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464	https://historysoa.com/items/show/464	The Author, Vol. 10 Issue 02 (July 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.+10+Issue+02+%28July+1899%29"><em>The Author</em>, Vol. 10 Issue 02 (July 1899)</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>	1899-07-01-The-Author-10-2					29–56																		<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=89&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=10">10</a>											<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=76&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1899-07-01">1899-07-01</a>							2			18990701	The Author.<br /> <br /> (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)<br /> <br /> CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Vou. X.—No. 2.]<br /> <br /> JULY 1, 1899.<br /> <br /> [Prick SIXPENCE.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> For the Opinions expressed in papers that are<br /> signed or initialled the Authors alone are<br /> responsible. None of the papers or para-<br /> graphs must be taken as expressing the<br /> collective opinions of the Committee unless<br /> they are officially signed by G. Herbert<br /> Thring, Sec.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> =o<br /> <br /> a 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 /> <br /> important communications within two days will write to him<br /> <br /> without delay. All remittances should be crossed Union<br /> <br /> Bank of London, Chancery-lane, or be sent by registered<br /> <br /> letter only.<br /> <br /> <br /> <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 /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Dos<br /> <br /> GENERAL MEMORANDA.<br /> <br /> ERE are a few standing rules to be observed in an<br /> agreement. There are three methods of dealing<br /> with literary property :—<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> J. THAT OF SELLING IT OUTRIGHT.<br /> <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 /> <br /> Il. A PROFIT-SHARING AGREEMENT.<br /> <br /> In this case the following rules should be attended to :<br /> <br /> (1.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro-<br /> duction forms a part.<br /> <br /> (2.) Not to give the publisher the power of putting the<br /> profits into his own pocket by charging for advertisements<br /> in his own organs: or by charging exchange advertise-<br /> ments.<br /> <br /> (3.) Not to allow a special charge for “ office expenses,”<br /> unless the same allowance is made to the author.<br /> <br /> (4.) Not to give up American, Colonial, or Continental<br /> rights.<br /> <br /> (§.) Not to give up serial or translation rights.<br /> <br /> (6.) Not to bind yourself for future work to any publisher.<br /> <br /> VOL. X.<br /> <br /> As well bind yourself for the future to any one solicitor or<br /> doctor !<br /> (7.) To stamp the agreement.<br /> <br /> Ill. THE ROYALTY SYSTEM.<br /> <br /> It is above all things necessary to know what the<br /> proposed royalty means to both sides. It is now possible<br /> for an author to ascertain approximately and very nearly<br /> the truth. From time to time the very important figures<br /> connected with royalties are published in The Author.<br /> Readers can also work out the figures themselves from the<br /> ‘Cost of Production.”<br /> <br /> The four main points which the Society has always<br /> demanded from the outset are :—<br /> <br /> (1.) That both sides shall know what an agreement<br /> means.<br /> <br /> (2.) The inspection of those account books which belong<br /> to the author. We are advised that this is a right, in the<br /> nature of a common law right, which cannot be denied or<br /> withheld.<br /> <br /> (3.) That there shall be no secret profits.<br /> <br /> (4.) That there shall be no charge for advertisements<br /> in the publisher&#039;s own organs and none for exchanged<br /> advertisements.<br /> <br /> pecs<br /> <br /> HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Le VERY member has a right to ask for and to receive<br /> advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-<br /> lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his<br /> <br /> business or the administration of his property. If the<br /> 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 case 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 /> <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.<br /> <br /> 3. Send to the Office copies of past agreements and past<br /> accounts with the loan of the books represented. The<br /> Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new<br /> or old, for inspection and note. The information thus<br /> obtained may prove invaluable.<br /> <br /> 4. Before signing any agreement whatever, send the pro-<br /> posed document to the Society for examination.<br /> <br /> 5. Remember always that in belonging to the Society you<br /> are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you are<br /> <br /> p 2<br /> <br /> <br /> 30<br /> <br /> reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are advancing<br /> the best interests of literature in promoting the indepen-<br /> dence of the writer.<br /> <br /> 6. 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 Society 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 /> <br /> ES<br /> <br /> THE READING BRANCH.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> EMBERS will greatly assist the Society in this<br /> <br /> f branch of their work by informing young writers of<br /> <br /> its existence. Their MSS. can be read and treated<br /> <br /> as a composition is treated by a coach. The Readers are<br /> <br /> writers of competence and experience. The fee is one<br /> guinea.<br /> <br /> OO iio<br /> <br /> NOTICES.<br /> <br /> 1; Editor of The Author begs to remind members of the<br /> Society that, although the paper is sent to them free<br /> of charge, the cost of producing it would be a very<br /> <br /> heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great<br /> <br /> many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest<br /> 6s. 6d. subscription for the year.<br /> <br /> Communications for The Author should be addressed to<br /> the Offices of the Society, 4, Portugal-street, Lincoln’s-inn<br /> Fields, W.C., and should reach the Editor not later than the<br /> 2ist of each month.<br /> <br /> All persons engaged in literary work of any kind,<br /> whether members of the Society or not, are invited to<br /> communicate to the Editor any points connected with their<br /> work which it would be advisable in the general interest to<br /> publish.<br /> <br /> 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, &amp;c.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> FROM THE COMMITTEE.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> NE hundred and eight new members have<br /> been elected to the Society during the<br /> current year, thirty-one being elected at<br /> <br /> the meeting of the Committee held in June. This<br /> number is very satisfactory, showing no decrease<br /> on the amount of the elections at this time last<br /> year.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Some notice has been given in the papers that<br /> an arrangement has been attempted by the Pub-<br /> lishers’ Association, and adopted by some book-<br /> sellers, for the placing of high-priced books on the<br /> market at net prices. Authors signing agree-<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> ments in the future should therefore carefully<br /> look to this point, and should have it clearly<br /> stated in their arrangements as to whether the<br /> book is to be published net or with the usual<br /> discounts, for if the book is published net the<br /> publisher receives a larger price from the book-<br /> sellers, and the author must therefore receive a<br /> proportionately larger royalty. G. H. T.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> a ee<br /> <br /> LITERARY PROPERTY.<br /> <br /> T.—Kiperuine v. Putnam.<br /> M RUDYARD KIPLING has raised an<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> action in the United States Circuit<br /> <br /> Court which involves a question of deep<br /> interest to authors. He suesG. P. Putnam’s Sons,<br /> D. Appleton and Co., Doubleday and McClure Co.,<br /> Charles Scribner’s Sons, and the Century Com-<br /> pany, to recover damages sustained by alleged<br /> infringements of copyrights. All but GP.<br /> Putnam’s Sons have been notified that they are<br /> only technical defendants.<br /> <br /> I, MR. RUDYARD KIPLING’S STATEMENT.<br /> <br /> Srr,—Would you spare me a little space<br /> to set out the details of a difference which<br /> has arisen between myself and Messrs. G. P.<br /> Putnam’s Sons, of New York? My excuse for<br /> troubling you is that the case may be of<br /> interest alike to English and American authors<br /> as directly affecting their control of their own<br /> works.<br /> <br /> By arrangement with Messrs. D. Appleton and<br /> Co., The Century Company, The Doubleday and<br /> McClure Company, and until lately also with The<br /> Macmillan Company (all of New York), each of<br /> these houses has published certain of my books.<br /> In 1896 Messrs. Charles Scribner’s Sons under-<br /> took the publication of an edition of my works,<br /> which was necessarily carried out with the con-<br /> currence of the other authorised publishers. It<br /> is known as the “ Outward Bound Edition,” and<br /> by agreement with my other publishers may be<br /> sold only by subscription. I have written a<br /> special introduction for it and re-arranged the<br /> stories; Mr. John Lockwood Kipling designed<br /> for it a number of illustrations; and he also ~<br /> designed for the cover, as a sign of my personal<br /> authentication or trade mark, the representation<br /> of an elephant’s head. a<br /> <br /> The “Outward Bound” Edition had this<br /> spring progressed to twelve volumes, and part of<br /> my work in America was to carry it-forward. On<br /> Saturday, March 11, there ‘appeared in an<br /> evening paper in New York City a conspicuous<br /> advertisement as follows :—<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 31<br /> <br /> ! Rudyard<br /> Kipling’s<br /> Works.<br /> <br /> BRUSHWOOD EDITION.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 15 Volumes Including General Index.<br /> <br /> {The Brushwood Edition is by far the<br /> most Complete Collected Edition of Kipling’s<br /> Works, and contains<br /> <br /> 17 Notable Stories and 51 Poems<br /> <br /> not in any other collected edition.<br /> It also includes A KEN OF KIPLING<br /> <br /> By Will M. Clemens. Containing an account of Kipling’s career,<br /> an appreciation of his work, some good anecdotes, a new portrait in<br /> photogravure, and two other illustrations.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 15 vols., large 12°, Cloth xtra ..........csssscsesereeseeceeeneosenees<br /> Full buckram, leather labels, bevelled boari .<br /> Walt Galt extra, RilCtOps &lt;i... ..sccssscccousorsveress<br /> Three-quarters calf extra........... ue<br /> Three-quarters crushed levant .........:cscccscssercensessenseeess nett $60.00<br /> <br /> For sale only in the Retail Departments of<br /> <br /> G. P. Putnam’s Sons,<br /> 27 West 23d Street, N.Y.,<br /> <br /> and<br /> <br /> E. P. Dutton &amp; Co.,<br /> <br /> 31, West 23d St., N.Y.<br /> <br /> On Monday morning, March 13, this advertise-<br /> ment came to the attention of Mr. Charles<br /> Scribner, who at once called upon Mr. George<br /> Haven Putnam, and protested against the enter-<br /> prise.<br /> <br /> On March 13 and 14, Mr. George H. Putnam<br /> wrote two long letters to Mr. Scribner in defence of<br /> the so-called Brushwood Edition.<br /> <br /> In the course of these letters Mr. George<br /> Haven Putnam wrote: “The question that has<br /> arisen between your house and the management<br /> of our retail department, for the action of which,<br /> of course, our firm assumes the full measure of<br /> responsibility, impresses me as by no means as<br /> simple as it seems to you. There are various<br /> complexities in it which it may be easier to see<br /> through clearly when there are more precedents.<br /> After receiving your note this afternoon I put<br /> the question before Mr. who took<br /> precisely that ground. It seemed to him that<br /> there were a good many matters to be considered<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> in the question, and it was one of business ethics<br /> for which a simple and final answer was by no<br /> means easy.”<br /> <br /> In reply to this letter Mr. Charles Scribner<br /> wrote on March 15: “Dear Putnam,—l note<br /> your statement that you have placed the Kipling<br /> question before Mr. — , and that you report<br /> ‘he took precisely the same ground that you did.’<br /> I have never claimed the question was free from<br /> complexities, most questions have them. Nor do<br /> I object to your securing sheets from the various .<br /> authorised publishers of Mr. Kipling’s books<br /> and binding them up for sale in your retail<br /> department, but I think you should confer with<br /> the author before you announce an edition of his<br /> works under a new title with a new index speci-<br /> ally prepared, and witha biographical or critical<br /> addition. And Lthink, too, that the manner of<br /> announcing your edition was particularly objec-<br /> tionable.”<br /> <br /> On investigating the “edition,” which was<br /> named from a story of mine—The Brushwood<br /> Boy—we found that it was made up in part of<br /> sheets obtained from some of my authorised<br /> publishers; that it included also some verses<br /> which I had not authorised to be published in<br /> any of my books; it included also sheets of a<br /> volume entitled “ Departmental Ditties, Barrack<br /> Room Ballads, and other Verses,” with the im-<br /> print of a firm which I had not authorised to<br /> publish this or any other book of mine ; also<br /> sheets of a book which I had not written or even<br /> seen. To these had been added some forty<br /> pages of titles and lines copied out of my books<br /> and arranged under the designation “Index to<br /> the Works of Rudyard Kipling: Brushwood<br /> Edition.” These sheets had been bound up into<br /> volumes. On the back of each volume was the<br /> name “Rudyard Kipling”; an elephant’s head<br /> in a circular design of the exact size of the<br /> elephant’s head on the cover of the “ Outward<br /> Bound” Edition, and a volume number. Upon<br /> the front of the covers there was again the<br /> elephant’s head, and a facsimile of my autograph.<br /> They were put up in a box labelled “Rudyard<br /> Kipling—Brushwood Edition.”<br /> <br /> In this connection it is interesting to remember<br /> that Mr. George Haven Putnam, in an interview<br /> with the Daily Chronicle, stated explicitly that<br /> it was not an edition, but “merely you had an<br /> harmonious binding.”<br /> <br /> I could see nothing about the books, or the<br /> box, or the advertisement to suggest that this<br /> enterprise was without my consent, or was not<br /> fully authorised by me.<br /> <br /> It seemed to me that this “edition” directly<br /> traversed my right to select my own publisher ;<br /> and that by placing a facsimile of my autograph<br /> 32 THE<br /> <br /> and an imitation of my elephant’s head on books<br /> not authorised or even seen by me, Messrs. G. P.<br /> Putnam’s Sons had given a false air of authen-<br /> ticity to their enterprise.<br /> <br /> ‘Also, there were the questions relating to the<br /> many purchasers of the “ Outward Bound”<br /> Edition and of the other authorised books. It<br /> would appear, on the one hand, that my “ Outward<br /> Bound ” Edition had been superseded, and on the<br /> other, that I was party to a scheme for issuing my<br /> well-known trade books with other matter which<br /> had never been authorised, under different covers<br /> as a new edition, and a more complete edition<br /> than that of Messrs. Scribners’.<br /> <br /> To give a few illustrations in this regard.<br /> Thirteen of the ‘ seventeen notable stories not in<br /> any other collected edition,” as the advertisement<br /> is so careful to point out, are secured by the<br /> inclusion of a book called “The Day’s Work,”<br /> published last autumn by Messrs. Doubleday and<br /> McClure, which in the ordinary course of events<br /> could not appear in my “ Outward Bound ” edition<br /> till June. Indeed, Mr. G. H. Putnam, in a letter<br /> of March 13 to Mr. Charles Scribner, admits that<br /> hisset “has the temporary advantage over your own<br /> handsome edition of containing the stories com-<br /> prised in the new Doubleday volume which are<br /> later, we understand, to be included in your own<br /> set.” The advantage is somewhat pronounced,<br /> when you consider that, under the terms of agree-<br /> ment with my various publishers, I could not pass<br /> a book into my “Outward Bound” edition until<br /> after the lapse of a year or thereabouts. Messrs.<br /> G. P. Putnam’s Sons, however, purchase unbound<br /> sheets of the ordinary edition of “ The Day’s<br /> Work” and make them a special feature of their<br /> Brushwood “edition.” As that volume appears<br /> with my autograph in facsimile outside, and with<br /> the elephant’s head, subscribers to the “ Outward<br /> Bound” edition, who would have to wait till June<br /> or later for their “Day’s Work,” might justly<br /> think that I was not dealing fairly with them. It<br /> seems to me that this matter touches publishers<br /> as well as authors.<br /> <br /> So far as I can make out from the “ Index to<br /> the Works of Rudyard Kipling, Brushwood<br /> Edition,” compiled and prepared by Messrs.<br /> G. P. Putnam’s Sons on their own responsibility,<br /> forty-nine of the fifty-one poems “not in any<br /> other collected edition,” are secured by the<br /> inclusion of a volume of verse called ‘“‘ Depart-<br /> mental Ditties, Barrack Room Ballads, and<br /> Other Verses,” purchased by Messrs. Putnam from<br /> a firm which is not authorised to publish any of<br /> my books. This volume includes about a dozen<br /> “ Barrack Room Ballads,” all of which are duly<br /> bound up under my facsimile autograph and<br /> elephant’s head asa volume of the Brushwood<br /> <br /> AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> “edition.” But Messrs. Macmillan’s authorised<br /> edition of my ballads and “Barrack Room<br /> Ballads” (another of Messrs. Putnam’s pur-<br /> chases and another volume of their “ edition”)<br /> naturally includes the same “Barrack Room<br /> Ballads.’ In the “Index to the Works of<br /> Rudyard Kipling, Brushwood Edition ” they are<br /> duly indexed twice over, with the explanatory<br /> note, “A few of the poems appear in two<br /> different volumes.”<br /> <br /> We come now to the two poems that make up<br /> the tale of fifty-one ; and here we are rewarded by<br /> one little touch of humour. In 1896 I published<br /> with Messrs. Appleton in New York a volume of<br /> verse called “The Seven Seas.” It was there-<br /> fore something of a surprise to me to dis-<br /> cover in 1899, at the end of “The Seven Seas,”<br /> two poems called “The Vampire” and “ Reces-<br /> sional.” “The Vampire” was adorned with a<br /> sort of blood-red title-page, and the reproduction<br /> of a picture, together with an equally blood-red<br /> autograph in facsimile. ‘“ Recessional” was not<br /> illustrated. Now, the one poem was written in<br /> 1898 and the other in 1897. They were both<br /> uncopyrighted; and there was nothing in the<br /> world to prevent Messrs. G. P. Putnam’s Sons<br /> from publishing and selling them, with or with-<br /> out illustrations, as many American publishers<br /> have done. But this firm preferred to smuggle<br /> them between the pages of a brother-publisher’s<br /> copyrighted book !<br /> <br /> This would seem to establish the precedent<br /> that any retail bookseller may add to any volume<br /> of any author, after any lapse of time, such stray<br /> matter as in that bookseller’s opimion may<br /> temporarily increase the interest of the book to<br /> the vendor’s immediate pecuniary advantage and<br /> to the discredit of the author and his legitimate<br /> publisher. This, again, seems a point of interest<br /> both to authors and publishers.<br /> <br /> To continue the story. A few days after we<br /> had seen the “edition,” Mr. W. W. Appleton<br /> called, and it was intimated to him that we wished<br /> to stop the publication. He asked as a personal<br /> favour to be permitted to write to Mr. G. H.<br /> Putnam, which was agreed to. Mr. Appleton<br /> wrote on March 23, calling his attention to my<br /> special objections. On March 25 Mr. G. H. Putnam<br /> wrote a long letter of argument to Mr. Appleton,<br /> discussing the questions in detail.<br /> <br /> On March 25 Mr. G. H. Putnam wrote a long<br /> letter of argument defending the “ Brushwood<br /> Edition ” item by item to Mrs. Kipling.