| 466 | https://historysoa.com/items/show/466 | The Author, Vol. 10 Issue 04 (September 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+04+%28September+1899%29"><em>The Author</em>, Vol. 10 Issue 04 (September 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> | 1899-09-01-The-Author-10-4 | | | | | 77–96 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | <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=1899-09-01">1899-09-01</a> | | | | | | | 4 | | | 18990901 | Che &#utbor.<br />
<br />
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors.<br />
<br />
CONDUCTED<br />
<br />
Monthly.)<br />
<br />
BY WALTER BESANT.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
2% ~=36-: Voz. X.— No. 4.]<br />
<br />
SEPTEMBER 1, 18g9.<br />
<br />
[PRICE SIXPENCE.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
For the Opinions expressed in papers that are<br />
stgned or initialled the Authors alone are<br />
responsible. None of the papers or para-<br />
<br />
. graphs must be taken as expressing the<br />
<br />
* collective opinions of the Committee unless<br />
<br />
iS they are officially signed by G. Herbert<br />
<br />
. Thring, Sec.<br />
<br />
HE Secretary of the Society begs to give notice that all<br />
<br />
remittances are acknowledged by return of post, and<br />
‘ requests that all members not receiving an answer to<br />
~ geri important communications within two days will write to him<br />
~ Jie without delay. All remittances should be crossed Union<br />
Bank of London, Chancery-lane, or be sent by registered<br />
tis’ 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 />
a<br />
<br />
GENERAL MEMORANDA.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
ERE are a few standing rules to be observed in an<br />
agreement. There are four methods of dealing<br />
with literary property :—<br />
<br />
: I. THAT OF SELLING IT OUTRIGHT.<br />
#2 This is in some respects the most satisfactory, if a proper<br />
2° price can be obtained. But the transaction should be<br />
‘wee, managed by a competent agent, or with the advice of the<br />
81508 Secretary of the Society.<br />
1. A PROFIT-SHARING AGREEMENT (a bad form of<br />
u°otes agreement).<br />
tol ‘Tn this case the following rules should be attended to :<br />
. (1.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro-<br />
» duction forms a part without the strictest investigation.<br />
: (2.) Not to give the publisher the power of putting the<br />
' profits into his own pocket by charging for advertisements<br />
© in his own organs: or by charging exchange advertise-<br />
/ ments. Therefore keep control of the advertisements.<br />
(3.) Not to allow a special charge for “ office expenses,”<br />
unless the same allowance is made to the author.<br />
VOL. X.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
(4.) Not to give up American, Colonial, or Continental<br />
rights.<br />
<br />
(5.) Not to give up serial or translation rights.<br />
<br />
(6.) Not to bind yourself for future work to any publisher<br />
As well bind yourself for the future to any one solicitor or<br />
doctor !<br />
<br />
II. 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 />
IV. A COMMISSION AGREEMENT.<br />
<br />
The main points are :—<br />
<br />
(1.) Be careful to obtain a fair cost of production.<br />
(2) Keep control of the advertisements.<br />
<br />
(3) Keep control of the sale price of the book.<br />
<br />
GENERAL.<br />
<br />
All other forms of agreement are combinations of the four<br />
above mentioned.<br />
<br />
Such combinations are generally disastrous to the author.<br />
<br />
Never sign any agreement without competent advice from<br />
the Secretary of the Society.<br />
<br />
Stamp all agreements with the Inland Revenue stamp.<br />
<br />
Avoid agreements by letter if possible.<br />
<br />
The main points which the Society has always demanded<br />
from the outset are :—<br />
<br />
(1.) That both sides shall know what an agreement<br />
means.<br />
<br />
(2.) The inspection of those account books which belong<br />
to the author. We are advised that this is a right, in the<br />
nature of a common law right, which cannot be denied or<br />
withheld.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
> exe<br />
<br />
WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS.<br />
<br />
70<br />
<br />
2. Never negotiate for the production of a play with<br />
anyone except an established manager.<br />
H 2<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
EVER sign an agreement without submitting it to<br />
the Secretary of the Society of Authors or some<br />
competent legal authority.<br />
78<br />
<br />
3. There are three forms of dramatic contract :—<br />
<br />
(1) SALE OUTRIGHT OF THE PERFORMING RIGHT.<br />
This is unsatisfactory. An author who enters<br />
into such a contract should stipulate in the con-<br />
tract for production of the piece by a certain date<br />
and for proper publication of his name on the<br />
play-bills.<br />
<br />
(2) SALE OF PERFORMING RIGHT OR OF A LICENCE<br />
TO PERFORM ON THE HALF-PROFIT SYSTEM.<br />
This method can only be entered into when a<br />
fixed sum is agreed per week for cost of produc-<br />
tion. It is not a common method.<br />
<br />
(3) SALE OF PERFORMING RIGHT OR OF A LICENCE<br />
TO PERFORM ON THE BASIS OF PERCENTAGES<br />
(4.e., royalties) on gross receipts. Royalties vary<br />
between 5 and 15 per cent. An author should<br />
obtain a percentage on the sliding scale of gross<br />
receipts. Should obtain a sum in advance of<br />
royalties. A fixed date on or before which the<br />
play should be performed.<br />
<br />
4. Authors should remember that performing rights can<br />
be limited, and are usually limited by town, country, and<br />
time. This is most important.<br />
<br />
5. Authors should not assign performing rights, but<br />
should grant a licence to perform. The legal distinction is<br />
of great importance.<br />
<br />
6. Authors should remember that performing rights in a<br />
play are distinct from literary copyright. A manager<br />
holding the performing right or licence to perform cannot<br />
print the book of the words.<br />
<br />
7. Never send a copy of the play to America unless it is<br />
protected by a preliminary performance in the United<br />
Kingdom.<br />
<br />
8. A satisfactory agreement for collaboration is difficult.<br />
Such agreements should be avoided.<br />
<br />
9. An author should remember that production of a play<br />
is highly speculative: that he runs a very great risk of<br />
delay and a breakdown in the fulfilment of his contract.<br />
He should therefore guard himself all the more carefully in<br />
the beginning.<br />
<br />
to. An author must remember that the dramatic market<br />
is exceedingly limited.<br />
<br />
As these warnings must necessarily be incomplete on<br />
account of the wide range of the subject of dramatic con-<br />
tracts, those authors desirous of further information are<br />
referred to the Secretary of the Society.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Ss<br />
*<br />
<br />
HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
I. is 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 />
<br />
advice sought is such as can be given best by a solici-<br />
tor, the member has a right to an opinion from the<br />
<br />
Society’s solicitors. If the case is such that Counsel’s<br />
<br />
opinion is desirable, the Committee will obtain for<br />
<br />
him Counsel’s opinion. All this without any cost to the<br />
member.<br />
<br />
2. Remember that questions connected with copyright<br />
and publisher’s agreements do not generally fall within the<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<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 />
Seoretary 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 />
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 />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE READING BRANCH.<br />
<br />
EMBERS will greatly assist the Society in this<br />
branch of their work by informing young writers of<br />
its existence. Their MSS. can be read and treated<br />
<br />
asa composition is treated by a coach. The Readers are<br />
writers of competence and experience. |The fee is one<br />
guinea.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
NOTICES.<br />
<br />
rs Editor of The Author begs to remind members of the<br />
Society that, although the paper is sent to them free<br />
of charge, the cost of producing it would be a very<br />
heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great<br />
many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest<br />
6s. 6d. subscription for the year.<br />
<br />
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 />
21st of each month.<br />
<br />
All persons engaged in literary work of any kind,<br />
whether members of the Society or not, are invited to<br />
communicate to the Hditor 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, &c.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
79<br />
<br />
LITERARY PROPERTY.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
I.—On Commissron—A WARNING.<br />
Pr tinite on commission might be—may be, with proper care—the best method of publica-<br />
<br />
tion—the Method of the Future.<br />
<br />
As it is at present practised, and as it is proposed to practise it by the Draft Agreements of<br />
<br />
the Publishers’ Association, it is the very worst.<br />
<br />
At the present moment many publishers are making every effort to produ:e books on commission.<br />
The following extracts from the “ Draft Agreements,” showing what it means according to their<br />
<br />
avowed claims, should prove useful as a warning :<br />
<br />
1. A fee of shall be paid to the pub-<br />
lisher previous to opening an account for its<br />
production and publication.<br />
<br />
2. The Publisher will supply the author with<br />
estimates for the printing, and will charge a com-<br />
mission of per cent. on the trade prices<br />
for printing, paper, binding, advertising, and<br />
other disbursements, and reserve to himself the<br />
right to take the usual credit or the equivalent<br />
cash discount for cash payments, but no such<br />
discount shall exceed 7} per cent.<br />
<br />
3. The Author or Proprietor shall, before the<br />
work is sent to press, pay the publisher a suffi-<br />
cient sum to meet the estimated charges for<br />
production and publication, including such a sum<br />
for advertising as the Author or Proprietor may<br />
deem desirable.<br />
<br />
4. The Publisher will charge a commission of<br />
<br />
per cent. on the sales.<br />
<br />
5. The Publisher shall account at the customary<br />
trade terms for all copies sold, but in cases where<br />
copies have been sold for export or at rates below<br />
the customary trade terms, as remainders or<br />
otherwise, such copies shall be accounted for at<br />
such lower prices.<br />
<br />
6. The entire management of the production,<br />
publication and sale of the work shall be in the<br />
hands of the Publisher.<br />
<br />
7. Accounts will be made up annually to<br />
<br />
and rendered within months<br />
<br />
after the date of making up, and the balance due<br />
paid on :<br />
<br />
This means that the publisher must get some-<br />
thing, even if the book does not sell. It will be<br />
seen immediately that he means to get a great<br />
deal, whether the book sells or not.<br />
<br />
Observe the wording, the “Publisher will<br />
supply, &c.” Now the “ Printer will supply.”<br />
Therefore, the Publisher may send in his own<br />
estimate, charging what he pleases.<br />
<br />
On this he takes a percentage of what he<br />
pleases.<br />
<br />
It is his interest that everything should be<br />
charged as highly as possible. For instance, it<br />
does not matter to him whether the author loses<br />
or how much he loses. It is his interest that the<br />
book should be advertised as largely as possible,<br />
but under clause 3 the author can control the<br />
advertising.<br />
<br />
As to binding, it is not usual to bind more than<br />
is wanted. His estimate will include binding for<br />
the whole. There is nothing to prevent this.<br />
<br />
In addition he is to take 7} per cent. discount.<br />
<br />
Why in advance? Printers, &c., are not paid in<br />
advance. This gives the publisher the use of the<br />
money for six months or so.<br />
<br />
How much should his commission be ?<br />
<br />
What are “customary trade terms ae<br />
<br />
The “entire management”? But by clause 3<br />
the author is to decide what sum should be spent<br />
on advertisements. In. other words, in every<br />
case except the one in which skilled advice is<br />
wanted, the Publisher is to have the manage-<br />
ment. In that case, in which the Author is pre-<br />
sumably quite ignorant, and the Publisher has<br />
some skill, the Author must decide.<br />
<br />
Accounts are to be made up “ annually.” Why<br />
not semi-annually ?<br />
<br />
Payments to be<br />
<br />
made so many months<br />
afterwards.<br />
<br />
Why not immediately? Because<br />
80 THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
8. The Publisher does not undertake to send the publisher wants to have the use of the<br />
<br />
out copies of the work on sale or return. _ money.<br />
g. The Publisher will not be responsible for Why should not books be sent out on sale or<br />
loss or damage by fire or in transit. return? It is the only way of offering certain<br />
<br />
10. The Publisher will deliver the five copies books to the public.<br />
