| 467 | https://historysoa.com/items/show/467 | The Author, Vol. 10 Issue 05 (October 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+05+%28October+1899%29"><em>The Author</em>, Vol. 10 Issue 05 (October 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> | 1899-10-02-The-Author-10-5 | | | | | 97–116 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | <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=1899-10-02">1899-10-02</a> | | | | | | | 5 | | | 18991002 | Che #utbor.<br />
<br />
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)<br />
<br />
EONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Vou. X.—No. 5.]<br />
<br />
OCTOBER 2, 1899.<br />
<br />
[Prick SIXPENCE.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
For the Opinions expressed in papers that are<br />
signed or initialled the Authors alone are<br />
responsible. None of the papers or para-<br />
graphs must be taken as expressing the<br />
collective opinions of the Committee unless<br />
they are officially signed by G. Herbert<br />
Thring, Sec.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Pons<br />
<br />
HE Secretary of the Society begs to give notice that all<br />
remittances are acknowledged by return of post, and<br />
requests that all members not receiving an answer to<br />
<br />
important communications within two days will write to him<br />
without delay. All remittances should be crossed Union<br />
Bank of London, Chancery-lane, or be sent by registered<br />
letter only.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Communications and letters are invited by the Editor on<br />
all subjects connected with literature, but on no other sub-<br />
jects whatever. Articles which cannot be accepted are<br />
returned if stamps for the purpose accompany the MSS.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
os<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 />
J. THAT OF SELLING IT OUTRIGHT.<br />
<br />
This is in some respects the most satisfactory, if a proper<br />
price can be obtained. But the transaction should be<br />
managed by a competent agent, or with the advice of the<br />
Secretary of the Society.<br />
<br />
TI. A PROFIT-SHARING AGREEMENT (a bad form of<br />
agreement).<br />
<br />
In this case the following rules should be attended to :<br />
<br />
(1.) Not to sign any agreemeat in which the cost of pro-<br />
duction forms a part without the strictest investigation.<br />
<br />
(2.) Not to give the publisher the power of putting the<br />
profits into his own pocket by charging for advertisements<br />
in his own organs: or by charging exchange advertise-<br />
ments. Therefore keep control of the advertisements.<br />
<br />
(3.) Not to allow a special charge for “ office expenses,”<br />
unless the same allowance is made to the author.<br />
<br />
(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 />
VOL. X.<br />
<br />
Ill. THE ROYALTY SYSTEM.<br />
<br />
It is above all things necessary to know what the<br />
proposed royalty means to both sides. It is now possible<br />
for an author to ascertain approximately and very nearly<br />
the truth. From time to time the very important figures<br />
connected with royalties are published in The Author.<br />
Readers can also work out the figures themselves from the<br />
“Cost of Production.”<br />
<br />
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 />
ec<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
EVER sign an agreement without submitting it to<br />
<br />
WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS.<br />
: 2c the Secretary of the Society of Authors or some<br />
competent legal authority.<br />
<br />
2. Never negotiate for the production of a play with<br />
anyone except an established manager.<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) SAL OF PERFORMING RIGHT OR OF A LICENCE<br />
TO PERFORM ON THE PROFIT-SHARING 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 />
K 2<br />
98 THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
(3) SALE OF PERFORMING RIGHT OR OF A LICENCE<br />
TO PERFORM ON THE BASIS OF PERCENTAGES<br />
(i.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 ina<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. Never forget that American rights may be exceedingly<br />
valuable. They should never be included in English<br />
agreements without the author obtaining a substantial<br />
consideration.<br />
<br />
g. Agreements for collaboration should be carefully<br />
drawn and executed before collaboration is commenced.<br />
Never admit a collaborator when once the actual work of<br />
writing the play has begun or after it is finished.<br />
<br />
10. An author should remember that production of a play<br />
is highly speculative: that he runs a very great risk of<br />
delay and a breakdown in the fulfilment of his contract.<br />
He should therefore guard himself all the more carefully in<br />
the beginning.<br />
<br />
11. An author must remember that the dramatic market<br />
is exceedingly limited.<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 />
HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.<br />
<br />
L VERY member has a right to ask for and to receive<br />
advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-<br />
lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his<br />
<br />
business or the administration of his property. If the<br />
<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 />
experience of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple<br />
to use the Society.<br />
<br />
3. Send to the Office copies of past agreements and past<br />
accounts with the loan of the books represented. The<br />
Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new<br />
or old, for inspection and note. The information thus<br />
obtained may prove invaluable.<br />
<br />
4. Before signing any agreement whatever, send the pro-<br />
posed document to the Society for examination.<br />
<br />
5. Remember always that in belonging to the Society you<br />
are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you are<br />
<br />
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 />
pos<br />
<br />
THE READING BRANCH.<br />
<br />
%MBERS 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 />
as a composition is treated by a coach. The Readers are<br />
writers of competence and experience. The fee is one<br />
<br />
guinea.<br />
<br />
NOTICES.<br />
<br />
HE Editor of The Author begs to remind members of the<br />
Society that, although the paper is sent to them free<br />
of charge, the cost of producing it would be a very<br />
<br />
heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great<br />
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 Editor any points connected with their<br />
work which it would be advisable in the general interest to<br />
publish.<br />
<br />
The present location of the Authors’ Club is at 3, White-<br />
hall-court, Charing Cross. Address the Secretary for<br />
information, rules of admission, &c.<br />
<br />
LITERARY PROPERTY.<br />
<br />
T.—Is Lirerature Precarious?<br />
<br />
HE correspondence still continues as to the<br />
precarious nature of the profession of Litera-<br />
ture. It will be observed, however, that all<br />
<br />
those who argue that it is precarious do so from<br />
their own experience alone and without the least<br />
reference to the well-known and notorious examples<br />
of success. One writer says that if he had taken<br />
to the Law the same ability which he brought to<br />
Literature he would have succeeded. Perhaps:<br />
but this assumes, first, that his belief in his own<br />
ability is well founded : next, that the same kind<br />
of ability is wanted for Literature and for Law :<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
EY<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
mene<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
thirdly, that his abilities are such as command<br />
success in the Law; and, lastly, that ability<br />
always does command success in the Law. And<br />
so with other professions. Now those who can-<br />
not command a tolerable income by the pen may<br />
be divided into several classes. There are those<br />
who fail at the outset, because they have not even<br />
the elementary qualifications necessary for the<br />
literary life. They have no right to call Litera-<br />
ture precarious because they have never belonged<br />
to it. As well might a man call the Bar pre-<br />
carious who could not pass the preliminary<br />
examinations. There are some, however, who<br />
hang on to the fringe, so to speak, getting a paper<br />
accepted now and then, while a dozen are rejected.<br />
These may be thought entitled to speak of Litera-<br />
ture as precarious. There are many, a great many,<br />
in this position. Unfortunately, they are unable to<br />
understand that a single piece of good work would<br />
lift them out of that position, and they cannot<br />
understand that their own work is not as good<br />
as that of the more popular writers. Indeed, it<br />
is this class which is the most severe on the<br />
“cheap success”: on the tenth-rate poet : on the<br />
taste of the people. If a writer has nothing to<br />
say : if he has no song to sing: no story to tell:<br />
no doctrine to teach; or if he cannot deliver his<br />
message pleasantly and attractively, the fault<br />
of failure is with him, not with the profession.<br />
There is a third class of writers to whom<br />
Literature offers but small rewards of the pecu-<br />
niary kind: it is the class which provides books<br />
and papers for a very small audience. Those who<br />
write on the higher mathematics; or in certain<br />
branches of science and philosophy; cannot expect<br />
to address a large audience. A fine writer such<br />
as Walter Pater commands admiration and<br />
respect from the readers whom he addresses: but<br />
it is a small class. For him Literature would<br />
hardly offer a bare livelihood. Yet he would<br />
not be right in complaining that it is pre-<br />
carious, and he would certainly not be embittered<br />
by comparing his own modest returns with<br />
those of the successful dramatist. Nothing is<br />
gained by keeping. up the old sham about the<br />
precarious nature of Literature as a profession. It<br />
is no more precarious than art of any kind: or<br />
than the Bar; or than Medicine or anything<br />
which depends solely on a personal and individual<br />
ability. Now,as I have said over and over again,<br />
a thousand failures do not make it precarious, for<br />
the simple reason that they take place for the<br />
most part at the outset, and mean nothing more<br />
than incompetence and unfitness for any branch<br />
of literary work. For those who possess the<br />
natural aptitude, with other requisites, such as<br />
power of work, the profession is on a level with<br />
other professions as regards the average run of<br />
<br />
99<br />
<br />
successes, and possesses very large prizes for<br />
those who succeed greatly. J refer to my corre-<br />
spondent “ Yachtsman” (see p. 110) as an_illus-<br />
tration and confirmation of this point. W. B.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Il.—PuBLisHING ON COMMISSION.<br />
<br />
In the September number of The Author, p. 81,<br />
it is stated that on the figures given the author<br />
would lose £130. This is incorrect. He would<br />
gain £78. If, however, he had taken a royalty of<br />
15 per cent., he would have received £90.<br />
<br />
What, in that case, would have been the pub-<br />
lisher’s profit ?<br />
<br />
On the commission book it has been shown that<br />
he might make about £125.<br />
<br />
There would have been no percentages on the<br />
cost of production. He would have paid the<br />
exact cost, say, £150. He would have received<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
£350. The account therefore, would stand :<br />
Cost of production £150 Sale of 2,000 £350<br />
Author = ...62.2.5:. go<br />
Publishers .2...-c 110<br />
£350 £350<br />
<br />
It is therefore clear that the publisher would<br />
do better with a commission book than with one<br />
on this royalty.<br />
<br />
Suppose, however, that the sales, which is much<br />
more likely, do not rise beyond 400. The accounts<br />
might now stand:<br />
<br />
& s. d. Ss. a<br />
Sale of 400<br />
copies at<br />
<br />
Cost of print-<br />
ingandpaper 96 16 o<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Binding ...... 56 50 °& ‘customary<br />
Advertising... 47 100 __ trade price”<br />
Corrections... 3 OO Say 35. 3d. 65 0.0<br />
Publisher’sfee 5 00 Less 10 per<br />
Extraexpenses 5 OO cent....... 6 10 ©<br />
58 10 O<br />
Loss to<br />
author... 15S: 1 0<br />
213 II O zis it Oo<br />
<br />
The publisher, ‘on the other hand, would make<br />
as before, mutatis mutandis :<br />
<br />
0S, a.<br />
On printne ........, oe 16 16 6<br />
On binding |. es 12102 0<br />
On advertising...,....5... 025.5. 22 10. ©<br />
On fs 555.60... 5.9 ©<br />
By “customary trade clause” 5 © O<br />
On commission .........+606... G16 6<br />
By use of £200forsixmonths 5 9 O<br />
<br />
73.6 ©<br />
<br />
Which seems a handsome profit.<br />
100<br />
<br />
TIl.—Reapers’ REMARKS.<br />
<br />
A correspondent makes the following complaint:<br />
—A short time ago he placed a MS. in the hands<br />
of a literary agent, who offered it to various<br />
publishers, and finally returned it as refused by<br />
these firms. He then resolved’ upon revising the<br />
MS. with the view of finding, if possible, the weak<br />
points in the work. “ On doing so I found, to<br />
my astonishment and annoyance, that some pub-<br />
lisher’s reader—possibly the first who read the<br />
MS.—had scribbled freely on its margin his own<br />
comments, freely using such words as ‘ rubbish,’<br />
‘nonsense,’ &c. Not content with this, he had in<br />
many places interpolated sentences into the body<br />
of the text, which transformed clearly written<br />
paragraphs into arrant silliness, which must have<br />
caused subsequent readers—who, no doubt, took<br />
these pencillings for my work—to think the writer<br />
an ignorant fool.” This is a very serious thing.<br />
Are readers to be allowed to annotate MSS. to<br />
the prejudice of the author with other readers ?<br />
Surely the remedy, if our correspondent can<br />