<br /> <br /> These letters to Mr. Scribner, Mr. Appleton,<br /> and Mrs. Kipling would fill about two columns of<br /> an ordinary newspaper. It appeared from them<br /> that the so-called “ Brushwood Edition” was not<br /> completed on Monday, March 13, when Mr.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 33<br /> <br /> Scribner protested against the enterprise, and<br /> also that Mr. Putnam knew that we were carry-<br /> ing forward the “ Outward Bound ” Edition.<br /> <br /> The objections that had been made to Mr.<br /> Putnam were that without the consent of the<br /> author he had practically published a new edition<br /> of his works under a new title, with a new index<br /> specially prepared and with additions; and specifi-<br /> cally we objected to the method of advertising, to<br /> the inclusion in an’ edition of my works of<br /> the volume of ‘Departmental Ditties, Barrack<br /> Room Ballads, and Other Verses,’ and of the<br /> matter which I had not written, and to the use<br /> of the elephant’s head and the facsimile of my<br /> autograph.<br /> <br /> Seeing that I could make no progress, I<br /> instructed my counsel, Mr. Gurlitz, who had been<br /> looking into the matter, to request that the<br /> “edition” be withdrawn. This was demanded by<br /> him substantially upon the ground of Mr.<br /> Scribner’s protest, and he referred Messrs. G. P.<br /> Putnam’s Sons to the letters written by Mr. G. H.<br /> Putnam to Mr. Appleton and Mrs. Kipling.<br /> <br /> In response to this letter Messrs. Putnam’s<br /> counsel called upon Mr. Gurlitz and the whole<br /> matter was discussed from its legal side, the<br /> books were produced, and each volume was<br /> examined, each item of objection discussed. We<br /> had learned of the unauthorised inclusion of two<br /> of my poems in “The Seven Seas” and in the<br /> index of that book which G. P. Putnam’s Sons<br /> admit having prepared. After some discussion<br /> Messrs. G. P. Putnam’s Sons insisted in sub-<br /> stance that they were acting within their rights,<br /> and on April 4 suggested a reference with an<br /> implication that was unsatisfactory. However,<br /> if the suggestion had been made on March 13,<br /> when Mr. Scribner first protested, and if the<br /> publication had been suspended until a decision<br /> had been come to, it might have been considered.<br /> But instead of heeding Mr. Scribner’s protest,<br /> which, it will be remembered, included a direct<br /> objection to the manner in which the “ edition x<br /> was advertised, the Brushwood “edition” was<br /> advertised again and again in the papers, and<br /> also in the Putnam show-window, where a large<br /> sign was displayed with the words:<br /> <br /> RUDYARD KIPLING’S COMPLETE WORKS.<br /> BRUSHWOOD EDITION.<br /> <br /> It was not in any sense “complete.” It did<br /> not contain “‘ Pharoah and the Sergeant,” ‘‘ The<br /> Truce of the Bear,” “The White Man’s Burden,”<br /> and a number of other writings which had then<br /> been published.<br /> <br /> We had nearly concluded to bring action when<br /> an intimation was received through Mr. Appleton<br /> that Messrs. G. P. Putnam desired to see Mr.<br /> <br /> Watt, my business agent, who had come over<br /> to New York specially to aid me in suppress-<br /> ing unauthorised publications. Heping there<br /> had been a change of purpose, proceedings were<br /> suspended, and Mr. Watt called and saw Mr.<br /> Irving Putnam. Mr. Watt was familiar with<br /> the questions involved, and after his interview<br /> reported that he had listened to substantially the<br /> same matter which had already been discussed in<br /> the Putnam letters. Under date of April 21 he<br /> received a letter from Mr. Irving Putnam to<br /> the effect that Mr. Putnam had noted briefly<br /> the various points which he had gone over at<br /> the interview. This was accompanied by a long<br /> memorandum of twelve numbered paragraphs.<br /> It added nothing new to the situation except<br /> the facts that the index had been prepared by<br /> Messrs. Putnams, and that the matter in<br /> Volume XV.—a collection of newspaper para-<br /> graphs about myself—had been “ added in order<br /> to make, with the Index, bulk enough for a<br /> volume.”<br /> <br /> I understand that Messrs. Putnam’s object was<br /> to get bulk enough for a fifteen-volume edition.<br /> <br /> Our efforts, extending over some six weeks, to<br /> get the “ Brushwood Edition” withdrawn with-<br /> out legal proceedings having failed, action was<br /> commenced on April 22.<br /> <br /> On April 23, statements purporting to come<br /> from the Messrs. Putnam were published broad-<br /> cast in the New York Press. These were to the<br /> effect that they were in the dark as to the suit ;<br /> that Mr. Kipling’s attorney would make no<br /> explanation. ‘We tried for three weeks to get<br /> specifications from Mr. Kipling, but they were<br /> refused,” &amp;¢. Since then other statements of a<br /> similar character have appeared. It has also<br /> been said that I demanded the payment of heavy<br /> damages.<br /> <br /> Nothing of the kind occurred. No one ever<br /> applied to me for any specifications whatever, but<br /> on the contrary, commencing with the morning of<br /> March 13, which was the first business day after<br /> the announcement of the ‘ Brushwood Edition,”<br /> Mr. Scribner stated our objections to Mr. G. H.<br /> Putnam. On March 23, Mr. Appleton went into<br /> the details of our objections; on March 25 Mr.<br /> G. H. Putnam defended the “Brushwood<br /> Edition” to Mrs. Kipling item by item; on<br /> March 30, the counsel of the respective parties<br /> went over the matter again, item by item, from<br /> the legal aspect; the whole subject was fully dis-<br /> cussed for six weeks in voluminous writings and<br /> by word of mouth.<br /> <br /> At any time between March 13 and April 22 a<br /> settlement could have been made if a settlement<br /> had been desired by Messrs. Putnam. The ques-<br /> tion of damages did not become a practical one,<br />  <br /> <br /> 34<br /> <br /> because Messrs. Putnam refused to withdraw the<br /> so-called “Brushwood Edition,’ and refused to<br /> inform us of the number which they had pub-<br /> lished and sold.<br /> <br /> Here, then, my case against Messrs. Putnam<br /> rests :<br /> <br /> They have, under cover of following the routine<br /> of their trade, produced an incomplete set of books,<br /> which they wish the public to accept as a complete<br /> edition of my books.<br /> <br /> They have attempted—both by the title that<br /> they selected for their “edition,” and by placing<br /> on every volume my autograph in facsimile, and<br /> an imitation of the elephant’s head which is the<br /> distinguishing mark of my “ Outward Bound ”<br /> edition—to make the public believe that their<br /> venture had my sanction.<br /> <br /> They have used in part matter written and<br /> authorised by me; in part matter written but not<br /> authorised ; in part matter neither written nor<br /> authorised nor ever seen by me.<br /> <br /> They have appropriated copyright material for<br /> their own uses in their specially prepared index.<br /> <br /> They have tampered with a copyrighted book<br /> three years after publication.<br /> <br /> They have made me responsible before a public,<br /> to whom I do peculiarly owe my best and most<br /> honest work, for an egregious, padded fake.<br /> <br /> And all these things they did—taking advantage<br /> of that public’s interest in my illness—when I lay<br /> at the point of death.<br /> <br /> I do not see how I can permit their action to<br /> pass without challenge. It establishes too many<br /> precedents which will do evil to the honour and<br /> integrity of the profession that, so far, has given<br /> me countenance and profit.<br /> <br /> Rupyarp Kipxine.<br /> <br /> II. MR. IRVING PUTNAM’S STATEMENT.<br /> <br /> The Putnams say they are not conscious that<br /> they have infringed in any manner Mr. Kipling’s<br /> rights; their retail department simply purchased<br /> sheets of his copyright books published by all the<br /> defendants named, except Messrs. Scribner, and<br /> bound them in various styles of leather binding.<br /> These works, while uniform in exterior, preserved<br /> inside the material just as issued by Mr. Kipling’s<br /> authorised publishers, with the original title-pages<br /> and imprints. To make a set of a certain number<br /> of volumes Will M. Clemens’s “ Ken of Kipling,”<br /> and other Kiplingiana, and an index were added.<br /> The whole was advertised as the ‘“ Brushwood<br /> Edition,” and was marketed jointly by the retail<br /> departments of G. P. Putnam’s Sons and E. P.<br /> Dutton and Co. Mr. Irving Putnam, the head of<br /> <br /> the retail department of G. P. Putnam’s Sons,<br /> has given an account of the matter to a repre-<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> sentative of the New York Tribune.<br /> some of his statements :—<br /> <br /> The trouble probably lies—although I do not see that<br /> we have done any wrong there—in our custom of buying<br /> unbound from Mr. Kipling’s publishers the printed sheets<br /> of his works and then binding them ourselves and selling<br /> them. Our retail shop, in conjunction with our neighbour<br /> E. P. Dutton and Co., bought from the several publishers of<br /> his works a number of copies of each of his different books<br /> as follows: Copies of seven different works from the<br /> Macmillan Company, three from the Century Company, two<br /> from D. Appleton and Co., and one from the Doubleday and<br /> McClure Company. We bought these printed sheets in<br /> unbound form and put our own covers on them—an ordi-<br /> nary custom in the book business from time immemorial.<br /> These books are in each case the authorised copyright<br /> edition, and Mr. Kipling presumably gets royalty on each<br /> copy sold. There is one book of his called ‘‘ Departmental<br /> Ditties,” consisting of his earlier Indian poems, which for<br /> some reason he does not seem to wish to perpetuate. We<br /> knew nothing of this feeling when we bought the books.<br /> Of this work there is no authorised copyright edition, but<br /> it happens to be material that the public thinks most<br /> highly of. This is not included in the Outward Bound<br /> edition published by Charles Scribner’s Sons, and especially<br /> selected and compiled by himself, and we thought it a good<br /> stroke of business to include in our complete collected<br /> edition. If we had known of the author’s reluctance to<br /> have these’ poems perpetuated we would perhaps not have<br /> included them, out of principles of comity and courtesy, but<br /> we have never received such an intimation from the author.<br /> These poems happen to constitute one of the most popular<br /> of his books, and in form of various editions have been im<br /> the market for eight years. As there is no author’s copy-<br /> righted edition we bought the best available edition<br /> possible—that published by Henry T. Coates and Co.,<br /> Philadelphia. These several sheets we bound up in various<br /> styles of cloth and leather binding, making a collection that<br /> was uniform in exterior, but preserving the material just as<br /> published, together with the title-pages and imprints of the<br /> several publishers. We learned only incidentally that Mr.<br /> Kipling objected to this collection, and we have been vainly<br /> trying ever since to find out in what particular he con-<br /> sidered himself wronged. . . .<br /> <br /> Our lawyer wrote to Mr. Kipling’s counsel, and received<br /> a letter from Mr. Gurlitz stating that his client was<br /> “righteously indignant” over our ‘appropriation of his<br /> property,” and that the only possible settlement was on the<br /> basis of a withdrawal of the books for sale, an accounting<br /> to Mr. Kipling, and substantial damages week e<br /> <br /> ‘‘We have published nothing,” Mr. Irving<br /> Putnam repeats, “but have simply, as retail<br /> booksellers, bound editions published by other<br /> houses. Mr. Kipling is therefore, through his<br /> agents, the Macmillan Company and others,<br /> selling us material and taking our money on the<br /> one hand, while at the same time saying, on the<br /> other hand, ‘Don’t you sell it.’ In our<br /> binding, printing, and insignia and titles of<br /> different sorts we have infringed no rights of<br /> trade marks or copyright, so that I don’t yet<br /> see where the action lies either legally or<br /> reasonably.”<br /> <br /> We quote<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 3<br /> <br /> Il.—Tue PusLisHER AND THE AGENT.<br /> <br /> Owing to the constantly renewed endeavour of<br /> publishers to obtain control of outside markets<br /> on a profit-sharing arrangement it is necessary<br /> once more to call the attention of authors to the<br /> dangers of the position. In the first place pub-<br /> lishers are not literary agents. This work is not<br /> primarily their business. They are the authors’<br /> agents for the publication of their books only.<br /> Two points follow from this, one that a great<br /> majority of publishers have not the same facili-<br /> ties either as authors themselves or authors’<br /> agents; and two, those publishers that have<br /> these facilities use them for the purpose of their<br /> own pecuniary advantage to the detriment of the<br /> authors. The words “ outside rights” have been<br /> used in the sentence above. It is necessary to<br /> explain them as this article deals practically with<br /> “outside rights ” only.<br /> <br /> The author can divide his property up into<br /> many rights. The chief of these are as follows:<br /> <br /> Serial rights in England.<br /> <br /> Serial rights in America.<br /> <br /> Serial rights in the Colonies.<br /> <br /> Book production in England.<br /> <br /> Book production in America.<br /> <br /> Book production in the Colonies.<br /> <br /> Continental rights in English.<br /> <br /> Translation rights in the different countries<br /> under the Berne Convention, and in some cases<br /> <br /> Dramatic rights.<br /> <br /> Now, the English publisher ought to deal only<br /> with the publication of the book in England, and<br /> perhaps its colonies and dependencies.<br /> <br /> Under many forms of agreement put forward<br /> by the best houses in London the publisher asks<br /> for all the other rights enumerated beyond the<br /> publication of the book as above referred to.<br /> These other rights are termed here, for the sake<br /> of convenience, ‘ outside rights.”<br /> <br /> It has been stated that the majority of pub-<br /> lishers have not the same facilities for placing<br /> these outside rights. It isa fact that they are<br /> not in touch with the editors of magazines like<br /> an author’s agent. ‘They cannot diagnose what<br /> stories certain magazines may desire at certain<br /> times like authors’ agents, or even like the authors<br /> themselves. They have not the possibilities of<br /> placing these rights that frequently come to an<br /> agent of recognised position. _<br /> <br /> But it should be pointed out in the second<br /> place, that in many cases the publisher’s interest<br /> is antagonistic to the author’s interest in securing<br /> a financial return for these rights, and this is<br /> especially the case with regard to the American<br /> market. It very frequently does not pay the<br /> publisher to go to the trouble of securing<br /> American copyright for an author when he has<br /> <br /> VOL. &amp;.<br /> <br /> car<br /> <br /> control of the American market, but pays him<br /> much better to sell sheets that have been<br /> printed in England, or stereos that have been<br /> manufactured here, on terms which are not<br /> invariably fully disclosed. In consequence he<br /> will rather take this latter step and obtain 50<br /> per cent. of the net profits from the author than<br /> move on the author’s behalf to obtain the<br /> American copyright.<br /> <br /> In the third place, this great difficulty should<br /> be pointed out, that when an author is receiving<br /> a royalty on the publication in England, it is a<br /> mistake to mix up with such royalty agreement a<br /> share profit arrangement for the sale of rights to<br /> either the Colonies or America, for it has not in-<br /> frequently happened that the publishers holding<br /> an agreement on this basis have failed to obtain<br /> the American copyright, and have then sold a<br /> large set of sheets to America, charging against<br /> such sheets (if the number happened to be half<br /> the amount printed) a half also of the cost of<br /> composition. As the author’s royalty is being<br /> paid on the understanding that the cost of<br /> composition is charged against the English<br /> edition, it is not fair that half the cost of compo-<br /> sition should then be charged against the<br /> American or Colonial edition. The cost of<br /> machining and paper alone should be charged<br /> against these editions. Not long ago a case came<br /> before the Society worked out on the basis<br /> pointed out above, in which the sale showed no<br /> profits whatever—that is, of course, as far as the<br /> author was concerned.<br /> <br /> The fourth point, and by far the most impor-<br /> tant point, is the following: that the publisher<br /> generally asks for half profits on American rights,<br /> that is, 50 per cent. of the profits, whereas an<br /> author’s agent for doing the same work asks<br /> 10, and, at the outside, 20 per cent. This<br /> point has been put forward in The Author<br /> already on two or three different occasions, and<br /> it was shown that over a large series of agree-<br /> ments the lowest a publisher asked was 25 per<br /> cent.; so that it cannot possibly be to the advan-<br /> tage of an author to place these rights in the<br /> hands of a publisher on the terms they generally<br /> quote. It may be the case, however, that<br /> American publishers refuse to take matter from an<br /> author direct or through an author’s agent, when<br /> they will accept an offer from a publisher in<br /> England which may be arranged to the mutual<br /> benefit of the American and English publisher.<br /> Tf this is the case, and if it should happen that<br /> the publishers are endeavouring to make a close<br /> ring, the point for the Authors’ Society to aim at<br /> is to erect publishers in America who will stand<br /> outside such a ring. This will not be a difficult<br /> thing to manage, as the control of the market<br /> <br /> E<br /> 56 THE<br /> <br /> o<br /> <br /> can never lie with the publisher, but must finally<br /> lie in the author’s own hands. t+. H<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> TI] —A New Yorx AcEncy.<br /> <br /> A prospectus has come to the offices of the<br /> Society from the International Press Association<br /> Literary Syndicate and Agency of New York and<br /> London, 114, Fifth-avenue, New York. The<br /> name of one of the directors is Mr. Charles F,<br /> Rideal, Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature<br /> of Great Britain, author of “ Wellerisms,”<br /> “People we Meet,” “Charles Dickens’ Heroines<br /> and Women Folk,” editor of “ American Men of<br /> the. Time,” “American Women of the Time,”<br /> formerly editor of Life, The Magazine and Book<br /> Review (England), &amp;c., and he is assisted by an<br /> &lt; experienced staff.” This Mr. Charles F. Rideal<br /> is apparently the gentleman who was for some<br /> years manager of the Roxburghe Press, that held<br /> its offices at 15, Victoria-street, S.W.<br /> <br /> To members of the Society and other persons<br /> interested, therefore, this notification will be amply<br /> sufficient.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> IV.—A Sone AGREEMENT: witH NoTEs.<br /> <br /> [Norrce.—In all cases in which publishers’<br /> agreements are printed and commented on in The<br /> Author a copy of the paper will henceforth be sent<br /> to the firm concerned, accompanied by a letter<br /> drawing their attention to the comments and offer-<br /> ing them the opportunity of making any reply in<br /> The Author in case they should desire to do so.]<br /> <br /> (coPY.)<br /> <br /> This indenture made the day of<br /> <br /> one thousand eight hundred and between<br /> of (hereinafter called the vendor),<br /> of the one part, and in the county of<br /> music publishers for themselves, and<br /> ¢o-partners in the firm of (hereinafter<br /> <br /> called the purchasers) of the other part.