required by Act of Parliament for the British<br />
Museum and Public Libraries.<br />
<br />
11. The Author shall guarantee to the Pub-<br />
lisher that the said work is in no way whatever<br />
a violation of any existing copyright, and that it<br />
contains nothing of a libellous or scandalous<br />
character, and that he will indemnify the Publisher<br />
from all suits, claims, proceedings, damages, and<br />
costs which may be made, taken, or incurred by or<br />
against him on the ground that the work is an<br />
infringement of copyright, or contains anything<br />
libellous or scandalous.<br />
<br />
12. When the Publisher considers that the Why should the Publisher have the right of<br />
demand for the work has ceased, the unsold stock disposal of remainder copies? They belong to<br />
may be returned to the Author or Proprietor, or the Author. G.HT<br />
disposed of at the Publisher’s discretion, after<br />
due notice of such intention has been given to the<br />
Author or his representatives.<br />
<br />
A simple example will show the nature of a commission agreement, such as that proposed by the<br />
above “ draft.” : :<br />
<br />
We will take our favourite unit, the six-shillmg book, and an edition of 3000 copies, costing £150.<br />
Any other kind of book will do, but we may assume for our purpose any book we please. That most<br />
familiar is adopted. :<br />
<br />
‘The author agrees to pay a commission of 10 per cent. with a fee of £5 in advance. He there-<br />
fore naturally supposes that he is to get the trade price less 10 per cent.—or as 3s. 6d. is the average<br />
trade price, that-he will get, for each copy, the sum of 3s. 1¢¢. He makes calculations. He reads<br />
in the “ Cost of Production” that his book can be produced for about £150, so that the sale of 1000<br />
copies will clear him. By the sale of 2000 copies he will realise £160. By that of 3000 he will realise<br />
£300—everybody knows the dreams of the penniless. When the accounts come in, he learns the true<br />
meaning of publishing on commission according to the “equitable” arrangements—pronounced<br />
“equitable”’ by a learned Q.C. :<br />
<br />
In the figures published in The Author of last July, it was assumed that the publisher would make<br />
fuller use of the licence granted him. The percentage on the sales was taken to be 15 per cent. The<br />
fee was taken as £10. It is suggested that if the full amount charged for binding was not spent, the<br />
publisher would have to return it when the stock came in. But the stock does not “come in,” as a<br />
rule: it is sold as remainder copies in sheets for a very small sum. The case is now, however,<br />
presented with more moderate, if not more probable, figures.<br />
<br />
The publisher sends, not the printer’s, but Ais own estimate, called in the draft agreement the<br />
“trade prices.” He sends an estimate charging 10 per cent. additional, on which, again, he is to<br />
charge a commission. He charges 10 per cent.<br />
<br />
On the discount he is to take 74 per cent.<br />
<br />
He sets down sales, not at the actual price, but at the “customary” trade price. This enables him<br />
to take off another percentage on the plea of bad debts or anything else. :<br />
<br />
The author pays in advance, and is repaid in a year or a year and a half.<br />
<br />
Now, then, for the account:<br />
<br />
Cost of production : £ i<br />
s.<br />
Printer’s estate 2.00.60 ka 80 0 oO ia,<br />
Publishers estimate 0... ce mes 88 0 Oo<br />
With the addition of 10 per cent. on these trade prices ......... 96 16 0<br />
<br />
'<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
6<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR. 81<br />
<br />
Binding :<br />
Binder’s estimate (say 33d.)<br />
<br />
Publisher’s estimate .............6.-.605. Oe<br />
Ditto with ro per cent. on trade price, say, at 43d. .........-0+<br />
<br />
Advertising :<br />
<br />
Money paid, say........ceeesseeeeseecee ens<br />
Money charged with percentage .............1..:.---seeereer tte tree<br />
<br />
In publisher’s own organs<br />
<br />
The sale of 2000 copies at “ customary trade prices”<br />
what he pleases. Perhaps he will be content with 73 per cent. under this heading.<br />
<br />
10 per cent. for commission.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
The account now stands thus: 2 og<br />
Cost of printing and paper ...... G0 16 ©<br />
Pett 56 2G CO<br />
Adverse cc AG TO OO<br />
@orrections (Gay) ........s......-- 2.0 0<br />
Rublishers tee. >. 4. 5 OO<br />
Extra expenses ......... 7 5 oO 8<br />
gs<br />
<br />
292 10 O<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
o 0 33<br />
<br />
OO 4<br />
<br />
50° 5 9<br />
Os 25 OO<br />
<br />
27 10 0<br />
<br />
20 0 C€<br />
<br />
47 10 0<br />
<br />
gives the publishers the right of setting down<br />
He then deducts<br />
<br />
ss. 8, a.<br />
Sale of 2000 copies at ‘ custo-<br />
mary trade price,” say 3s. 3d... 325 9 O<br />
<br />
Tness ro percent, .................. 32 10 0<br />
Z92 10 oO<br />
202 10 ©<br />
<br />
_ The author, therefore, who has had to pay £209 118. in advance, loses on the sale of 2000 copies<br />
£130 12s. But the publisher must return the sum not spent in binding. He must, legally. Let the<br />
author, therefore, recover the sum of £18 15s. in a court of law.<br />
<br />
What has the publisher made ?<br />
On the cost of printing<br />
<br />
On the cost of binding ...... 2<br />
<br />
On the cost of advertising<br />
<br />
py Ghetee .. ss... - st<br />
By the “ customary trade price’<br />
By the commission on the sales .........<br />
<br />
><br />
<br />
By the use of £200 for six months at 5 per cent. FL<br />
By the use of £78 for a year and a half at 5 per cent.<br />
<br />
Beye ea ENON Cece Cetra sere rs SEO ses £2 10.<br />
<br />
Clase a ee<br />
<br />
oS:<br />
16 16<br />
<br />
22 10<br />
Oo<br />
Oo<br />
IO<br />
oO<br />
<br />
17<br />
<br />
000000008<br />
<br />
Ww bv<br />
uu nuit<br />
<br />
125. 3 0<br />
<br />
This is a very profitable little piece of business, all to be got out of a 10 per cent. commission.<br />
Now, had the author received a royalty of 15 per cent. only he would have made £90 instead of<br />
<br />
losing £130.<br />
<br />
commission.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
I].—Tue Manacement or MSS.<br />
The question of the retention of MSS. by<br />
editors has been agitating the minds of a great<br />
number of members of our Society. It might<br />
be as well, therefore, to say a few words about<br />
the position of editors, legally and otherwise,<br />
with regard to MSS., and about the action of<br />
authors generally in the matter. In “The Pen<br />
and the Book,’ by Sir Walter Besant, a good<br />
deal has been written on this subject. Some of<br />
the main points, however, might be repeated in<br />
The Author.<br />
<br />
It is therefore intelligible why so many publishers are now trying to get books on<br />
<br />
like to hear the arguments by which this agreement and these results are called equitable.<br />
<br />
WB:<br />
<br />
Manuscripts should, when sent to magazines,<br />
be typewritten, and the author should invariably<br />
keep a copy. These two principles are funda-<br />
mental, and if authors adhered to them the<br />
complaint of the retention of MSS. would not be<br />
so frequently heard. Next, authors should be<br />
careful about the magazines they send their MSS.<br />
to—in the first instance, that the magazines are<br />
periodicals of substance and reputation ; secondly,<br />
that the MSS. are suitable to the particular<br />
magazines to which they are sent. In forwarding<br />
MSS. stamps and a directed envelope should be<br />
<br />
<br />
82 THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
enclosed, and the author’s name and address<br />
should be written on the MSS. In some maga-<br />
zines editors invite MSS. to be sent to them, but<br />
the author must remember that when demanding<br />
the return of a MS. he must be able to show<br />
that it has reached the office, and not only has<br />
reached the office, but has come to the hands of a<br />
responsible party. In other magazines the editor<br />
makes no request for MSS., and, therefore, his<br />
position with regard to the possession of MSS. is<br />
slightly different from that of the editor men-<br />
tioned above.. In the first place, if the MS. has<br />
reached his hands, he will be bound to take rather<br />
more care of it than in the latter case, but in<br />
neither case may the editor be wilfully neglectful<br />
of the property in his charge. If, however, the<br />
MS. has not been acknowledged, and letters have<br />
been left unanswered, it is exceedingly difficult<br />
for the author to show that the MS. has reached<br />
the office, that it has come to the hands of a respon-<br />
sible party, and that it has been lost through the<br />
wilful neglect of theeditor. It isa simple matter, if<br />
the author has a copy of his MS., to write to the<br />
editor and state that he withdraws the offer of his<br />
MS. unless he hears definitely before a certain<br />
date, and that he will try and place it elsewhere.<br />
It is almost a universal rule that editors are<br />
courteous, obliging, and business-like, and will<br />
do their best to assist authors in the recovery of<br />
their MSS., but authors at the same time must<br />
remember that editors are overwhelmed with<br />
MSS. of all sorts and kinds, and that after all<br />
they are but human. It is very seldom that such<br />
a case occurs as once occurred at the office of the<br />
Society, when an editor stated that he would<br />
burn the MS. if the Society wrote again to him<br />
on the matter. This was in the early days of the<br />
Society. After a little mature consideration, the<br />
editor thought it advisable to adopt a different<br />
plan, and the MS. was returned in due course.<br />
It is quite certain that some of the so-called<br />
rudeness and unbusinesslike conduct of editors<br />
is due to corresponding characteristics in the<br />
authors who forward their MSS. It is exceed-<br />
ingly difficult for the Society to act in ca-es<br />
of this kind where the editor has been<br />
roundly abused by an author without any<br />
apparent cause or reason. Amongst the pile<br />
of MSS. and correspondence the editor cannot<br />
by any means reply by return of post, and it<br />
is often the case that through press of business<br />
he may not be able to answer for three or four<br />
weeks. In that case if the author is in a hurry<br />
to place his work he could withdraw the offer<br />
from the editor and ask for the return of his MS.,<br />
but he must not grumble if the editor should<br />
finally repudiate his work and be unable to accept<br />
it for the magazine. It has, however, frequently<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
occurred that the Society has been able to obtain<br />
a satisfactory answer from an editor and a satis-<br />
factory explanation when the author has been —<br />
unable to do so. In many cases this is due to the<br />
position which the Society now holds, and in<br />
other cases it is due to the fact of the author's<br />
unbusinesslike correspondence.<br />
<br />
Finally, it should be made clear to all authors<br />
that it is very doubtful, now that it is so easy to<br />
obtain typewritten copies of MSS., whether it<br />
might not be considered in an action brought<br />
against an editor a case of contributory negli-<br />
gence where the author failed to keep a copy of<br />
his own composition, and that though the ©<br />
Society would be very willing to assist those who<br />
are unable to recover their MSS. when the case is —<br />
clear and the editor has been guilty of wilful<br />
neglect, yet in the ordinary course of business<br />
touching the circulation of MSS. it should be<br />
remembered that a great deal depends upon the<br />
machinery being carefully oiled, in other words,<br />
upon the courtesy and tact of the authors them-<br />
<br />
selves in the matter.<br />
G. FT.<br />
<br />
III.—Tuer BooxsELLERS AND THE PUBLISHERS,<br />
<br />
The following letter has been recently sent to<br />
the committee of the Publishers’ Association by<br />
a bookseller of high standing. He gives permis-<br />
sion for its publication. The name of the writer —<br />
is suppressed :—<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
June 27, 1899.<br />
<br />
The Secretary of the Publishers’ Association.<br />
<br />
Dear Sir,<br />
<br />
I have pleasure in signing agreement re sale of<br />
net books, and return herewith.<br />
<br />
I cannot but observe, however, that it is a very<br />
one-sided affair, as it is in no way binding on the<br />
publishers themselves, who, so far as the agree-<br />
ment is concerned, are at liberty to supply<br />
“schools, libraries, and institutions,” below the<br />
net prices enforced on the retail trade.<br />
<br />
It is well known that these sources of business<br />
(though wrongfully ) are toa great extent supplied<br />
direct by the publishers themselves.<br />
<br />
I do not suppose that the publishers who sign —<br />
the ‘agreement ”’ claim a higher morality in trade<br />
matters than that which they assume governs the ~<br />
retail members of the trade ; consequently there is<br />
the same danger of net prices being depreciated by<br />
the publishers themselves, as is apprehended by —<br />
them from retail booksellers.<br />
<br />
It is only fair, therefore, that a joint agreement —<br />
expressing equal obligations against under- —<br />
selling should be signed by both publishers and —<br />
