| 328 | https://historysoa.com/items/show/328 | The Author, Vol. 09 Issue 12 (May 1899) | <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.+09+Issue+12+%28May+1899%29"><em>The Author</em>, Vol. 09 Issue 12 (May 1899)</a> | | | <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101063829988" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101063829988</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> | 1899-05-01-The-Author-9-12 | | | | | 269–288 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=89&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=9">9</a> | | | | | | | | | | | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=76&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1899-05-01">1899-05-01</a> | | | | | | | 12 | | | 18990501 | XT be Hutbot\<br />
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)<br />
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.<br />
Vol. IX.—No. 12.] MAT 1, 1899. [Price Sixpence.<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 />
they are officially signed by G. Herbert<br />
Thring, Sec.<br />
THE 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. AU remittances should be crossed Union<br />
Bank of London, Chancery-lane, or be sent by registered<br />
letter only. il<br />
Communications and letters are invited by the Editor on<br />
all subjects connected with literature, but on no other sub-<br />
jects whatever. Articles which cannot be accepted are<br />
returned if stamps for the purpose accompany the MSS.<br />
GENERAL MEMORANDA.<br />
FOB some years it has been the practice to insert, in<br />
every number of The Author, certain " General Con-<br />
siderations," Warnings, Notices, &c, for the guidance<br />
of HtB reader. It has been objected as regards these<br />
warnings that the tricks or frauds against which they are<br />
directed cannot all be guarded against, for obvious reasons.<br />
It is, however, well that they should be borne in mind, and<br />
if any publisher refuses a clause of precaution he simply<br />
reveals his true character, and should be left to carry on<br />
his business in his own way.<br />
Let us, however, draw up a few of the rules to be<br />
observed in an agreement. There are three methods of<br />
dealing with literary property:—<br />
I. That of selling it outright.<br />
This is in some respects the most satisfactory, if a proper<br />
price can be obtained. But the transaction should be<br />
managed by a competent agent.<br />
II. A profit-sharing agreement.<br />
In this case the following rule ■ should be attended to:<br />
(1.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro-<br />
duction forms a part.<br />
(2.) Not to give the publisher the power of putting the<br />
profits into his own pocket by charging for advertisements<br />
▼OL. IX.<br />
in his own organs: or by charging exchange advertise-<br />
ments.<br />
(3.) Not to allow a special charge for " office expenses,"<br />
unless the same allowance is made to the author.<br />
(4.) Not to give up American, Colonial, or Continental<br />
rights.<br />
(5.) Not to give up serial or translation rights.<br />
(6.) Not to bind yourself for future work to any publisher.<br />
As well bind yourself for the future to any one solicitor or<br />
doctor!<br />
(7.) To stamp the agreement.<br />
III. The royalty system.<br />
In this system, which has opened the door to a most<br />
amazing amount of overreaching and trading on the<br />
author's ignorance, it is above all things necessary to know<br />
what the proposed royalty means to both sides. It is now<br />
possible for an author to ascertain approximately and very<br />
nearly the truth. From time to time the very important<br />
figures connected with royalties are published in The Author.<br />
Readers can also work out the figures themselves from the<br />
"Cost of Production." Let no one, not even the youngest<br />
writer, sign a royalty agreement without finding out what<br />
it gives the publisher as well as himself.<br />
It has been objected that these precautions presuppose a<br />
great success for the book, and that very few books indeed<br />
attain to this great success. That is quite true: but there is<br />
always this uncertainty of literary property that, although<br />
the works of a great many authors carry with them no risk<br />
at all, and although of a great many it is known within a few<br />
copies what will be their minimum circulation, it is not<br />
known what will be their maximum. Therefore every<br />
author, for every book, should arrange on the chance of a<br />
success which will not, probably, come at all; bnt which<br />
may come.<br />
The four points which the Society has always demanded<br />
from the outset are:—<br />
(1.) That both sides shall know what an agreement<br />
means.<br />
(2.) The inspection of those account books which belong<br />
to the author. We are advised that this is a right, in the<br />
nature of a common law right, which cannot be denied or<br />
withheld.<br />
(3.) That there shall be no seoret profits.<br />
(4.) That nothing shall be charged which has not been<br />
actually paid—for instance, that there shall be no charge for<br />
advertisements in the publisher's own organs and none for<br />
exchanged advertisements, and that all discounts shall be<br />
duly entered.<br />
If these points are carefully looked after, the author may<br />
rest pretty well assured that he is in right hands. At the<br />
same time he will do well to send his agreement to the<br />
secretary before he signs it.<br />
F F 2<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 270 (#282) ############################################<br />
<br />
270 THE AUTHOR.<br />
HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.<br />
I. Ii^ VERY member has a right to ask for and to receive<br />
JjJ advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-<br />
lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his<br />
business or the administration of his property. If, in the<br />
opinion of the Committee and the Solicitors of the Society,<br />
the advice sought is such as can be given best by a solicitor,<br />
the member has a right to an opinion from the Society's<br />
solicitors. If the oase is such that Counsel's opinion is<br />
desirable, the Committee will obtain for him Counsel's<br />
opinion. All this without any cost to the member.<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 scruple<br />
to use the Society first—our solicitors are continually<br />
engaged upon such questions for us.<br />
3. Send to the office copies of past agreements and past<br />
accounts with the loan of the books represented. This is in<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 />
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 />
5. Before signing any agreement whatever, send the pro-<br />
posed document to the Sooiety for examination.<br />
6. The Society is acquainted with the methods, and—in<br />
the oase of fraudulent houses—the tricks of every publish-<br />
ing firm in the country.<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 />
8. Send to the Editor of The Author notes of everything<br />
important to literature that you may hear or meet with.<br />
9. The Committee have now arranged for the reception of<br />
members' agreements and their preservation in a fireproof<br />
safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as con-<br />
fidential documents to be read only by the Secretary, who<br />
will keep the key of the safe. The Sooiety now offers:—(1)<br />
To read and advise upon agreements and publishers. (2) To<br />
stamp agreements in readiness for a possible action upon<br />
them. (3) To keep agreements. (4) To enforce payments<br />
due according to agreements.<br />
NOTICES.<br />
THE 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 oost 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 />
Communications for The Author should reach the Editor<br />
not later than the 21st of each month.<br />
All persons engaged in literary work of any kind,<br />
whether members of the Society or not, are invited to<br />
communicate to the Editor any points connected with then-<br />
work which it would be advisable in the general interest to<br />
publish.<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 oircumstanoea,<br />
undertake the publication of MSS.<br />
The present location of the Authors' Club is at 3, White-<br />
hall-court, Charing Cross. Address the Secretary for<br />
information, rules of admission, &c.<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 />
Members are most earnestly entreated to attend to the<br />
following warning. It is a most foolish and may be a<br />
most disastrous thing to enter into an agreement binding<br />
for a term of years. Let them ask themselves if they<br />
would give a solicitor the collection of their rents for<br />
five years to come, whatever his conduct, whether he<br />
was honest or dishonest? Of course they would not.<br />
Why then hesitate for a moment when they are asked to<br />
sign themselves into literary bondage for three or five<br />
years?<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 clause was inserted three or four years ago.<br />
Estimates have, however, recently been obtained which show<br />
that the figures in the book may be relied on as nearly<br />
correct: as near as is possible.<br />
Some remarks have been made upon the amount charged<br />
in the " Cost of Production" for advertising. Of oourse, 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 />
who practise this method of swelling their own profits call it.<br />
LITERARY PROPERTY.<br />
I. The Copyright Bill.<br />
ON Monday, April 24, Lord Monkswell moved<br />
the second reading of the Bill in the House<br />
of Lords. He related the action of the<br />
Society of Authors in preparing the Bill which<br />
he had himself introduced into the House of<br />
Lords. The death of Lord Herschell was a great<br />
loss to copyright reform, because he had brought<br />
in a large consolidating measure of literary and.<br />
artistic copyright. The Bill was referred, together<br />
with his own, to a Select Committee of Lords.<br />
The Committee held a great many meetings, but<br />
had not completed the evidence. Meanwhile,<br />
another Bill had been prepared by Lord Thring<br />
dealing with literary copyright. This Bill which<br />
he now proposed to read a second time fixed this<br />
term of copyright to the life of the author and<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 271 (#283) ############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
271<br />
thirty years after death: the present law being a<br />
term of the author's life and seven years after, or<br />
forty-two years, whichever should be longer.<br />
The new Bill provided for the dramatisation,<br />
translation, or abridgment of novels: it gave<br />
authors of magazine articles copyright after two<br />
years from the publication of the articles. It<br />
gave copyright in lectures; it gave newspapers<br />
copyright in news for twelve hours after publica-<br />
tion. There were other points which would be<br />
considered in the discussion of the Bill.<br />
It was read a second time and referred to a<br />
Select Committee. iir<br />
II. Walter Savage Landor on Copyright.<br />
A correspondent of the Standard has unearthed<br />
a petition presented to Parliament by Walter<br />
Savage Landor, and published in the Examiner<br />
of April 7, 1839. It is as follows:—<br />
That your petitioner would represent to your Honourable<br />
House his strong persuasion that no property is bo entirely,<br />
and purely, and religiously a man's own as what comes to<br />
him immediately from God, without intervention or partici-<br />
pation. It is the eternal gift of an Eternal Being; and to<br />
interfere in any way with its benefits and blessings appears<br />
to your petitioner unbecoming and unjust.<br />
Your petitioner therefore humbly submits to your<br />
Honourable House that no Legislature has a right to<br />
confine its advantages to a thousand or ten thousand years,<br />
or to give them away to any person or pereons whatsoever, to<br />
the detriment of an author's heirs, after any number of ages.<br />
And your petitioner offers the less reluctantly these<br />
observations to your Honourable House, since he himself<br />
proposes no advantages to his descendants from any of his<br />
literary works, all of whioh he has consigned and left in<br />
perpetuity to the discretion of a learned friend.<br />
III.—Author's Corrections.<br />
As, after many wrestles, T have successfully<br />
bound the "correction" fiend, perhaps the method<br />
evolved may be useful to your readers.<br />
1. Alter the agreement, liefore signing, to<br />
"author's alterations "; corrections may include<br />
printers' errors.<br />
2. Require a free allowance of alterations per<br />
sheet, not an allowance of shillings but of so<br />
many words. I generally ask for about one in<br />