<br /> Witnesseth that, in consideration of the sum of<br /> pence for every copy to be published and<br /> sold by the purchasers (except one copy im seven,<br /> according to the usual trade custom, and except<br /> to copies sent to the United States of America<br /> and Canada, for which only half the above sum is<br /> to be paid per copy), to be paid by the purchasers<br /> to the vendor so long as the copyright shall last<br /> for the absolute purchase of the copyright and<br /> rights of publication, representation and perform-<br /> ance, and all other the rights, property, and<br /> interests intended to be hereby assigned, he, the<br /> vendor, as beneficial owner, doth hereby assign<br /> unto the purchasers all the copyright and right<br /> of publication, representation, performance of<br /> him, the vendor, of and in the musical com-<br /> <br /> AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> positions or works specified in the schedule here-<br /> under written, including the title and words<br /> thereof for the United Kingdom of Great Britain<br /> and Ireland, including the Channel Islands and<br /> its colonies and dependencies, and for all foreign<br /> countries. And all other property, rights, and<br /> interests, whether at law or in equity of him the<br /> yendor, therein or thereto, to hold the same unto<br /> the purchasers for their absolute property.<br /> <br /> And the purchasers hereby covenant with the<br /> vendor that the purchasers will cause to be<br /> entered into proper books to be kept by them a<br /> true account of all copies of the said compositions<br /> sold by them, and allow such account to be<br /> inspected at all reasonable times by the vendor,<br /> and will pay, or cause to be paid, to the vendor<br /> the aforesaid sum of pence for each copy<br /> (except as and subject to reduction above men-<br /> tioned) on or about the first day of January in<br /> each year so long as the copyright shall last.<br /> <br /> In witness whereof the said parties to these<br /> presents have hereunto set their hands and seals<br /> the day and year first above written.<br /> <br /> The schedule above referred to.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The agreement printed above is an agreement<br /> for the publication of a song. Music, like the<br /> Drama, has two distinct rights,—the right. of<br /> production in printed form and the performing<br /> right.<br /> <br /> Tn the drama the performing right as a rule<br /> is the most remunerative. With regard to music<br /> certain songs, like music hall songs, theatre<br /> songs, &amp;c., are more remunerative on account of<br /> their performing right, though sometimes both<br /> rights bring in considérable sums, and other<br /> songs (ballads, and other pieces of “this kind) are<br /> more remunerative on account of the reproduc-<br /> tion in printed form. In any case and in any<br /> agreement that deals with property that has<br /> these two rights, the composer should consider<br /> carefully how he deals with these rights, and<br /> under no consideration should he assign his pro-<br /> perty absolutely to the publisher unless he binds<br /> the publisher by some stringent clauses to<br /> protect himself as composer.<br /> <br /> The agreement put forward above refers to a<br /> song in which the copyright (meaning the right<br /> of reproduction in printed form) was of more<br /> value than the performing right, and will be<br /> considered from this point of view. It is hardly<br /> necessary to state that the form of agreement<br /> from the author&#039;s point of view is almost as bad<br /> as it can possibly be in a case where he still<br /> retains a future benefit from the sale of his work<br /> on the royalty system, but unfortunately it not<br /> infrequently occurs that the agreements put<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 37<br /> <br /> before composers by musical publishers are the<br /> worst possible for the composer and the best<br /> possible for the publisher. The time is come<br /> when the musical author should stand up against<br /> signing an agreement such as the one quoted.<br /> <br /> Leaving out the parties to the agreement, we<br /> see the words “every copy to be published.”<br /> There is no undertaking by the publisher that<br /> the work shall be produced, and there is no state-<br /> ment with regard to the form of its production or<br /> the price at which it is to be sold. The composer<br /> is to be paid pence on every copy sold.<br /> This might be a fair royalty if the song was<br /> produced at one price and an absolutely unfair<br /> royalty if the song was produced at another<br /> price. No doubt the publisher’s} response to a<br /> statement of this kind would be ‘“ Everyone<br /> knows the form in which a song is produced.”<br /> If this were the case there would be no harm what-<br /> ever in inserting it in the agreement.<br /> <br /> With regard to the question of royalties—it<br /> may be remembered that the cost of production<br /> of a song, in proportion to its sale price, is<br /> exceedingly small in comparison with the cost of<br /> production of a book with regard to its sale price ;<br /> in fact, the ratio is almost one to two; therefore,<br /> if an author received a royalty of 10 per cent. on<br /> a book he ought to receive a royalty of 20 per<br /> cent. on a song taking the author’s capacity as<br /> an equal factor in both cases. This point is of<br /> the greatest importance to musical authors, and<br /> cannot be too often stated. There is a further<br /> point to be considered. The royalty is not paid<br /> on every copy sold, but seven copies are reckoned<br /> as six, “ according to the usual trade custom.”<br /> This may be the usual trade custom, when seven<br /> copies are sold at a time, but the distributing<br /> agencies in the music tradeare not like the distribu-<br /> ting agencies in the book trade, and many more<br /> copies are sold at full price from the publisher’s<br /> office than there are ever sold of a book at full<br /> price from the same source. Another point: In<br /> book publication where this so-called trade custom<br /> comes in, thirteen copies are sold as twelve.<br /> Here we see a trade custom claimed of seven as<br /> six. This is a large gain to the publisher.<br /> <br /> Another point: the royalties paid in most<br /> agreements rise in proportion to the sales for the<br /> good reason that the cost of production of a<br /> second thousand is not as expensive as that of<br /> the first thousand, and if the work is produced<br /> in thousands at a time it becomes cheaper still.<br /> Here, however, there is no mention of a rising<br /> royalty. This is another substantial gain to the<br /> publisher.<br /> <br /> With regard to royalties on copies sold in the<br /> United States and Canada the amount is reduced<br /> to half, but the method of obtaining protection<br /> <br /> von. x.<br /> <br /> for musical pieces across the Atlantic is simple, as<br /> music has not by the American law to be manu-<br /> factured in America, and whereas on account of<br /> the double cost of production of books and other<br /> particulars with regard to the circulation of<br /> American literature the royalty in America varies<br /> three to five pomts per cent. below the royalties<br /> in England, on musical publication under this<br /> agreement it is to be 50 per cent. Thisfrom the<br /> composer&#039;s point of view, again, is a very bad<br /> feature.<br /> <br /> Then follows, perhaps, the most serious blot in<br /> the whole agreement from the composer’s point<br /> of view. The composer sells and transfers the<br /> copyright and performing right and all other<br /> rights in all the other countries that the pub-<br /> lisher can possibly ask for. This transfer is very<br /> dangerous, for there is nothing to prevent the<br /> publisher producing the song in other forms with<br /> alterations and adaptations as dancing music or<br /> as popular pianoforte music with variations. If<br /> he did so, and obtained a large sale for such<br /> variations or adaptations, the author might very<br /> strongly object, but would have very great difti-<br /> culty in proving a case against the publisher,<br /> his only remedy being one for damage to his<br /> reputation, about which there might be a strong<br /> diversity of opinion, the publisher holding that<br /> the increased advertisement is beneficial, the<br /> author objecting from personal grounds. It is<br /> most important, therefore, that the composer<br /> should not transfer the copyright, but should<br /> transfer only the right to publish in a specified<br /> form—that is, song form—under specified condi-<br /> tions.<br /> <br /> It is possible, for some reason or other, that<br /> the publisher might withdraw the song from the<br /> market. There is nothing to prevent him doing<br /> so, and the composer might thereby lose a certain<br /> source of income, and be unable to take any<br /> steps to compel the publisher. If the publisher<br /> holds the copyright and performing right, in case<br /> of bankruptcy those rights would be liable to go<br /> as assets of the estate, and in alien hands might<br /> be used in many ways to the disadvantage of the<br /> composer. Again, there is nothing to compel the<br /> publisher to affix the composer’s name to the pro-<br /> duction. It is improbable that the publisher<br /> would produce it without the composer’s name<br /> attached, but, when the question of copyright<br /> comes in, it is important that the composer should<br /> be guarded on all these points.<br /> <br /> Next as to the performing right. It was<br /> stated at the beginning of this article that this<br /> agreement referred to a song the chief value in<br /> which to the composer lay in the right of repro-<br /> duction. Under these circumstances, it might be<br /> argued that the performing right was of not<br /> <br /> E 2<br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 38<br /> <br /> much value; but in answer to this it should be<br /> stated that it is most important for the composer<br /> to retain control of this right, for if he sells the<br /> copyright, as pointed out, the publisher might<br /> produce the air in the form of dance music.<br /> Consequent on that, there might be the value of<br /> the thing as a performing right. Again, if the<br /> song became popular, the performing right (to<br /> take the ludicrous side of the question) might be<br /> of value to the organ-grinder, and the publisher<br /> might sell the right or deal with it contrary to<br /> the desire of the composer. The composer, there-<br /> fore, should certainly have control of this side of<br /> his property.<br /> <br /> There is nothing specified in the agreement by<br /> which the composer should obtain any return in<br /> case the performing right should at any time and<br /> under any circumstance become valuable. If the<br /> composer gives away a control of this right he<br /> should certainly do so for a substantial considera-<br /> tion.<br /> <br /> The annual account clause is bad. This point<br /> has repeatedly been pointed out in The A uthor.<br /> <br /> To sum up from the musical author&#039;s point of<br /> view, it is unfortunately the case that nearly all<br /> the agreements for the sale of musical compasi-<br /> tions transfer to the publisher copyright and<br /> performing right unless such compositions are<br /> specially written for the stage. “It is time that<br /> musical authors made a firm stand against<br /> selling their property in this haphazard way to<br /> publishers. If some of the better known musical<br /> authors began in the first instance to take this<br /> step they would gradually build up for them-<br /> <br /> ‘selves and their fellow composers a tower. of<br /> strength which would enable them successfully<br /> to resist these encroachments, and it is with this<br /> object in view that some of the difficulties of the<br /> agreement set forth above have been explained in<br /> detail. G. H. T.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> V.— INFRINGEMENT OF COPYRIGHT.<br /> <br /> The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge<br /> secured on June 13 an injunction against Messrs.<br /> Gill and Sons, publishers of educational manuals,<br /> who exhibited the results of the Revised Version<br /> of the Bible as compared with the earlier version,<br /> without any licence to-do so. It was alleged that<br /> such publication was an infringement of a copy-<br /> right for which they had paid the Revisers not<br /> less than £20,000. After hearing Mr. Birrell,<br /> Q.C., M.P.,.for the Universities’ Press, and Mr.<br /> Etve for the defence, and two witnesses, ;<br /> <br /> The judge (Mr. Cozens-Hardy) said the title of<br /> the plaintiffs to the copyright had been formally<br /> proved, and had not been challenged. The only<br /> question he had to ecnsider was whether or not<br /> there had keen an infringement of the copyright<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOL.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> in the sense that the court required an infringe-<br /> ment to be proved. He held that this was not a<br /> mere matter of quantity, but rather of quality—<br /> the editor of the manuals haying taken all that<br /> was most peculiar, most material, and most<br /> important in the Revised Version. It seemed to<br /> him impossible to doubt that the defendants had<br /> deliberately and of set purpose—without, he was<br /> willing to assume, any consciousness that they<br /> were doing wrong—extracted from the Revised<br /> Version and put in their own books every single<br /> passage in the Revised Version which they<br /> thought and conceived could be of any import-<br /> ance for the comparative study of the old and<br /> new versions. If that was not an infringement<br /> of copyright, he did not know what was. There<br /> was a plain infringement of the copyright, and<br /> he must grant the injunction claimed with costs<br /> against the defendants.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> VI.—A Case To BE Reap.<br /> <br /> An author wrote a book which he laid before a<br /> publisher with a view of getting published. The<br /> publisher after full consideration of the matter<br /> undertook to publish the book on the usual half<br /> profit basis, by which the publisher was to take<br /> all the risk and expense of the cost of production<br /> and the author was to share with him, in equal<br /> portions, the net profits of the sale. It is need-<br /> less to repeat that from the author&#039;s point of<br /> view a half-profit agreement is a thoroughly<br /> undesirable arrangement, but the author foolishly<br /> considered, under the special circumstances of the<br /> case, it was worth his while to close with the bar-<br /> gain. The publisher, however, said that he could<br /> not do the book justice by way of advertising (in<br /> other words he could not do his duty by the book)<br /> unless the author bound himself to him for the<br /> production of his next two books on the same<br /> terms. This, of course, was a worse arrangement<br /> still for the author, who did not consider with<br /> proper care the difficulties of his position before<br /> entering into the contract. He signed the con-<br /> tract without proper advice.<br /> <br /> Tt seems a curious fact that a publisher cannot<br /> deal fairly with the author in the matter of one<br /> book unless the author binds himself for the<br /> production of two others, but this was suggested<br /> by the publisher as a reason in this particular<br /> instance. It is much more likely that an author<br /> would stick to a publisher for good and all if<br /> he received fair treatment and fair considera-<br /> tion in the first instance, instead of an agreement<br /> which in any event could be nothing but dis-<br /> astrous. In this case, as in many others of a<br /> similar: nature, the author, finding he has teen<br /> treated badly, acts up to the letter of the agree-<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. a<br /> <br /> ment, and then leaves the publisher for good and<br /> all with a bad word to every other author who<br /> thinks of going to that house. But itis not with<br /> this point of view that the case is put forward.<br /> What happened was as follows: The first book<br /> was produced, and in the course of the year did<br /> exceedingly well for a first book, the sale running<br /> to some 4000 copies. Before the accounts were<br /> rendered to the author, and the money which<br /> should have been due to him on the first book<br /> was paid, the publisher produced the second<br /> book, and when the author in due course asked<br /> for a cheque from the sale of the first book, he<br /> was met with the reply that the returns had been<br /> swallowed up in the cost of production of book<br /> number two. This was distinctly contrary to the<br /> agreement, as the author was not sharing in the<br /> risk of cost of production, but was sharing in the<br /> net profits. Again, however, the author took no<br /> advice, believing that the position was as stated.<br /> The second book went on the market and did<br /> well; not quite so well as the first book, but sold<br /> sufficient to pay expenses and show a reasonable<br /> profit. The third book was produced, and again<br /> the author was met with the same answer, namely,<br /> that the expense of the cost of production of the<br /> third book had swamped the profits of the other<br /> two, and again the author accepted the position.<br /> Finally when the third book had been produced,<br /> and had circulated in the usual way and the<br /> author was free, he received a small amount from<br /> the returns of the three books jointly, and not<br /> from the profits of the three books singly. This<br /> delay to the author was serious.<br /> <br /> It is needless to say that the author had no<br /> voice in the cost of production, in the amount to<br /> be spent on advertising, and other little details<br /> which would readily swamp the profits for the<br /> author, though not necessarily for the publisher.<br /> Tf the result was unsatisfactory for the author, it<br /> will in the end be also unsatisfactory for the pub-<br /> lisher, because the tale of the author’s treatment<br /> will not only prevent the author from going there<br /> again, but will keep all his friends from the same<br /> house. Why are publishers so short-sighted ?<br /> <br /> GH. OU.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Vil.—ImprriaL Press, Limirep, v. JOHNSON.<br /> <br /> This case was heard in the Queen’s Bench on<br /> May 4. The plaintiffs were a publishing com-<br /> pany carrying on business in London, and the<br /> defendant the Rev. Theodore Johnson, of Bodiam<br /> Rectory, Hawkhurst, Sussex. ‘the claim was for<br /> £400 damages for alleged breach of contract and<br /> warranty on the part of the defendant relating to<br /> his work, “Imperial Britain,” published by the<br /> plaintiffs. The defendant denied that he had<br /> made any special contract with the plaintiffs, and<br /> <br /> said that the manuscript of the book was sub-<br /> mitted to the plaintiffs in the usual way, they<br /> having full opportunity of judging of the character<br /> of the book, and they accepted the same with full<br /> approval in the usual manner of publishers. The<br /> defendant counter-claimed that the plaintiffs<br /> undertook to pay £25 on the publication of the<br /> first book, which they refused to do.<br /> <br /> The Rev. Mr. Johnson, the defendant, in exami-<br /> nation, said he was the rector of Bodiam, being<br /> appointed in 1895. Prior to that he had for<br /> fourteen years been a chief inspector of schools<br /> in the Diocese of Rochester. Before he wrote<br /> this work he had written some ten or twelve<br /> other books for various publishers.- One of them<br /> was written in conjunction with Sir Henry Bem-<br /> rose, and was published with the permission of<br /> the Universities. Another of his works was on<br /> history, another on geography, and others were<br /> religious. In September, 1896, the witness<br /> arranged with the plaintiff company to write the<br /> book in question, and before that he had partly pre-<br /> pared the matter. For the purpose of the work he<br /> had purchased a largenumber of works of reference.<br /> He did his best to write a reliable and useful<br /> work. The book dealt with a large number of<br /> matters, and it would have been little short of a<br /> miracle if it did not contain some mistakes. A<br /> first edition of such a work could not be entirely<br /> without inaccuracies, and the author could not<br /> avoid proof errors. A large portion of the work<br /> had not been challenged, and he had received<br /> many letters of approval from high and distin-<br /> euished authorities.<br /> <br /> Questioned by counsel as to the various state-<br /> ments, the witness quoted authorities for them.<br /> He did not defend the statement that Pretoria was<br /> the capital of British Zambesia. He did not<br /> mean to say that arsenic and’ Epsom salts were<br /> building stones. They came under a wrong<br /> heading through a mistake in the numbering.