retailers.<br />
<br />
I shall be glad to hear your views, as the<br />
<br />
<br />
{ot<br />
iad<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
representative of the Publishers’ Association, on<br />
this subject.<br />
Tam, dear Sir, faithfully yours,<br />
A. B.<br />
<br />
To this letter, which is quite clear and straight-<br />
forward, a reply has been sent.<br />
<br />
The secretary of the Publishers’ Association<br />
informs the writer that his letter has been laid<br />
before his committee: and that he is directed to<br />
to state that “a clause embodying your sugges-<br />
tion was drafted by the publishers when the Form<br />
of Agreement was under consideration.” This is<br />
so far satisfactory. There was, therefore, some<br />
discussion as to the rights of the bookseller—the<br />
other party to the agreement.<br />
<br />
Why, then, has the “drafted” clause dis-<br />
appeared<br />
<br />
For the most amazing reason: the most unex-<br />
pected : the most inexplicable.<br />
<br />
Because they were advised that “it would have<br />
been illegal, and would invalidate the agreement.”<br />
<br />
Read the explanation carefully: read it again.<br />
Does it raean that it is beyond the power of the<br />
Law to bind both parties to certain terms and<br />
conditions ? What else can it mean? Let us<br />
learn what it means. It is not for us to suggest<br />
an explanation: there is a simple statement: the<br />
clause by which it was proposed that publishers<br />
should not undersell booksellers, and should not<br />
furnish libraries, schools, and institutions was<br />
actually framed and proved to be “illegal.” This<br />
is the only possible deduction.<br />
<br />
Booksellers are earnestly invited to consider<br />
this statement.<br />
<br />
It was pointed out in the June Author that<br />
the agreement bound the publishers to nothing<br />
and the booksellers to everything. They were<br />
called upon to promise to sell all books, if neces-<br />
sary, nothing being said to the contrary in the<br />
agreement, at a price fixed by the publishers.<br />
They were made to surrender the liberty of the<br />
subject, the personal right of dealing as they<br />
pleased with their own property.<br />
<br />
In return for this enormous concession they<br />
get—what? The advantage of a shilling or two<br />
on a high-priced book of which they might sell<br />
twenty, thirty, or fifty in the year.<br />
<br />
Is this good enough ? Is it not worth con-<br />
sidering whether the agreement should not be<br />
torn up until real and new concessions are made ?<br />
Meantime the Society of Authors, which was not<br />
<br />
consulted in this second agreement, has yet to be<br />
considered.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
1V.—Copyrieut 1n RePpoRTED SPEECHES.<br />
An injunction was granted by Mr. Justice<br />
North in the Court of Chancery on Aug. 10 on<br />
behalf of Messrs. Walter, the proprietors of the<br />
VOU. X<br />
<br />
83<br />
<br />
Times, who sought to restrain Mr. John Lane<br />
from publishing, under the title of “ Apprecia-<br />
tions and Addresses delivered by Lord Rosebery,”<br />
reports of Lord Rosebery’s speeches copied from<br />
the Times. Mr. H. Terrell, Q.C. and Mr.<br />
McSwinney argued the case for the plaintitts,<br />
and Mr. Serutton for the defendant. In giving<br />
judgment,<br />
<br />
Mr. Justice North said (Daily Chronicle,<br />
Aug. 11): The question was not as between<br />
the author of the speech and the defendant, but<br />
as between the defendant and the person who<br />
reported the speech. If the person who made<br />
the report had any copyright in his report it was<br />
admitted that that copyright was now vested in<br />
the Times. The only question, therefore, was<br />
whether the reporter had copyright in the<br />
reports he had made. The reporter was not the<br />
author of the speeches, but he was the author<br />
of his report of the speech, and there was no<br />
doubt that it required a certain amount of<br />
experience to make these reports. He did not<br />
see why such a person should not have copyright,<br />
not in the speech itself, but in his version of the<br />
speech which he had made. Several reporters might<br />
make reports of a speech made in public, and each<br />
might have the copyright in his own publication<br />
if he had got the materials for himself. If Lord<br />
Rosebery wanted himself to publish these<br />
speeches, and could not write them from memory,<br />
he did not see the hardship of his being deprived<br />
of the right to publish speeches thrown to the<br />
winds without being regarded as of sufficient<br />
importance for copies to be kept of them. No<br />
doubt, if Lord Rosebery could remember these<br />
speeches, or had kept a record of them, or he<br />
might even refresh his memory from reports of<br />
them, he might be entitled to publish them, but<br />
he (the learned judge) did not think Lord Rose-<br />
bery would be entitled to publish the Tvmes<br />
reports of his speeches. The plaintiffs had<br />
satisfied all legal requirements for protecting the<br />
copyright that Mr. Brain (the reporter) might<br />
have in these reports, and that copyright was<br />
now vested in them. That being so, the plaintiffs<br />
were entitled to the injunction they asked for,<br />
and the defendant must be restrained until the<br />
trial of the action from copying the reports of<br />
<br />
_ these speeches or material parts thereof.<br />
<br />
It was intimated that the defendant would<br />
appeal.<br />
<br />
oo<br />
<br />
V.—Copyricut In JAPAN AND MONTENEGRO.<br />
A recent number of the London Gazette<br />
announced that by Order in Council the provisions<br />
of the International Copyright Convention will<br />
extend to Japan from July 15 last, and to Monte-<br />
negro from April 1 next.<br />
I<br />
84 THE<br />
PARIS NOTES.<br />
<br />
, Rue Chomel, Paris.<br />
NHE majority of the lettered Parisian public<br />
is now en villégiature, and the capital is<br />
invaded by the usual summer swarm of<br />
“personally conducted parties,” private tourists,<br />
and globe-trotters. The heat is overpowering,<br />
making one’s thoughts turn yearningly in the<br />
direction of the cool moors and fresh sea breezes<br />
of the North, while the diurnal rise in the ther-<br />
mometer registers a corresponding depression in<br />
intellectual activity. The pulse beats langour-<br />
ously in this tropical atmosphere ; the fibres of<br />
the brain are submerged by a species of mental<br />
inertia which is oppressive as a living nightmare ;<br />
but enough! revenons a nos moutons.<br />
<br />
The election of M. Philippe Gille to the<br />
Académie des Beaux Arts has met with universal<br />
approval. It fitly coincided with the appearance<br />
of his monumental work on Versailles, in which<br />
he devotes several particularly fine chapters to<br />
discussing French art in the seventeenth and<br />
eighteenth centuries. M. Gille is competent to<br />
speak with authority on this matter, since he is<br />
himself a sculptor of no mean talent. Indeed, he<br />
appears to possess the happy faculty of assimilat-<br />
ing and making himself master of whatever<br />
subject he chances to undertake. In this respect<br />
he resembles our own Bulwer Lytton, though his<br />
work is, perhaps, more conscientious and less<br />
brilliant than that of the versatile Englishman.<br />
He is no believer in the old axiom respecting the<br />
fallacy of having too many irons in the fire at<br />
once, as his varied literary, dramatic, historical,<br />
critical, and journalistic achievements amply<br />
testify. By his election the Académie des Beaux<br />
Arts numbers four journalists among its forty<br />
members.<br />
<br />
According to the /égaro, the French Academy<br />
possesses six journalists in the same number of<br />
members, viz., MM. Legouvd, Mézitres, Claretie,<br />
Sorel, Lemaitre, and Paul Deschanel—though we<br />
should hardly consider four out of the six<br />
gentlemen above cited as journalists proper.<br />
Whether their number will be increased remains<br />
to be seen, since there are at present two empty fau-<br />
teutls vacated by the recent deaths of MM. Pail-<br />
leron and Cherbuliez. The latter was one of the<br />
famous Commission du Dictionnaire de la Langue<br />
Frangaise which, according to regulations, must<br />
always embrace six members. His death has<br />
reduced the number to five; hence the necessity<br />
of electing his successor as speedily as possible.<br />
As the Academy desires its tale of members to be<br />
complete at the opening of the year 1900, the<br />
election of the two new members and M. Lave-<br />
dan’s official reception will take place at the end<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
of the present year; while the following year’s<br />
proceedings will be opened with the official recep-<br />
tion of M. Paul Deschanel. A recent decree has<br />
authorised the Académie des Sciences to extend<br />
the number of its national and foreign correspon-<br />
dents to 116 contributors in lieu of 100. Among<br />
the foreign correspondents the Académie des<br />
Sciences already numbers, we find, no less than<br />
eighteen Englishmen and five Americans (United<br />
States) as opposed to eleven Germans, four<br />
Russians, and four Italians, the remaining nation-<br />
alities boasting no more than one—or, at most, two<br />
representatives. England likewise claims the<br />
pre-eminence on the list of foreigners admitted to<br />
the Institut de France as members and enjoying<br />
the same privileges as their French confreéres,<br />
seven Englishmen having been received against<br />
five Germans, five Italians, three Belgians, and<br />
one American, Austrian, Swede, Russian,<br />
Spaniard, Swiss, Dutchman, Hungarian, &c.,<br />
comprising altogether thirty-two foreign members.<br />
And still further apropos of French academies<br />
may be mentioned the legacy of 420,000<br />
francs lately bequeathed by M. Nobel to the<br />
Institut de France (which institute comprises<br />
the Académie Francaise, Académie des Sciences<br />
Morales et Politiques, Académie des Inscriptions<br />
et Belles-Lettres, Académie des Beaux Arts, and<br />
Académie des Sciences), for the foundation of<br />
five annual international prizes, the said prizes<br />
being intended to recompense the following<br />
achievements: The three first, a discovery in<br />
physics, in chemistry, and in physiology; the<br />
fourth, a literary work of ideal tendency; while<br />
the fifth is to be bestowed on the person who<br />
shall have done the most. to establish the fraternity<br />
of nations in regard to the suppression or reduc-<br />
tion of standing armies and extension of peace<br />
congresses. The fourth prize is not likely to lack<br />
entries, since it offers a European reputation, in<br />
addition to the neat little sum of 300,000 franes.<br />
“La Faute des Roses” is the title of M.<br />
Felicien Champsaur’s new novel. This author is<br />
a well known literary celebrity, having contributed<br />
for upwards of twenty years to all the leading<br />
literary periodicals. The Italians call him the<br />
French D’Annunzio. “ Grand, brun, l’allure d’un<br />
mousquetaire—n’a pas encore quarante ans,” 1s<br />
the pithy description of his personality given by<br />
one of his acquaintances. But though M. Champ-<br />
saur's latest work is undoubtedly well written,<br />
and contains some interesting pages on Italy,<br />
Florence, and Venice,. the charm of the book is<br />
marred hy the licentious scenes therein portrayed.<br />
The Vicomte Brenier de Montmorand has been<br />
awarded a thousand francs by the French Aca-<br />
demy for a work entitled “ La Société Francaise<br />
Contemporaine”; and now M. Victor du Bled<br />
<br />
?<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR. 85<br />
<br />
proposes to give the public a “ Histoire de la<br />
Société Francaise,” beimg the publication of a<br />
series of lectures delivered by the author in the<br />
aristocratic salons of Mmes. la Comtesse d’Eu, la<br />
Duchesse de Vendéme, les Princesses de Mon-<br />
tholon-Sémonville and d’Arenberg, &c. The<br />
volume in question will deal with the society and<br />
women of the sixteenth century; the Court of<br />
Henry IV. and Marguerite of Navarre; the<br />
society surrounding Cardinal Richelieu ; Mazarin’s<br />
Nieces; Port Royal Society ; Alfred de Musset ;<br />
the ancient Diplomatists; Wits and Women of<br />
the eighteenth century, and French Society during<br />
the emigration period. M. du Bled is extremely<br />
popular in the circles he frequents, and it is not<br />
probable that his present literary venture will<br />
diminish the social prestige he now enjoys.<br />
<br />
The Correctional Chamber has deferred the<br />
hearing of M. Emile Zola’s suit against MM.<br />
Judet, Lasseur, and Marinoni of the Petit<br />
Journal until Oct. 8 next. In the meantime<br />
Mile. Adrienne Neyrat, editress of [Ami des<br />
bétes, has published an interesting letter from<br />
M. Zola, in which the eminent novelist assures<br />
her of his entire sympathy with her in the good<br />
work she has undertaken on behalf of “ our little<br />
brethren, the animals.” He further affirms that<br />
one of the cruellest out of the many bitter hours<br />
he has passed was that in which he abruptly<br />
learned in exile the death, ‘loin de moi,” of the<br />
little four-footed friend who had been his<br />
faithful companion during nine years. He con-<br />
tinues: “My wife wrote that he sought me<br />
