| 481 | https://historysoa.com/items/show/481 | The Author, Vol. 13 Issue 06 (March 1903) | <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.+13+Issue+06+%28March+1903%29"><em>The Author</em>, Vol. 13 Issue 06 (March 1903)</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> | 1903-03-01-The-Author-13-6 | | | | | 133–160 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=89&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=13">13</a> | | | | | | | | | | | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=76&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1903-03-01">1903-03-01</a> | | | | | | | 6 | | | 19030301 | Che Muthor.<br />
<br />
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors.<br />
<br />
FOUNDED BY SIR<br />
<br />
Monthly.)<br />
<br />
WALTER BESANT.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Vou. XITI.—No. 6.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Marcu 1st, 1903.<br />
<br />
[PRrIcE SIXPENCE.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE TELEPHONE.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
t<br />
<br />
The Telephone connection has now been estab-<br />
lei lished, and the Society’s number is—<br />
<br />
374 VICTORIA.<br />
Se<br />
<br />
NOTICES.<br />
<br />
— 1+<br />
<br />
c OR the opinions expressed in papers that are<br />
4 signed or initialled the authors alone are<br />
responsible. None of the papers or para-<br />
epgraphs must be taken as expressing the opinion<br />
tof the Committee unless such is especially stated<br />
<br />
' 0 to be the case.<br />
<br />
THE Editor begs to inform members of the<br />
u# Authors’ Society and other readers of 7he Author<br />
‘that the cases which are from time to time quoted<br />
fin The Author are cases that have come before the<br />
‘oi notice or to the knowledge of the Secretary of the<br />
‘902 Society, and that those members of the Society<br />
djwho desire to have the names of the publishers<br />
19: concerned can obtain them on application.<br />
<br />
a<br />
<br />
List of Members.<br />
<br />
Tue List of Members of the Society of Authors<br />
‘can now be obtained at the offices of the Society,<br />
~ at the price of 6d. net.<br />
_ It will be sold to the members of the Society<br />
ing py<br />
<br />
—_+-—~<— +<br />
<br />
The Pension Fund of the Society.<br />
<br />
_ THE investments of the Pension Fund at<br />
eee present standing in the names of the Trustees are<br />
2 as follows.<br />
_ This is a statement of the actual stock ;<br />
¢ Vou, XIII.<br />
<br />
the<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
money value can be easily worked out at the current<br />
price of the market :—<br />
<br />
MES BD ois beni iecrtnees an ctaes £816 5 6<br />
docs: sodns:... 404 10 0<br />
Victorian Government 3 % Con-<br />
<br />
solidated Inscribed Stock............ 291 19 11<br />
War loan 3. ee. 201. 9 3<br />
<br />
otal ee. £1,714 4 §<br />
<br />
SPECIAL APPEAL.<br />
<br />
Tur Appeal sent out by the Chairman of the<br />
Society at the request of the Pension Fund Com-<br />
mittee has been very successful.<br />
<br />
The total amount of subscriptions and donations<br />
up to Dec. 1st is:—Subscriptions, £46 8s. 6d.;<br />
donations, £116 14s. 6d. Further additions to<br />
either list are set out below.<br />
<br />
Subscriplions.<br />
<br />
Dec. 1, Finnemore, Mrs. . 50 0. 0<br />
Dec. 3, Caulfield, Miss Sophia 010 0<br />
Dec. 5, Hecht, Mrs. . 010 6<br />
re Hamilton, Mrs. G. W. 0 6<br />
» Brinton, Selwyn OF a) 0<br />
Dec. 9, Dill, Miss Bessie : 7 0 5 0<br />
Dec. 18, Sutherland, Her Grace the<br />
Duchess of : 2.2 0<br />
Dec. 19, Toplis, Miss Grace . 0 5 0<br />
Dec. 22, Anonymous 010 0<br />
Dec. 29, Seton-Karr, H. W. 0 5:0<br />
a Pike Clement, E. 0 5 0<br />
1903.<br />
Jan. 1, Pickthall, Marmaduke 010 6<br />
» Deane, Rev. A.C. . 010 0<br />
Jan. 4, Anonymous 0 5 0<br />
» Heath, Miss Ida 0 5 0<br />
» Russell, G. H. : 1 ft 6<br />
Jan. 16, White, Mrs. Caroline 0 5b 0<br />
,, Bedford, Miss Jessie 0 5 0<br />
Jan. 19, Shiers-Mason, Mrs. 0 5 0<br />
Jan. 20, Cobbett, Miss Alice : 0 5 0<br />
Jan. 30, Minniken, Miss Bertha M. M. 10 0<br />
Jan. 31, Whishaw, Fred : . 010 0<br />
134<br />
<br />
Feb. 8, Reynolds, Mrs. Fred 720 5 0<br />
Feb. 11, Lincoln, C. . : ; +0. 5 0<br />
Feb. 16, Hardy, J. Herbert . 0 5 0<br />
» Haggard, Major Arthur . 0 5 0<br />
Feb. 23, Finnemore, John . 0 5 0<br />
Donations.<br />
Dec. 1, Sanderson, Sir J. Burdon 5 0 0<br />
», Smith, G. C. Moore 1.0 0<br />
Dec. 2, ‘'revor-Battye, Aubyn Lt 0<br />
» Marks, Mrs. . : 010 0<br />
Dec. 9, Moore, Henry Charles 0 5 0<br />
Dec. 11, Lutzow, Count 2 0 0<br />
» “Leicester Romayne ” 0 5 0<br />
» Hellier, H. George. 11.0<br />
Dec. 12, Croft, Miss Lily 05 0<br />
», Panting, J. Harwood. 010 O<br />
» Tattersall, Miss Louisa . 0 5 0<br />
Dec. 19, Egbert, Henry 0 5 0<br />
Dec. 23, Muirhead, James F. - 010 0<br />
Dec. 28, A.S. . : : 751 12 0<br />
» Bateman Stringer . : - 010 O<br />
Dec. 31, Cholmondely, Miss Mary -10 0 0<br />
<br />
1903.<br />
Jan. 38, Wheelright, Miss EH. :<br />
» Middlemass, Miss Jean . :<br />
Jan. 6, Avebury, The Right Hon.<br />
The Lord . ; : :<br />
» Gribble, Francis. :<br />
Jan. 13, Boddington, Miss Helen .<br />
Jan. 17, White, Mrs. Wollaston .<br />
» Miller, Miss E. T. .<br />
Jan. 19, Kemp, Miss Geraldine<br />
Jan. 20, Sheldon, Mrs. French<br />
Jan. 29, Roe, Mrs. Harcourt<br />
Feb. 9, Sherwood, Mrs. . :<br />
Feb. 16, Hocking, The Rev. Silas<br />
Feb. 18, Boulding, J. W. .<br />
|; Ord, Hubert H. .<br />
Feb. 20, Price, Miss Eleanor<br />
» Carlile, Rev. J. C..<br />
Feb. 24, Dixon, Mrs.<br />
<br />
The following members have also made subscrip-<br />
tions or donations :—<br />
<br />
Meredith, George, President of the Society.<br />
<br />
Thompson, Sir Henry, Bart., F.R.C.S.<br />
<br />
Rashdall, The Rev. H.<br />
<br />
Guthrie, Anstey.<br />
<br />
Robertson, C. B.<br />
<br />
There are in addition other subscribers who do<br />
not desire that either their names or the amount<br />
they are subscribing should be printed.<br />
<br />
SPECIAL CONDITIONAL SUBSCRIPTIONS.<br />
<br />
Mr. Hamilton Drummond, who is a member of<br />
our Society, has offered a subscription of £10 for<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
qaocoorcooocorcon oo<br />
or<br />
SOceaco Sa Coon oOo S So on<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
five years, if nine other members of the Society<br />
will promise the same contribution before 31gt —<br />
March, 1903.<br />
<br />
We sincerely hope that sufficient members of<br />
the Society will be found to come forward and<br />
meet Mr. Drummond’s generous offer, and that<br />
before the time expires we may be able to print in<br />
the columns of Zhe Author the full list of ten<br />
subscribers of the required amount.<br />
<br />
ecooeceo<br />
<br />
Subscriptions.<br />
Hawkins, A. Hope £10 0<br />
Barrie, J. M. . : ; : - 10 0<br />
Drummond, Hamilton : : ; 10 0<br />
Wynne, Charles Whitworth : - 10 90<br />
Gilbert, W.8. . . : : - 10-0<br />
Sturges, Julian . ; : ; « 10 90<br />
ee<br />
Sir Walter Besant Memorial Fund.<br />
THE amount standing to the credit -<br />
of this account in the Bank is......... £330 3 6<br />
<br />
There are a few promised subscriptions still —<br />
outstanding. The total of these is, roughly,<br />
about £4. The subscriptions received from July 1st —<br />
to the date of issue are given below :—<br />
<br />
Patterson, A. . i . ‘ . £1 19<br />
Salwey, Reginald EH. 010 0<br />
Gidley, Miss E. C. 010 0<br />
Nixon, Prof. J. E. 0 7.6<br />
Dill, Miss Bessie 0. 5 @<br />
Moore, Henry Charles 0 5 0<br />
Kemp, Miss Geraldine 010 6<br />
Clarke, Miss B. 0 5 0<br />
<br />
—_—_——— 2 —_____—<br />
<br />
FROM THE COMMITTEE.<br />
<br />
——~>— 2+<br />
<br />
HE second Committee Meeting of the year was<br />
held on Monday, the 2nd day of February,<br />
at 39, Old Queen Street, Storey’s Gate.<br />
<br />
Mr. Douglas Freshfield was unanimously elected<br />
Chairman for 1903. ‘There is no need to recall to.<br />
the members of the Society Mr. Freshfield’s literary —<br />
attainments.<br />
<br />
He was elected a member of the Committee and<br />
a member of the Council of the Society in January,<br />
1897. He has been a constant attendant at the<br />
meetings from the date of his election, and has —<br />
been a strong supporter of the Pension Fund and<br />
other objects of the Society. At the present time<br />
he acts as one of the Pension Fund Trustees.<br />
<br />
A warm vote of thanks to the retiring Chairman<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
- ey — was proposed by Mr. Sydney Grundy and seconded<br />
yi by Mr. Lely. Mr. Grundy, in a few words, thanked<br />
i) Mr. Hawkins for his constant and untiring labours<br />
on behalf of the Society, and for the zeal and patience<br />
which he had shown in conducting the many difficult<br />
cases and negotiations. The vote was passed with<br />
enthusiasm and unanimity. The members of the<br />
Society, we are sure, will cordially endorse the<br />
oe action of the Committee.<br />
<br />
The General Meeting of the Society was fixed<br />
<br />
oe! for Thursday the 5th of March. Members of the<br />
o0@ Society will already have received the formal<br />
vom notice.<br />
He Eleven members were elected, making the elections<br />
for the current year 42.<br />
There were three cases before the Committee in<br />
«ty which members’ interests were involved.<br />
<br />
On the first case—a dispute with regard to a<br />
dj theatrical agreement—the Committee decided to<br />
si take counsel’s opinion on behalf of the member.<br />
<br />
The second case was one in which the publisher<br />
sd had refused to carry out his contract. With the<br />
<br />
09 consent of the member it was decided to commence<br />
<br />
98 action in the matter.<br />
<br />
‘ The third case the Committee adjourned to a<br />
<br />
sisl later meeting, in order that they might have fuller<br />
1178 evidence before them.<br />
<br />
if There was also a dispute between two members<br />
<br />
io of the Society. The Committee hope that the<br />
<br />
)19 Chairman, acting as an unofficial arbitrator, may<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
‘sod be able to arrange the matter amicably.<br />
— +<br />
Record of Cases.<br />
lg Stnce the beginning of the year the Secretary<br />
ced has dealt with twenty-five cases. Of these sixteen<br />
<br />
# have come to a termination.<br />
: Six of the latter were for the return of MSS. In<br />
i five cases the MSS. were duly returned to the<br />
us authors concerned. In the sixth the author had<br />
@ no evidence that the MS. had ever reached the<br />
‘0 office, and the editor, although willing to give<br />
every assistance in his power, could find no<br />
2%) trace of its arrival.<br />
_ Two cases were for the settlement and arrange-<br />
_ ment of difficulties under contracts. These were<br />
negotiated successfully. There were four cases of<br />
_ accounts, and on demand they were promptly<br />
rendered. One involved a rather complicated issue,<br />
as the author had been in the habit of supplying<br />
“copy” to a paper, and the amount of copy<br />
supplied was in dispute. In this case also the<br />
matter was satisfactorily settled. The remaining<br />
four cases were money demands. In three of<br />
these cheques have been sent, and the fourth is<br />
in the hands of the Society’s solicitors.<br />
<br />
There are nine cases as yet unsettled. In twoof<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
135<br />
<br />
these for money due cash has been promised. If<br />
it is not paid no doubt a summons will have to be<br />
issued to enforce the members’ just rights, or the<br />
name of the paper will have to be exposed. It is<br />
hoped that the other matters will be satisfactorily<br />
closed before the next issue of 7’he Author.<br />
<br />
———+—__<br />
Elections, February, 1908.<br />
<br />
Addison, A. C. 13, Skirbeck Road, Bos-<br />
ton, Lincs.<br />
Blyth, James<br />
Gidley, A. J. C. (Jean<br />
Courtenay)<br />
Davies, Nathaniel Owen<br />
<br />
1, St. Mark’s Hill, Sur-<br />
biton, Surrey.<br />
<br />
73, Alford Street, Roath,<br />
Cardiff.<br />
<br />
13, Dennington Park<br />
Road, Hampstead,<br />
N.W.<br />
<br />
Fletcher, Miss Ciceley .<br />
<br />
Hudson, Herbert.<br />
Kennedy, Mrs. William<br />
E. (Aubrey Lee)<br />
<br />
Sharam Rectory, Manor<br />
Cunningham, R.8.0.,<br />
co. Donegal.<br />
<br />
12, Embankment Gar-<br />
dens, Chelsea, S.W.<br />
<br />
Goring-on-Thames.<br />
<br />
Westfield Old Hall,<br />
East Dereham.<br />
<br />
Maud, Miss C. E..<br />
<br />
Pitt, PW. . :<br />
Savory, Miss Isabe<br />
<br />
Vaughan, The Right Archbishop’s House,<br />
Rey. Monsignor John Westminster, 8.W.<br />
S<br />
<br />
> —___—_<br />
<br />
LITERARY, DRAMATIC, AND MUSICAL<br />
PROPERTY.<br />
<br />
—— + —<br />
Obituary Notices.<br />
<br />
HOSE who engage in journalistic work know<br />
that every newspaper office has a series of<br />
obituary notices ready to hand, written<br />
<br />
sometimes many years before the deaths of the<br />
illustrious individuals to whom they refer. When<br />
at last death comes, no matter how suddenly, the<br />
editor is prepared. The notices are brought up<br />
to date and published.<br />
<br />
From the author’s or journalist’s point of view<br />
one interesting fact should be noted.<br />
<br />
The editors of one or two papers—those by no<br />
means the least in the land—have endeavoured to<br />
establish a system of not paying for these biographies<br />
until the person about whom they are written pays<br />
the debt due to Nature. Should it chance to occur,<br />
therefore, that a journalist has undertaken to write<br />
the life of a person plagued with the curse of<br />
longevity, it may not infrequently happen that<br />
the writer dies before his study, and his personal<br />
136<br />
<br />
representatives, if they chance to be aware of the<br />
matter, are the only ones to benefit by his labour.<br />
<br />
It is evident that such a position is untenable<br />
from a strictly business point of view, unless<br />
packed by a contract in black and white, made<br />
and signed by the author prior to writing the<br />
article. In such circumstances the author is<br />
not an° object for pity, but for derision ; but the<br />
written contract on most occasions is wanting.<br />
Then, as often happens when the terms of a contract<br />
are wanting or indefinite, the editor endeavours to<br />
interpret the arrangement from his own point of<br />
view, and not from the point of view of equity<br />
or of the author. On one or two occasions authors<br />
have appealed to the Society to enforce their evident<br />
rights. The result has been in every way satis-<br />
factory. On one or two occasions authors them-<br />
selves, by taking a firm stand, have succeeded in<br />
obtaining the just reward for their labours when the<br />
work has been done ; but there are still many who<br />
lie quiet under this form of injustice, and prefer to<br />
bear the burden of their misery rather than to make<br />
an outcry. Sometimes because they are regularly<br />
employed by the editor of the paper, and do<br />
not wish to run the risk of losing their salary<br />
in order to obtain a few more pounds ; sometimes<br />
because the obituary notice may be unexpected<br />
work from a big paper, and they do not want to<br />
lose even the prospect of further work. Or, again,<br />
because they do not care whether they obtain the<br />
money or not. Whatever may be the reason that<br />
prompts the action, the editor’s point of view is,<br />
at any rate, impossible.<br />
<br />
Legally, the work must be paid for on delivery,<br />
if it is up to standard and satisfactory to the<br />
editor; unless an arrangement has been made with<br />
the author before he commences the work, that he<br />
is not to receive payment until the death of the<br />
subject.<br />
<br />
If any authors or journalists—it is common<br />
knowledge that there are such—have not been<br />
able to obtain their money under the above<br />
circumstances, and yet desire to do so, their<br />
best plan will be to put the matter before the<br />
Committee of the Society of Authors.<br />
<br />
— oe<br />
<br />
A Question of Title.<br />
<br />
Suit or “Le THeATRE,’ OF Paris, AGAINST<br />
“Tur THEATRE,’ oF New York, LOST BY<br />
Foreign PuBLIcATION.<br />
<br />
The Paris tribunal has just rendered judgment<br />
in the suit brought by the publishers of the French<br />
magazine Le Theatre against The Theatre, of New<br />
York. The result is a victory for the American<br />
publication, its French contemporary having failed<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
to obtain satisfaction in any single one of the<br />
charges contained in the complaint.<br />
<br />
The suit was brought some time ago by the<br />
Paris firm of Manzi, Joyant & Co., publishers of<br />
the French periodical known as Le Thédtre. It<br />
was charged by the complainants, among other<br />
things, that Zhe Theatre was a wilful imitation<br />
of the French periodical, and that its publication<br />
injured the sale of the French periodical, since<br />
many persons purchased Zhe T'heatre, mistaking it<br />
for the French magazine. Messrs. Meyer Brothers<br />
& Co., in their answer, denied that The Theatre<br />
had ever been misrepresented by them as being an<br />
American edition of Le Thédtre.<br />
<br />
They pointed out that The Theatre is printed in<br />
the English language, and deals almost exclusively<br />
with the American stage, whereas Le Thédire is<br />
printed in the French language, and deals almost<br />
exclusively with the French stage.<br />
<br />
——»——_<br />
<br />
The Retail Price of Books.<br />
<br />
Justice LEVENTRITT has declined to grant the<br />
application made to him on behalf of the plaintiff<br />
in the suit of Straus against the American Pub-<br />
lishers’ Association, for a temporary injunction<br />
restraining the defendant from interfering with<br />
the book-selling business of Macy & Co.<br />
<br />
The American Publishers’ Association is an<br />
organisation of publishers who have banded<br />
themselves together to maintain for one year the<br />
retail prices of copyright books, and within certain<br />
limits to govern the maximum discount to be<br />
allowed on certain other books.’ The association’s<br />
members bind themselves not to sell to any book<br />
dealer known to cut prices, or to any wholesaler<br />
who will sell to such a cut-price dealer.<br />
<br />
Plaintiff alleges that this agreement of the<br />
publishers is a combination in restraint of trade,<br />
and as such is in violation of the statutes of the<br />
State and of the Federal laws, and he asks for<br />
$100,000 damages, as well as for a permanent<br />
injunction forbidding the defendants from pur-<br />
suing the terms of their agreement against Macy<br />
& Co. The temporary injunction just denied was<br />
asked for in connection with this suit, which now<br />
take its place for trial in the regular order.<br />
<br />
The American Booksellers’ Association, an<br />
organisation of retailers reaching throughout the<br />
country in connection with the American Pub-<br />
lishers’ Association, is made a co-defendant in the<br />
suit.<br />
<br />
The plaintiff sets forth that bookselling is a part<br />
of the regular business of Macy & Co., who have<br />
developed it profitably by selling at a small per-<br />
centage of profit for cash only and not at all on<br />
credit, and alleges that publishers have habitually<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
fixed a list price for books which as a matter of<br />
fact only the uninitiated purchasers have been com-<br />
pelled to pay; and the statement is made that the<br />
defendant associations have interfered with the<br />
plaintiff’s business by discriminating against the<br />
plaintiff and forcing plaintiff to resort to secret<br />