300. Be reasonable, and guarantee that you will<br />
never overrun a page, and promise to break lines<br />
as bttle as possible. You can always save a page<br />
whole, and seldom break more than two lines, if<br />
careful in arranging. I am referring to detailed<br />
scientific works in saying this; imaginative<br />
writers may find more difficulty.<br />
3. Correct and alter in pencil freely on one copy<br />
of proof. Then count words and prune if needful<br />
when inking in on the other copy for the printer.<br />
If you expect trouble use red ink for all your own<br />
alterations, and indorse each sheet with number<br />
of your alterations on it.<br />
4. And now, perhaps, you have exceeded your<br />
allowance at the end of the work. And if you<br />
have but a few words more against you than<br />
agreed on, you will find probably .£5 for correc-<br />
tions put down. Look out the worst page of all;<br />
and see if deducting your alterations there will<br />
bring you within the agreed limit; if not, take<br />
the next worst for alterations also, and so on,<br />
until deducting certain pages squares the agreed<br />
allowance. Then offer to pay for the entire<br />
re-setting of those pages. It is a magnificent<br />
offer; you pay for fifty times the work involved,<br />
and yet it binds the fiend so that he cannot do<br />
entirely as he chooses.<br />
If in course of correcting you want much<br />
alteration in a page—more than a line or two—<br />
dash out the whole page and mark it " Re-set<br />
this page and charge to author." Then it is<br />
impossible to charge you for more than a few<br />
shillings for setting up one page. This method<br />
answers both with publishers and in direct<br />
contracts with printers.<br />
There is another thing to be said. Accustom<br />
yourself to write clean, without needing to alter<br />
MS., and then you are less liable to need altera-<br />
tions in proof. I seldom alter more than one<br />
word in 200 in MS. To do this, begin by a<br />
rule of never trying to write in bad con-<br />
ditions of temperament or surrounding. If<br />
distracted, cold, weary, or dull, you will never<br />
write a clean page, and the correction fiend will<br />
triumph. Often Bitten.<br />
I am much obliged by the Editor's note to my<br />
query on author's corrections. I have kept the<br />
first proofs, as advised by him. My difficulty is<br />
this: Printers often put small letters where<br />
capitals are distinctly indicated in the MS.<br />
They run on where a fresh paragraph is obvious.<br />
Per contra, they leave spaces sometimes when<br />
the directions are to save room. Sometimes the<br />
proof alters the meaning and effect of a para-<br />
graph. This may necessitate an interlineation,<br />
and dislocate a whole page, which, as the Editor<br />
says, takes time, and causes much additional<br />
expense. But must an author be charged with<br />
all this, for at the rates given it mounts up enor-<br />
mously? If an author interlineates owing to<br />
omissions, or erases an unsatisfactory line (as it<br />
seems to him) on appearing in print, I under-<br />
stand he must pay for the luxury, but should he<br />
pay for misplaced or misdivided words, &c.?<br />
A New Member.<br />
IV.—No Author's Corrections.<br />
You have often pointed out how the charge<br />
made for author's corrections can be kept down<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 272 (#284) ############################################<br />
<br />
272<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
by having the MS. type-written. A novel of<br />
mine, "The Passing of Prince Rozan," had to be<br />
"set" and printed in America. To get proofs<br />
over here, revise and return them, would have<br />
caused such a serious delay that I decided to do<br />
without proofs. My MS. was type-written. I<br />
revised it with the greatest care. I further in-<br />
serted a clause in my agreement that the author<br />
would not require proofs, and that the publishers<br />
(Messrs. Putnam's Sons) would use their best<br />
endeavours to see that all printer's errors were<br />
corrected. I am quite satisfied with the result,<br />
and have been saved much trouble and expense.<br />
It is significant that the publishers made objec-<br />
tion to the clause in the agreement, suggesting<br />
that they might have to charge for corrections<br />
made by their reader; but the claim was inserted<br />
and agreed to. John Bickerdyke.<br />
V.—Infringement of Copyright.<br />
On March 29 last, before Mr. Justice Wills and<br />
a common jury, in the Queen's Bench Division,<br />
was heard the case of Miln v. Ballin. Mrs.<br />
Miln is an American author and journalist who<br />
has travelled a great deal, and has written books<br />
of travel and papers and essays on various<br />
subjects in magazines and papers. Among other<br />
contributions was a series of papers on children<br />
of various countries which she contributed to a<br />
journal called Madame, reserving the copyright.<br />
The defendant owned a paper called Baby, and<br />
had reproduced in its columns paragraphs—some<br />
thirty in all—verbatim from the plaintiffs essays<br />
in Madame. The witnesses for the plaintiff<br />
besides herself were Mr. T. P. O'Connor, Mr.<br />
John Murray, and Mr. F. W. Slater of Harper<br />
and Brothers. The case was practically without<br />
defence, except the plea that very little harm was<br />
done, if any, to the prospects of the plaintiff's<br />
book. Mr. Justice Wills, however, thought that<br />
a very considerable wrong had been done to the<br />
plaiutiff. The jury assessed the damages at<br />
.£250.<br />
As to the case itself, their could be no doubt of<br />
the result. The amount of damages granted to<br />
the plaintiff must be taken to represent more a<br />
penalty for wrong-doing than an attempt to<br />
estimate the damage done to the forthcoming<br />
book. People who reproduce literary property<br />
without the author's permission must learn that<br />
they cannot be allowed to help themselves. No<br />
one will ever be able to learn how far the<br />
property has been injured, but property must be<br />
respected. Therefore the result of the action is<br />
quite satisfactory.<br />
VI.—Harrison v. Bloxam.<br />
(In the Westminster County Court of Middlesex,<br />
March 1, 1899.)<br />
Messrs. Haynes and Claremont of 4, Blooms-<br />
bury-square, appeared for the plaintiffs. Defen-<br />
dant was represented by counsel, Mr. C. B.<br />
Marriott (instructed by Messrs. Field, Roscoe,<br />
and Co., 36, Lincoln's-inn Fields), acting on<br />
behalf of the Society of Authors.<br />
Mr. Marriott stated that his client wasagraduate<br />
of London University and a Research Chemist<br />
carrying out experiments at the Davy-Faraday<br />
Laboratory of the Royal Institution. Mr.<br />
Bloxam was a candidate for the D.Sc. degree of<br />
the University of London, and was required to<br />
present a printed thesis showing the results of his<br />
experimental work. Mr. Bloxam obtained from<br />
Messrs. Harrison an estimate for printing<br />
100 copies demy 8vo. 32 pp. in paper wrapper,<br />
amounting to £j 2s. Mr. Bloxam's manu-<br />
script printed out to forty-eight pages, and<br />
for this work an account was sent in by Messrs.<br />
Harrison amounting to .£15 4*. 6d. Mr. Bloxam<br />
considered the charge made to be excessive in<br />
view of the original estimate, and entered into<br />
correspondence with Messrs. Harrison. Mr.<br />
Bloxam was perfectly willing to pay a reasonable<br />
sum, and by letter suggested a meeting for settle-<br />
ment of the amount due. Messrs. Harrison<br />
replied by issuing a County Court summons.<br />
Mr. Bloxam then paid into court £10 10s. and<br />
share of costs as being sufficient to discharge the<br />
debt.<br />
The plaintiff (Mr. Harrison) was called, and<br />
denied that the sum charged was excessive. The<br />
charge was madf? for a pamphlet of 56 pp.,<br />
although defendant recognised only 48 pp. of<br />
printed matter. Plaintiff stated that blank pages<br />
and titles were charged as printed matter, but he<br />
had not warned defendant of this practice.<br />
Plaintiff also admitted that extra cost was<br />
entailed by sending out proofs in slip form, and<br />
that defendant was not consulted on this ques-<br />
tion, and was left in ignorance of any extra cost<br />
thus involved.<br />
Counsel objected on behalf of defendant that no<br />
details of extra charges had been submitted by<br />
the plaintiff, and that defendant had been allowed<br />
to incur extra charges without being warned.<br />
Counsel quoted an estimate by Messrs. Richard<br />
Clay and Sons to print for ii0 14*. 100 copies<br />
of the pamphlet, for which plaintiff claimed<br />
.£15 4*. 6d. Defendant produced manuscript and<br />
proofs, and, on examination by plaintiff and the<br />
judge, the MSS. and proofs were admitted to be<br />
legible and reasonably free from erasure or altera-<br />
tion.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 273 (#285) ############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
273<br />
The judge was of opinion that the charge made<br />
by the plaintiff was too great in proportion to the<br />
estimate given, and, in addition, that if extra<br />
costs were involved in printing and revision, the<br />
defendant should have been warned of such extra<br />
costs.<br />
Judgment was given for the plaintiff for .£13.<br />
VII.—Yeatman v. The Saturday Review.<br />
The case of Yeatman v. Harris and Others<br />
came before the Court of Appeal on April 12 and<br />
13, on the application of the plaintiff for judg-<br />
ment or new trial on appeal from the verdict and<br />
judgment of Feb. 15 last, at a trial before the<br />
Lord Chief Justice and a special jury in the<br />
Queen's Bench Division. In this case the plaintiff,<br />
Mr. John Pym Yeatman, barrister and author,<br />
claimed to recover from Mr. Harris, as the former<br />
editor of the Saturday Review, and from Mr.<br />
F. W. Sabin, as the publisher, and from Messrs.<br />
Spottiswoode, as the printers of the journal,<br />
damages for alleged libels published in 1874,<br />
1896, 1897, and 1898. The first alleged libel was<br />
in the criticism of a book written by the plaintiff,<br />
called " A History of the Common Law of Great<br />
Britain and Gaul," one of the statements being:<br />
"Mr. Yeatman would most likely, under any cir-<br />
cumstances, have written nonsense, if he wrote<br />
anything at all. His book is wild and worthless."<br />
The next libel arose on the publication of a book<br />
in 1896—"The Gentle Shakespeare: a Vindica-<br />
tion "—which the Saturday Review described as<br />
"a rival in absurdity to the cryptogram of Mr.<br />
Ignatius Donelly," as "miserable twaddle," and<br />
"an insult to literature." The third libel (which<br />
Mr. Yeatman said was the most serious, and<br />
injured him in his profession of a barrister)<br />
appeared on May 8, 1897, stating: "The Bar had<br />
its annual general meeting on Tuesday, and we<br />
notice without much surprise that those gather-<br />
ings at Lincoln's-inn are becoming more and more<br />
a kind of debating society for the cranks of the<br />
profession." The jury found that none of the<br />
articles were libellous or exceeded the limit of fair<br />
criticism, and judgment was entered accordingly;<br />
hence the present appeal. In giving judgment,<br />
Lord Justice Smith (Lords Justices Collins and<br />
Romer concurring) said there was no ground for<br />
granting the application, and the appeal would be<br />
dismissed with costs.<br />
VIII.—Musical Copyright.<br />
(Chancery Division—Before Mr. Justice Stirling.)<br />
BOOSEY V. WHIGHT.<br />
This case raised a novel and interesting point<br />
under the Musical Copyright Act. Mr. Butcher,<br />
Q.C., and Mr. Scrutton apppeared for the plain-<br />
tiffs, and Mr. Cutler, Q.C., Mr. Moulton, Q.C.,<br />
Mr. Terrell, Q.C., and Mr. Eustace Smith repre-<br />
sented the defendants.<br />
The plaintiffs are well-known music publishers,<br />
and they ask for an injunction to restrain the<br />
defendants from infringing their copyright in<br />
three songs, "My Lady's Bower," "The Better<br />
Land," and " The Holy City." The defendants are<br />
the sellers of a musical instrument called the<br />
"jEolian," which is played by means of wind<br />
admitted to pipes or reeds through perforations<br />
in sheets of paper. The plaintiffs' case was that<br />
these perforated sheets were, in fact, records of<br />
the musical compositions in question, by means<br />
of which the music could be reproduced with a<br />
certain amount of human intelligence, and that<br />
they constituted an infringement of their copy-<br />
right in such compositions. The case turned to<br />
a considerable extent upon the construction of<br />
the Copyright Act, 1842. That Act gives pro-<br />
tection to copyright in books, and by its interpre-<br />