everywhere, that he had lost his gaiety; that he<br />
followed her step by step with an air of infinite<br />
distress. I wept for him like a child,<br />
. . and even now it is impossible for me to<br />
think of him without being moved to tears,<br />
<br />
Of all my sacrifices the death of my dog<br />
in my absence has been one of the hardest.”<br />
Only those who have known by experience the<br />
unswerving fidelity, attachment, and abnegation<br />
of which a dog is capable, can fully appreciate or<br />
comprehend M. Zola’s grief on learning the death<br />
of his small canine comrade.<br />
<br />
Theatrical managers must undoubtedly con-<br />
sider “Cyrano de Bergerac” as the modern<br />
synonym of the bird that lays golden eggs for<br />
their benefit. MM. Moncharmont and Luguet’s<br />
travelling company which left Paris with this<br />
play on April 1, 1898, has returned, after touring<br />
for fifteen months in the principal towns of<br />
France, Belgium, Holland, Alsace - Lorraine,<br />
Switzerland, Algeria, Tunis, and Italy. This is<br />
the largest enterprise of the kind which has ever<br />
been undertaken, and it has been eminently<br />
successful. The outlay has not been small,<br />
including 225,000 francs paid to fifteen com-<br />
<br />
panies and states for conveyance of personnel and<br />
baggage by land only ; 270,000 franes disbursed<br />
to the artistes of the troupe; upwards of 30,000<br />
francs paid to various gas and electric light com-<br />
panies; upwards of 75,000 francs given to the<br />
Public Assistance Caisse; 250,000 francs ex-<br />
pended in hiring theatres; and 60,000 francs in<br />
accessories, scenic decorations, arms, costumes,<br />
&e. Nevertheless, the receipts from “Cyrano”<br />
have been so satisfactory that MM. Moncharmont<br />
and Luguet have obtained a new licence from the<br />
author for a second tour which will commence<br />
with a series of representations at Brussels.<br />
<br />
The dissensions aroused by the will of Adolphe<br />
d’Ennery are now happily ended, the First<br />
Chamber having recognised the legality of the<br />
testament made by the wealthy dramaturgist in<br />
favour of his natural daughter, Mme. Leroux.<br />
The coquettish demurs of the State as to the<br />
advisability of accepting M. and Mme. d’Ennery’s<br />
donation of their private hotel and Oriental collec-<br />
tion (supplemented by an annual bequest of<br />
16,000 francs for its conservation) have termi-<br />
nated in an affirmative ; and it is formally settled<br />
that, in accordance with the testator’s desire, the<br />
hotel in the Avenue du Bois de Boulogne shall be<br />
forthwith transformed into a Musée d’Ennery for<br />
the benefit of the public. The legal complications<br />
hampering the endowment of the long-expected<br />
Académie des Goncourt show small chance of<br />
being as speedily regulated. Kdmond de Goncourt<br />
founded a literary academy of ten members, of<br />
whom he only named eight, leaving the other two<br />
to be elected by the eight members already chosen<br />
immediately his new institution commenced to<br />
exercise its functions. In the interim the founder<br />
and his friend, Alphonse Daudet—one of the prin-<br />
cipal members—died ; and it is not altogether im-<br />
probable that the remaining members will follow<br />
their example before the affair is finally settled.<br />
Possibly they do not regard this contingency with<br />
a very lively regret, since at the recent anniversary<br />
of Edmond de Goncourt’s death the only flowers<br />
deposited on the brothers’ tomb were those<br />
plucked in the Grenier d’Auteuil by their faithful<br />
servant, Pélagie.<br />
<br />
Tt has been announced that the monument of<br />
Victor Hugo, by Barrias, destined to adorn the<br />
square which bears the great poet’s name, will<br />
not be erected for three years. No reason is<br />
given for this prolonged delay. The sub-<br />
scriptions, amounting to upwards of 64,000<br />
franes, received by the Comité du monument<br />
d’Alexandre Dumas ji/s have enabled the com-<br />
mittee to request the State to nominate the<br />
sculptor it considered most competent to execute<br />
this commission satisfactorily. In accordance<br />
with the wishes of the Alexandre Dumas family,<br />
86 THE<br />
<br />
and the preference expressed by the committee,<br />
M. de Saint-Marceaux, the clever artist of the<br />
Daudet monument, was the sculptor chosen. The<br />
rough cast of the proposed Dumas //s monument<br />
is already finished, and is composed of a group<br />
of three persons, viz., of Alexandre Dumas /ils<br />
and two symbolical figures representing the<br />
Theatre and Feminism, of which latter the great<br />
writer was one of the most eloquent apostles.<br />
This design is to be carried out in stone, and<br />
when finished it will be erected on the Place des<br />
Trois-Dumas.<br />
<br />
Armand Colin has recently published a rather<br />
notable book by M. Gaston Deschamps, entitled<br />
‘La Malaise de la Démocratie.” The volume is<br />
dedicated : ‘‘T’o the good citizens who are afflicted<br />
by the Present and disquieted for the Future ; to<br />
the great Minister whom we lack, and the States-<br />
man whom we await.’ It is reported to be written<br />
in an agreeable style, and contains much solid<br />
information, including the author’s views on “ Les<br />
Débuts du régime démocratique, les Politiciens,<br />
le Césarisme et la Médiocratie, Pornographie et<br />
Scandales, les Aumoniers de la démocratie, la<br />
Pédagogie allemande, la Manie Anglo-Saxonne,<br />
la Malaise de l'Université, la Malaise de la<br />
jeunesse, Armée et la démocratie,’ and the im-<br />
perative need of reform. From the above<br />
category we should esteem M. Deschamps’ work<br />
an interesting and valuable publication ; yet it is<br />
scarcely sufficiently frivole to be recommended<br />
for holiday reading during the dog-days of<br />
August.<br />
<br />
M. Camille Flammarion, the renowned astro-<br />
nomer whose falsely reputed defection from the<br />
ranks of spiritualism lately caused such a com-<br />
motion among his numerous disciples of all<br />
nationalities, is at present engaged on a new<br />
volume entitled “L’Inconnu et les problémes<br />
psychiques,” which specially treats of the appari-<br />
tions and manifestations seen by the dying. His<br />
investigations on this subject are aided by the<br />
revelations of the famous medium Eusapia<br />
Paladino. M. Flammarion is an extraordinary<br />
man. He began life as an infant prodigy,<br />
and at the age of thirteen he quitted his family<br />
to establish himself in the Quartier Latin of<br />
Paris. At sixteen he was twice bachelor of arts ;<br />
at sixteen and a half he was admitted as a pupil<br />
to the Observatory; and at nineteen years he<br />
published “La Pluralité des mondes habités,”<br />
which work obtained the approval of Henri<br />
Martin and Sainte Beuve. Twelve years ago he<br />
founded the Astronomical Society of France;<br />
and in claiming for him a rosette from the<br />
Government M. Faye, doyen of the Académie des<br />
Sciences, wrote: “The study of astronomy re-<br />
sponds to a need of the human mind, This need<br />
<br />
AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
may be said to have been created and sustained<br />
in France solely by M. Flammarion.” His<br />
admirers are legion; in North America he is<br />
revered as a supernatural genius, while South<br />
America has founded a Société Flammarion at<br />
Bogota (Colombia). Under these circumstances<br />
a new work from his pen is quite a literary event.<br />
Darracotre Scort.<br />
<br />
Secs<br />
<br />
IS LITERATURE A PRECARIOUS<br />
PROFESSION ?<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
N the question whether Literature is a<br />
precarious profession, I have received<br />
several letters from writers who have<br />
<br />
failed, to all of which the same answer may<br />
be given, viz., the answer that was given in<br />
the last number of The Author. Here, however,<br />
are one or two further considerations. Litera-<br />
ture, considered as a profession, offers many<br />
and great prizes. The pecuniary prizes of popular<br />
success, if not so great asthe Bar and Medicine,<br />
are yet very substantial, and are increasing by<br />
leaps and bounds. The other and the greater<br />
prizes of respect and fame are also increasing as<br />
the taste for good literature increases.<br />
<br />
As in every other profession there are many<br />
failures for one success. How many barristers,<br />
solicitors, physicians, surgeons, architects, and<br />
men of all other professions are there who find<br />
their calling precarious? But Literature has<br />
one great advantage over all other professions.<br />
It is impossible that fine work, great work,<br />
should be passed over with neglect. -It may be<br />
that the circle of recognition is at first small:<br />
it may be that a large commercial success-is not<br />
obtained: but there is always some audience<br />
ready to recognise and to applaud the writer<br />
who has a thing to say, a story to tell, a song<br />
to sing, and can do these things with credit.<br />
And this cannot be said of any other profes-<br />
sion. Critics, editors, scholars, are always look-<br />
ing for good work and for good writers. There<br />
may be log-rolling of private friends, but there is<br />
never, so far as my experience goes, a hostile<br />
reception offered by critics or readers to the new<br />
comer who offers a fine or great work.<br />
<br />
The case of Walter Pater is one in point. His<br />
readers are comparatively small in number: but<br />
they are of the best kind, the most scholarly, the<br />
best cultured. He himself would not have desired<br />
a better audience. He occupies a place which<br />
will rise continually higher year by year: his<br />
name will grow more and more: his works are,<br />
to English prose, something akin to those of<br />
Matthew Arnold in verse. Who can deny that the<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE<br />
<br />
prize which Literature has bestowed upon Walter<br />
Pater is as great and as desirable as any that the<br />
Law or Medicine has to offer ?<br />
<br />
On the commercial side, however, the place of<br />
this fine writer was probably very low down.<br />
<br />
Literature, again, has many branches: 1t can<br />
be, and often is, carried on with other professions.<br />
Every science which has its professor has also its<br />
literature. A scientific man becomes known, not<br />
only by his researches, but by his writings. A<br />
schoolmaster magnifies his influence and his<br />
name, and sometimes his income, by his educa-<br />
tional works. Specialists find the columns of<br />
reviews, magazines, and daily papers, open to<br />
them. A lawyer’s reputation may be made by<br />
his works on law. For every study, every pursuit,<br />
as well as every science, there is its own literature<br />
—and for those who contribute to that literature<br />
there is the possible prize of literary reputation<br />
or popular success.<br />
<br />
Among the letters received upon this subject<br />
there are four to which I would especially refer,<br />
though I have not published them, The first is<br />
from a man who has been writing for fourteen<br />
years. He has written novels, short stories,<br />
children’s stories, and papers on many subjects.<br />
He can quote favourable reviews. He has worked<br />
hard and honestly. Yet he cannot command<br />
even a bare living. He asks, “Would a<br />
doctor or a solicitor of equal ability in their<br />
own respective professions find themselves in<br />
my position at the end of fourteen years’<br />
practice?” I should say that, even taking for<br />
granted the ability, there are hundreds of solicitors<br />
and doctors no better off.<br />
<br />
Another writer is a novelist, and only a novelist.<br />
His first novel proved a loss—‘ owing to the<br />
author’s ignorance of publishing.” His second<br />
proved a success. He cannot get his following<br />
works published at all.“ Mere literary ability,”<br />
he says, “‘ being largely dependent upon the happy<br />
combination of circumstances for success, often<br />
fails. Would it not be kinder to warn the literary<br />
aspirant of this?”<br />
<br />
The third writer argues that it is impossible<br />
for editors to read all the MSS. offered to them.<br />
He advises, as the result of his own experience,<br />
never to try living by the pen. This is excellent<br />
advice—I have always advised young writers not<br />
at first to try living by the pen. In the case of<br />
success there may come a time when a writer of<br />
fiction, verse, belles lettres, will find himself<br />
justified in living by his pen. My correspondent<br />
also advises writers not to send MSS. to e Litors<br />
on the chance of being accepted. It will be<br />
observed that the failure of each of these writers<br />
is alleged as an example and proof that Literature<br />
is precarious, without the least reference to the<br />
<br />
AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
87<br />
<br />
facts that it has given to others great prizes and<br />
very numerous prizes.<br />
<br />
The proper treatment of a single case is to<br />
examine (1) why success has not been achieved<br />
—and (2) if the case is one in which the literary<br />
worth cannot, for reasons to be ascertained, be<br />
accompanied by commercial success. One cannot<br />
repeat too often that the two kinds of success are<br />
absolutely incommensurable and have not of<br />