and cumbrous methods to procure the books whose<br />
prices it is desired to protect.<br />
<br />
The defendants deny that their organisation is<br />
in restraint of trade or is in any sense in control<br />
of the fixing of prices. On the contrary they<br />
assert that there is the keenest competition<br />
<br />
among the various publishers in the association;<br />
<br />
that each publisher fixes for himself the retail<br />
price at which his copyright books shall be sold;<br />
that the association does not even attempt to fix<br />
<br />
the price which may be made at wholesale ; and<br />
<br />
that the association is merely the expression of the<br />
joint effort of the publishers to assist each other in<br />
establishing the retail prices at which their own<br />
books shall be sold.<br />
<br />
This right of protection has been upheld in the<br />
Appellate Division in a suit brought by a drug<br />
firm against the Wholesale Druggists’ Associa-<br />
tion, and Justice Leventritt, in denying the appli-<br />
cation for a temporary injunction, says that his<br />
own views of the legality of the defendants’ acts,<br />
as they find support in the very persuasive opinion<br />
of the Supreme Court of Georgia in the case of<br />
Brown against the Jacobs Pharmacy Company,<br />
must yield to the controlling law of this Depart-<br />
ment as expressed in the suit of J. D. Park &<br />
Sons against the National Wholesale Druggists’<br />
Association. He adds that there is no substantial<br />
distinction in principle between that case and<br />
<br />
dé this.<br />
<br />
The contest between the Publishers’ Association,<br />
which extends throughout the United States in its<br />
<br />
: operations, and Macy & Co. has gone on during the<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
two years of the Association’s existence, and now<br />
<br />
: awaits the determination of the present suit. It<br />
<br />
is said on behalf of the Association that the pub-<br />
lishers are convinced that the Messrs. Straus are<br />
contending for a principle ; the rejoinder is made<br />
that so are the publishers.<br />
<br />
—+—~—+ ——<br />
<br />
A Hard Case.<br />
<br />
Atjthe February Sessions at the Old Bailey an<br />
author and journalist was put upon his trial upon<br />
the charge of having robbed his agents, or rather,<br />
a firm who seem to have described themselves as<br />
“The Clarke and Hyde Press Agency,” by obtain-<br />
ing from them certain payments under false<br />
pretences. We hasten to say that the gentleman<br />
In question was acquitted without his counsel,<br />
Mr. H. C. Biron, being called upon to address the<br />
<br />
137<br />
<br />
jury, and that there was no evidence that he had<br />
Gas otherwise than as a perfectly honourable<br />
The facts of the case exhibit a phase of<br />
literary agency that will be new to many of<br />
our readers, and will serve as a warning to them as<br />
to the dangers that may follow if they embark upon<br />
financial engagements without caution. The de-<br />
fendant is a contributor to magazines and popular<br />
publications upon general and popular subjects.<br />
He entered into an agreement with the prosecutors<br />
Charles John Lavington Clarke and Bernard John<br />
Hyde, under which he placed his own work, while<br />
it was agreed that whenever he had an article of his<br />
authorship accepted he should be paid by Clarke and<br />
Hyde at once the price that he had agreed to receive<br />
for the article upon its appearance in print, less a<br />
commission of 20 percent. He also agreed to hand<br />
over the full price upon receiving it from the editor<br />
or publisher, while he bound himself to take all<br />
possible steps to recover it, and further agreed to<br />
allow sums not recovered and paid over to Clarke<br />
and Hyde to be deducted from future payments<br />
due from them to him. In these circumstances it<br />
might have been thought that the firm of “agents”<br />
were sufficiently protected in their dealings, for<br />
the author bound himself to adhere to this agree-<br />
ment for all his work. It so happened, however,<br />
that after the agreement had been carried out<br />
without any hitch for some time the anthor drew<br />
payment from them in respect of literary matter<br />
which, though accepted in advance, had not been<br />
yet written, and in respect of an article with regard<br />
to which some misunderstanding apparently took<br />
place between the editor and himself—a misunder-<br />
standing easily explained. With regard to an<br />
article agreed for beforehand, there was some delay<br />
owing to a collaborator being ill, and with regard<br />
to other matters some difficulty or delay arose in<br />
the obtaining of photographs for illustrative pur-<br />
poses. In these circumstances the firm with whom<br />
he had agreed for advances of his payments, and<br />
who had made him advances on the strength of his<br />
statements that the articles were accepted, appear<br />
to have conceived the idea that he had robbed<br />
them and obtained the money under false’ pre-<br />
tences. Some statement by an editor or a pub-<br />
lisher may have been misunderstood by them ; we<br />
are not in a position to criticise their conduct fully.<br />
They did, however, in fact, instead of resorting to<br />
their obvious civil remedy or repaying themselves<br />
under their agreement, adopt criminal proceedings.<br />
The author was prosecuted criminally, he was<br />
actually indicted and tried at the Old Bailey, and<br />
was acquitted, as we have stated, without any<br />
blame for his conduct resting upon him.<br />
It is a strange story, a terribly sad one to<br />
those who appreciate the shock, the anxiety, the<br />
138<br />
<br />
sorrow and the loss, to the gentleman who through<br />
no fault of his own was involved in it, and to all<br />
personally connected with him. Those who read<br />
of it will see that at the bottom of the whole matter<br />
lies the practice of editors or proprietors of perio-<br />
dical literature to accept articles, to keep them<br />
for indefinite periods of time, and to pay for them<br />
only upon publication. The author may be a poor<br />
man wholly dependent upon his pen. If he be, he<br />
may be lured into entering upon such an agreement<br />
as we have described with persons who will treat<br />
him as the prosecutors treated the defendant.<br />
<br />
Their agreement was one sufficiently profitable<br />
to themselves for them to have lost nothing by<br />
forbearance, if in fact they considered themselves<br />
in any way wronged. Many articles accepted are<br />
published and paid for within three months, and<br />
the author in this instance agreed to abide by the<br />
prescribed terms for all his work. T'wenty per cent.<br />
in such cases of payment within three months would<br />
show a profit at the rate of not less than eighty<br />
per cent. per annum. In the same way articles<br />
paid for within six months would mean forty per<br />
cent. ; and even when work was only paid for<br />
after a delay of four years, the money-lenders (for<br />
a transaction such as this, in fact, is one of money<br />
lending) would realise five per cent. per annum<br />
interest, which most people are glad to be able to<br />
obtain with moderate security.<br />
<br />
It is the old story of the weak and the strong,<br />
the weak being the author in need of money, and<br />
without enough fame to constitute strength, and<br />
the strong the persons able to meet his pecuniary<br />
requirements. It will be seen that the weak for-<br />
feited twenty per cent. of his income as the penalty<br />
of his weakness. It must not be supposed that<br />
we condemn in all cases the withholding of money<br />
from contributors until the article has been sub-<br />
mitted to the public. To pay altogether unknown<br />
contributors in advance might open the door to<br />
frauds upon editors more widely than it is open<br />
already, for editors cannot be omniscient, and may<br />
-at any time be offered matter already published<br />
by some idle thief who has stolen it from an old<br />
magazine or newspaper. ‘The article, however,<br />
should be submitted to the public within a reason-<br />
able time from the date of acceptance, and not<br />
retained for one, two, or three yeurs, as is not<br />
unfrequently the case. With authors known to<br />
the editor there is no reason why the transaction<br />
should not be completed at once by payment.<br />
<br />
In existing circumstances, it is, ay a rule, advis-<br />
able that an author should make a definite contract<br />
that the money should be paid by a fixed date or<br />
on publication, whichever event may first occur.<br />
Many editors do their business on these lines<br />
already.<br />
<br />
be eg een og: See<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
BOOK AND PLAY TALK.<br />
<br />
—1—>—+—_<br />
<br />
N the important and very widely read interview<br />
with our President, Mr. George Meredith,<br />
published in a recent issue of the Manchester<br />
<br />
Guardian, he made a most interesting personal<br />
statement. ‘I suppose,’ he said, “I should<br />
regard myself as getting old—I am seventy-four.<br />
But I do not feel to be growing old either in heart<br />
or mind. [I still look on life with a young man’s<br />
eye. I have always hoped I should not grow old<br />
as some do—with a palsied intellect, living back-<br />
wards, regarding other people as anachronisms<br />
because they themselves have lived on into othe<br />
times and left their sympathies behind them with<br />
their years.”<br />
<br />
With regard to Imperial politics, Mr. Meredith<br />
asks, “ Do our people know what Imperial prin<br />
ciples are?” He considers that we have yet to be<br />
instructed in them. He goes on to say :—<br />
<br />
“We call ourselves Imperial, and we believe that we are<br />
allied to the Australians and Canadians, but apparently<br />
there is no parliamentary notion, or even any publi<br />
recognition of what forces and principles animate an<br />
move these colonial democracies. They are moying ahead<br />
of us in certain directions, and can we, if we are to main<br />
tain a close relation with them, remain as we are? I<br />
Australia, for instance, they have given the suffrage to<br />
women. Are we going to do the same here? I cannot see<br />
how we are to keep united in a great Imperial system<br />
unless there is a very close agreement between our separat<br />
political systems.”<br />
<br />
Mr. H. Rider Haggard’s “Rural England<br />
Being an account of Agricultural and Socia.<br />
Researches carried out in the Years 1901 and ~<br />
1902,” has been very widely reviewed. It i<br />
certainly a book to buy for one’s library. A<br />
writer in the Contemporary Review truly says 0<br />
jt: “ As a faithful and, within its limits, complet<br />
picture of rural England at the close of the nine<br />
teenth century, I think it will live for man<br />
generations to come.” Rural England is in two”<br />
volumes (36s. nett), and contains twenty-three<br />
agricultural maps and seventy-five illustrations —<br />
from photographs.<br />
<br />
Professor Edward Dowden is the able editor o<br />
the “ Cymbeline” in Messrs. Methuen’s edition o<br />
the “ Arden” Shakespeare, which is being issued —<br />
under the general editorship of Mr. W. J. Craig.<br />
“ Cymbeline” is nearly ready for publication.<br />
<br />
Lieut.-Colonel Newnham Davis has in hand<br />
book to be called “The Gourmet’s Guide to-<br />
Europe.” Mr. Algernon Bastard is collaborating —<br />
with him in this. It is to be published next<br />
month by Mr. Grant Richards, and it deals wit<br />
the cuisine of all the countries of Europe and th<br />
chief restaurants of the capitals, sea-ports, an<br />
“ show ” towns, where there is anything interestin<br />
from a gourmet’s point of view to be found.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
f _ This unique book is to be free from any suspicion<br />
xt te of the trail of the advertiser, as no advertisement<br />
uote of any kind will be allowed in it. There will be<br />
sods about 260 pages in the volume, and its price will<br />
2 8@ be either 3s. 6d. or 5s.<br />
<br />
ve —sMrrs. Hinkson (‘ Katharine Tynan”) has just<br />
‘oyee} issued through Mr. Eveleigh Nash a novel entitled<br />
1 A* “ A Red Red Rose.” In the autumn of this year<br />
evel! Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co. will publish another<br />
feyon novel of hers, “The Honourable Nollys.” Besides<br />
eyed: these Mrs. Hinkson has just completed another<br />
soyo8 novel, and is now busy finishing a book for girls.<br />
<br />
~~ Messrs. Blackie are publishing volume by<br />
~\lo9 volume the ‘‘Cabinet of Irish Literature,” the new<br />
ibe edition of which Mrs. Hinkson edited for them.<br />
ei She has been finishing the proofs of the fourth<br />
uploy volume.<br />
_ Mrs. Marie Connor-Leighton is at present writing<br />
* ow) two long serial stories which are appearing con-<br />
“ide currently in Answers. She is also writing a serial<br />
‘a0 for the London Magazine, which started in last<br />
08 month’s number, and is called “ Was She Worth<br />
iit?” and there will appear very shortly (Grant<br />
ci91 Richards) a story entitled, “In God’s Good<br />
‘afi Time,” by this prolific authoress.<br />
wf _ All work announced as by the author or authors<br />
»* Tof “Convict 99” and “Michael Dred” is now<br />
“di wholly Mrs. Connor-Leighton’s own. Indeed, all<br />
sd that she has written during the past five years,<br />
“mf amounting on an average to close upon nine<br />
“me hundred thousand words a year, is entirely her<br />
we Own.<br />
‘| ‘Mrs. Fred Reynolds’ latest novel, “The Man<br />
i with the Wooden Face,” will be published very<br />
9 soon by Messrs. Hutchinson & Co. The scene is<br />
18 laid in North Wales. The interest centres round<br />
* ai the figure of a music teacher, who passes her<br />
' “#8 first holiday, after many years’ drudgery, amongst<br />
» ie other paying guests, in a romantic country house<br />
in the beautiful valley of Llanartro. About<br />
iy si one of the guests, “The man with the wooden<br />
face,” there is a certain amount of mystery ; and,<br />
@) as is usually the case in idle holidays spent amongst<br />
~ mountains, woods, and babbling streams, the little<br />
% god Cupid plays a busy part.<br />
| Mrs. Albanesi’s novel, “ Love and Louisa,” is<br />
F running well through a second edition. It has<br />
! 8 been published by Lippincott & Co., in America,<br />
‘{ \m@ and is selling very well over there.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
_ Rita’s new novel, “ Souls,” will be published<br />
“shortly by Messrs. Hutchinson & Co. It is a<br />
408 stinging satire on certain follies and vices of one<br />
’ 4% of the many sets of present-day society.<br />
<br />
We have been asked to mention the fact that<br />
he article entitled “Ink Drunkards,” in our last<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
139<br />
<br />
issue, was written by Mr. L. Harlingford North.<br />
We have much pleasure in doing so, as the article<br />
has created some stir. There was a full leader<br />
devoted to it in the Morning Post.<br />
<br />
Mr. Richard Marsh’s new long novel, “The<br />
Magnetic Girl,” is to be issued immediately by<br />
Mr. John Long. The novel is an amusing one,<br />
and very readable.<br />
<br />
Mr. Bloundelle-Burton’s new story of to-day,<br />
“ \ Branded Name,” has finished its serial course,<br />
and will be published in volume form by Methuen<br />
& Co. on the 19th inst. -The mystery of the novel,<br />
although told in the form of fiction, has a solid<br />
foundation in fact, and will, to many persons in<br />
London society, recall some incidents in the lives<br />
of two well-known beautiful women which were<br />
much discussed some few years ago without<br />
becoming matter of public gossip.<br />
<br />
Miss Evelyn Sharp is to produce a series of<br />
readers for children. Of these there are to be<br />
three. The first, now ready, has no words longer<br />
than two syllables, and the stories and verses about<br />
children are all very short. In the second the<br />
words and the stories grow a little longer, and so<br />
in the third. Most of the stories are illustrated by<br />
pictures taken from photographs of real children.<br />
Messrs. Macmillan publish the series.<br />
<br />
“Little Entertainments,” by Barry Pain (1s.,<br />
Fisher Unwin), contains 134 pages of amusing<br />
reading. ‘The Collector” makes a special appeal<br />
to us. We quote the opening, and refer our readers<br />
to the little volume for the rest of it :—<br />
<br />
“The critics speak<br />
<br />
“Tt may be so,’ said the stranger.<br />
sut he is<br />
<br />
very highly of his Academy pictures this year.<br />
not an artist. The point is beyond doubt.”<br />
“Why ?”<br />
“ Because I know for a fact that he understands—really<br />
understands—rates and taxes.”<br />
<br />
We are sorry to say we have room for only one<br />
quotation from “John Bull’s Year Book” for<br />
1908 (1s., John Bull Press, 5, Henrietta Street,<br />
W.C.) :-—<br />
<br />
“Toe ART OF WRITING BOOKS.<br />
<br />
“ One could not advise the aspiring author to do what a<br />
certain publisher is reported to have done, namely, to<br />
secure a coyer and write a book to fit it. But it would<br />
certainly save trouble if one secured a really good title first<br />
and then wrote a book around it.<br />
<br />
“Two more observations in conclusion, which will not<br />
be believed by the worshipper before the shrine of the<br />
implacable Geddess of Letters, but which must be made<br />
nevertheless. The verses of unknown poets are never<br />
accepted for book publication, And there is such a limited<br />
market for books of short stories that the publisher will not<br />
issue them unless they are the products of genius. Young<br />
writers, therefore, should never commence with poems or<br />
short stories in approaching the book publisher. The<br />
better, nobler, and more satisfactory way is to refrain from<br />
writing altogether.”<br />
<br />
<br />
140<br />
<br />
Dr. Emil Reich’s “New Students’ Atlas of<br />
English History” is designed to aid the student<br />
in comprehending the leading historical facts and<br />
movements. It is specially intended as comple-<br />
mentary to Green’s “ History of the English People.”<br />
In each map only strictly relevant details are<br />
admitted. When the maps illustrate the progress<br />
of events, or campaigns, a brief chronological<br />
summary is given on the page facing the map.<br />
<br />
There are fifty-five maps in all. The first shows,<br />
by arrow-headed lines, the migrations of the German<br />
and Celtic peoples into and in Great Britain and<br />
Ireland ; while the last show British Africa (three<br />
maps), the British Empire as it is to-day ; and<br />
finally, by a geographical arrangement of statistics,<br />
the distribution of British genius for the various<br />
counties in the three kingdoms.<br />
<br />
The Rev. Charles Voysey has just issued through<br />
Messrs. Longmans a book called “ Religion for all<br />
Mankind: Based on Facts which are Never in<br />
Dispute.” The author tells us in his short preface<br />
that “ ‘The following pages are written for the help<br />
and comfort of all my fellow-men, and chiefly for<br />
those who have doubted and discarded the Christian<br />
religion, and in consequence have become Agnostics<br />
and Pessimists.” Mr. Voysey offers his book at a<br />
price (2s. 6d. nett) which will barely cover the<br />
expense of production, that it may be within reach<br />
of all, and at the same time give proof that the<br />
work has not been done with mercenary aims.<br />
<br />
Among the illustrated editions which Messrs.<br />
Macmillan are including in their Prize Library is<br />
Sir Walter Besant’s “ Life of Captain Cook.”<br />
<br />
We have received a little book entitled “ Arriére<br />
