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The Author
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<em>The Author</em>
Description
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A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&collection=&type=&tags=&exhibit=&date_search_term=&submit_search=Search+For+Items&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022.
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1890–1914
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The-Author-Issues
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1904-07-01
Volume
14
Issue
10
Pages
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253–284
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19040701
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The Huthor.
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)
FOUNDED BY SIR WALTER BESANT.
Vor. XIV.—No. 10.
TELEPHONE NUMBER :
374 VICTORIA.
TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS :
AUTORIDAD, LONDON.
o—~<f ©
NOTICES.
—
OR the opinions expressed in papers that are
signed or initialled the authors alone are
responsible. None of the papers or para-
graphs must be taken as expressing the opinion
of the Committee unless such is especially stated
to be the case.
Tu Editor begs to inform members of the
Authors’ Society and other readers of The Author
that the cases which are from time to time quoted
in The Author are cases that have come before the
notice or to the knowledge of the Secretary of the
Society, and that those members of the Society
who desire to have the names of the publishers
concerned can obtain them on application.
Te attention of members is called to the
fact that, in accordance with the decision of the
Committee, only ten numbers of The Author
will be printed during the year. The August
and September numbers are not issued.
—~<
List of Members.
Tur List of Members of the Society of Authors
published October, 1902, at the price of 6d., and
the elections from October, 1902, to July, 1903, as
a supplemental list, at the price of 2d., can now be
obtained at the offices of the Society.
They will be sold to members or associates of
the Society only.
Vou, XIV.
Juny isr, 1904.
[Prick SIxPENCE.
The Pension Fund of the Society.
Tun Trustees of the Pension Fund met at the
Society’s Offices on the 19th of February, and
having gone carefully into the accounts of the
fand, decided to purchase £250 London and North
Western 3 % Debenture Stock. Accordingly, the
investments of the Pension Fund at present stand-
ing in the names of the Trustees are as follows.
This is a statement of the actual stock ; the
money value can be easily worked out at the current
price of the market :—
Consols 24 %...sssersecseeeerenerereneress £1000 0 O
Local Loans ......---sceceeeeeereseetetes 500 0 0
Victorian Government 3 % Consoli-
dated Inscribed Stock .....-.--.++++- 291 19 11
Wear LOa 6.6022 -e--eeeecee eet 201. 9 38
London and North Western 3 % Deben-
ture Stock .......cececeeeeeereee es eneee 250 0 O
otal 1.2... £2,248 9 2
Subscriptions from October, 1903.
£ s. a.
Noy. 13, Longe, Miss Julia . 0 5 0
Dec. 16, Trevor, Capt. Philip QO: 5 0
1904.
Jan. 6, Hills, Mrs. C. H. . 0 5 0
Jan. 6, Crommelin, Miss 010 O
Jan. 8, Stevenson, Mrs. M. E. 0 5 0
Jan. 16, Kilmarnock, The Lord . 010 0
Feb. 5, Portman, Lionel 10 0
Feb. 11, Shipley, Miss Mary 0 5b 0
Mar. _Diiring, Mrs. . : : 7 0 5 0
Mar. Francis Claude dela Roche . 0 5 0
April18, Dixon, W.Scarth . : - 0 5 0
April18, Bashford, Harry H. ; . 010 6
April19, Bosanquet, Eustace ae - 0 10 6
April 23, Friswell, Miss Laura Hain . 09 5 0
May 6, Shepherd, G. HB. . i 0-0 0
June 24, Rumbold, Sir Horace, Bart.,
G.C.B. ; ; tl 170
Donations from October, 1908.
Oct. 27, Sturgis, Julian : ‘
Nov. 2, Stanton, Ve : ~ 5b 0 0
254 THE AUTHOR
& se d,
Nov. 18, Benecke, Miss Ida. 1 0 0
Nov. 23, Harraden, Miss Beatrice - D0 0
Dee. Miniken, Miss Bertha M. M.. 0 5 0
1904.
Jan. 4, Moncrieff, A. R. Hope . - B00
Jan. 4, Middlemass, Miss Jean . - 0 10°70
Jan. 4, Witherby, The Rev. C. . - 0 5 0
Jan. 6, Key, The Rev. 8. Whittell . 0 5 0
Jan. 14, Bennett, Rev. W. K.,.D.D. . 015 0
Jan. 2, Roe, Mrs., Harcourt . . 010 0
Feb. 11, Delaire, Miss Jeanne. . 010 0
May 16, Wynne, C. Whitworth . - 5 0 0
June 23, Kirmse, R. . : : . 08. 0
June 23, Kirmse, Mrs. R. a)
+
FROM THE COMMITTEE.
HE Managing Committee of the Society of
Authors held its June meeting at 39, Old
Queen Street, on the 13th. The minutes
of the last meeting were read, and the elections
were then taken.
Twenty-one members and associates were elected,
bringing the total for the current year as high as
131. This is largely in excess of the number of
members elected during past years up to the same
period. It is. hoped that the increase will con-
tinue, and that those writers who hold secured
positions and are not members will be moved by
an unselfish impulse to join the Society which
has done so much for them and their profession
directly and indirectly.
At the May meeting, as noted in the last number
of The Author, the Committee decided to send an
address to the Spanish Academy on the tercentenary
of the publication of Don Quixote. It has now
been decided to appoint Mr. Leonard Williams,
who suggested the idea, as delegate of the Society
to hand the address to the Spanish Academy when
the celebrations take place. Although the wording
of the address has been settled, and approved by
the President, the outward form has not yet been
agreed upon.
There were a good many cases before the Com-
mittee for their consideration. One case dealt with
a complaint against the big distributing libraries,
but the Committee regretted that they were unable
to take the matter up as they could not hope that
the interference of the Society would bring about
any useful result.
Similar questions have, from time to time, been
considered, and exhaustively dealt with by the
Committee. Members are referred to the early
numbers of The Author.
In April, the Committee decided to take counsel’s
opinion on a series of contracts existing between
members of the Society and a firm of Canadian
publishers. Since this decision was arrived at,
the publishers in question have promised the
authors with whom they contracted to forward
accounts in July. The matter was again before
the Committee, and they decided to postpone action
until the time mentioned by the publishers had
expired.
In two cases arising out of disputes as to the
amounts due from authors to publishers for work
done, the Committee after exhaustive enquiry and
after reading the report of their solicitors, came
to the conclusion that they should give their
support in one case, but could not, from the
evidence before them, take up the other.
The dispute between an author and an agent
before the Committee in May was again up for
consideration. Counsel’s opinion, which had been
obtained in the meantime, was read, and the
Committee decided to advise the member to act in
accordance with the view expressed by Counsel.
A question of a contentious nature between an
author and a publisher also came before the Com-
mittee. The publisher had agreed to spend a sum
on advertisements. The question was whether the
amount had actually been expended. The Com-
mittee decided to appoint an accountant to vouch
the advertisement charges.
A letter from the Foreign Office notifying the
action of Sweden in joining the Berne Convention,
a letter from the American Copyright League with
regard to United States Copyright Law, and other
correspondence, were read before the Committee.
—1——
Cases.
SINCE the last issue of Zhe Author nine cases
have passed through the Secretary’s hands. Five
have been demands for money against magazines
and publishers. Of these three have already ter-
minated successfully, aud there is every probability
of equal success with the other two. There has
been one demand for accounts, which the publisher
in answer to a letter hastened to produce. Two
demands for the return of MSS., of which one has
been successful ; the other case has only just
come into the Secretary’s hands. The last, a ques-
tion of the termination and cancellation of contracts
and final settlement of accounts between author
and publisher, has been carried through to a
satisfactory conclusion.