learn the firm by whose reader it was done, is to<br />
have the MS. newly typewritten, and to send in<br />
the bill to the firm in question.<br />
<br />
One does not suppose that any publishers would<br />
countenance such treatment if their attention was<br />
drawn to the fact; nor, on the other hand, can<br />
one suppose that the reader would wilfully dis-<br />
figure a MS. if he understood the injury and<br />
annoyance he was causing the author. The pre-<br />
sentation of the bill for typewriting, however,<br />
with publicity, seems the only practical remedy.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
ITV.—Dr. BRANDES AND A GERMAN PUBLISHER.<br />
<br />
We quote from Literature of Sept. 2 the<br />
following account by Dr. Georg Brandes, the<br />
distinguished Norwegian critic, of how for half a<br />
generation a certain Herr Barsdorff, of Leipzig,<br />
“has persecuted me with his editions, not-<br />
withstanding my many continually reiterated<br />
protests” :—<br />
<br />
He has printed my books in mutilated editions for years ;<br />
he has added to them, he has cut them into separate pieces,<br />
which he has provided with sensational titles and has sold<br />
as complete books and separate editions. He has, in<br />
general, not respected the contents of the book, but has<br />
arbitrarily undertaken to supply his own self-excogitated<br />
alterations. The gentlemen who allow themselves<br />
to be commissioned by Herr Barsdorff, contrary to the<br />
express wish of the author to prepare his own works in<br />
German, take every liberty that pleases them. My protests<br />
have hitherto remained without effect. When I protest,<br />
Herr Barsdorff usually answers that I have to thank him<br />
for being known in Germany. In reply to this assertion, I<br />
wrote in the Allgemeine Zeitung, some months ago, as<br />
follows: “May 14, 1899. I do not consider any answer<br />
necessary, but I cannot withhold the remark that nothing<br />
is more nauseous to me than to read the eulogies which are<br />
trumpeted forth everywhere from the mouth of this man,<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
while his life passes in doing me material and mental<br />
injury.”<br />
<br />
Attention is seriously called to the above extract.<br />
There can be no greater crime against an author<br />
than that of mangling or altering his words and<br />
works. Some years ago an action was commenced in<br />
the High Court of Justice on this very point, but<br />
was not carried through. It is very much to be<br />
desired that such a case should be tried, and, if<br />
necessary, carried up to the Lords, in order to<br />
make it clear that in any kind of agreement the<br />
publisher either buys or is intrusted with the<br />
administration of a property which depends on<br />
the preservation of the actual words of the<br />
author. Can we imagine a publisher, under any<br />
circumstances, daring to change the words of<br />
Swinburne? It is said that some editors claim<br />
the right of changing an author’s words, even<br />
when his paper is signed. This right ought to be<br />
resisted with the greatest vigour. It means that<br />
an editor may, if he pleases, make a writer say<br />
exactly the opposite of what he intended. With<br />
an unsigned article, of course, an editor has the:<br />
right to deal as he pleases. It is his own: it<br />
represents his policy, the policy of his paper.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
PARIS NOTES.<br />
<br />
5, Rue Chomel.<br />
. N | ADAME AUBERNON DE NERVILLE<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
is dead,” a chance acquaintance re-’<br />
marked in my hearing last week.<br />
<br />
“And who was Madame Aubernon de Ner-<br />
ville?” I immediately inquired.<br />
<br />
“Why, don’t you know?” was the reply.<br />
“She was the only woman in Paris who under-<br />
stood the art of presiding over a literary salon<br />
in the style of the old régime; made it the busi-<br />
ness of her life to cultivate literary celebrities,<br />
and was quite an autocrat among them;<br />
encouraged general conversation, and used to ring<br />
a bell, like the Speaker, whenever her lions<br />
mounted their hobby-horses or roared -too loudly ;<br />
extraordinary temperament, but highly apprecia-<br />
tive ; patronised Ibsen, and his subsequent vogue<br />
among the Parisians was largely owing to her good.<br />
offices in the beginning; sat down to dinner every<br />
day for the last twenty-five years with twelve guests<br />
—mostly well-known writers—and kept them all<br />
in order. No small undertaking for a woman.”<br />
<br />
So much I learned on the spot. Later I<br />
gleaned the following particulars. Mme. Aubernon<br />
de Nerville was a celebrity among celebrities.<br />
Rich and well-born, she enjoyed the prestige of<br />
presiding over “le dernier salon ot l’on cause,”<br />
and greeted all comers with the penetrative<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOK.<br />
<br />
bonhomie of a specialist receiving his patients.<br />
Ernest Renan, Taine, Eugene Labiche, Dumas<br />
fils, Agénor Bardoux, Henry Becque, and a<br />
score of other celebrities were among her<br />
intimate associates. But though she delighted<br />
in the society of great men, she permitted no<br />
infringement of what she considered the neces-<br />
sary courtesies of society. Once when Edouard<br />
Pailleron, the brilliant author of “Le Monde ou<br />
Yon s’ennuie,” ventured to interrupt by a subdued<br />
murmur one of Caro’s lengthy perorations at the<br />
dinner-table he was promptly quenched by their<br />
hostess.<br />
<br />
«By and by, Pailleron; you shall speak in<br />
your turn.”<br />
<br />
Caro’s discourse only finished when the dessert<br />
was on the table. At its conclusion, Mme.<br />
Aubernon turned encouragingly towards the<br />
interrupter.<br />
<br />
‘Now it’s your turn, Pailleron.<br />
you wished to say ?”’<br />
<br />
« T merely wished to ask for a second helping<br />
of peas,” was the unexpected rejoinder.<br />
<br />
Alexandre Dumas fils long held the envied<br />
position of first lion in the Aubernon salon. One<br />
day, however, being unjustly incensed against one<br />
of his confréres, he brutally assumed on bis privi-<br />
leges to pre-adopt the attitude recently assumed<br />
by General Mercier in addressing the Conseil de<br />
Guerre at Rennes. “Lui ou moi?” he said<br />
magisterially. Mme. Aubernon, to her honour be<br />
it said, stood firm; she refused to sacrifice the<br />
injured to the injurer, and Dumas accordingly<br />
quitted her house for ever. Ona similar occa-<br />
sion Agénor Bardoux, the historian, showed him-<br />
self more generous than the great novelist.<br />
When Henry Becque wrested from him the<br />
sceptre of priority in the Aubernon salon, he<br />
quietly withdrew; and later on, when Mme.<br />
Aubernon acknowledged her fault in tacitly per-<br />
mitting the aggression, the gallant historian<br />
accepted the apology and resumed the fauteuil he<br />
had vacated. But then Bardoux was in the right,<br />
and could afford to be generous.<br />
<br />
M. Guillaumet is heading the new movement in<br />
favour of a general co-operation of dramatic and<br />
lyric artistes in protection of their joint interests,<br />
which co-operation will be definitely consolidated.<br />
into an “ Association générale des artistes drama-<br />
tiques et lyriques” on the occasion of the great<br />
dramatic and lyrical union to take place at the<br />
Cirque Fernando on Sept. 20. The project has<br />
been warmly applauded and seconded, Govern-<br />
ment having promised an annual subsidy of<br />
10,000 francs in its support. No less than two<br />
hundred artistes of both sexes were present at<br />
the second preparatory meeting, at which a pro-<br />
visory committee was elected and entrusted<br />
<br />
What was it<br />
<br />
101<br />
<br />
with the task of drawing up the statutes of the<br />
proposed association and submitting them to the<br />
approval of the general assemblage. The exorbi-<br />
tant charges of the existing theatrical bureaux<br />
de placement have induced M. Guillaumet to take<br />
active steps to circumvent this legalised form of<br />
blackmailing the artist, proverbially imprudent.<br />
One of the first reforms anticipated by the pro-<br />
posed association is the opening of a registry<br />
bureau on behalf of unemployed artistes, who will<br />
be put in communication with managers on pay-<br />
ment of a minimum fee. Nothing further, how-<br />
ever, can be definitely stated respecting the pro-<br />
posed association’s programme until after the<br />
decisive meeting on Sept. 20 has taken place.<br />
<br />
Literary celebrities seem at present to be<br />
enjoying the fickle favour of Parisian managers.<br />
The dramatised novel is extremely popular.<br />
Thus M. William Busnach is engaged in drama-<br />
tising for the Ambigu stage the graphic ‘ Béte<br />
humaine,” of M. Emile Zola ; while a play taken<br />
from M. Georges Ohnet’s latest novel, ‘ Au fond<br />
du Gouffre” will shortly be given at the Porte St.<br />
Martin theatre. A recaste of the “ Frou-frou S<br />
of MM. Meilhac and Halévy is about to be<br />
rehearsed at the Coméddie Francaise, whose august<br />
comité de lecture lately declined MM. Armand<br />
Silvestre and G. Bois’ translation of Shakespeare’s<br />
“Richard IIL.” The naughty “ Vieux Marcheur”<br />
of M. Henri Lavedan bids fair to compete in popu-<br />
larity with the far-famed “ Cyrano de Bergerac”<br />
of Edmond Rostand; while the “Plus que<br />
Reine” of M. Emile Bergerat has likewise scored<br />
a brilliant success both at home and abroad.<br />
But in the latter case (though the work of a<br />
literary man) the play has, I believe, preceded the<br />
novel.<br />
<br />
M. Paul Bourget is now travelling with his<br />
wife in the vorth of Italy, in order personally to<br />
gather material to enrich the pages of his new<br />
work on “ Italie Septentrionale.” This volume is<br />
intended to form a continuation to his “Sensa-<br />
tions d’Italie.” Its delicately psychological author<br />
belongs to the beau monde of social butterflies,<br />
whom no stern necessity compels either to toil or<br />
spin yarns in exchange for filthy lucre. Hence<br />
his whereabouts when travelling may usually be<br />
ascertainei! by referring to the social chronicle of<br />
any of the leading papers. The latest news of<br />
him obtained through this channel announces the<br />
arrival of M. and Mme. Paul Bourget at the<br />
Hotel d’Italie at Bergamo. We are further<br />
informed that M. Bourget professes himself<br />
astonished by the private collections of rare<br />
works of art he has been privileged to examine at<br />
Bergamo in company with M. Geanforte Sicardi.<br />
It is not improbable that his readers may find the<br />
souvenir of these hoarded treasures and heirlooms<br />
102<br />
<br />
embalmed in one of those subtle chapters which<br />
M. Bourget limns with such inimitable finesse and<br />
skill.<br />
<br />
The premature death of Christian Garnier, son<br />
of the celebrated architect of the Opéra, has been<br />
widely deplored. The unfortunate youth was<br />
extremely gifted, and would undoubtedly have<br />
reached, if not surpassed, his father’s high level,<br />
had not death arrested his career on the threshold<br />
of manhood. On learning that his disease was<br />
mortal, the youth summoned up all his energies<br />
to complete the work he had in hand. The title<br />
of this work, which has just been published by<br />
Ernest Leroux, fully reveals its purport, viz.:<br />
“Méthode de transcription rationnelle des noms<br />
géographiques s’appliquant a toutes les écritures<br />
usitées dans le monde.” Competent authorities<br />
have declared M. Garnier’s new method of tran-<br />
scription to be an exceedingly valuable one, well<br />
worthy consideration. This voluminous work is<br />
written throughout in a clear, masterly style, and<br />
abounds in evidence of profound scientific research<br />
on the part of its author. It has been honoured<br />
with the Volney prize, in addition to being<br />
crowned by the Institute of France; and the<br />
pathetic circumstances under which it was con-<br />
cluded have not lessened the interest its appear-<br />
ance has excited.<br />
<br />
The fashionable poet of the moment is no less<br />
a personage than Paul Musurus-Bey, member of<br />
the Sultan’s State Council, brother of the<br />
Princesse Bassaraba de Brancovan, son of<br />
Musurus-Bey, ex-Turkish ambassador in France,<br />
and grandson of Stephanaki-Bey, prince of Samas.<br />
The representative of all these dignities is a<br />
highly accomplished gentleman, thoroughly<br />
acquainted not only with the ancient and modern<br />
Greek, but also with the English and French<br />
literature. His personality is well-known in the<br />
best Parisian literary society, which he greatly<br />
affects, being the intimate friend of MM. Sully<br />
Prudhomme and José-Maria de Heredia. Several<br />
of his poems have recently appeared in the Revue<br />
des deux Mondes, and have created quite a<br />
fanfaronade of enthusiasm in the highest circles.<br />
He possesses the ready ear of the Oriental, and<br />
his versification is perfect.<br />
<br />
M. Ernest Daudet is publishing an interesting<br />
serial, entitled “La Princesse de Lerne,” in the<br />
Monde Mondain ; while the Mois Litteraire gives<br />
us a graphic account of the murder of the<br />
Russian Emperor, Paul I., from the pen of the<br />
same author. M. Jules Verne, who shows no<br />
sign of deterioration in his green old age, has<br />
added a new volume, entitled “Le Testament<br />
@un Excentrique” to his ‘“ Voyages Extraordi-<br />
naires” series, which latter was formerly crowned<br />
by the French Academy. It was on this occasion<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
that Dumas /i/s opined that the august Immortals<br />
would have done better to have admitted Verne<br />
into their body in lieu of crowning his works,<br />
M. Robert Flers—who at twenty-six years of age<br />
boasted the honour of a work crowned by the<br />
Academy —has just issued his third volume<br />
“ Entre Coeur et Chair”’ (a series of short tales)<br />
chez Flammarion, who is also the publisher of<br />