Pensées,” by Mr. W. P. Peters (Clark & Co., Paris).<br />
It is full of epigrammatic sayings and mottoes,<br />
some of which have a touch of humour in addition<br />
to the sting. We quote one or two examples :—<br />
<br />
“Many gather nuts, but few crack them.”<br />
<br />
“ Every dog has his day, and every cat her night.”<br />
<br />
“We may take the world as we find it, but we never<br />
leave it so.”<br />
<br />
Geraldine Kemp, the author of “ Ingram,” and<br />
an industrious writer of short stories, has contri-<br />
buted to a recent number of the “ British Realm”<br />
a lever de rideau which she calls “A Comedietta.”<br />
It is a bright, crisp piece of writing.<br />
<br />
Graham Hope’s new novel, “The Triumph of<br />
Count Ostermann,” is to be published by Messrs.<br />
Smith, Elder & Co. on the 9thinst. Peter the Great<br />
is one of the chief characters of the story, which<br />
begins in 1724.<br />
<br />
Among recently published novels written by<br />
members of the Society “The Little White Bird,”<br />
by Mr. J. M. Barrie; “Paul Kelver,” by Mr.<br />
Jerome K. Jerome; “The Four Feathers,” by<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
Mr. A. E. W. Mason ; and ‘‘ Fuel of Fire,” by Mi<br />
<br />
E. T. Fowler, are doing remarkably well, Mr<br />
Edward Kennard’s ‘‘ The Motor Maniac ” is sellin<br />
well also.<br />
<br />
Mr. George Cecil has just accepted the editor<br />
ship of the Piano Journal, a monthly paper<br />
which has been known to the musical public fo<br />
many years. It is an excellent little periodica<br />
chiefly intended for makers and dealers, and<br />
published by William Rider & Son, 164, Aldersga<br />
Street, H.C.<br />
<br />
Mr. W. 8. Walker (“Coo-ee”?) has published<br />
through Mr. John Long two interesting stories,<br />
They are entitled “ Zealandia’s Guerdon”’ and “ In<br />
the Blood.” The latter has sixteen illustrations<br />
by John Williamson. Both tales are very read-<br />
able; ‘Coo-ee” so evidently writes from &<br />
thorough personal knowledge of Australian char-<br />
acter and Bush life ; he shows, too, in ‘ Zealandia’s<br />
Guerdon” that New Zealand is familiar to him,<br />
<br />
Mr. W. Somerset Maugham’s new play “ A Man<br />
of Honour” is issued as a literary supplement to<br />
the March number of the Fortnightly Review. It<br />
was one of the two plays produced by the Stage<br />
Society at the opening of its fourth season.<br />
<br />
Sir A. Conan Doyle, Mr. W. Gillette, and Mr,<br />
Charles Frohman have now had the interim ~<br />
injunction made perpetual against Mr. H. S|<br />
Dacre restraining him from using the title<br />
“Sherlock Holmes” without printing after tha<br />
title “ Not the Lyceum Version.”<br />
<br />
We understand that Mr, Henry Arthur Jones —<br />
new three-act comedy of modern life will b<br />
produced at the Garrick on March 2nd. Mr.<br />
‘Arthur Bourchier, Miss Violet Vanbrugh, Mr, Sau<br />
Sothern, and Miss E. Arthur Jones will be amon<br />
those appearing in the caste.<br />
<br />
Mrs. Hodgson Burnett’s play ‘“ The Littl<br />
Princess” has made quite a hit at its matinee<br />
performances in New York.<br />
<br />
“Resurrection,” a dramatised version of Tolstoy<br />
great novel, by Henry Bataille and Michael Mortol<br />
was produced at His Majesty’s Theatre on the<br />
evening of February 13th. The play is admirably<br />
staged. There are some fifty dramatis person.<br />
The plot of the drama does not, of covrse, kee<br />
close in every detail to that of the nov.!. Mr.<br />
Tree takes the part of Prince Dimitry Ne aludoff,,<br />
and Miss Lena Ashwell is a charming and at th<br />
game time life-like Katusha. She hada deservedly<br />
enthusiastic reception. Mr. Oscar Ashe was<br />
able Simonson. Mr. Lionel Brough played admu<br />
ably the part of the merciful merchant in #l<br />
jury scene.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
r= “The Marriage of Kitty” reached its 200th<br />
seq performance on the evening of February 16th.<br />
- «90 Our readers will remember that this popular play<br />
<br />
esy was produced at the Duke of York’s Theatre on<br />
joo8 August 19th, 1902, and was transferred some<br />
» sa" weeks later to Wyndham’s Theatre to make room<br />
/ for Mr. J. M. Barrie’s “ The Admirable Crichton.”<br />
<br />
of We understand that Miss Hilda Spong is to play<br />
«9d the réle of the Duchess of Quinton in “The Bishop’s<br />
9volf Move ” when it is produced in New York.<br />
<br />
r The Feuilleton of the Narodni Listz, one of the<br />
joie chief journals of Prague in the Czech language,<br />
eey was lately devoted to the work of Mr. James Baker,<br />
‘ ody who has made the Bohemian folk, their land and<br />
| ei) its history essentially, his own subject amongst<br />
‘og English writers. The article that is by A. L,<br />
salel Jelen is headed “ Our English Friend.” It gives<br />
‘la 8 a sketch of the books and articles Mr. Baker has<br />
‘ivy written dealing with Bohemia and Bohemian life<br />
' bas and history. His two historical novels, ‘The<br />
ibis Cardinal’s Page” and “The Gleaming Dawn,”<br />
oe adj the scenes of which alternate between England and<br />
s.fo@ Bohemia in the fifteenth century, and “ Mark<br />
<br />
Jif Tillotson,” a modern novel, are about to appear<br />
“3 gi in the Bohemian tongue.”<br />
<br />
+><br />
<br />
PARIS NOTES.<br />
<br />
—+-—<>— +<br />
<br />
NE of the great events of the month of<br />
February in the French literary world was<br />
the publication of Zola’s posthumous novel<br />
<br />
“ Verité.”<br />
<br />
“f -'This book is the third volume of the series<br />
<br />
» entitled “ Quatre Evangiles.” The first two were<br />
<br />
> “Fécondité” and “Travail,” and the last volume<br />
<br />
~ of the series, “ Justice,” was not even commenced<br />
at the time of the author’s death.<br />
<br />
It requires a certain amount of courage to com-<br />
<br />
© mence this book, which is nearly seven hundred<br />
- and fifty pages long and very closely written. Had<br />
) the author been spared, he would undoubtedly have<br />
- eut it down considerably, as the descriptions are<br />
6! long, there is a certain amount of repetition, and<br />
i the story itself is greatly hampered by the excess<br />
© of detail.<br />
Of course it is evident from the first chapter<br />
#) that the author in planning this book was thinking<br />
+ of the Dreyfus case. The plot is quite different,<br />
© bnt the victim, the man who is wrongfully accused,<br />
is a Jew. When the sentence is pronounced, we<br />
have the description of the state of mind of the<br />
friend who has taken up the cause of the unfortu-<br />
nate man. It seems as though Zola must have<br />
noted down his own impressions during the Dreyfus<br />
trial and his desire for the truth.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
141<br />
<br />
He touches on the attitude of members of various<br />
classes of society. We have the bourgeois, the<br />
working-man, the wealthy Jewish banker, and the<br />
ruined aristocrat who has married the banker’s<br />
daughter, There are also priests, bigoted women,<br />
Government officials, and, indeed, representatives<br />
of most of the prominent types of modern French<br />
society.<br />
<br />
The chief idea of the book seems to be to prove<br />
how difficult it is for truth to come out victorious,<br />
fettered as it is by the ignorance and prejudices<br />
found in every rank of life. Zola attempts to<br />
prove that it is only by the education of the<br />
masses that any true progress can be made.<br />
<br />
At the close of the book we have the key-note.<br />
“Non! le bonheur n’avait jamais été dans l’ignor-<br />
ance il était dans la connaissance, qui allait<br />
changer l’affreux champ de la misére matérielle<br />
et morale en une vaste terre féconde, dont la<br />
culture, d’année en année, décuplerait les richesses.<br />
. . . Et, apres la Famille enfantée, aprés la Cité<br />
fondée, la Nation se trouvait constituce, du jour<br />
ou, par instruction intégrale de tous les citoyens,<br />
elle était devenue capable de vérité et de justice.”<br />
<br />
A most interesting book by Henri D’Alméras,<br />
entitled ‘Avant la Gloire,’ was published quite<br />
recently.<br />
<br />
It is the story of the literary career of many of<br />
the French modern writers in the days before they<br />
were known to the public, and the perusal of the<br />
two volumes might be encouraging to many literary<br />
aspirants. Among the authors mentioned are:<br />
Dumas fils, Goncourt, Daudet, Maupassant,<br />
Verlaine, Coppée, Sardou, Halévy, Anatole France,<br />
Bourget, Loti, Ohnet, Jules Verne, Margueritte,<br />
Charles Foley, and Brulat.<br />
<br />
Among historical works lately published is the<br />
fifth volume of M. Albert Sorel’s ‘‘ L’Europe et la<br />
Révolution.” ‘This volume is entitled ‘‘ Bonaparte<br />
et le Directoire.”<br />
<br />
Another historical work is by M. le Comte<br />
Fleury, “Les Fantémes et Silhouettes.”<br />
<br />
In this volume we have studies of the two<br />
Princesses de Condé, Lauzun and Madame de<br />
Stainville, du Barry, Marie Antoinette, Despreaux,<br />
the husband of La Guimard and Madame de<br />
Custine.<br />
<br />
“Le Paradis de Homme,” by Mare Andiol, is a<br />
most curious book. It is supposed to be a romance<br />
of the future, and the opening chapter is dated<br />
2003 and written from the New-Eden. Several<br />
books have already been published anticipating<br />
the time when the progress of science and socialism<br />
shall have worked wonders for mankind. M. Andiol,<br />
however, proves that even in this New-Eden the<br />
inhabitants do not find perfect happiness. And a<br />
wise old peasant woman declares: “It’s no use<br />
expecting from this earth what it does not give.”<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
142<br />
<br />
As regards magazines and reviews, there have<br />
been several fresh ventures recently here in the<br />
way of Anglo-French publications.<br />
<br />
it is now about a year ago since Miss Nina<br />
Estabrook started an illustrated paper called Paris-<br />
World. It is a monthly review containing short<br />
articles and sketches on Parisian topics. The<br />
early numbers would appeal, perhaps, more to<br />
‘Americans than to an English public on account of<br />
the illustrated interviews and the “ writing up”<br />
of people whose fame is merely social. The last<br />
numbers of this paper are greatly improved, some<br />
of the illustrations are excellent, and if only<br />
certain pages could be replaced by a few literary<br />
articles the little magazine would do great credit<br />
to its editor. It has hitherto been chiefly cir-<br />
culated in Paris and America, but the idea now is<br />
to make it an organ of Parisian news for London<br />
and for the American and English colonies in all<br />
the European capitals.<br />
<br />
Another periodical which has appeared here<br />
within the last few weeks is The Weekly Critical<br />
Review, a sixpenny journal devoted to literature,<br />
music, and the fine arts. It is edited by M. Arthur<br />
Bles, and among its long list of contributors are<br />
names such as MM. Jules Claretie, Francois<br />
Coppée, Gustave Larroumet, Paul Bourget, Auguste<br />
Rodin, Jules Verne, Coquelin cadet, Huysmans, etc.<br />
<br />
It contains articles in English and French, and,<br />
judging by the way in which it is being taken up,<br />
it appears to have supplied a need. There are<br />
numbers of people who read French and English<br />
with equal facility, and for them it is most<br />
interesting to find a paper publishing the thoughts<br />
and ideas of literary men, artists and musicians<br />
either in English or French, as the case may be.<br />
There is no vulgarity whatever about this new<br />
review, and in these days this certainly is refreshing.<br />
<br />
There is a portrait of some celebrity given away<br />
with each number, but there are no other illus-<br />
trations.<br />
<br />
Still another periodical has commenced here in<br />
two languages, English and French, but in this<br />
case the articles are all translated and given in<br />
both languages.<br />
<br />
The International Theatre is the title of this new<br />
venture, and the only wonder is that dramatic<br />
authors and theatrical people generally should<br />
have existed so long without such a magazine. It<br />
is published monthly, and contains an account of<br />
theatrical events in all parts of the world. A<br />
monthly report in French and English is given of<br />
the plays produced in Paris, Vienna, London, Berlin,<br />
Rome, St. Petersburg, New York, etc. Through the<br />
medium of this paper authors can follow the career<br />
<br />
of their plays round the world.<br />
<br />
There seems no doubt whatever but that this<br />
review will have immense success, There are<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
excellent photos of artistes and dramatic authors<br />
of every country, and some most interesting articles<br />
written specially for the paper by celebrities in the<br />
theatrical world.<br />
<br />
The February number contains an interview with<br />
M. Sardou on the subject of the play ‘ Dante,”<br />
which he has written with M. Moreau for Sir<br />
Henry Irving. There is also an article on the<br />
“Dickens Theatre,” by John Hollingshead.<br />
<br />
The editor of the International Theatre is M.<br />
Gaston Mayer, son of the well-known impressario<br />
who has, for the last thirty years, managed the<br />
French plays in London. M. de Beer acts as<br />
manager of the new magazine, which is published<br />
in Paris.<br />
<br />
There seems to be great enterprise this year<br />
with regard to English publications in Paris. The<br />
new edition of English books brought out by Mr.<br />
Fisher Unwin for Continental circulation is a great<br />
boon to the English-speaking colony in European<br />
countries. Hitherto we have had to put up with<br />
the Tauchnitz edition, which is so badly bound in<br />
its paper cover that it comes to pieces in the hand.<br />
If only other English publishers would supply @<br />
similar edition to the “Unwin Library,” the<br />
Tauchnitz firm would have to improve their<br />
edition or retire. Mr. Calmann Levy supplies<br />
the “ Unwin Library” in Paris.<br />
<br />
There is to be a great treat for art-lovers at the<br />
beginning of April.<br />
<br />
The two hundred and forty-five original draw-<br />
ings by Maurice Leloir, for Alexandre Dumas’<br />
“ Dame de Monsoreau,” are to be sold, and there<br />
is to be a private exhibition of them in the Galerie<br />
des Artistes Modernes on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th<br />
of April.<br />
<br />
There is an illustrated catalogue of the draw-<br />
ings, some of which are most quaint.<br />
<br />
‘At the theatres one of the excitements has been<br />
Madame Sarah Bernhardt’s new interpretation of<br />
Hermione in Racine’s “‘ Andromaque.” M. Saint-<br />
Saens wrote some music for it to give foree to the<br />
most exciting passages.<br />
<br />
The International Theatre has just given us a<br />
German play, “ Jeunesse,” by Max Halbe, trans-<br />
lated into French by Myriam Harry.<br />
<br />
M. Bour was excellent as the German student,<br />
and M. Bauer very fine as the idiot. There are<br />
two priests in the play, and this is probably why<br />
there was so much excitement about it when it<br />
was played in Germany. The fine acting carried<br />
it through well in Paris.<br />
<br />
« Bloradora” has been adapted from the English,<br />
and is now being played at the Bouffes Parisiens.<br />
<br />
Auys HALLARD.<br />
<br />
—_—_——_+-—>—+>—__—_<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
PUBLISHERS’ PROFITS AND AUTHORS’<br />
RETURNS.<br />
<br />
—+—> +<br />
A Comparison.<br />
<br />
N the January Author certain facts and figures,<br />
intimately connected with nett books and<br />
publisher's profits, were put forward for con-<br />
<br />
sideration.<br />
<br />
It is more than probable that an endeavour will<br />
be made to deny the figures, and to prove the<br />
deductions arrived at to be false. Mathematics<br />
have never been an exact science in the opinion of<br />
an adversary, and a syllogism never anything but<br />
a useless figure of speech.<br />
<br />
Another evident criticism of the article would<br />
state that the prices were based on the whole of the<br />
edition selling, and that only one book in thirty<br />
pays its way, or, as a music publisher asserts, 2 per<br />
cent. of the published songs succeed. But there is<br />
no need why the author should suffer in order that<br />
the publisher may be allowed to gamble. Or in<br />
other words, each book should stand by itself, and<br />
from the author’s point of view must always do so.<br />
<br />
To those who do not remember the figures set<br />
forth it is as well to repeat them.<br />
<br />
The cost of production of 1,050 copies of a book<br />
of 640 pages, with a fair amount included for<br />
advertising, costs £170.<br />
<br />
The book sells at 12s. 6d. nett.<br />
<br />
W = the amount per copy of the cost of pro-<br />
duction.<br />
<br />
X = the royalty per copy paid to the author.<br />
<br />
Y = theamountof the publisher’s profit percopy,<br />
<br />
Z the amount of bookseller’s profit per copy.<br />
<br />
W+X+Y+2Z= 12s. 6d. = 150d.<br />
<br />
In the former article, which contained the<br />
detailed particulars of figures and calculations, the<br />
equation worked out as follows—<br />
<br />
42°94 + 15 + 50°06 + 42 = 150.<br />
<br />
Or 3s. 6°94d. + 1s. 8d. + 4s. 2-06d. + 3. 6d. =<br />
<br />
12s. 6d.<br />
<br />
Take these figures! Consider them! Turn<br />
them about! Look at them under changing<br />
lights! They will afford food for thought.<br />
<br />
The publisher takes the lion’s share. It must<br />
be remembered that throughout the calculations<br />
care has been taken to state his profits at a low<br />
figure, the only advantage that has been given<br />
him—let us be quite fair—that the full edition of<br />
950 copies (not 1,050) has sold.<br />
<br />
The bookseller, who does little beyond purchasing<br />
the book at one price and selling it at another,<br />
Teceives not +’; of a penny less than the printer, the<br />
binder, etc. {who have done all the mechanical work,<br />
<br />
The author, whose expenditure of time, to say<br />
nothing of anything else, hag been the greatest,<br />
comes in nowhere.<br />
<br />
143<br />
<br />
The proportion of profits may be made more<br />
<br />
clear by stating them in percentages. Thug :—<br />
28°63 + 10 + 33°37 + 28 = 100.<br />
<br />
So that if 950 copies are sold, and the author<br />
Tecelves 10 per cent. royalty, the publisher obtains :<br />
1. The return of the amount he invested. 2.<br />
Sufficient to pay the author’s royalty. 3. Almost<br />
a cent. per cent. profit. If the sales take place<br />
within one year the result is eminently satisfactory.<br />
If within two years, he has made about 50 per<br />
cent. If within four years, 25 per cent.<br />
<br />
The publisher, anxious to join in the debate, at<br />
once leaps to his feet, and with much waving of<br />
arms, bursts into reply<br />
<br />
Firstly, that the figures of the cost of production<br />
are wrong.<br />
<br />
Secondly, that the whole edition has sold out—<br />
a fact almost unparalleled in the annals of<br />
publishing.<br />
<br />
Thirdly, that the author’s royalty is absurdly<br />
understated, as it is well known that authors now-<br />
a-days, etc., ete.<br />
<br />
In answer to the first joinder of issue, let the<br />
publisher produce his own figures. If he can show<br />
them to be reasonable market prices for printing,<br />
paper, and binding, there is nothing to fear.<br />
<br />
In answer to the second, let us consider the<br />
figures alittle further. How many copies must the<br />
publisher sell at 9s. to be able to pay for the cost of<br />
