwich, Margate, and Ramsgate,<br /> SS ES ET Se<br /> <br /> Si SSS PSL RLS ENA OER ne<br /> <br /> 144 THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> official guide of the Victoria Steamboat Association<br /> Limited. Boot and Co., 24, Old Baily, E.C. 2d.<br /> <br /> Bramston, A.R., AND Leroy, A.C. A City of Memories,<br /> With a preface by the Lord Bishop of Winchester.<br /> Etchings and illustrations by W. B. Roberts, S.P.E.<br /> Winchester, P. and G. Wells; London, David Nutt.<br /> 5s. net.<br /> <br /> BusHevy, Rev. W. Dons. Harrow Octocentenary Tracts,<br /> II. Wulfred and Cwoenthryth. Camb.: Macmillan<br /> and Bowes. Is.<br /> <br /> Catutius. Edited by Elmer Truesdell Merrill, Rich<br /> Professor of Latin in Wesleyan University. (College<br /> Series of Latin Authors). Boston, U.S.A., and London :<br /> Ginn and Co.<br /> <br /> CurLp, Jacop 8. The Pearl of Asia: Reminiscences of the<br /> Court of a Supreme Monarch; or, Five Years in Siam.<br /> Kegan Paul. os. 6d.<br /> <br /> Cooke, C. W. Rapcurrre, M.P. Four Years in Parliament<br /> with Hard Labour. Third edition. Cassells. Is.<br /> <br /> “ Drvia Hrpernis.” The Road and Route Guide for Ireland<br /> of the Royal Irish Constabulary. Compiled and<br /> edited by George A. de M. Edwin Dagg, D.I., of the<br /> Royal Irish Constabulary. Dublin: Hodges, Figgis,<br /> and Co. Limited.<br /> <br /> Durr, E.Gorpon. Early Printed Books. Kegan Paul. 6s.net.<br /> <br /> Exsersoup, F. Illustrated Europe Series, Nos. 155, 156,<br /> 157, and 158; Through the Bernese Oberland. With<br /> seventy-six illustrations and a map. Zurich: Art.<br /> Institut Orell Fussli. 52s.<br /> <br /> EHRENBERG, Fritz. Illustrated Europe: Hohwald and<br /> its Environs in the Vosges Mountains. With twenty-<br /> three illustrations by J. Weber, a map, and “ Hohwald<br /> Indicator.” Published by the Art. Institut Orell,<br /> Fussli, Zurich. 6d.<br /> <br /> Fow ier, G. Hersert. The Conditions for successful<br /> Oyster Culture. Dulau and Co. 4d.<br /> <br /> GARDNER, Pror. Percy, Litt. D. Catalogue of Greek<br /> Vases in the Ashmolean Museum. Frowde. £3 33.<br /> <br /> Grsps, Henry H. A Colloquy on Currency. ts. London:<br /> Effingham Wilson. Manchester: J. EH. Cornish.<br /> <br /> Gipson, Herspert. The History and Present State of the<br /> Sheep-breeding Industry in the Argentine Republic.<br /> Ravenscroft and Mills.<br /> <br /> Griec, JonHn. Scots Minstrelsie: A National Monument<br /> of Scottish Song. Edited and arranged by. Vol. 3.<br /> Edinburgh: T. C. and E. C. Jack.<br /> <br /> GuipE To Ben Nevis, with an account of the foundation<br /> and work of the Metrological Observatory. 1s. John<br /> Menzies and Co., Edinburgh and Glasgow.<br /> <br /> GwyNnepp, Mapoc Owen. Madoc; an essay on the dis-<br /> covery of America in the 12th century. By Thomas<br /> Stephena. Edited by Llywarch Reynolds, B.A. (Oxon).<br /> Longmans. 7s. 6d.<br /> <br /> Hacearp, F.T. Strikes versus Supply and Demand, and<br /> Live and Learn. Tunbridge-wells, Courier Printing<br /> and Publishing Company.<br /> <br /> Here, Hernricu. The Works of Heinrich Heine. Vol. 4.<br /> The Salon ; or Letters on Art, Music, Popular Life, and<br /> Politics. Translated by Chas. Godfrey Leland (Hans<br /> Breitmann). Heinemann. 5s.<br /> <br /> Hougarr, CLuirroRD W. Winchester Commoners, 1800-<br /> 1835. An index of the surnames of commoners given<br /> in the “Lacy Rolls” of Winchester College for the<br /> years 1800 to 1835 inclusive. With introduction and<br /> notes. ts. net. Salisbury, Brown and Co. ; Winchester,<br /> P. and G. Wells; London, Simpkin, Marshall, and Co.