tation clause defines a book as meaning and<br />
including {inter alia) "a sheet of music";<br />
and the question was whether the perforated<br />
rolls of paper used by the defendants in their<br />
instruments were "sheets of music" within<br />
the Act. The defendants had obtained the<br />
evidence of various musicians and others to prove<br />
that the perforated rolls could not be read as<br />
music, and conveyed to the minds of the<br />
witnesses no impression of music.<br />
The judge, having heard the arguments at<br />
length some weeks ago, reserved his judgment,<br />
which he now delivered. Having dealt with the<br />
facts of the case, and the evidence adduced at the<br />
trial, he said the question turned upon the con-<br />
struction to be put upon the Copyright Act,<br />
1842, and the point was whether these perforated<br />
sheets of paper were "sheets of music" within<br />
the meaning of that Act. Although he was not<br />
prepared to say that the perforation alone<br />
amounted to an infringement, he came to the<br />
conclusion that inasmuch as the words intimat-<br />
ing the time, and the sign denoting the key,<br />
appeared on the paper as on plaintiffs' music, the<br />
sheets, taken as a whole, amounted to an infringe-<br />
ment. He would, therefore, grant an injunction<br />
restraining the defendants from continuing to<br />
publish these sheets in their present form, viz.,<br />
with any words or signs which appeared on the<br />
plaintiffs' music. With regard to the perfora-<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 274 (#286) ############################################<br />
<br />
274<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
tion alone he did not say whether that was an<br />
infringement.<br />
Judgment accordingly.<br />
IX.—Agreements, with Comments.<br />
In all cases in which publishers' agreements<br />
are printed and commented on in The Author a<br />
copy of the paper will henceforth be sent to the<br />
firm concerned, accompanied by a letter drawing<br />
their attention to the comments and offering them<br />
the opportunity of making any reply in The Author<br />
in case they should desire to do so.<br />
Agreement.<br />
Agreement made this day of between<br />
of (hereinafter called the "Author ") of<br />
the one part, and Messrs. of (hereinafter<br />
called the " Publishers ") of the other part, as follows:<br />
1. The author agrees to transfer to the publishers all his<br />
copyrights and his other rights in a novel written by him and<br />
at present entitled , and the publishers agree to pub-<br />
lish the said novel in one volume form, and to use their<br />
best endeavours to make the same successful.<br />
2. All expenses of production, advertising, and setting the<br />
■aid novel shall be undertaken by the publishers, who shall<br />
be entitled to sell 500 copies of the said novel for their own<br />
benefit and without accounting therefor. Subject thereto<br />
the publishers agree to pay to the author one-half of all<br />
profits which they may derive from the publication and sale<br />
of the said book after deducting all expenses incurred in<br />
producing, publishing, selling, and advertising the same. It<br />
is agreed that as part of the expenses as aforesaid the pub-<br />
lishers shall be at liberty to include 5 per cent on the<br />
income from sales in lieu of specific charges for carriages,<br />
bookings, insurance, postages, travelling expenses, and<br />
establishment expenses for which no other charge is to be<br />
made.<br />
3. The publishers shall have discretion as to the number<br />
and destination of presentation copies for the Press or other-<br />
wise, with a view of helping sales, but they shall on publi-<br />
cation of the book deliver to the author six presentation<br />
copies.<br />
4. The publishers shall make up accounts to Dec. 31 and<br />
June 30 in each year, and settle the same with the author<br />
within three months after tboee dates.<br />
5. The author undertakes to keep the publishers indem-<br />
nified against all actions or claims which may be brought or<br />
made against or upon them by reason of the said novel con-<br />
taining any libellous or slanderous matter.<br />
6. The author agrees to give the publishers the first offer<br />
of the next long novel to be written by him, and which shall<br />
exceed 60,000 words in length, on the same terms as are<br />
contained in this agreement, with the exception that the<br />
publishers shall not in the case of such new book be entitled<br />
to 500 or any free copies (except presentation copies for the<br />
author and review and for influencing sales). The said offer<br />
shall be made by the author submitting the MS. of the said<br />
novel to the publishers, and allowing them one month after<br />
such submission within which to accept or decline the<br />
same.<br />
The first clause in this agreement is entirely to<br />
the disadvantage of the author. No author<br />
should under any circumstances transfer the<br />
copyright in a book to a publisher. In the case<br />
of technical books, scientific books, scholastic<br />
books, such transfer is quite disastrous. The<br />
agreement above quoted, however, is for the pub-<br />
lication of a work of fiction. If the author is<br />
ill-advised enough to transfer the copyright he<br />
should protect himself against the publication of<br />
the book in an altered form, against the sup-<br />
pression of his book, and against the suppression<br />
of his name. These are all-important points. In<br />
the first clause the publishers agree to publish<br />
the said novel, but do not undertake to do so by<br />
any specified time, and as they hold the copyright<br />
they are practically masters of the situation. It<br />
may be argued that if a publisher holds the copy-<br />
right of a book he would be a fool if he did not<br />
publish it, but cases have occurred where a pub-<br />
lisher holding the copyright has delayed publi-<br />
cation for various reasons for a couple of years.<br />
During this time the author naturally is unwilling<br />
to bring out another book to interfere with the<br />
copyright that the publisher holds. Clause 1,<br />
therefore, is an exceedingly bad clause from the<br />
author's point of view. (1.) As he transfers<br />
his copyright. (2.) As the publisher is not<br />
bound to produce the book by a certain date;<br />
and (3.) he is not bound to produce more than<br />
500 copies, and therefore it is possible that the<br />
author might obtain no profit at all (see next<br />
clause).<br />
Clause 2 is an exceedingly bad clause from an<br />
author's point of view, whether the book is a<br />
first book or otherwise. It is sometimes the case<br />
that in a royalty agreement the publisher with-<br />
holds the payment of royalty till after the sale<br />
of 500 copies and then gives a proportionately<br />
high royalty to the author. It is sometimes<br />
worth the author's while to accept an agreement<br />
of this kind rather than not have his book<br />
published at all. The publisher, however, in the<br />
present agreement has a profit-sharing arrange-<br />
ment with the result that not only does he get<br />
500 copies free to himself, but he gets half the<br />
cost of production of this 500 copies also paid<br />
for by the author. So much for the 500 to the<br />
publisher. It is only necessary to repeat what<br />
has so often and so urgently been put forward in<br />
The Author: that a half-profit arrangement under<br />
any circumstances is a bad one for the author, as<br />
inclined to lead to disputes and dissatisfaction<br />
from the complicated statements of accounts and<br />
from the small division of profits (if any) that<br />
generally accrues. The latter part of the same<br />
clause is against the author, as if the publisher<br />
is entitled to charge a percentage to cover his<br />
expenses the author ought to be entitled to make<br />
the same charge. Finally, with regard to clause 2,<br />
the author has no chance of checking beforehand<br />
the probable cost of production and no control<br />
whatever over the amount to be spent on adver-<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 275 (#287) ############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
275<br />
tising or where these advertisements are to<br />
appear. This simple reliance of the author on the<br />
arrangement has been mentioned over and over<br />
again and must still be insisted upon.<br />
Clause 3 is also bad as far as the permission<br />
given to the publisher is concerned. The number<br />
of free copies should be limited.<br />
The account clause is a reasonable one, and so<br />
is clause 5, but the 6th clause is again a disas-<br />
trous clause for the author. To bind oneself to a<br />
publisher for another book is at all times a very<br />
dangerous matter. If the publisher treats an<br />
author fairly in the first instance he -would know<br />
that the author would return to him with his<br />
second book, but when a publisher obtains the<br />
signature of an author to an agreement, such as<br />
the one printed above, he may be sure that if in<br />
the meantime the author seeks advice he will not<br />
return to him with a second book unless he binds<br />
the author in the manner shown in clause 6.<br />
That the author should be bound on the same<br />
terms as for the first book with the exception of<br />
the 500 copies makes the matter worse. It may<br />
be pointed out generally that there is nothing<br />
said about American rights, Colonial rights,<br />
translation rights, serial rights, and all other<br />
rights, with the exception that the publisher holds<br />
these. If, therefore, he sells these rights he will<br />
share the profits with the author. A great many<br />
of these rights are sold merely by writing a letter.<br />
In other words, they are rights outside the publi-<br />
cation of the book in England, and as such are<br />
generally treated by agents, who charge 10 per<br />
cent. on the amounts received. Here, however,<br />
the publisher obtains 50 per cent.; a very unwise<br />
arrangement from the author's point of view.<br />
This is an additional argument against selling<br />
the copyright. It is no wonder that publishers<br />
cry out against agents who desire to take 10 per<br />
cent., when the publisher for doing the same work<br />
secures 50 per cent.<br />
The financial result of this agreement was as<br />
follows:<br />
The cost of production on the debit side was<br />
£120 2s. gd. for an edition of 1500 copies.<br />
In this is included the ordinary items of com-<br />
posing, machining, printing, corrections, and<br />
binding. In addition we find the following in-<br />
cluded:<br />
£ s. d.<br />
Brass binding blocks 2 12 6<br />
Printing 500 show cards 1 7 6<br />
Printing 5000 leaflets 0 9 4<br />
Mounting and composing 8 stereos ... 0 8 0<br />
Making up and printing from red forme 012 6<br />
Design for cover 2 2 0<br />
The sales of the book on the credit side<br />
as follows: £ <<br />
1 at 3*. icxf o<br />
9 at 6s. net 2 1<br />
65/60 at 4*. f less 12$ per cent.<br />
182/168 at 4s. 2d. I discount<br />
52/48 at 4*. fleas 10 per cent<br />
93/86 at. 4*. 2d. I trade discount<br />
44/41 at 4*. fless 5 per cent.<br />
52/48 at 4* 2d. \ trade discount<br />
d.<br />
10<br />
o<br />
41<br />
24 15 4<br />
17 5 10<br />
86 1 6<br />
And the second account was as follows:<br />
JE s. d.<br />
4 at 6s 1 4 0<br />
104 at 48. 2d. Hess 10 per cent.) 20 5 2<br />
13/12 at 4*. ( discount ) *<br />
52/48 at 4*. 2d. less 12% per cent. disct. 815 0<br />
78/72 at 4*. 2d. (less 5 per cent.) l 1Q<br />
39/36 at 4*. ( discount )<br />
0<br />
6<br />
137 5 .6<br />
The total represents a sale of 788 copies realis-<br />
ing the above figures—the sum of .£137 5*. 6d.<br />
The average price, therefore, is, as nearly as<br />
possible, 3*. 6d., so that the estimate given in<br />
these columns of 3*. 6d. as an average price is<br />
proved to be correct as regards this book.<br />
The 500 copies taken by the publisher must<br />
also be added.<br />
In the end, the publisher takes nearly £100,<br />
and the author ,£5 2s. gd. The result of this<br />
arrangement is, therefore, a most unsatisfactory<br />
one for the author, and in addition the author<br />
has bound himself for the next book to the same<br />
publisher.<br />
THE SIXPENNY BOOK.<br />
7 11 10<br />
VOL. IX.<br />
"T KNOW a man in my business," a book-<br />
I seller wrote the other day," who gets through<br />
1000 copies of sixpenny novels every week.<br />
Nobody buys any other book. It seems as if the<br />
rest of the books are useless. He makes id. on each,<br />
or £4 3*. 46?. a week out of these novels. And<br />
his rent is .£i0 a week. How long will he last?"<br />
If we look at the bookstall of the nearest<br />
railway station we shall find it covered and<br />
loaded with the sixpenny novel. There is an<br />