production and to leave 30d. profit on each copy,<br />
so that he may have an equal profit with the<br />
author, that is 15d. for himself and 15d. for the<br />
author—15d. being 10 per cent. on the published<br />
price of the book. 12s. 6d. = 150d.<br />
<br />
The sum is a very simple one :—<br />
<br />
30d. = 5 sixpences.<br />
9s. = 18 sixpences,<br />
£170 = 6,800 sixpences.<br />
Let X = the number of copies that must be sold.<br />
18 X = 68004+5 X.<br />
13 X = 6800.<br />
X= 523°07.<br />
<br />
The publisher, therefore, who sells 524 copies—<br />
surely not an unreasonable sale—receives a fraction<br />
over the amount received by the author.<br />
<br />
But it is of the utmost importance to remember<br />
that 10 per cent. on the published price has nothing<br />
to do with the percentage on the capital invested.<br />
The capital invested is £170.<br />
<br />
The sum which the publisher receives on each<br />
copy is 9s. From this he deducts 1s. 3d. for the<br />
author’s royalty, and 3s. 6°94d. represents the<br />
capital which he has invested. :<br />
<br />
The sum, therefore, which he receives for 524<br />
copies is, after deduction of the author’s royalty—<br />
<br />
524 x 7s. 9d. = 4,061s. = £208 1s. ; :<br />
or, after deducting £170, the cost of production,<br />
£33 1s.; and this is the publisher’s profit.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
144<br />
<br />
In order to express the amount as a percentage,<br />
the following statement must be considered :<br />
<br />
33°05<br />
170 : 100 2: 33°05: Se 1941.<br />
é<br />
<br />
The publisher’s profit, therefore, exceeds 19 per<br />
cent. of his invested capital when only 524 copies<br />
are sold in twelve months.<br />
<br />
Sometimes as many as 524 copies would sell on<br />
subscription — that is, when the book is being<br />
placed before the trade at the date of, or just prior<br />
to, publication. Then with, say, six months’ credit,<br />
the publisher would make 38 per cent. Take the<br />
darker side: 524 copies only sell in two years,<br />
even then the publisher makes 93 per cent.—a not<br />
unreasonable investment for his money.<br />
<br />
If the whole edition—that is, 950 copies—are<br />
sold within the twelve months, by a similar process<br />
of reasoning—it is unnecessary to work out the<br />
figures—the publisher gains £198 2s. 6d.<br />
<br />
That is, the publisher’s profit on his investment<br />
of £170, to express the same in the form of a<br />
percentage :<br />
<br />
170 : 100 +; 198125 ; 100 x TAS 729 — 316-55;<br />
or the publisher makes more than 1164 per cent.<br />
per annum on the capital he invests, supposing he<br />
sells the edition within the year. If the edition<br />
sells in two years, he makes 58% per cent. ; if in<br />
three years, over 38 per cent.<br />
<br />
Tn answer to the last statement, the author’s<br />
royalties are what a process of bargaining will<br />
make them ; for the well-known writers of fiction<br />
10 per cent. is absurdly low. The book is pub-<br />
lished at 6s., and all the figures have been placed<br />
before Members on many occasions.<br />
<br />
But when a book is published at 12s. 6d., it is<br />
not infrequently a volume of memoirs, a bio-<br />
graphy, or a book of travel, and is the property of<br />
the too confiding one-book man. He knows not<br />
the price of literary wares. He is ignorant of<br />
publishers’ methods ; or, perhaps, as the book is<br />
written in leisure moments, he is only too glad to<br />
get anything for it, and proceeds all unwittingly to<br />
undersell his brethren of the pen.<br />
<br />
The one-book man is the natural prey of the<br />
publisher, who reaps a golden harvest at the rate<br />
of 10 per cent. on all copies sold, or at even lower<br />
figures, such as 10 per cent. after the sale of 100,<br />
200, or even as high as 500 free of royalty.<br />
<br />
However, let us give the publisher the benefit<br />
of his third and last objection.<br />
<br />
The sum to be considered is that divided between<br />
the author and publisher :<br />
<br />
15 + 50°06= 65°06.<br />
The publisher receives for the book a sum of<br />
money which enables him to pay (1) the cost of<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
production, (2) the author’s royalty, (3) a profit to<br />
himself as a percentage on his capital.<br />
<br />
Now the following table will show that even if<br />
the publisher’s objection is sustained, and the<br />
whole edition sells within a year at the rate of<br />
30 per cent. to the author on the published price,<br />
he reaps 46°71 per cent. on his capital.<br />
<br />
Publisher’s inte-<br />
<br />
Author’s Author Publisher rest on capital in-<br />
<br />
royalty receives receives vested per cent.<br />
per cent. per copy. per copy. per annum,<br />
74d. 4s. 9°81d. 134°39<br />
10 1s, 3d. 4s. 2°06d. ... 116°55<br />
12 1s. 6d. ... Ss. 11:U6d. 1.) 10571<br />
15 1s. 10$d.... 38. 6°81d. 99°69<br />
20 25. 6d. ..,, 28. 11060... 81°64<br />
25 38: lad. ... 28. 3°81d. 64°76<br />
30 3s. 9d. ... 18. 8°06d. 46°71<br />
35 4s. 4¢d. ... 1s. 081d. 29°80<br />
40 5s. Od. Os. 506d. 11°78<br />
<br />
It is possible that a further objection may be<br />
raised. ‘Che publisher will say, “ You have taken<br />
the sale of limited numbers of the edition when<br />
the author receives 10 per cent.; and, again, you<br />
have taken various royalties to the author when<br />
the whole edition is sold. But what of the pub-<br />
lisher’s profit when the author’s royalty is high and<br />
the whole edition does not sell ?”<br />
<br />
Supposing, then, the author’s royalty is 15 per<br />
cent., 20 per cent., 25 per cent., how many copies<br />
must the publisher sell to make his profit on each<br />
copy equal to that of the author, and what interest<br />
per cent. does this in each case represent upon his<br />
investment of £170, if the copies are sold within<br />
the twelve months ?<br />
<br />
The problem is how many copies must the pub-<br />
lisher sell at 9s. to be able to get back his capital,<br />
£170, expended on the cost of production, and to<br />
have for himself a sum equal to that which he pays<br />
the author.<br />
<br />
The cost of production is always £170 = 3,400s.<br />
= 40,800d.<br />
<br />
The sum which the publisher receives for each<br />
copy is always 9s. = 108d.<br />
<br />
Let X in each case represent the number of<br />
copies which must be sold.<br />
<br />
Then, in the first case, the author receives &<br />
<br />
royalty of 15 per cent. =x a. = 22°6d.<br />
<br />
The publisher must have, to divide equally<br />
between himself and author 2 x 225d. = 45d.<br />
upon each copy sold.<br />
<br />
108 X = 40,800 +45 X.<br />
63 X = 40,800.<br />
T= 6176<br />
<br />
The publisher must sell 648 copies. To find his<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
profit per cent. upon his invested capital of £170 =<br />
<br />
40,800d., we must write,<br />
<br />
100 x 22°5 x 648<br />
<br />
. 28 ODA . es<br />
<br />
As 40,800 : 100 3: 22°5 x 648: oh<br />
<br />
22:5 x 648<br />
408<br />
<br />
Secondly, when the author’s royalty is 20 per<br />
cent., z.e. 30d.<br />
<br />
The publisher must have, to divide equally<br />
between himself and the author, 60d. = 5s. on each<br />
copy sold. And the calculation can be made in<br />
shillings.<br />
<br />
9 X = 3,400 + 5X.<br />
4X = 3,400.<br />
X= 650.<br />
The publisher must sell 850 copies. To find his<br />
profit per cent. upon his invested capital of £170 =<br />
3,400s., he must write,<br />
<br />
As 3,400: 100 ::2°5 x 850:<br />
<br />
34<br />
<br />
It is deserving of remark that the publisher’s<br />
gain per cent. creases (in consequence of the<br />
larger sale and the larger consequent profit on each<br />
copy), although he is giving a larger royalty to the<br />
author. But a point exists at which he is no<br />
longer able to share equally.<br />
<br />
Thus: in the third case, when the author’s<br />
royalty is 25 per cent., 7.e. 37°5d. per copy.<br />
<br />
The publisher must have to divide equally<br />
between himself and the author 75d. on each copy<br />
sold.<br />
<br />
108 X = 40,800 + 75 X.<br />
33 X = 40,800.<br />
X= 1,236°6.<br />
<br />
The publisher must sell 1,237 copies. This he<br />
cannot do, having only 950 copies for sale. That<br />
is to say he cannot give the author a royalty of<br />
25 per cent., and himself reap an equal profit per<br />
copy. And this appears also in the table given<br />
above, where it is shown that at a royalty of<br />
25 per cent. the publisher’s profit per copy becomes<br />
less than the author’s, even if the whole edition is<br />
sold, but yet his profit on his capital when paying<br />
the author 25 per cent. is substantial. It is 64°76.<br />
<br />
All possible objections have now been met. It<br />
is clear that with a limited sale, and with royalty<br />
that to some may appear large, the publisher’s<br />
profit is still substantial. If it does not quite<br />
<br />
= 85°7.<br />
<br />
100 x 2°5 x 850 _<br />
3,400<br />
<br />
equal that of the author in some cases, it is no<br />
small percentage on the capital invested.<br />
<br />
Workers in other lines of business would be<br />
pleased if they could reckon on such a profit.<br />
<br />
145<br />
<br />
If publishers grumble about their losses it can<br />
only be accounted for by the fact that that vice<br />
which is gradually pervading and destroying all<br />
legitimate trade has caught them also. They are<br />
eng with books, as others with stocks and<br />
shares,<br />
<br />
_<br />
<br />
THE DISTRIBUTION OF BOOKS.<br />
<br />
+4<br />
The Bookseller.<br />
<br />
HE question of “The Distribution of Books”<br />
having been taken up by 7he Author, it is<br />
to be hoped that the whole subject may be<br />
<br />
thoroughly threshed out. Mr. MacLehose has, at<br />
the beginning of his interesting article, modestly<br />
pleaded that the question deserves more attention<br />
than is usually given it. That is putting the<br />
point temperately. Any one who contended that<br />
the distribution of books is at the present moment<br />
the most important of all accessory literary<br />
problems would be probably ‘not far from the<br />
truth. The facts require to be dragged into day-<br />
light, and the whole situation to be made plain. And<br />
that any one who can assist in any way to. this<br />
end will be doing good service must be the present<br />
writer’s excuse for a few remarks upon one aspect<br />
of the subject from one who can make no pretence<br />
to be either fully acquainted with all its bearings<br />
or by any. means so well informed as Mr. Mac-<br />
Lehose» The general obscurity and uncertainty<br />
at présent existing respecting the methods and<br />
complications of the distribution of books exactly<br />
resemble those which obtained concerning the<br />
cost of production before Sir Walter Besant, in the<br />
early years of the Society of Authors, brought<br />
the previously carefully concealed facts to light.<br />
The cost of production has long ceased to be a<br />
secret. And there is no reason why the methods<br />
by which books are distributed should remain one,<br />
if the interested parties (and they are many)<br />
choose to have the facts made plain. If the Society<br />
of Authors can assist to this desirable end, a<br />
service will be rendered, not to authors only, but<br />
also to the reading public, and to the publishers.<br />
That sales should increase is as much to be<br />
desired by these last as by any one else.<br />
<br />
That the distributing machinery is unsatisfactory<br />
and out of gear is undeniable. Wherever we find<br />
simultaneously existing a producer who cannot sell<br />
the commodity which he produces and a purchaser<br />
desirous of obtaining the same commodity unable<br />
to procure it, the method by which the commodity<br />
is distributed is evidently faulty.<br />
<br />
This is at present the case in the book trade.<br />
Authors cannot command really popular sales;<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
146<br />
<br />
publishers cannot secure remunerative ones. And<br />
at the same time the larger part of the reading<br />
public—a public which would be larger than it is<br />
if its tastes were not systematically thwarted—<br />
cannot procure the books it desires.<br />
<br />
The outcry of the impossibility of getting books<br />
is universal. Every one has heard it in all forms,<br />
ranging from the complaint of the subscriber of<br />
the circulating library who reads only for amuse-<br />
ment (the most laudable, excellent, and improving<br />
of all amusements), andsdeclares “ One can never<br />
get what one wants,” to the protest of the scholar<br />
who knows how small are the number of shops at<br />
which he has any chance of procuring the works<br />
necessary for his studies—if he can procure them<br />
at all. In the suburbs and in the country the<br />
people who will have books send to town for them,<br />
in some cases take railway journeys to procure<br />
them ; the scholar makes laborious extracts at<br />
the public libraries of the matter which he requires,<br />
because to get the actual works is impossible. But<br />
the ordinary reader or purchaser will not, of<br />
course, take all this trouble. He simply goes<br />
without what is difficult to procure, declines to<br />
purchase what he cannot see, and deserts a market<br />
.at which his custom is discouraged.<br />
<br />
-~ On the other side the cry is that the unproduc-<br />
tive stock of books, whether new or old, remains<br />
on the hands of the publisher and bookseller. To<br />
dispose of it is impossible. Yet there is probably<br />
not a book in the world which some one would<br />
not purchase on the spot if it were placed before<br />
him.<br />
<br />
Mr. MacLehose appears to assign the larger part<br />
of the responsibility for this unsatisfactory state of<br />
things to the publisher. The present writer has<br />
no wish to dispute the conclusions of a man better<br />
informed than himself; but he believes that it is<br />
nearly impossible to exaggerate the lethargy and<br />
incapacity of the ordinary retail bookseller. ‘These<br />
retail booksellers are the final link between the<br />
author and the public. They are the distributing<br />
agents on whose capacity the publishers’ profits<br />
largely depend. They are the salesmen whose<br />
place it is to encourage the larger outlay of money<br />
upon books by the general public.<br />
<br />
There are, no doubt, booksellers and booksellers.<br />
There are booksellers (how few ! ) who if, reversing<br />
the discount system, they were to add twenty-five<br />
per cent. to the price of the books which they sell,<br />
might justly claim that their wares were cheap at<br />
the enhanced price. The scholar who has to take<br />
up some difficult subject, and is in doubt from<br />
<br />
which works the new knowledge which he requires<br />
<br />
can be most rapidly and most surely obtained, if<br />
he has a bookseller capable of affording him the<br />
information which he wants, able to mention up-<br />
to-date books not to be found in encyclopedias and<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
bibliographies, able to state which work stands<br />
highest in the estimation of experts, and prompt<br />
to furnish information respecting the appearance<br />
of new works on a special subject, would gladly<br />
pay 25s. instead of 20s. for the advantage of being<br />
immediately provided with the very works he<br />
wanted. ‘The man whose time is money, in need<br />
of some uncommon work, would find it an economy<br />
to pay the enhanced price to have a work, of which<br />
he stood in immediate need, instantly handed to<br />
him across the counter. But the booksellers able<br />
to render such services are extremely rare ; and<br />
they do not put twenty-five per cent, on to the<br />
price of their books.<br />
<br />
But the vast majority can be called booksellers<br />
only on the principle of dwcus a non lucendo. If<br />
asked why they do not stock books, they simply<br />
reply that they cannot sell them. And in many<br />
cases the reason why they cannot sell them is<br />
simply that they do not know how to do so.<br />
<br />
In a recent number of 7he Author figures were<br />
given which showed that in the case of the nett<br />
book the bookseller’s profit is less only by an insig-<br />
nificant fraction than the whole sum paid for pro-<br />
duction, the earnings of the paper-maker, com-<br />
positor, printer, and binder—in fact, the price of<br />
the whole of the mechanical labour. And all that<br />
the bookseller does is to procure the book, perhaps<br />
paying a trifle for carriage, and to hand it across<br />
the counter. Yet he cannot make these severe<br />
labours remunerative |<br />
<br />
That appears at first sight strange. But it is<br />
not so very strange if the capacities of the ordinary<br />
bookseller are taken into account.<br />
<br />
As an instance of what these can be, may the<br />
writer mention a recent experience ? Happening<br />
to require a cheap copy of the poems of Milton for<br />
marking, and not being in a hurry for it, he ordered<br />
a “Chandos Classics’? Milton from a suburban<br />
bookseller. It was never delivered. But at the<br />
end of a fortnight the bookseller found energy<br />
enough to send a messenger to say that the book<br />
could not be procured. When asked for the same<br />
afternoon at the shop of one of the cash booksellers<br />
in the Strand, it was of course produced at once<br />
Whether idleness, ignorance, mere forgetfulness, &<br />
disinclination to supply the book, or 4 combination —<br />
of all these, led the suburban bookseller to say that<br />
the work could not be procured, the Powers above —<br />
know. He asserts that bookselling does not pay —<br />
—in his case, naturally.<br />
<br />
Curiosity prompted a different experiment upon<br />
the tobacconist who has a shop nearly opposite the<br />
able bibliopole, and, like many of his trade, at the<br />
same time plies the business of a newsvendor. This<br />
time the work was a learned one on Egyptology.<br />
“If I give you the title and the publisher's address<br />
can you procure it?” ‘JI can procure it at once if<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
you will give me only the title,” was the immediate<br />
reply. And the book arrived the same evening,<br />
<br />
That a bookseller could, if he chose, procure a<br />
book as easily as a tobacconist could is evident.<br />
<br />
If booksellers of this kind are losing their<br />
custom, so much the better. The country would<br />
be benefited by the bankruptcy of the whole<br />
lot and the transference of their trade to more<br />
competent hands.<br />
<br />
All over the country the case is more or less the<br />
same as in the suburbs—rather more than less.<br />
In the provinces it is generally known that only<br />
the address of an enterprising London cash book-<br />
seller is necessary to make the purchase of the<br />
books sent by post from town easier, cheaper, more<br />
expeditious, and much more likely to result in<br />
what is wanted arriving than any dealings with the<br />
local bookseller. Often the local bookseller will<br />
give only 2d. in the shilling discount, whilst the<br />
London house gives 3d. The London house<br />
io charges the carriage. But if the book is of any<br />
5 considerable price the difference of the discount<br />
<br />
more than covers carriage. So the local trader<br />
<br />
arranges that the purchaser shall not be left with-<br />
<br />
out a single reason for sending to London.<br />
<br />
* __ Afterwards he discovers that bookselling does not<br />
*{ +=pay—naturally.<br />
<br />
So far, however, we are dealing with a small<br />
part only of the whole question, the supply of<br />
books ordered for cash. Here everything that has<br />
to be done is so simple that the purchaser can do<br />
it for himself as well as or even better than the local<br />