Of the cases quoted in former numbers of The
Author, there are but three still open. There is a
dispute between an author and a publisher in the
United States, the conclusion of which is naturally
Bi Oe ties Sac
slow owing to the time which must elapse between
each mail. The other two cases have almost been
concluded—one dealing with an amount due from
a publisher, and the other to a dispute as to the
exact number of words in a MS. In the latter
case the difficulty arose owing to the fact that the
writer was paid by the number of words. The
publisher has willingly accepted the Society’s
arbitration.
June Elections.
Anson, Sir William, D.C.L. All Soul’s
Oxford.
Bigelow, Mrs. M. E. . c/o Miss M. Yueill,
3,445—60 Street,
Chicago, U.S.A.
Bremner, Robert Locke . Glencairn, Dunblane,
Perthshire.
Deane, H. F. W. . . Gower Lodge, King’s
Road, Windsor.
Deeping, Warwick . . “Oaklands,” Has-
Colleges
tings.
De la Pasture, Mrs. Henry Llandogo.
Evans, Mrs. . : . The Elms, Begbroke,
near Oxford.
Hills, Miss Christine D. I’. Littlehampton, Sussex.
Keating, Joseph. 19; oe Square,
W.C.
Moffatt, Miss E. B. . Chinthurst Cottage,
Shalford, Surrey.
Morris, Mrs. Frank . 63, FitzGeorge
Avenue, Auriol Rd.,
West Kensington.
Newland-Smith, Ernest . 76, Belgrave Road,
S.W.
Pereira, Miss Louise . 24, Morningside Drive,
Edinburgh.
Rumbold, The Right 127, Sloane Street,
Hon. Sir Horace, Bart., S.W.
G.C.B.
Sieveking, J. Giberne . Lyon Road, Harrow,
N.
Soutar, Miss Lucy H. . Mayfield, Falkirk, N.B.
Steynor, B. N. : . “Pembridge,” Mal-
vern.
Weekes, Charles, B.L. . 20, Gainsborough
Mansions, Queen’s
Club Gdns., W.
Weekes, Miss Rose K. . Sutton Vicarage,
Dartford.
74, Merrion Square,
Wynne, Miss Fiorence
Dublin.
One member does not desire the publication of
either his name or address.
THE AUTHOR. O55
BOOKS PUBLISHED BY MEMBERS OF
THE SOCIETY.
(In the following list we do not propose to give more
than the titles, prices, publishers, etc., of the books
enumerated, with, in special cases, such particulars as may
serve to explain the scope and purpose of the work.
Members are requested to forward information which will
enable the Editor to supply such particulars.)
ART.
Great Masters. Parts XV.,XVI., XVII. With Descrip-
tive Text by Str Martin Conway. Heinemann.
5s, n. each.
Toe Art or J. MAcWHIRTER, R.A. By Mo
SPIELMANN, With five full page and numerous text
illustrations. 144 x 10%, 22 pp. Hanfstangel.
BIOGRAPHY.
OppITIES, OTHERS AND I. By HENRIETTE CORKRAN.
9 x 6,328 pp. Hutchinson. 16s.
THE LIFE OF MAJOR GENERAL WAUCHOPE, CB. CMG,
By Str GEORGE DOUGLAS. 9 x 6, 431 pp. Hodder
and Stoughton. 10s, 6d.
ECONOMICS.
Free TRADE. By THE RIGHT HONBLE. THE LORD
AVEBURY, P.C. 9 X 53, 164 pp. Macmillan. 5s. n.
INTERNATIONAL TRADE. By J. A. Hopson. 73 X 5,
202 pp. Methuen. 2s. 6d. n.
FICTION.
THE EARTHLY PuRGATORY. By L. DOUGALL. 7% X 5,
345 pp. Hutchinson. 6s.
Extracts From ADAM’s Diary. By Mark TWAIN,
8} x 54, 89 pp. Harper's. 2s. 1.
Op Henprick’s Taues. By Capr. A. O. VAUGHAN.
73 x 5}, 234 pp. Longmans. 6s.
LycuGate Hany. By M. E. Francis (Mrs. Francis
Blundell). 73 X 54, 347 pp- Longmans. 6s.
My FRENCH FRIENDS. By CONSTANCE Maup. 7} X 5,
323 pp. Smith, Hlder & Co. 6s.
MaLincourt KEEP. By ADELINE SERGEANT. 73 X 5,
310 pp. J. Long. 6s.
A WomAN OF Business. By MAJOR ARTHUR GRIFFITHS.
72 X 6, 335 pp. J. Long. 6s.
Nyria. By Mrs, CAMPBELL PRAED. 73 X 5, 432 pp.
Unwin. 6s. ;
THE CARDINAL'S PAWN. By L. MONTGOMERY. T. Fisher
Unwin. 6s. n.
INCOMPARABLE BELLATRS. By AGNES AND EGERTON
CASTLE. 7§ X 4%, 326 pp. Constable. 6s.
THe ORDEAL BY Fire. By ALLEN UPWARD. 7 x 43,
320 pp. Digby Long & Co.
En. By MARMADUKE PICKTHALL. 73 x 5, 350 pp.
Constable. 6s.
THe GREAT PRO-CoNSUL. By SYDNEY C.Grigr, 7} x 5,
440 pp. Blackwood. 6s.
LizA oF LAMBETH. By W. SOMERSET MAUGHAN,
(Cheap Edition.) 84 X 54%, 99 pp- Unwin. 6d.
HISTORY.
Tre Spirit or IsuaM. By the Hon. Mr. Justice AMEER
Aut. (Popular Edition, published in Calcutta: S. J.
Lahiri). London: Kegan Paul & Co.
A SHoRT HISTORY OF THE SARACENS. By the Hon, MR.
Justice AMEER ALI, Macmillan & Co. 7s. 6d. n.
256
LAW.
COMMENTARY ON THE BENGAL TENANCY ACT. By M.
FINUCANE, M.A., and the Hon. Mr. JUSTICE AMEER
Awl. Thacker, Spink & Co., Calcutta ; Thacker & Co.,
London.
MAHOMMEDAN LAw. Vol. I. j
AMEER ALI. 3rd Edition. Thacker, Spink & Co.,
Calcutta ; W. Thacker & Co, 28s. n.
THE STUDENTS’ HANDBOOK OF MAHOMMEDAN LAW. By
the Hon. Mr. Justice AMEER ALI. 4th Edition.
Thacker, Spink & Co., Calcutta ; Thacker & Co., London,
4s. 6d. n.
By the Hon. Mr. Justice
MEDICAL.
ScHooLt HYGIENE. By ARTHUR NEWSHOLME.
320 pp. Sonnenschein. 38.
MEDICO-THEOLOGICAL.
DIVINE HYGIENE—THE SANITARY SCIENCE OF THE
SACRED SCRIPTURES. By ALEX. RATTRAY, M.D
2 Vols. 730—750 pp. Nisbet & Co. 32s.
7% X 44,
MILITARY.
THE SECOND AFGHAN WAR, 1878-79-80.
Its ConpuctT, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.
Its CAUSEs,
By Cou.
H. B. Hanna. Vol. Il. 9 x 6, 372 pp. Constable.
15s. n.