<br /> <br /> Hupson, W. H. Birds in a Village. 7s. 6d. Chapman<br /> and Hall.<br /> <br /> InLustRATED OrFiciAL HANDBOOK OF THE CAPE AND<br /> SoutH Arrica: A Resumé of the History, Conditions,<br /> <br /> ,<br /> <br /> Populations, Productions, and Resources of the several<br /> Colonies, States, and Territories. Edited by John<br /> Noble. Cape Town and Johannesburg, J. C. Juta<br /> and Co.<br /> <br /> INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY OF GREAT BRITAIN AND<br /> TRELAND. ReG@uLATIONS FoR ADMISSION TO MeEm-<br /> BERSHIP AND ReGisTeR. Issued by order of the<br /> Council. Is.<br /> <br /> JENKINSON’S PRACTICAL GUIDE TO THE ENGLIsH LAKES,<br /> 9th edition, revised and edited by the Rev. H. D.<br /> Rawnsley, M.A., and Thos. Bakewell, with maps and<br /> views. Stanford. 6s.<br /> <br /> Jorpan, W. L. The Standard of Value. Fifth edition.<br /> Longmans.<br /> <br /> Kina, Cuarurs. Love in the Woods: a Rustic Idyll, con-<br /> taining 100 hidden names of trees and woods. King. 2d.<br /> <br /> Kina, Cuaries. Riding, the Use and Misuse of Reins and<br /> Stirrups. Fifteen illustrations. Fourth edition. King.<br /> 2d.<br /> <br /> Lane, ANDREW, M.A. Custom and Myth. Longmans.<br /> 38. Od.<br /> <br /> Lester, EpwarD. The Story of Abibal, the Tsourian. Trans-<br /> lated from the Pheenician by. Preceded by an account<br /> of the finding of the manuscript by Emily Watson.<br /> Edited by Val. C. Prinsep, A.R.A. Smith Elder.<br /> <br /> Low’s HANDBOOK TO THE CHARITIES OF LONDON, giving<br /> the objects, date of formation, office, &amp;c., of over a<br /> thousand Charitable Institutions, revised according to<br /> the latest reports. Sampson Low, Marston. 1s. 6d.<br /> <br /> Narurauist’s Map or Scornanp. By J. A. Harvie-<br /> Brown and J. G. Bartholomew. J. Bartholomew and<br /> Co. 3s. 6d.<br /> <br /> NeEILson, GeorGE. Peel: Its Meaning and Derivation. Re-<br /> printed from the Transactions of the Glasgow Archzxo-<br /> logical Society. Glasgow, Strathern and Freeman.<br /> <br /> Norman, J. H. A Ready Reckoner of the World’s<br /> ‘xchanges. Sampson Low.<br /> <br /> OFFICIAL GUIDE TO THE SCARBOROUGH AND WHITBY<br /> Raitway Coast Rovutsr. Scarborough, Alexander<br /> Wilson, 29, Falsgrave-road.<br /> <br /> OrricrAL HanpBookK oF THE NATIONAL ARTILLERY<br /> ASSOCIATION, 1893. Issued by order of the Council.<br /> J. J. Keliher and Co., 33, King William-street.<br /> <br /> On THE DisTRIBUTION OF RAIN OVER THE BRITISH<br /> IsLES DURING THE YEAR 1892, as observed at nearly<br /> 3000 stations in Great Britain and Ireland, with<br /> articles upon various branches of rainfall work, com-<br /> piled by G. J. Symons, F.R.S., and H. Sowerby Wallis,<br /> F.R.Met.Soc.<br /> <br /> Pamety, Cates. The Colliery Manager&#039;s Handbook.<br /> Containing nearly 500 plans, diagrams, and other illus-<br /> trations. Second edition, revised, with additions.<br /> Crosby Lockwood.<br /> <br /> PHotograpHy ANNUAL FoR 1893. A compendium of<br /> information and statistics of the year. Edited by Hy.<br /> Sturmey. Iliffe and Son, 3, St. Bride-street. H.C.<br /> <br /> Rozortom, ArTHuR. Travels in Search of New Trade<br /> Products. Jarrold and Sons. Paper covers. Is. net.<br /> <br /> Roya CononraL InstituTE: REPORT OF PROCREDINGS.<br /> Edited by the Secretary. Vol. xxiv., 1892-93. Pub-<br /> lished by the Institute.<br /> <br /> Roya UNIVERSITY oF IRELAND EXAMINATION PAPERS,<br /> 1892. A Supplement to the University Calendar for<br /> the year 1893. Dublin, Alex. Thom and Co.<br /> <br /> Speru, G. W. Whatis Freemasonry? George Kenning,<br /> 16 and 16a, Great Queen-street, W.C.