the continuation of the sensational reminiscences<br />
of M. Goron, ancien chef de Sireté. Referring<br />
to the last-named work, a well-known critic<br />
writes: ‘In it will be found more terrible things<br />
than our most fertile novelists in atrocity could<br />
invent.” After the “Jardin des Supplices” of<br />
M. Octave Mirbeau, this is rather a strong state-<br />
ment.<br />
<br />
In mentioning the prospective programme of<br />
the twenty-first congress of the International<br />
Literary and Artistic Association, to be held at<br />
Heidelberg, the /vgaro alludes to the indifference<br />
hitherto manifested by France on the subject of<br />
protecting her authors’ rights. After calling<br />
attention to the fact that, while almost all the<br />
other European States had registered a special<br />
law in their code to guarantee their authors’<br />
rights against the possible frauds of publishers,<br />
France had remained stationary at the incidental<br />
law of 1865, it concludes: “Il faut espérer que<br />
la question sera de nouveau soulevée, et que la<br />
France comprendra enfin qu'il est de l’intérét de<br />
sa production littéraire, qui tient encore le premier<br />
rang, de se mettre au niveau des autres nations.”<br />
So much for the force of good example.<br />
<br />
The death of M. Gaston Tissandier, founder<br />
and editor of that popular little scientific<br />
periodical entitled Nature, robs science of one of<br />
its most devoted adherents. M. Tissandier was<br />
especially interested in solving the problem of<br />
aerial navigation; and though he did not succeed<br />
in attaining his end, he pushed his investigations<br />
farther than any of his predecessors had dared to<br />
do. He made over forty ascensions into space,<br />
and on April 15, 1875, he attained an altitude of<br />
28,215 feet. His two companions were asphyxi-<br />
ated by the rarefaction of the air, but Gaston<br />
Tissandier returned—with his ear-drums broken<br />
and a sort of physical oppression from which he<br />
never completely recovered. He finally succumbed<br />
—almost a quarter of a century later —to the<br />
effects of a painful malady from which he had<br />
long suffered.<br />
<br />
It is well known that M. Jean Dupuy, Minister<br />
of Agriculture, has chosen the poet M. Henri<br />
Barbusse as his chef de cabinet; and, since the<br />
latter’s induction into office, the Minister of Agri-<br />
culture is credited with receiving all official |<br />
reports relating to his department served up in<br />
ingenious verse. Poetry in such a quarter<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
appears, at first sight, as if the days of bucolic<br />
peace were returning; but a glance at current<br />
events speedily destroys such a supposition.<br />
Half-a-dozen papers are already officially notified<br />
as pursued for incendiary articles, while duels<br />
between polemists and members of the Press are<br />
of too frequent occurrence to be worthy detailed<br />
notice. Their opponents justly reproach the<br />
literati of France with having brought about the<br />
Revision—a noble work of which its authors may<br />
well be proud, for it will probably rank among<br />
their highest titles to the gratitude of posterity.<br />
<br />
A propos of interesting publications of the<br />
month may be mentioned “Les Morts qui<br />
Parlent,” by M. E. M. de Vogue; “ L’Enfer,”<br />
by M. Edouard Conte (Société Libre d’ Edition<br />
des gens de lettres); “Le Petit fils de dAr-<br />
tagnan”’ and “Le Drame du Palois Bouge,” by<br />
MM. A. Sirven and A. Siegel (chez Calmann<br />
Lévy); and “Le Corps et ’Ame de Enfant,”<br />
by M. Maurice de Fleury.<br />
<br />
Darracotre Scort.<br />
<br />
eas<br />
<br />
NOTES AND NEWS.<br />
<br />
TYNHE Atheneum has begun its Publishers’<br />
Announcements. In the numbers for<br />
Sept. 9, 16, and 23 there are the lists of<br />
fourteen publishers. Taking out of consideration<br />
books of scholarship, philosophy, science and<br />
education, and taking only those which fall under<br />
the head of General Literature, the fourteen<br />
between them promise to produce as follows :<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
EOC = 43 works.<br />
History and Biography 24 _,,<br />
Wravel 66 TAG<br />
Belles Lettres ............ 200.<br />
Fiction ......... 105.<br />
AQ 20 7<br />
<br />
We shall be able to complete this rough analysis<br />
next month. Meantime, the first heading includes<br />
volumes by Owen Seaman and Stephen Phillips,<br />
with reprints from Tennyson and Matthew Arnold.<br />
Mr. Theodore Watts Dunton makes the welcome<br />
announcement of a new work, ‘‘ The Old Familiar<br />
Faces,” which is presumably a novel. Among<br />
other novels we meet with many old friends and<br />
many new names. The various “Series” are<br />
well to the front—the “ Cathedral Series”: the<br />
“Public School Series”: the ‘Social England<br />
Series”: the “Geographical Series”: the<br />
“Literatures of the World Series” among others.<br />
The large number of books on Art—some of<br />
them most important—is a remarkable feature in<br />
the year’s announcements. Memoirs, Letters,<br />
and Reminiscences include books on Coventry<br />
<br />
VOL. x.<br />
<br />
103<br />
<br />
Patmore: the third Farl of Shaftesbury: Mrs.<br />
Lynn Linton: Thackeray: Dickens: Sir Philip<br />
Francis: J. H. Frere: and others. So far there<br />
seems to be no announcement of more sixpenny<br />
books, but it will take time to repair the mischief<br />
of this experiment disastrous to booksellers. The<br />
completion of the list will show whether the<br />
experience of the last season will lessen the<br />
number of six-shilling novels. One hundred and<br />
five novels among fourteen publishers, of whom<br />
three at least are producing none this year! If<br />
this average is maintained, it will termfy book-<br />
sellers and circulating libraries, and will drive to<br />
despair the furnishers of railway bookstalls.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Professor Brander Matthews considers the<br />
novelist as a great living force. He is not the<br />
greatest living force, because the actual facts of<br />
current events are the true leaders of men, and we<br />
must look for the facts to the Press. For<br />
instance, the ‘“ Affaire,’ as presented day by day<br />
in all its horror, has been the greatest possible<br />
force in influencing men’s minds as regards the<br />
country where it happened—perhaps the only<br />
country where it could have happened. The<br />
social force of the novelist is exercised by the<br />
expression which he gives to the current ideas of<br />
his time. A thousand little facts accumulate and<br />
are registered by the Press: they produce the<br />
effect upon the mind of the continual dropping<br />
of water. Then the novelist appears to give<br />
expression to the thought, and to present it in<br />
action with a group of living characters. If the<br />
novelist advocates reforms or ideas for which the<br />
popular mind is not ready, or to which it is<br />
opposed, he fails. The “ novel with a purpose”<br />
always fails when that purpose is a new pro-<br />
position or a view contrary to the general way<br />
of looking at the world. That novelist moves<br />
the world who is first moved by the world,<br />
and can tell them what they think.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Is it necessary to remind readers that the famous<br />
“Draft Agreements” of the Publishers’ Associa-<br />
tion are neither disavowed nor withdrawn<br />
It is necessary to look at agreements with greater<br />
care than ever. Above all things let everyone be<br />
careful not to allow his publisher to become his<br />
agent at 50 per cent., while his own agent is con-<br />
tented with 10 or 15 percent. And next, let the<br />
author most carefully retain in his own hands the<br />
dramatic rights. Let him remember as well that<br />
where a valuable MS. is concerned the publisher,<br />
whatever be his imaginary station in the world of<br />
publishers, will give way on these points because<br />
he must. If he refuses others will consent. At<br />
present the committee of the Publishers’ Associa-<br />
<br />
i<br />
104<br />
<br />
tion are in the enviable and dignified position of<br />
having put forth agreements as equitable which<br />
they dare not even propose to authors of repute.<br />
So perverse is the authors’ sense of equity that<br />
they will not even consider those agreements.<br />
<br />
Is it not time to speak about the “ Private<br />
Prospectus” nuisance? A new “ Private Pros-<br />
pectus” is sent out once a month. I suppose it<br />
is sent out broadcast. It is the prospectus of a<br />
publication for “students only ” or for “‘ collectors<br />
and students.” It is “privately printed.” It is<br />
for subscribers only: there is a limited edition:<br />
and the work is costly. The address at which it<br />
is to be procured is in a respectable street. Of<br />
the work itself thus offered one can only say<br />
generally that it is of a kind which cannot be<br />
exposed for sale so long as Lord Campbell’s Act is<br />
in force. One would like to know how far a<br />
publisher is protected by calling his book “ priv-<br />
ately printed, for subscribers only, in a private<br />
press.” What does a “ private press”? mean ?<br />
<br />
I have read in several papers—indeed, it seems<br />
one of the many accepted truisms which are not<br />
truths—that I have encouraged, and do continu-<br />
ally encourage, young people to crowd into the<br />
ranks of those who would succeed by writing.<br />
In the same way the Society has been, and is<br />
still, continually misrepresented by two assertions<br />
—that it treats all publishers as dishonest (this<br />
stale old charge was last advanced publicly by<br />
Mr. John Murray), and that it says that pub-<br />
lishers incur no risk. As for the personal charge<br />
of encouraging the incompetent, the only founda-<br />
tion for the charge is the broad fact that I have<br />
done my best to set forth the exact truth con-<br />
nected with the commercial side of literature. If<br />
these facts do attract a large number of young<br />
persons who have none of the gifts necessary for<br />
success, it is because they present this side of<br />
the literary profession as it is, and as it may be,<br />
in a light never before attempted, namely, in the<br />
true light. Hitherto, persons interested in con-<br />
cealment have done their best to keep the<br />
truth as much hidden as possible.<br />
<br />
Let me also quote my own words, which, I<br />
think, are not unduly optimistic or encouraging :<br />
<br />
“To those few, however, who think they possess<br />
the necessary qualifications; to those who feel<br />
really impelled to join the ranks of literature, I<br />
would say, ‘Come. Venture if you will where<br />
so many have failed. There is always room<br />
for good work—come. I have shown how the<br />
followers of literature fare: some fare better and<br />
some fare worse than I have described.<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
‘Come if you can; come if you dare. Don’t<br />
think of making money; there are a thousand<br />
chances to one against it. But if you gain that<br />
reasonable measure of success of which I have<br />
spoken you may confidently look forward to<br />
leading a happy and well-filled life; you may<br />
influence your generation for good: your mind<br />
will always be pleasantly occupied: you will find<br />
the company good: the talk extremely cheerful :<br />
and the work always iuteresting.’ ”<br />
<br />
Here is a short and easy road to notoriety<br />
which in journalistic enterprise often means<br />
success. It is not a new method, but it has been<br />
greatly developed of late years, and it. is high<br />
time that it was understood. A literary man<br />
whose name is known receives a type-written<br />
letter from a person of whom he knows nothing,<br />
with a heading to the letter of some organ or some<br />
bureau of which he knows nothing, asking him<br />
for his opinion on this or that subject —any<br />
subject will do—for publication. Sometimes he<br />
is informed that a “symposium”’ is organised for<br />
the purpose of obtaining opinions on this or<br />
that subject. Now, when a well-known paper of<br />
position asks for the opinions of various persons<br />
qualified to have an opinion on the subject, the<br />
collection of opinions and reasons may be useful<br />
and helpful to the public: in such a case the<br />
person invited should perhaps accede. But it is<br />
far different when the invitation comes from some<br />
wretched struggling journal or some obscure<br />
person who hopes by means of a dozen or twenty<br />
good names to pass off as a ; erson of importance.<br />
It would be well, at least, to wait before answering<br />
the invitation until something can be learned of<br />
the person who sent it. Water Besant.<br />
<br />
Specs<br />
<br />
ON CRITICISM.<br />
<br />
HE following observations, quotations, and<br />
<br />
7 rules are taken from an excellent little<br />
<br />
book of essays called ‘‘ Americanisms and<br />
Briticisms,”’ by Professor Brander Matthews:<br />
<br />
““¢ Doubtless criticism was originally benig-<br />
nant, pointing out the beauties of a work rather<br />
than its defects. The passions of man have made<br />
it malignant, as the bad heart of Procrustes<br />
turned the bed, the symbol of repose, into au<br />
instrument of torture.’—(Longfellow).”<br />
<br />
“ La critique sans bonté trouble le gout et<br />
empoisonne les saveurs, said Joubert ; unkindly<br />
criticism disturbs the taste and poisons the<br />
savour. No one of the great critics was un-<br />
kindly.”<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
“They chose their subjects, for the most part,<br />
because they loved these, and were eager to praise<br />
them and to make plain to the world the reasons<br />
for their ardent affection. Whenever they might<br />
chance to see incompetence and pretension push-<br />
ing to the front, they shrugged their shoulders<br />
more often than not, and passed by on the other<br />
side silently :—and so best. Very rarely did they<br />
cross over to expose an impostor.”<br />
<br />
“Tn nine cases out of ten, or rather in<br />