necessity any connection with each other. Again,<br />
one refers to the case of Pater.<br />
<br />
It is not true that the failures of a thousand<br />
aspirants every year —at least that number<br />
do fail every year—make Literature a precarious<br />
profession. If persons without the natural apti-<br />
tude—one is not allowed to use the word genius,<br />
which I should prefer—without serious prepara-<br />
tion: without knowledge of life or views of life:<br />
without dramatic powers: without imagination:<br />
without strength of conception: without practice<br />
in literary expression—try every year by the<br />
thousand to write novels, poetry, plays, essays—<br />
and fail, this fact does not touch the question at<br />
all. It shows only that itis not given to everyone<br />
to enter upon the profession of Literature:<br />
and that these incompetent persons are only<br />
making feeble attempts to enter upon it. It<br />
is well that they should understand beforehand<br />
that Literature must not be taken up in this<br />
random fashion.<br />
<br />
Fifty years ago, when a man had no other<br />
opening, or when he had broken down in any<br />
other line, he started a private school. When a<br />
woman had to earn her livelihood, there was the<br />
same attempt, generally a feeble and helpless<br />
attempt, to start a school. Sometimes, by way<br />
of a variant, a “ Berlin and Fancy” shop was<br />
opened. In these days Literature is the line first<br />
attempted by the impecunious: and with similar<br />
results. But these people must not be con-<br />
sidered as belonging to the profession of Litera-<br />
ture.<br />
<br />
In the fourth letter mentioned above the writer<br />
also complains that Literature is precarious.<br />
Why? His history is this: He wrote for twenty<br />
years with a fair means of success. He then went<br />
abroad and wrote nothing for seven years. When<br />
he returned he found himself forgotten, and has<br />
not yet been able to recover his old position.<br />
Now let us consider this case. What would<br />
happen if a solicitor or a doctor, after getting a<br />
successful practice, were to retire for seven years<br />
and go out of the country? When he returned<br />
could he expect to recover his past clients and<br />
patients? Would he therefore blame the profes-<br />
sion or would he blame himself ?<br />
<br />
It is always better to have things said than<br />
whispered. For this reason the three communica-<br />
<br />
<br />
88 THE<br />
<br />
tions on pp. 93, 94 are published in the present<br />
number.<br />
<br />
In one, the successful author, meaning novelist,<br />
is accused of paying for paragraphs, that is, puffs :<br />
or for illustrated interviews. “ Press booms and<br />
advertising are indispensable to success.” Or the<br />
novelist, to be successful, must be the friend of<br />
some proprietor of a journal. And all reviews,<br />
it seems, are written by rival novelists.<br />
<br />
The second writer attacks editors generally for<br />
what they accept and for what they reject. He<br />
also accuses successful literary men of that kind<br />
of petty jealousy which prevents them from<br />
giving useful advice to beginners.<br />
<br />
The third letter supposes that because a man<br />
spends months on a piece of work, and cannot<br />
sell it, that the craft of producing this kind of<br />
work is not one to be followed. The three<br />
papers contain what, I fear, are wide-spread<br />
illusions. Now the proprietor or editor who would<br />
sacrifice ‘the interests of his paper to oblige an<br />
incompetent writer because he was a friend either<br />
does not exist or is on the high road to bank-<br />
ruptcy. The thing is absurd. Yet it is widely<br />
believed. Every literary man is constantly<br />
entreated to “use his influence’ for the accept-<br />
ance of articles.<br />
<br />
The belief that literary men pay for paragraphs<br />
in papers is absolutely unfounded. Ido not know<br />
any paper which could be even suspected of such<br />
dealings. Nor have I ever heard of a writer<br />
paying for an interview. On the other hand,<br />
private friends of an author or of his publisher<br />
do certainly sometimes succeed in getting the<br />
puff indirect into a paper. But to accuse all<br />
successful writers of countenancing such methods<br />
is monstrous.<br />
<br />
As for “petty jealousy,” I am quite certain<br />
that leading men of letters are always willing to<br />
give such advice as is asked for. They are not,<br />
however, willing to give such assistance as they<br />
are too often asked for, viz., ‘“ their great<br />
influence ’’ with editors; because the “ great<br />
influence ”’ does not exist, and because the recom-<br />
mendation of bad work would be a betrayal of<br />
friendship.<br />
<br />
When one reads such statements as these, one<br />
asks what becomes eventually of the great rejected.<br />
Do they ever reach acceptance and recognition ?<br />
One reads of books refused by readers which<br />
have turned out great successes: there may also<br />
be MSS. refused by editors. I should like to<br />
know, among the more noteworthy of the articles<br />
in the magazines, how many have been previously<br />
refused.<br />
<br />
It seems a hard thing to say to writers suffering<br />
from disappointment and rejection that editors<br />
are paid for sifting good work from bad: that if<br />
<br />
AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
they accept bad work on account of private friend-<br />
ships, they not only betray their trust, but they<br />
ruin their paper. Is not this simple fact a reply<br />
to these three correspondents ?<br />
<br />
W. B.<br />
<br />
De<br />
<br />
THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.<br />
<br />
ROFESSOR CRAYE was standing near the<br />
window of his sitting room. It was on the<br />
second floor of a house in Canonbury; for<br />
<br />
the professor was not rich. But the view from<br />
the window was pleasant; the house overlooked<br />
a square which was bright with well-filled par-<br />
terres and old smooth turf; children were<br />
running and shouting merrily under the tall<br />
limes and sycamores, and the summer sunshine<br />
glorified the scene. Charles Craye held a pro-<br />
fessor’s chair in a big London college, where<br />
much learning was expected and a small stipend<br />
was paid. He lectured to women as well as to<br />
men, and the former fact was the origin of the<br />
reverie in which he indulged as he gazed into the<br />
sunny square. He wished to marry one of his<br />
pupils, and he felt sure that she would accept<br />
him, though he was a man of forty and she was<br />
eighteen years younger. But he had been<br />
waiting because he was poor, and he believed that<br />
fame and a moderate fortune in consequence of it<br />
were not far off.<br />
<br />
Charles Craye had been for twenty years pre<br />
paring a treatise on the philosophy and life of an<br />
eminent German. He meant that his treatise<br />
should be a standard work, and he had spared<br />
neither his time nor his means in collecting and<br />
reviewing material at first hand. The German<br />
was so eminent that a treatise—a full and<br />
scholarly treatise, containing striking conclusions<br />
which were soundly supported—could not be<br />
ignored; and Professor Craye had just finished<br />
the treatise. The bulky manuscript lay on the<br />
table behind him.<br />
<br />
When he left the window he turned to the<br />
table and fingered one or two of the sheets of the<br />
manuscript with an air of abstraction.<br />
<br />
“JT wonder who would be the best publishers<br />
for it?” he mused. ‘Singleton is a good man,<br />
and Stubbin and Howe are suitable people. But<br />
then Guddle and Simm are more likely to be<br />
interested in the subject than anybody else. They<br />
published all Trasker’s books on the theme—the<br />
whole six of them—and Trasker is considered to<br />
be the first authority in England on the subject.<br />
However,” the professor thought, smiling to him-<br />
self, “I don’t fancy Trasker will be an authority<br />
much longer; for if I have demonstrated one<br />
thing more clearly than another, it is that Trasker<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR. 89<br />
<br />
was a charlatan, and incredibly careless in com-<br />
piling his books.”<br />
<br />
So the professor packed up his manuscript and<br />
dispatched it to Guddle and Simm, together<br />
with a letter in which he modestly set forth his<br />
qualifications for the work which he had under-<br />
taken.<br />
<br />
A month later Mr. Guddle walked into Mr.<br />
Simm’s private room at No. 115, Benedicite-<br />
avenue, where the firm had offices.<br />
<br />
“T say, Simm,’ he remarked, thoughtfully,<br />
“T’ve been reading the report on Craye’s book.<br />
It seems to bea first-class bit of work. But it’s<br />
right up against Trasker.”<br />
<br />
Mr. Simm had been writing a letter. He<br />
looked up with a preoccupied air and answered<br />
“ Well, that can’t be helped. 'Trasker was a bit<br />
ofa humbug. We only put him on to do the<br />
stuff because he could write it up in a popular<br />
kind of way. There’s room for a real standard<br />
<br />
© work.”<br />
<br />
“Yes, my boy,” resumed Mr. Guddle, “ but<br />
we've got six of Trasker’s books, and we bought<br />
the copyright of all of them at a fairly stiff<br />
figure: for old Trasker knew his way about.<br />
Well, they’re properties, those books are, and<br />
they’ll go on being properties so long as Trasker<br />
is considered to be the standard authority on the<br />
subject. But if Trasker is shown up, we shall<br />
stand to lose. And, damn it, philosophy’s all<br />
very well; but that isn’t business.”<br />
<br />
Mr. Simm began to manifest more interest in<br />
the conversation.<br />
<br />
“ How much money should you think there is<br />
in this man Craye’s book?” he asked.<br />
<br />
“Oh,” said Mr. Guddle, “it’s a big volume;<br />
it would be expensive to produce. The sale<br />
wouldn’t be big, and it would be slow though it<br />
would be certain. The stuff is right above the<br />
head of the average reader, and it’s too abstruse<br />
to be made popular even with alterations. I<br />
should think there’s a safe hundred and fifty or<br />
perhaps two hundred in the book for the first<br />
six months, and driblets afterwards.”<br />
<br />
“ Well, it isn’t worth while to knock the bottom<br />
out of Trasker’s copyrights for that,” observed<br />
Mr. Simm, and he resumed writing his letter.<br />
<br />
“Shall I fire the man’s manuscript back to<br />
him?” Mr. Guddle asked, after a pause.<br />
<br />
“Tf you like,” said Mr. Simm, “I shouldn't,<br />
though.”<br />
<br />
“Publish it ? ” inquired Mr. Guddle.<br />
<br />
Mr. Simm turned round and faced his partner.<br />
<br />
“Yes, publish it,” said Mr. Simm, and a queer<br />
smile played round his mouth after he had<br />
uttered the words.<br />
<br />
“T think so too,’ Mr. Guddle remarked<br />
stolidly. é<br />
<br />
“Let’s have him up here, and see what he’s<br />
like, and how much he knows,” said Mr. Simm<br />
after another pause. “ Will you write to him,<br />
Guddle ? ”’<br />
<br />
“Yes, Dll write to him,” said the senior<br />
partner. And then he lighted a cigar, and strolled<br />
from the room.<br />
<br />
On the following day Professor Craye received<br />
a kind and flattering letter from Messrs. Guddle<br />
and Simm. He learned from this communi-<br />
cation that the firm was extremely interested in<br />
his work, and that they hoped to publish it. At<br />
the same time, Mr. Guddle felt that it was<br />
right to express the view that the book could not<br />
command anything in the nature of a popular<br />
sale. He hoped that he might have the pleasure<br />
of an interviev with Professor Craye. Perhaps<br />
the Professor would be able to lunch with him at<br />
half-past one on the following Thursday at the<br />
Locrian Club?<br />
<br />
Charles Craye lunched with Mr. Guddle, and<br />
found him a very agreeable and well-informed<br />
man, who took an enlightened interest in litera-<br />
ture quite apart from his commercial under-<br />
takings. After lunch they drove to Mr. Guddle’s<br />
office, and the Professor smoked one of Mr.<br />
Guddle’s cigars in Mr. Guddle’s private room.<br />
<br />
« And now let’s come to business, Mr. Craye,”<br />
said Mr. Guddle, when the cigars were lighted.<br />
“We publishers are always having to come to<br />
business, you know. What would you expect by<br />
way of terms for your book ? ”<br />
<br />
“T really know so very little about the terms<br />
which are usual for such books,’ said the<br />
Professor, after a moment’s hesitation. ‘I have<br />
not any clear idea on the subject.”<br />
<br />
“Well, Mr. Craye,” resumed the publisher,<br />
“there are a great many forms which the transac-<br />
tion between author and publisher may take.<br />
There is the royalty agreement, and there are<br />
agreements providing for a deferred royalty, and<br />
there is purchase outright. But I think this is<br />
eminently a case for a half-profits agreement. If<br />
the book does well, so much the better for us all;<br />
if not, we bear the burden between us. How do<br />
you think that would suit you? ”<br />
<br />
* What sort of arrangement was made with<br />
Mr. Trasker ’” asked Professor Craye.<br />
<br />
“Oh, that was a case of purchase,” replied Mr.<br />
Guddle, airily. ‘ But, then, we ourselves indi-<br />
cated the work to Mr. Trasker, and supplied him<br />
with material, and defrayed his expenses while he<br />