increasing disposition, to limit the purchase of a<br />
book to the single 6d.<br />
The greater number of these books are either<br />
non-copyright books or books belonging to the<br />
o g<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 276 (#288) ############################################<br />
<br />
276<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
publisher; those, namely, on which he has no<br />
royalty to pay.<br />
If there is any royalty it is generally about<br />
Id. on each copy, or £2 10s. for every 1000<br />
copies.<br />
The book costs, say, about 2\d. to produce.<br />
Therefore on a sale of 30,000 copies we have<br />
approximately:—<br />
(1.) The author receives .£75.<br />
. (2.) The bookseller receives .£125.<br />
(3.) The publisher receives .£112.<br />
But a sale of 30,000 copies is high.<br />
As far as the author is concerned, if his new<br />
book was brought out at 6*., on even a 15 per<br />
cent. royalty, he would make more by a sale of<br />
1700 copies.<br />
The questions which arise on this subject are<br />
many:—<br />
(1.) Would a successful writer do better or worse<br />
by coming out at 6d.?<br />
The class of persons who can read with pleasure<br />
the work of an educated writer is comparatively<br />
small, though it is growing and increasing rapidly.<br />
Outside this number no one buys a book of this<br />
kind, however cheap.<br />
Now, this class manages to read, either by<br />
borrowing, or lending, or buying, most of the<br />
popular works of the day in every branch. If<br />
this class can read a book by borrowing, it will do<br />
so rather than buy it. And this whether it is<br />
priced at 6d. or 6*.<br />
It is undoubted that many popular books sell<br />
in great quantities at 6d. But it is very doubtful<br />
whether this advantage is not a real loss compared<br />
with a book published at a higher price. If, for<br />
instance, Mr. Hall Caine's "Christian," which<br />
reached 180,000 copies, had been sold at sixpence,<br />
it may be calculated approximately that the author<br />
would have been a loser supposing his royalty on<br />
the sixpenny book to have been one penny, unless<br />
four million copies at least had been sold.<br />
Or, if we take a calculation of 10,000 sold, and<br />
a royalty of only 20 per cent., or on the six-<br />
penny book, the author would be a loser unless<br />
240,000 copies were sold.<br />
(2.) What effect will this cheapening of fictioD<br />
produce in other ways?<br />
It will make people unwilling to pay for a<br />
novel more than 6d.<br />
It will lead them to believe that the normal<br />
price for all books must be 6d.<br />
It will necessitate the production of high-priced<br />
books for the libraries, and for the limited class<br />
who will continue to give a high price.<br />
It will make the present stock of six-shilling<br />
books practically unsaleable.<br />
It will probably complete the ruin of the country<br />
bookseller.<br />
It will with equal probability injure the whole<br />
trade of publishing very severely.<br />
It will lower the character and dignity of litera-<br />
ture, because what can be obtained for a few<br />
pence—badly printed; on cheap paper; read and<br />
then thrown away—will be valued at the mental<br />
equivalent for a few pence. This is proved by<br />
the history of the pirated book in America.<br />
An opportune article in Literature, for April 15,<br />
called'attention to the serious danger which is<br />
threatening everybody concerned with the produc-<br />
tion and the circulation of literature. The<br />
figures given by the writer do not altogether<br />
agree with those given here, but they serve to<br />
show the magnitude of the danger.<br />
Can anything be done? The public will buy for<br />
6d. rather than 6s.—that is certain. It is also<br />
certain that the present price of 6*. or 4*. 6d. is too<br />
high. Publishers can do what they please with their<br />
own property—though they will not allow the<br />
same privilege to booksellers; and if they go on<br />
producing sixpenny books—their own property—<br />
all that authors can do is to protest, and to hope<br />
that the dangers which now seem so threatening;<br />
will either prove illusory, or may end in disaster<br />
quickly, so that we may learn whether the new<br />
method is wisdom or madness.<br />
A writer in the Daily News of April 8 gives,<br />
on the other hand, a different estimate of the<br />
sixpenny book. Literature at this price, he says,<br />
opens up an entirely new field of readers; people<br />
who would never think of buying a six-shilling<br />
book. At the same time, the circulation of the<br />
sixpenny edition is calculated, he thinks, to<br />
stimulate the demand for the more expensive<br />
one; and as sixpenny editions are, at least in<br />
some cases, not reprinted, people who have heard<br />
the book talked of and seen it read by the<br />
sixpenny public, are obliged then to buy the<br />
six-shilling edition if they only apply after the<br />
sixpenny one is for ever exhausted. But while<br />
on the whole the sixpenny novel pays, there is one<br />
deserving individual who is hit very hard by it—<br />
the small bookseller. "The town bookseller is<br />
quite content." Is he? But see above. "He<br />
can order his thousands and make them pay.<br />
But there are hundreds of suburban booksellers<br />
in London whose struggle for existence grows<br />
keener every day." One of these spoke of a book<br />
for which, at its first appearance at 6s., there was<br />
"a wonderful demand :—<br />
We sold at least one copy every day—one day we sold<br />
seven. Then, about Christmas, the publishers announced a<br />
sixpenny edition. The sixpenny edition is only just out,<br />
but during the last ten weeks we have only sold two<br />
copies of the book. That is how the sixpenny copyright<br />
novel affects us. It is no use our trying to sell them. What<br />
with disoount, the drapers, and the sixpenny novels, the<br />
small booksellers are on the road to ruin.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 277 (#289) ############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
277<br />
In reply to the opinion of the Daily News one<br />
asks if cheap books do open up new fields of<br />
readers, or if they only offer the chance of buying<br />
cheaply what would otherwise have been borrowed<br />
of a library? One may also entertain the gravest<br />
doubts as to the stimulating effect of the sixpenny<br />
book. The general experience is that if anything<br />
is offered at sixpence people will never afterwards<br />
give six shillings for it. And the preceding<br />
remarks answer the opinion as to the contented<br />
town bookseller.<br />
SECRET COMMISSIONS AND SECRET<br />
PROFITS.<br />
AT the monthly dinner of the London<br />
Chamber of Commerce Lord Russell of<br />
Killowen spoke on secret commissions<br />
and his promised Bill. He said:—" There was<br />
no reason in the world why men should not<br />
stipulate for any manner of compensation or<br />
commission they might choose, provided always<br />
that it was open and above board. Therefore let<br />
no one for a moment think that the provisions of<br />
his Bill were of so drastic a kind that they<br />
could possibly act with undue severity or harsh-<br />
ness upon any outspoken honest man. . . .<br />
His own interest in this question dated far<br />
back in his professional years, and he had known<br />
many sad instances of the evils resulting from<br />
the prevailing system—evils not stopping short<br />
at the receipt of commissions, but branching<br />
out into an actual course of crime. . . .<br />
But the thing that was so disgusting in this<br />
country was to find men belonging to the learned<br />
professions taking these secret commissions.<br />
Was it not intolerable to be told that medical<br />
practitioners—he was not attacking these profes-<br />
sional men as a whole, for these cases were the<br />
exceptions—would write a prescription and had<br />
a secret arrangement that the druggist should<br />
give him 25 per cent. on the amount of the<br />
drugs? Was it not disgusting to be teld, as a<br />
fact, that if a doctor recommended a particular<br />
undertaker he got a slice of the undertaker's<br />
business? Anyone who had taken the trouble to<br />
look into the matter would know that these were<br />
facts. They were exceptions—he hoped rare<br />
exceptions; but where this moral corruption<br />
existed it blunted the sense of honour and of<br />
honesty. Not only w.as it morally detrimental to<br />
those who took part in it, demoralising to<br />
individuals and, in part, to the community, but<br />
unjust and unfair to men who maintained a high<br />
standard of probity and of honour."<br />
How would these remarks applr to secret profits<br />
made by one party to an agreenrofit or the other?<br />
Let us imagine that Lord Russell was speaking<br />
of secret profits.<br />
"There was no reason in the world why men<br />
should not stipulate for any manner of discount<br />
or commission they might choose, provided always<br />
that it was open and above board. It would be<br />
for the other side to accept or to refuse. . . .<br />
His own interest in this question dated far<br />
back in his professional years, and he had known<br />
many sad instances of the evils resulting from<br />
the prevailing system—evils not stopping short<br />
at the secret receipt of discount, but branching<br />
out into charging for advertisements which cost<br />
nothing, and alleged expenses not incurred. . . .<br />
The thing that was so disgusting was to find<br />
men received into clubs as honourable gentlemen<br />
taking these secret profits and making their<br />
charges. . . . When this moral corruption<br />
existed it blunted the sense of honour and of<br />
honesty. Not only was it morally detrimental to<br />
those who took part in it, demoralising to the<br />
individuals concerned, and demoralising to the<br />
cause of literature, but it was unjust and unfair<br />
to those who maintained a high standard of<br />
probity and of honour."<br />
The question has been already asked whether<br />
Lord Russell's Bill will include all kinds of<br />
secret profits, and, therefore, the practice now<br />
openly advocated by the committee of the Pub-<br />
lishers' Association. If, as it is hoped, it proves<br />
to include this practice, it will stamp the prac-<br />
tice with legal penalties and greatly discourage<br />
the persons who practise, or continue to advocate,<br />
the taking of secret profits, or the charge of<br />
moneys not spent. For this reason the Society<br />
should regard Lord Russell's Bill with consider-<br />
able interest.<br />
THE STORY-TELLING REVIEWER.<br />
AT the annual meeting of our Society I called<br />
attention to the somewhat common practice<br />
of giving in a review an outline of the<br />
plot, or, in the slang of the day, of "giving away"<br />
the story. That this was done without the least<br />
desire to injure the author's or publisher's inte-<br />
rests in the book I had no doubt whatever; and<br />
I also had no doubt that the practice did in<br />
many instances materially injure the sales of a<br />
book. I pointed out that editors were literary<br />
men themselves, that they had a fellow feeling<br />
for authors generally, and that some at least of<br />
them, if a representation on the subject were<br />
made by the Committee, would be certain to meet<br />
the wishes of authors. I also pointed out that,<br />
if we offered a book for review, we could not com-<br />
plain" if it was condemned and severely handled;<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 278 (#290) ############################################<br />
<br />
278<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
but we might, I thought, justly complain if the<br />
leading features of the plot, and particularly<br />
its termination, were described, and the interest<br />
of possible readers materially lessened.<br />
It was quite evident that these few remarks<br />
met with general approval among the fifty or sixty<br />
authors present, and the matter ended by an<br />
understanding that the question would be dis-<br />
cussed by our Committee, which would very<br />
possibly communicate with the principal editors<br />
on the subject. I am not aware that this has<br />
been done, and I have been asked by the Com-<br />
mittee to deal with the subject in The Author<br />
This I gladly do; at the same time, wishing that<br />
the matter had been placed in the hands of a<br />
novelist of greater standing than myself, and<br />
preferably one who had more reason to complain<br />
of reviewers than I who have been almost invari-<br />
ably treated with the greatest kindness and<br />
consideration. Now and again one gets a spite-<br />
ful review, for there are among reviewers and<br />
critics men lacking the high principles so requi-<br />