<br /> They should have come under the heading<br /> of “Mineral Products,’ and the matter in<br /> regard to them had got out of place. As to the<br /> statement that London has seven Parliamentary<br /> boroughs, he supposed that he had taken the old<br /> Parliamentary boroughs. “Earth worms” under<br /> reptiles, was a slip.<br /> <br /> The witness in cross-examination denied he had<br /> had the assistance of half a dozen persons in com-<br /> pleting this work. A number of other witnesses<br /> were examined in support of the defendant&#039;s case.<br /> <br /> The Lord Chief Justice, in addressing the jury,<br /> commented in severe terms upon defendant’s<br /> work, and then went on to speak of the pre-<br /> tensions of Mr. Heath, the plaintiff, and the<br /> Imperial Press. So far as he had been able to<br /> ascertain, said his Lordship, ‘Imperial Press,<br /> 40<br /> <br /> Limited,” was Mr. Heath, and Mr. Heath only.<br /> A more audacious document than that put<br /> forward by him under this high-sounding and<br /> pretentious title, to the effect that fifty or sixty<br /> honourable names were behind him in an effort<br /> to extend and strengthen the British Empire,<br /> his Lordship had never seen. He hoped that if<br /> Mr. Heath again found it necessary to supple-<br /> ment his duties as a public servant by the publi-<br /> cation of books, he would not issue a second<br /> edition of such a document as that. His Lord-<br /> ship added that he did not want to exaggerate<br /> this matter, but when persons and companies<br /> asked the Court for damages it was necessary to<br /> bear facts of this kind in mind.<br /> <br /> The jury found that the contract of July 21,<br /> 1898 did not contain the whole of the agree-<br /> ment; that there was an implied cbligation on<br /> behalf of the defendant to use reasonable care;<br /> that the defendant did not use reasonable care;<br /> that the want of such care did not contribute to<br /> the plaintiff&#039;s loss, and that the plaintiffs were<br /> not entitled to any sum in damages. His Lord-<br /> ship at first said that was a verdict for the defen-<br /> dant, but that as the action was on a contract,<br /> the plaintiffs were entitled to nominal damages,<br /> which he fixedat 1s. The defendant was entitled<br /> on the counter-claim for £25, and he would con-<br /> sider whether he should not deprive him of<br /> costs.<br /> <br /> Dec<br /> <br /> NOTES ON THE PUBLISHERS’ CONGRESS.<br /> <br /> HE International Meeting of Publishers is<br /> over. The report of the proceedings has<br /> been given to the world. There was an<br /> <br /> opening meeting : there was a dinner: there were<br /> papers read on National Bibliographies: on the<br /> ‘‘ Protection of new Ideas in Form and Get up”’<br /> —a very remarkable and mysterious title; on<br /> Right in Titles: on the Reproduction of Works<br /> of Art: on Overs in Printing; on Cheap Books:<br /> on International Protection of Publishing Rights :<br /> on Agreements between Authors and Publishers:<br /> on Canadian Copyright: on Copyright in Educa-<br /> tional works: on Quotations in Reviews: on the<br /> Convention of Berne: on Booksellers: on the<br /> right of National Libraries: on the coercion of<br /> Booksellers: and one or two other subjects.<br /> <br /> Very much of what was discussed might have<br /> been considered by a congress of authors.<br /> Throughout the meeting, however, it was calmly<br /> assumed that literary property belongs wholly to<br /> the publisher: there was not one word which<br /> would imply to the outside world the recogni-<br /> tion of the fact that literary property belongs<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> to the author, and is administered by the pub-<br /> lisher as a man or a company may administer<br /> a mine.<br /> <br /> The Society of Authors was alluded to by the<br /> President, Mr. John Murray, in his opening<br /> speech. He said that one of the reasons of their<br /> meeting was “that we may assert to the world at<br /> large the true position which we hold in the<br /> world of letters. This position is recognised by<br /> all the best and most distinguished writers. We<br /> are proud of it, and we claim that our traditions are<br /> as precious to us and that our sense of honour-<br /> able dealing is as keen and as true as that of any<br /> other class. We here undergo periodical<br /> attacks, which certainly display no inconsiderable<br /> vigour from a certain small class of guasi-authors,<br /> but they have done but little harm. They suffer<br /> from three radical defects. In the first place,<br /> they are too sweeping. They condemn a whole<br /> class, and rarely, if ever, bring to light a definite<br /> misdemeanour. Secondly, they are, intentionally<br /> or unintentionally, based on the assumption that<br /> the whole race of publishers are dishonest men.<br /> And lastly, they display a curious ignorance of<br /> what the work of a publisher really is.” We<br /> can have no possible objection to Mr. Murray<br /> being proud of the view with which the world<br /> regards his trade. He is probably thinking of the<br /> recognition bestowed by Thackeray on Bacon and<br /> Bungay, those virtuous philanthropists; or he is<br /> thinking of the present position, which is such<br /> that few authors will have anything to do with<br /> publishers except through an agent—the honour-<br /> able houses being mixed up with the others. A<br /> noble position, indeed! The position which he<br /> claims was not explained unless by talk about the<br /> debt of gratitude to publishers—for what? For<br /> the binding and the gilt? Notatall. Forthe<br /> “intrinsic worth” of books, mark you, owing “ to<br /> the advice and the experience of men of our<br /> craft”! This is indeed wonderful. It is the first<br /> time in the history of literature that publishers<br /> have set up a claim to be the advisers in the<br /> creation of literature. I dare say it will not be<br /> the last. Who wrote Tennyson’s Poems? Did<br /> you not know? Messrs. Macmillan, of course.<br /> And Swinburne’s? His publishers.<br /> <br /> The allusion to this Society as a “small class<br /> of quasi-authors” is also a new departure—for<br /> Albemarle-street. One did not expect it from<br /> that quarter. The list of our Council which<br /> adorns the frontispiece of The Author gives a<br /> longish list of the “ guast-authors.”<br /> <br /> As for the “sweeping charges” and the<br /> assumption that all publishers are dishonest—<br /> where are they ? What does the following passage<br /> mean? It is taken out of certain notes published<br /> every month for some years—in fact, until May,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 4)<br /> <br /> inclusive, of the present year, when it was taken<br /> out, having done its work :<br /> <br /> “The Society is acquainted with the methods<br /> and—in the case of fraudulent houses—the tricks<br /> of every publishing firm in the country.”<br /> <br /> Will Mr. Murray be good enough to say how<br /> the Committee could more clearly and distinctly<br /> distinguish between the sheep and the goats?<br /> Or is he prepared to maintain that there is no<br /> such thing as a dishonest publisher? And is he<br /> prepared to assert that all the cases adduced in<br /> the Society’s publication, cases furnished by<br /> the Secretary, cases which have gone before<br /> the Committee, are inventions? If so, he will<br /> take even a bolder line, if not one so original, as<br /> the proposition that literature owes its “ intrinsic<br /> worth to the advice and the experience’”’ of the<br /> publisher. Tn turning over the pages of The<br /> Author, I have come across passages by the<br /> dogen in which the distinction is expressly drawn<br /> between honourable houses and the reverse. But<br /> the “reverse’’ are not always the smaller houses.<br /> <br /> As for the display of a “ curious ignorance ” of<br /> a publisher’s work, since the Society has ascer-<br /> tained and published for the information of those<br /> concerned all the details of the publisher’s trade,<br /> including most of the tricks of those who play<br /> tricks, the only ignorance left is that curious<br /> ignorance about the origin of the “ intrinsic<br /> worth” of literature. On that point the Society<br /> is still most curiously ignorant.<br /> <br /> After the dinner, when tongues may be allowed<br /> a little more licence, Mr. Murray became waggish.<br /> “He knew that there was a small society which<br /> vowed vengeance against all publishers.’ And<br /> he humorously suggested the danger of their<br /> being blown up by a new Gunpowder Plot<br /> hatched by the small society.<br /> <br /> Now, let us ask seriously why does Mr. Murray<br /> object to the protection of literary property in the<br /> interests of those who create it and to whom it<br /> belongs until they part with it? Why does he<br /> object to the exposure of tricks when tricks are<br /> discovered Why does he allege ‘“ sweeping<br /> charges” ? What, in a word, is the secret of his<br /> hostility ?<br /> <br /> Is it not, one may a!so ask, a very remarkable<br /> thing, and a thing not known in any other pro-<br /> fession or in any other trade, that an association<br /> for the protection of one of two parties to a busi-<br /> ness transaction should be continually attacked<br /> by the other party concerned ?<br /> <br /> _As regards the papers read, Mr. Bell’s paper on<br /> Titles was practical. He proposed the creation of<br /> copyright in titles by a system of registration.<br /> <br /> The subject of “ overs” was interesting in one<br /> way. Two years ago I stated that the “overs”<br /> probably provided a good many of the books<br /> <br /> wanted for review: this was flatly and vehe-<br /> mently denied. Only ignorance, it was said, cou&#039;d<br /> have prompted such a suggestion. Well, but I<br /> knew what I was saying. And it is now admitted<br /> that in every 500 sheets there are sixteen “ overs,”<br /> but that, by imperfections in the other copies,<br /> these may dwindle down to what makes just 2 per<br /> cent. It follows, therefore, that with an edition<br /> of 3000 copies there would be sixty “overs.”<br /> This provides amply for review copies. I was<br /> therefore right, after all. It was also asserted<br /> that the ‘overs’ are regarded by the author as a<br /> margin for soiled books: also asa margin for bad<br /> debts. I beg to state that not one author in a<br /> thousand knows that there are such things as<br /> “overs,” and that this story about the margin is<br /> rubbish. Now consider the case of a book which<br /> has a great run, say, of 10,000 copies. There are<br /> 200 “overs.” If it is a six-shilling book at a<br /> royalty of 20 per cent., this represents a trifle of<br /> £12. I would advise authors to look after their<br /> “ overs.”<br /> <br /> On cheap literature the Congress declined to<br /> commit themselves to any resolution whatever.<br /> <br /> On the agreements between author and pub-<br /> lisher a list of clauses was submitted. On<br /> this list one need only add that the Secretary<br /> of our Society would have a great deal to say.<br /> Mr. Murray, however, added a few remarks of his<br /> own:<br /> <br /> “They started to work more than two years<br /> ago to draw up a form of agreement between<br /> authors and publishers which should cover the<br /> difficulties. They drew up drafts to cover every<br /> case, and they took the opinion of a very eminent<br /> lawyer, who said it was a perfectly fair and just<br /> form of agreement. It was their desire that the<br /> Authors’ Society—not a society representing all<br /> the authors in England by any means, but a<br /> society which occupied itself in the author&#039;s<br /> interest—should have the draft submitted to them<br /> and that there should be a conference to talk it<br /> over so that they could come to some common<br /> agreement, but the Authors’ Society took a<br /> different view of the matter. They had, he<br /> believed, attacked these forms of agreement in<br /> very severe language, and there lay a difficulty.<br /> If they were to be faced with that sort of treat-<br /> ment it would be very difficult for lawyers alone<br /> to draw up anything very satisfactory. There<br /> must be a bargain before the agreement, for the<br /> agreement was not the bargain. They had toa<br /> certain extent come to a deadlock there because<br /> they treated the agreement as a bargain made in<br /> favour of the publisher. The whole thing was a<br /> complete misunderstanding, and they all regretted.<br /> that, because their great desire was to come to<br /> favourable terms with the authors.”<br /> 42 THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> He did not explain that nothing was said about<br /> previous “bargains”; that the draft agreements<br /> claimed for the publisher the right—the absolute<br /> right—to charge blank percentages on gross<br /> receipts. for his own office expenses, allowing no<br /> office expenses at all for author or bookseller ; that<br /> no kind of safeguard was proposed against over-<br /> charging: that on commission books the agree-<br /> ments demanded a blank percentage on every<br /> single item, in addition to a commission on sales<br /> and discounts: that not a word was said against<br /> charging for advertisements which have cost<br /> nothing : not a word on the right of audit: nota<br /> word on the possibility of dishonesty—the pub-<br /> lisher alone among mankind being assumed incap-<br /> able of dishonesty : and that they actually claimed<br /> rights dramatic, American, colonial, and those of<br /> translation. It was a great pity that he did not<br /> explain these little facts, because, had he done so,<br /> his audience would have understood the action of<br /> the Society—this small Society of guasi-authors<br /> —which will never allow those draft agreements<br /> to become the rule, and which has so far effectively<br /> prevented their adoption even by the committee<br /> which proposed them.<br /> <br /> He did not explain, either, why if these draft<br /> agreements referred to previous “ bargains” he<br /> had not withdrawn his name from them and<br /> disavowed them.<br /> <br /> There was a long discussion about Canadian<br /> copyright, in which Mr. Daldy appears to have<br /> ignored absolutely the action of the Society of<br /> Authors, both in Canada and in Lord Monks-<br /> well&#039;s Bill, and with the Government at home.<br /> <br /> Mr. Edward Marston deplored the grievance of<br /> giving five copies to the National Libraries: he<br /> found this mare’s nest some time ago, and wrote<br /> a letter to one of the papers in which he estimated<br /> the loss by this tax to amount from the year<br /> 1837 to the present day to £375,000. This<br /> seems terrible indeed. Divided by sixty it, means<br /> £6250 a year. There are about 400 publishers<br /> in the Directory: or about 100 who may be<br /> seriously considered. It means, therefore,<br /> £62 10s. a year for every one. This must be<br /> acknowledged to be a very heavy tax. But let<br /> us look into the conditions. The theory supposes<br /> that these books would all have been sold.<br /> Would they ? Very few books sell out the whole<br /> edition and are then finished: the demand ceases<br /> before, or continues after, the first edition: it ceases<br /> before the exhaustion of the second or other<br /> future edition and after the appearance of the first<br /> edition. There is therefore no loss at all, with<br /> the exception of those very, very few books where<br /> the demand proves exactly equal to the first edition,<br /> or is so small when that is done that itis not worth<br /> while to bring out a new edition. We may also<br /> <br /> except a very few limited editions of illustrated<br /> books. On the whole, therefore, the tax is no<br /> tax at all. In every case where there are<br /> remainders after the demand ceases, whether in<br /> the first or the fiftieth edition, there is no loss<br /> except of the few pence which the five copies<br /> would fetch as remainders.<br /> <br /> There is one great lesson which the congress of<br /> publishers ought to teach us, namely :—<br /> <br /> It is useless to expect that any heed will be<br /> paid to the true evils of the publishing trade.<br /> These are (1) the absence of any safeguard<br /> against dishonesty: (2) the determination to<br /> regard literary property as their own to<br /> administer as they please: (3) their resentment<br /> of any action on the part of the creators of literary<br /> property to defend their own interests: (4) their<br /> manifest intention not to take one single step<br /> towards the abolition of secret profits.<br /> <br /> This lesson was proclaimed aloud in every<br /> speech and in every paper: not one publisher<br /> rose to demand safeguards against dishonesty :<br /> not one spoke against secret profits. The lesson<br /> should be answered by those authors who are<br /> independent, by taking more and more the<br /> management of their affairs into their own hands,<br /> especially in the matter of advertising: and, if<br /> they are wise, by changing a partner or a fellow<br /> venturer who wants to be considered both an<br /> agent and a partner into a commission agent<br /> (see p. 49).<br /> <br /> &gt; —<br /> <br /> THE SIXPENNY BOOK.<br /> <br /> Er<br /> N | R. HALL CAINE, in an address delivered<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> before the Newsagents’ and Booksellers’<br /> <br /> Union, spoke at length on the sixpenny<br /> book and in favour of it. I should be sorry to<br /> misrepresent any of Mr. Caine’s arguments, Lut<br /> the address was too long for reproduction.<br /> <br /> The line he seems to take is this:<br /> <br /> (1) There has been a radical change in the<br /> methods of distribution. For the cheaper books<br /> are sold chiefly by the newsvendors. If this is<br /> the case it is a change of the greatest importance.<br /> <br /> (2) The sixpenny book need not displace the<br /> dearer book any more than a cheap restaurant<br /> ruins the dearer restaurant. No— but—but—<br /> reading is not dining. However he offered as a<br /> proof the fact that with a cheap edition of his<br /> last novel his American publisher sold another<br /> at a dollar and a half: of the former 100,000<br /> copies: of the latter, 14,000.<br /> <br /> (3) He does not believe that the cheap book<br /> will ruin the country bookseller, but if it does<br /> there is the newsvendor to fall back upon. Alas!<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Giie. AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> The newsvendor will not replace the bookseller.<br /> Under any changes of condition, we must still<br /> have the bookseller if our books are to be exhibited<br /> for sale.<br /> <br /> (4) He says that figures have been put forth<br /> which show that the author, with the sixpenny<br /> book, will see very little. He puts forward figures<br /> of his own. I hear that there has been sneering<br /> about these figures. Yet upon them depends the<br /> whole future of Literary Property. Thus :—<br /> <br /> Cost of production in quantities, twopence:<br /> price paid by bookseller he calls “nearly four-<br /> pence.” My own information sets it at 3{d.:<br /> book sold by bookseller at 43d. or at 6d.: at the<br /> lower price by the London booksellers. He goes<br /> on to say that there is twopence to divide between<br /> author and bookseller. I make it 1jd. Now, I<br /> am informed on the best authority that the royalty<br /> offered to the author is either 3d. or {d. That is,<br /> Tam told, the general rule. Mr. Caine, when he is<br /> offered 14d., is an exception. Now, ona royalty<br /> of 2d., the sale of 100,000 copies will bring: the<br /> author the sum of £250: of $d., £312 10s.: on<br /> a royalty of 14d., the sum of £625. Will a first-<br /> rate novelist think it worth his while to write a<br /> long novel for £250, or even for £625? Perhaps,<br /> however, Mr. Caine would bring it out in two<br /> forms simultaneously. It would be an interesting<br /> experiment. :<br /> <br /> (5) Mr. Hall Caine’s remarks on the fact that<br /> the best books, not the most trumpery books,<br /> are eagerly bought at 6d. are convincing. I<br /> have myself always maintained that the taste of<br /> the public is on the whole good and true: they<br /> may run after an unworthy book for a time, but<br /> they go back to their favourite authors.<br /> <br /> I have tried to present in brief the considera-<br /> tions which Mr. Hall Caine urged in favour of<br /> the sixpenny book.<br /> <br /> I am not prepared to dispute that if the news-<br /> vendors are to become vendors of the sixpenny<br /> book, the case is materially altered.<br /> <br /> I will endeavour to get information on this<br /> point.