<br /> <br /> Tus Bapminton Lisrary—Swimmine. By Archibald<br /> Sinclair and William Henry, with illustrations by S. T.<br /> Dadd and from photographs by G. Mitchell. Large<br /> paper copy. 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Cambridge, at the University<br /> Press.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> respec<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> ADVERTISEMENTS.<br /> <br /> 147<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> NEW NOVEL BY JAMES PAYN.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> AT ALL THE LIBRARIES, BOOKSELLERS’,<br /> AND BOOKSTALLS.<br /> <br /> In 2 vols., crown 8vo., cloth extra, price 21s.<br /> <br /> A STUMBLE ON<br /> <br /> sy<br /> <br /> THE THRESHOLD,<br /> <br /> TAT es PFPAY WN.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.<br /> <br /> THE TIMES:<br /> <br /> ‘‘Mr. James Payn’s pleasant story contains a startling<br /> novelty. - The leading actors are a group of<br /> undergraduates of Cambridge University. Mr. Payn’s<br /> picture of University society is frankly exceptional.<br /> Exceptional, if not unique, is the ‘nice little college’ of<br /> St. Neot’s. Cambridge men will have little difficulty in<br /> recognising this snug refuge of the ‘ploughed.’ . . .<br /> An ingenious plot, clever characters, and, above all, a<br /> plentiful seasoning of genial wit. The uxorious<br /> master of St. Neot’s is charmingly conceived. If only for<br /> his reminiscences of his deceased wives, ‘A Stumble on<br /> the Threshold’ deserves to be treasured. . . . We<br /> turn over Mr. Payn’s delightful pages, so full of surprises<br /> and whimsical dialogue. Bae<br /> <br /> DaILy NEws:<br /> <br /> “The dramatic story is told with an excellent wit. It<br /> abounds in lively presentation of character and in shrewd<br /> Sayings concerning life and manners. That study of<br /> mankind which is ‘man’ has furnished a liberal educa-<br /> tion to this genial humorist. The men and women he<br /> pourtrays move before us, as do our friends and<br /> acquaintances, distinct individualities, yet each possessed<br /> of that reserve of mystery a touch of which in the<br /> delineation of human nature, is more convincing than<br /> pages of analysis. Needham, Fellow of St.<br /> Neot’s, Cambridge—simple, loyal, gently independent—is<br /> a beautiful study. The story alternates in its setting<br /> between Bournemouth, Cambridge, and some charming<br /> spots near the Thames. The description of life in the<br /> Alma Mater on the banks of the Cam gives Mr. Payn<br /> opportunities for humorous sketches of professors and<br /> students, and he shows himself in the light of an excellent<br /> raconteur. This part of the narrative furnishes some<br /> delightful reading; we seem to be listening to the best<br /> talk, incisive, racy, and to the point. Space will not<br /> allow us to quote some of the wise and witty sayings,<br /> tinged it may be with cynicism, which are the outcome of<br /> Mr, Payn’s philosophy of life, and which are not the least<br /> entertaining part of this attractive novel.”<br /> <br /> DAILY CHRONICLE:<br /> <br /> ‘*Mr. James Payn is here quite at his usual level all<br /> through, and that level is quite high enough to please<br /> most people. The character drawing is good.<br /> The story of the master sounds strangely like truth.<br /> <br /> A book to read distinctly.”<br /> <br /> DAILY GRAPHIO,<br /> <br /> ‘ . . . The dramatic unity of time, place, and cir-<br /> ‘cumstance has never had a more novel setting. »<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> SATURDAY REVIEW:<br /> ‘*A very interesting story, and one that excels in clever<br /> contrast of character and close study of individualism.