site in their branch of literary work, just as there<br />
are, I regret to admit, authors and publishers who<br />
lack those high principles which are so eminently<br />
desirable in all that pertains to our craft.<br />
I have sometimes thought that reviews of the<br />
kind I am more particula rly referring to—perhaps<br />
they should more properly be termed "notices"<br />
—are often written by men in all kindness to the<br />
author. "Here is a book," I can imagine the<br />
critic saying, "which is neither very good nor<br />
very bad. It is evidently the work of an inex-<br />
perienced hand. I will not help to ruin a young<br />
author's prospects by too severely condemning<br />
him. I will simply give the readers of the paper<br />
in which my review appears a good idea of the<br />
contents of the book, and they can read it or<br />
leave it unread, as they think proper." Then he<br />
writes something in this fashion: "From Messrs.<br />
Short and Rigby we have received Mr. John Jones's<br />
new novel of Welsh life. Many persons will<br />
doubtless read it with interest. The first chapter<br />
opens with. . . ." Then he mentions all the<br />
characters, describes as briefly as he can what<br />
part they take in the story, and very likely ends<br />
by saying " Vice is defeated, Virtue is triumphant,<br />
the hero and heroine are united, and everyone is<br />
as happy as marriage bells."<br />
For books which depend upon plot and inci-<br />
dent for their interest, such a " review" is almost<br />
fatal. In the case of those novels, the literary<br />
merit of which lies in wit, epigram, and analysis<br />
of character, many novel readers would be<br />
deterred from ordering the book if, from some<br />
notice they have read in the paper, it seemed to<br />
lack plot. Some modern works of considerable<br />
merit contain hardly any plot at all, and m«rely<br />
to give a brief outline of their contents creates a<br />
very false impression concerning them.<br />
To take the opposite case of books of consider-<br />
able length, crammed full of incident, and written<br />
round a most elaborate plot: here the reviewer<br />
who tries to tell the story in brief, necessarily<br />
fails, owing to limitations of space, and does the<br />
author an injustice.<br />
So much for one side of the picture. On the<br />
other hand, there are numbers of reviewers who,<br />
very likely from being authors themselves, are as<br />
fully alive to the effect of telling the whole story<br />
as is any novelist. It is quite a common thing to<br />
find a review terminating with some such words<br />
as these: "To tell more of the story would be<br />
unfair to the author."<br />
There are some novelists, it is said, who like to<br />
have their story told in the revi ,w. I have a<br />
difliculty in believing that they really approve of<br />
the entire plot being disclosed, from page 1 to<br />
the end. Possibly they mean a description of the<br />
story just a little short of this. However, we<br />
have in The Author a means of communication<br />
which will enable such points to be cleared up.<br />
In conclusion, may I express a hope that the<br />
few lines I have written on the subject may not<br />
be misunderstood? I am quite prepared to have<br />
it stated that I have made an attempt to teach<br />
reviewers their business. Though it has fallen to<br />
my lot to write many reviews, I should be<br />
extremely sorry to have this said. I have no<br />
complaint to make of reviews, but of the notice<br />
which consists of a description of the plot,<br />
and is, in very truth, not a review at all. I<br />
believe newspaper readers, as well as authors,<br />
object to have books noticed in this manner. I<br />
once heard a lady say: "I was going to get Mr.<br />
's book from the library, but I read the whole<br />
of the story in the Daily Post, and after that I<br />
didn't care to read the book." This may be the<br />
case with many novel readers. When asking<br />
people how they like a book, I often get the reply,<br />
"Oh! I really haven't read it, but I get a very<br />
good idea of it from the review in the Morning<br />
Blazer." John Bickerdyke.<br />
PARIS NOTES.<br />
THE acquittal of Mme. Chabrie-, whose private<br />
information had been utilised without her<br />
sanction in a series of Press articles by M.<br />
Gaston Mery {Libre Parole), and of M. Urbain<br />
Gohier, whose recent publication, "L'Armee<br />
contre la Nation," had awakened the censorship<br />
of the authorities, shows that the French nation<br />
at large is awar* «f the primary importance of a<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 279 (#291) ############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
free Press. The trial of M. G-ohier aroused great<br />
interest, since its issue embraced the solution of<br />
an important point closely affecting the prosperity<br />
of the country—viz., the liberty of the individual<br />
French writer to criticise the tactics of his<br />
military chiefs. After numerous quotations from<br />
the approved works of writers as diverse as<br />
MM. de Cassagnac, Drumont, Rochefort, Jules<br />
Lemaitre, Francois Coppee, and Georges Courte-<br />
line, who were each in turn proved to have pro-<br />
pagated seditious doctrine on this head, Me.<br />
Clemenceau, counsel for the accused, boldly<br />
declared M. Gohier's criticisms to be salutary to<br />
the true interests of the French Army. He<br />
maintained that his client attacked no one without<br />
furnishing proof of their malversation; if his<br />
tone in so doing appeared occasionally violent, it<br />
must be attributed to the fact that the work<br />
in question was compiled from journalistic<br />
articles—for the journalist resembled the pilot,<br />
in order to be heard he was forced to have recourse<br />
to a speaking trumpet. Me. Clemenceau con-<br />
cluded his defence by expressing a fervent hope<br />
that other writers would follow the example of<br />
his client, this "troubler of apothesises "—since<br />
France would thus be preserved from inscribing<br />
a second time in her annals dates as shameful as<br />
those of Sedan, Metz, Paris. The burst of enthu-<br />
siastic bravos and loud outcries of 'Vive Gohier '."<br />
which greeted the verdict of acquittal preceded by<br />
this eloquent peroration gave palpable proof that<br />
jury and populace were in accord in resenting this<br />
side attack on the liberty of the individual<br />
thinker.<br />
The election of M. Marcel Prevost to the pre-<br />
sidency of the Socie'te' des Gens de Lettres was<br />
flatteringly unanimous, comprising a majority of<br />
twenty votes against three, of which latter two<br />
were blanks. At the previous meeting, in which<br />
M. Henry Houssaye had resigned the same<br />
dignity owing to his term of office having expired,<br />
a rather stormy scene took place. After having<br />
announced that the meeting was convoked to<br />
replace the eight members whose term of office<br />
had expired and also to fill the place left vacant<br />
by the death of the late regretted Albert Bataille<br />
—in all, nine members—M. Brau de Saint-Pol-<br />
Lias continued, " Or rather ten members, since our<br />
rules permit us to erase the name of any person<br />
who has failed to attend six consecutive meetings.<br />
Now, there is a member who has failed in<br />
attending more than six meetings. . . ."<br />
Although no name was mentioned, everyone was<br />
aware at whom these remarks were aimed. M.<br />
Armand Charpentier cried loudly " Vive Zola!"<br />
while the majority of members present pro-<br />
tested against any question of party politics<br />
being introduced. On taking possession of the<br />
fauteuil vacated by M. Houssaye, M. Provost<br />
adroitly stated his opinion on the subject in<br />
sketching out the attitude he desired the Society<br />
to adopt. "Even before being a kind of literary<br />
club," said he, "we are a commercial society,<br />
a mutual-aid society. Our political opinions<br />
should be mute here, though free. If liberty of<br />
thought were ever proscribed it would belong to<br />
us, men of letters, to offer it an asylum in<br />
our midst. This tolerance is our honour.<br />
When one of our comrades has worked, has<br />
written books by which our Society has profited,<br />
no matter in what measure, in providing pensions<br />
for its superannuated and assistance for its<br />
indigent members; when this comrade has taken<br />
his seat at our table, has aided us with his energy<br />
and effort; if the day comes when he finds himself<br />
exposed to the vicissitudes of public opinion—we<br />
owe it to him, we owe it to ourselves, we owe it to<br />
true literature and French tradition, not to excite<br />
the crowd against him, not to throw stones<br />
against him with the hands he has clasped."<br />
This generous speech excited warm applause. The<br />
nomination of office-bearers for the present year<br />
then took place, M. Henry Houssaye being elected<br />
honorary president and MM. Lafargue and de<br />
Larmandie vice-presidents. Three new members<br />
were likewise admitted to the Society, of whom<br />
two were women; and it is more than rumoured<br />
that a project was on foot to demand the admis-<br />
sion of feminine members to the committee of<br />
the Society. The ladies, however, not wishing<br />
that two irritating topics should be broached on<br />
the same day, magnanimously agreed to defer<br />
all allusion to the subject until the following<br />
meeting. Its first introduction will, doubt-<br />
less, be hotly combated and criticised, but the<br />
eventual triumph of the fair sex is a foregone<br />
conclusion.<br />
The death of Mme. Clesinger, daughter of<br />
George Sand, has again brought the latter's name<br />
prominently before the public in the daily papers.<br />
Later evidence has satisfactorily vindicated the<br />
grave charge brought against Mme. Sand by her<br />
contemporaries of having forced her daughter to<br />
accept her own discarded lover, Clesinger, as a<br />
husband. Mme. Clesinger was the author of one<br />
or two novels of inferior merit, and in no wise<br />
inherited her mother's literary talent. Their<br />
appearance was as dissimilar as their characters<br />
were antagonistic. Solange Cle'singer-Sand had<br />
a masculine type of countenance, an arched nose,<br />
and a frank, almost audacious expression; her<br />
figure was admirably proportioned, and she was<br />
not lacking in wit. Several years after her sepa-<br />
ration from her husband she inhabited a small<br />
suite of rooms in the Rue Taitbout, and among<br />
the intimate friends who frequented her society<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 280 (#292) ############################################<br />
<br />
280<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
may be mentioned Gambetta, Ferry, Laferriere,<br />
Edouard Herve, Weiss, Taine, Henry Fouquier,<br />
Floquet, and Bethmont. She died at her castle of<br />
Montgivray, and was buried beside her mother.<br />
M. Maurice Eollinat is now engaged in<br />
revising the proofs of the new volume of poems<br />
he intends publishing shortly. M. Rollinat is a<br />
fervent student and admirer of the works of<br />
George Sand and Edgar Poe. He is, likewise, a<br />
most infatuated angler, and not even the red<br />
ribbon which the Government bestowed on him<br />
in 1895 has sufficed to wean him from pursuing<br />
his favourite pastime. To Mme. Sarah Bernhardt<br />
belongs the honour of having discovered this<br />
ichthyophagistic rhymester.<br />
The Soci^te des Gens de Lettres has confided<br />
to M. Falguiere the execution of the statue of<br />
Balzac, to be exhibited at the next Salon. The<br />
bust of M. Henri Houssaye, the work of Mlle.<br />
Aim-lie Colombie, will be exhibited on the same<br />
occasion; the latter is reported to be an excellent<br />
reproduction of the features of the great his-<br />
torian. It is further proposed to celebrate the<br />
two hundredth anniversary of Racine by the<br />
inauguration of two busts, viz:, that of Pascal<br />
at St. Etienne du Mont and that of Racine on<br />
the ruins of Port Royal. The project of erecting<br />
a reduced replica of Guy de Maupassant's monu-<br />
ment at Paris (pare Monceau) in the square of<br />
his native town of Rouen has met with universal<br />
sympathy, the artists engaged on the work re-<br />
fusing all remuneration beyond the actual cost of<br />
labour and material employed. The unveiling of<br />
the new monument will take place next month;<br />
it will stand in the middle of a small green sward,<br />
opposite Chapu's medallion of Flaubert, the friend<br />
and master of Guy de Maupassant.<br />
At the recent International Press Congress at<br />
Rome Italy was, of course, so far first in the field<br />
as regards the number of her representatives as<br />