ninety-nine out of a hundred, the attitude of<br />
the critic towards contemporary trash had best<br />
be one of absolute indifference, sure that Time<br />
will sift out what is good, and that Time winnows<br />
with unerring taste.<br />
<br />
«The first duty of the critic, therefore, is to help<br />
the reader to ‘ get the best ’—in the old phrase of<br />
the dictionary vendors—to choose it, to under-<br />
stand it, to enjoy it. Neglect is the<br />
proper portion of the worthless books of the<br />
hour, whatever may be their vogue for the week<br />
or the month.”<br />
<br />
“The second duty of the critic is like unto the<br />
first. It is to help the reader to understand the<br />
best. There is many a book which needs to be<br />
made plain to him who runs as he reads, and it<br />
is the running r. ader of these hurried years that<br />
the critic must needs address.”<br />
<br />
“The third duty of the critic, after aiding the<br />
reader to choose the best and to understand it, is<br />
to help him to enjoy it. This is possible only<br />
when the critic’s own enjoyment is acute enough<br />
to be contagious. However well informed a<br />
critic may be, and however keen he may be, if he<br />
be not capable of the cordial admiration which<br />
warms the heart, his criticism is wanting.<br />
<br />
“ Having done his duty to the reader, the critic<br />
has done his full duty to the author also. It is<br />
to the people at large that the critic is under<br />
obligations, not to any individual. As he cannot<br />
take cognisance of a work of art, literary or<br />
dramatic, plastic or pictorial, until after it is<br />
wholly complete, his opinion can be of little<br />
benefit to the author.”<br />
<br />
“Tf I were to attempt to draw up Twelve Good<br />
Rules for Reviewer-, I should begin with:<br />
<br />
“T. Form an honest opinion.<br />
<br />
“TI. Express it honestly.<br />
<br />
“TIT. Don’t review a book which you cannot<br />
take seriously.<br />
<br />
“TV. Don’t review a book with which you are<br />
out of sympathy, that is to say, put yourself in<br />
the author’s place, and try to see his work from<br />
his point of view, which is sure to be a coign of<br />
vantage.<br />
<br />
“V, Stick to the text. Review the book before<br />
you, and not the book some other author might<br />
<br />
have written ; obiter dicta me as valueless from<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
105<br />
<br />
the critic as from the judge. Don’t go off ona<br />
tangent. And also don’t go round in a circle.<br />
Say what you have to say, and stop. Don’t go<br />
on writing about and about the subject, and<br />
merely weaving garlands of flowers of rhetoric.<br />
<br />
“VI. Beware of the Sham Sample, as Charles<br />
Reade called it. Make sure that the specimen<br />
bricks you select for quotation do not give a false<br />
impression of the farade, and not only of the<br />
elevation merely, but of the perspective also, and<br />
of the ground-plan.<br />
<br />
“VII. In reviewing a biography or a history,<br />
criticise the book before you, and don't write a<br />
parallel essay, for which the volume you have in<br />
hand serves only as a peg.<br />
<br />
“VIII. In reviewing a work of fiction, don’t<br />
give away the plot. In the eyes of the novelist<br />
this is the unpardonable sin. And, as it discounts<br />
the pleasure of the reader also, it is almost equally<br />
unkind to hin.<br />
<br />
“TX. Don’t try to prove every successful<br />
author a plagiarist. It may be that many a<br />
successful author has been a plagiarist, but no<br />
author ever succeeded because of his plagiary.<br />
<br />
“X, Don’t break a butterfly on a wheel. Ifa<br />
book is not worth much, it is not worth<br />
reviewing.<br />
<br />
“XT. Don’t review a book as an east wind<br />
would review an apple-tree—so it was once said<br />
Douglas Jerrold was wont to do, Of what profit<br />
to anyone is mere bitterness and vexation of<br />
spirit ?<br />
<br />
“XTI. Remember that the critic’s duty is to<br />
the reader mainly, and that it is to guide him not<br />
only to whatis good, but to what is best. Three-<br />
parts of what is contemporary must be temporary<br />
only.”<br />
<br />
Peas<br />
<br />
COUNTERFEIT ENGLISH.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
N the regrettable absence of an English<br />
Académie, we look to the Author as a<br />
guardian of our long-suffering language. So<br />
<br />
many neologisms are now creeping in that unless<br />
you can do something for us the good old tongue<br />
of Shakespeare and Macaulay will soon be no more.<br />
Some changes there must necessarily be. Apart<br />
from the demands of new arts and crafts, ideas and<br />
habits must alter, so as to demand new combina-<br />
tions and an enlarged vocabulary. We may never<br />
hope to cure our young people of saying “I<br />
biked over,” and the apotheosis of the piston-rod<br />
has reached its climax in certain of our most<br />
popular writings.<br />
<br />
But the changes here contemplated are of<br />
another sort, being capable of division into two<br />
106<br />
<br />
classes: (a) phrases that slip into use from<br />
mere indolence and want of knowledge; and<br />
(6) words misused out of affectation; both classes<br />
having this common evil, that they are quite<br />
unnecessary.<br />
<br />
In the (a) class must be placed prominently<br />
cases in which a noun substantive is gratuitously<br />
used as a verb. The labour-saving ingenuity of<br />
our transatlantic kinsfolk is primarily responsible<br />
for this; but we have often been ready to follow<br />
their quicker-witted lead. Such a verb as ‘to<br />
advocate,” if you think of it, can only be defended<br />
on the score of success. It has been generally<br />
adopted, but none the less is it a glaring instance<br />
of the barbarism under notice; in fact, it is<br />
worse, for it sweeps into one locution such varying<br />
shades of meaning as would otherwise be conveyed<br />
by “recommend ”’ or “ defend,” as the case might<br />
be. A word less misleading, but quite as uncalled<br />
for, is “to loan” in place of “to lend”; and<br />
many others will be readily called to mind. Then<br />
there are such solecisms as “to trouble” as a<br />
neuter verb: in good English always a transitive.<br />
I may trouble you, or myself; but to use the<br />
word absolutely is far more absurd than it would<br />
be to say, “ do not exert” or “behave.”<br />
<br />
By the (0) class are intended outrages on the<br />
good old vocabulary, such as inventing new words<br />
when all possible purpose can be served by those<br />
which exist already, but which are not considered<br />
elegant or sonorous. One of the worst of these<br />
is the bastard adjective of time, “erstwhile,”<br />
used where all that is intended could be clearly<br />
expressed by such a simple word as former. Erst,<br />
by itself, is doubtless an English word, though<br />
not often met with in the work of good authors,<br />
being a superlative arising out of the old Saxon<br />
word observable in the first syllable of early ;<br />
but for “erstwhile” there is no conceivable ety-<br />
mology or excuse that is not as foolish as the<br />
word itself. Another instance is the substitution<br />
of “monetary” for pecuniary. Here the word<br />
has undoubtedly both a pedigree and an office<br />
(from Moneta) meaning that which regards the<br />
Mint or coinage; but someone seems to have<br />
been caught by the similitude to money and to<br />
have thought its employment was a step towards<br />
the exclusion of Latin; whereas it is, of course,<br />
just_as much derived from tha’ tongue as the<br />
word pecuniary, which is otherwise correct.<br />
<br />
The use of “whom” where the sense requires<br />
the nominative is so bad that one would hardly<br />
care to mention it were it not becoming too<br />
common to be ignored, You shall hardly open a<br />
novel or a newspaper without meeting some such<br />
sentence as ‘‘ A man whom I knew wanted to see<br />
me,” the relative being really the subject of the<br />
verb see not the object of the verb knevw.<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
We have all experience and authority for the<br />
doctrine that use governs these things :<br />
<br />
Quem penes arbitrium est et jus et norma loquendi.<br />
<br />
‘When once a usage has been thoroughly fixed<br />
and established, reason argues in vain. As we<br />
may see, indeed, from so familiar a case as that<br />
of the verb ‘“ to advocate,’ noticed above. An<br />
advocate is advocatus, one called to the Bar; to<br />
turn him into a verb and use him not for himself<br />
but for the sort of work that he might do, is<br />
about as intelligent as if we talked of “ soldier-<br />
ing” a man when we only meant killing him.<br />
To be sure, we say to “ doctor,” but only when we<br />
are feeling very sarcastic. An advocate may<br />
plead a cause, as a soldier may take life; but the<br />
proportion of bloodless warriors is probably no<br />
greater than that of briefless counsel.<br />
<br />
CLAMANS.<br />
Pec<br />
<br />
AMERICAN RULES FOR WRITERS.<br />
<br />
HE New York Press has recently offered a<br />
few rules and warnings for American<br />
writers. Some of these may be recom-<br />
<br />
mended for consideration by our own countrymen.<br />
The following are taken from the longer list there<br />
published :-—<br />
Don’t.<br />
<br />
Dou’t begin a story with “‘ Yesterday,” ‘‘ Last night,” and<br />
the like.<br />
<br />
Don’t begin a story with ‘‘ The,” “An,” or “A” oftener<br />
than once a week.<br />
<br />
Don’t “ put in an appearance ” or “ make an appearance ” ;<br />
just appear.<br />
<br />
Don’t say ‘a dinner occurred,” and “an explosion took<br />
place.” Things occur by chance or accident; they take<br />
place by arrangement.<br />
<br />
Don’t MisusE<br />
<br />
“ Ability” for “ capacity.”<br />
<br />
‘“ Allude ” for “ refer.”<br />
<br />
“ Amateur ” for “ novice.”<br />
<br />
“ Anticipate” for “ expect.”<br />
<br />
“ Apt” for “ likely.”<br />
<br />
“ Andience ” for ‘‘ spectators.”<br />
<br />
‘“‘ Balance ” for ‘‘ remainder ”’ or “ rest.”<br />
<br />
“ Bountiful ” for “ plentiful.”<br />
<br />
“Bat” for “only.” When in doubt, use “only” for<br />
but.”<br />
<br />
“ Caption ” for “ heading.”<br />
<br />
“ Captivate ” for ‘ charm.”<br />
<br />
“ Conclude” for ‘ close.”<br />
process.<br />
<br />
“ Convened.”’<br />
vened.<br />
<br />
“Crime,” a statutory wrong; “sin,” a violation of<br />
creed; ‘‘ vice,’ a moral wrong. (One may murder one’s<br />
father and not be vicious; also, one may cast one’s wife<br />
away and take two wives and not be sinful, according to<br />
some creeds.)<br />
<br />
“Depot” for “prssenger station,” or “station” for<br />
“freight depot.”<br />
<br />
“ Dock ” for “ pier” or “ wharf.”<br />
<br />
To conclude is a mental<br />
<br />
The delegates, not the convention, con-<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE<br />
<br />
“ During the night’ means<br />
<br />
“ During” for “ in.”<br />
thronghout the night.<br />
<br />
“ very” for ‘‘ all.”<br />
<br />
Don’t separate the parts of infinitives, or needlessly<br />
separate the parts of verbs; say “to begin again,” not<br />
“to again begin”; say “ probably will be,” not ‘ will<br />
probably be.”<br />
<br />
Don’t say “he was given a dinner ” when the dinner<br />
was given for him or in his honour.<br />
<br />
Don’t make titles; use “Smith, a car conductor ” ; not<br />
“Car Conductor Smith.”<br />
<br />
Don’t give ‘“ ovations ” to anybody.<br />
<br />
Don’t stab anyone “ in the fracas.”<br />
<br />
Don’t “ administer” blows or punishment.<br />
<br />
Don’t use “ he graduated”; say “he was graduated.”<br />
<br />
‘ Eyent” for “incident,” “affair,” “ occurrence,” or<br />
“ happening.”<br />
<br />
“ Exemplary ” for “ excellent.”<br />
<br />
“* Exposition ” for “ exhibit.”<br />
<br />
“Tnangurate ” for “ begin.”<br />
<br />
“ Tpitial ” for “ first.”<br />
<br />
“ Jewellery ” for ‘‘ jewels.”<br />
<br />
“ Learn ” for “ teach.”<br />
<br />
“ Lurid” for “ brilliant.”<br />
or ghastly.<br />
<br />
“ Marry.”<br />
married to the man, and the clergyman or<br />
marries both.<br />
<br />
‘* Murderous” for “ deadly ” or “ dangerous.”<br />
<br />
“ Notable ” for “ noteworthy,”<br />
<br />
“Observe ” (to heed) for “ say.”<br />
<br />
-—‘ People ” for ‘‘ persons.”<br />
<br />
“Posted ” for “ well informed.’<br />
<br />
* Retire” for “ go to bed.”<br />
<br />
“ Remains ” for “ corpse” or “ body.”<br />
<br />
“ Reliable ” for “ trustworthy.”<br />
<br />
“ Spell” for “ period.”<br />
<br />
“Tender ” for “ give.”<br />
reception.<br />
<br />
“ Transpire” for “ occur.”<br />
<br />
“ Unwell’? for “‘ill.”<br />
<br />
“ Ventilate” for “ expose” or “ explain.”<br />
<br />
Don’t UsE<br />
<br />
“ Approve of” for “ approve.”<br />
<br />
“ Cablegram ” for “‘ cable message ” or *« dispatch.”<br />
<br />
“Claim” as an intransitive verb. You can claim your<br />
hat, but you cannot “claim” that your hat was stolen.<br />
<br />
“ Commence ” for “‘ begin.”<br />
<br />
“ Considerable.”<br />
<br />
“ Locate,” unless you locate a railroad, a canal, a claim,<br />
and the like.<br />
<br />
“ Matter ” oftener than once a week.<br />
<br />
“ Mrs. General” or “Mrs. Doctor,” unless the woman is<br />
a general or a doctor.<br />
<br />
“Notified.” Use “informed,” “ sent word,” or “ told.”<br />
<br />
Slang, stock expressions, or cheap phrases. This covers<br />
a multitude of sins.<br />
<br />
“The deceased,” “the unfortunate,” the “ accused,” and<br />
the like.<br />
<br />
“ Very” oftener than once a week.<br />
<br />
“Via,” “per diem,” and the like; say “By way of,”<br />
“a day,” and “a week.”<br />
<br />
“ Vicinity ” without “its” :<br />
<br />
HELP THE COMPOSITORS.<br />
<br />
Always leave a margin of at least an inch on the top of<br />
each sheet of copy.<br />
<br />
If youhave a particularly illegible piece of copy, don’t<br />
pass it over and send it downstairs in the hope that perhaps<br />
the “ intelligent compositor’ may be able to read it.<br />
<br />
“ Lurid ” means pale, gloomy,<br />
<br />
Don’t “ marr 7 @ wen 5 the woman is<br />
y. > zs<br />
magistrate<br />
<br />
“Tender” apayment; “give” a<br />
<br />
“Tts vicinity.”<br />
<br />
AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