<br /> : The characters make the impression of reality on<br /> the reader. : Extremely pleasant are the sketches<br /> of University life.”<br /> <br /> THE WORLD:<br /> “The most.sensational story which the author has<br /> written since his capital novel, ‘By Proxy.’<br /> Never flags for a moment.”<br /> <br /> BIACK AND WHITE.<br /> <br /> “ . . . Ingenious and Original. Mr. Payn knows<br /> how to invent and lead up to a mystery.”<br /> <br /> LEEDS MERCURY:<br /> <br /> ‘“Three more distinctive characters have, perhaps,<br /> never been drawn by Mr. James Payn than in Walter<br /> Blythe, Robert Grey, and George Needham, Cambridge<br /> undergraduates, who figure prominently in ‘A Stumble<br /> on the Threshold.’”<br /> <br /> GLASGOW HERALD:<br /> <br /> “. , . . Mr. Payn’s latest invention in sensational<br /> episode; but wild horses will not drag from us a<br /> statement of the mystery. It is new and thoroughly<br /> original, and worthy of the ingenuity of the loser of Sir<br /> Massingberd.”<br /> <br /> BATLEY REPORTER:<br /> <br /> “. . . . Is most attractive reading.”<br /> <br /> HAMPSHIRE TELEGRAPH AND CHRONICLE:<br /> <br /> ‘*Mr, James Payn’s latest story, ‘A Stumble on the<br /> Threshold,’ which has been the chief attraction in the<br /> ‘ Queen’ during the last few months—where, by the way,<br /> it was most admirably illustrated—has just been issued<br /> in two handsome vols. by Mr. Horace Cox. The story is<br /> written in Mr. Payn’s happiest vein; it sparkles with wit,<br /> the characters are most unconventional, and the old, old<br /> theme is worked out on quite novel lines.”<br /> <br /> HEREFORD TIMES<br /> ‘‘ With all their sparkle and gaiety, Mr. Payn’s novels<br /> would not be complete without the dread Nemesis,<br /> mysterious in operation, and casting suspicion for a<br /> time on every side but the right one. The novel is<br /> thoroughly attractive, and a credit to the practised hand<br /> which penned it.”<br /> THE OBSERVER:<br /> <br /> “6... 6s a characteristic story, remarkably<br /> quietly told, always pleasing and satisfying, and pro-<br /> viding a startling incident at a moment when everything<br /> seems serene.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> London: HORACE COX, Windsor House, Bream’s Buildings, E.C.<br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 148<br /> <br /> ADVERTISEMENTS.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> MESDAMES BRETT &amp; BOWSER,<br /> <br /> TYPISTS,<br /> SELBORNE CHAMBERS, BELL YARD, TEMPLE BAR.<br /> <br /> Authors’ MSS. carefully and expeditiously copied, from<br /> 1s. per 1000 words. Extra carbon copies half price. 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A. GOODCHILD.<br /> <br /> pe a<br /> London; Horace Cox, Windsor House, Bream’s-buildings, E.C.<br /> <br /> COX’S<br /> <br /> ARTS OF READING, WRITING, AND SPEAKING.<br /> <br /> LETTERS TO A LAW STUDENT.<br /> By THE DATES MR. SHRIBANT CoO.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> RE-ISSUE (SIXTH THOUSAND).<br /> <br /> PRICE 7s. 6d.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> LONDON: HORACE COX,<br /> <br /> “LAW TIMES” OFFICE, WINDSOR HOUSE, BREAM’S BUILDINGS, E.O.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Printed and Published by Horace Cox, Windsor House, Bream’s-buildings, London, E.C,	https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/454/1893-09-01-The-Author-4-4.pdf	publications, The Author