<br /> <br /> Meantime, I would ask, if the bookseller is to<br /> disappear, what will take his place? That his<br /> existence is threatened is quite clear, An<br /> attempt has been made to deprive him of the<br /> Englishman’s right of selling his own property as<br /> he pleases. The publishers offer him no advan-<br /> tages except a little larger margin in very high-<br /> priced books. He himself complains that every-<br /> ‘body wants to get books at 6d.<br /> <br /> Let us return to what was said last month. It<br /> is an experiment. How will it succeed? We<br /> shall learn before the end of the year. W. B.<br /> <br /> 43<br /> <br /> TI.—Nores on THE ABOVE.<br /> <br /> 1. On my way home from the meeting a news-<br /> vendor told me he had sold 600 copies of one of<br /> the sixpenny novels, and anotner newsvendor said<br /> he had sold 6000 sixpenny volumes during the<br /> autumn of last year.<br /> <br /> 2. My statement that the cheap book does not<br /> injure the dear one will be supported by Chatto<br /> and Windus in England, and by Appleton and<br /> Son and Dodd, Mead, and Co. in America. I<br /> am told by Mr. Heinemann that Macmillan and<br /> Co. take the same view.<br /> <br /> 3. If the sixpenny novel is sold chiefly by the<br /> newsagents, the bookseller, so far as the cheap<br /> book goes, is already replaced.<br /> <br /> 4. I say that the sixpenny book in- editions<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> of 100 does not cost so much as 2d., and<br /> that in larger editions it could be produced at<br /> tid. Also that 13d. is a practical author&#039;s<br /> <br /> royalty, and calculations should therefore be<br /> based on that figure. Further, that the most<br /> popular sixpenny novel has sold 250,000, and<br /> the next most popular nearly 2 . Finally,<br /> that these were sales of books from fifteen to<br /> thirty years old, and that a popular novelist<br /> publishing at 6d. from the outset might achieve<br /> a sale of half-a-million, and still leave 10,00¢<br /> readers who would rather buy his book at 6s.<br /> But I uphold the cheap book, not necessarily<br /> the sivpenny book. That price is, as you say, an<br /> experiment, and the practical price for a new<br /> novel will reveal itself by-and-bye. Meantime,<br /> for reasons you do not quote, I claim for the<br /> sixpenny book, first, that it is enlarging the<br /> number of readers; second, that it is elevating<br /> the taste in fiction; third, that it is purifying<br /> the morality of literature ; fourth, that it is<br /> making for the peace and general good ot the<br /> world. Therefore, if the sixpenny book should<br /> die the shilling, two-shilling, or half-crown book<br /> which may follow will have a better chance to<br /> <br /> live. H.-C.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> es<br /> <br /> PARIS NOTES.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 5, Rue Chomel, Paris.<br /> <br /> ge N grand homme vient de nous quitter.”<br /> <br /> Thus wrote one of his contemporaries<br /> <br /> in announcing the death of M. Fran-<br /> cisque Sarcey. The news created a profound<br /> sensation, for though Sarcey aimed at nothing<br /> higher than honestly meriting the titles of<br /> “critique national” and “ prince du bons sens”’<br /> that the Parisians had long since bestowed on<br /> him—in the paternal attitude he adopted towards<br /> the public; in his shrewd appreciation of the<br /> varying minds of men; in his sturdy champion-<br /> 44<br /> <br /> ship of the oppressed ; in his unwearied effort<br /> and immense success in making the loyalty and<br /> purity of his endeavour manifest to the world at<br /> large ; in his generous outstretching of the right<br /> hand of fellowship to his less gifted or less fortu-<br /> nate comrades; in his magnanimous acceptance<br /> of the burden imposed on him by the recognition<br /> of the universal brotherhood of humanity—he<br /> offered an example to all literary leaders. His<br /> sterling qualities were fully appreciated by<br /> his most eminent contemporaries. ‘The day was<br /> long; the task was hard; the work is good,”<br /> was M. le Senne’s emphatic verdict. ‘He<br /> had only one anibition, and it was satisfied—to<br /> bear high aloft, so that it might burn the more<br /> brightly, the lamp spoken of by Lucretius which<br /> the runners in life’s race pass from hand to hand<br /> in order that, regardless of time and space, it may<br /> guide mankind towards humanity and towards<br /> the beautiful,” said M. de Leygues, in concluding<br /> his funeral oration. “If you wish to judge a<br /> man justly in these days of implacable party<br /> polemics, pay no attention to newspapers, but walk<br /> behind his coffin and listen to what the crowd,<br /> the immense crowd, says of him,” said M. Jules<br /> Claretie, representative of the Republican journa-<br /> lists at Sarcey’s funeral. “To-day it says,<br /> ‘This was a good man, a man of talent, an<br /> honest man, a man with no false pride or rancour,<br /> a charitable man, a helpful comrade, a popular<br /> writer, a master, a glory, a great figure which has<br /> disappeared !’”<br /> <br /> Francisque Sarcey was born at Dourdan on<br /> Oct. 8, 1828. He early showed an immense<br /> aptitude for study, obtaining several of the<br /> “Concours général” prizes at the lycée Charle-<br /> magne, and being received with Taine and About<br /> in 1848 at the Ecole normale. From 1851 to<br /> 1858 he was successively master of the fourth<br /> and third classes of rhetoric and philosophy in<br /> the colleges of Chaumont, Rodez, Lesneven, and<br /> Grenoble. Several anonymous articles censured<br /> by the authorities were traced to his pen, and he<br /> was forced to throw up his post; whereupon he<br /> came to Paris and published a series of critical<br /> contemporary studies in the /garo under the<br /> pseudonym of Satané Binet. In 1859 he under-<br /> took the theatrical column in the Opinion<br /> Nationale, and in 1867 began his well-<br /> known connection with the Temps, which only<br /> ended with his death. In 1871 he became a<br /> contributor to the X/Xe. Siécle—edited by his<br /> friend Edmond About—where he made himself<br /> notorious by the ardour of his convictions and<br /> soundness of his views. His fame as a lecturer<br /> is too well known to require comment. M.<br /> Lintilliac, in his recently published “ Conférences<br /> dramatiques,” has drawn a graphic portrait of<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> “Le bon Oncle,’ with his Socratic face and<br /> satyr-like form on the lecturer’s platform —a<br /> rude, awkward figure, forsooth, but one eagerly<br /> awaited and welcomed by the most fastidious<br /> audience in the world. His industry was pro-<br /> digious, and itis calculated that, in addition to<br /> his famous dramatic criticisms and productions<br /> in book form, he has written enough matter on<br /> heterogeneous subjects to fill two or three hundred<br /> volumes. Of his imperturbable good nature the<br /> following anecdote may, perhaps, convey some<br /> slight idea :—<br /> <br /> The “bon Oncle” having temporarily incurred<br /> the displeasure of the students of the Latin<br /> Quarter, it was decided in conclave to caricature<br /> him at the coming Carnival. In order to make<br /> the likeness more apparent, an emissary was<br /> employed to steal surreptitiously an old coat<br /> which, having been long worn by the critic,<br /> would naturally fall into the inimitably awkward<br /> folds characteristic of Sarcey’s most favoured<br /> garments. Despairing of otherwise accomplish-<br /> ing her mission, the emissary forthwith took<br /> Sarcey into her confidence, avowing that —know-<br /> ing his character—she considered this the best<br /> and surest way of succeeding in her mission.<br /> “You are quite right,” responded Sarcey, “ Here<br /> is the wardrobe where all my coats are kept;<br /> choose. Will you have a hat into the bargain ?”<br /> “T do not think a hat is required,” was the reply,<br /> “for they intend to represent you with an<br /> enormous head ; but I will take one on chance.”<br /> It is the critic himself who tells the story, relating<br /> with infinite humour how wne forte grippe had<br /> prevented him from personally judging of the<br /> success of the caricature.<br /> <br /> Space will not permit us to give a detailed<br /> appreciation of Sarcey’s work. He was, un-<br /> doubtedly, one of the representative men of the<br /> realistic epoch, and he has left a name which will<br /> never be forgotten in the annals of dramatic<br /> criticisms. He died a comparatively poor man<br /> in his small hotel, 59, rue Douai, surrounded by<br /> his family. _ His coffin was provisionally deposited<br /> at Montmartre, his body being shortly afterwards<br /> disinterred and cremated at the Ptre-la-Chaise<br /> crematory, in accordance with a wish he had<br /> formerly expressed. Only the family were pre-<br /> sent at the latter ceremony ; but an immense<br /> crowd followed the funeral procession to Mont-<br /> martre, the cordons of the funeral canopy being<br /> respectively held by MM. Georges Leygues,<br /> Gréard, Jules Claretie, Roujon, Camille Le Senne,<br /> Jules Lemaitre, Larroumet, and Adrien Hébrard.<br /> <br /> The death of the famous Henry Becque made<br /> but a passing impression in literary and dramatic<br /> circles. In the course of his long life, the unfor-<br /> tunate dramatist had produced but a single<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> masterpiece, viz.,a play entitled “La Parisienne,”<br /> whose extraordinarily brilliant and well-merited<br /> success placed his name in the front rank of<br /> dramatic authors. ‘Les Corbeaux” (acted at<br /> the Comédie Francaise in 1882) is the only other<br /> work bearing his signature which merits notice.<br /> Becque died in extreme poverty, leaving still<br /> unfinished a play entitled ‘‘ Les Polichinelles,”’ on<br /> which he had been occupied for the last ten<br /> years. Impecuniosity was his chronic malady,<br /> dating from the student days in which he fought<br /> his famous duel with Poupart Davyl, where —<br /> owing to the poverty of the combatants—only one<br /> pistol could be hired, of which each duellist made<br /> use in turn, the order being decided by lot! How<br /> a man who had acquired such brilliant notoriety,<br /> and who at every “ first night” expended enough<br /> anecdotal wit in theatrical corridors and<br /> green-rooms to have filled several columns, could<br /> have remained so long in such a destitute con-<br /> dition was an enigma to his friends, among whom<br /> may be mentioned MM. Octave Mirabeau, Edmond<br /> Rostand, and Lucien Muhlfeld. The two latter<br /> carefully gathered together the unfinished manu-<br /> script of “Les Polichinelles,’ and deposited it<br /> with the Society of Authors, who, likewise, under-<br /> took the charge of all arrangements connected<br /> with poor Becque’s funeral, He was interred at<br /> Pére-la-Chaise.<br /> <br /> M. Quentin Bauchart, municipal councillor of<br /> the Champs-Elysées, better known under his<br /> literary pseudonym of Jean Berleux, is at present<br /> reported to be engaged in writing a historical<br /> novel in dialogue, entitled “ Fils d’Empereur,” in<br /> which the ill-fated Prince Imperial plays the<br /> hero’s réle. He has also begun a history of the<br /> Champs-Elysées. M. Berleux is a member of<br /> the Société des Gens de Lettres and also of the<br /> Cercle de la Critique, in addition to having con-<br /> tributed the “ Vie Théatrale”’ to the Revue de la<br /> France Moderne for upwards of ten years.<br /> <br /> To M. Jules Huret belongs the honour of<br /> having written the first complete biography ever<br /> given the public of the illustrious queen of trage-<br /> diennes, Mme. Sarah Bernhardt (chez Juven).<br /> It opens with a preface in letter form by M.<br /> Edmond Rostand, in which the celebrated author<br /> of “Cyrano de Bergerac” thus concludes a<br /> graphic sketch of his own acquaintance with the<br /> divine reine de Vattitude: ‘‘And this, my<br /> friend, is what appears to me more extraordinary<br /> than all—this is the Sarah that I have known!<br /> Ihave not known the other, the lady with the<br /> coffins and alligators. I have known no other<br /> Sarah than this one—the Sarah who works; and<br /> she is the greatest.” [An English translation of<br /> this book has just been published by Messrs.<br /> Chapman and Hall—LBp. |<br /> <br /> 45<br /> <br /> The two young Russian writers, MM. Alfons.<br /> Dyktor and Jack Iskowich, can certainly boast<br /> energy and perseverance if they can boast nothing<br /> else. They have just arrived at Paris, after<br /> having made the tour of the world, sans un sou<br /> pendant trois ans, in order to study for them-<br /> selves the miseries of life, and thus render more inte-<br /> resting the new work on which they are engaged.<br /> It will be published here next September under<br /> the appropriate title of “Les Deux Vagabonds.”<br /> If all young men bitten by the literary tarantula<br /> were submitted to the same test, we wonder how<br /> many per cent. would voluntarily undergo such<br /> an ordeal ?<br /> <br /> “ Hildesheim” (chez Lesnerre), four little<br /> pastiches written in French by the Honourable<br /> Maurice Baring, secretary to the English Embassy<br /> at Paris, has received the approval of the French<br /> critics, who predict a brilliant literary career to its<br /> author. We regret not to have yet seen a copy<br /> of this little volume, which is reported to be<br /> sparkling with wit and finesse.<br /> <br /> M. Georges Ohnet is now occupied in writing<br /> a play which will shortly be staged. His new<br /> novel “ Au fond du gouffre”’ (chez Ollendorf) is<br /> already on the highway to score the same remark-<br /> able numerical success enjoyed by most of its.<br /> predecessors. The epithet ‘“‘litérature de con-<br /> cierge,” so perseveringly applied to all this<br /> writer&#039;s productions by the disciples of the<br /> “école psychologique,” does not in the least affect<br /> his popularity with the crowd, for he knows how<br /> to interest the multitude. Although he spends<br /> so much of his time shut up in his study at<br /> Abymes, all Paris knows the active, energetic<br /> little man with the keen, bright eyes, and inex-<br /> haustible fund of humour and repartee.<br /> <br /> M. Emile Zola is a member of the committee<br /> of the Société des Gens de Lettres. This society<br /> possesses a capital of three millions, and intrusts.<br /> to its committee the disposal of an income of<br /> 300,000 francs. The first Monday after his<br /> return from bis eleven months’ exile in England,<br /> M. Emile Zola took his seat, as usual, in the<br /> delegates’ bureau, and —among other trans-<br /> actions—voted that the aid requested by M.<br /> Edouard Drumont (the celebrated anti-semite) in<br /> a literary law suit should be granted. A salutary<br /> example of tolerance, and ove that M. Drumont<br /> would do well to imitate.<br /> <br /> M. Emile Pouvillon is now installed at Mont-<br /> auban, busily engaged on a new novel which is<br /> expected to occasion some stir in ecclesiastical<br /> circles. His idea is to give a faithful portrait of<br /> the contemporary French clergy, not of the naif<br /> old country priest of byegone days, but of the<br /> complex, modern ecclesiastic, whose mind is<br /> perhaps deformed—but, in any case, transformed.<br /> 40<br /> <br /> —by the influence of modern fiction and the<br /> social milieu in which he lives. M. Pouvillon’s<br /> prose style is elegant, impressive, and convincing ;<br /> two of his novels, ‘‘ Les Antibel” and the “ Roi de<br /> Rome,”. have recently been successfully drama-<br /> tised, and the discussions of the critics on that<br /> ‘occasion brought his name prominently before<br /> the lettered Parisian public, who are eagerly<br /> awaiting his next publication.<br /> <br /> M. Paul Burani is a writer of quite a different<br /> genre, and his circle of readers is as diverse as<br /> his talent—yesterday the popular songster and<br /> vaudevillist of the boulevards, he is to-day<br /> known as the author of a sensational novel<br /> entitled “Mon Oncle la Vertu,” whizh is vastly<br /> popular among a certain class of readers. As<br /> regards appearance, this prolific producer of<br /> illiterate literature has the air of a bon garcon<br /> gras et rond, with frank countenance and placid<br /> aspect; indeed, few of those who to-day<br /> curiously regard the popular rhymester would<br /> ceive him credit for the immense application and<br /> capacity for hard work which are among his<br /> most prominent characteristics.<br /> <br /> “Versailles et les deux Trianons” is the title<br /> of M. Philippe Gille’s new work which the<br /> Maison Marne is publishing in numbers, and it<br /> forms a worthy monument of the historical<br /> science, research, and erudition of its author.<br /> The latter is well known in the Parisian world<br /> of letters, and enjoys the reputation of being one<br /> of the most conscientious and impartial critics of<br /> the day, in addition to being the author of a<br /> discreet volume of poems, and of having<br /> signed “Les Trente Millions de Gladiator ” with<br /> Labiche, “Manon” with Meilhac, and ‘“ Lakmé ”<br /> with Gondinet. He likewise boasts the honour<br /> of being the intimate friend of M. Victorien<br /> Sardou, with whom he collaborated in “Les<br /> Prés-Saint-Gervais.” The two friends are equally<br /> consummate authorities on French art under<br /> Louis XIV., XV., and XVI., and they may<br /> frequently be seen pacing together the stately<br /> avenues and grounds of the park of Versailles,<br /> engaged in discussing their favourite topic. M.<br /> Philippé Gille’s present publication forms a<br /> pendant to the two works on the palace and park<br /> of Versailles which he has already given the<br /> public.<br /> <br /> Among notable publications of the month, to<br /> which space will not permit us to give a detailed<br /> notice, may be mentioned: “ Louis XVIII. et le<br /> Duc Decazes,’”’ a most interesting work by M.<br /> Ernest Daudet, largely drawn from the private<br /> documents existing in the archives of the<br /> Chiteau de la Grave ; “ Diderot et Catherine II.”<br /> (chez Calmann Levy), by M. Maurice Tourneux,<br /> a work containing the precious manuscript notes<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> left in the Russian Empress’s keeping by the great<br /> French philosopher previous to his quitting that<br /> country; ‘“ La Vie 4 Paris,” by M. Jules Claretie<br /> (chez Charpentier), a spirited account of the<br /> principal events and personages of the year<br /> 1898; “La Campagne de Minorque,” by M.<br /> Raoul de Cisternes (chez Calmann Levy), m<br /> which, among numerous other letters, may be<br /> found one containing a graphic narrative of the<br /> death of the unfortunate Admiral Byng;<br /> “ Nouvelles études d’Histoire et de Critiques<br /> dramatiques,” by M. Gustave Larroumet (chez<br /> Hachette) ; ‘Lettres 4 ’Etrangére,” containing<br /> the correspondence of Balzac and Madame<br /> Hanska from 1833 to 1842; ‘‘ Lettres inédites de<br /> Michelet 4 Mlle. Mialaret,’”’ containing the letters<br /> written by the great historian to the young gul<br /> whom he afterwards married; and “ Abrégé de<br /> Chiromancie et de Chirognomonie appliqu¢e,” by<br /> Marthe Desbarolles, pupil and adopted daughter<br /> of the Cagliostro of the present century.<br /> <br /> The activity in the fiction department obliges<br /> us merely to cite the titles of the recent novels<br /> produced by well-known authors: “Les Demi-<br /> Solde,” by Georges d’Esparbes (chez E. Flam-<br /> marion); “Reflets sur la sombre route” (chez<br /> Calmann Levy), by Pierre Loti; “Jardin des<br /> Supplices,” by Octave Mirbeau; “Villa Tran-<br /> quille,” by André Theurick ; “ Leur égale,” by M.<br /> Camille Pert (chez Simonis Empis) ; ‘La Mon-<br /> tagne @’or,” by Jean Rameau (chez Ollendorf) ;<br /> “T/Aiguille dor,’ by J. H. Rosny (chez A.<br /> Colin); “L’Otage,” by Charles Foley; ‘‘ Mar-<br /> cheurs et Marcheuses,” by Richard O’ Monroy ;<br /> and last—but by no means least—the long-<br /> expected “Femmes Nouvelles” of Paul and<br /> Victor Margueritte. Darracorre Scort.<br /> <br /> ec<br /> <br /> NOTES AND NEWS.<br /> <br /> HE following illustration of the way in<br /> <br /> 7 which secret profits are provided for may<br /> <br /> be useful. A. B., for the author, applied<br /> <br /> to C. D., the publisher, for an estimate concern-<br /> <br /> ing the publication of a book on commission.<br /> The terms were these :<br /> <br /> 1. The author to bear the charges for the pro-<br /> duction of the book and the incidental expenses.<br /> <br /> 2. The publisher to take 15 per cent., appa-<br /> rently, of all moneys received.<br /> <br /> The words “ bear the charges ’’ would be under-<br /> stood by anyone not versed in the httle ways and<br /> manners of some publishers to mean the actual<br /> cost incurred.