wasabroad engaged upon the necessary researches.<br />
And he was—habitually, we may say—in our<br />
employment to a certain extent. And, of course,<br />
it was only fair that all that should be taken<br />
into consideration in determining the scale of<br />
remuneration. No, I don’t think you would like<br />
go<br />
<br />
to sell the rights in the book on similar terms.<br />
Your work will probably become a classic, Mr.<br />
Craye, and I take it that you would wish to have<br />
a permanent hold upon its earnings.”<br />
<br />
“Why, yes. I should much prefer to have an<br />
abiding interest in the sales of the work,”’ said the<br />
professor.<br />
<br />
“J thought so,” remarked Mr. Guddle, and<br />
he nodded cordially. ‘“ Well, then, it’s just a<br />
case for balf-profits. All that we shall ask from<br />
you is the exclusive license to publish throughout<br />
the term of copyright. We shall spare no<br />
expense in the get-up of the book. We shall be<br />
proud of it, and shall issue it in first-class style.<br />
As I say, it is an expensive book to handle, and<br />
it will only appeal to a limited class. That,”<br />
continued Mr. Guddle, with a sad but pleasant<br />
smile, “is a drawback which in the nature of<br />
things attaches to much of the very best work.<br />
But merit does sometimes make its mark in this<br />
country of England.”<br />
<br />
Mr. Guddle, feeling that his last sentence<br />
seemed a mere platitude, took his cigar from his<br />
lips and blew his nose to cover the weak ending<br />
of his remarks.<br />
<br />
Professor Craye had received so many com-<br />
pliments from Mr. Guddle that he desired to<br />
make a suitable response. ‘I leave myself in<br />
your hands,” he said to Mr. Guddle. ‘The<br />
reputation of your firm is an ample guarantee<br />
forme. And now I am afraid I am occupying a<br />
great deal of your valuable time, Mr. Guddle.<br />
I know you business men have very little<br />
leisure.”<br />
<br />
The professor rose to take his leave, and Mr.<br />
Guddle bade him farewell in the most cordial<br />
manner and expressed the hope that he might<br />
before long be able to renew the pleasure of<br />
conversing with the professor. Two days later a<br />
long form of agreement reached Charles Craye by<br />
post, and he signed it without understanding<br />
what the clauses of it really meant.<br />
<br />
There was a great deal of delay before the book<br />
was printed, and when it appeared the publica-<br />
tion took place at a time when a war scare was<br />
occupying all minds, and literary topics were<br />
neglected. Craye’s work was very favourably<br />
received in a few quarters; but most of the great<br />
daily papers and many of the weekly reviews<br />
passed it over in silence, which was, perhaps, not<br />
astounding, inasmuch as these periodicals did not<br />
receive review copies from Messrs. Guddle and<br />
Simm. The explanation offered by Mr. Guddle<br />
to Charles Craye was different—the abstruseness<br />
of the subject, the popular pre-occupation about<br />
foreign politics, &c. ‘The daily papers, and<br />
many of the weekly papers too,” Mr. Guddle<br />
<br />
wrote, “are no doubt only anxious to print.<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
matter which will catch the eye of the average<br />
reader, and at such a time as the present they<br />
are exceptionally prone to neglect work of per-<br />
manent rather than immediate interest.” Mr.<br />
Guddle’s tone about the prospects of the book<br />
was pessimistic in the extreme. “It is not a<br />
work,” he said in conclusion, “ which would be<br />
helped by catchpenny advertisements. It will<br />
advertise itself among those who are able to<br />
understand it.” This, of course, fully explained<br />
why Professor Craye’s book was not advertised<br />
with the other publications in Messrs. Guddle<br />
and Simm’s list.<br />
<br />
Charles Craye was bitterly disappointed ; Mr.<br />
Guddle was not. People who were interested<br />
in the subject tried to get the book at the<br />
libraries, but there was always a difficulty about<br />
it, and delay as well, and before long inquirers<br />
were told that the volume was out of print;<br />
another edition would probably appear—but the<br />
other edition never saw the light. So Charles<br />
Craye’s magnum opus, of which only _ three<br />
hundred and fifty copies had been printed, and<br />
which had been issued at a prohibitive price,<br />
soon passed into oblivion. And Trasker’s books<br />
held the field and continued to bring handsome<br />
profits to the firm of Guddle and Simm.<br />
<br />
“Tt’s the continued vogue of Trasker’s works<br />
that annoys me most,” the professor said at a<br />
later date, ‘and it annoys Guddle too, for the<br />
matter of that. He’s a very well informed man,<br />
you know. His firm is a first-class firm, and I<br />
put myself in their hands, and they did every-<br />
thing they possibly could for me ; 80, it’s not<br />
their fault. In fact, they’re grievously disap-<br />
pointed, and heavily out of pocket, I’m sorry to<br />
say. Well, it all comes of writing above the<br />
heads of the people. One gets so absorbed in a<br />
subject that becomes one’s hobby, and then the<br />
theme could not be properly treated in a popular<br />
vein. It was very good of Guddle and Simm<br />
to publish itat all, And as for me,” he added<br />
with a sad smile, “I wasn’t meant to be anything<br />
but an old bachelor professor, who just gives<br />
lectures to young people—and, after all, that’s .<br />
work which ought to be its own reward.”<br />
<br />
MOoLEcuLe.<br />
OO OS<br />
<br />
MORE FRIENDLY CRITICISMS,<br />
<br />
ET me hark back to the March Author ; I<br />
have never seen the columns so vigorous,<br />
our Secretary so decisive, or the general<br />
<br />
matter and correspondence so full of interest,<br />
<br />
suggestiveness, and optimism. Its resentment of<br />
the Atheneum’s comments does the heart good to<br />
read. It is just possible that candid friends may<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE<br />
<br />
be terrified at the suggestion that the Society<br />
should boycott the advertising columns of a paper<br />
which does not stand up for authors, but the touch<br />
of nature, in its allusion to the brute force of<br />
our trade union, does more to make us kin than<br />
years of cautious jargon. Posterity, but no<br />
remote one, will do full justice to the work of the<br />
Society ; but we will not wait for posterity; we<br />
will not gape and smile, and stand by while the<br />
forwards do the rushing; I, an insignificant voice<br />
in the crowd, call on all members to lock arms,<br />
lower butts, and follow up the ball and its carrier<br />
until it is touched-down by sheer force behind<br />
the gouls of free trade between author and public,<br />
let the scrummages be as brutal as they may.<br />
Our opponents are too practised in the game for<br />
deft dodging to defeat them. What we have got<br />
to do, is to keep on rushing until the secret profits<br />
and unaudited accounts are driven by sheer<br />
weariness to succumb. As I remarked in these<br />
columns some years ago, when I first presump-<br />
tuously questioned the prudence of the club I had<br />
joined, this is not rashness, this is not the uproar<br />
of personal resentment; it is the one and only<br />
policy suited to the case, and if the exponents of<br />
it are occasionally stung into strong language, so<br />
much the better for the policy.<br />
<br />
Saute or Seconp-Ciass NoveEL.s.<br />
<br />
The feuilleton, “‘ A Second-Class Novel,’ besides<br />
being a really excellent plot fora story, is I think,<br />
more suggestive and enlightening than anything<br />
I have read in The Author for a longtime. I<br />
hope that it is actual experience, for it is impor-<br />
tant enough to be made the docus classicus of the<br />
young author’s difficulties. The only point about<br />
it that makes me doubtful is the 1000 copies.<br />
Mr. Guddle, the publisher, says, “A yarn of this<br />
quality will get an easy sale of 750 copies in<br />
England ”—without pushing, with only £10<br />
spent on advertisement, with only 250 copies first<br />
bound, and therefore presumably subscribed.<br />
The book was a novel, written by a young man<br />
of twenty, “rather a slab,” that is to say, a long<br />
one, refused by four good firms, and published at<br />
6s. for a total cost of £85. ‘‘ Molecule” would<br />
do aservice to young authors, and no harm to<br />
his credibility, by stating if a publisher has<br />
actually told him that he can count on a sale of<br />
750, even of a good book, by a young writer.<br />
<br />
My own experience has been that you may<br />
indeed just manage to subscribe 250 copies of a<br />
6s. novel by a well-known author, but that you<br />
cannot count on a sale of more than 400, which<br />
means a loss or £10 or £20 to the publisher ;<br />
and that, instead of looking on “ second-class<br />
novels” as a “safety” which will go towards<br />
office expenses, they regard it as a necessary<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
AUTHOR. gl<br />
<br />
outlay for the maintenance of their “ list,” and<br />
for the capture of an occasional success. On the<br />
whole, I like Mr. Guddle. I consider him an<br />
excellent business man, who understands his<br />
trade very well. From his point of view, which<br />
is precisely the same as that of “ A Publisher ”’<br />
in Literature of Jan. 21, he has got to make his<br />
charges, or base his offer of deferred royalty, so<br />
that “it shall make it worth his while to under-<br />
take the business.”<br />
<br />
Mr. Guddle’s offer is a 10 per cent. royalty<br />
after 500 copies, by which he expects to pay the<br />
author £7 Ios., and pocket about £32 himself.<br />
He makes the offer without pressing it unduly,<br />
and “ Molecule”? makes the author refuse it as a<br />
matter of course. The question which arises in<br />
my mind is, was the author wise to refuse?<br />
Would it be wise to refuse, even if the probable<br />
sale were only 500, by which he would get<br />
nothing at all? For my part, if I had had the<br />
book refused by, say, half a dozen houses, and<br />
still believed it would be a creditable advertise-<br />
ment to my name, I think I should have been<br />
glad to get a capitalist to invest £80 in me for that<br />
purpose. I shall always believe, even when the<br />
Method of the Future is in full swing, that litera-<br />
ture, like other businesses, requires an initial<br />
outlay in advertisement ; and if { can make that<br />
outlay by giving away a work which has been a<br />
pleasure to write, I should be content to expect<br />
my remuneration in the future. I think there is a<br />
possible error in a root idea current in The<br />
Author—the idea that it is the single book which<br />
alone is in question.<br />
<br />
RoyvaLty Paip In ADVANCE.<br />
<br />
For my part, I look on the single books as<br />
mere items of a whole; and that whole, a<br />
life’s work, which shall show a profit on the<br />
net result. What is a lasting source of sur-<br />
prise with me is that out of five publishers I<br />
have dealt with, four have acceded to my request<br />
for a royalty on the first 500 in advance. In the<br />
case of my first book, in the ‘‘ Pseudonym library,”<br />
a certain sale was safe, because the “ library”<br />
had a fixed minimum circulation, like a magazine ;<br />
but in the case of a later one, which was published<br />
by Mr. John Lane, and my last, which is in the<br />
hands of another firm, there was really no guaran-<br />
tee that the books would cover the cost of pub-<br />
lication. The reason that I have obtained advance<br />
payments is that I have made a rule for myself<br />
to exact this condition as long as I have cash<br />
enough in my pocket to feed me for a month ;<br />
this is because (1) I esteem apublisher’s calcu-<br />
lations as a good working criterion of mert,<br />
and I do not believe a book would do me<br />
any good in which a publisher had not sufficient<br />
92 THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
confidence to risk at least. £15 over and above the<br />
cost of production ; and (2) because I have suffi-<br />
cient confidence in my ultimate success, that is<br />
to say, in my capability for improvement, to be<br />
able to withdraw and lay by a manuscript which<br />
has not been accepted on these terms. I will own<br />
it is an expensive extravagance; I have with-<br />
drawn, and therefore to a certain extent wasted,<br />
four such books for which my best offer has been<br />
“ commission.”<br />
<br />
An OPINION FOR BEGINNERS.<br />
<br />
This brings me to a very interesting suggestion<br />
raised by “ Molecule’s” feuilleton, that of an<br />
author finding himself the publisher of his own<br />
first book. The time is coming, I understand,<br />
when the French system is to prevail of an<br />
author having to pay costs of production himself<br />
instead of finding a capitalist to start him. Now<br />
(I address beginners only), have you ever seriously<br />
considered your MS. from the business point of<br />
view of profit and loss? Have you, after failing<br />
to find a publisher, brought yourself face to face<br />
with the alternative, so sarcastically put by “A<br />
Publisher” in Literature, of risking your last<br />
£100 on your maiden effort? 1 have: only<br />
recently, and for the first time. I assure you it<br />
put quite another aspect on affairs. In the first<br />
place, I have found it simply impossible to<br />