bookseller—when the purchaser knows anything<br />
about books, what he wants, and how to write<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
for them. But these people are not really<br />
numerous.<br />
Unfortunately, the local bookseller is, generally<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
speaking, equally useless to all the rest.<br />
<br />
First of all, tothe considerable number of people<br />
who know little about books, but who will read if<br />
they can get what they enjoy reading, but go<br />
without books because of the hindrances put in the<br />
way of buying them. These people require, in<br />
the case of the most ordinary books, the same kind<br />
of assistance that a student requires in the pur-<br />
chase of technical works. Very frequently they<br />
are simply in search of something to read, without<br />
having any particular work in view. But they<br />
want to see what they are going to purchase.<br />
<br />
But outside these remain a still larger number<br />
who have no intention of purchasing, but will<br />
purchase if something that attracts them is placed<br />
before them.<br />
<br />
To all these the ordinary bookseller has nothing<br />
to show, because he does not stock. He asserts<br />
that it does not pay him to stock,<br />
<br />
But would it ever pay any one to stock, who<br />
knew nothing about what he was stocking, and<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
147<br />
<br />
nothing about the tastes of his customers to whom<br />
the stock was to be sold ?<br />
<br />
The ordinary local bookseller’s acquaintance<br />
with the tastes of his customers is aptly illustrated<br />
by a characteristic declaration from the lips of a<br />
watering-place belle, speaking for herself and her<br />
sisters: “Oh, we never read now. They have<br />
changed the girls that used to serve at — s<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
library. The girls they had there béfore spent all<br />
their Sundays in reading the novels. In con-<br />
<br />
sequence they could always tell us what we should<br />
like. The new girls don’t read novels ; and<br />
Mr. — knows nothing about the books, So<br />
we found that we never got anything that amused<br />
us, and have dropped our subscriptions.” This<br />
was clementary ; still, evidence that to have an<br />
idea of the tastes of the customer is worth<br />
something,<br />
<br />
This, on the other hand, is what a country<br />
bookseller has actually said on the subject of<br />
stocking, no doubt under the impression that he<br />
was being witty: “He only stocks books by<br />
established authors. He cannot be expected to see<br />
genius in the cover of a book.” Then why does he<br />
not look inside? Is he equally unable “to see<br />
genius” there also? He has not the time? But<br />
it is well known that any habitual reader can turn<br />
over a pile of twenty books in ten minutes, and be<br />
sure of detecting by a few hasty glances the two<br />
that will afford him the greatest assistance or<br />
entertainment. In the case of fiction he may<br />
examine fifty in the same time. Why cannot the<br />
bookseller equally easily detect the books which he<br />
can sell ?<br />
<br />
And the publishers’ travellers assert that it is by<br />
the cover that the country bookseller selects his<br />
stock.<br />
<br />
Evidently stocking cannot pay so long as the<br />
salesman is incompetent to choose his stock.<br />
Equally evidently his custom will not increase so<br />
long as he does all in his power to drive away his<br />
customers. Imagine the hosier whose reply to<br />
any demand for gloves was, “We do not stock<br />
them. But if you will give us the size, quality,<br />
and maker’s name, we can get them for you—in<br />
about ten days.” On those terms hosiery would<br />
not pay. The nett book is a novelty distinctly<br />
advantageous to the retailer; and other steps—<br />
those for example mentioned in Mr. MacLehose’s<br />
article—may be taken to ameliorate his position.<br />
But everything will be in vain unless the retail<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
_bookseller chooses to help himself, and to do<br />
<br />
something to woo back the custom which he has<br />
lost, and is still discouraging. If he is incompetent<br />
to do that, the sooner the function of book<br />
distributing is transferred to more competent<br />
agents the better.<br />
<br />
The most serious aspect of the present situation<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
148<br />
<br />
is, not that the publisher can command no widely<br />
distributed competent sellers—though this is<br />
serious for the publisher; nor that the author<br />
cannot get at the public—which is serious for the<br />
author ; but that simultaneously with a wide, if<br />
not particularly intelligent, promotion of education,<br />
the reading habit is being all over the country<br />
discouraged by the inefficiency of the vast majority<br />
of booksellers.<br />
<br />
——\_o——_+—____—-<br />
<br />
THE SHORTHAND SUBSTITUTE.<br />
<br />
><br />
<br />
HAVE no pen in my hand ; there is no short-<br />
hand writer in the room worrying me to<br />
repeat what I said, and asking the way to<br />
<br />
spell this or that word ; there is no typewriter in<br />
front of me with its odious click, click; and yet<br />
this article is being evolved rapidly and without<br />
effort. Now and again I press a key, but that is<br />
all. When I have dictated to the extent of 800<br />
words, I push aside a little lever, place a wax<br />
cylinder in a box, label it No. 1, and have no<br />
more care or trouble about the matter until the<br />
afternoon, when my amanuensis brings me a<br />
neatly-typed article for revision. Thanks<br />
to an excellent voice recording and reproducing<br />
machine, I have done most of my literary work<br />
and correspondence after this fashion for some<br />
years. The only serious fault I have to find<br />
with the system is that in course of time the<br />
phonograph comes to be regarded as almost indis-<br />
pensable, and that when away from home without<br />
my mechanical assistant, literary work of any kind<br />
becomes a grievous toil. Undoubtedly there are<br />
writers who could not use the phonograph with<br />
advantage. Some cannot dictate. In other cases<br />
the voice possesses a somewhat muffled quality,<br />
which makes the record of it too indistinct for the<br />
amanuensis to understand when phonographically<br />
reproduced, and [ may say here that women make<br />
by far the clearest record. There are, again,<br />
authors who are incapable of understanding<br />
and managing the most simple piece of machinery,<br />
though they somehow seem to learn to use a pen,<br />
which is an infinitely more difficult instrument to<br />
manage than a phonograph, and takes much longer<br />
in the learning. But there are large numbers of<br />
authors and journalists by whom the phonograph<br />
would be found as useful as I have found it, and<br />
for whose advantage I venture to offer some<br />
account of my experiences. I have only heard of<br />
two authors who use the phonograph—Mr. Guy<br />
Boothby and Mr. Houghton Townley—and the<br />
output of these is considerable. A few business<br />
men use them in their offices instead of shorthand<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
clerks. One whom I know—Mr. Upcott Gill<br />
publisher—has used a phonograph for many years<br />
for his correspondence.<br />
<br />
The first question which an author will naturally<br />
ask himself is, “Can I do as good work if I dictate<br />
as if I write?” This is very largely a personal<br />
matter, depending on the idiosyncrasy of the<br />
individual. The author who thinks and writes<br />
slowly, and whose literary output rarely exceeds<br />
500 words in a day, should, I think, confine himself<br />
to the pen, but those who compose about 2,000<br />
words a day or more are likely to keep up a<br />
better average quality of work if they dictate<br />
than if they write. The reason I express this<br />
opinion is that after about 1,000 words have<br />
been written with the pen there is acertain amount<br />
of bodily fatigue which affects the mind to a<br />
certain extent, and towards the end of the day’s<br />
work, the quality of the literary matter is inclined<br />
to suffer in consequence of the writer’s bodily<br />
weariness. As a general rule the literary man<br />
should, during and just before his hours of work,<br />
avoid anything which tends either to distract or<br />
weary him. The phonograph itself is undoubtedly<br />
when first possessed something in the nature of a<br />
distraction ; but this feeling passes off, and very<br />
<br />
soon one’s hand does the slight manipulation which ~<br />
<br />
is required without conscious reference to the<br />
mind, just as the hands of the piano player work<br />
mechanically while the eyes and mind of the player<br />
are fixed on the page of music. :<br />
<br />
This question was one which I considered very<br />
anxiously in connection with my own work, and<br />
the conclusion I came to was that dictated work<br />
was, on the whole, as good as work with pen and<br />
ink. I was able in this connection, to compare<br />
two novels. The first, “Lady Val’s_ Elope-<br />
ment,” was written by me in pencil, and as the<br />
revised draft was almost illegible, I dictated it<br />
to a shorthand writer, making further alterations<br />
as I went. After the shorthand notes had been<br />
transcribed, I revised the story for the third time<br />
and sent it to press. With this I can compare<br />
“ Her Wild Oats,” a novel which was dictated in<br />
a very few weeks, though the arrangement and<br />
scheme of it required many months of work. I can<br />
get no indication of which was the better book<br />
from the reviews; but it appears to me (if an<br />
author is able to judge his own work) that the<br />
wholly-dictated book was the better, and from the<br />
publisher’s point of view it was by far the most<br />
successful. It is shorter and generally less verbose<br />
than the written novel, and the dialogue is more<br />
crisp. The bocks are long out of print, so I do<br />
not hesitate to mention them by name, in order that<br />
others may decide whether my judgment is correct<br />
or not on this point which is one of considerable<br />
importance.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR, 149<br />
<br />
It is a good many years now since the first<br />
phonographs were introduced. A serious mistake<br />
was then made by the owners of the patent. It<br />
was supposed that pretty well everyone would<br />
require a phonograph, and that the invention would<br />
come into general use for correspondence, business<br />
purposes, etc. Instead of manufacturing the<br />
machines at a moderate price and selling them,<br />
the company merely hired them out on rather high<br />
terms, making an arrangement for the lessees to<br />
be visited by an inspector from time to time, who<br />
would look over their instruments and keep them in<br />
order. This system was an absolute failure. The<br />
phonographs were little used, but within the last<br />
few years they have come into popular favour in<br />
the shape of what I may term musical toys.<br />
Talking and music reproducing machines ‘of<br />
various kinds are now sold at a low price by<br />
quite a number of makers, and at the present<br />
day the practical and useful side of the phono-<br />
graph seems in danger of being lost sight of.<br />
The entertainment phonograph is not suitable for<br />
literary work, and an unguided author is likely<br />
to get a machine which for his particular purpose<br />
is of little use.<br />
<br />
It is well, perhaps, to explain that the phono-<br />
graph consists first of a kind of lathe. On the<br />
mandrel is placed a wax cylinder. Set your lathe<br />
in motion and the cylinder revolves, A turner<br />
would cut any circular design he wanted on the<br />
wax while in motion by holding a tool of some<br />
kind against it. In the phonograph what has to<br />
be cut is a fine thread like that on a screw. The<br />
tool which cuts this is a fine sapphire point held<br />
in position by an arm which travels slowly down<br />
the cylinder during its revolutions. In the enter-<br />
tainment phonograph a hundred threads are cut<br />
on every inch of cylinder. In the machine used<br />
for business purposes and by literary men—where<br />
it is important to get as many words on a cylinder<br />
as possible—the arm travels at half the speed, the<br />
sapphire point is finer, and two hundred threads<br />
are cut to every inch. The result is a slight loss<br />
of sound, but the recording instrument has been so<br />
much improved recently that this loss is more than<br />
regained, and an ordinary and fairly clear voice is<br />
admirably reproduced.<br />
<br />
The next question is what connection is there<br />
between the reproduction of sound and the threads<br />
cut in the wax cylinder ? It will suffice now if I<br />
say that the sapphire point which cuts the threads<br />
is attached to the centre of a round piece of very<br />
thin glass. The trumpet into which one speaks<br />
conveys the sound waves to this piece of glass,<br />
which vibrates according to the sounds striking it.<br />
The vibration is necessarily communicated to the<br />
sapphire point, which as it cuts the grooves digs<br />
into the wax more or less deeply, and at varying<br />
<br />
intervals according to the nature of the sound<br />
thus making what is termed the “ record,”<br />
<br />
To reproduce the sounds the sharp point is<br />
replaced by a round smooth point. This, as the<br />
cylinder revolves, goes over the grooves which have<br />
been cut by the sharp point, and the indentations in<br />
the grooves or threads cause the smooth point to<br />
shake, giving exactly the same vibration to the<br />
glass plate above it as the plate attached to the<br />
sharp point received when the speaking into the<br />
trumpet took place. The yibrations or sound<br />
Waves now come out of the trumpet instead of into<br />
it, and the recorded sounds are reproduced.<br />
<br />
I do not give this as a scientific description of<br />
the phonograph, but it is a description which<br />
I think will assist the proposing owner of one of<br />
these marvellous instruments, J] particularly wish<br />
to emphasize the point that for an author’s use the<br />
phonograph should cut two hundred threads to the<br />
inch. Each thread, roughly speaking, represents<br />
a word. ‘The cylinder is four inches long,* so that<br />
if we get two hundred threads to the inch, we can<br />
dictate two hundred words to the inch, or eight<br />
hundred words on the four-inch cylinder. If on<br />
the other hand the author has one of the ordinary<br />
machines in common use, with one hundred words<br />
to the inch, he is only able to get four hundred<br />
words on to a cylinder, and as cylinders have to be<br />
shaved after use, this involves double the amount<br />
of shaving, and many more cylinders have to be used,<br />
which is another consideration, though a very small<br />
one. I only know of one firm which makes these<br />
two hundred thread machines—the Edison-Bell<br />
Phonograph Company, of Charing Cross Road. I<br />
bought one of their ordinary standard machines,<br />
costing five guineas, and by altering the gear-<br />
ing of the lathe, had it turned into a two hundred<br />
thread machine without difficulty and without<br />
extra charge. This machine I keep for my type-<br />
writer’s use for reproducing the records which I<br />
make on a much more expensive machine, It will<br />
however, make a very excellent record of its own,<br />
and would be quite suitable for all purposes if<br />
fitted with a better arrangement for lifting the<br />
sapphire point off the wax when dictation ceases for<br />
a moment or two, and if it could shave cylinders<br />
more satisfactorily. The motive power of the<br />
little lathe is a spring, which after being wound<br />
up, will run for about two cylinders, but in the<br />
course of years the spring naturally gets weak,<br />
and will not do its work satisfactorily for more<br />
than one cylinder. This can of course be remedied<br />
by having a new spring.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
* The Columbia Phonograph Company, of Oxford Street,<br />
make a machine for business and literary men, with a<br />
six-inch cylinder. They have also shaving machines which<br />
are somewhat costly. I have not experimented with these<br />
instruments.—J, B.<br />
150<br />
<br />
For my own use—for making the records and<br />
shaving them—I had to purchase a machine which<br />
now costs £15. It has powerful springs which<br />
will run four or five cylinders without atten-<br />
tion. On this machine there are two little<br />
keys ; one marked “ Off? the other “ On.” If I<br />
press down the “Off” key, the point is lifted off<br />
the wax; on pressing the “On” key the point<br />
drops on to the wax again in its former position.<br />
In the cheaper machine there is a little difficulty in<br />
getting the sapphire point into exactly the same place<br />
after lifting it, but this could be easily remedied,<br />
andit is possible the company would make the altera-<br />
tion for any person requiring a machine of that<br />
class. It is of course necessary for the typewriter<br />
to stop the sound of the voice at the end of each<br />
sentence or two. This is not done by stopping<br />
the revolution of the cylinder but by lifting the<br />
sapphire point off it. It is obviously important<br />
that the point should be lowered into the groove<br />
from which it was raised, otherwise time is wasted.<br />
<br />
For some reasons, an electric motor is very<br />
much better than a spring motor forthe phonograph,<br />
and I should recommend it where electricity is<br />
available without much trouble. In houses fitted<br />
with electric light, it is of course available, the 100<br />
volt system being the best. The 200 volt system<br />
is too powerful, and the apparatus involved lends<br />
to much waste of electricity.<br />
<br />
A question which will perplex the purchaser is:<br />
<br />
whether to have a combined recorder and repro-<br />
ducer, or two separate instruments.t I do not find<br />
that the combined recorder and reproducer possesses<br />
any particular advantage. It is not often during the<br />
day that the author wishes to reproduce what he<br />
has said, and when this does occur, to change the<br />
recorder for the reproducer is a matter of a few<br />
seconds only. Before buying a phonograph I made<br />
arrangements with the company to have from them<br />
various types of phonograph with the option of pur-<br />
chase, and it was after a somewhat prolonged trial<br />
I found the machines I have mentioned to be the<br />
best. The larger one is the most highly finished<br />
production of the Edison-Bell Phonograph Com-<br />
pany, but as I have already said, the cheaper one<br />
would answer every purpose if fitted with an<br />
arrangement for lifting the sapphire from the wax<br />
and for shaving records satisfactorily.<br />
<br />
The running expenses of these machines after<br />
purchase are comparatively slight, for each cylinder<br />
can be shaved at least twenty times (the company say<br />
fifty times in their price list), As a cylinder costs<br />
a shilling, and contains about 800 words, at least<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
+ The recorder consists of a round metal frame about<br />
18 in. in diameter, which holds the glass diaphragm and<br />
sharp sapphire point. The reproducer is similar but bears<br />
the smooth reproducing point. The two can be combined<br />
in one instrument.<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
16,000 words can be dictated at a cost of one<br />
shilling for material. When the cylinders get thin<br />