THE ARMY ON ITSELF. By H. A. GWYNNE. 7 X 43,
193 pp. Warne. 2s. 6d. n.
MUSIC.
THE DIVERSIONS OF A Music LOVER.
84 x 53,260 pp. Macmillan. 6s.
HANDBOOK ON THE ART OF TEACHING AS APPLIED TO
Music. WARRINER, Mus. Doc. 74 X 5,176 pp. A.
Hammond & Co., 6 King Street, Regent Street, W.
28. 6d.
By C. L. GRAVES.
SPORT.
PRACTICAL HIN1S ON ANGLING IN Rivers, LAKES, AND
Sea. By W. M. GaLLIcHAN. 74 X 5, 116 pp.
Pearson. Ils.
FISHING (‘‘ The Country Life” Library of Sport). 2 Vols.
Edited by H. G. HUTCHINSON. 91 X 6. 526 X 445 pp.
Newnes. 2s 6d. n.
SOCIOLOGY.
Success AMONG NATIONS. By EMILE REICH.
270 pp. Chapman and Hall. 10s. 6d. n.
9 x 6,
ASPECTS OF SocIAL Evo.LuTion. First Series. Tem-
peraments. By J. LIONEL TAYLER, M.R.C.S. 84 x 5},
297 pp. Smith Elder. 7s. 6d.
THEOLOGY.
CONCERNING THE Hoty BiBLE. ITs UsE AND ABUSE.
By THE RicHT Rey. Monsicgnor JoHN 8. VAUGHAN.
74 X 4%. Washbourne. 3s. 6d. n.
“Hora BIBLICA.’”’ By ARTHUR CARR, M.A.
Hodder and Stoughton. 6s.
TOPOGRAPHY.
THE QUANTOCK HILLS: THEIR COMBES AND VILLAGES.
By BrHATRIX F. CResswELb. 74 xX 5, 106 pp. The
Homeland Association. 2s. 6d. n.
Near Oxrorp. By THE Rey. H. T. Inman. 61 xX 5,
215 pp. Oxford: Alden. Is. and 2s. 6d. n.
218 pp.
TRAVEL.
THE ALps. Described by SIR MARTIN Conway. Painted
by A. D. McCormick. 9 X 6}, 294 pp. Black.
208. n.
THE AUTHOR.
LITERARY, DRAMATIC, AND MUSICAL
NOTES.
—~<+ ——
N “The Masters of English Literature,”
I Mr. Stephen Gwynn seeks, by a process of
selection, to give a readable account of the
development of English literature from Chaucer’s
time onwards. He deals, in all, with almost fifty
authors, and of most of them a tolerably full and
critical account is given.
Mr. Grant Richards published, early in June,
the second volume, dealing with sporting dogs, of
“The Twentieth Century Dog,” compiled by Mr.
Herbert Compton from the contributions of some
five hundred experts.
“Major Weir,” by K. L. Montgomery, author
of “The Cardinal's Pawn,” will be published
during the coming season by Mr. Fisher Unwin.
The book is a romance, with the noted wizard
Thomas Weir, for the central figure.
Messrs. Barnicott and Pearce, of Taunton, have
published, at the price of 6d., a work entitled ‘‘ The
Country Gentleman’s Reference Catalogue to the
best Works on Agriculture, Gardening, Botany,
Natural History, Sporting, Recreations and Kindred
Subjects.”
In a lecture at the Royal Institution, dealing
with the subject of ‘ The State and Literature,”
Mr. H. G. Wells pleaded for the more leisurely and
larger criticism found in books, the duty of litera-
ture in this sense being to teach men and classes
their place in the world, and in the social scheme.
He stated further, that the most important litera-
ture, personal relationship, was to be found to
some extent in good essays, sermons, biographies,
and autobiographies, but that the great bulk of
the people desired it served them in novels and
plays. They went to see the latter and delighted
to read the former, partly because they liked stories,
but very largely, consciously or unconsciously, from
social curiosity. If these interpretations in novel
and in play were well done, the State would endure ;
if badly done, it must go to pieces. The literature
of personal life and emotions was to be found in
poetry and philosophy, which should be looked to
to keep the whole mass of the social order in
sympathy and-in one key one with another.
The third edition of ‘The Commentary on the
Indian Evidence Act,” by the Honourable Mr.
Justice Ameer Ali, and Mr. Justice Woodroffe, will
appear in December of the current year.
Mr. Justice Ameer Ali, who will also produce,
early in 1905, the fifth edition of “The Students’
Handbook of Mahomedan Law,” is at present
engaged on a “History of Mahomedan Civilisa-
tion in India,” with an introduction dealing with
the pre-Mahomedan period.
During the autumn, Mrs. Croker will publish
her new book, “The Happy Valley,” through
Messrs. Methuen & Co.
Mr. Charles Garvice’s two books, “In Cupid’s
Chains,” and “Just a Girl,” have gone into a
second and third edition respectively. ‘The former
has been translated by Miss Mary Otteson into
Norwegian for a Norwegian syndicate.
Mr. Garvice’s last novel, “ Redeemed by Love,”
is being syndicated by the National Press Agency
in England, and by Messrs. George Munro’s Sons
in America.
The same author has also completed, in col-
laboration with Mr. Denman Wood, a dramatic
version of his book “Nance,” which will be
produced at Mr. Wood’s theatre, the New Court,
Bacup, in the autumn. :
The following verse is taken from the title page
of Mr. John Oxenham’s new novel, ‘“‘A Weaver
of Webs,” which Messrs. Methuen & Co. have
published :—
“Warp and woof and tangled thread—
Weavers of webs are we
Living, and dying, and mightier dead,
For the shuttle once started shall never be stayed—
Weavers of webs are we.”
Mr. W. L. Courtenay’s essays on the work of
Maurice Meeterlinck, which appeared in the Daily
Telegraph, were published in book form in the
middle of June by Mr. Grant Richards. The
book also contains sketches of other foreign
writers, including D’Annunzio, Turgenieff, Tolstoy,
Gorky, and Merejowski.
Mrs. Rowland’s new novel, entitled “ Capricious
Caroline,” which is now running serially in The
Times weekly edition, will be published in book
form in the middle of September by Messrs.
Methuen & Co., who are also publishing new
editions of “ Love and Louisa,” and “Peter a
Parasite,” by the same authoress. In addition,
Mrs. Rowlands has in hand a series of stories for
The Tatler, and a series of articles for Zhe Daily
Chronicle, besides a number of short stories com-~-
missioned by other papers, such as The Bystander
and London Opinion.
Miss J. S. Wolff, author of ‘“ Les Francais en
Menage,” “Les Francais en Voyage,” etc., has
just published a series of “Object Lessons in
Practical French” (Blackie & Son), and is prepar-
ing a second volume of her French History series,
“Tes Francais du dix-huitieme Siecle” (Edward
Arnold). Vol. I., “ Les Francais d’Autrefois,”
appeared last September.
The Chromoscopist for June, contains a character
study by ‘‘ Mancy,” entitled “Jacky.” ‘“ Mancy”
has also an article in the June number of The
Spiritualist, entitled “ Palmistry and Its Benefits.”
We understand that Messrs,
Constable & Co.
THER AUTHOR.
257
have changed their address from 2, Whitehall
Gardens, and will remove to larger premises at 16,
James Street, Haymarket, S.W.
“Behind the Footlights,” Mrs. Alec Tweedie’s
last work, which was published by Messrs. Hutchin-
son & Co., with twenty full page illustrations at
the price of 18s., has gone into a second edition.