to be quite out of the running. Among foreign<br />
countries France carried off the palm numerically,<br />
being represented by no less than eighty-seven<br />
delegates, in addition to twenty-five wives and<br />
daughters of delegates. Germany stood second<br />
on the list, having sent forty-six representatives,<br />
Austria third, Hungary fourth, Belgium fifth,<br />
and England sixth, while the United States<br />
shared the seventh place with Sweden and<br />
Portugal, each of the three last-named countries<br />
being represented by ten delegates.<br />
The "English mania" that is so frequently<br />
deplored by the French writers of the present<br />
day is steadily invading the Parisian stage.<br />
Shakespeare has evidently come to btay, despite<br />
M. Fouquier's assertions to the contrary, and his<br />
"Beaucoup de bruit pour rien " now adorns the<br />
programme of the Opera Comique; the Ambigu-<br />
Comique gives us " Les Chevaliers du Brouillard,"<br />
a play adapted from one of Ainsworth's novels<br />
and in the salle of the Societes savantes we find<br />
"Betsey," an English play in three acts by<br />
Mr. Burnand. Apropos of theatrical literature,<br />
M. Bergerat's new play, "Plus que Reine,"<br />
is sharing the fate of its literary predecessors,<br />
"Le Lys Rouge," " Le Coupable," &c, viz., it bores<br />
the public. After having heralded its advent with a<br />
fanfaronade of extravagant panegyric, the critics<br />
are now harking back on their first judgment,<br />
and discovering that the play lacks cohesion,<br />
historical accuracy, and dramatic verve. They<br />
are likewise shocked at seeing Mme. Jane Hading<br />
represent the Creole Josephine in a blonde wig,<br />
and scandalised at finding Napoleon's costume<br />
inoorrect in sundry details. This failure only<br />
bears out our previous assertion regarding the<br />
fallacy of believing that a dramatic and a literary<br />
talent were concomitant attributes.<br />
Translations of modern English literature are<br />
largely patronised here. In addition to devoting<br />
several columns to appreciating the works and<br />
style of Rudyard Kipling—" prince de la ballade<br />
et roi du conte "—the Annales lately endeavoured<br />
to give a specimen of the latter by publishing a<br />
translation of his " White Seal." Although more<br />
justly rendered than we had imagined possible, it<br />
was nevertheless a very flat narrative in compari-<br />
son with the brilliant originality of the English<br />
version; yet, even under these favourable circum-<br />
stances, we were unable to detect the analogy<br />
the French critics have discovered to exist<br />
between the style of Pierre Loti and that of<br />
Rudyard Kipling.<br />
The death of Mme. Michelet, nie Athemas<br />
Mialaret, widow of the great historian, has<br />
occasioned the publication of some of the letters<br />
which passed between them before the idea<br />
of matrimony was entertained by either. The<br />
whole story reads like a romance. Early left<br />
an orphan and forced by the improvidence<br />
of her parents to earn her livelihood, Mlle.<br />
Mialaret accepted the post of governess in<br />
a private family at Vienna. The indifferent<br />
kindness meted out to her by her employers<br />
failed to satisfy her moral and intellectual<br />
requirements. She fell into a state of profound<br />
melancholy. At this juncture in her career she<br />
chanced to read one of Michelet's works entitled<br />
"Le Pretre." It touched her so profoundly that<br />
she wrote to the author, confiding to him her<br />
mental and moral distress. He replied by an<br />
admirable letter to which she gratefully responded;<br />
and when a few months later her failing health<br />
forced her to return to the milder climate of<br />
Paris, the acquaintance commenced on paper<br />
speedily ripened into a warmer sentiment than-<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 281 (#293) ############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
281<br />
platonic friendship and esteem. The affection<br />
was mutual, though the great historian was in his<br />
fifty-second and theyoung governess in her twenty-<br />
third year at the date of their union. Neverthe-<br />
less the marriage proved an extremely happy one;<br />
and during the twenty-five years that elapsed<br />
between her husband's and her own death Mme.<br />
Michelet lived devoted to his memory. For years<br />
she refused to have any renovations made in the<br />
suite of rooms they had occupied together;<br />
finally, she consented to permit certain necessary<br />
repairs, though still refusing to quit the premises.<br />
She caught cold through sleeping in the midst of<br />
the damp plaster, and died eight days later from<br />
a violent attack of pleurisy. She had reached<br />
the ripe age of seventy-two years, and was a<br />
graceful and sympathetic writer.<br />
The recently published memoirs of Alfred de<br />
Musset by his old housekeeper, Mme. Adele Colin-<br />
Martellet, contain much interesting matter.<br />
Among other anecdotes she narrates that the poet<br />
had a little dog, named Marzo, to whom he was<br />
greatly attached. When his master died Marzo<br />
believed him only absent, and every evening<br />
patiently awaited him at the accustomed hour.<br />
For seven years Marzo nightly waited thus, at<br />
the end of which time the poor little fellow died<br />
with his eyes fixed on the door by which he still<br />
fondly hoped to see his master enter. Mme.<br />
Martellet's husband carried off the small corpse<br />
intending to inter it in one of the adjacent plots<br />
of waste land. At the corner of the rue Boileau<br />
he came across a companv of workmen engaged<br />
in making a new road and there deposited<br />
Marzo's remains, covering them with several<br />
shovelfuls of earth. By curious coincidence this<br />
new street is to-day known as the rue de Musset.<br />
During the past month French literature has<br />
registered the following deaths in addition to<br />
those above cited, viz., that of M. Erckmann, who,<br />
in collaboration with M. Chatrian, wrote the<br />
famous series of tales, respectively entitled<br />
"Waterloo," "1'Ami Fritz," "l'lllustre Docteur<br />
Mathews," "Madame Therese," "Blocus,"<br />
"Souvenirs d'un homme du peuple." &c., and<br />
whose character sketches were so just and fine<br />
that the phrase—" C'est un personnage d'Erck-<br />
mann-Chatrian "—has passed into current usage;<br />
of M. Paul Bonnetain, Government commissioner,<br />
author of several original and interesting novels,<br />
respectively entitled "Passagere," "le Tour du<br />
monde d'un troupier," "Au Tonkin," "le Journal<br />
d'un marsouin," &c.; of M. Paul Mahalin, who<br />
gained notoriety as a master of the "roman-<br />
feuilleton " genre; of M. Vaucheret, who, under<br />
the pseudonym of Jean Bruno, has for almost<br />
fifty years been a prolific contributor to the fiction<br />
column of numerous periodicals; and of M.<br />
Berthold Zeller, Professor of History at the Sor-<br />
bonne, and author of numerous important his-<br />
torical works which have each successively had<br />
the honour of being "couronne par l'Academie<br />
fran9aise." Darracotte Dene.<br />
NOTES AND NEWS.<br />
THE annual dinner of the Royal Literary<br />
Fund was duly held, and the usual hat<br />
went round in the familiar manner. The<br />
chairman, according to the only report that I have<br />
read, seems to have refrained very wisely from<br />
advocating the necessity of increasing the income<br />
of the society on account of increasing demands.<br />
On the other hand, he did not represent—the<br />
statement would certainly have chilled the gene-<br />
rosity of the charitable—the fact that the Council<br />
cannot spend on deserving cases one half of their<br />
present income. Nor can I believe that all the<br />
donations which were announced—to the amount<br />
of .£ii50—would have been contributed had the<br />
donors realised or understood this broad fact,<br />
which is, that the Royal Literary Fund has at<br />
last got quite enough money for its present<br />
wants. If its resources should prove insufficient,<br />
there is no doubt that more money would be<br />
forthcoming. As is pointed out in another<br />
column, there is reason to fear that there may be<br />
an increase in the demands should the sixpenny<br />
book kill the profession of literature; but there is<br />
still time to provide against that catastrophe.<br />
Meantime, the subject may rest until next<br />
February, when I hope that the point may be<br />
seriously and officially advanced. This year it<br />
was asked too late. It will take the form of a<br />
plain question: Why does the Council ask for<br />
more money when the present income is more<br />
than double the amount of the calls made<br />
upon it? nic><br />
A writer in Literature says that although I<br />
maintain that the capital sum invested by the<br />
Royal Literary Fund is sufficient to meet all<br />
demands likely to be made upon it—a contention<br />
which is proved by the report—I also ask that<br />
the Civil Pension Grant shall be confined to<br />
persons distinguished in literature, science, and<br />
art, " which seems to indicate," I read," that he<br />
is not always, equally sure of the prosperity of<br />
men of letters." I fail to perceive this indica-<br />
tion. Besides, if my critic would only read further<br />
he would, I think, discover that I ask for a<br />
substitution in place of the words "or other<br />
persons worthy of Her Majesty's bounty," the<br />
words "or widows or daughters of persons so<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 282 (#294) ############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
distinguished." This I propose in order that the<br />
practice now common in the administration of<br />
this grant should be recognised by a resolution of<br />
Parliament, and that the widows of persons dis-<br />
tinguished in literature, science, or art, should be<br />
legally entitled to receive these pensions, but not<br />
the widows of Colonial Governors or other<br />
deserving and distinguished persons. But the<br />
Grant and the Fund have nothing to do with each<br />
other. The former gives pensions: the latter<br />
gives temporary relief. Without any reference to<br />
the former, it is proved that the latter could only<br />
find last year twenty-two distressed men or<br />
women of letters. Only twenty-two out of the<br />
thousands who live by the pen!<br />
This fact is to my mind a very signal proof—<br />
one not to be disputed—of the general welfare of<br />
the Folk of Letters. It is now a numerous Folk:<br />
they are legion: and out of so many there are<br />
only twenty-two deserving cases: not one turned<br />
away from want of funds; and .£2000 invested<br />
out of income. In face of all the facts I can no<br />
longer admit that the profession is precarious,<br />
any more than any other profession. Of course,<br />
there is risk of ill-success in every profession, but<br />
less risk, given the natural aptitude, which is of<br />
course necessary, than in any other. Why is this<br />
contention, which has been advanced on several<br />
occasions, called " optimist"? Why is it always<br />
received with a strange unwillingness and a still<br />
stranger dislike? The only reason that I can<br />
discover is that it upsets a rooted tradition, and<br />
to tear up old traditions makes people uncomfor-<br />
table. Authors, we have always been taught, are<br />
a beggarly company. Grub Street even parades<br />
its rags. Well: but where is Grub Street r Show<br />
those rags. Produce those beggars. Are they<br />
in the clubs? There are literary men by the<br />
hundred in the Athenaeum, the Savile, the<br />
Authors', the Savage, the Garrick, and other clubs.<br />
They sit down with the other men, and, appar-<br />
ently, they can pay for their dinners: they<br />
present an outward show of broadcloth: they<br />
even wear gloves: they preserve an appearance of<br />
solvency: one might take them for City men.<br />
They seldom become bankrupt; I remember only<br />
one or two cases of the bankruptcy of a literary<br />
man.<br />
At this moment, while I know writers who<br />
would like to make more by their pen, I<br />
doubt if I know one who has had occasion to<br />
go to the Royal Literary Fund. There may be,<br />
and very likely are, people who would like<br />
above all things to be men or women of letters.<br />
One can hardly call persons followers of literature<br />
who have attempted and proved incompetent.<br />
A man is not a poet who has produced a volume<br />
of feeble rhyme. Again, there is an excellent<br />
reason why Literature is a much less precarious<br />
profession than Medicine or either branch of the<br />
Law; namely, that it has so many branches. And,<br />
as I said before, they overlap each other. If one<br />
may, without offence, produce examples, I need<br />