a musical or other interesting or amusing record<br />
can be made on them.<br />
<br />
The shaving of cylinders was at the commence-<br />
ment, my greatest difficulty. It is a matter of<br />
considerable delicacy with any of the cheaper<br />
machines—and requires an extremely well-made<br />
machine to do it satisfactorily. I may explain<br />
that the shaving is done by what is called a knife,<br />
but is in reality a flat piece of sapphire with a<br />
sharp, slightly convex edge which can be placed in<br />
contact with the cylinder, and travels along it<br />
while the machine is put at its highest speed. On<br />
the cheaper spring motors, such as that in the five<br />
guinea machine, I found that one could not get<br />
the necessary speed, and the arm holding the knife<br />
did not travel with sufficient accuracy to put a<br />
smooth surface on the cylinder. On my large<br />
machine I could shave the cylinders very well by<br />
using the spring motor, but it was a somewhat<br />
tedious operation, and of course shortened the life of<br />
thespring. Finally I solved the difficulty by having<br />
a handwheel (7% in. diameter) apparatus made by<br />
a bicycle maker for my large machine. It is<br />
placed on the machine in a couple of minutes by<br />
means of two thumbscrews. A piece of round solid<br />
rubber, with a hook and eye at the end of it to join<br />
it, is placed round the shaft of the lathe and over<br />
the wheel, and on the wheel being turned, the<br />
lathe works at such a high speed that I can now<br />
shave a cylinder in less than forty-five seconds and<br />
get a perfect surface. People who use phonographs<br />
for music and amusement more often buy records<br />
ready made than make them, and even after making<br />
a record they rarely want to shave the cylinder.<br />
When they do they can send the cylinder to the<br />
company and get it shaved for them at the cost ofa<br />
few pence. But an author who is using four, five<br />
and even more cylinders aday could notconveniently<br />
send them to the company. The cost of carriage,<br />
loss by breakage, and the trouble involved would<br />
be too great. For authors and for business pur-<br />
poses there is certainly very great need for the five<br />
guinea machines and others of moderate price, to be<br />
so constructed that they will shave properly, or for<br />
a special shaving apparatus to be sold at a<br />
reasonable cost. I should add that when the best<br />
quality machines are driven by electricity they can<br />
be run at such a speed as to render no handwheels<br />
necessary, but I would as soon use a handwheel<br />
when shaving on a £15 machine as on one<br />
electrically driven.<br />
<br />
It will be seen that as matters at present stand,<br />
one is obliged to buy a very expensive machine, or<br />
else send the cylinders to the company to be<br />
shaved. It may be that the profit on shaving<br />
cylinders is so considerable that the Edison-Bell<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
1<br />
a<br />
|<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
and other companies are not disposed to encourage<br />
shaving by their customers, but I am sure the<br />
policy is a bad one, for many an author would give<br />
five guineas for a machine which would record,<br />
reproduce, and shave a cylinder well, who would<br />
not be disposed or perhaps be able to give fifteen<br />
guineas or so for a machine which was not<br />
materially better except that it would shave<br />
cylinders. I find it a good plan to have a number<br />
of cylinders in use and to shave not less than half-<br />
a-dozen at a time, a matter of ten minutes or so.<br />
<br />
As the five guinea machine weighs 17lb., while<br />
the £15 machine weighs 541b., the former is by far<br />
the more convenient, particularly when travelling,<br />
for the phonograph must never be given up to a<br />
railway porter.<br />
<br />
I find that phonographs have several advantages<br />
beyond those which are obvious. In the first place<br />
the author and his amanuensis can both be<br />
working at the same time, which doubles the time<br />
the amanuensis can give to transcription. Secondly<br />
the author can work at any time it pleases him.<br />
Shorthand writers who have to come up to the<br />
<br />
.study at eleven o’clock at night will not often be<br />
<br />
found in a very amiable frame of mind. The<br />
author who has a phonograph into which he can<br />
dictate at night, can please himself as to his<br />
hours. Thirdly, the machine is, I need hardly say,<br />
an endless source of amusement to one’s friends,<br />
for even those made specially for literary and<br />
business purposes will reproduce music, songs, etc.,<br />
with more or less accuracy, and the friend who is<br />
not interested in literary matters is sometimes very<br />
much interested in the phonograph. And lastly,<br />
where members of an author’s family are anxious<br />
to assist him in his labours, they can always do so<br />
by shaving the cylinders and by writing out for<br />
him anything he may dictate into the phonograph,<br />
for obviously no knowledge of shorthand is<br />
necessary. One of my delights in my leisure<br />
moments is to place my phonograph at the back of<br />
the piano, ramble about over the keys, and imagine<br />
I am composing. The phonograph makes a record<br />
of the resulting sounds and enables me to study<br />
them and hear what poor stuff Ihave evolved. The<br />
instrument may be therefore recommended as a<br />
moderator of vanity.<br />
<br />
The most pleasant way to hear music, or indeed<br />
any sounds, reproduced by the phonograph is<br />
through thin, hardrubber tubes, the ends of which are<br />
connected with the ears like the modern stethoscope.<br />
These fine tubes have the curious property of soften-<br />
ing away the grating or hissing noise, which is<br />
really the reproduction of the noise of the sapphire<br />
cutting into the wax, while at the same time<br />
increasing and rendering more faithfully than the<br />
trumpet the sounds one desires to hear. When a<br />
trumpet is~used objectionable sounds are em-<br />
<br />
151<br />
<br />
phasised, and there is a good deal of metallic<br />
vibration as well. I should explain I am referring<br />
to the literary phonograph and not those specially<br />
constructed for concert use. When dictating it is<br />
best to speak into the metal trumpet provided with<br />
the machine.<br />
<br />
It is perhaps interesting to mention that the<br />
foregoing remarks are recorded on exactly three<br />
cylinders and a half, and therefore in all probability<br />
consist of about 3,600 words.<br />
<br />
JoHN BICKERDYKE.<br />
<br />
i)<br />
<br />
CHARLES DICKENS.<br />
eS<br />
<br />
2 is with much pleasure that we have to record<br />
another celebration in honour of Dickens.<br />
<br />
In last month’s Author we narrated how the<br />
Dickens Fellowship took its first practical step by<br />
giving a dinner to the poor children of the East<br />
End of London, and now the great writer’s memory<br />
is being preserved in the City of Bath by the<br />
unveiling of a tablet affixed to the house, at<br />
35, St. James’ Square, where Dickens lived during<br />
his residence in that city.<br />
<br />
Some ten years ago it was the fashion to say<br />
that Dickens was not read and in another ten<br />
years would be forgotten, but with the progress.<br />
of time this great artist’s works have sunk more<br />
and more into the hearts of readers, and in the last<br />
few years we have seen a great Dickens revival,<br />
which, no doubt, will continue.<br />
<br />
————__+—_>—_+____—-<br />
<br />
REFLECTIONS OF A REJECTED<br />
MANUSCRIPT.<br />
<br />
1<br />
<br />
MS. in the publisher’s hand is worth two in<br />
the author’s.<br />
An editor is known by the MSS. he keeps.<br />
—and the stamps.<br />
Desperate authors require desperate remedies.<br />
A poet and his poem are soon parted.<br />
In submitting a MS. he who hesitates is a<br />
wonder.<br />
All is not gold that glitters . . . on book covers.<br />
Faint purse never won fair publisher.<br />
A true friend is one who laughs at our jokes.<br />
It is a wise author who knows his own MS.<br />
after . . . it has been blue pencilled.<br />
An author’s royalties are often far from royal.<br />
No satirist is hero to his own epigram.<br />
“Many Happy Returns of the Day ” applies to.<br />
the unsuccessful writer all the year round.<br />
<br />
Water PULITZER.<br />
<br />
<br />
GENERAL MEMORANDA.<br />
<br />
——1—+—<br />
<br />
ERE are a few standing rules to be observed in an<br />
agreement. There are four methods of dealing<br />
with literary property :—<br />
<br />
I. Selling it Outright.<br />
<br />
This is in some respects the most satisfactory, if @ 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 />
IJ. 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 agreement in which the cost of pro-<br />
duetion 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 />
<br />
doctor !<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 Lhe Author.<br />
Readers can also work out the figures themselves from the<br />
4‘ 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 />
tothe 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 />
—___+—<—_e+____—_——_<br />
<br />
WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS.<br />
<br />
———+—<br />
<br />
EVER sign an agreement without submitting it to the<br />
Secretary of the Society of Authors or some com-<br />
petent legal authority.<br />
<br />
2. {t is well to be extremely careful in negotiating for<br />
the production of a play with anyone except an established<br />
manager.<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
8. There are three forms of dramatic contract for PLAYS<br />
IN THREE OR MORE ACTS :—<br />
<br />
(a.) 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 />
(b.) SALE OF PERFORMING RIGHT OR OF A LICENCE<br />
TO PERFORM ON THE BASIS OF PERCENTAGES<br />
on gross receipts. Percentages vary between<br />
5 and 15 per cent. An author should obtain a<br />
percentage on the sliding scale of gress receipts<br />
in preference to the American system. Should<br />
obtain a sum in advance of percentages. A fixed<br />
date on or before which the play should be<br />
performed.<br />
<br />
(c.) SALE OF PERFORMING RIGHT OR OF A LICENCE<br />
TO PERFORM ON THE BASIS OF ROYALTIES (4¢.,<br />
fixed nightly fees). This method should be<br />
always avoided except in cases where the fees<br />
are likely to be small or difficult to collect. The<br />
other safeguards set out under heading (0.) apply<br />
also in this case.<br />
<br />
4, PLAYS IN ONE ACT are often sold outright, but it is<br />
better to obtain a small nightly fee if possible, and a sum<br />
paid in advance of such fees in any event. It is extremely<br />
important that the amateur rights of one-act plays should<br />
be reserved.<br />
<br />
5. Authors should remember that performing rights can<br />
<br />
be limited, and are usually limited, by town, country, and ©<br />
<br />
time. This is most important.<br />
<br />
6. Authors should not assign performing rights, but<br />
should grant a licence to perform, The legal distinction is<br />
of great importance.<br />
<br />
7. Authors should remember that performing rights in a<br />
play are distinct from literary copyright. A manager<br />
holding the performing right or licence to perform cannot<br />
print the book of the words.<br />
<br />
8. Never forget that AMERICAN RIGHTS may be exceed-<br />
ingly valuable. ‘They should never be included in English<br />
agreements without the author obtaining a substantial<br />
consideration.<br />
<br />
9, Agreements for collaboration should be carefully<br />
drawn and executed before collaboration is commenced.<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 this 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, and that for a novice the first object<br />
is to obtain adequate publication.<br />
<br />
As these warnings must necessarily be incomplete, on<br />
account of the wide range of the subject of dramatic cou-<br />
tracts, THOSE AUTHORS DESIROUS OF FURTHER INFORMA-<br />
TION ARE REFERRED TO THE SECRETARY OF THE SOCIETY.<br />
<br />
—_+——_—__—_<br />
<br />
HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.<br />
<br />
—<br />
<br />
2. VERY member has a right toask for and to receive<br />
advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-<br />
lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his<br />
<br />
business or the administration of his property. If the<br />
advice sought is such as can be given best by a solicitor,<br />
the member has a right to an opinion from the Society’s<br />
solicitors. If the case is such that Counsel’s opinion is<br />
desirable, the Committee will obtain for him Counsel's<br />
opinion, All this without any cost to the member.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
2. Remember that questions connected with copyright<br />
and publishers’ agreements do not generally fall within the<br />
experience of ordinarysolicitors. 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 a copy of the book 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<br />
the document to the Society for examination.<br />
<br />
5. Remember always that in belonging to the Society<br />
you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you<br />
are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are<br />
advancing the best interests of literature in promoting the<br />
independence of the writer.<br />
<br />
6. The Committee have now arranged for the reception<br />
of members’ agreements and their preservation in a fire-<br />
proof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as<br />
confidential documents to be read only by the Secretary,<br />
who will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers:<br />
—(1) To read and advise upon agreements and to give<br />
advice concerning publishers. (2) To stamp agreements<br />
in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep<br />
agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to<br />
agreements.<br />
<br />
7. No contract should be entered into with a literary<br />
agent without the advice of the Secretary of the Society.<br />
Members are strongly advised not to accept without careful<br />
consideration the contracts submitted to them by literary<br />
agents, and are recommended to submit them for inter-<br />
pretation and explanation to the Secretary of the Society.<br />
<br />
This<br />
The<br />
<br />
8. Many agents neglect to stamp agreements.<br />
must be done within fourteen days of first execution.<br />
Secretary will undertake it on behalf of members.<br />
<br />
9. Some agents endeavour to prevent authors from<br />
referring matters to the Secretary of the Society; so do<br />
some publishers. Members can make their own deductions<br />
and act accordingly.<br />
<br />
o><br />
<br />
THE READING BRANCH.<br />
<br />
—1—>— + —<br />
<br />
EMBERS will greatly assist the Society in this<br />
branch of its work by informing young writers<br />
of its existence. Their MSS. can be read and<br />
<br />
treated as a composition is treated by a coach. ‘The term<br />
MSS. includes NoT ONLY WORKS OF FICTION, BUT POETRY<br />
AND DRAMATIC WORKS, and when it is possible, under<br />
special arrangement, technical and scientific works. The<br />
Readers are writers of competence and experience. The<br />
fee is one guinea.<br />
<br />
6 ae ge<br />
<br />
NOTICES.<br />
a<br />
<br />
HE Editor of The Author begs to remind members of<br />
<br />
the Society that, although the paper is sent to them<br />
<br />
free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a<br />
<br />
very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great<br />
<br />
many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest<br />
58. 6d. subscription for the year.<br />
<br />
153<br />
<br />
Communications for The Author should be addressed to<br />
the Offices of the Society, 39, Old Queen Street, Storey’s<br />
Gate, S.W., and should reach the Editor NoT LATER<br />
THAN THE 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 />
i)<br />
<br />
COMMUNICATIONS AND LETTERS ARE INVITED BY THE<br />
EDITOoR on all subjects connected with literature, but on<br />
no other subjects whatever, Every effort will be made to<br />
return articles which cannot be accepted.<br />
<br />
1+<br />
<br />
THE SECRETARY OF THE SOCIETY begs to give notice<br />
that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post,<br />
and he requests members who do not receive an<br />
answer to important communications within two days to<br />
write to him without delay. All remittances should be<br />
crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery Lane, or be sent<br />
by registered letter only.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
AUTHORITIES.<br />
<br />
HE New Danish Copyright Law has now<br />
passed the Upper House, and was signed by<br />
the King on the 19th of December, 1902.<br />
It will come into operation on the Ist of July,<br />
1903, after which there will be no further difficulty<br />
in Danes entering the Berne Convention.<br />
<br />
We have to express our regret that the name of<br />
Lieut.-Colonel G. F. R. Henderson, C.B., was by<br />
an error included in the Report among the list of<br />
members who had died in the past year.<br />
<br />
We have watched with great interest the forma-<br />
tion of the Artistic Copyright Society for the<br />
protection of all original workers in the Arts.<br />
<br />
If parts of the Literary Copyright Act are<br />
unintelligible the Artistic Copyright Acts are abso-<br />
lutely chaotic. In many cases the artistic and<br />
literary copyright is very closely connected<br />
where books are illustrated. For many years<br />
now the holders of literary copyright have been<br />
striving to obtain a reasonable law. ‘Two years<br />
ago consideration of the question was promised<br />
in the King’s Speech, but there is, so far, no<br />
fulfilment of this promise. Any combination<br />
which may aid in bringing about the desired result,<br />
and force the woes of the unprotected authors and<br />
artists prominently before the Government and<br />
the country is of advantage to those who own<br />
copyright property.<br />
<br />
The names of those interested in the new<br />
Copyright Association are sufficient guarantee that<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
154<br />
<br />
the matter will be pushed forward with vigour<br />
and influence. :<br />
<br />
We cut the following paragraph, bearing on the<br />
Musical Copyright Act, from the issue of The<br />
Author, of October, 1902 :—<br />
<br />
The Musical (Summary Proceedings) Copyright Act is<br />
essentially a publishers’ Act.<br />
<br />
To a certain extent, however, the Act must benefit all<br />
owners of musical copyright, whether composers or<br />
publishers.<br />
<br />
A careful perusal of its scope tends to show that the Act,<br />
hurriedly conceived, and as hurriedly pushed through the<br />
House, scarcely covers the most important difficulties con-<br />
nected with this musical piracy. It is unsatisfactory, and<br />
only fills a small space in a wide gap. What are the<br />
penalties to be enforced? There is no mention of penalty.<br />
Are the cheap piratical printers, the arch offenders, to<br />
escape the court of summary jurisdiction? It would appear<br />
to be the case.<br />
<br />
The various proceedings that have come before<br />
the magistrates from time to time since the Act<br />
came into force, seem clearly to demonstrate that<br />
our prophecy has been fulfilled.<br />
<br />
The Act, drafted for the benefit of the music<br />
publishers, and carried hurriedly through, does<br />
not deal with the difficulties of the question in an<br />
adequate manner. Instead of forcing this piece-<br />
meal legislation, it would have been much better<br />