«A Voice from the Void ” is the title of a book
by Miss Helen Boddington, which Messrs. Methuen
& Co. will publish during the autumn.
The twenty-sixth Congress of the International
Literary and Artistic Association will take place
in Marseilles from the 24th to the 29th of Septem-
ber next. The subjects set down for discussion
are: 1. Musical authors’ rights; 2. Publishers’
agreements respecting artistic works; 3. Pro-
tection of photographs; 4. Moral rights, and
public copyright as applied to monuments of the
past ; 5. A study of the countries in which several
languages are spoken, and of copyright in transla-
tions from one to another of the languages in use
within the country ; 6. The publication of works
of history and criticism ; 7. Protection of archi-
tectural designs; 8. Protection of engineers’
plans ; 9. The International situation in various
countries ; 10. The revision ofthe Berne Convention.
Mr. Grant Richards will publish in a few days
“The Server’s Handbook,” by the Rev. Percy
Dearmer. It is the fifth volume in the “ Parsons’
Handbook” series.
« Derek Vane,” author of “The Three Daughters
of Night,” etc., has disposed of the serial rights of
her new novel, ‘ The House on the Black Water,”
to Messrs. Cassell. She is writing some humorous
articles for the Boudoir, and has short stories
appearing in the Outlook, Manchester Chronicle, etc.
Miss Jean Delaire’s book, « Around a Distant
Star,” which we noticed lately as about to be
published, has met with favourable reviews in the
Daily News, The Glasgow Herald, and The Sheffield
Telegraph.
Miss Marie Corelli has a series of articles on
“Pagan London” running in The Bystander.
The first of these articles appeared on June 22nd.
“ Suggestions for a New Political Party, with
principles, methods, and some Application,” is the
title of an article by Dr. Beattie Crozier which will
appear in one of the coming numbers of The
Fortnightly Review.
«The Reverend Jack” is the title of a novel by
Naunton Covertside (Naunton Davies) which will
shortly be published by Mr. Henry Drane, at the
rice of 6s.
Mr. Stanley Weyman has received a testimonial
to the popularity of his work, which has much
touched him. His book “The Long Night” deals
with the history of the city of Geneva. Such
interest has it aroused that some of the most
258
prominent of Geneva’s citizens, in token of their
appreciation, have forwarded to the author an
address with a small bronze statuette of Calvin.
A short extract from the document itself will
convey better than words from our pen, the feeling
of those who have acted in the matter.
‘*We are anxious that so ideal a relationship (7c.
between Mr. Weyman and the City) should not vanish,
without placing in your hands some material evidence of
our grateful admiration.
“The statuette of Calvin is no unbecoming ornament
for the writing table of one whose works, like yours, are
founded on that vast Anglo-Saxon influence which has in
every part of the world cherished the religious and political
views of the Reformer, views of faith and liberty which
have become for you the foundation and the inspiration of
your Art.”
We heartily congratulate Mr. Weyman on receipt
of a compliment as pleasant as it was unexpected.
Everyone will have been amused and interested
in the Poet Laureate’s position as an anonymous
author. A full statement of the circumstances
under which his play was accepted by Mr. Bourchier
has appeared in all the papers, and demonstrates
the fallacy of the statement so often made, that
managers do not read plays that are sent to them
by unknown writers. The comedietta, for it is but
aslight piece, was produced on June 16th, and runs
for about halfan hour. It met with a very cordial
reception. Mr. Bourchier and Miss Bateman took
the chief parts.
The play founded on Mrs. Croker’s novel,
“Terence,” which has, for the last ten months,
been attracting good audiences in New York,
Boston, Washington, Chicago, and other cities of
the United States, will, we understand, have a
further run in the same country during the next
season.
“ Beyond the Vale” is the next of Mrs. Croker’s
novels to be dramatised, with a view to production
in the States. :
+»
PARIS NOTES.
—_1~>—+
HE Académie Francaise has awarded the
Bordin prize of 3,000 francs to be divided
into two prizes of 1,000 francs, to M. Paul
Gautier, for his book on “Mme. de Staél et Napo-
léon,” and to M. Michaud for “ Sainte Beuve avant
les lundis,” and two other prizes of 500 francs. The
Marcel Guérin prize of 5,000 francs is divided into
four prizes of 500 and three of 1,000 francs. M.
Dunand and Ivan Strannik are among the authors
who have shared this prize.
The Archon Despérouse prize is divided into one
of 1,000 francs, awarded to M. Vermenouze for his
THE AUTHOR.
poem “ Mon Auvergne,” and the rest into prizes of
500 francs to other poets.
The Montyon prize of 19,000 francs is awarded
to Capitaine Lenfant for his book ‘Le Niger” ;
Félix Régamey for “Le Japon”; Colonel de
Pélacot for his ‘ Expédition de Chine de 1900” ;
Paul Acker for “Petites Confessions” ; Paul Labbé
for his ‘‘Bagne Russe”; Jean Reibrach for
“Sirénes” ; Jean Viollet and Charles Frémine
for “ Petit Coeur” and “ Poemes et Récits.”
Other prizes have been awarded to Abbé Laveille,
Louis de Foureaud, the Marquis de Segonzac, Abbé
Piolet and Pierre Guzman.
“La Société Francaise pendant le Consulat:
Aristocrates et Républicains,” by Gilbert Stenger.
This volume is the second of a series which the
author is writing on the epoch he has so carefully
studied. In the first volume, “ La Renaissance de
la France,” we had a picture of the times when
Napoleon I. was Général Buonaparte.
In the first part of this new volume we have an
account of the “ Emigration,” and the miseries of
the aristocrats in exile. The second part is devoted
to the study of the Republicans and the work-
ings of the Consulate. he book is most interest-
ing, and a faithful picture of the times. We have
anecdotes about the celebrities of the day, and
excellent portraits of Talleyrand, Lebrun, Fouché,
and many other well-known historical charac-
ters, including Benjamin Constant and Camille
Jordan.
“ Le Marquis de Valeor,” by Daniel Lesueur, is
a most dramatic novel with a strong plot, and
mystery enough to satisfy the most ardent lovers
of intrigue. Unlike some of the other novels by
this author, there is not so much psychology in the
‘“‘Marquis de Valvor,” or, rather, the psychology is
left for the reader to discover between the lines, as
it were. One has to study the characters by their
actions, as the events follow each other so quickly
that until one closes the volume one has not
time to come to any conclusions. ‘To tell the
plot of the book would no doubt spoil it for many
readers. It is written in the same admirable
style as the other works which have brought
Daniel Lesueur to the front rank of contemporary
novelists.
Mr. Charles Foley, of the “Telephone” play
fame, has been tempted to build up a novel on
a certain rumoured episode which was a great.
topic of conversation some ten or twelve years
ago. In “ Fleur d’Ombre” we have the story of a
French girl named Lolette who marries a young
foreigner and for a year or two has an ideally
happy life. She then makes the terrible dis-
covery that she has married a prince in disguise.
Through the death of his brother her husband
becomes heir to a throne. Lolette and her baby-
boy are considered de trop by her royal husband’s
family.. A more suitable wife is provided for the
heir apparent, a princess who had been engaged to
the brother who died, and Lolette is expected to be
resigned as the “ widow » of a distinguished living
husband.
The story is well told with all the delicate
veiled irony in which Mr. Foley excels, and in
France the book is having great success.