107<br />
<br />
BOOK AND PLAY TALK.<br />
<br />
YHE Editor of the Literary Vear-Book will<br />
be glad to receive communications from<br />
authors for the next issue of that annual,<br />
<br />
which will be published by Mr. George Allen late<br />
in January next. All letters should be addressed<br />
to the Editor of the Literary Vear-Book, Ruskin<br />
House, 156, Charing Cross-road, W..C.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
The first welcome accorded to Dr. Gardiner’s<br />
life of Cromwell has hardly passed when the<br />
announcement comes of the same subject being<br />
treated by Mr. John Morley. The new work will<br />
appear in the pages of the Century Magazine, a<br />
fact that affords another example of the fondness<br />
of American readers for biography in monthly<br />
instalments.<br />
<br />
The literature of natural history is about to<br />
receive an addition from Mr. Richard Kearton,<br />
on the subject of “Our Rarer British Breeding<br />
Birds: Their Nests, Eggs, and Breeding Haunts.”<br />
The book, profusely illustrated by photographs<br />
taken direct from nature by Mr. Cherry Kearton,<br />
will be published by Messrs. Cassell, who state<br />
that in preparing it the brothers Kearton have<br />
travelled over ten thousand miles.<br />
<br />
Mr. Kipling’s new story, “ Stalky and Co.,”<br />
will be published by Messrs. Macmillan in a few<br />
days.<br />
<br />
Mr. Walter Pollock has written a volume on<br />
“Jane Austen: her Contemporaries and Herself,”<br />
which Messrs. Longman will publish shortly.<br />
<br />
A volume by Mr. Thomas Hardy, of short<br />
stories, which have appeared serially at various<br />
times, is to be published soon.<br />
<br />
Yorkshire and Normandy are the subjects of<br />
two new volumes about to appear in the “ High-<br />
ways and Byways” series published by Messrs.<br />
Macmillan. ©The former will be written by Mr.<br />
Arthur Norway, and illustrated by Mr. Joseph<br />
Pennell and Mr. Hugh Thomson. The author of<br />
the Normandy is the Rev. Perey Dearmer, and<br />
the illustrator Mr. Pennell.<br />
<br />
“The Daughter of Peter the Great,” Mr. R.<br />
Nisbet Bain’s new book which Messrs. Constable<br />
are to publish shortly, deals with the period<br />
1741-1762, and treats the Seven Years’ War<br />
from the Russian standpoint. One of the<br />
features of the book will be the description of<br />
the splendid court of the Empress Elizabeth<br />
Petrovna.<br />
<br />
Mr. Stanley Lane Poole has written a mono-<br />
graph on Babar. the first Moghul Emperor of<br />
Hindustan, for the Indian series published by<br />
Oxford University Press. This house will alse<br />
108<br />
<br />
publish shortly the final volume of Dr. Thomas<br />
Hodgkin’s “ Italy and Her Invaders.”<br />
<br />
Mr. Frederick Wedmore will be represented<br />
this autumn by a volume entitled “On Books and<br />
Art,” which Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton will<br />
publish.<br />
<br />
Mr. Clement Shorter has written a book on his<br />
own library, called “An Editor’s Bookshelves,”<br />
which Messrs. Ward, Lock, and Co. will publish<br />
shortly.<br />
<br />
Mr. Grant Allen is adding to his series of guide<br />
books a volume describing “The European<br />
Tour ” for the benefit of American and Colonial<br />
visitors.<br />
<br />
The William Black Memorial Fund now exceeds<br />
£500. Mr. Colin Hunter, A.R.A., an old friend<br />
of the novelist, has undertaken to design the<br />
memorial beacon light to be erected at Duart<br />
Point, Isle of Mull.<br />
<br />
Miss C. A. Hutton is the author of a mono-<br />
graph on Greek terra-cottas, which will be pub-<br />
lished this month by Messrs. Seeley and Co., with<br />
a preface by Dr. A. 8. Murray.<br />
<br />
Dr. Conan Doyle has written a new novel<br />
which is just beginning to appear in the Strand<br />
Magazine.<br />
<br />
A new edition of Mr. James Milne’s work on<br />
the late Sir George Grey, “The Romance of a<br />
Pro-Consul,” will be published shortly by Messrs.<br />
Chatto and Windus.<br />
<br />
Forthcoming works of fiction include a volume<br />
of short stories by Mr. Zanegwill, entitled « They<br />
that Walk in Darkness” | (Heinemann); Mr.<br />
Robert Hichens’s new novel, “The Slave”<br />
(Heinemann) ; “ The Bread of Tears,” by Mr.<br />
G. B. Burgin (Long); “An African Treasure,”<br />
by Mr. Maclaren Cobban (Long) ; “Twice<br />
Derelict, and Other Stories,” by Maxwell Gray<br />
(Heinemann).<br />
<br />
“Coventry Patmore: His Family and Corre-<br />
spondence,” by Mr. Basil Champneys, a friend<br />
of the family, will be published shortly by<br />
Messrs. George Bell and Sons.<br />
<br />
The principal book of scientific interest<br />
announced for this season is Mr. Leonard Huxley’s<br />
biography of his father, entitled “Life and<br />
Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley,” which will be<br />
published by Messrs. Macmillan,<br />
<br />
In France, too, it seems, bookselling is in a<br />
bad way. ‘The Booksellers’ Union of France<br />
have discovered,” says the Westminster Gazette,<br />
“that their net profits are absurdly small—about<br />
one halfpenny in the shilling, and from a penny<br />
to fourpence on a three-shilling hook (3fr. 50c.)<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
—and, failing to get better terms from the pub-<br />
lishers, have arranged, with the consent of the<br />
latter, to raise prices to the buyer. Sales should<br />
therefcre be brisk for the remainder of the month.<br />
On the whole, the ; ublisher seems most likely to<br />
benefit by the change. Buyers will certainly not<br />
care about paying 3fr. instead of 2fr. 75¢. for a<br />
3fr. 50c. book, and booksellers will probably<br />
have to content themselves—for a time, at least—<br />
with a smaller turnover,” ./<br />
<br />
An illustrated shilling series of “ Forgotten<br />
Children’s Books” is to be issued at once by the<br />
Leadenhall Press. The old type and quaint<br />
woodcuts, the grayish paper with its innumerable<br />
specks of embedded dirt, and the gaudily<br />
coloured Dutch papers used in the binding, are to<br />
follow faithfully the originals of a century ago.<br />
The publishers’ own title page and remarks are<br />
to be relegated to the end of the volumes. The<br />
three promised are Mrs. Turner's amusing<br />
cautionary stories entitled “The Daisy ” (1807) ;<br />
the second series of cautionary stories entitled<br />
“The Cowslip” (1811) and “A New Riddle Book<br />
by John the Giant Killer, Esquire ” (1778).<br />
Others are to follow.<br />
<br />
The Leadenhall Press will almost immediately<br />
issue Mr. Andrew Tuer’s new volume of “ Stories<br />
from Old-fashioned Children’s Books.” The<br />
woodcuts in the originals, of which there are<br />
several hundred, are closely followed, and no<br />
photographic half-tone blocks are used. Instead<br />
of being in the fragmentary manner of Mr.<br />
Tuer’s preceding volume “Forgotten Children’s<br />
Books,” whivh had a large sale, the stories will be<br />
complete in themselves. The two volumes are<br />
quite independent of each other.<br />
<br />
Mr. W. Edwards Tirebuck’s “ Miss Grace of<br />
All Souls” has been added to Mr. W. Heine-<br />
mann’s Eighteenpenny Red Series of Popular<br />
Novels.<br />
<br />
The author of the well-known Bohemian<br />
novels ‘The Gleaming Dawn,” “The Cardinal’s<br />
Page,” and the “ Pictures of Bohemia” that was<br />
illustrated by Mr. Walter Crane, has just received<br />
from the Countess of Wallenstein a most charm-<br />
ing and artistic recognition of his work on<br />
Bohemia in the shape of a water-colour sketch of<br />
the old Castle of Bosig, mounted as a note-book<br />
block and set round with Bohemian garnets that<br />
are famous for their rich ruby tint. In addition<br />
to these books, Mr. James Baker has written upon<br />
Bohemia in almost all the principal journals and<br />
magazines.<br />
<br />
Messrs. Kegan Paul, and Co. have in the<br />
press a volume of poems by Mrs. Aylmer Gowing,<br />
including a play on the subject of Boadicea<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
treated under a new aspect in connection with<br />
early Christianity in Britain.<br />
<br />
Sir Richard Temple has placed with Mr. John<br />
Long for publication a new book entitled “ The<br />
House of Commons,” in which he describes life<br />
in Parliament, the House of Commons as a club,<br />
manners and customs of the House, and other<br />
features.<br />
<br />
With the announcement that the Royal Maga-<br />
zine is to be raised in price to 4d., the threepenny<br />
popular magazine disappears in this country, for<br />
the Harmsworth Magazine, it will be remem-<br />
bered, although originally 3d., was made 33d.<br />
_ before it had been long in the market. .<br />
<br />
Mr. Cosmo Hamilton, who, with Mr. Robert<br />
Barr, has just finished the dramatization of the<br />
latter gentleman’s successful romance, “The<br />
Countess Tekla,”’ has sold the acting rights of his<br />
play “Jerry and a Sunbeam,” produced at the<br />
Strand Theatre, to Mr. H. HE. Pizey. The<br />
management of the Court Theatre have secured<br />
the refusal of Mr. Hamilton’s new three-act<br />
comedy, “The Wisdom of Folly,” which, in book<br />
form, will be published in the autumn. Mr.<br />
Hamilton is now completing two new books,<br />
** Love, amongst other Things,” and ‘‘ The Danger<br />
of Curiosity,” and is also engaged upon a three-<br />
act play for Mr. Herbert Sleath, entitled<br />
* Kiddie,” which is founded on his one-act play of<br />
the same name, in which Mr. Sleath appeared.<br />
<br />
On the goth Sept. a performance for copyright<br />
purposes was given at the Victoria Theatre,<br />
Walthamstow, of a new play entitled “The<br />
Greatest Puritan, or Cromwell’s Own,” a drama<br />
founded upon Mr. Arthur Paterson’s novel<br />
““Cromwell’s Own.” Mr. Charles Cartwright’s<br />
company performed the piece, and it is said “that<br />
Mr. Cartwright contemplates producing it at an<br />
early date. The drama follows the story pretty<br />
closely, and three incidents—the taking of the<br />
Royal Standard at Edgehill, the collision between<br />
a troop of Ironsides and of Presbyterians, when<br />
the former save unarmed Royalists from massacre ;<br />
and lastly, the court-martial scene, when Crom-<br />
well reverses in characteristic manner the sentence<br />
of the court—will probably be reproduced as they<br />
stand. It will be the first time that Cromwell<br />
has ever been the chief personage in a drama.<br />
Heretofore he has appeared as a “villain,” more<br />
or less comic.<br />
<br />
“The Christian,” founded, of course, on Mr.<br />
Hall Caine’s novel of that name, will be produced<br />
under Mr. Charles Frohman’s management at<br />
the Duke of York’s on the 17th inst., but will<br />
previously be seen at the Shakespeare Theatre,<br />
Liverpool, on the gth.<br />
<br />
109<br />
<br />
In laying the commemoration stone to mark |<br />
the completion of the Royal Duchess Theatre,<br />
Balham, Mr. Charles Wyndham referred to the<br />
growth of the number of theatres as a significant<br />
sign of the times—the modern spirit of decentrali-<br />
sation. “ Hach new theatre in a new district,”<br />
he said, “ brings a new body of men under the<br />
imperial sway of Art, enrols one more regiment<br />
of volunteers under the banner of the Humanities,<br />
constructs one more entrenched camp against<br />
prejudice and bigotry, builds one more road for<br />
invigorating thought to travel on.” The managers<br />
of central theatres in London were by this decen-<br />
tralisation losing the exclusive right to purvey<br />
dramatic nourishment which they had enjoyed<br />
from the days of Elizabeth to those of Queen<br />
Victoria, and it was difficult to believe they would<br />
ultimately gain far more than they could ever<br />
lose by the competition. The denizens of Greater<br />
London had achieved this result without appeal-<br />
ing to “that craze of the idealist—Government<br />
support.”<br />
<br />
Richmond also has added a theatre to its many<br />
other attractions during the past month. This<br />
is the Theatre Royal and Opera House, which has<br />
been constructed to hold over 1200 persons.<br />
Meanwhile, in the West-end there is some talk<br />
of a new theatre being erected near Oxford-circus,<br />
a site which will be more accessible when the<br />
Central Railway is finished.<br />
<br />
The new play by Mr. Wilson Barrett and Mr.<br />
Louis N. Parker, which is to succeed the present<br />
popular revival of ‘The Silver King” at the<br />
Lyceum, is called “ Man and His Makers.”<br />
<br />
Sir Henry Irving and Miss Ellen Terry are<br />
fulfillimg a provincial tour before leaving for their<br />
visit to America. Mr. and Mrs. Kendal have just<br />
arrive 1 in New York.<br />
<br />
At the Court Theatre, rehearsals are in progress<br />
of “A Royal Family,” a comedy by Captain<br />
Robert Marshall. The part of the heroine in<br />
the new piece will be taken by Miss Gertrude<br />
Elliott.<br />
<br />
A dramatic version of ‘Lorna Doone” has<br />
been secured by Mr. Frank Curzon, lessee of the<br />
Avenue Theatre. The hand to adapt Mr. Black-<br />
more’s famous story is that of an American, Mr.<br />
Algernon Tassin. Mr. Horace Newte, however,<br />
has secured all rights for his version of the story,<br />
with Mr. Blackmore’s consent.<br />
<br />
“Vanity Fair’? has been dramatised by Mr.<br />
Langdon Mitchell for New York, which received<br />
it with marks of favour. The title given to the<br />
play is “The Adventures of Becky Sharp,” and<br />
the leading part is in the hands of Mrs. Maddern<br />
Fiske. Bec ‘ky, however, marries Jos. Sedley.<br />
110 THE<br />
Another recent successful reception in America<br />
was that accorded to Mr. Jerome K. Jerome’s<br />
new comedy “ Miss Hobbs,” which was pro-<br />
duced at the Lyceum, New York, by Mr.<br />
Charles Frohman, with Miss Annie Russell in<br />
the title part. Mr. Frohman has secured for<br />
America the latest Drury-lane success, “ Hearts<br />
are Trumps.”<br />
<br />
A new opera is being prepared for the Savoy<br />
by Sir Arthur Sullivan and Captain Basil Hood.<br />
At the Lyric a musical comedy entitled “ Flora-<br />
dora,” by Mr. James Davis and Mr. Stuart Leslie,<br />