if the subject had been viewed from a larger<br />
standpoint, and the whole question of musical<br />
copyright, as well as that of other branches of<br />
literary property, exhaustively dealt with.<br />
<br />
We desire once more to call the attention of the<br />
members to the “Conditional Subscriptions ”<br />
towards the Pension Fund of the Society, set forth<br />
on page 134 of this number.<br />
<br />
As every day passes the time for fulfilling the<br />
conditions grows shorter. Six subscriptions of<br />
£10 a year for five years, in accordance with the<br />
list set down, have been promised. Another four<br />
are wanted. It is earnestly hoped that some of<br />
the wealthier members of the Society will come<br />
forward to complete the list.<br />
<br />
The editor of the American Bookman, who is<br />
suffering from the over persistence of a contributor,<br />
writes as follows :—“ The correspondent who wrote<br />
some time ago, asking for our opinion of ‘ Tess of<br />
the d’Urbervilles’ from a moral point of view, has<br />
now sent us a personal letter about this matter.<br />
He says that he ‘ insists’ upon receiving an opinion<br />
from us. He encloses an envelope stamped and<br />
addressed, and also a blank sheet of paper, so that<br />
we shall have no excuse of declining on the ground<br />
of expense. This is a very persistent gentleman,<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
but we are pretty persistent ourselves. We said in<br />
a former number of this magazine that if he tells<br />
us what he thinks about Tess, we will tell him<br />
whether we think that what he thinks is correct.<br />
This is the best we can do, and’ we stand by it.<br />
Meanwhile we have used his postage stamp and<br />
sheet of paper for other purposes.”<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
—>—_ ¢ —_—<br />
<br />
THE NOBEL PRIZE COMPETITION.<br />
<br />
—1.— + —_<br />
<br />
N Wednesday, the 14th day of January, the<br />
Nobel Prize Committee met, under the<br />
chairmanship of Lord Avebury, in order<br />
<br />
to make arrangements for the despatch of the<br />
voting papers which had been duly collected.<br />
Mr. G. Herbert Thring, the secretary, was in-<br />
structed to forward them to the Nobel Prize<br />
Committee of the Swedish Academy, Stockholm.<br />
The letter was duly posted on January 26th, and<br />
notification has been received that the votes have<br />
arrived safely. It has been deemed advisable to<br />
strengthen and enlarge the Committee, and the<br />
following gentlemen, on the suggestion of the<br />
chairman, have been asked and have consented to<br />
jom—Sir William Anson, Mr. Anthony Hope<br />
Hawkins, Mr. George Meredith, Sir Leslie Stephen,<br />
and Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace.<br />
<br />
—————_t—<<br />
<br />
FROM AN EDITOR’S STANDPOINT.<br />
<br />
oe<br />
<br />
IKE the late lamented Archbishop of Canter-<br />
bury, I ama beast. Unlike him, I am an<br />
unjust beast. I treat my correspondents<br />
<br />
with a gross and a studied discourtesy. I have a<br />
morbid craving for postage stamps, which, dis-<br />
honestly retained, form the greater part of my<br />
income. If ever I return an MS, before sending<br />
it back I crumple it up and play football with it<br />
for a week or two. This, or something like it, is<br />
the portrait of myself which I discern on holding<br />
up before me, as a mirror, the correspondence<br />
columns of your entertaining journal. For, alas 1<br />
have reached the lowest depth of moral degradation.<br />
Would that I had been content with the criminal<br />
notoriety of a burglar in a large way of business,<br />
a murderer, or even a War Office official! Beneath<br />
the level even of the last I have sunk—I have<br />
become an editor ; and uniting a brazen shame-<br />
lessness to my other vices, I have the hardihood<br />
to defend myself, and to hint that perfect courtesy<br />
and reasonableness are not found invariably even<br />
in a would-be contributor to the periodical Press.<br />
Well, I will invite the casual contributor behind<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
the scenes. Here is the morning’s post-bag, con-<br />
taining, at the least, forty or fifty letters and<br />
manuscripts. Three of the latter, I see, are in-<br />
sufficiently stamped, and surplus postage has had<br />
to be paid on them. MHalf-a-dozen are bursting<br />
from their covers, having been done up in the<br />
flimsiest of envelopes; the result is they are<br />
crumpled and soiled, for which J shall get the<br />
credit when those MSS. are returned to their<br />
senders. Quite a dozen have come in the form of<br />
little cylinders ; it will take me ten minutes to<br />
undo these without tearing the pages, and to read<br />
them is almost impossible—you release your grip<br />
of the page for a moment, and in a flash the thing<br />
springs back again into a tight roll. But before<br />
dealing with the MSS., I study the letters which<br />
accompany them, and others which have come<br />
separately. Here are a few samples from this<br />
morning’s post-bag.<br />
<br />
From one of four closely-written pages—<br />
<br />
* DEAR SiR,—In my opinion, there is no magazine worth<br />
comparing for a moment with your brilliant and admirable<br />
periodical, while, of all its various features, by far the<br />
— is the magnificent editorial article which you your-<br />
se sractae<br />
<br />
At this point I make a rule of skipping promptly<br />
to the last paragraph. Ah, here it is—as usual—<br />
<br />
«|, . no blemish at all, beyond this remarkable lack of<br />
a series of, articles on ‘ Antarctic Crustaceans’; and such<br />
a series I myself am willing to supply. The price (payable<br />
in advance) which I would ask is,” ete., ete. ‘* I shall con-<br />
fidently await your prompt and favourable reply.”<br />
<br />
Well, my friend, you are likely to await it for<br />
some time. If you wish to offer a series of articles<br />
I shall not be the more disposed to accept it<br />
because you introduce your proposal with three<br />
pages of rancid compliment.<br />
<br />
Here is another letter—<br />
<br />
‘* Str,—In the last instalment of the serial story (by that<br />
popular, but grossly over-rated novelist, X. Y.), now<br />
appearing in your magazine, my attention was caught by<br />
the statement (p. 345) that the heroine ‘ skimmed the grass<br />
like a swallow. Such a sentence could have been penned<br />
only by one ludicrously ignorant of the actual velocity of the<br />
hirundo's flight. Such blunders are inexcusable in a<br />
journal of your standing. Unknown to fame as I am, I<br />
have written a romance which, at least, is free from such<br />
glaring absurdities, I cannot too strongly advise you<br />
to drop your present serial, and to substitute my tale,<br />
the MS. of which I will forward to-day. To help you<br />
out of your difficulty, I shall be content to accept whatever<br />
rate of payment you are allowing your present serialist.”<br />
<br />
Comment, as the older novelists used to say, is<br />
needless.<br />
Next come two letters in one handwriting—<br />
<br />
“ StR,—No less than four days ago I sent you a powerful<br />
Biblical romance of 15,000 words, entitled ‘The Jilting of<br />
Jezebel,’ It is inexcusable of you to keep me waiting so<br />
long for a reply. Kindly notify acceptance by return, and<br />
oblige,”<br />
<br />
155<br />
<br />
et SIR,—Since writing to you this morning, I have<br />
received back the MS. of ‘ The Jilting of Jezebel,’ I only<br />
sent it to you four days ago, and it is ridiculous to pretend<br />
that you can have given it really careful consideration in<br />
so brief a period. I am, therefore, posting it again to you<br />
to-night. P.S.—In order that you may have ample choice<br />
I send also ‘The Isolation of Isaac’ and ‘ Rebekah’s<br />
Repentance.’ ”<br />
<br />
The next letter seems familiar. In fact, every<br />
day of the week I get one or more closely resem-<br />
bling it—<br />
<br />
“ StR,—The literary merit of the enclosed tale may not<br />
be very great, although a dear friend of mine—who is a<br />
minor canon, and an extremely good judge—considers it a<br />
beautiful story. But I wish to inform you that the walls<br />
of our lovely parish church are in a pitiable state. My<br />
husband, who is rector here, frequently catches cold owing<br />
to the piercing draughts which enter through the cracks.<br />
For £5,000, we are told, the building could be put in<br />
thorough repair; and it is to this purpose that I shall<br />
devote the cheque which, I feel swre,:you will send me for<br />
my little effort.”<br />
<br />
The next correspondent is quite indignant—<br />
<br />
“*Srr,-~I should be glad if you would explain your<br />
invincible prejudice against my writings. In rejecting my<br />
former MSS, you told me that ‘they were not in keeping<br />
with the character of the magazine.’ Determined that you<br />
should have this excuse no longer, I looked at your January<br />
number. In this I noticed a paper on ‘The Delhi Durbar.<br />
Accordingly, having taken the trouble to ascertain that<br />
this subject was congenial to you, I posted, on February<br />
14th, a far better article on ‘The Durbar at Delhi.’ And<br />
then you have the effrontery—I can use no other term—to.<br />
reject it |”<br />
<br />
Yet another sample—<br />
<br />
“ Str,—-The bundle of verse enclosed is not intended for<br />
use in your magazine. None of these poems, I know, is in<br />
the least suitable for your pages. But I should be grateful<br />
if you would send me a full criticism of them, substituting<br />
other lines for any which may strike you as faulty.<br />
Perhaps also you would not mind giving me a letter of<br />
introduction to the editor of another periodical, of rather<br />
better class than yours, where they would be likely to gain<br />
acceptance.”<br />
<br />
Has the reader had enough? Would he like to<br />
see the letters urging the acceptance of impossible<br />
MSS. on the plea that the author has an elderly<br />
aunt to support, or that she has contributed to.<br />
Chippy Chirps, The Weekly Piffler, and the Christmas<br />
Number of Giggles? Or—of these I have had<br />
several—on the ground that the writer is “A<br />
Member of the Incorporated Society of Authors ” ?<br />
Or for the singular reason that she was invited<br />
once to a garden-party at Buckingham Palace ?<br />
Does he wish to realise to the full the vanity, the<br />
imbecility, the petty spitefulness of which literary<br />
human nature is capable? If so, the editorial<br />
post-bag will gratify his morbid taste.<br />
<br />
“ Yes,” the reader may remonstrate, “ but then<br />
these letters you have pretended to quote are not<br />
genuine—they are mere burlesques of your real<br />
correspondence.” Would that they were, my<br />
friend! Fictitious, in one sense, these extracts.<br />
<br />
<br />
156<br />
<br />
are ; even an editor may have some slight remnant<br />
of decency about him, and be loth to transcribe<br />
private letters for the public eye. But I can<br />
put my hand on my heart and declare that letters<br />
no less inane, foolish, and unreasonable than<br />
the imaginary ones here cited are dropped into<br />
letter-box day by day.<br />
<br />
Authors have their grievances too, I know ; and<br />
for some of them there is a very sufficient basis.<br />
Not ignorant of ill I speak ; I, who myself for<br />
many years was a casual contributor. ‘There are<br />
editors who treat their correspondents with dis-<br />
courtesy, there are editors who disfigure MSS.,<br />
there are editors who are unconscionably slow in<br />
acceptance or rejection. To this last failing I can<br />
give no pardon. Personally, I think I have never<br />
kept an MS. for more than a week unless it was<br />
accepted, though I receive sometimes forty or<br />
fifty MSS. in a day. Hardly ever does it happen<br />
that a rejected MS. is not despatched upon its<br />
return journey within two or three days of its<br />
receipt. I make no boast of this ; I do it partly<br />
out of justice to my correspondents, but partly in<br />
my own interests. If I fell into arrears with my<br />
work I should be overwhelmed utterly by MSS.<br />
Yet if this rule is possible for me, who have many<br />
other things to do besides editing a magazine, I<br />
maintain that it is more than possible for most of<br />
my confreres, who can give the greater part of their<br />
working hours to their editorial duties. Occa-<br />
sionally one wants to keep a contribution in hand<br />
for a while, on the chance of being able to make<br />
use of it. In this case a note to the writer, ex-<br />
plaining the wish, and offering, should he prefer<br />
it, to return the MS. at once, seems not more than<br />
what, in common courtesy, is his due. However,<br />
to find fault with editors in your columns would<br />
be indeed a work of supererogation! The truth<br />
which I ask your readers to believe is that they are<br />
a sorely-tried race ; that the habits of hundreds of<br />
their correspondents are enough to induce a bitter<br />
cynicism, and that their grievances are quite as<br />
real as those of the contributors who abuse them—<br />
though, as a rule, unlike the contributors, they<br />
prefer to suffer in grim silence.<br />
<br />
But, despite the “thorns in the cushion,” the<br />
editor has his rewards, which outweigh the troubles<br />
and annoyances of the work. One is able some-<br />
times to give encouragement, to help a beginner<br />
along the right path, to make unseen friends<br />
in all parts of the wrld. Letters of kindliness<br />
and gratitude come as well as the others—letters,<br />
to receive one of which makes the abuse and the<br />
spite seem less than nothing. And thus the editor,<br />
despite the correspondence columns of The Author,<br />
can dream at times that he has laboured not quite<br />
in vain.<br />
<br />
ANTHONY DEANE.<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
THE ACADEMIE GONCOURT.<br />
<br />
—<br />
<br />
URING the past three or four months there<br />
has been considerable discussion one way<br />
or another about Academies. -<br />
<br />
The British Academy has come into existence.<br />
The pages of The Author have been full of letters<br />
with regard to the Literary Academy, and lastly<br />
the Académie Goncourt has become legalised in<br />
France.<br />
<br />
Owing to the kindness of Mr. Edmund Gosse,<br />
we are able to cull some interesting facts from an<br />
article of his that appeared in the Daily Chronicle.<br />
<br />
As it is possible that many members of the<br />
Society have not seen the article, and are interested<br />
in the subject, the following statement may prove<br />
instructive.<br />
<br />
Monsieur Goncourt left a considerable fortune<br />
for the formation of an Academy limited and<br />
confined by the strict boundaries set forth in the<br />
will.<br />
<br />
The Council of State has decided that this pro-<br />
posed Literary Society is of public utility, and may<br />
accept the important legacy of M. Goncourt. Thus,<br />
after six years’ struggle, during the course of which<br />
no doubt a good deal of the academic capital has<br />
been squandered, it comes into active life. Mr. Gosse<br />
tells us that M. Goncourt was no lover of the French<br />
Academy, so his academy is forbidden to engage<br />
in the discussion of grammar, to make any sort of<br />
dictionary, to lay down laws of public taste, or to<br />
give prizes for the encouragement of virtue.<br />
<br />
He did not enjoy poetry, and he hated criticism<br />
—accordingly there were to be no poets and no<br />
critics in the academy. This appears to be the<br />
negative side. The positive side is as follows.<br />
<br />
It is to be composed of ten men—all novelists—<br />
each to receive an annual income of 4250, and they<br />
were all to combine in offering a prize of £200<br />
every year on a book which shall be a work of real<br />
literary merit.<br />
<br />
Goncourt’s Academy would have been a most<br />
distinguished little body if it could have been carried<br />
out on the lines which he originally sketched. But<br />
Flaubert, the obvious first president, died early, and<br />
was followed by Maupassant, while Alphonse Daudet<br />
scarcely outlived the founder. Zola apostatised,<br />
and went cap in hand to the other academy ;<br />
him Edmond de Goncourt angrily struck off the<br />
list. He grew discouraged at last, and failed to<br />
fill up lacwne ; so that when the academicians held<br />
their first solemn meeting (on April 7th, 1900),<br />
only seven of them were left. These were MM.<br />
Gustave Geoffrey, Leon Hennique, J. K. Huys-<br />
mans, Paul Margueritte, Octave Mirbeau, and<br />
<br />
the brothers Justin Boex and Joseph Henri Boex<br />
(who called themselves Rosny). M.. Huysmans,<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
ertainly the best known among these names, was<br />
<br />
elected president, and M. Paul Margueritte secre-<br />
tary. They completed their number by the election<br />
of M. Elémir Bourges, M. Lucien Descaves and<br />
M. Leon Daudet ; then they were swallowed up<br />
again by that litigation from which they are now<br />
happily and finally released.<br />
<br />
With the exception of M. Leon Daudet, these<br />
gentlemen are not very young. Few of them will<br />
see fifty again, although none have yet seen sixty.<br />
<br />
We thank Mr. Gosse for his interesting facts.<br />
<br />
It remains to be seen, as in the case of the British<br />
Academy, what vitality there is in this formation.<br />
It has been created for no practical purpose,<br />
and seems to have no large ideal. It will be<br />
interesting to watch its future. Perhaps the fact<br />
that it stands without an ideal may be its safe-<br />
guard. Academies with large ideals, in that they<br />
are human, have in many cases fallen far below the<br />
standard they set for themselves. An academy,<br />
however, started on the Goncourt basis may rise<br />
to a standard far beyond its own imagination.<br />
One point is quite clear, and that is the £250 per<br />
annum.<br />
<br />
(a eee<br />
<br />
A GUIDE TO GRUB STREET.<br />
<br />
—_— st<br />
<br />
s HE Literary Year Book ’’* improves by slow<br />
degrees, and the volume for 1903 (which,<br />
by the way, is the seventh that has been<br />
<br />
issued) is an advance upon its predecessors. It is<br />
<br />
still, however, capable of being altered in many<br />
respects before it can be regarded as a really<br />
necessary addition to the numerous works of refer-<br />
ence catering to the requirements of the author or<br />
journalist. Much of the information, for example,<br />
contained within its pages is to be found in the<br />
<br />
Postal Directory ; and as to the remainder, much<br />
<br />
of it is ont of place in a volume that should be<br />
<br />
practical and nothing else. Included in this latter<br />
category are the articles on ‘‘'The Crown and the<br />
<br />
Author,” “Some Questions of Criticism,” and<br />
<br />
“Authors and their Societies.” These, although<br />
<br />
interesting, are polemical. As an instance of the<br />
<br />
distinctly controversial nature of the compiler’s<br />
remarks, the following extract from his account of<br />
the Royal Society of Literature is instructive :—<br />
<br />
“The Royal Society of Literature, as has been<br />
<br />
pointed out before in this place and elsewhere, is<br />
<br />
past praying for. Itis an institution which literally<br />
blocks the way of the proper representation and<br />
encouragement of literature in this country.”<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
* “The Literary Year Book,” edited by Henry Gilbert.<br />
London: George Allen, 1903.<br />
<br />
157<br />
<br />
Very likely it is, but this is not where the question<br />
ought to be discussed.<br />
<br />
As in the last volume, a feature is again made<br />
of the Directory of Authors. No doubt this is a<br />