“Sur la Branche” is the title of the new book
by Pierre de Coulevain, the author who had such
success in France and America with ‘* Noblesse
Américaine” and ‘“ Eve Victorieuse,” both of
which works won for the writer Academy prizes.
The new book is undoubtedly stronger than either
of the other two novels. It is extremely original,
and one wonders after reading it whether to call
it a novel. It seems to be, rather, a true study
of life, of real every-day life with all the small
things and all the great things woven together.
The author is a keen observer, with absolute faith
in the great plan “ to which all creation moves.”
Tae woman who is supposed to be writing the
story is living alone “on the branch,” or, in other
words, her home is broken up and she goes from
one hotel to another, and from one country to
another, believing that the romance of her own
life is over, but watching with deep interest the
comedies and tragedies around her. As time goes
on she discovers that her own romance is by no
means over, and the threads are once more put into
her hands by destiny, so that she may do the part
assigned to her in weaving the web of life. From
her own bitter experience and grief she has learnt
much, a larger tolerance and an immense opti-
mism. The book appears to have been published
at just the right moment and is being greatly
discussed.
“Tsolée,” by Brada, is a most charming novel
and a psychological study from the first chapter to
the last. The young girl, whose isolation gives
the title to the book, is a Mlle. Charmoy who has
been brought up in the approved French way, but
who on the death of her relatives in France, is
handed over to some English relatives. She is
distinctly out of her element in the English home
to which she is consigned. Not only does her
“Latin soul” revolt against much that she disap-
proves in the Anglo-Saxon atmosphere, but she has
unfortunately lost her heart to a French cousin,
and this detail complicates matters considerably.
It is always a delicate and usually a thankless task
for a French or English novelist to place his
characters ina foreign milieu. Brada has succeeded
in giving us a faithful picture of a certain kind of
British home, but it is of that kind where a vulgar-
minded woman with plenty of money and an intense
admiration for all that is “smart” reigns supreme.
THE AUTHOR.
259
We are therefore inclined to think that the French
girl’s loneliness in England is not so much due to
her exile from her native country as to her exile
from a refined home. As a French novelist’s
study of English life the book is extremely
interesting.
M. André Maarel has written a novel entitled
“La Chevauchée,” which is really a study of the
political world. Lucien Surget is a politician who
sets out with the idea of helping his country in
many ways, but who finds that the path of a
politician is by no means an easy one. Un
semblant de bon sens pratique,” he says “ Vameénera
doucement aux compromissions, et sa vanité, sur
excitée par la flatterie, lui fera bientdt confondre
Yidée de son devoir avec Vidée de sa prosperité
ersonnelle.”
Without the authorisation of Madame Lardin de
Musset, the sister of Alfred de Musset, a volume
of the poet’s correspondence with George Sand has
just been published in Belgium. Some years ago
Madame Lardin de Musset refused her consent to
having her brother's letters made public, so that
with great indelicacy the persons responsible for
the appearance of this volume have taken it to
another country for publication. If these letters
were to be given to the public, in common fairness
it should have been done by the de Musset and the
George Sand representatives together. If there
are passages detrimental to George Sand which
have been omitted, the same should have been
done for de Musset, otherwise the book is of
no value as a justification of George Sand’s
conduct.
Among the new books are the following :
“ Bldorado,” by Paul Brulat; “ Au Pays du
Mystére,” by Pierre de Maél ; “ Marie Claire,” by
Francois Deschamp ; “Mes premiéres Armes
Littéraires et Politiques,” by Madame Adam ;
“Récits et Legendes d’_ Alsace Lorraine,” by
Genevieve Lanzy ; ‘La Vie de Paris,” by Jean
Bernard ; “ Les Francais de mon temps,” by the
Vicomte G. d’Avenel.
‘he theatrical season is practically over, but some
of the plays are still running, and at one or two of
the theatres the summer season has commenced.
As so many foreigners are in Paris during these
months this sammer season is becoming quite
important.
The Odéon commenced its celebration of George
Sand’s centenary with “ Le Démon du Foyer,” and
a George Sand exhibition in the foyer of the theatre.
“ Glaudie” will be given at the Francais.
A delightful innovation in Paris is the out-door
theatre in the Bois de Boulogne, the ‘héatre de
Verdure of the Pié Catelan. On the 22nd of June
the Comédie-Francaise gave “ Oedipe roi”; the
Odéon gave the foarth act of the “Ariésienne ”;
260
the ballet of “ Manon”’ was danced by the corps de
ballet of the Opéra Comique. It is fifty years
since any performance has been given at the Pré
Catelan.
Atys Hauuarp.
—~<- «
UNITED STATES NOTES.
—~_
(WNHE trail of the November Presidential election
is over everything this year, not excluding
literature. Histories of the Republican
Party, lives of their candidate, and similar pro-
ductions are as plentiful as blackberries ; and even
the clear stream of fiction is perceptibly a little
muddied with politics.
Meanwhile we have had a few biographies whose
real concern is with the past. Dr. Joseph Barrett’s
‘Abraham Lincoln and his Presidency ’”’ is based,
indeed, upon a “campaign biography,” written
with its subject’s assistance ; but the work in its
present form is of quite a different character, and
is a useful solvent of much myth that has gathered
round its hero.
Mr. Thomas E. Watson, going further back, has
added to Jefferson literature a somewhat episodical
but rather entertaining volume. He complains
bitterly of the deification of New Englandism, and
handles none too gently contemporary writers on
his subject, such as Woodrow Wilson, Henry
Cabot Lodge, and Elroy Curtis.
A notable biography also is “The Life of John
A. Andrew,” Governor of Massachusetts during
the Civil War, which has been written by Henry
Greenleaf Pearson. With all his admiration for
Lincoln the ardent war governor found the
President’s cautious methods rather trying. This
and other matters, such as the relations of Andrew
with General Butler, are handled in an admirable
manner, and the whole work is remarkable for
scholarship and literary power.
The “ Memoirs of Henry Villard,” on the other
hand, though of no slight interest and importance,
are of very uneven merit. That part of the work
which recounts the author’s career as a war
correspondent, and generally all of it that deals
with his life as a journalist, is eminently satis-
factory ; but, from easily excusable causes, what
is told us of Villard as the financial organiser of
the north-west is presented in a sadly fragmentary
manner. One is glad to hear, however, that its
shortcomings are likely to be remedied in a supple-
mentary publication. The life of a man who did
so much for America deserves the fullest possible
treatment in all its phases.
THE AUTHOR.
One other biography we must mention, viz., Mr.
Francis Newton Thorpe’s “ Life of Dr. William
Pepper,” Provost of Pennsylvania University. It
tells sympathetically, if a little diffusely, the life-
story of a really great personality—a man who not
only created a university, but left a great pro-
fessional reputation both as a medical writer and
a practising physician. He literally wore himself
out before his time by sheer pressure of work. It
is not a little refreshing to read of this go-ahead
character sticking up for Greek and Latin before
the Modern Languages Association—he himself
spoke French fluently; and the opinion of such
a man that the purification of American public
life was to be sought rather in educational work
than in ward politics is at least worthy of serious
consideration.
The Supreme Court has decided that books are
books and not periodicals. They will, therefore ,
no longer be able to go through the mails as
“second class” matter.