eliminate the creator’s vanity and insubordinate<br />
sanguineness from my judgment; I have had to<br />
snatch at my unprejudiced “ reader’s opinion”<br />
betwixt sleep and waking, leaving off the moment<br />
I begin to picture the printed page in rosiness.<br />
I came to the conclusion that I should not be<br />
wise in risking that £1oo unless I had a capital<br />
of £1000 to draw it from; and I believe that no<br />
young author would be justified in spending<br />
more than one-tenth of his available funds on<br />
such an enterprise. If he is prepared to push<br />
the buok personally, he might do very well to<br />
spend from £30 to £50 on a paper-covered<br />
edition of a story of from 30,000 to 50,000 words,<br />
if such a length happened to be “in the market ”’ ;<br />
but he would be running a great risk in spending<br />
£100 on a book of 80,000 to 100,000 words, unless<br />
he were rich. I should gather from the pages of<br />
The Author and the multiplicity of commission<br />
books that there are many authors now who<br />
possess an income, or vice versd; but it is my<br />
prejudice not to take such aristocrats into<br />
account.<br />
<br />
Of course, it is quite a different thing when an<br />
author has made his name. He is then one of<br />
the “no-risks,” to adopt an Americanism ; on the<br />
other hand, as clearly shown in the feuilleton<br />
discussed, he can generally get as much profit as<br />
the. book will bear out of the ordinary publisher.<br />
<br />
Messrs. AUTHOR AND PUBLISHER.<br />
<br />
Now, over and over again an author, suc-<br />
cessful or not, does not get even the fair value<br />
of his book; and, even if he is willing to give<br />
away his first work for advertisement, that is no<br />
reason why he should not hold the patent and<br />
receive the royalties, if any, thereof. In saying<br />
that he might be wise to accept a deferred royalty<br />
in a doubtful case, I by no means suggest that he<br />
should let Mr. Guddle swindle him out of his<br />
copyright ; and we see by the feuilleton that this<br />
was just Mr. Guddle’s intention, and that, if the<br />
Society of Authors did not exist, the novice would<br />
be in a fair way of being “ guddled.” In the case<br />
of a deferred royalty, the author has got to exact<br />
a full royalty, or at least 25 per cent., on all<br />
copies after 500; and he has got to word his<br />
agreement so that lie shall be sure of knowing<br />
just how many copies are being sold, and just<br />
how much is due to him. And after the first<br />
edition of 1000, which has paid expenses and<br />
given the publisher a sop, he ought to have<br />
greatly improved terms. Only the Society of<br />
Authors can enable him to do this, because we<br />
know that the publisher will never of his own<br />
accord consider the author his partner. “Shall<br />
the author receive the full benefits of all the<br />
advantages I obtain?” says “A Publisher” in<br />
Literature. “Should it follow that, because I<br />
can obtain certain allowances on the material I<br />
buy, I should make the author a present of them ?<br />
By no means. The author is not my partner.”<br />
That is clear enough, I think, is it not? Well,<br />
we want a publisher who says that the author ts<br />
at least a fellow venturer. That is what the<br />
Society is aiming at. But if our fellow venturer<br />
is prepared to lend us our half of the capital, we<br />
<br />
must be prepared to pay interest on it over and .<br />
<br />
above the half shares.<br />
<br />
PoputaR AMERICAN MaAGazINEs.<br />
<br />
Speaking of American magazines, I inclose the<br />
printed refusal forms employed by the leading<br />
monthlies here, as you have made a point of pub-<br />
lishing such particulars. As you will see, they<br />
are excellent models, and I may add that MSS.<br />
are read and returned generally within a fort-<br />
night.<br />
<br />
It is no news to mention the enormous circula-<br />
tions enjoyed by the American ten-centers ;<br />
Munsey’s, for instance, is aiming at the half-<br />
million. Their excellence and enterprise is in-<br />
credible. You would be astonished to see the<br />
display even in a little town of 50,000 inhabi-<br />
tants like Canada’s capital. There are five or six<br />
book shops here, but, horrendum dictu, no public<br />
library. The 6d. American paper-covers have a.<br />
great sale. But perhaps the most popular literature<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR. 58<br />
<br />
are the New York, Chicago, and Buffalo Sunday<br />
editions of the dailies, which cost in Canada 33d.<br />
While speaking of Canada, I cannot refrain from<br />
mentioning an instance of the precariousness of<br />
fame. I had an introduction to Archibald Lamp-<br />
man, whose recent death here is a serious loss to<br />
Canada; and knowing that he was in the Postal<br />
Service, I inquired for him at the General<br />
Delivery wicket. Will you believe it that the<br />
gentleman on duty there, one of the oldest clerks<br />
of the department, did not know his name?<br />
Why? Red-tape. After much brain-cudgelling<br />
my amiable informant believed, now he came to<br />
think of it, that there was a man of that name<br />
in another department in the Parliamentary<br />
block.<br />
<br />
Your correspondent’s suggestion to mutilate<br />
review copies, coupled with your own remarks<br />
about the Athenzeum, will have caused a flutter in<br />
the dovecotes. Review copies are an important<br />
asset to the reviewer. If the £5 or £10 (cost<br />
price of 100 copies of a new novel) were spent in<br />
advertisement, it would probably be just as<br />
effective. The Reviews would have to buy copies<br />
or cease to exist. And there would be less useless<br />
and pernicious log-rolling.<br />
<br />
Your long Paris letter is interesting to the<br />
few, but do you observe that in your foreign<br />
letters you are virtually playing the Review<br />
If so, why not a London letter? Until you<br />
go in for the responsibilities of criticism one<br />
only expects business notes from Paris and New<br />
York.<br />
<br />
Your American correspondent animadverts on<br />
the Paper Trust. He might have added the Type<br />
Foundry Trust, which controls the other indis-<br />
pensable of printing. Type is some (?) 20 per<br />
cent. dearer in the States than in Canada.<br />
Printing presses, on the other hand, are of<br />
course far cheaper there, there being a heavy<br />
duty on machinery imported into the Dominion.<br />
If Canada could import machinery free it<br />
might well become a great printing country,<br />
for it has unlimited supplies of pulp spruce<br />
and water power, and Canadians are greedy of<br />
books.<br />
<br />
One other point. Your correspondents speak<br />
as if the Wide World and the Strand were under<br />
different editorship. It is a pity Messrs. Newnes,<br />
Pearson, &c., cannot haveacentral editorial depart-<br />
ment, like Harpers. I have had tales refused by<br />
Wide World which, I understand, would have<br />
been accepted say by Zvt-Bits, under the same<br />
roof.<br />
<br />
Ottawa, Canada. M——.<br />
<br />
Sp 0 «:<br />
<br />
CORRESPONDENCE.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
On THE Srpe oF FAILURE.<br />
1<br />
<br />
LL authors must have read Mr. Julian<br />
Croskey’s “A Recantation” with keen<br />
interest. Is he aware that it is necessary<br />
to create a literary sensation in order to succeed ?<br />
Are there not appalling difficulties in the path of<br />
others? The secret of a successful author, taking,<br />
of course, his talents or the reverse into account,<br />
is his power of forcing his personality on his<br />
public in either paid paragraphs or illustrated<br />
interviews. In other words, he must beat the<br />
drum. Press booms and advertising are indis-<br />
<br />
pensable in winning recognition.<br />
<br />
The next best thing in gaining a living by the<br />
pen is to be well in favour with or else the<br />
friend of proprietors running some strictly com-<br />
mercial “ ring” of rag-bag and domestic journals,<br />
where anything approaching literature is severely<br />
boycotted in the interests of religion and morality.<br />
Woe betide the author who here soars above<br />
commonplace. A fairly clever and amusing<br />
novel will sell, if treated with the generous aiiver-<br />
tising of a Mother Siegel’s Syrup, or a well-<br />
pushed soap or cocoa, far better than a much<br />
finer one that takes its chance amid a batch of<br />
others less prominently brought forward. The<br />
public care nothing about art or style in a book,<br />
but must be amused, interested and startled.<br />
They will buy what pleases them if their notice is<br />
constantly drawn to it.<br />
<br />
Huge picture posters with ghastly incidents<br />
from a novel, sketched in lurid colours and<br />
greeting one at every turn, are expensive, perhaps,<br />
but fine media for effecting sales and hence<br />
winning fame. :<br />
<br />
Then, again, the merest trifles, the veriest non-<br />
sense properly utilised will often make a book go.<br />
Society holds the key to the success of a certain<br />
class of fiction. For an author to “ paragraph” in<br />
newspapers and journals a sentence, or even a<br />
whisper, favourable to his novel that has been<br />
breathed in his ear by the Prince of Wales, for<br />
instance, is to secure a safe income for life. As<br />
for reviews, they are nearly all written by authors<br />
and, hence, rivals. Can a rival ever be quite<br />
unbiassed or dispassionate? Friends here may<br />
fare better than strangers. It is the same thing<br />
in submitting novels to publishers’ readers. Yet<br />
the glut of fiction and the deadly battle still con-<br />
tinue. ANNABEL GRAY.<br />
<br />
Il.<br />
<br />
In last month’s Author “ X.”’ treats the subject<br />
of Literature with a firm hand and atrue. What<br />
94 THE<br />
<br />
he states appeals to one’s reason. No doubt the<br />
<br />
-greater part of writers struggling for standing<br />
room are weak on some point most essential<br />
for their success, but the odds on the chance<br />
of any success for an unknown beginner are<br />
fearful.<br />
<br />
It does not hurt one to see better work than<br />
one’s own published, but to discover that one’s<br />
self gets a slap in the face while another is<br />
respectfully received because a high-sounding<br />
title is Zacked on to a contributor’s name, or a<br />
writer is accepted because his or her nonsense<br />
is highly spiced with objectionably-flavoured<br />
suggestions distasteful to God and man, that is<br />
galling.<br />
<br />
It you are poor, to commence with, you are<br />
likely to be poorer still before the door at which<br />
you knock shall be opened the slightest bit. It<br />
is a costly business, the constant carriage to and<br />
fro of MSS. A literary lady gave me the advice<br />
on one occasion—Keep on sending. All very well<br />
if one has ample means. Unfortunately, some of<br />
us have not the strength to carry planks in a saw<br />
mill or even sweep a crossing when we have spent<br />
all.<br />
<br />
Spero meliora we whisper to ourselves morning<br />
after morning, but no omnipotent editor speaks<br />
comfortably to us, and hope to which we cling<br />
becomes so frail a thread we tremble lest it give<br />
way altogether.<br />
<br />
Another question. Are successful writers<br />
capable of petty jealousy? I know one, whose<br />
name is not altogether strange to this Society,<br />
but not upon the council, I may say, who will<br />
answer questions in a beautifully frank and<br />
Christian tone upon various personal and social<br />
topics, but approach that one upon literary<br />
ground and beg for lines how to proceed, or refer<br />
to one’s self as daring to aspire to literary<br />
heights, the audacious questioner is snubbed<br />
immediately, and told to “ quench such ambition,”<br />
and in some cases no reply to such is vouch-<br />
safed! And for years that author has made<br />
large sums of money out of the public, and still<br />
speculates on drawing more, although not forced<br />
by the compelling necessity of poverty or narrow<br />
means.<br />
<br />
“Self! self! all for self!” seems the axiom im-<br />
printed upon the grasping natures of the children<br />
of this generation, “and let estimable virtue go<br />
hang.” L. 8.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
III.<br />
<br />
I must confess that Mr. Croskey’s experiences<br />
are very interesting. My own literary experience<br />
is so whimsical that I cannot think it is without<br />
interest entirely. The only species of literary<br />
employment which I have found productive at all<br />
<br />
AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
is that of contributing to a professional journal,<br />
for which, at all events after an interval, I can<br />
always acquire a certain honorarium. Like<br />
many other of your contributors, in oblivion of<br />
the lexicographer’s maxim that “no man but<br />
a blockhead ever wrote except for money,” I<br />
have written in non-paying magazines. There are<br />
many arguments against such a proceeding, and<br />
babbling Bozzy’s officious and gratuitous com-<br />
ment on Johnson’s observation is an example of<br />
his worst glossing powers, on a footing with his<br />
idiomatic solecisms, as when he writes esprit du<br />
corps. Junius never required any fee, and if he<br />
was not a blockhead, he was a rascal. There lies<br />
an uneasy feeling in the region of my sub-<br />
consciousness that in writing for non-paying<br />