go no farther than the accomplished editor of<br />
Literature himself, who is historian, poet,<br />
essayist, critic, and editor: I might point out<br />
Mr. W. E. Henley, poet, biographer, editor, and<br />
dramatist: Mr. J. M. Barrie, essayist, novelist,<br />
and dramatist: Dr. Conan Doyle, novelist, poet,<br />
and dramatist: the late William Biack, jour-<br />
nalist and novelist: Mr. Andrew Lang, scholar,<br />
poet, novelist, historian, journalist, and critic:<br />
Mr. Justin McCarthy, novelist and historian. It<br />
may be objected that I am taking extreme cases.<br />
They are certainly cases of successful writers.<br />
But these cases illustrate my position, viz., that<br />
if a man proves himself able to write (if he is an<br />
attractive writer) a scholar and an authority,<br />
there is certainly no other profession in which he<br />
would be so safe. The chief danger is that<br />
common to every profession, that a man's health<br />
may break down; there is also the danger that,<br />
for some reason or other, he may lose his charm.<br />
Anthony Trollope lost his charm at the end, or<br />
seemed to do so; but he kept it till much past<br />
sixty. This also is a danger in every other<br />
profession. Literature, I repeat, is no longer a<br />
precarious profession—if the candidate possesses<br />
the natural aptitude. Cannot the same thing be<br />
said of every other profession? Does a lawyer<br />
succeed who is no lawyer?<br />
Let me turn over two or three leaves, at random,<br />
of that useful annual with the wonderful name of<br />
"Who's Who." Here are a few examples: (1)<br />
Novelist, humourist, journalist: (2) story-teller,<br />
journalist, caricaturist: (3) preacher, theologian,<br />
scholar: (4) novelist, historian, poet: (5) pro-<br />
fessor, editor, critic: (6) preacher and poet:<br />
(7) journalist, editor, critic, dramatist: (8)<br />
journalist, biographer, historian: (9) novelist<br />
only: (10) archaeologist and historian: (11) bio-<br />
grapher, historian, traveller: (12) artist, author,<br />
and journalist. These names have been found<br />
in half a dozen consecutive pages of the<br />
book. I think they prove my point, that the<br />
many-sided character of the literary profession<br />
goes far to remove its former reputation for<br />
uncertainty. Of great prizes I do not speak.<br />
Nor do I speak of the incompetent and their<br />
sufferings. A far greater number of incompetent<br />
persons attempt literature than any other pro-<br />
fession because it seems to want no apprenticeship<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 283 (#295) ############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
283<br />
and it appears to be so easy. We cannot allow<br />
that those persons belong to the literary life any<br />
more than we call those students who cannot<br />
pass their examinations lawyers or physicians.<br />
Now, the examination which every literary man<br />
must pass, and every successful literary man<br />
must pass in honours, is twofold: he must be<br />
examined by the critic, and he must be examined<br />
by the public. _<br />
A contributor to the New York Writer (Ruth<br />
Hall), endeavouring to show that new writers<br />
find it very difficult to get into American maga-<br />
zines, gives a few statistics :—<br />
1. Harper's Magazine for February contains<br />
twenty-three articles. Of these, one short story,<br />
one essay, and three poems are by unknown<br />
writers.<br />
2. The Century for February contains twenty-<br />
seven contributions, of which seven are by unknown<br />
writers.<br />
These figures, however, seem to prove exactly<br />
the reverse of her proposition. When we consider<br />
that a magazine is not run with the object of<br />
advancing writers but of advancing the pro-<br />
prietor: that the editor's first duty is to find out<br />
what will instruct and attract: tbat popular<br />
authors are certain to attract: and that untried<br />
and unkno wn authors can only attract by reason<br />
of the very rare condition of having something to<br />
tell which is new and curious: and that popular<br />
authors can almost always be had if the editor<br />
will pay them—we can understand how difficult<br />
it must be for a new writer to get a hearing.<br />
We can also understand how the English maga-<br />
zine of the older kind seems sinking into a kind<br />
of atrophy because the editor and proprietor will<br />
not understand the simple rule of supply and<br />
demand. To sit down in a chair and wait for<br />
things is the editing of the past. To arrange<br />
beforehand with an eye to what will please and<br />
attract readers, yet with a door open to the new<br />
comer, is the editing of the present and the future.<br />
The new comer, when he finds that in Harper's<br />
Magazine there are five out of twenty-three<br />
papers, and in the Century seven out of twenty-<br />
seven, contributed by unknown writers, may take<br />
courage. There is still the open door.<br />
Walter Besant.<br />
CORRESPONDENCE.<br />
I.—Against Difficulties.<br />
THE March number of your paper has just<br />
come into my hands, and I am greatly<br />
interested in the letter of Mr. Julian<br />
Croskey, a gentleman whose career I have<br />
followed carefully during the last two years.<br />
The advice he gives to the parents of young<br />
men who are determined to devote their lives<br />
to literature is, I think, excellent; but how<br />
many parents will listen to his counsel? Very<br />
few, if any. I myself am determined to adopt<br />
the literary profession, but I have not the neces-<br />
sary means; rich relatives are scarce, and parents<br />
unwilling. Meanwhile, I am miserable. But<br />
what can I do? Nothing! I have had sufficient<br />
success to warrant me believing that in two years<br />
from now I could, by constant work and hard<br />
writing, earn a "comfortable income." But I<br />
am chained to office work, and my evenings are<br />
as miserable as my mornings and afternoons, for<br />
what literary work can a man do who comes home<br />
tired-out, despondent, and swearing softly to<br />
himself? o-o Waiting.<br />
II. Charity for Brain-Workers.<br />
I thought the days when people of title<br />
honoured themselves by taking authors and<br />
artists under their patronage had passed, but I<br />
seem to be mistaken. In a recent number of the<br />
Academy particulars were given of a home of<br />
rest in the Riviera for tired brain-workers. A<br />
lady of title is apparently the originator of the<br />
scheme. Men are to pay their own expenses to<br />
and from the place, they are to pay a minimum<br />
of a pound a week for board and lodging, and in<br />
return they are evidently to get what any person<br />
with a pound a week to spare can command in<br />
decent habitations in the South of France, while<br />
they are to be governed by a set of rules which<br />
ought never to be tolerated on the free side of a<br />
gaol or a workhouse. A man who can afford to<br />
pay a sovereign a week can afford to keep clear<br />
of a retreat of this description. A Member.<br />
III.—The Extravagant Dinner.<br />
Dissatisfaction among the members of the<br />
Authors' Society, tnough perhaps occasionally<br />
inevitable, is surely a thing to be avoided so far<br />
as possible. I believe considerable dissatisfaction<br />
does exist among many members at the high price<br />
charged for the annual dinner ticket. If we<br />
were a society of Stock Exchange men, or pub-<br />
lishers, or racehorse owners, or company pro-<br />
moters, a guinea would perhaps be fitting and<br />
proper; but we are poor authors, few of us with<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 284 (#296) ############################################<br />
<br />
284<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
even the incomes of a bishop, many of us women<br />
and stragglers for life. Our Committee, I take<br />
it, are among the successful. Cannot they show<br />
their sympathy for the poorer members of the<br />
Society by following the example of almost every<br />
other club and society in England, and fixing the<br />
dinner ticket at a more moderate sum? The<br />
guinea, I know, includes wine, but this is most<br />
unfair to those, particularly women, who drink<br />
little or none. In ninety-nine public dinners out<br />
of a hundred the guests pay for the wine they<br />
consume. Why should not we do likewise?<br />
If two-thirds of the price of the ticket were paid<br />
to the funds of The Author, or some other such<br />
admirable object, our grievance would be lessened;<br />
but I believe most members of the Society will<br />
agree with me that to force those who wish to<br />
meet their fellow members at the annual dinner<br />
into an act of wasteful extravagance, is bad policy<br />
on the part of our executive. When a dinner<br />
was given in honour of yourself, at the Holborn<br />
Restaurant, the price of the ticket was only 5$.,<br />
and the arrangement worked well enough. The<br />
attendance was enormous, and there was really<br />
nothing to complain of. Annual dinners have a<br />
remarkable effect in keeping clubs and societies<br />
of all kinds together, but ours loses much of this<br />
effect owing to the price of the ticket, which<br />
actually equals a year's subscription to the<br />
Society.<br />
I hope other members will express their<br />
opinions on this subject in the pages of The<br />
Author. Diane.<br />
IV.—Typewriting Offices.<br />
May I ask for the insertion of these few words<br />
in answer to two letters which appeared in your<br />
issues of February and March, condemning in a<br />
wholesale fashion the typewriting offices?<br />
It appears to me both your correspondents are<br />
not fully acquainted with the real facts connected<br />
with the typing industry, or the former would not<br />
suggest that the payment of gd. a thousand was<br />
an adequate sum to offer a woman, even a home<br />
worker.<br />
The typist who does Mr. Goodrich Freer's<br />
work at gd. a 1000 makes, if she is a fairly quick<br />
worker, and works, say, eight hours a day, 26s. a<br />
week. That is to say, she can copy 6000 words<br />
in a day, taking at the lowest computation two<br />
hours a day for the examining of the copy with<br />
the MSS. Now, take the case of the girl who<br />
has been trained in shorthand and typing in a<br />
first-class office; she is then able to take a<br />
situation, either in a typewriting office or in a<br />
mercantile office, where she can secure regular<br />
work, and scores over the home worker in the<br />
following way: First, as to hours, she works nine<br />
hours a week less, bemuse office hours in the<br />
typewriting offices are 10 to 6, and she has<br />
Saturday afternoon off; secondly, she has no<br />
worry in securing work, as she is paid whether it<br />
is slack or not; thirdly, she can make in a good<br />
office, without languages, 30s. to 35*. a week;<br />
fourth, she has not to find machine, ink, or<br />
stationery. In a mercantile office she can make<br />
up to £2, but their hours, as a rule, are rather<br />
longer—9.30 to 6. In the typewriting office she<br />
certainly does some of the work when she is suffi-<br />
2iently proficient to be trusted with it, but how<br />
else will she learn her business?<br />
I cannot see any justice in calling the typewriting<br />
office people " clever exploiters of other people's<br />
labour," as it must be remembered that the pupils<br />
are given an opportunity which can be given in<br />
no other way to learn their profession properly,<br />
and so become capable of earning a fair wage,<br />
which I do not consider Mr. Goodrich Freer's 265.<br />
a week to be. Madeleine Greenwood.<br />
V.—Payment on Acceptance.<br />
I notice in The Author for April a letter<br />
from Mr. Herbert D. Williams saying that<br />
Great Thoughts invariably pays for articles on<br />
acceptance. I regret to say that this is not my<br />
experience. An article of mine was accepted at<br />
the end of 1893, and appeared in February, 1894.<br />
I accordingly asked for payment, which was<br />
refused, because I had not stipulated for it when<br />
I sent the article. I was offered instead a bound<br />
volume of Great Thoughts.' This was a " hair of<br />
the dog" with a vengeance. I refused even this.<br />
It was only the second article of mine that had<br />
been accepted, and I felt the injustice most<br />
keenly. H. Stanley Tayler.<br />
OBITUARY.<br />
SIR MONIER MONIER - WILLIAMS,<br />
K.C.I.E., Boden Professor of Sanscrit in<br />
the University of Oxford since i860, whose<br />
Sanscrit-English dictionary (which occupied him<br />
for twenty years) and other works are well known<br />
to every Sanscrit student, died at Cannes on<br />
April 10, in his eightieth year.<br />
Mr. Edmund Sheridan Purcell, the biographer<br />
of Cardinal Manning, died on April 12, aged 76.<br />