<br /> <br /> They might be defended, whatever charges were<br /> made, as covering, and intended to cover, any<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE<br /> <br /> charge the publishers might choose to inake,<br /> They would thus cover any secret profits that<br /> they chose to make. This point will probably be<br /> raised before long in acriminal court.<br /> <br /> They then sent in an estimate.<br /> <br /> Observe, however, the wording of the letter.<br /> It was to the effect that there was delay in<br /> getting “an” estimate from the printer, which<br /> caused delay in getting ready “our” (the<br /> publisher’s estimate). The use of the pronoun<br /> and the article is significant. It seems to point<br /> to secret profits.<br /> <br /> The estimate forwarded, when compared with<br /> those in the hands of the Society, showed as<br /> follows :<br /> <br /> The Publisher : the Society ::<br /> or<br /> <br /> The Society : the Publisher :: 100 : 155.<br /> <br /> This, then, is the true meaning of the profits<br /> and percentages which, according to the pub-<br /> lishers’ draft agreements, they have the “ equit-<br /> able” right to claim, the amount left blank to<br /> suit the taste and fancy of each individual.<br /> <br /> What, then, would be the meaning of a 15<br /> per cent. royalty with this book? Without<br /> giving all the figures, it means that on a sale of<br /> 1000 copies the author would lose about £25<br /> and the publisher would gain about eo5.<br /> the author had simply paid the true cost of pro-<br /> duction, the author by the same figures would<br /> have cleared about £40.<br /> <br /> TOO ; 03.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> At the conference of publishers the chairman,<br /> on whose utterances we have spoken in another<br /> column, complained of “ over production.” He<br /> spoke of it as if it were an outside thing, an act<br /> of hostility to the trade committed by persons<br /> who have nothing to do with it. I am only sur-<br /> prised that he did not charge the writers them-<br /> selves with this wickedness. Now if there is any-<br /> thing in the world more certain than another it is<br /> the fact that the over-producers are publishers<br /> themselves. The next certain thing is, that so<br /> long as there are great prizes to he obtained by<br /> bringing out books: so long as the public taste<br /> is an uncertain quality which may “ boom” this<br /> or that book: so long as there are large literary<br /> properties to be created by those who success-<br /> fully appeal to the public, so long will the over<br /> production of books continue.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> In fact, the whole trade of publishing is under-<br /> going revolution, and this Mr. Murray and his<br /> friends do not understand. It is no longer a<br /> little hole-and-corner business, in which the pub-<br /> lisher treats the author as a patron treats his<br /> client: gives him what he pleases and keeps the<br /> <br /> AUTHOR. 47<br /> <br /> profits dark ; it is a trade which is rapidly<br /> becoming, like everything else, open to competi-<br /> tion, in which the creator of a property puts him-<br /> self into the hands of business men who deal<br /> with publishers in the way of business men: in<br /> which the methods have been exposed and are<br /> now well known. It is forthe old-fashioned pub-<br /> lisher to recognise these facts or not, as he<br /> pleases: if he refuses to do so he will get ‘left.’<br /> He may have, if he likes, the support of all the<br /> writers whose name spells loss: he will not,<br /> unless he recognises existing facts, have the sup-<br /> port of those whose name means money.<br /> <br /> In the Anglo Savon of June 16, I find an<br /> accusation against the literary profession of a<br /> kind which is to me at least perfectly new, to the<br /> effect that there are certain persons of standing<br /> in journalism and literature who do not scruple<br /> to maintain hacks to do their own work. Do<br /> they really exist—these persons of eminence?<br /> Ave there really men of letters who have to find<br /> an ignoble livelihood by writing articles which<br /> they know will be signed by other men? Tonce<br /> introduced into a novel a man who exhibited<br /> pictures as his own which were done for him;<br /> but I thought that I had invented and imagined<br /> the case—made it up out of my own head. I<br /> have never come across a journalist, or even heard.<br /> of one, who sent in articles as his own which<br /> were written for him. As for books, I have<br /> certainly known cases in which a name appeared<br /> on the title page of a work written by another<br /> hand. One such case was brought before me the<br /> other day. Perhaps I may get permission to publish<br /> the names. The real author of the book—which<br /> was successful—was a lady: the supposed author<br /> was—a man: the publisher was the creator and<br /> deviser of the—call it what you please: he paid<br /> the author, whose necessities obliged her to accept<br /> whatever was offered. It is a curious story, and<br /> one which is perhaps not uncommon. But that a<br /> well-known writer of articles, essays, and reviews,<br /> a man with a reputation to defend, should keep in<br /> his employment other men who do the work for<br /> which he is paid is to me a new thing in litera-<br /> ture, and one that ought to be exposed, First<br /> however, we have to be convinced that the charge<br /> is based on trustworthy evidence. ‘Till that is<br /> done, let us regard it as a mere rumour. And<br /> let us remember that the perils of the situatzon—<br /> for a hack may turn aswell as a worm—are many<br /> and obvious.<br /> <br /> There are men living and working at this moment on the<br /> Press who undertake the execution of quantities of worle<br /> not ona half of which they could accomplish in the allotted<br /> time. How, then, is it managed? In the simplest way<br /> possible. The master minds employ “understudies,”’ who<br /> 48<br /> <br /> have acquired their style and method—not generally a very<br /> superhuman task. There are lots of young men who make<br /> a decent living by writing articles which owners and editors<br /> believe to be the essays of the eminent persons whom they<br /> engage and pay. As a matter of fact, these lucnbrations<br /> are very often the work of underpaid hacks. Regarded<br /> calmly, the system must be described as fraudulent. You<br /> are an editor. You are anxious to engage the services of<br /> the celebrated Mr. Smith. You pay him five guineas for an<br /> article. It is a gross swindle, I insist, if he supplies you,<br /> instead of his own work, with an article for which he pays<br /> twenty shillings to young Mr. Jones. The injustice affects<br /> three persons. It affects the owner of the paper, who pays<br /> for an article which he does not obtain. It affects the<br /> reader, who is not obtaining the matter which has been<br /> intended for him. And it affects the hack, who receives an<br /> utterly inadequate honorarium for his services. Shall Iadd<br /> that it affects a fourth person, and that it must lower, even<br /> in his own esteem, the eminent person whose sorry traffic<br /> &lt;annot be otherwise described than as that of obtaining<br /> money under false pretences. The handwriting test does<br /> not avail the editor in the detection of this fraud, for the<br /> eminent person and his subordinates are expert in the use<br /> of the typewriter.<br /> <br /> There has been a continuation in the pages of<br /> the Glasgow Herald to the calumnies of the<br /> provider of literary gossip. This person has<br /> replied that he did not intend to charge the<br /> Society, or myself personally, with a deliberate<br /> falsehood. What did he do it for, then? He<br /> now says that “authors have paraded their<br /> troubles with the publishers in such a way<br /> as to produce the impression that all publishers<br /> devote themselves to over-reaching authors.”<br /> ~« Produce the impression’’? I do not believe it.<br /> Moreover, I should like to know in what papers<br /> or magazines any member of this Society has<br /> “paraded his troubles,” except in self-defence. I<br /> can honestly say that I have myself answered<br /> hundreds of attacks: that I have never ‘“‘ paraded ”<br /> anything or appealed to the public except in<br /> answer to charges deliberately advanced and<br /> deliberately false. I would say more. I am quite<br /> sure that there has never been any association of<br /> men and women for any purpose which has been<br /> so frequently and so violently abused and mis-<br /> represented: and certainly none which has so<br /> flourished and advanced in the face of this oppo-<br /> sition.<br /> <br /> Once more I welcome our old friend, Mr. Alfred<br /> Nutt, again. It will be remembered how Mr. Nutt<br /> was asked last year a very simple question, merely<br /> for the reference to a passage which he “quoted”<br /> from The Author, and for further reference to the<br /> repetition of that passage, which, he stated, had<br /> been made without alteration in The Author. It<br /> will be remembered also how he tried to evade<br /> the plain question: how he wrote rigmarole: how<br /> he put off answering: how the Committee called<br /> upon him to produce that simple reference: and<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> how he finally refused to answer. Nobody has<br /> ever been able to find that passage. This is<br /> ancient history: it was exposed in these columns<br /> last year, It 1s, however, well to remind ourselves<br /> of this story, especially when he begins again—now<br /> in the Chicago Dial. Again he speaks of “ vague<br /> and reckless’ statements. This time, however, he<br /> takes very good care not to quote one of them.<br /> Instead of this, he takes a passage from an article<br /> in the Dial, which says, guardedly, that “if” a<br /> sale of a thousand copies of a book is certain<br /> there will be no risk—a statement perfectly<br /> simple and true. He actually pretends to<br /> assume this to mean that such a sale is certain<br /> for every book. He then proceeds, with tears in<br /> his typewriter, to point out the injustice of this<br /> statement. Such and such books, he says, “ have<br /> been published solely at my risk, without any help<br /> or subsidy whatever.’ Poor man! He should,<br /> however, remember that he is not obliged to do<br /> so. We can hardly sympathise with anyone who<br /> deliberately incurs certain loss: or ask, on the<br /> other hand, why he does it and what he expects<br /> to get by it. Perhaps it was done out of sheer<br /> love for literature. Perhaps from other motives.<br /> He is good enough to refer to me often, and with<br /> the appearance of temper. He complains that I<br /> consider only one kind of book—which is not<br /> true. The six-shilling book is a convenient unit,<br /> and it includes many kinds of book. Moreover,<br /> I would submit for Mr. Nutt’s consideration the<br /> plain fact that printers do not really charge more<br /> for printing scholarly books than for printing<br /> novels. They really do not. If Mr. Nutt’s<br /> printers have tried to do so, let me recommend<br /> him to find some other firm which does not.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> He seems also horribly afraid that the ‘ Method<br /> of the Future” should be generally adopted: he<br /> is apparently ignorant that it has already been<br /> taken up : he says that it is impossible for ency-<br /> clopedias, which nobody denies. Yet the argu-<br /> ment that because it is impossible, at present,<br /> for collective books, it is also impossible for indi-<br /> vidual books, is hardly logical. He says that<br /> publishing requires “‘ more capital than any other<br /> business.” Really? Is that so? More capital<br /> than any other business? How much capital<br /> did A. have, that eminent practitioner, when he<br /> set up in business? How much has that young<br /> gentleman whose name we saw for the first’ time<br /> six months ago, and now see with a list a column<br /> inlength? To put it mildly, I find Mr. Nutt’s<br /> views on necessary capital hardly credible when I<br /> consider some other kinds of business. I know of a<br /> printer, for instance, who pays £2000 a week in<br /> wages. How much capital would his machinery<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE<br /> <br /> alone require ? However, I should like to meet Mr.<br /> Nutt half-way. I can assure him that, s&gt; far, he<br /> has not done the Society the least harm, even<br /> with the kindest intentions of doing it as much<br /> harm as he can. I will willingly make a com-<br /> promise with him. When he has given me the<br /> reference to those “ quotations” which he made a<br /> year and a half ago, I will propose that he shall<br /> go on publishing, for the admiration of the whole<br /> world, all the books which are certain to lose,<br /> while the authors whose productions do not mean<br /> loss, the creators of literary property, shall publish<br /> for themselves and take care of their own pro-<br /> perty, without troubling Mr. Nutt at all. In this<br /> way he will go on losing as much as he pleases.<br /> This will make him completely happy. And the<br /> author will have his property to himself. So<br /> everybody will be happy.<br /> <br /> One more word with Mr. Nutt. He talks<br /> about “the glib statement that there is no risk<br /> in publishing.” Where is that statement made ?<br /> Who made it? Is it in The Author? I quote<br /> below the passage on “ Risk” from “The Pen<br /> and The Book.”<br /> <br /> Water BESANT.<br /> <br /> Does<br /> <br /> THE MEANING OF RISK.<br /> <br /> (From ‘“ The Pen and the Book.’’)<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> . HE question of ‘risk’ is one which requires<br /> careful consideration, because so much<br /> ignorant nonsense is talked about it, and<br /> <br /> so many misleading statements are constantly<br /> <br /> advanced on the subject. What, therefore, does<br /> risk mean practically ?<br /> <br /> “(.) The production of great works, such as<br /> encyclopedias, dictionaries, maps. illustrated art<br /> books, may undoubtedly entail the investment of<br /> large sums; waiting for the repayment perhaps<br /> for many years; and perhaps losing in the long<br /> run. Let us, however, separate these works,<br /> which are only undertaken by two or three pub-<br /> lishers: and let us confine our inquiry to general<br /> literature.<br /> <br /> Gi.) The production of general literature<br /> stands on quite a different footing, as the follow-<br /> ing considerations will show—<br /> <br /> ““(a) There are many hundreds of writers,<br /> engaged upon every branch of intellectual work,<br /> whose works entail no risk whatever. In other<br /> words, the experienced publisher knows with these<br /> writers how large an edition he can safely order<br /> without any loss to himself. This kind of experi-<br /> ence was happily illustrated by an account shown<br /> to me recently. The author was a well-known<br /> writer. The publisher knew beforehand so well<br /> <br /> AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> 49<br /> <br /> what he would sell that he printed one edition<br /> which sold out all but twenty copies or so. Once<br /> more, remember that there are hundreds of writers<br /> of whom this may be said, and that they are all<br /> known by publishers in their respective branches.<br /> <br /> ‘““(b) There is another large class of writers of<br /> whom it is safe to conclude that their books will<br /> at least pay expenses with some margin.<br /> <br /> ““(c) There is a practice of ‘subscribing’ a<br /> book; that is, offering it to the booksellers of<br /> London before it is even printed. The publisher<br /> thus gains some idea of the number on which he<br /> may venture. Thus, if he arrives at a subscrip-<br /> tion of 200 copies of such a book among the<br /> London booksellers, he may expect as many from<br /> the country trade, and so he goes to press with a<br /> risk either greatly diminished or wiped out.<br /> <br /> “(d) But publishers reduce the risk a great<br /> deal more in various ways.<br /> <br /> “They bind no more than are wanted.<br /> <br /> ‘They do not advertise more than is absolutely<br /> necessary; they feel their way. Thus, with a<br /> great many books, whose sale is certain to be<br /> small, £5 or so covers the advertising bill. They<br /> do not mould a book which is not likely to want<br /> a second edition. Thus they save £10 or so.<br /> <br /> ““(e) But the real way of regarding the actual<br /> risk incurred is this. Publishers do not pay the<br /> printer and others for a certain time, three to six<br /> months. Before that time they have received<br /> their returns of the first subscription of the book.<br /> The risk therefore is not, as is generally believed,<br /> the cost of production ; it is the difference, if any,<br /> between the first subscription and the cost of pro-<br /> duction.<br /> <br /> “For instance, the cost of production being<br /> £100, and the returns of the first subscription<br /> £95, the risk isjust £5. Andas I have said, pub-<br /> lishers know pretty well at the outset what the<br /> first subscription will be. These considerations<br /> are sufficient to show what risk really means in<br /> the production of current general literature, not<br /> in great undertakings: it is the difference<br /> between the cost of production and the first<br /> returns.”<br /> <br /> ae<br /> <br /> THE METHOD OF THE FUTURE.<br /> <br /> HIS method is explained in ‘“‘ The Pen and<br /> Ty the Book.” I always advocate as the best<br /> method of those in practice, the sale of a<br /> book outright—provided the proper value can be<br /> arrived at and obtained.<br /> A still better method is the following:<br /> “The author will dissever himself altogether<br /> from the publisher, and will connect himself<br /> directly with the bookse&#039;ler and the libraries.<br /> <br /> <br /> 50<br /> <br /> He will appoint an agent or distributor, to whom<br /> he will pay a commission. He will take upon<br /> himself the printing and production and adver-<br /> tising. He will himself incur the risk, if any, of<br /> a loss on the first run of the book.” :<br /> <br /> “One thing only is necessary, an agent who will<br /> work the books honestly and with zeal, and will<br /> not publish in any other manner than for the<br /> author.”<br /> <br /> I will illustrate the method by giving results.<br /> The figures are quite simple. I assume a six-<br /> shilling book, type small pica, 320pp., quite<br /> plainly bound, paper good but not, of course,<br /> expensive. I assume a fairly good sale of an<br /> edition of 3000 copies, the “overs” giving the<br /> review copies. (See p. 41.)<br /> <br /> The cost of production may be set down at<br /> £150. The sales, less an allowance for bad debts,<br /> soiled copies, and other causes, amount to £500.<br /> <br /> By this method the author pays £150 for the<br /> production, £50 to his agent, and realises £300<br /> for himself.<br /> <br /> Now, how would he fare by other methods ?<br /> <br /> (1) Haur Prorirs. :<br /> <br /> Bos do &amp; Ss. a.<br /> <br /> Cost of production £150, :<br /> swollen by advertise-<br /> <br /> ments not paid for, and<br /> <br /> by secret percentages ... 200 0 0O<br /> Author’s share of profits .. 112 10 0<br /> Publisher’s ditto, nominal 112 10 oO<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 425. 0 36<br /> By sales £500, less 10 per cent. for<br /> office expenses and 5 per cent. for<br /> bad debts... ea ees: £425 0 O<br /> (2) Royalty OF 10, 15, 20, 25 PER CENT.<br /> | By this<br /> 10 | 15 | 20 | 25 | Method.<br /> _——— | $$ | ———} —___ | —___ —___<br /> Author’s share...... | 90 | 135 | 180 | B25 300<br /> Publisher&#039;s share ...| 260) 215|170|}125| 50<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> These figures speak for themselves.<br /> <br /> Now, it must not be supposed that this method<br /> will give the unsuccessful writer a better chance<br /> than he has already. The public is the final<br /> judge from whom there is no appeal. It is,<br /> however, submitted that the whole problem is<br /> solved by this simple method: that a writer of<br /> reputation incurs norisk: that he will approach<br /> the public quite as well in this way as in any<br /> other: and that he will thus have the pleasure of<br /> administering his own affairs in his own interest.<br /> <br /> Dee<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE CASUAL CONTRIBUTOR.