The “ Encyclopedia Britannica” has found a
protector in Judge Lacombe, who has restrained
the Tribune Association of New York City from
printing and selling as a premium a so-called
“‘Americanised Encyclopedia Britannica.” The
latter, it was held, had formed their eight volumes
by cancellations and mutilations of two-thirds of
the English work. A large amount of doca-
mentary evidence was put in. Actions were also
brought against the publishers, the Saalfield Pub-
lishing Company, of Akron, O., by Appleton &
Co., who alleged that the ‘“ Americanised ” supple-
ment infringed the copyright of their “ Cyclopedia
of American Biography.”’ They obtained damages
as well as an agreement to destroy copies and
stop sales.
The author of “Mrs. Wiges of the Cabbage
Patch” has also obtained relief from the law.
Mrs. Bass had been so pestered by the unwelcome
attentions of “hoboes” and others, that she at
length had recourse to strong measures, and last
April found herself charged with assault in the
form of throwing a pitcher upon the head of one
Mrs. Emily Smith, of Hazlewood, Ky. The
Louisville police justice dismissed the charge “on
general principles,” expressing the view that Mrs.
Wiggs had had great provocation.
The plaintiff’s plea that she was under the
impression that the author of “big-sellers ” was in
need of charitable relief was distinctly piquant ;
and certainly not less so was the testimony of the
defendant, who left the court saying “ Now maybe
Tl be able to spend my old age in peace, and
maybe my trees ‘ll grow out where all them
memorals has been pulled off, and maybe my yard
won’t be full of strange people every Sunday,
and I can move downstairs, where I used to live.”
i
"To return to literature. America is not wanting
in clever novelists, but her poets are few and far
between. All the greater then is our pleasure in
pointing to the achievement of Mr. William
Vaughan Moody, who has followed up his highly
promising “ Masque of Judgment” with ‘The
Fire-Bringer,” a drama of even greater merit.
The two, it seems, are designed as parts of a
trilogy, the remainder being yet to come. We
trust that there may be a few who will find leisure
from politics and fiction to make acquaintance
with literature that has attained so high a level.
Some weeks ago’ we were astonished to see
printed in that usually sane and carefully edited
organ, the Dial, a “communication” headed “ In
Re Shakespeare-Bacon” and signed “ Francis
Bacon Verulam Smith,” which is about the most
fatuous piece of literary criticism that we have
ever read in a serious paper. Were it not for the
well-known character of the publication one should
certainly have dismissed the thing as a somewhat
impudent jew d’ésprit. The writer of the “com-
munication” sets out to follow up a “line of
proof” adopted some time ago by a contributor
to the English paper Literature. ‘The latter seems
to have propounded the somewhat untenable
hypothesis that every great author is commonly
associated with his chief creation. This is how
Francis Bacon Verulam Smith follows up the clue:
«« What, now, is the chief, the best known character
in the so-called Shakespearian dramas? Hamlet,
to be sure; and in the name lurks a very clever
erypto-pun—Ham [i.¢., Bacon] let [or, hindered
from openly declaring his identity]. Let us goa
step further. What is Hamlet’s most famous
speech? The immortal soliloquy. And the most
familiar line therein? The first. Let us examine
this line. ‘Be’ is phonetic for the second letter
of the alphabet, and the line thus becomes ‘To
B[acon] or not to B[acon are these plays to be
ascribed], that is the question.’ And how is the
question decided? In the affirmative, of course.
The soliloquist determines against self-annihila-
tion. The Baconian authorship is thus established.”
We notice that the communicator hails from St.
Albans, presumably in England. Can it be that
the editor has been had by some wicked under-
graduate? Shelley, according to Hogg, would
indulge in somewhat similar practical jokes.
And now we must grapple with Fiction. The
book which headed the list of the Six Best Sellers
at the end of May was Miss Johnston’s “Sir
Mortimer,” a romance of Elizabethan times, Ellen
Glasgow’s “The Deliverance” coming second. As
to the precise altitude of literary merit reached by
the first there is room for some difference of
opinion ; that the second has really great dramatic
power there can be none. The scene is Virginia ;
THE AUTHOR.
261
the time, the reconstruction period after the Civil
War ; and the central theme, the power of love to
overcome the spirit of vengeance. Mrs. Atherton’s
“ Rulers of Kings” will scarcely add to her reputa-
tion ; but Stewart White has fully maintained his
with “The Silent Places.” It is the story of two
Hudson Bay Company’s runners hunting a default-
ing Indian trapper, and of the passion of an
Ojibway girl for one of the whites.
Amongst other historical novels which attain a
respectable level may be mentioned “Robert
Cavelier,”’ by William Dana Orcutt; “ When
Wilderness was King,” by Randall Parrish ; and
George Morgan’s “The Issue,” the last and best
of the three, containing some faithful descriptive
passages concerning the battles and personages of
the Civil War.
The political novel is strongly represented by
Francis Lynde’s western study called ‘The
Grafters,” a well constructed if somewhat over-
technical work, and by David Graham Phillip’s
powerful depiction of Wall Street ways, “ The
Cost.” Arthur Coton’s “ Port Argent’ also deals
largely in matters political. One may express a
hope, fond and foolish as it may seem, that such
books as these may have power enough to react a
little upon public opinion.
Promising first appearances in fiction have been
made by Mrs. Beatrice Demarest Lloyd and Miss
Margery Williams ; “ The Pastime of Eternity ” is
the imposing title given by the former to her tale
of incompatible temperaments.
“The Price of Youth” is rather audacious in
places, and perhaps a little reminiscent in others,
but has genuine pathos, and fidelity to the life
described, though the writer, we understand, is an
Englishwoman.
Miss Miriam Michelson has made an undoubted
hit with her “In the Bishop’s Carriage,” whose
heroine is a thief who gets caught by a theatrical
manager and converted—into an actress. The
Bishop’s carriage has little to do with the main
interest of the story ; but it is probable that the
poster which pourtrays the incident connected with
it is having much to do with its financial success.
Another book which has “caught on” mightily
is the versatile Mr, Severy’s detective story, “The
Darrow Enigma.” Melvin L. Severy has tried his
hand with some success not only at journalism,
playwriting and art, but has also devoted himself
to science and patented various inventions.
Finally Mrs. Edith Wharton has published a
volume of striking short stories; George Burr
McCutcheon has made a hero of a dog, though
quite unlike that of the author of “The Call of
the Wild” ; Byron’s career has been embodied in
fiction in Miss Rives’s “The Castaway” ; and
Winston Churchill has followed up “ The Crisis”
262
and “ Richard Carvel” with a new romance, “ The
Crossing.” :
The Japanese novel has also made its first
appearance in English through the enterprise of
American publishers.
Our obituary list is happily a short one. It
includes, besides Edgar Fawcett, a poet and novelist,
who died in England, Guy Webmore Carryl, best
known by his collection of Parisian stories, entitled
“Zut,” aman who seemed but at the threshold of
a brilliant career; Mrs. Abby Morton Diaz, author
of some successful books for children; Mrs.
Sarah Jane Lippincott, who wrote under the name
of Grace Greenwood, and founded ‘The Pilgrim ” ;
and Colonel Augustus C. Buell, the biographer of
Paul Jones and Sir William Johnson. To these
should perhaps be added the widow of Nathaniel
P. Willis, though she was not an author, and
Mrs. Clemens.
Se
LEGAL NOTES.
——+—
What’s in a Name?