He has left in manuscript, almost completed<br />
(says the Academy), a biography of Ambrose de<br />
Lisle, the prototype of Eustace de Lyle in<br />
"Coningsby."<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 285 (#297) ############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
285<br />
BOOK TALE.<br />
EROM copyright novels at 6d., the step has<br />
soon been taken to copyright novels at id.<br />
Messrs. Pearson are about to issue a series<br />
at this price, consisting of works by Ouida, John<br />
Oliver Hobbes, Mr. Robert Buchanan, Mr. Grant<br />
Allen, Rita, Mrs. Hungerford, Mr. Louis Becke,<br />
Mr. Fergus Hume, Mr. Clark Russell, Mrs.<br />
Hodgson Burnett, and other writers. The same<br />
firm have projected also another series of penny<br />
books, such as "How to be Happy though<br />
Married," "Helen's Babies," "Trooper Peter<br />
Halket," &c.<br />
With regard to the forthcoming biography of<br />
Mrs. Lynn Linton, Mr. G. S. Layard asks<br />
owners of letters, portraits, or other material<br />
connected with the subject. to be kind enough to<br />
forward them to him at Lorraine Cottage,<br />
Malvern, promising that these will be taken care<br />
of and returned as soon as he has done with<br />
them.<br />
Mr. Rudyard Kipling, having sufficiently<br />
recovered from his illness to be able to work,<br />
is revising a privately-printed volume of letters,<br />
and making sundry additions to them in view of<br />
their publication. This work will be called<br />
"From Sea to Sea," and among its contents will<br />
be found Mr. Kipling's "Letters of Marque"<br />
and "City of Dreadful Night," both of which<br />
were published here some years ago and imme-<br />
diately withdrawn on account of difficulties con-<br />
cerning the copyright.<br />
Mr. Stephen Crane is at work on a new novel.<br />
Before this appears, however, the public will get<br />
a new volume of verse from Mr. Crane, entitled<br />
"War is Kind."<br />
The late Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson left<br />
virtually completed a series of biographies of<br />
leaders of medicine, and these are now about to<br />
be published by Messrs. Hutchinson in two<br />
volumes, called " Disciples of .^sculapius."<br />
Mr. Lewis Melville has completed his "Life of<br />
Thackeray," and the work, which has occupied<br />
him ten years, will be ready in a few days. It<br />
consists of two volumes, and will be the first<br />
complete biography of Thackeray. Meanwhile,<br />
the splendid Biographical edition of Thackeray<br />
has just been completed by the publication of the<br />
thirteenth volume. This edition, of course, is<br />
unique by reason of the biographical introduc-<br />
tions contributed by the novelist's daughter, Mrs.<br />
Ritchie.<br />
"Curiosities of Light and Sight," by Mr.<br />
Shelford Bidwell, F.R.S., will be published in a<br />
few days by Messrs. Swan Sonnenschein and Co.<br />
It is illustrated with diagrams, and treats of<br />
structural defects of the eye, optical illusions, and<br />
various recently-observed phenomena of vision.<br />
Mrs. Gertrude Atherton is engaged on a new<br />
novel. Earlier forthcoming novels include-<br />
"England's Peril," by Mr. William Le Queux;<br />
"The Stepmother," by Mrs. Alexander; "Twice<br />
Dead," by Miss Adeline Sergeant; "A Name to<br />
Conjure With," by John Strange Winter.<br />
One of the most important publications during<br />
April was Dr. Douglas Hyde's " Literary History<br />
of Ireland." The present literary movement in<br />
that country has also given birth to a small<br />
volume of articles, by Mr. W. B. Yeats, Mr. John<br />
Eglinton, " A. E.," and Mr. William Larminie,<br />
entitled " The Literary Ideal in Ireland," which<br />
the same publisher will shortly have ready. These<br />
articles appeared originally in a Dublin paper.<br />
In his new story, "The Violet Flame," Mr.<br />
Fred. T. Jane is combining "with a thrilling<br />
love story the development of some uncanny<br />
scientific discoveries, the result of which is the<br />
destruction of the world by a catastrophe of un-<br />
paralleled horror." The story is to appear in<br />
the English Mechanic.<br />
The American Authors' Guild has changed its<br />
name to the Society of American Authors. The<br />
following are the recently elected officers and<br />
managers of the society :—President, Rastus S.<br />
Ransom; vice-presidents, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe,<br />
General Lew Wallace, Dr. Thomas Dunn English,<br />
Hubert Howe Bancroft, Mrs. Ellen Hardin Wal-<br />
worth, and Miss Grace Denio Litchfield; treasurer<br />
and counsel, Morris Patterson Ferris; secretary,<br />
John Beverly Robinson.<br />
"Rita's" new novel will be produced early<br />
this month. It is entitled "An Old Rogue's<br />
Tragedy."<br />
"Pictures of Travel," Mr. Mackenzie Bell's<br />
recent volume of poems, has been favourably<br />
received by the critics. It has also been well<br />
received by the public. Including the copyright<br />
edition in" the United States, 2000 copies have<br />
been printed.<br />
"Calumnies" is the title of the new novel by<br />
Mrs. E. M. Davy (author of " A Prince of Como,"<br />
"A Daughter of Earth," &c.), which Messrs.<br />
Arthur Pearson will publish the first week in<br />
May.<br />
A series of China stories by the author of<br />
"The Shen's Pigtail " will appear in the English<br />
Illustrated Magazine under the title of "Chips<br />
of China."<br />
"English Roses " is the title of the latest book<br />
of poems from F. Harald Williams, B.A. It is<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 286 (#298) ############################################<br />
<br />
286<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
published at 6*. by Messrs. Simpkiu, Marshall,<br />
and Co. It is a volume containing some<br />
600 pages. The book is divided into six sections,<br />
as follows: 1, English Roses; 2, Blood and Iron;<br />
3, Laughing Philosophy; 4, Euphrasy and Rue;<br />
5, Brake and Brier; and 6, Palms and Passion<br />
Flowers.<br />
"Songs of Hope and Love," by F. \V. Pitt,<br />
has just been published by Messrs. S. W. Part-<br />
ridge and Co. (price 2s. 6rf.). These poems have<br />
been well reviewed by various papers, and should<br />
have a ready sale.<br />
The title of Mrs. Richmond's new book pub-<br />
lished by Messrs. Longmans should have been<br />
described in last month's "Book Talk," as<br />
"Through Boyhood to Manhood; a Plea for<br />
Ideals." Price 2s. 6d.<br />
"The Story of "William Penn," by Frances E.<br />
Cooke, has just been published by Messrs.<br />
Headley Bros. Price is. 6d.<br />
Messrs. W. Clowes and Sons have now ready<br />
"The Officer's Field Note and Sketch Book and<br />
Reconnaissance Aide-Memoire," by Lieut.-Col. E.<br />
Gunter. 6*. 6d. net.<br />
"Marianna and other Stories," the title of a<br />
new book which Mr. Burleigh will immediately<br />
publish for " Georgette Agnew."<br />
An original poem in the style of the "Lady<br />
of the Lake," by the author of the "Rani of<br />
Jhansi" and other Eastern works, will shortly be<br />
published by Mr. Burleigh. The tale is a<br />
thrilling one, illustrating the state of unrest in<br />
Western India during the downfall of the rule of<br />
the Moguls at Delhi, and giving graphic descrip-<br />
tions of female infanticide, sati (widow-burning),<br />
and other native manners and customs.<br />
In his " Fragments of an Autobiography," Mr.<br />
Felix Moscheles records his early impressions, and<br />
introduces episodes of the artist's life in Paris.<br />
He sketches many celebrities in the musical,<br />
artistic, and political world he has frequented,<br />
and devotes special chapters to his trips to<br />
America, the Paris Commune, his godfather Felix<br />
Mendelssohn, and to Mazzini, Rossini, and<br />
Browning.<br />
Messrs. George Newnes (Limited) have nearly<br />
ready for publication a new standard work entitled<br />
"The International Geography." Seventy authors<br />
have collaborated in its production, including<br />
the leading geographers and travellers of Europe<br />
and America; the work has been planned and<br />
edited by Dr. H. R. Mill, who also wrote the chapter<br />
on the United Kingdom. Among the authors<br />
are Dr. Fridtjof Nansen (Arctic Regions), Mr.<br />
F. C. Selous (Rhodesia), Sir Clements Markham,<br />
F.R.S. (Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru), Professor<br />
A. Kirchoff (German Empire), Professor W. M.<br />
Davis (United States), Professors de Lapparent<br />
and Ravenau (France), Sir John Murray.<br />
F.R.S. (Antarctic Regions), Count Pfeil<br />
(German Colonies), Mr. James Bryce, M.P.<br />
(the Boer Republics), Sir H. H. Johnston, the<br />
late Sir Lambert Playfair, Sir F. J. Goldsmid,<br />
Sir Martin Conway, Sir George S. Robertson,<br />
Sir William MacGregor, Sir Charles Wilson,<br />
F.R.S., the Hon. D. W. Carnegie, Mrs. Bishop.<br />
Dr. A. M. W. Downing, F.R.S., Dr. J. Scott<br />
Keltie, and Mr. G. G. Chisholm, the editor of<br />
the "Times Gazetteer." The book is illustrated by<br />
nearly 500 maps and diagrams, which have been<br />
specially prepared. It is designed to present in<br />
the compact limits of a single volume an authori-<br />
tative conspectus of the science of geography and<br />
the conditions of the countries of the world at<br />
the close of the nineteenth century. The Ameri-<br />
can publishers are Messrs. D. Appleton and Co.,<br />
New York.<br />
THE BOOKS OF THE MONTH.<br />
[March 23 to April 22—263 Books.]<br />
Adams, Francis. Essayb in Modernity. 5/- net.<br />
AHalo, F. G. (ed.). The Cost of Sport. 6/-<br />
Aitken, J. The Ahiding Law. 2/6.<br />
Alaine, B. A Subtle Enchantress. 2/-<br />
Alexander, Rupert Maureen Moore. 67-<br />
Lanc.<br />
Murray.<br />
Oliphant.<br />
Stockwell.<br />
Burleigh.<br />
Allbutt, T. C. (ed.). A System of Medicine. Vol . 6. 25/- net.<br />
Macmillan.<br />
Anonymous. Robespierre. 1,-net. Effingham Pub. Co.<br />
Anonymous. Well beloved of the Father. 3/6. Scott.<br />
Anonymous (J. B.). Borne from the Inside. 1 - Clarke.<br />
Anonymous, The Story of London. 1/6. K Arnold-<br />
Anonymous Autoblography of a Child. 6/- Blackwood.<br />
Anonymous iauthor of "Owen Dale's Ordeal "). The Sport of Fate.<br />
1/6. Stevens.<br />
B. (H. T.). Some Leading Scriptural Truths. 1/6. Skeffington.<br />
Bailey, J. C. Studies in some Famous Letters. 6/- Burleigh.<br />
Balck, Captain (tr. by L. R. M. Maxwell). Modern European Tactics.<br />
Vol. 1. 7/6 net. Sands.<br />
Barnett, Edith A. Snnningham and the Curate. 6/- Chapman.<br />
Barr, W. M. Boilers and Furnaces considered in their relations to<br />
Steam Boilers. 18/- Lippincott<br />
Bearne, C. Lives and Times of Early Valois Queens. 10/6. ITnwin.<br />
Beaven, E. W. Tales of the Divining Bod. 5/- Stockwell<br />
.<br />
Beeby, C. E. Defence of " Creed and Life." 1/- net. Simpkin.<br />
Beerbohm, Max, More. 4/6 net. Lane.<br />
Bell, John. In the Shadow of the Bush. 3/6.<br />
Berry. T. W. Model Answers in School Management. 2/- Simpkin.<br />
Bickerdyke, John. The Passing of Prince Bozan. 6/- Burleigh-<br />
Binyon, L. (illus. by W. Strang). Western Flanders. 42/- net.<br />
Unicorn Press.<br />
Black, W. G. Ocean Rainfall: General and Special Oceans, lt1'64-T.*'-<br />
81. 2/6 net. Livingstone.<br />
Bloundelle-Burton. J. Fortune's My Foe. 6/- Pearson.<br />
Boevey, S. M. C. Dene Forest Sketches. Second Series. 6/-<br />
Burloigh.<br />
Bodkin, M. McD. The Rebels. 6/- Ward and L<br />
Bot6ford, G. W. HUtory of Greece for High Schools and Colleges.<br />
6/6 net. Macmillan<br />
Bottomley, G. Poems at White-Nights. 2/6 net. Unicorn Pres.<*.<br />
Bourgogne, Sergeant, Memoirs of. (1812-13) 6/- Heinemann.<br />
Bowles F. G. In the Wake of the Sun. 2/6 net. Unicorn Prees.<br />
Brought on. Rhoda. The Game and the Candle. 6/- Macmillan.<br />
Brown, Campbell-Rae. Resurrection of His Grace. 2/6. Greening.<br />
Brown, Mary W. The Development of Thrift. 3/6 net. Macmillan.<br />
Bucban, John. Grey Weather. 6/- Lane.<br />
Burnle, R. W. The Catholic Brief against Sir William Harcourt and<br />
others. 2/6. Gay and B.<br />
Oaffyn, Mrs. M. (" Iota"). Anne Mauleverer. 6/- M<'thuen.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 287 (#299) ############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOIt.<br />
287<br />
Carter, T. T. Spirit of Watchfulness, &o. 5/- Longman.<br />
Catas, E. M. H. On Christmas Day. 3/6. Putnam.<br />
Chandler, P. W. The Land Tax. 3/6 net. Beeves and Tamer.<br />
Chapman, E. J. The Snake Witch, and other Poems. Paul.<br />
Charleton, R. H. Useful Information for Gold Mining Investor l/-<br />
E. Wilson.<br />
Clifton, W. Notes on Colour. »/- Bichards.<br />
Colby, C. W. Selections from the Sources of English History. 6/-<br />
Longman.<br />
Cole, W. H. Light Railways at Home and Abroad. 16/- Griffin.<br />
Coll, B. A Strange Executor. 6/- Pearson.<br />
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