will be presented on Nov. 8.<br />
<br />
“The Drama of Yesterday and T'o-Day”’ is the<br />
title of Mr. Clement Scott’s book of reminis-<br />
cences, which will be published shortly by Messrs.<br />
Macmillan. These memories go back to the<br />
“forties,” when the old Haymarket was still<br />
lighted by oil and candles, and when Mathews,<br />
Vestris, Mrs. Glover, the Keeleys, Buckstone,<br />
Macready, and Phelps were flourishing.<br />
<br />
Mr. Stephen Phillips’s “ Paolo and Francesca”<br />
will be published in book form by Mr. Lane<br />
before Mr. George Alexander presents it on the<br />
stage of the St. James’s Theatre.<br />
<br />
Mr. Harry Lindsay’s new volume, “ An Up-to-<br />
Date Parson,” is to be published immediately by<br />
Mr. James Bowden. Mr. Lindsay is at present<br />
engaged upon a long novel of Methodist life for<br />
Messrs. Horace Marshall and Son. It is expected<br />
that this latter work will be published in the<br />
spring of next year.<br />
<br />
Mr. Neil Wynn Williams, author of ‘The<br />
Bayonet that Came Home,” “ The Green Field,”<br />
&c., will publish shortly a 6s. volume of original<br />
“Greek Peasant Stories” (Digby and Long).<br />
<br />
Miss Francis Harriet Wood will produce early<br />
this month two new stories called respectively,<br />
* Tabitha’s Ward Vision” and “ Swallow Castle.”<br />
Her publishers are the S.P.C.K.<br />
<br />
Lieut.-Colonel E. Gunter will publish (W.<br />
Clowes and Sons) in October the new edition of<br />
his “ Outlines of Modern Tactics,”’ which has been<br />
brought up to date; he has added Hints on Hill<br />
Fighting and Savage Warfare from recent expe-<br />
rience, Outline Orders, &c.<br />
<br />
“A Bitter Heritage,’ Mr. John Bloundelle-<br />
Burton’s new novel, is the first modern story he<br />
has written for ten years, his last of this nature<br />
having been “ His Own Enemy ” ; but, with other<br />
romances, it is his twelfth story up to now. This<br />
novel, which is one containing a strong plot diffi-<br />
cult of unravelment until the end, is laid in<br />
British Honduras, the hero being a young naval<br />
officer who proceeds to that colony with a view to<br />
discovering what is the true secret. of his birth.<br />
<br />
AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
The following is the list of Prof. Victor Spiers’<br />
works now in the hands of Messrs. Simpkin and<br />
Marshall: “Short French Historical Grammar<br />
and Etymological Lexicon,” pp. 250, crown 8vo.,<br />
half bound, price 5s.; “ Practical French Primer<br />
for Schools and Colleges,” pp. 194, crown 8vo.,<br />
half bound, price 2s.; “French Vocabularies for<br />
Repetition,” pp. 180, crown 8vo., half bound, price<br />
Is. 6d.<br />
<br />
The “Orange Girl,” by Walter Besant, went<br />
through the first large edition in less than a<br />
fortnight. The second edition is now ready. A<br />
sketch of life in a settlement, by the same author,<br />
will appear in the Leiswre Hour.<br />
<br />
Under the general title of “The New Century<br />
Library,” Messrs. Thomas Nelson and Sons are<br />
about to issue pocket editions of standard novels,<br />
printed on their “ Royal” India paper. The issue<br />
will begin with monthly volumes of Charles<br />
Dickens’ novels, and the works of Thackeray,<br />
Scott, &c., will foHow in due course. The books<br />
will be printed in long primer type, but will<br />
measure only 4} inches by 63 inches and will<br />
be only half an inch thick.<br />
<br />
A new story by Raymond Jacberus, author of<br />
“Common Chords,” “The Wrong Man,” &c.,<br />
entitled “The Hobbledehoys” will be published<br />
shortly by Messrs Jarrold and Son. Raymond<br />
Jacberus will also contribute the serial story to<br />
Sunshine magazine in 1900.<br />
<br />
Mme. Elodie L. Mijatovich, wife of the Servian<br />
Minister, is the author of a series of Servian Folk-<br />
lore stories, which will be published in one volume<br />
this month by the Columbus Company.<br />
<br />
E. Livingston Prescott’s new military novel is<br />
to be produced on Oct. 3 by Simpkin, Marshall,<br />
<br />
and Co. Its title is ‘Illusion: A Romance of<br />
Modern Egypt.”<br />
— ec<br />
CORRESPONDENCE.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
I.—FictTion-wRITINnG As A BUSINEsS.<br />
<br />
OES it occur to some of the failures who<br />
write to you that some men make a<br />
tolerable income out of fiction alone?<br />
<br />
Personally, I started as a journalist and proved<br />
myself eminently incompetent. At the present<br />
moment if I do write an article, I do it<br />
badly, and at the cost of prodigious labour.<br />
But fiction comes more easily to me, and<br />
in financial return has already brought me<br />
£4000 during this current year. I do not live<br />
in London, neither do I log-roll. I am not<br />
conscious of knowing a single human being who<br />
writes reviews. But I take note of what the<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
public wants, and I supply it to the best of my<br />
ability. In one point I quite agree with your<br />
former correspondents. I never consider that I<br />
am adequately remunerated. I should much<br />
prefer £8000 or £16,000. In fact, I could<br />
enjoy £32,000. But in the meanwhile £4000<br />
does not seem bad earning (for three-quarters of<br />
a year) for a man who much prefers (and<br />
employs) enjoyment to labour.<br />
YACHTSMAN.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
IL—EncouraGEMENT FoR Youne AUTHORS.<br />
<br />
One who has suffered many things in the<br />
up-hill struggle to earn bread by her pen must<br />
feel deep sympathy with Mr. Julian Croskey in his<br />
“blind hopes” of succeeding as an author. But<br />
is he not rather forgetting that blind hopes and<br />
vain dreams belong to all struggles of the sort,<br />
and that there is no open door or easy road into<br />
any remunerative labour field unless influence or<br />
the Lucky Spoon belongs to the aspirant F<br />
<br />
I venture to give a little of my own experience<br />
as encouragement for young authors.<br />
<br />
I began literary work without experience and<br />
vyithout influence. I had MS. rejected again and<br />
again; and but for “ bairns’ bread ” depending<br />
on my efforts I must have given up the unequal<br />
fight.<br />
<br />
My work I know was crude, and I am not<br />
blaming the editors for rejecting it—though I<br />
often proved they had not turned a leaf of the<br />
MS. submitted !<br />
<br />
A secret conviction that I could originate<br />
“copy” equal to the usual magazine material<br />
kept my courage going, and eventually I have<br />
disposed of work at a very good rate. Had my<br />
health and other duties allowed continuous work<br />
I could have realised from £400 to £500 a year<br />
by what I call “ hack-work.”<br />
<br />
I have seldom been able to revise my work as I<br />
could wish, or give the best that was “in me,”<br />
for the simple reason that my stories had to be<br />
potboilers, written and sent off in dire haste. Yet<br />
T have not found it difficult to earn money by<br />
journalistic writing.<br />
<br />
Where I have met difficulty has been with<br />
publishers of books, not editors of magazines and<br />
newspapers, who, as a rule, [ find most courteous<br />
and obliging.<br />
<br />
I have never published a volume at my own<br />
risk. I hold that an author is not wise to “ risk”<br />
when a publisher refuses tv do so.<br />
<br />
I have had some thirty volumes issued by<br />
various publishers. The contents of these books<br />
were almost altogether reprints, and for copy-<br />
right of these I have never received over £40; m<br />
most cases about £20; in some cases £0! Some<br />
of these books are in the third edition, which<br />
<br />
II!<br />
<br />
perhaps proves that I would not have erred if I<br />
had “ risked” oa my own account.<br />
<br />
For serial tales I have received as much as<br />
£150 for first issue (copyright mine).<br />
<br />
I advise young authors without means to<br />
content themselves with hack-work till their<br />
genius disovers itself m some magnum opus<br />
which will bring the publishers to the author’s<br />
feet.<br />
<br />
I believe there is always a modest income in<br />
journalistic work for an intelligent and cultured<br />
person to whom the “ gift of the pen,” if not the<br />
‘‘ divine afflatus,” belongs.<br />
<br />
What I say does not of course apply anyhow<br />
to the host of persons afilicted with a common<br />
disease known as “see-myself-in-print.” To<br />
those individuals must come at last the know-<br />
ledge that they are (as Mr. Julian Croskey puts it)<br />
“mentally competent for nothing but the lowest<br />
form of manual labour.” The despairing wails<br />
of such must not be mistaken for the “ agonising”<br />
of struggling genius.<br />
<br />
Is not three years a very short period to allow<br />
for experimenting in the trade of an author ?<br />
All skilled workmen have to pass through a long<br />
apprenticeship and do not always find employment<br />
at their command before they become adepts at<br />
their trade, secure of a good income. Please, Mr.<br />
Julian Croskey, like “ Oliver,” I “ ask for more’<br />
time before giving up authorship in despair.<br />
<br />
JMS<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Ill.—* On Tue Srpe or Farivre.”<br />
<br />
“Self! Self! All for self, and let estimable<br />
virtue go hang,” says “ L. 8.” in the September<br />
number of The Author. Surely the pen that<br />
wrote those words must have been dipped in the<br />
gall of an unhappy personal experience.<br />
<br />
The present writer’s goosequill could tell a<br />
different story. Three, at least, of those whose<br />
names have become household words among chil-<br />
dren of the pen have bestowed upon it helpful<br />
advice, besides kindly encouraging words.<br />
<br />
For the scribblers in earnest the only road to<br />
success lies through drudgery and pertinacity,<br />
hardening the heart meanwhile against dis-<br />
appointment. For the mere dabblers who are<br />
spurred to write from vanity or desire for filthy<br />
lucre, advice is and must be useless.<br />
<br />
One thing is certain, namely, that estimable<br />
virtue need never go hang if it makes up its mind<br />
<br />
to live. SM. C.B.<br />
<br />
—o<br />
<br />
TV.—Tue Proression oF LETTERS.<br />
When a successful novelist—and we presume<br />
that Annabel Gray, the author of “Forbidden<br />
Banns,” &c., does not wish to be classed as a<br />
failure—asserts as a fact that the only way to<br />
I12<br />
<br />
succeed is to pay for paragraphs, 7.e., puffs in<br />
papers, the inference seems obvious, but good<br />
feeling and fellowship prevent us from comment-<br />
ing too much on it, as she no doubt meant well,<br />
and wrote in the interests of those who are<br />
failures that they might not be too much out of<br />
conceit of themselves.<br />
<br />
For the encouragement of those who have not<br />
even perhaps obtained a footing on the first rung<br />
of the ladder, I will say that all the MSS. of<br />
mine that have been accepted have been so with-<br />
out either influence or interest by editors who are<br />
unknown to me. I do not say it to boast, for<br />
alas! the rejected outnumber the accepted to<br />
an appalling extent. Ihave heard many an un-<br />
welcome and disheartening thud in the letter-box,<br />
and expect to hear many more, but I do not let<br />
that discourage me, for I mean to keep on till I do<br />
succeed, and if life and health are granted me I<br />
know I shall in the end. I will say this, that all<br />
the work of mine that has been published has been<br />
paid for, for I have never allowed any of my MSS.<br />
to appear on other terms. Those who think to<br />
make headway by permitting their early writings<br />
to appear without remuneration, are, I consider,<br />
taking an unfair advantage of the ones who are<br />
dependent on their literary earnings, and I ques-<br />
tion whether they themselves benefit much by it.<br />
<br />
Marearita.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
V.—Is LireratuRE A PRecARIoUS PROFESSION ?<br />
<br />
In the majority of cases I should certainly<br />
reply, Yes—and I give my own experience as an<br />
example. Forty-one years ago I sold my first<br />
book, obtainmg £150 for it. The book was a<br />
success, and went through three editions. I was<br />
then written to by the editors of two magazines,<br />
asking me to write articles for them, and during<br />
several years I was a frequent contributor to such<br />
periodicals as Chambers’s Journal, the St. James’s<br />
Magazine, the Cornhill Magazine, Temple Bar,<br />
Beeton’s Boy’s Own Magazine, Routledge’s Every<br />
Boy’s Magazine, and others. During twenty<br />
years upwards of 250 of my articles were pub-<br />
lished and paid for.<br />
<br />
During the same period I wrote ten books, all<br />
of which I sold. My best year realised £250<br />
and my worst £80.<br />
<br />
Then I was compelled to go to India, where<br />
writing was impossible, and was absent seven<br />
years. On my return to England, I found that<br />
some magazines to which I used to contribute<br />
had new editors, others had ceased to exist. I<br />
sent articles to various magazines, the editors of<br />
which had formerly asked me to contribute. After<br />
six or eight months these articles (on my inquiry)<br />
were returned, “with thanks”; when another<br />
article was sent the same results followed.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
Two MS. books were sent to various publishers,<br />
but were returned with the remark that they had<br />
so many MS. on hand that they could not pay<br />
for mine. The climax was reached, however,<br />
when a literary agent informed me by a circular<br />
that he had exceptional means of disposing of<br />
authors’ MS.; his charge was one guinea, to<br />
accompany the MS., and a percentage on the sale<br />
<br />
price. I forwarded to him my MS. and one<br />
guinea. On the title page I gave the titles of<br />
<br />
four of my published works. After three months<br />
the agent returned my MS. with the remark that<br />
he regretted he could not get publishers to look<br />
at the first work of an author.<br />
<br />
It may be argued that my seven years’ absence<br />