difficult section to edit, for it is the one that calls<br />
most loudly for improvement. It wants purging<br />
of a good deal of the tag-rag and bobtail who<br />
therein dub themselves “authors.” The wisdom<br />
of setting out at length the various third-rate<br />
periodicals in which their effusions have appeared<br />
is also open to question. No one, for example<br />
(excepting possibly Miss Snooks herself), cares two-<br />
pence—much less four shillings and sixpence, the<br />
price of this volume—to learn that Miss Snooks<br />
has contributed to Cackle and Silly Bits, or that<br />
Mr. Somebody Else edited Coronation Chuckles.<br />
To be of use, the hospitality of the list should<br />
be confined strictly to writers of distinction, and<br />
mention should only be made of the books they<br />
have published during the year.<br />
<br />
The practical portion of the volume includes<br />
lists of periodicals and their editors (with some<br />
explanatory remarks thereon), tables of royalties,<br />
and the names and addresses of the best known<br />
agents and publishers. With respect to the first<br />
of these features, several errors are to be noted.<br />
As, however, the life of a magazine is so precarious<br />
in these days of fierce competition, this is only to<br />
be expected. Among the slips are the mentioning<br />
of several defunct journals as though they were<br />
alive, and the giving of wrong addresses. Thus,<br />
the Candid Friend, Imperial and Colonial, Naval<br />
and Military, and Universal magazines are no more,<br />
although they are described as being still in exist-<br />
ence, while the offices of two or three others are<br />
described erroneously. The “ Contributors’ Guide,”<br />
describing the policy of the different papers alluded<br />
to in the second list, is of distinct value when (as<br />
so often happens) the names of the periodicals<br />
themselves offer no clue to this. It should at any<br />
rate induce budding geniuses in the country to<br />
refrain from bombarding the Pilot with articles on<br />
shipping.<br />
<br />
The tables of royalties scarcely seem so helpful<br />
as they might, and should, be. Even the most<br />
rapacious of publishers would scarcely offer (except<br />
by telephone) a royalty of 24 per cent. on a sixteen-<br />
shilling volume. Yet the editor of the “ Literary<br />
Year Book” apparently thinks that he would, for<br />
the necessary calculations on this basis are given<br />
here. Then, again, the highest royalty which he<br />
takes into account is one of 20 per cent., when it<br />
ought to be one of 834 per cent. These, however,<br />
are matters which are being dealt with at length<br />
in another issue of this journal.<br />
<br />
H. W.<br />
<br />
a<br />
<br />
<br />
EDNA LYALL,<br />
<br />
1— 1 —<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
E record with deep regret the death of Miss<br />
Ada Ellen Bayly, which took place at<br />
the house of her sister, Mrs. Jameson, at East-<br />
bourne, on Sunday, February 8th. Well known to a<br />
large section of the reading public as Edna Lyall,<br />
an anagram composed of some of the letters of her<br />
real name, Miss Bayly had been a member of the<br />
Incorporated Society of Authors since 1887, so that<br />
she was one of its oldest members. She did not,<br />
however, join it until she had had experience of<br />
literary work and to a large extent had made her<br />
mark. In her childhood Miss Bayly evinced a<br />
taste for writing, and had composed stories before<br />
she left the schoolroom, as, indeed, many girls do<br />
who afterwards make no attempt to win fame as<br />
authors. Beginning early to write with the serious<br />
intention of seeing her work published, Miss Bayly<br />
had for a time to endure those disappointments<br />
which many have to face who begin the literary<br />
life better equipped than she. She was, however,<br />
persevering as well as industrious. It has been<br />
told of her that once she entered St. Paul’s<br />
Cathedral dispirited by a fruitless journey to the<br />
land of editors and publishers, and took courage at<br />
the sight of the monument of one of her kinsmen<br />
who had been killed in battle. She resolved to<br />
fight on even if she died fighting as he died, but<br />
ghe lived to win success and the affectionate esteem<br />
of a large circle of readers. These felt themselves<br />
personally attached to an author who seemed in<br />
‘a marked manner to infuse her own personality<br />
and feelings into her works. ‘‘ Won by Waiting,”<br />
her first book, written for girls and published in<br />
1879, had at the time no particular measure of<br />
‘success, financial or otherwise, and if we cannot<br />
without giving up confidential information relating<br />
to a member of the Society name the precise figure,<br />
we are revealing no secret if we state that the<br />
copyright in “Donovan,” her second book, pub-<br />
lished in 1882, was acquired by a publisher for a<br />
um which represented but a small fraction of its<br />
ultimate pecuniary value.<br />
<br />
The success which Donovan enjoyed did not<br />
come at first, but rather after “We Two” had<br />
attracted many readers among those who like to<br />
study religious questions in the form of fiction,<br />
and had gained the attention of a wider public<br />
still. Miss Bayly’s work was deeply imbued with<br />
religious feeling ; but her books, written as they<br />
were from a Christian standpoint, were filled with<br />
a thoughtful magnanimity not always found in<br />
those of men and women as earnestly religious<br />
as herself. “We Two” was no doubt inspired<br />
by a feeling of sympathy with the difficulties<br />
encountered by the late Mr. Bradlaugh, or at all<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
events the struggles in which his views upon<br />
religious matters involved the late Member for<br />
Northampton suggested possibilities which were<br />
embodied in the story.<br />
<br />
“We Two” was followed by “In the Golden<br />
Days,” (1885), a romance of a different type, and<br />
the author’s position became well established, so<br />
that many who had not read her former works<br />
when they were first published did so now. Toa<br />
high literary or philosophic standard Edna Lyall<br />
did not perhaps attain, but her warmest admirers<br />
were among those not keenly critical in such matters.<br />
She won sympathy for her characters, and had the<br />
power to a very considerable degree of rousing<br />
interest in them and in the intellectual and physical<br />
difficulties and dangers that beset them. Of her<br />
minor works, “The Autobiography of a Slander,”<br />
published in 1887, had many readers. Her recent<br />
production, “ The Hinderers,” 1902, took a side<br />
that was too unpopular at the time to allow its<br />
advocates a sympathetic hearing.<br />
<br />
Miss Bayly was the daughter of the late Mr.<br />
Robert Bayly, a barrister of the Inner Temple, and<br />
a granddaughter of Mr. Robert Bayly, formerly a<br />
bencher, and at one time treasurer of Gray's Inn.<br />
Her principal writings include, besides those<br />
already named, ‘‘Their Happiest Christmas,” 1886 ;<br />
“Knight Errant,” 1887 ; ‘A Hardy Norseman,”<br />
1889 ; Derrick Vaughan, Novelist,” 1889; “ To<br />
Right the Wrong,” 1892 ; “ Doreen, The Story of a<br />
Singer,” 1894; ‘‘How the Children Raised the<br />
Wind,” 1895; “The Autobiograghy of a Truth,”<br />
1896; “ Wayfaring Men,” 1897; “ Hope the<br />
Hermit,” 1898 ; “In Spite of All,” 1901.<br />
<br />
—_————\_1——_<br />
<br />
SIR. GAVAN DUFFY.<br />
<br />
+<br />
<br />
ITH the death of Sir Charles Gavan Duffy<br />
<br />
a fine type of fighting Irishman has<br />
<br />
passed away. His political career—<br />
<br />
revolutionary and startling—has been fully set<br />
<br />
forth in the papers. There is no need to repeat<br />
facts known to everybody.<br />
<br />
He was a member of the Society from 1890 till<br />
1899, when he retired owing to increasing age.<br />
His literary works were not numerous, but one of<br />
his most interesting was, perhaps, his work entitled<br />
“Young Ireland.” He assigned the right of<br />
publication of this to a Dublin publisher for a<br />
given period of years, and to his amazement, some<br />
years after the date mentioned in the agreement,<br />
found the book was still selling on the market.<br />
As he thought it improbable that ‘these copies<br />
had been printed in accordance with the terms<br />
of the agreement, his suspicions and at the same<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
time his fighting spirit were roused. He deter-<br />
mined to test the matter in the courts. We have<br />
before us a copy of the agreed judgment in the<br />
action in which he was plaintiff; as the judgment<br />
was in his favour his suspicions proved amply<br />
justified : a considerable edition had been printed<br />
and published after the agreement had expired.<br />
<br />
In all his political actions in Ireland, in England,<br />
and the Colonies, he stood forth a sound example<br />
of the Irishman of a past generation, whose high<br />
Irish spirit and Irish vigour carried him to an<br />
honoured old age.<br />
<br />
ee ee ee<br />
<br />
THE AGE OF REASON.*<br />
<br />
1<br />
<br />
F self-satisfaction, and a placid acquiescence in<br />
the order of the universe, and a somewhat<br />
lofty contempt for all previous ages, may<br />
<br />
be considered to constitute happiness, the mid-<br />
eighteenth century, as it is rather curiously termed,<br />
will be regarded as a period not unworthy of the<br />
return of Astrea. That “their lot had been cast<br />
in an era of unparalleled enlightenment, that<br />
theirs was the last word in the progressive series<br />
of human thought and knowledge,” was the fine<br />
and futile belief of the Encyclopeedists, the Econo-<br />
mists, and of Voltaire himself. For Voltaire, as<br />
Mr. Millar has shown us, was not a pessimist. A<br />
pessimist is a man who knows no better ; he is an<br />
unsuccessful thinker. If Voltaire showed pessi-<br />
mism in his attitude towards the theories of others,<br />
with regard to his own point of view his optimism<br />
was steadfast. He did not dance on his rose-coloured<br />
spectacles. Like all true cynics, he reserved them<br />
for the contemplation of everything that was the<br />
antithesis of what he attacked.<br />
<br />
Johnson, and the novelists, both French and<br />
English, approved of their period for a tamer<br />
reason, simply because it was inevitable. Le Sage<br />
and Fielding acquiesced in the order of things,<br />
not through devotion, not through complacent<br />
content, but because their sense of humour, their<br />
wide, sane view of life, forbade useless lamentation<br />
or rhapsody.<br />
<br />
But the general “song of pure concent” was<br />
not wholly undisturbed. There are always certain<br />
thin-lipped persons who console themselves for<br />
their own stupidity, or ugliness, or bad manners,<br />
by sneering at the wise, the beautiful, and the<br />
gracious. These silly people are, as a rule, of even<br />
Jess importance in literature than in life ; their<br />
denunciations of luxury, which they call effeminacy,<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
* “Periods of European Literature: IX, The Mid-<br />
Eighteenth Century,” by J. H. Millar (Blackwood, 1902),<br />
<br />
159<br />
<br />
and their attitude to art, which reminds one irre-<br />
sistibly of a policeman in a museum, are rarely<br />
worth notice. Still, on occasions, they acquire,<br />
like many quite intolerable things, the merit of<br />
usefulness. They are usually indiscriminate in<br />
their invectives against the existing order of things<br />
—they would attack the age of Pericles, if they<br />
lived in it, as cheerfully as they would attack that<br />
of Charles I., and so it is just a chance whether<br />
their influence is beneficial or not. In a great<br />
period they are a nuisance ; in a petty period they<br />
are an unpleasant but useful cathartic. They are<br />
always with us.<br />
<br />
They existed in the mid-cighteenth century, but<br />
no one took them seriously, until from their ranks<br />
arose, portentous, insidious, the form of Jean<br />
Jacques Rousseau. He was an Ovid disguised in<br />
the mantle of a Bernardin St. Pierre; he was the<br />
corrupt champion of a not ignoble revolt. No<br />
revolt is ignoble. It is Nature’s protest against<br />
inactivity, and dull oppression, and _ intellectual<br />
death. But most people who revolt are quite<br />
revolting.<br />
<br />
The craving for realism, which was one of the<br />
chief characteristics of the period, found its satis-<br />
faction in one form of literature, the novel. It<br />
affected the drama, too, but only slightly ; poetry<br />
continued its serene, sluggish course of “ classi-<br />
cism,” to be lost at last—the weariest river !—in<br />
the bright waves of the Romantic revival. A<br />
point that Mr. Millar seemed to omit to notice<br />
was that Realism actually formed a step from<br />
hide-bound, mincing “classicism” to Romanticism.<br />
Between the study of man as a piece of intellectual<br />
clockwork and the study of the lurid depth and<br />
grey mystery of his passions must lie the con-<br />
templation of man as a real being, ovre kaxirros ov're<br />
mpatos tows, dudAdds d€ tis. . . But probably Mr.<br />
Millar was fearful of encroaching on the outskirts<br />
of the claim belonging to his neighbour, Professor<br />
Vaughan.<br />
<br />
Mr. Millar’s book has escaped most of the dis-<br />
advantages that beset a treatise whose aim is<br />
primarily educational. It is well written, with<br />
pleasant flashes of humour, and some of the criti-<br />
cisms are really very illuminating. But his defence<br />
of the period at the end of the volume is an appeal<br />
based on the glass-house theory, and I feel certain<br />
that after he had written it he rushed from his<br />
desk and read Theocritus, or Catullus, or Theo-<br />
phile Gautier, or someone else remarkable for grace<br />
and delicacy. He has avoided the old, obvious<br />
clichés in dealing with the great men; he has given<br />
a succinct account of the philosophy of the period<br />
which all people who have not read any philosophy<br />
could appreciate, and which even a philosopher<br />
might sometimes understand. His information is<br />
derived from first-hand knowledge. As one thinks<br />
160<br />
<br />
of “ Butler’s Analogy,” one experiences all the<br />
sweet sensations of sympathy. But at all events,<br />
it has not hurt Mr. Millav’s prose style.<br />
<br />
Mr. Millar regards the drama as extinct. It<br />
ended, he says, with “The Critic.” ‘‘ Tragedies<br />
have been produced by poets great and small, but<br />
they are unplayable, and ought to have remained<br />
unplayed.” Did Mr. Millar, I wonder, see<br />
“Herod” ? ‘ Melodramas and comedies have run<br />
for thousands of nights, yet in print prove obsti-<br />
nately unreadable.”’ Has Mr. Millar ever attempted<br />
to read any of Oscar Wilde’s plays ? They are not<br />
so obstinate. Mr. Millar’s book is too readable,<br />
his quotations from Vauvenargues too typical of<br />
the man who loves a good phrase, to make me believe<br />
that he could fail to understand the ‘‘ Importance<br />
of Being Earnest.” He will, perhaps, some day<br />
delete with tears the last page of his chapter on<br />
the drama.<br />
<br />
St. Joun Lucas.<br />
<br />
ee<br />
<br />
CORRESPONDENCE.<br />
<br />
St<br />
<br />
To the Editor of Ton AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
Srr,—I should much like to know whether or<br />
not some folk have any good ground for saying<br />
whether or no? Most of us say ‘‘ whether or not,”<br />
and surely correctly. I had almost persuaded a<br />
certain friend to give up his “no,” when trium-<br />
phantly he produced the Authorized Version,<br />
John ix., 25! But surely even there “ not”<br />
would be grammar, since it means whether he be<br />
a sinner or (whether he be) not (a sinner). In<br />
fact it is the German nicht and nein. Can The<br />
Author settle the point ?<br />
<br />
Kine’s ENGLIsa.<br />
<br />
P.S.—I note that the Revisers have discreetly<br />
dropped the contested point! Still I keep saying,<br />
“‘ Whether it be usage, or not” ; my friend declaring<br />
“‘ Whether you think it wrong, or no.” Will The<br />
Author arbitrate ? doing so by showing reason,<br />
else my friend will never be convinced !<br />
<br />
—— 1 —<br />
<br />
REYIEWS AND REYIEWERS.<br />
To the Editor of Tun AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
Dear Srr,—With reference to the playful ways<br />
of reviewers, the enclosed specimen may amuse the<br />
author and publisher, who are kind enough to send<br />
copies of their works to provincial newspapers.<br />
<br />
No one really attends to the remarks of the<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
reviewer ; they have long ceased to pretend to any<br />
value, other than the price of a few lines of print ;<br />
but the question now arises, Is it better to have a<br />
string of ignorant or impertinent observations, or<br />
a review of a quarter of a column (of which half is<br />
quotation from a work other than that under notice)<br />
which barely mentions the book at all ?<br />
<br />
Personally, I prefer the last, judging by the<br />
specimen I enclose. I had never seen the verses<br />
quoted ; so that I’ve learnt something.<br />
<br />
T am, etc.,<br />
<br />
L. Corr CORNFORD.<br />
<br />
Mr. L. Cope Cornford—whose interesting monograph on<br />
Stevenson was so successful in catching the very trick of<br />
that author’s style—announces a new novel under the<br />
romantic title of “The Last Buccaneer.” ‘The title, of<br />
course, is not quite original—few titles are, and luckily<br />
there is no copyright in them. It was used before by a<br />
poet whose work we should like to quote, for it is very<br />
little known, although the author’s name is a household<br />
word among us. Perhaps those who are in need of a mild<br />
amusement might offer their friends a dozen guesses at the<br />
author’s name—to be discovered from internal evidence.<br />
This is the poem :<br />
<br />
“The winds were yelling, the waves were swelling,<br />
The sky was black and drear,<br />
When the crew, with eyes of flame, brought the ship<br />
without a name<br />
Alongside the last Buccaneer.<br />
<br />
“¢ Whence flies your sloop full sail, before so fierce a<br />
<br />
gale,<br />
When all others drive bare on the seas ?<br />
Say, come ye from the shore of the holy Salvador,<br />
Or the gulf of the rich Carribees ?’<br />
<br />
“¢From a shore no search hath found, from a gulf no<br />
line can sound,<br />
Without rudder or needle we steer ;<br />
Above, below our bark, dies the sea fowl and the shark,<br />
As we fly by the last Buccaneer.<br />
<br />
‘“««To-night there shall be heard on the rocks of Cape de<br />
Verde<br />
A loud crash, and a louder roar ;<br />
And to-morrow shall the deep, with a heavy moaning,<br />
sweep<br />
The corpses and wreck to the shore,’<br />
<br />
“The stately ship of Clyde securely now may ride<br />
In the breath of the citron shades ;<br />
And Severn’s towering mast securely now flies fast<br />
Through the sea of the balmy Trades.<br />
<br />
“From St. Jago’s wealthy port, from Havana’s royal<br />
fort<br />
The seaman goes forth, without fear ;<br />
For since that stormy night not a mortal hath had<br />
sight<br />
Of the flag of the last Buccaneer.”<br />
<br />
The modern reader will trace in this poem something of<br />
the style of Poe and something of that of Mr. Kipling,<br />
though its date makes it highly probable that its author<br />
was influenced by neither of these high authorities on<br />
buccaneers. | https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/481/1903-03-01-The-Author-13-6.pdf | publications, The Author |