VENTURED to discuss in last month’s Author
the position of the writer of a new book with
regard to a title which has been used before
by another writer, and to suggest that in most
cases the new writer can afford to disregard the
previous one, on the ground that the author of a
book which has been published has only a right to
prevent another from using his title in certain
circumstances. The author of the previous work
apparently can do this when he can show that
his book is known to the public by the name which
he has given to it, and that his market is likely to
be interfered with by a new book which may be
mistaken for his, but not otherwise. The device
used by some newspaper owners of publishing
dummy copies in order to protect a title of which
they claim to have the monopoly, is useless for any
practical legal purpose.
I take it, however, that the author (or the owner
of the copyright or right to publish) would have
the right to prevent another book from being sold
under the name of his, in any case where his book
was being publicly bought and sold ; it would not
be necessary for him to show that it was being sold
by the original publisher at the time. He might
have produced a limited edition, the price of which
was daily rising, and the sale and reputation of
which would be injured by the new book annexing
the well known name. In the case of plays, the
fact that a play can be revived at any time is of
course material. No one would be justified in
bringing out a new play and calling it “Hast
THE AUTHOR.
Lynne” or “The Importance of being Earnest,”
and because at that time no play of the name was
being performed. It would be a question of fact
for the tribunal hearing the case, should an action
be brought, whether the book or play in question
was so far alive or liable to be revived as to be
entitled to protection.
Sometimes the question is asked whether a
person publishing a book of a different kind from
another under a similar title could be prevented
from doing so. Presumably, if the sale of the
second book is likely to interfere with that of the
first from their being mistaken for one another,
the use of the title causing the confusion could
be prevented. In this case it would again be a
question of fact how far the error would be possible.
A title must often be equally applicable to two
books of a totally different character. Suppose
that at the time when “‘ Vanity Fair” was begin-
ning to enjoy fame, a popular preacher in a West
End church had chosen to bring out a book of
sermons with the same name, an old lady writing
to her library for “ Vanity Fair” (the sermons)
might have received Mr. Thackeray’s masterpiece,
and never have read, the sermons at all; or another
having been recommended the novel might by a
similar mistake have received the sermons and,.
obedient to their precepts, might never have
opened a book of romance again. It is certainly
not easy to lay down any rule to the effect that
books of similar titles upon different subjects will
not clash with one another.
If, however, the state of things is simply this,
that the writer of a new work must not use a title
that will interfere with the prosperity of an existing
one, it seems fairly clear that the legal right to
prevent the adoption of a title cannot often belong
to those who claim it. This was suggested in the
last issue of Zhe Author, but I should like to lay
emphasis upon it. What really belongs to the
previous author in most cases is simply the power
to annoy, and possibly the opportunity to exact a
small payment as compensation for an imaginary
wrong, a payment, however, which could not be
enforced in a Court of law.
There is a conceivable case in which the author
of a dead book might bring out a new edition for no
other purpose than to interfere with the sale of the:
new one, and it would be very difficult to prevent
him from doing so, and from thus supplying some
evidence of vitality. Should this occur it would
not be easy to prove that the re-publication was:
only for the purpose of extorting compensation,
and the possibility of such a thing being done is a.
contingency to be reckoned with.
It must be conceded therefore, that however:
seldom the author of a book who has inadvertently
taken the title of another, which he has never
.
a
heard of before, can be prevented legally from
proceeding to use it, no one would willingly or
wittingly choose a name already used if he had
any means ready to his hand of ascertaining the
previous use. The remedies suggested seem to be
twofold, namely, a full official list of all names
made use of, or secondly, a system of formal
registration conveying some right of protection such
as is conferred by registration upon owners of
registered trade marks and devices, or names used
as such.
With regard to the mere official recording of
published names there are a few observations
to be made. Supposing such a list were to be
compiled, it would be a very long one, even if it only
contained the books separately published in each
year, but probably it would have to contain more
than this. Books serialised would have to go in,
and so would short stories and articles. I gave
the instance of my own experience when the author
of a short story, who said (no doubt trulv) that
she was going to republish it, caused my publisher
to insist on my altering the name of a novel which
had been already announced for publication. In
order to prevent this, I should, I suppose, had
such lists as those imagined been in existence,
have had to look through them for ten or twenty
years back, a search which would have been
certainly tiresome and possibly useless for practical
purposes. Take such a title as “Some Emotions
and a Moral.? Under what word would it be
indexed? If tabulated only under the first word,
“Some,” the person desirous of publishing “ An
Emotion and a Moral,” would miss finding it, as he
would have only looked under the word “ An.”
And yet this latter title would clearly be liable to
be mistaken, and its use would be indefensible.
Tf more than one of the elements were indexed, so
that “Some Emotions and a Moral,” would be
found under “Some,” under “Emotion,” and
under “Moral,” the list would be increased still
more, and the staff of clerks necessary to keep it
complete, orderly, and up-to-date would have to
be a large one. In urging the making of such a
list officially as a remedy for the existing grievance,
it must be remembered that the cure proposed
should be a practical one, such as Parliament would
be likely to adopt. It is not easy to show that
the receipt of a book would compensate a public
or national library for the trouble and expense of
indexing its title, and enabling searchers to have
access to the list thus compiled. It is still more
difficult to argue that the receipt of a threepenny
magazine or a halfpenny newspaper should reward
the public institution for selecting from its con-
tents the titles which ought to be recorded.
This refers to the mere recording of titles
officially without the concurrence or assistance of
THE AUTHOR. 263
the authors or publishers. The regis/ration of titles
by authors, so that only those registering shall
acquire a right to use and to protect those titles is
a larger question, the discussion of which I propose
to defer.
E. A. ARMSTRONG.
— oe
The “ Encyclopedia Britannica” in Canada.
A. & CG. Buack v. THe Iupeertan Book CoMPANY
or TORONTO.
Wuen the judgment in this important action
was delivered (January, 1903) the present writer
at least thought the world had heard the last
of it. The Imperial Book Company, however,
took it to appeal, and it has now once more been
determined in favour of the English publishers,
Messrs. Adam and Charles Black. As the case
was commented upon at some length in Zhe Author
for April of last year, it is not proposed to repeat
here all the old arguments over the old issues, but
only to consider such parts of it as have acquired
a fresh importance at the appeal trial. And first
the case may be briefly stated.
Messrs. A. & GC. Black, the owners of the
“Encyclopedia Britannica,” had authorised the
Clark Company of Toronto to publish that work
in Canada, and this firm was actually publishing it
when it was found that another company—The
Imperial Book Company—was importing into
Canada for sale their copies of the same work
printed in the United States. To the action—for
injunction, delivery up of the piracies, and account
of profits—which followed, the defence made by the
Imperial Book Company was shortly as follows :—
1. That the Copyright Act is not in force in
Canada.
2. That a certificate of registration at Stationers’
Hall is not (even in the absence of rebutting evi-
dence) proof of ownership of copyright.
3. That Messrs. Black, having assigned their
copyright to the Clark Company, could not sue ;
and that the Clark Company, not having registered
the assignment, likewise could not maintain the
action.
4, That notice had not been properly given to
the Customs, as required by the Customs Laws
Consolidation Act, 1876 (39 & 40 Vict. c. 36, s. 152)
There were other minor and technical points
raised ; but these were the clear issues, a decision
favourable to the defendants, upon any one of
which would have destroyed Messrs. Black’s right
to their property in Canada. The judge below
decided adversely to the defendants upon all of
them, the fourth point evidently giving him the
264
most trouble. And this fourth point again became
the real question upon which the case turned at
the appeal trial, two judges out of three (Moss,
C.J.0., Maclennan and Maclaren, JJ.A.: April
19th, 1904) devoting their judgments entirely to
it; and one out of three dissenting from the
opinion of the other two, and being in favour of
reversing the judgment of the Court below. It
may be assumed that the learned judges were in
agreement on all the other points.