<br /> <br /> e ROM time to time a number of letters have<br /> K appeared in the correspondence columns of<br /> The Author, the writers of which complain<br /> <br /> bitterly of their treatment at editorial hands, and<br /> suggest some ingenious, if not very practicable,<br /> schemes by which the editors are to be coerced into<br /> amending their ways. Individual cases of hard-<br /> ship and of discourteous treatment doubtless there<br /> are, but, generally speaking, one’s sympathy<br /> with the writers of these letters would be greater<br /> did they not betray a most deplorable want of<br /> common-sense in their literary affairs and a<br /> quite pathetic ignorance of the rules by which,<br /> whether he likes them or not, the ordinary editor<br /> is bound.» When we find a contributor so<br /> incapable bf writing a business letter as gravely:<br /> to suggest, ina recent number of this journal, that<br /> the Society should provide “ printed forms for<br /> sale to its members which shall express in polite<br /> and businesslike terms all that is necessary for<br /> an unknown writer to say when offering his<br /> work”?; when we find another explaining at<br /> length that he himself is “one of the most<br /> courteous of men,” but, none the less, has had<br /> misunderstandings with ‘one of our best-known<br /> critics,” ‘another well-known literary man,” “a<br /> west-country editor,” and “a literary friend,’’—<br /> while yet another makes the brilliant suggestion<br /> that all contributors are to combine in a boycott<br /> of those editors who prefer to manage their<br /> business in their own way—then one does feel<br /> that it is just this kind of thing that brings the<br /> Society into contempt, and that“possibly a few<br /> elementary rules for the guidance of the casual<br /> contributor, obvious as they must be to many, to<br /> some, at least, may prove of practical assistance.<br /> And I who write am myself a casual con-<br /> tributor, so that at least I shall speak of the<br /> things that Iknow. Although literature is not<br /> the main business of my life, I have worked<br /> fairly hard at it during the past eight or nine<br /> years. During all that time I have lived in the<br /> country; personally, I know one only of the<br /> many editors for whom I have worked, and his<br /> acquaintance I made when I had been a con-<br /> tributor to his paper for a year. As I do not<br /> propose to sign this article, I shall not be<br /> accused of a desire to advertise myself if I state<br /> that within the last eight years work of mine—<br /> articles, stories, or verses—have appeared in the<br /> Nineteenth Century, the National Review,<br /> Longman’s, Temple Bar, the Badminton, Punch,<br /> the World, the St. James’s Gazette, the<br /> Academy, and a number of other periodicals.<br /> My only reason for giving this list is to show my<br /> readers, so to speak, my credentials for dealing<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> with this subject. And, lest the fact that I have<br /> often succeeded be thought to have deadened my<br /> sympathies for the beginner, I may add that I<br /> have also seen scores of my MSS. return to me in<br /> dishonour, and that at the present time I cannot<br /> count with certainty upon any work of mine<br /> finding acceptance—except in the case of two<br /> journals, as regards which [ am more or less<br /> upon the regular “outside” staff. But at least<br /> my experience has taught me something, the<br /> lessons, namely, which I propose to summarise<br /> here, because I believe it to be the simple duty<br /> of any writer to do all that he can to assist his<br /> literary brethren. So, to put the matter as<br /> plainly as possible, F would say—<br /> <br /> #7 Rule 1. Offer your work to first-class maga-<br /> zines and papers only y—The neophyte frequently<br /> remarks: ‘ Oh, it would be absurd of me to send<br /> my first productions to” —let us say “the<br /> Highflier Review. 1 can only hope to work my<br /> way up to first-class periodicals by degrees. So<br /> for the present I’ll try the Rushlight”—a new,<br /> obscure, and impecunious magazine. Now this,<br /> my friend, is, from every point of view, a mistake.<br /> Supposing the Rushlight accepts your contribu-<br /> tion, at best you will be ill-paid, at worst you will<br /> not be paid at all. It is quite likely that the<br /> Rushlight may finally flicker out of existence<br /> between the time when your paper was accepted<br /> and the date when youexpected it to appear. In<br /> any case there probably will be some difficulty in<br /> obtaining your honorarium, so that you will feel<br /> compelled to send off another of those letters to<br /> The Author, abusing editors wholesale. You<br /> will not be an inch further along the road to<br /> success, for no one reads the Rushlight, whereas<br /> the first thing you must aim at is to make your<br /> name familiar to the reading public. And, asa<br /> matter of fact, it is quite a fallacy to suppose<br /> that your contribution will not stand every bit as<br /> good a chance of acceptance with the Highflier.<br /> If ‘that periodical won’t have it, offer it to<br /> another of the same standing.“ If no first-class<br /> magazine will give your MS. a home, burn<br /> it or put it aside. But remember, once for<br /> all, that if no first-class periodical will print<br /> your contribution, it is better—far better—that<br /> it should not be printed at all. To traffic<br /> with struggling, inferior journals is to sow for<br /> yourself a certain crop of disputes, delays, and<br /> disappointments.<br /> <br /> 7 Rule 2. Wher offering your MS., study the<br /> rules of the game, as set forth in the editorial<br /> notices. Send the stamps, or stamped envelope<br /> as you are requested. Have your MS. typed, and<br /> send it flat, not rolled into a tight cylinder, which<br /> will exhaust the editorial patience in the shortest<br /> possible ey Then, as to the accompanying<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 51<br /> <br /> letter, which, as I have mentioned, so perplexes.<br /> one member of the Society that he wishes to<br /> replace it by a printed form, simply say that<br /> you enclose an MS., mention its nature (humorous<br /> story, dialogue, or whatever it is) and length (so<br /> many words). If you have appeared in the<br /> magazine before, remind the editor of the fact.<br /> Add that you enclose stamps for the return of the<br /> MS., if unsuitable, but that, should it be accepted,<br /> you would be glad to have a line to say so. And<br /> that is all. In fact, the shorter your note the<br /> better will it please the editor. Never seek to<br /> explain the merits of your work, still less use the<br /> argument ad misericordiam.<br /> <br /> / Rule 3. Then wait patiently, even if you hear<br /> <br /> eo<br /> <br /> nething of your MS. for some time. Note the<br /> date upon which it was despatched, but do not<br /> follow it up with numerous letters./If you have<br /> heard nothing of it by the end, let us say, of two<br /> months, it may be well to inquire about it, but<br /> again let your note be brief and courteous. “Even<br /> if you think your editor has treated you badly,<br /> it is the worst possible policy to tell him so. _<br /> The same rule, mutatis mutandis, holds good for<br /> the interval between acceptance and publication.<br /> Certainly it is most annoying to look for your<br /> article in vain, month after month, and some of<br /> the leading magazines, especially those of the<br /> old-fashioned type, are notorious offenders in this<br /> respect, while the fact that they do not pay until<br /> the contribution is published aggravates the evil,<br /> from the author&#039;s standpoint. But to write<br /> ferocious letters to the editor is worse than useless ;<br /> possibly you may goad him into returning your<br /> work, even when it is in type; probably you will<br /> effectually deter him from accepting the next<br /> contribution you send.<br /> <br /> As regards payment, I need say nothing. By<br /> observing the first rule here suggested, that of<br /> sending your work to first-class periodicals only,<br /> you will be free from any difficulty about getting<br /> your money, while the amounts of your cheques<br /> will be at least adequate to the time and trouble:<br /> devoted to earning them.<br /> <br /> There are some further rules and suggestions<br /> which I should like to add; perhaps, with the<br /> editor’s permission, I may resume the subject in<br /> a future number.<br /> <br /> peace<br /> <br /> The correspondence of the month must be<br /> held over until August.—Eb.<br /> 52 THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> BOOK TALK.<br /> HE Belfast News Letter says that the Newry<br /> a Telegraph, one of the oldest papers im<br /> Ulster, has purchased the exclusive serial<br /> rights for Ireland of Mr. W. B. Lappin’s novel<br /> “Mad Mag.” Later on the novel will be brought<br /> out in book form, when something reliably Irish<br /> may be looked for.<br /> <br /> “The Tendency of Religion,” by Colonel R.<br /> Elias, late 59th Regiment, is a collection of facts,<br /> reflections, and forecasts based upon the great<br /> and increasing mixing of the nations, and conse-<br /> quent gradual development of mutual under-<br /> standing and impartiality among men all the<br /> world over, bringing with it the mevitable recog-<br /> nition that all the great religious systems are<br /> essentially alike, differing only in details. The<br /> book has been very widely reviewed and favour-<br /> ably received.<br /> <br /> Miss Ellen T. Masters, the authoress of several<br /> practical hand-books on embroidery, and of ‘The<br /> Gentlewoman’s Book of Art Needlework” in the<br /> Victoria Library, is putting the finishing touches<br /> to another small volume on the same subject.<br /> This is “The Book of Stitches,’ which is to<br /> be uniform with Mrs. Humphry’s well-known<br /> ‘“Mamnners” series, and is to be illustrated with<br /> between sixty and seventy diagrams prepared by<br /> the authoress, showing clearly how some of the<br /> fancy stitches that she describes are executed.<br /> The publisher is Mr. James Bowden.<br /> <br /> H.R.H. the Princess of Wales has graciously<br /> accepted and acknowledged a copy of “ Rita’s”’<br /> last novel, “ An Old Rogue’s Tragedy.”<br /> <br /> “Peace, the Angel’s Song,” from the poem of<br /> “The Light of the World,” by Sir Edwin Arnold,<br /> has been set to music by Blanche Eryl, the nom<br /> de plume adopted by Mrs. Alfred Phillips, whose<br /> songs have been sung by Mr. Santley and other<br /> singers of note, and whose books are before the<br /> public. Mrs. Phillips also wrote the first<br /> African National Anthem, for the Sultan Seyyid<br /> Burgarsh, of Zanzibar. She has taken a nom de<br /> plume to avoid confusion with others of her<br /> name who are writing since she first published.<br /> Messrs. Novello and Co. are bringing out her<br /> new song.<br /> <br /> At the annual conference of the Retail News-<br /> agents’ and Booksellers’ Union, held in Liver-<br /> pool, Mr. Charles Olley, of Belfast, president,<br /> referred to the sixpenny copyright novels, with<br /> which, he said, a host of publishers had over-<br /> flooded the market. Already, however, he<br /> observed in the fickle public taste a turn in<br /> * favour of larger print and better paper; and<br /> <br /> he expressed his belief that shilling editions<br /> would be a greater success and much more<br /> remunerative.<br /> <br /> The committee of the William Black Memorial<br /> Fund have decided that the memorial shall take<br /> the form of a beacon light to be erected, at a cost<br /> of about £800, at Duart Point, near the Lady<br /> Rock, on the coast of Mull. The Commissioners<br /> of Northern Lights have agreed to maintain the<br /> light after the beacon is erected.<br /> <br /> Lady Dilke has written a book entitled “ French<br /> Painters in the Highteenth Century,’ which will<br /> be published in the autumn by Messrs. Bell. It<br /> will be illustrated with upwards of seventy repro-<br /> ductions of selected pictures, many of which from<br /> private collections have never been reproduced or<br /> exhibited in public.<br /> <br /> Dean Farrar has completed a work called<br /> “True Religion,” which will be published shortly<br /> by Mr. 8. T. Freemantle.<br /> <br /> A new edition of the prose writings of Mr.<br /> Kipling has been projected by Messrs. Macmillan,<br /> to consist of ten volumes at the uniform price of<br /> 6s., which will appear one at a time at short<br /> intervals, beginning at once with ‘“ Plain Tales<br /> from the Hills.” Mr. Kipling has purchased<br /> from Messrs. Newnes the copyright of ‘“ Depart-<br /> mental Ditties,’ which was originally published<br /> in 1885 by Messrs. Thacker.<br /> <br /> Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice has undertaken to<br /> write the authoritative biography of the late Earl<br /> Granville.<br /> <br /> Mr. Andrew Lang is translating “The Homeric<br /> Hymns,” for publication by Mr. George Allen.<br /> The book will contain plates, which have been<br /> taken chiefly from Greek sculptures.<br /> <br /> The humorous “Interviews with Mr. Miggs,”<br /> which have appeared in the Pall Mall Gazette,<br /> will be published in book form by Messrs. Samp-<br /> son Low. ‘The author of the papers is Mr. Alex-<br /> ander Stuart.<br /> <br /> Mr. F. P. Dunne, the creator of ‘‘ Mr. Dooley,”<br /> is to writea series of articles on English life for<br /> publication both here and in America.<br /> <br /> Mark Twain and the Hon. Sir Spencer Walpole<br /> were together the guests of the Authors’ Club at<br /> dinner on June 12. The famous humourist pro-<br /> poses to bequeath to posterity a book containing<br /> absolutely frank and truthful portraits of<br /> “persons of importance” of his day, which shall<br /> be published a hundred years after his death.<br /> <br /> Mr. R. Andom has written a sequel to his story<br /> “We Three and Troddles,” which will be pub-<br /> lished in the autumn under the title of “ Troddles<br /> and Us—and Others.”<br /> <br /> a a NE I<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 33<br /> <br /> Miss Frances Gerard has a book on Ludwig II.<br /> of Bavaria almost ready for publication by<br /> Messrs. Hutchinson.<br /> <br /> Mrs. Hodgson Burnett is at work on a new<br /> novel for publication in the autumn.<br /> <br /> Mr. Guy Boothby’s new story, “The Woman<br /> of Death,” will be published by Messrs. Pearson<br /> in the summer. Other works of fiction which<br /> are announced include “In Full Cry,” by Mr.<br /> Richard Marsh (White); “Bonnie Maggie<br /> Lauder,” by Alan St. Aubyn (White) ; “A<br /> Woman’s Witchery,” by Mr. H. E. Curran<br /> (Lawrence and Bullen); ‘The Magic of the<br /> Desert,’ by Mr. W. Smith-Williams, a new<br /> writer (Blackwood).<br /> <br /> Two months hence the biography of Sir John<br /> Millais will be ready. Among the correspond-<br /> ence in the work are letters from the Queen.<br /> New details about the Pre-Raphaelite Brother-<br /> hood will be given. Reminiscences will be con-<br /> tributed by Sir George Reid, Sir William Rich-<br /> mond, Sir Noel Paton, and Mr. Val Prinsep ; and<br /> a feature will be made of the illustrations to the<br /> book.<br /> <br /> A life of the Emperor Nero, which will be<br /> fully illustrated from authentic sources, is being<br /> written for Messrs. Methuen by Mr. B. W.<br /> Henderson, Fellow of Merton College, Oxford.<br /> Mr. W. R. Sorley, Professor of Moral Philo-<br /> sophy at the University of Aberdeen, is writing<br /> for publication by the same firm an “ Introduc-<br /> tion to Political Philosophy,” which will treat of<br /> leading principles and their connection with par-<br /> ticular questions.<br /> <br /> A Stevenson manuscript, believed to be the<br /> original shape which “ Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”<br /> assumed in the novelist’s mind, will be sold on<br /> July 5 at Sotheby’s auction rooms. It is entitled<br /> “ Markheim,” and consists of thirty small quarto<br /> pages, all in the novelist’s handwriting.<br /> <br /> The “ Perverse Widow,” by A. W. Crawley-<br /> Boevey, is a book which may appear intended only<br /> for those who are interested in the Boevey and<br /> allied families of Flaxley Abbey, Gloucestershire.<br /> The lady, however, who plays the principal part<br /> in the work has a wider claim to interest,<br /> imasmuch as she is the reputed widow who was<br /> courted by Sir Roger de Coverley: the reasons<br /> for believing that she was the lady in Addison’s<br /> mind are pointed out by the author. The book<br /> is published by Longmans at the price of<br /> 42s. net.<br /> <br /> ‘telling effect.<br /> <br /> FROM THE AMERICAN PAPERS.<br /> <br /> OND-STREET, the Paternoster-row of New<br /> B York, is gradually being forsaken by pub-<br /> <br /> ?<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> lishers, who are moving “up town” to<br /> the Fifth Avenue district. Dodd, Mead, and<br /> Co., who are one of the latest to move, give as<br /> their reason the fact that their speciality is fine<br /> and rare editions, and the new location is near<br /> the centre of wealth and culture, amid the abodes<br /> of those who appreciate the luxe in literature and<br /> are able to pay for it. M. F. Mansfield and A.<br /> Wessels are also taking their businesses into this<br /> region, where in a few years the public lbrary<br /> will be erected; and the fact that the Grand<br /> Central Station is near at hand makes the site a<br /> valuable and appropriate centre for booksellers<br /> and publishers, but particularly to those who<br /> have a retail department.<br /> <br /> Mr. Henry Baldwin, of New Haven, Conn.,<br /> has for the past seven years been engaged on a<br /> stupendous undertaking—the “Library Ameri-<br /> cana.” Some account of this project was pub-<br /> lished lately in the New York Tumes. It is the<br /> outcome of a convention of the patriotic societies<br /> of America, held in Chicago in 1891, which<br /> appointed Mr. Baldwin Custodian of American<br /> History, with his duty to collect all additional<br /> facts and verify, so far as possible, all present<br /> facts which in any way affect the history of<br /> America. While the “ Library Americana ” will<br /> remain the property of the patriotic organisations<br /> of America, it may become the nucleus of the<br /> much agitated University of the United States in<br /> its department of American history. It begins<br /> with events in prehistoric America, going back to<br /> the supposed Chinese landing. Every tact from<br /> that time to the present day will be verified if<br /> possible. Every sort of question is treated—law,<br /> genealogy, biography, wars, calamities, celebra-<br /> tions, everything which has a bearing, direct or<br /> indirect, upon America, as well as topics wherein<br /> America is found to have a bearing upon the history<br /> of other countries. Not only accounts of events,<br /> but illustrations, cartoons, editorial comments<br /> from many pens have been preserved and placed in<br /> logical order. The Spanish-American War is dealt<br /> with in every detail. Letters from famous men<br /> to famous men, of noted personages to the beloved<br /> members of their family, love letters of long ago,<br /> form other volumes, and it is through this corres-<br /> pondence that much information is gained, and<br /> new sidelights are thrown upon the characters of<br /> some of the greatest men and women in history.<br /> That all possible additions may be made to the<br /> library and information unearthed, the chain-<br /> letter system has recently been made use of with<br /> The letters are usually sent to<br />  <br /> <br /> 54<br /> <br /> members of patriotic societies or people specially<br /> interested in historical and literary matters, with<br /> the request that they in turn write another to<br /> friends. The letters ask for old newspapers,<br /> books, autograph letters, manuscripts, or any like<br /> contribution, Another interesting detail is that<br /> the great “Library Americana” is to be cata-<br /> logued in different colours, each colour to desig-<br /> nate some special topic.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> OBITUARY.<br /> HE Rev. Dr. W. Garden Blaikie, Pro-<br /> <br /> fessor of Theology in the Free Church of<br /> <br /> Scotland from 1868 to 1897, who died in<br /> Edinburgh on June 10, in his eightieth year, was<br /> editor for successive periods of the Mree Church<br /> Magazine, the North British Review, the Sunday<br /> Magazine, and the Catholic Presbyterian. The<br /> book by which he will be remembered.is probably<br /> his biography of David Livingstone, but his<br /> optimistic “ Better Days for Working People”<br /> was exceedingly popular, and he wrote also a<br /> biography of the Free Church founder, Chalmers,<br /> and many expository volumes, and contributed<br /> many notices to the “Dictionary of National<br /> Biography.”<br /> <br /> Dr. Norman Kerr, the great authority on<br /> inebriety, and the author of over a score of books<br /> on the subject of alcoholism, died at Hastings on<br /> May 30.<br /> <br /> Pe<br /> <br /> BOOKS AND REVIEWS.<br /> <br /> (In these columns notes on books are given from reviews<br /> which carry weight, and are not, so far as can be learned,<br /> logrollers.)