from England had lost me my literary connection,<br />
but illness, and consequently inability to write,<br />
during even one-third of the time, might produce<br />
the same results, and we have here a lesson for<br />
would-be authors, who should not remain too<br />
long hidden from the public, and should keep in<br />
touch with editors and publishers.<br />
<br />
Had I been dependent on my pen, I should<br />
now be in the workhouse.<br />
<br />
The great drawback at present is over-produc-<br />
tion. There are hundreds of amateurs who,<br />
desirous of calling themselves authors, will pay<br />
publishers for publishing their books, hence a<br />
mass of rubbish floods the circulating libraries.<br />
<br />
The monthly magazine, too, is a formidable rival<br />
to the book, and few writers can command such<br />
high prices for magazine articles as to make<br />
literature a paying profession.<br />
<br />
To make money by one’s pen is certainly fasci-<br />
nating, but, except in a few successful cases, the<br />
disappointments are great: hence it is, in my<br />
opinion, that the life of the average author is not<br />
a happy one. C.<br />
<br />
[Illness or seven years’ absence would effectually<br />
destroy a clrentile in any other profession. The<br />
writer does not recognise the two main facts ;<br />
(1) that there are great prizes in literature; (2)<br />
that many hundreds or thousands live and thrive<br />
by the pen.—Ep. |<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
VI.— Sate or Seconp-ciass Novets.<br />
<br />
In reply to M ’s criticism in the September<br />
number of The Author I would point out that<br />
obviously publishers do not take up work on<br />
which they anticipate a loss; it would not be<br />
necessary to pay a literary adviser to help them<br />
to do that. If ‘well-known authors” only com-<br />
manded a sale of 400 copies, their agents would<br />
never get them a substantial advance on account<br />
of royalties. But their agents do. There is no<br />
dead level of sales of “first books.” It is incon-<br />
venient to mention works in this connection, but:<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
anyone who calls to mind a list of such books will<br />
see how the movement of them varies from sales<br />
that are practically null to brilliant success.<br />
Expenditure on advertisements will not make a<br />
public for a book; the question is, to what class<br />
or classes of readers will the work thoroughly<br />
appeal. This is a matter for a publisher’s judg-<br />
ment, and his reader’s report ought to help him.<br />
“Mr. Guddle” would trust to his judgment in cal-<br />
culating sales. I repeat that if he had anticipated<br />
a loss he would have declined the book for that<br />
reason.<br />
<br />
It is a matter of common experience that the<br />
rejection of a manuscript by four firms has<br />
nothing to do with the opinion which the fifth<br />
may form of it, or with the success of the book<br />
when published.<br />
<br />
Your correspondent wishes to know in effect<br />
how I came by the materials of the story. I can<br />
assure him that it is entirely founded on hard<br />
facts, but I think he will appreciate the reasons<br />
why I refrain from communicating details.<br />
<br />
I did not read the letter of “A Publisher” in<br />
Literature of Jan. 21, to which your correspon-<br />
dent refers. Mo.Lecvte.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
VIL.—LitERATURE AS A PROFESSION.<br />
<br />
The contribution under this heading signed<br />
“X.” in the last number of The Author, strongly<br />
supported as it was by Mr. Julian Croskey’s<br />
gloomy personal experience of Literature as a<br />
trade or profession, is certainly calculated to<br />
make young literary aspirants pause before<br />
embarking on this perilous sea.<br />
<br />
None but the few popular novelists, able always<br />
to secure “ serial rights,” will deny that Literature<br />
at the best is still, as in the days of Sir Walter<br />
Scott, a crutch rather than a support, and there<br />
are a vast horde of trained and educated men and<br />
women able and willing to write on any and every<br />
subject if only publishers will publish and the<br />
public will buy. And the tendency of things—<br />
mainly caused by free and compulsory education<br />
—is to increase what is undoubtedly a crying<br />
evil from the standpomt of the professional<br />
author.<br />
<br />
At the same time I cannot but think that “ X.”<br />
weakens his case by over-stating it. There is<br />
little sense in abusing Tennyson because he<br />
happens to be the one poet of our time who was<br />
fortunate enough to turn his rhymes into golden<br />
guineas. It does not detract from the genius of<br />
Dickens or Thackeray that they are popular and<br />
successful. It seems to me that the case of<br />
authorship as a profession may be stated thus:<br />
The vast majority of literary men and women<br />
barely make an existence by the pen, and certainly<br />
not by writing books ; a large and perhaps, as Sir<br />
<br />
143<br />
<br />
Walter Besant maintains, steadily increasing class<br />
of writers can earn fairly good wages; while now<br />
and again (outside of serial fictionists) a singu-<br />
larly fortunate man or woman, either with dis-<br />
tinct originality and literary genius, or with that<br />
peculiar and felicitous commonplaceness which<br />
exactly answers to the needs of vast half-educated<br />
crowds, may achieve both fame (or notoriety) and<br />
fortune.<br />
<br />
What I think “X” quite overlooks is the<br />
increasing evanescence of all literary works, so<br />
that a modern writer, like an actor, must in<br />
future make a “ hit”’ on his appearance, or stand<br />
a good chance of being utterly ignored. A book<br />
is now, as a rule, merely a bound uewspaper<br />
which is thrown aside and forgotten when it has<br />
been hastily read. A. Parcuerr Marru.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
VIII.—Usetess Reviews.<br />
<br />
I am anew writer, and have just published my<br />
second book, and I have read with great interest<br />
what the Society of Authors has published<br />
regarding the methods of publishing. There is,<br />
however, one point that seems to me obscure.<br />
With my first book, an expensive one, there was<br />
a debit of over fifty copies sent for review. With<br />
my later book, a six-shilling one, there will pro-<br />
bably be far more. What I do not understand<br />
is why so many copies are wasted. There are a<br />
certain number of weeklies whose reviews are<br />
carefully written, and whose notice, whether<br />
praise or blame, is worth noting. There are a<br />
smaller number of dailies, of which the same may<br />
be said, some in London,and some in the provinces.<br />
But with a great number of papers, especially<br />
country papers, it is clearly the fact that the<br />
reviews are written either by the daughter of the<br />
editor as a holiday task or by the office boy in<br />
intervals of boot blacking. It is quite impossible<br />
to believe that any readers of books can be<br />
influenced by notices in these papers, whether<br />
favourable or the reverse. It is indeed even less.<br />
flattering to be praised by them than to be<br />
blamed. Then why are the review copies sent ?<br />
A soap or a bicycle if good gets a sale without<br />
touting for gratuitous advertisements of such a<br />
nature. Why should authors or publishers<br />
so degrade themselves by touting, i.e., by sending<br />
free copies, when the gratuitous “ad.” is worth-<br />
less? To those papers which deal in literature,<br />
and whose word is worth having, it may be useful<br />
to send a copy, useful both for the writer and the<br />
paper. But the others? No one cares for what<br />
they say, then why send review copies? I<br />
suppose the publishers have some sort of an idea<br />
that it helps the sale of the book to get the<br />
suffrage of the Slocum Gazette. But does it?<br />
1I4<br />
<br />
It used to be said that an appreciative review in<br />
the Times would sell an edition; how many<br />
copies will the North Thule Advertiser sell,<br />
even if it declares the book “a superb revelation<br />
of innate soulfulness ” ?<br />
<br />
W.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
IX.—A Correction.<br />
<br />
As the writer of the second letter in last<br />
month’s correspondence, I must amiably protest<br />
against one’s experiences being dubbed “ illu-<br />
sions.” (By-the-bye, on p. 94, for lines read<br />
hints.) The writer is proud to be referred to as<br />
he, but that is an illusion, if you please, as also<br />
the supposition that the unresponsive popular<br />
author spoken of is a leading man of letters.<br />
<br />
No, no! Men and editors are the queerest<br />
things out, but I dare not lay to their charge the<br />
accusation of “petty jealousy.” Neither can I<br />
gracefully and humbly retire to a back seat fully<br />
convinced that my work must perforce be bad,<br />
because — well, because it occasionally gets<br />
returned by mistake !<br />
<br />
L. 8.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
X.—An Experience or Epirors.<br />
<br />
Some years ago I published a number of short<br />
poems, under a nom de plume, in a high-class<br />
continental monthly magazine, now, owing to the<br />
death of the lady who owned and edited it, unfor-<br />
tunately defunct. A selection of these I sub-<br />
mitted to the editor of Hearth and Home, hoping<br />
he would present them to English readers.<br />
<br />
In due course I received from him three memo-<br />
randa of acceptation.<br />
<br />
Time, however, passed without bringing about<br />
the publication of the matter in question; so<br />
that, eventually, I decided to wait no longer, but<br />
to recover the verses with a view to their appear-<br />
ance under an editor less procrastinating.<br />
<br />
I despatched my reclaimed “copy” to the<br />
editor of the Young Man, Young Woman, &c.,<br />
together with, as evidence of bona fides, the<br />
memoranda of acceptance from the editor of<br />
Hearth and Home. These I naturally asked<br />
him to return. Verses and memoranda were sent<br />
to the editor mentioned on Oct. 19, 1898.<br />
<br />
On Nov. 29, 1898, on Jan. 5 and 24, on Feb. 6<br />
and 20, 1899, and lastly, early in July this year,<br />
I have requested to learn the fate of the verses,<br />
their return if unsuitable, and, in particular, the<br />
return of the memoranda from the editor of<br />
Hearth and Home. Each and all of my com-<br />
munications have been completely ignored.<br />
<br />
Herezert W. Smite.<br />
<br />
Derbyshire-road, Sale.<br />
<br />
[This letter has been submitted to the Secre-<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
tary. He points out that the writer has no proof<br />
that his MSS. ever reached the editor’s hand. It<br />
is not likely that he would remember receiving<br />
one out of many hundreds of MSS. coming daily<br />
to his office. A reply, however, would be<br />
courteous. Meanwhile, writers in general should<br />
understand that rejected verses are commonly<br />
consigned to the basket.—Eb.]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
XI.—Dopers 1n JoURNALISM.<br />
<br />
I addressed a letter to a well-known organ of<br />
the halfpenny Press upon what I considered an<br />
interesting topic. A day or so after, the identical<br />
words employed were served up as news. I con-<br />
tend that this is not fair treatment or a practice<br />
to be commended if the journalistic nest is to be<br />
kept clean, as all would desire. Such methods<br />
tend to disgust and alienate the friendly corre-<br />
spondent who is, after all, no mean factor when<br />
a newspaper’s circulation is considered.<br />
<br />
Oup Birp.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
XII.—Simvxttaneous PUBLICATION.<br />
<br />
Jf you think that the information I am about<br />
to ask of you with reference to U.S. copyright<br />
will be useful to many of your readers—as I<br />
fancy it will be—will you kindly answer this<br />
letter in the columns of The Author.<br />
<br />
I have published a few novels and short stories<br />
in London, and have, with mixed feelings, received<br />
the congratulations of friends upon the other<br />
side of the Atlantic, who have seen some of the<br />
short stories reproduced, without any profit to<br />
me, in American papers.<br />
<br />
Finding this compliment unsatisfactory, I have<br />
lately sent typed copies simultaneously to the<br />
U.S. (for a painstaking and enthusiastic relative<br />
to offer) and to Lon«ton editors.<br />
<br />
Result.—Two stories accepted in the U.S., one<br />
of which is already published in a London evening<br />
paper, the other (longer) not yet accepted by the<br />
London magazine to which I sent it, but, so far<br />
as I can judge by previous experiences, likely to<br />
be acceptable there or elsewhere.<br />
<br />
Also.—T wo other short stories accepted on this<br />
side, which have scarcely yet reached the other.<br />
<br />
It seems reasonable to suppose that one of<br />
these four stories may be accepted on both sides.<br />
Indeed (you see how confused I am getting), as<br />
I have already stated, one very short sketch is<br />
accepted in the United States and already pub-<br />
lished here. But in that case the United States<br />
people were told of the circumstance. One or all<br />
of the other three stories accepted by one side<br />
may be taken also on the other.<br />
<br />
If, on one side, story A. is taken by a monthly<br />
magazine, and on the other by a weekly paper, is<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE<br />
<br />
it necessary that both issue the story on the same<br />
date, week or month, to secure copyright ?<br />
<br />
If a weekly paper issue story A. in October,<br />
while an English magazine expresses an intention<br />
to use it in the Christmas number coming out<br />
about the end of November, what should I do?<br />
<br />
Would the rights of the English magazine be<br />
in any way infringed, practically if not legally ?<br />
Would its editor be morally or legally justified in<br />
considering his offer nullified ?<br />
<br />
In fact, in the case of any average or below-the-<br />