magazines I may have implicitly written myself<br />
down as an ass, like Dogberry, and should<br />
have cheated the editor if I had received a fee.<br />
Not only do I not get paid, but I remark that the<br />
briefest and most cursory notices are generally<br />
given to the longest articles and those which<br />
require the most research. A London editor of<br />
eminence has delivered the somewhat contradictory<br />
judgment that, though some of my work may be<br />
scholarly, I am unfitted for journalism. I also<br />
find that when I have specialised on a literary<br />
question, my articles are “ only not accepted,” as<br />
was said of a bribe offered to an_ historical<br />
character. But much more superficial views on<br />
the same subject written by myself previously<br />
were not only accepted, but actually gamed me a<br />
few guineas. My friends need not blush for me;<br />
Tam a hack wriler who has never received black-<br />
mail, as Lord Campbell said Francis did. All<br />
that I have ever gained from literature does not<br />
total to a hundred pounds, though I have written<br />
thousands of pages. Like Mr. Croskey, I have<br />
fallen among the thorns in attempting the rdle of<br />
novelist. When I receive carefully typed notes<br />
from publishers on unexceptionable paper, quite<br />
wafer-like enough to have another Dreyfus<br />
bordereau written on them, with a few words of<br />
perfunctory and unchallenged criticism, I begin<br />
to think that there is something more unpleasant<br />
than Canning’s candid friend, and that is a<br />
publisher who, though a total stranger to you<br />
<br />
personally, familiarly informs you that you are ~<br />
<br />
“ didactic and uninteresting,’ or that, even if<br />
you were to pay the cost of publication, he would<br />
not bring out your book. I feel inclined, under<br />
such circumstances, to quote from Junius : “ This<br />
may be a very good answer for aught I know at<br />
cross-purposes, but it is a very whimsical one to<br />
a man in my circumstances.” I cannot, in short,<br />
echo the pronouncement of authority that litera-<br />
ture offers a serious calling in view of my own<br />
experience that a novel by an unknown hand, and<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
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THE AUTHOR. e<br />
<br />
apparently any number of them, cannot secure<br />
any price, even a nominal one, though it may<br />
represent several months’ work. N. W.S.<br />
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<br />
BOOK TALK.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
American critic, author of ‘“ Southern<br />
<br />
Statesmen of the Old Regime,” is writing<br />
the volume on American Literature for the series<br />
of Literature Histories, edited by Mr. Gosse.<br />
<br />
Mr. W. Clark Russell, whose new book ‘‘ The<br />
Ship: Her Story,” will be published by Messrs.<br />
Chatto and Windus on the 14th inst., is writing<br />
another sea story to be called ‘‘ he Ship’s Adven-<br />
ture,’ which will describe the salving of ship and<br />
cargo in the North Atlantic by a man, a girl, and<br />
a dog. This will be published in the spring by<br />
Mr. James Bowden.<br />
<br />
Se acs W. P. TRENT, the well-known<br />
<br />
The Rev. Frederick Langbridge’s new volume<br />
of poems, “Little Tapers,” will be published<br />
immediately by the R.T.S. Its predecessor, “ A<br />
Cluster of Quiet Thoughts,” has reached a third<br />
edition. Mr. Langbridge has also completed a<br />
short novel, “ Love has no Pity,” which will begin<br />
its serial course in January, 1900.<br />
<br />
An illustrated memorial of the art and life of<br />
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, on an elaborate scale, 1s<br />
being prepared by Mr. H. C. Marillier for publi-<br />
cation by Messrs. Bell. Among the contents will<br />
be reproductions from the valuable collection of<br />
Rossetti’s works owned by Mr. Rae, of Birken-<br />
head.<br />
<br />
Mr. Rider Haggard has written a new romance<br />
which will be called “The Secret of Sword<br />
Silence ; a Tale of the Old Dutch.” It is laid in<br />
the time of William the Silent. The story will<br />
appear serially in the Graphic next year.<br />
<br />
Mr. H. W. Auden, assistant master at Fettes<br />
College, Edinburgh, is to edit for Messrs. Black-<br />
wood a new series of classical texts. The volumes<br />
are to be cheap, attractive, and practical, and<br />
they will contain maps and other illustrations<br />
from the best German and other sources. Another<br />
series of illustrated classics is being edited by Mr.<br />
EB. GC. Marchant, classical master at St. Paul’s<br />
School, for Messrs. Bell. These will be issued<br />
with or without vocabularies, to suit the require-<br />
ments of the different schools.<br />
<br />
Mr. Hew Morrison, librarian of Edinburgh<br />
Public Library, is writing a biography of Mr.<br />
Andrew Carnegie which Messrs. Nelson will<br />
publish.<br />
<br />
Mr. Stanley Weyman, whose new eighteenth:<br />
century romance, ‘ Sophia,” now appearing in<br />
the Queen, will be published by Messrs. Long-<br />
mans about the end of the year, will contribute a<br />
serial story to Cornhill. in 1900, as will Mr. isk<br />
Seton Merriman.<br />
<br />
Mr. Robert Barr’s volume on his travels in the<br />
near East some time ago will be published shortly<br />
by Messrs. Chatto and Windus. One incident of<br />
the journey was his arrest by the Turkish<br />
authorities. The book is called “The East While<br />
you Wait.”<br />
<br />
Mr. H. G. Wells’s new book consists of five<br />
stories grouped under the title of “ Tales of Space<br />
and Time.” The two longest are laid in London<br />
and the valley of the Wye, and in all the author<br />
blends imagination with scientific theories.<br />
<br />
Mrs. Marcus Clarke has arrived in London<br />
from Australia, and is arranging for the publica-<br />
tion of her late husband’s unfinished novel,<br />
«Felix and Felicitas.”<br />
<br />
Mr. Swinburne’s new drama, ‘‘ Rosamund,” will<br />
be published this month by Messrs. Chatto and<br />
Windus. A new volume of poems by the same<br />
author will appear later in the autumn.<br />
<br />
Mr. W. L. Courtney is writing a monograph<br />
on Mr. Hardy for the “English Writers of<br />
To-day” series, published by Messrs. Greening<br />
and Co.<br />
<br />
Self-revealing as all Stevenson’s letters are, the<br />
reader does not find many passages more striking<br />
than the following, which appears in the August<br />
instalment in Scribner’s. It occurs in a letter<br />
written by the novelist to Mr. William Archer in<br />
1885:<br />
<br />
Not only dol believe that literature should give joy, but I<br />
see a universe I suppose eternally different from yours; a<br />
solemn, aterrible, but a very joyous and noble universe,<br />
where suffering is not at least wantonly inflicted, though<br />
it falls with dispassionate partiality, but where it may be,<br />
and generally is, nobly borne ; where, above all ‘<br />
any brave man may make out a life which shall be happy<br />
for himself, and, by so being, beneficent to those about him.<br />
And if it fails, why should I hear him weeping? I mean, if<br />
T fail, why should weep? why should you hear me ? Then<br />
to me morals, the conscience, the affections are, I will own<br />
frankly and sweepingly, so infinitely more important than the<br />
other parts of life, that I conceive men rather triflers who<br />
become immersed in the latter ; and I will always think the<br />
man who keeps his lip stiff, and makes “a happy fireside<br />
clime,” and carries a pleasant face about to friends and<br />
neighbours, infinitely greater in the abstract than an<br />
atrabilious Shakespeare or a backbiting Kant or Darwin.<br />
No offence to any of these gentlemen, two of whom probably<br />
(one for certain) came up to my standard.<br />
<br />
Among forthcoming works of fiction are the<br />
following : “ Kit Kennedy,” by 8. R. Crockett<br />
(James Clarke and Co.) ; «Terence, an Irish<br />
story, by Mrs. Croker; “A Crimson Crime,” by’<br />
96<br />
<br />
G. Manville Fenn (Chatto); “A Gentleman<br />
Player,” by R. N. Stephens, whose hero is a<br />
young actor of Shakespeare’s time (Methuen) ;<br />
“ Jocelyn Errol,” by Curtis Yorke (Jarrold).<br />
<br />
Mr. Horace Round is bringing out, through<br />
Messrs. Constable, a volume treating of the early<br />
history of the City of London, and entitled “ The<br />
Commune of London.” Sir Walter Besant has<br />
written a prefatory letter for the book.<br />
<br />
The full title of Sir Herbert Maxwell’s forth-<br />
coming work (Sampson Low) is “The Life of<br />
Field-Marshal the Duke of Wellington, and the<br />
Restoration of the Land Forces of Great<br />
Britain.”<br />
<br />
“The white man, yes, and the white woman, will save<br />
both the soul and the soil of Africa for the good of the<br />
world. The white man will purify the black, the black will<br />
fortify the white. The white will give brain and the black<br />
will give physique, each working together in one more phase<br />
of human development for good.”<br />
<br />
The above passage is taken from W. Edwards<br />
Tirebuck’s new romance, “ The White Woman.”<br />
Commenting upon this a reviewer remarks: “If<br />
Mr. Tirebuck had written that after, instead of<br />
before, Sir G. Taubman-Goldie (at the Colonial<br />
Nurses’ Association) had said that ‘the civilisa-<br />
tion of tropical Africa was part of the white<br />
woman’s burden,’ he would have been charged<br />
with plagiarism.”<br />
<br />
Mr. Joseph Hatton’s new novel ‘The White<br />
King of Manoa” went into a second edition<br />
within about two weeks, showing that “the off<br />
season” may not be so detrimental to publishing<br />
as is generally thought. The author had been<br />
engaged on the book for some years. A labour<br />
of love, he relinquished the profit of serial rights<br />
that he might write it in comparative leisure and<br />
publish it immediately on completion. In this<br />
way it seems to clash somewhat with the date of<br />
publication of “When Rogues Fall Out,” which<br />
was really written before the completion of “The<br />
White King of Manoa,” and has been appearing<br />
serially under the syndicate arrangements of<br />
Messrs. Tillotson. The original chapters, how-<br />
ever, for book publication, have been revised and<br />
extended It is to be published shortly by<br />
Messrs. Pearson. Having sold an edition of fifty<br />
thousand of the 6d. edition of Mr. Hatton’s “ By<br />
Order of the Czar,” Messrs. Hutchinson have<br />
withdrawn it in favour of the 2s. issue of which,<br />
with the more expensive editions, over 100,000<br />
have been sold in England; while the sales in<br />
the United States have outnumbered the English<br />
issue very considerably.<br />
<br />
A volume on prehistoric Scotland, by Dr.<br />
Robert Munro, will be published shortly by<br />
Messrs. Blackwood. In this firm’s series of<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
“Periods of European Literature,” the next<br />
volume will be by Mr. Oliver Elton, who deals<br />
with “ The Augustan Ages.”<br />
<br />
Messrs. Hurst and Blackett are about to bring<br />
out a one volume novel by Miss Christabel Cole-<br />
ridge, author of “The Main Chance,” “An<br />
English Squire,” &c.<br />
<br />
Derek Vane, author of “The Three Daughters<br />
of Night,” a novel published by Messrs. Hutchin-<br />
son, which excited considerable interest, is now<br />
writing a series of short stories for the Weekly<br />
Telegraph. Messrs. Pearson will also shortly<br />
<br />
ublish a series by the same author, entitled<br />
“The Adventures of a Spy.”<br />
<br />
Messrs. Cassell and Co. will publish on the 13th<br />
a new novel, by Mr. John Bloundelle-Burton,<br />
which, in so far that it deals with modern days,<br />
is a departure from his more recent stories. It<br />
is, however, a book of adventure, the scene being<br />
laid in British Honduras, and the hero a naval<br />
officer. This novel ran as a serial in Cassell’s<br />
Saturday Journal, and under the auspices of the<br />
McClure Syndicate in the U.S. (where Messrs.<br />
Appleton will also publish it in volume form on<br />
the 13th), and will be the first romance dealing<br />
with the present day which the author has pro-<br />
duced for ten years. It will be entitled “ A Bitter<br />
Heritage.”<br />
<br />
=> oe.<br />
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OBITUARY.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
HE death-roll of the month contains the<br />
names of Mr. William Simpson, R.L., the<br />
veteran artist and war correspondent (76),<br />
<br />
a devoted student of shrines and outward signs<br />
of belief, and author of “The Buddhist Praying<br />
Wheel”; the Rev. William Wright, D.D. (62),<br />
editorial superintendent of the British and<br />
Foreign Bible Society since 1876, author of<br />
“Palmyra and Zenobia,’ “The Brontés in<br />
Treland,” and other works; Rev. Alexander<br />
Balmain Bruce (68), Professor of Theology in<br />
the Free Church College, Glasgow; and Sir<br />
Edward Frankland, K.C.B., &c. (74), for long<br />
the Government analyst of the Metropolitan<br />
water supply, and author of books bearing on that<br />
subject.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Mr. J. Eveleigh Nash,<br />
<br />
LITERARY AGENT,<br />
AMBERLEY HOUSE, NORFOLK STREET<br />
<br />
STRAND, W.C. | https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/466/1899-09-01-The-Author-10-4.pdf | publications, The Author |