<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> PPRECIATIONS anp ApprxEssrs DELIVERED BY<br /> Lorp Rosepery, edited by Charles Geake (Lane,<br /> 5s. net), “a valuableand permanent addition to the library<br /> of British oratory” (Daily Chronicle), will be welcomed,<br /> says the Daily News, ‘‘by all who care for the study of<br /> calture and politics.’”’ There is in the volume “ statesman-<br /> ship, lofty, nobly patriotic, unselfish, and inspiring states-<br /> manship of a kind more imperatively needful to-day than<br /> in any period of the century.”<br /> <br /> MatTtTHEwW ARNOLD, by George Saintsbury (Blackwood,<br /> 23. 6d.), the first volume in a new series designed to<br /> supplement the well-known ‘‘ English Men of Letters,” is<br /> not for the general reader, says the Daily News, being “ not<br /> sufficiently expository,” and ‘&#039; sometimes too recondite.<br /> It is rather written by a critic for critics,” and “ on the<br /> ira Professor Saintsbury’s judgments seem to us to be<br /> sound.”<br /> <br /> Letters or Bensgamin Jowsrt, M.A., Master of<br /> Balliol College, Oxford, arranged and edited by Evelyn<br /> Abbott, M.A., LL.D., and, Lewis Campbell, M.A., LL.D.<br /> (Murray, 16s.) will delight readers of Jowett’s ‘&#039; Life,” says<br /> the Daily News, the letters, which range over a great<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> variety of topics, being as “‘ characteristic of Mr. Jowett, as<br /> instinct with his shrewd, kindly wisdom,” as any similar<br /> compositions of his. One of the valuable elements in this<br /> collection, observes the Daily Telegrarh, is ‘the record of<br /> Jowett’s friendships, so keenly felt, so resolutely main-<br /> tained throughout all his life.’ ‘‘ We are grateful to the<br /> editors of these interesting letters,’ remarks the Spectator,<br /> “though we feel that they would scarcely reveal much of<br /> Jowett’s personality to those who did not already know<br /> him,” “The collection is rather for those who wish to<br /> ascertain owatt’s viavs on ec:rtvin large public ques-<br /> tions,” says the Daily Chronicle. Literature says the<br /> letters on European politics ‘disclose a side of Jowett’s<br /> character and a range of his intellectual interests which will<br /> for most readers possess the charm of complete novelty.”<br /> <br /> Francesco Crispi, by W. J. Stillman (Richards, 7s. 6d.),<br /> is described by the Daily Telegraph as “‘a most important<br /> contribution towards the proper understanding of the<br /> present state of Italy.” “It is true,” says the Daily<br /> Chronicle, ‘‘that Mr. Stillman frankly criticises Crispi’s<br /> methods and temper, but, in so far as his policy is con-<br /> cerned, Crispi stands forth in this volume as perhaps the<br /> wisest and most upright statesman of the century.” Litera-<br /> ture describes it as ‘‘ devoid of those personal touches which<br /> make biographies live,” but as being “ impartial, judicious,”<br /> and containing valuable information as to Italian politics.<br /> <br /> James RusseLL Loweut AnD His Frienps, by Edward<br /> Everett Hale (Constable, 16s.), ‘“‘ forms a welcome postscript<br /> to Mr. Lawrence Lovell’s biography,” says the Daily News,<br /> the aim of the book being to furnish a review of the last<br /> sixty years among literary and scientific people in Boston<br /> and its neighbourhood, though among these Mr. Lowell of<br /> course takes a prominent place. ‘‘ Those who knew Lowell<br /> best and admired him most will have good reason to be<br /> satisfied with the sympathetic, but not indiscriminating<br /> portrait which is presented of him in these pages.” While<br /> it will hardly supply the place of the biography of Mr.<br /> Lowell, says Literature, we can from this work “ construct<br /> a fairly complete picture of the author of ‘A Fable for<br /> Critics’ at the beginning of his career, and of the singer of<br /> the great Commemoration Ode in middle life.” It is beauti-<br /> fully illustrated, and a good index, says the Daily Telegraph,<br /> “adds to its value as a picture of an important period in<br /> New England history and of the famous men who made it.”<br /> <br /> Tur Human Macuine, by J. F. Nisbet (Richards, 6s.),<br /> is permeated by a philosophy very much the same as that<br /> of Lamettrie, says Literature, and while the author ‘‘ does<br /> not advert to arguments which have convinced some of the<br /> scientific authorities whom he reverently cites that the<br /> materialistic theory is a faulty explanation of the world,”<br /> the essays are bracing reading, and ‘‘an excellent antidote<br /> to much unpleasant twaddle.”<br /> <br /> Henrik Issen; BJORNSTJERNDE BJORNSON (Heinemann,<br /> 10s. net) critical studies, by George Brandes, whom Litera-<br /> ture calls “the most authoritative critic of North-Hastern<br /> Europe,’ contains a study of Ibsen which that journal<br /> recommends “to all those who have preserved an open<br /> mind in presence of the great Norwegian dramatist,” and<br /> an essay on Bjérnson published by Dr. Brandes in 1882.<br /> Dr. Brandes, says the Daily News, “ devotes a great deal of<br /> space to the attempt to make clear the social theories of<br /> Ibsen, though we fear that his efforts will not always be<br /> attended with complete success,” but “no appreciation of<br /> Tbsen’s genius that has yet made its appearance in the<br /> English language can-compare for fulness and insight with<br /> this volume,” the translation of which by Jessie Muir has<br /> been revised by Mr. William Archer, who contributes a<br /> preface. Lovers of literature, says the Daily Telegraph,<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> CELE<br /> <br /> ook<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Te<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Ee fy<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> and of tbe modern dramatic movement in particular, will<br /> <br /> be amply repaid by a perusal of this book.<br /> <br /> Huneer, by Knut Hamsun, the Norwegian writer<br /> (Smithers, 4s. net.), “ simply as a study of hunger will not<br /> be surpassed,” and the spirit and individuality of the writer<br /> could not have been more “completely preserved than in<br /> George Egerton’s admirable translation,” says the Daily<br /> Telegraph.<br /> <br /> Tus RoMANCE or A Pro-ConsuL, by James Milne<br /> (Chatto, 6s.), consists of a “ personal life and memoirs of<br /> Sir George Grey.” Literature says Mr. Milne gives his<br /> readers “‘a very fair idea of Sir George Grey himself,<br /> though a very inadequate idea of the events in which he<br /> played his part,” and the Daily News says the charm of<br /> the book ‘‘is to be found in the graphic glimpses of his<br /> own life, given in Sir George Grey’s own striking phrases.”<br /> <br /> From Comte to Kipp, by Robert Mackintosh (Mac-<br /> millan, 8s. 6d. net.), a critical study of the various thinkers<br /> who have tried to build a sociology on a biological basis, is<br /> yaluable, says Literature, in “ that it contains a good many<br /> clever reflections on the details of the method of evolution,<br /> and on the nature and limitations of it when applied to<br /> human society.”<br /> <br /> Tur SoLrTary SUMMER (Macmillan, 6s.), by the author<br /> of “Elizabeth and Her German Garden,” “readable and<br /> delicately humourous ” as the first (Daily Chronicle) is even<br /> more charming than that book, says the Spectator. “ After<br /> reading it we are as ignorant of the nature and growth of<br /> plants as, we suspect, she is,’ but “she teaches us the<br /> positive value of intercourse with Nature, and the untold<br /> mischief of coming to love the fuss and turmoil of which<br /> our lives are perhaps inevitably full.” The “ autobiography<br /> of a cultured and cbservant woman” (Literature), “‘it is,<br /> says the Guardian, “ an admirable example of the desultory<br /> yet literary style of which some Jadies seem to possess the<br /> secret.”<br /> <br /> Lire AND NATURE IN THE ENGuLIsH Laxgs, by the Rev.<br /> H. D. Rawnsley (Maclehose, 5s.) is described by the<br /> Spectator as ‘“‘a very pleasant volume by one who knows<br /> and loves what he is writing about.” ‘ We could imagine<br /> no more charming companion to any meditative Lake<br /> visitor,” says the Daily Chronicle, than this collection of<br /> sketches by a true and close observer of thecountry. ‘‘ His<br /> descriptions of the shepherds’ meetings are full of humour<br /> and skilful description.”<br /> <br /> Avuraority anp ARcHmOoLOGY, Sacred and Profane,<br /> edited by David G. Hogarth (Murray, 16s.) is a volume of<br /> more or less popular essays by writers of obvious com-<br /> petence, containing the results of recent archeological<br /> research in relation to biblical and classical literature. The<br /> Daily News describes it as “an excellent wor Pe<br /> <br /> Tue POLITICAL STRUWWELPETER, by Harold Begbie,<br /> illustrated by F. Carruthers Gould (Richards, 3s. 6d.) is<br /> good-tempered satire and harmless mirth, says the Daily<br /> News; ita personages “belong to the world of English<br /> politics, and both Mr. Gould’s drawings and Mr. Begbie’s<br /> bright and facile rhymes are devoted to fables in which<br /> these celebrities play conspicuous parts.’ The Chronicle<br /> speaks of the ‘‘extraordinary cleverness of Mr. Gould’s<br /> disciplinary pencil.” ‘The most serious politician,” says<br /> Literature, “ will hardly maintain his gravity wherever he<br /> may open the book.”<br /> <br /> Aurrep THE GREAT, edited by Alfred Bowker (Black,<br /> 58s. net) gives a noble “idea of this emancipator of his<br /> country and true founder of the English nation,” says the<br /> Daily News. In this “series of contributions by the nine<br /> <br /> 55<br /> <br /> distinguished writers whose names are set forth on the title<br /> page,” there is, says the Daily Chronicle, something to suit<br /> every taste, “for though not all its readers will be able to<br /> appreciate the occasional bits of Anglo-Saxon and Latin,<br /> the greater portion is written in a thoroughly lucid and<br /> attractive form.”<br /> <br /> Lapy Lovisa Stuart (Douglas, 7s. 6d.) is a volume of<br /> selections from the manuscripts of this friend of Sir Walter<br /> Scott’s, which has been edited by the Hon. James A. Home.<br /> A memoir of John, Duke of Argyll and his family occupies<br /> about half the book; there are four letters of Scott’s and<br /> eight or ten of Lady Louisa’s, the former being described by<br /> Literature as delightful, with ‘‘ here and there a touchingly<br /> beautiful allusion to the sorrows of his old age.”<br /> <br /> Tye Ciry oF THE Sout (Richards, 5s. net), poems, is not,<br /> says the Daily Telegraph, ‘“‘ an essay in the art of writing<br /> verse; it is work of a remarkably high order, and reveals<br /> the temperament of a poet who writes because it is in him<br /> to do so.” ‘All through the book one comes upon lines<br /> which are astonishing in their beauty and their distinction.”<br /> <br /> Tur Open Roan, by E. V. Lucas (Richards, 5s.) a little<br /> book of selections to provide ‘‘ companionship on the road<br /> for city dwellers to make holiday,” is above the average of<br /> its kind, says the Guardian; and “ strikes a note of<br /> modernity,” says Literature “ which will not fail to please<br /> readers who complain that the compilers of anthologies<br /> are too fond of following a beaten track.”<br /> <br /> A Hisrory oF AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY, by Leonard<br /> Woolsey Bacon (Clarke, 10s. 6d.), is welcomed by the<br /> Spectator as a work “aiming at, and for the most part<br /> attaining, an appreciation of the best in diverse schools of<br /> religious thought, in their growth and their present con-<br /> dition, and as thus calculated to aid the better under-<br /> standing of America by the English people.” Literature<br /> says itis “excellently arranged and written.”<br /> <br /> Rorert Rarkes: THe MAn anp His Worx,’ edited<br /> by J. Henry Harris (Arrowsmith, 7s. 6d.), has auch<br /> biographical value, says Literature, including much<br /> evidence drawn from the recollections of Gloucester<br /> residents who knew Raikes.<br /> <br /> A Srupy or WAGNER, by Ernest Newman (B. Dobell,<br /> 12s.) is criticised by Literature, which says that the<br /> Wagnerian theory of the complete domination of the poet<br /> (in the relation between music and poetry), ‘‘ has had such<br /> an influence upon his successors and upon the musical<br /> thoughi of our day that we are glad to welcome a fearless<br /> exponent of the opposite theory.”<br /> <br /> Tur CoLuMN AND THE ARCH: Essays on Architectural<br /> History, by William P. P. Longfellow (Sampson Low,<br /> 108. 6d.), cannot fail to be extremely interesting to any<br /> reader cf artistic taste, says the Daily Chronicle. “ The<br /> subject is treated in a suggestive and unhackneyed<br /> manner.” Literatwre describes it as ‘“‘a work of real<br /> technical value.”<br /> <br /> Tus GAME AND THE CANDLE, by Rhoda Broughton<br /> (Macmillan, 6s.), is described by the Guardian as “ mainly<br /> a study in her usual style of human passion; in this case<br /> one in which the salient points are intense egotism and<br /> folly’; and ‘‘there is scarcely a character who does not<br /> seem to have been put as it were ina pillory for the reader’s<br /> edification and amusement.”<br /> <br /> I, THov, AnD THE OTHER Onn, by Mrs. Amelia E. Barr<br /> (Unwin, 6s.), is ‘a sweet and tender love story,” says the<br /> Daily Telegraph; ‘‘no more charming romance of the kind<br /> has been told in recent years,” the book carrying with it<br /> “ something of the fragrance cf an old-world garden.” The<br />  <br /> <br /> 56 THE<br /> <br /> excitement of the days of the Reform Act of 1832 is<br /> effectively used, remarks the Daily Chronicle, “and the<br /> book as a whole is pleasant and refreshing.”<br /> <br /> Tp DOMINION OF DREAMS, by Fiona Macleod (Constable,<br /> 6s.), consists of tales whose essential quality, says the<br /> Spectator, which “gratefully welcomes” them, is “ that<br /> they are of no time, neither conscientiously up to date nor<br /> elaborately out of date. The scene is laid for the most part<br /> in the Western Highlands, but, beyond a stray minister, the<br /> characters are all of the humblest class.” Literature speaks<br /> of “the extreme beauty and subtlety of Fiona Macleod’s<br /> writing,’ and says she sees the Gael through a mist of old<br /> tradition, and the volume ‘deals exclusively with the folk<br /> who hover on the indeterminate strip of space that separates<br /> sanity from madness.” ‘‘ There is poetry in all descriptions<br /> of scenes and periods, however strange and fantastic,’’ says<br /> the Daily Telegraph.<br /> <br /> GERALD FrtzGBRALD, by Charles Lever (Downey, 6s.),<br /> which appeared originally as a serial in the Dublin Univer-<br /> sity Magazine, but never saw the light in book form in<br /> Lever’s lifetime, is a plausible, romantic superstructure<br /> reared on a basis of fact, says the Spectator. The picture<br /> which he gives us of the sottish Pretender (Charles Edward)<br /> ‘redeemed from insignificance by his romantic past, and of<br /> his train of needy hangers-on, is true enough in spirit,<br /> while Lever’s familiarity with Italian society of all grades<br /> lends verisimilitude to the setting of thestory. The canvas<br /> is crowded with historic personages, including Alfieri,<br /> Madame Roland, and Mirabeau, and even where the portraits<br /> deviate most widely from authentic records, they are invari-<br /> ably endowed with energy and vivacity of expression.” As<br /> a story it will “add little to Lever’s fame,” says Literature,<br /> “but there are in it some excellent pieces of writing.”<br /> <br /> THE SATELLITE’s Stowaway, by Harry Lander (Chap-<br /> man, 3s. 6d.), is a “high-spirited and readable book.”<br /> (Spectator) which will captivate ‘all novel readers who love<br /> the sea, and do not object to a certain amount of coarse-<br /> ness in language and brutality in treatment—a coarseness,<br /> be it understood, which is never really base or of evil<br /> repute.”<br /> <br /> WHEN THE SLEEPER Wakgs, by H. G. Wells (Harpers,<br /> 6s.), is the story “of a man who falls into a cataleptic<br /> trance of over 200 years’ duration, and awakes to find<br /> himeelf, not only a kind of museum curiosity, guarded like<br /> a treasure, but also the heir to untold wealth, in a new and<br /> strange world.” The Daily News says that ‘‘Mr. Wells<br /> beats Jules Verne on his own ground,” while the Guardian<br /> describes it as “‘an enthralling effort of imagination,”<br /> “vivid and bizarre as a powerful nightmare.”<br /> <br /> Aw IpugR IN OLD FRANCE, by Tighe Hopkins (Hurst,<br /> 6s.), is a series of essays, “graphic pictures of old French<br /> life, which will be equally interesting to the ignorant and<br /> the well-informed,” says Literature. ‘‘We have seldom<br /> read a more charming book of its kind.”<br /> <br /> SILENCE Farm, by William Sharp (Richards, 6s.) paints<br /> for us “ with no little success,” says the Daily Telegraph,<br /> country scenes in the Lowlands with strong, characteristic<br /> figures of farmers and farm labourers amid changing<br /> aspects of sky and lands.” ‘The story, painful as it is, is<br /> exceedingly well told,” and “leaves a clear and artistic<br /> impression on the mind.” The chief character is a rank<br /> egoist and sensualist. “The story is powerful and tragic,’<br /> says the Daily News.<br /> <br /> Tue Arm oF THE Lorp, by Mrs. Comyns Carr (Duck-<br /> worth), is a “‘ powerful and lurid story,” says the Daily News,<br /> and, apart from its tragic intercst, ‘“‘ a careful study of<br /> certain phases of religious belief.”<br /> <br /> AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Lesser Destinizs, by Samuel Gordon (Murray, 6s8.), is<br /> described by the Daily Chronicle as “ a most careful study<br /> of the language, tone, and manners of the lower strata of<br /> London’s working folk.” The book is “reasonably read-<br /> able,” says Literature, “and might even be popular if the<br /> atmosphere were somewhat lees sordid.” No recent author<br /> that the Spectator has come across ‘has reproduced with<br /> greater skill and spirit the rough chaff and badinage in<br /> which the London street-arab notoriously excels.” ‘“ There<br /> is far more knowledge of human nature in Mr. Gordon’s book<br /> than in the works of those who excel him in the vigour of<br /> their realism.”<br /> <br /> Tue Inpivipua.ist, by W. H. Mallock (Chapman, 6s.),<br /> as a work of art, says Literature, suffers by the preposses-<br /> sions of a writer with a social purpose.’ The Daily News<br /> describes the novel as “of course a very clever book”—<br /> an acidulated, but not on that account less amusing,<br /> satire,” in which the author “is very sarcastic about<br /> ‘ settlements’ in general, and he is specially unkind to poor<br /> Bloomsbury.” The Daily Chronicle says that the book<br /> smacks of the eighties, but that “here and there are some:<br /> clever touches and some acute observations,” while the<br /> Daily Telegraph finds it ‘a merely brilliant social satire.’””<br /> The Spectator says the book exhibits a polished style, an<br /> eres observation, a sense of beauty, and a vein of genuine<br /> satire.”<br /> <br /> Onz Poor Scrupuez, by Mrs. Wilfred Ward (Longmans,<br /> 6s.), is a “thoroughly interesting, well-written novel”<br /> (Daily Chronicle), the characters of which are a house-party<br /> of a cousin or two, a man and a girl, and a literary man.<br /> ‘* The picture she draws of an old Catholic home and family<br /> is excellent,” says the Daily Telegraph, the Spectator finds<br /> it “singularly interesting and stimulating,” while the<br /> Guardian, besides praising the work as wholesome, and<br /> “ far above the average in cleverness and interest,” remarks<br /> that ‘‘in a day when all the serious novels are of agnostic<br /> tendency, it is delightful to have to speak of one in which<br /> religious faith and principle are made to triumph over the<br /> snares of the world and the flesh.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “THE AUTHOR<br /> <br /> SCALE FOR ADVERTISEMENTS.<br /> <br /> Front Page aes £4 0 0<br /> Other Pages - 8 0<br /> Half of a Page ... +. 110 0<br /> Quarter of a Page ee x » OL oO<br /> Eighth of a Page oe nee wae eee ee<br /> Single Column Advertisements perioch 0 6 0<br /> Bills for Insertion per 2000 3 0 0<br /> <br /> Reductions made for a Series of Six or Twelve Insertions.<br /> <br /> All letters respecting Advertisements should be addressed to the<br /> ADVERTISEMENT MANAGER, The Author Office, 4, Portugal-street,<br /> London, W.C. 3<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Mr. j. Eveleigh Nask,<br /> LITERARY AGENT,<br /> AMBERLEY HOUSE, NORFOLK STREET, —<br /> <br /> STRAND, W.C. SS	https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/464/1899-07-01-The-Author-10-2.pdf	publications, The Author