average author, will an interval of a few weeks<br />
between the two publications interest or hurt any-<br />
one ?<br />
<br />
Tf these questions prove of such general interest<br />
as to be worth publication and reply, perhaps you<br />
can add, in the most general terms, some sugges-<br />
tion as to the relative rates of payment on both<br />
sides.<br />
<br />
For example,<br />
rights of a short story here.<br />
on the other side ?<br />
<br />
I get fifteen guineas for serial<br />
What should I ask<br />
<br />
IGNORAMUS.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
BOOKS AND REVIEWS.<br />
<br />
(In these columns notes on books are given from reviews<br />
which carry weight, and are not, so far as can be learned,<br />
logrollers.)<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Letters of RicHARD WAGNER TO EMIL HECKEL<br />
and Letters oF RicHARD WAGNER TO WESENDOCK<br />
et. al., translated by William A. Ellis (5s. net each),<br />
‘present to us,” says Literature, “little more than an<br />
external view of the great musician, of the man harassed by<br />
pecuniary troubles, by rehearsals and productions, by<br />
singers and by constant disappointments” ; yet the details<br />
enhance one’s admiration of Wagner. The letters range<br />
from 1852 to 1883, and “ deserve to be read,” says the<br />
Times, “by every lover of Wagner’s music.” “To English<br />
readers the most interesting part of the book will be the<br />
long letters dated from London in 1855, when Wagner was<br />
engaged as conductor of the Philharmonic concerts.” ‘ No<br />
one desirous of having a sympathetic understanding of<br />
Wagner as a man can afford to pass by these two small<br />
volumes,” says the Daily Chronicle.<br />
<br />
Tue Lire AND CAMPAIGNS OF ALEXANDER LESLIE,<br />
first Earl of Leven, by Charles Sanford Terry (Longmans,<br />
16s.), is his story of a scion of an Aberdeenshire family who<br />
when scarcely out of his teens went to the Continent to<br />
make his fortune by the sword. Leaving Scotland in 1582,<br />
he came back in 1638 a rich man. “Mr. Terry’s careful<br />
and accurate narrative,” says the Daily News, “ will do<br />
much to rescue Leslie from the charges of greed, and even<br />
of cowardice which have been brought against him.”<br />
<br />
Tue ORANGE Gir, by Walter Besant (Chatto, 63.), is<br />
described by the Spectator as “an interesting romance of<br />
the King’s Bench Prison in the middle of the eighteenth<br />
century. The hero and narrator is the son of a wealthy<br />
merchant, Alderman, and ex-Lord Mayor, turned out of his<br />
father’s house for preferring music to commerce.” “ The<br />
story from first to last does not flag in picturesque spirit<br />
<br />
AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
115<br />
<br />
and interest,” says the Daily Chronicle. “ Since ‘ Dorothy<br />
Forster’ Sir Walter Besant has not written any novel<br />
surpassing this in the restoration of place, manners, and<br />
tone, nor has he drawn character more convincingly. The<br />
story is very clever and quite uncommon. In all<br />
the author’s writings there is no scene more powerful<br />
than the terrible one of the pillory; or picture more<br />
beautiful than Jenny Wilmot’s dealing with her fellow-<br />
prisoner, the woman who swore away her life.”— World.<br />
“Tike all Sir Walter’s books, this is delightful read-<br />
ing. . We are carried away by admiration for the<br />
vivid insight into this corner of English history here<br />
afforded us, and must congratulate the author on adding to<br />
our library one more success in a field peculiarly his own.”<br />
St. James’s Gazette.<br />
<br />
Tue Actor AND His ART, by Stanley Jones (Downey,<br />
gs. 6d.), is a book of essays which ‘are not likely to<br />
prove pleasant reading to actor-managers, or indeed to<br />
actors generally.” The author prophesies the downfall of<br />
the actor-manager, and believes that the drama will not<br />
advance until the actor again becomes the servant instead<br />
of the master. It is the opinion of the Daily Chronicle<br />
that the book “‘is worthy the attention of professional<br />
performers.”<br />
<br />
Tos Lire oF WintraAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY, by<br />
Lewis Melville (Hutchinson, 32s.), isan “ extremely valuable<br />
work” (Daily Telegraph) which, says the Daily Chronicle,<br />
“ taken in conjunction with Mrs. Ritchie’s reminiscences of<br />
her father, may be said to exhaust the biographical matter<br />
about Thackeray.” The Daily News remarks that of course<br />
Mr. Melville has not had any assistance from Thackeray’s<br />
family, but itis, nevertheless, “ the fullest and most interest-<br />
ing account of Tr ackeray’s career, both public and private,<br />
that has yet been given to the world.”<br />
<br />
TRoopR 3809; A Private Soldier of the Third Republic,<br />
by Lionel Decle (Heinemann, 6s.), deals with the military<br />
system of France, as administered by its officers. ‘‘ Taken<br />
as a whole,” writes Mr. Horace Wyndham in Literature,<br />
“these pages form a grim and terrible picture, and present<br />
a record of things seen and suffered that, to one who is<br />
able to contrast these experiences with those that could<br />
possibly accrue to a private soldier of the English army<br />
during the same period, seems almost impossible to realise.”<br />
“Tt is a clear and careful work, moderate in tone,” says the<br />
Spectator.<br />
<br />
Tue RoMANCE or Lupwic Il. or Bavaria, by Frances<br />
Gerard (Hutchinson, 16s.), is pronounced by the Spectator<br />
to be “readable from end to end,” and by the Daily Tele-<br />
graph to be “ sympathetic, and for that reason interesting.’<br />
“ This most interesting volume,” says the Daily Chronicle,<br />
“may be regarded as a sort of complement to the tragic life<br />
story of the late Empress of Austria,” published a month or<br />
two ago.<br />
<br />
Tue GOVERNMENT oF Municrpauities, by Dorman B,<br />
Baton (Macmillan, 17s. net) has for its object, says Litera-<br />
ture, “to stimulate and guide public opinion throughout the<br />
country in its growing demand for sound, stable, and<br />
reasonably uniform municipal institutions.” It is well-<br />
reasoned and temperate; and “it vividly describes the<br />
chaotic condition of American municipal life, and of<br />
American ideas on municipal matters, which has every where<br />
thrown the gates of the city wide open to the party spoils-<br />
man, and exposes the methods and policy by which he has<br />
hitherto maintained his post of advantage.”<br />
<br />
Wuern Roaurs Faun Ovr, by Joseph Hatton (Pearson,<br />
6s.), has for hero the notorious Jack Sheppard. ‘The<br />
romance is spirited and dramatic,” says the Daily News,<br />
« with occasional incursions into a Victor Hugo-ish vein of<br />
116<br />
<br />
philosophy. It is a painstaking and picturesque present-<br />
ment of a most picturesque and lawless age—the early part<br />
of the 18th century.”<br />
<br />
Mammon AnD Co., by E. F. Benson (Heinemann, 6s.), is<br />
.on the whole, says Literature, a novel of mark. In it the<br />
author of “Dodo” “invites us to follow the fortunes of a<br />
little coterie of ‘smart’ people whose time is divided<br />
between intrigue and Stock Exchange speculation.” The<br />
Spectator calls the book “ clever and interesting,’ and says<br />
that Mr. Benson here “ranges himself unmistakably on the<br />
side of the angels.” ‘It is cleverish, it is smart, it has a<br />
background of morality,” says the Daily Chronicle, which<br />
predicts for it popularity.<br />
<br />
Tux Kine’s Mrrror, by Anthony Hope (Methuen, 6s.),<br />
says the Spectator, “in elegance, delicacy, and tact ranks<br />
with the best of the author’s previous novels, while there in<br />
the wide range of its portraiture and the subtlety of its<br />
analysis it surpasses all his earlier ventures.” ‘‘ One is<br />
compelled to admire the manner in which Mr. Hope has<br />
handled his subject,” says the Times. “ The autobiography<br />
is in its way a convincing tour de force, especially in the<br />
earlier chapters.” ‘‘A strong book, charged with close<br />
analysis and exquisite irony,’ is the Daily Chronicle<br />
verdict, while Literature, describing the work as “ a quiet<br />
and careful study of the private life of a king,” adds that<br />
Mr. Hope “has never spoken to us so directly from<br />
the point of view of the cynic and the philosopher” as<br />
in this book. “It is subtly done,” says the Daily News,<br />
“with a delicate inciseness of touch, felicity of dialogue, and<br />
distinction of treatment.”<br />
<br />
To Lonpon Town, by Arthur Morrison (Methuen, 6s.),<br />
the story of a widow and her two children who come to<br />
East London that the boy may learn a trade, is reviewed by<br />
Mr. W. L. Courtney in the Daily Telegraph under the<br />
heading ‘‘ Mr Morrison—the Idealist.” The writer says the<br />
book shows that the author has “the eye to observe how<br />
nature is justified of her children, and provides the com-<br />
pensating joys to all their heartrending hardships.” The<br />
Daily News also notes “a charm, a sunny optimism” in the<br />
book, and has “nothing but praise to give to Mr. Morrison<br />
for the literary excellence of his workmanship and his<br />
clearness of presentation.” The Daily Chronicle describes<br />
it as a work of interest, while the Spectator says “ itis not<br />
only a work of great intrinsic merit, but it effectually<br />
relieves the author from the imputation ” “ of conscious and<br />
incorrigible pessimism.”<br />
<br />
SrrEN City, by Benjamin Swift (Methuen, 6s.), is the<br />
story of the infatuation of the romantic daughter of a rich<br />
Puritanical English banker for a shady, impoverished scion<br />
of Neapolitan nobility, fast bound in the hands of usurers<br />
and Camarristas. Literature says that “not only in<br />
purity and simplicity of style, but in verisimilitude of plot<br />
and soundness of psychology” this book shows a remarkable<br />
advance on the author’s ‘‘Tormentor.” ‘On the whole,”<br />
says the Daily Telegraph, “the dénowement of this<br />
briliantly-written story is satisfactory, for it rewards<br />
virtue and punishes vice in the good old fictional fashion.”<br />
“There is in it so much beauty of description, chapters of<br />
so much tragic pathos,” says the Daily News, “that it<br />
stands out high above the run of ordinary novels.”<br />
<br />
Tur PATH or A Star, by Mrs. Everard Cotes (Sarah<br />
Jeannette Duncan) (Methuen, 6s.) is cheerful reading, says<br />
the Times. ‘“ The characters all talk brightly, and the<br />
pictures of ordinary Indian society are good.” The<br />
Chronicle welcomes a novel by this author as “a real joy<br />
and refreshment to the spirit,’ and very cordially recom-<br />
mends it. The scene is laid in Calcutta; the heroines<br />
are a Salvation Army lass and an actress, and the heroes a<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
rich business man and an austere clergyman. Mrs. Coteg<br />
has availed herself to the full of the picturesque oppor-<br />
tunities thus provided, says Literature. ‘“ Her sketches of<br />
Indian life are admirable, and in her description of a touring<br />
company in Calcutta and the Salvation Army and its<br />
methods there is no little humour.”<br />
<br />
CHRONICLES OF TEDDY’s VILLAGE, by Mrs. Murray<br />
Hickson (Ward and Lock, 3s. 6d.), provides the many<br />
sympathetic readers of “ Concerning Teddy” with a com-<br />
panion or complementary volume. ‘‘ We are glad to meet<br />
Teddy again,’ adds the Spectator. ‘“ Teddy and his<br />
brothers are always good companions,” says the Times.<br />
<br />
Tue Human Boy, by Eden Phillpotts (Methuen, 6s.),<br />
‘is a wonderfully good collection of schoolboys’ stories<br />
(Guardian) told by themselves ; as full of humour as it can<br />
hold.” It is difficult to realise that the book was not<br />
really written by boys, says the Spectator, “so completely<br />
has the author entered into their spirit.” ‘‘ His boys are<br />
individuals as well as types,’ says the Daily Chronicle ;<br />
“there is no sloppy sentimentality about them, and they<br />
never appear to be straining desperately to say anything<br />
funny or pathetic.”<br />
<br />
THE VINE-DRESSER, and other Poems, by J. Sturge<br />
Moore (Unicorn Press, 6d.), ‘“‘ is something more than minor<br />
poetry,” in the opinion of Literature. ‘The verse has<br />
power and distinction, and the poet has something to say.”<br />
The reviewer quotes “ Judith,” and “ The Panther” as<br />
pieces which compel attention by their imaginative force.<br />
The Times says that ‘‘ Mr. Moore’s is an austere and rather<br />
a stiff-jointed muse, but she is of the true lineage.’ The<br />
Daily Chronicle says ‘‘ Mr. Moore has a small stiff gift, but<br />
it will support exaggerated praise.”<br />
<br />
PUNCHINELLO (Bowden, 6s.) ‘is a well-written romance<br />
of a tragical complexion,” says the Spectator. The narrator<br />
is a musical genius and a hunchback; the period, the<br />
eighteenth century. It is an interesting and clever study<br />
of a morbidly sensitive temperament, in presenting which<br />
the anonymous writer displays a gift of genuine eloquence,<br />
and at times real subtlety of imagination.” The Guardian<br />
remarks that “ the tragedy of the inner consciousness of the<br />
hunchback is dramatised with remarkable force, sincerity,<br />
and subtlety.”<br />
<br />
Tue Moprern Jew, by Arnold White (Heinemann,<br />
7s. Od.), “goes over most of the perils raised by that<br />
enigmatic figure, the modern Jew, and gives many facts<br />
and suggestions” says Literature, “of some value in<br />
enabling the reader to come to a judgment.” The Daily<br />
Chronicle describes it as “a most interesting and sugges-<br />
tive book,” which is neither pleasant reading all through to<br />
Jew nor anti-Semite.<br />
<br />
CroquEtT, by Leonard B. Williams (Innes, §s.), is<br />
“valuable, very clear, and moderately—often uncon-<br />
sciously—humorous,” says the Guardian. “ It is agreeably<br />
written,” says the Spectator, “ and furnished with diagrams<br />
both of ground and tactics, and of the mechanical laws<br />
involved in the different strokes.”<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/5/467/1899-11-01-The-Author-10-6.pdf | publications, The Author |