Well, then, as to this fourth point. The question
was: Should Messrs. Black have given proper
notice to the Customs that they wished to bar the
importation of these “ Encyclopedias,” printed
without their authority, into Canada? They said
“No”; The Imperial Book Company said “ Yes.”
Two of the judges said “No”; the third said
“Yes.” Tt all turned on the construction of
Sections 151 and 152 of the Customs Act. Section
152 expressly states that notice must be given.
But Section 151 states as expressly that the Customs
Acts are to apply to all British Possessions except
such as shall by local Act or ordinance make entire
provision for the management and regulation of the
Customs of any such Possession, or make, nm like
manner, express provisions in lieu or variation of
any of the clauses of the saad Act.
Was Canada such a Possession? Moss, C.J.,
said “Yes”; Maclennan, J.A., said “Yes” ;
Maclaren, J.A., said “No.” As this is the sole
question upon which the judgment turned, so it is
the sole question in the case which demands of the
interested reader some attention before he can
master the reasons for and against it ; because, in
dissenting from his learned brothers, the last judge
showed very skilfully how a Copyright Act may
get confused with a Customs Act, resulting in
serious differences of opinion in construing them,
as in the present case.
Now Section 151 of the Act says, “ Such Posses-
sion as shall make entire provision for the regula-
tion of its Customs.” “ But,” asked Maclaren, J.A.,
“is Section 152 to be regarded as part ofa Customs
Actatall 2?” Isit not an amendment of the English
Copyright Act ? Section 17 of that Act states at
large that piracies must not be imported; it
savs nothing about notice to the Customs.
Then comes this Section 152 of the Customs Act,
cutting down the right given by making notice
necessary. Well, then, is not this Section 152
really a Copyright Act? But, if so, it does not
matter how much provision Canada might have
made for the regulation of her Customs—this
Section 152 is outside her control ; in other words,
the notice required by it should have been given.
But, again, Section 151 says: ‘‘ Such Possession as
shall make entire provision for the regulation of its
Customs.” And Canada had made, in regard to
THE AUTHOR.
the importation of books, no provision at all!
Therefore, again, Section 151 does not operate to
exclude Canada from the effect of Section 152.
The opinion of the dissenting judge has here
been given first, in order that the judgment of the
agreeing judges may be more easily grasped as by
way of reply to it. The Chief Justice said :
“ Section 152 undoubtedly forms part of the
Customs Act... and I do not see how it
can be separated from Section 151 . . . which
nowhere says that it is when the British
Possession has provided protection for the
owners of copyrights that the exception is to
take effect.”
That is to say: Whether Canada had or had not
made provision for the regulation of copyright is
not the question. She had made provision for the
regulation of her Customs ; these provisions did
not happen to touch the present case ; but the fact
of her having made them excludes her from the
effect of Section 152 by bringing her under the
operation of Section 151.
In like manner Maclennan, J.A. :
“Tt is argued that Section 152 is not a
Customs but a Copyright Act . . . and that,
therefore, it applies to Canada notwithstanding
Section 151... . Itis also argued that Section
17 of the Copyright Actis also a Customs Act,
and is withheld from application to Canada by
Section 151, in which case importation would
no longer be illegal! I cannot agree with
either contention. Section 17 provides against
importation into England and the British
Possessions. . . - If all the Customs Acts
were repealed this enactment would not be
effected. ... No more is Section 152 a
Copyright Act, nor less part of a Customs Act
because, in order to facilitate the transaction
of Customs business, it permits the importation
of copyright works as a penalty for omitting
to give notice. . . . Section 152 is applicable
to the United Kingdom, and to all British
Possessions as have not made provision for the
regulation of their own Customs, but it is not
applicable to Canada.”
To the student of Copyright law and its intricacies.
it may still seem a trifle doubtful as to which side
has the better of what is after all a mere technical
point, and he may look forward still to seeing the
case before the Privy Council. There will, however,
be little doubt as to which side is in the right.
The space at disposal does not permit of reference
to the other chief but simpler points in the case,
all of which underwent clear and thorough elucida-
tion at the hands of the learned judges. Particularly
interesting and lucid was the distinction which
Judge-Advocate Maclennan drew between an
assignment and a licence ; and Mr. MacGillivray
came in for another compliment in being quoted
by the Court of Appeal as well as in the Court
below.
CHARLES WEEKES.
oe
COPYRIGHT LEGISLATION IN THE 58TH
CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES.
—_e
(From The United States Publishers’ Weekly).
F the bills to amend the Revised Statutes
relating to copyrights only one became law,
namely, that providing for copyright pro-
tection to exhibitors at St. Louis.
The amendment to Section 4952 of the Revised
Statutes, making provision for an extension of the
present system of providing for authorised transla-
tions, was favourably reported in both houses, but
did not secure a vote.
Bill 5314, introduced in the Senate by Mr. Platt,
of Connecticut, to limit free importation of books
copyrighted in the United States, was read twice
and referred to the Committee on Patents. The
modification, given below in italics, occurs in
Chapter 3, Section 4956 :
“ . . but the privilege accorded to certain institu-
tions, under paragraph 515 of Section two of the said
Act, to import, free of duty, not more than two copies
of books, maps, lithographic prints and charts, shall
apply to the importation of books, maps, lithographac
prints and charts, which have been copyrighted in the
United States, only when holders of the American
copyrights thereof in writing consent to such importa-
tion; and except in the case of persons purchasing
for use and not for sale, who import subject to the
duty thereon and with the written consent of the
holders of the American copyrights, not more than
two copies of such book at any one time.”
The Bill No. 13355, introduced in the House by
Mr. Tawney, requiring the filing of proof that
copyright books, etc., are printed from type set
within the limits of the United States and provid-
ing a penalty for the making of false proof or
wilful failure to comply with the condition of the
present law, passed the House, but did not reach
the Senate. ‘The amendment was proposed to take
the place of the last two provisions of Section 4956,
and reads as follows :
“That accompanying the two copies of the
book, photo, chromo or lithograph required to be
delivered or deposited, as herein provided, there
shall be an affidavit under the official seal of any
officer authorised to administer oaths within the
United States, duly made by the person desiring
THE AUTHOR.
265
the said copyright or by his duly authorised agent or
representative residing in the United States, setting
forth that the two copies required to be so deposited
have been printed from type set within the limits
of the United States or from plates made there-
from or from negatives or drawings on stone made
within the limits of the United States or from
transfers made therefrom; and the place within
the limits of the United States at which such type
was set, or plates or negatives were made, and by
whom.
“Sec, 2. That any person violating any of the
provisions of this Act or who shall be guilty of
making a false affidavit as to his having complied
with the conditions thereof for the purpose of
obtaining a copyright shall be deemed guilty of
a misdemeanour, and upon conviction thereof shall
be punished by a fine of not more than one thou-
sand dollars, and of all his rights and privileges
under said copyright shall thereafter be forfeited.”
Mr. Otis, from the Committee on Patents, sub-
mitted a report on Mr. Tawney’s amendment, which
concludes as follows :
“The law now provides that no person shall be
entitled to a copyright unless he shall on or before
the day of publication in this or any foreign
country deliver at the office of the Librarian of
Congress or deposit in the mail within the United
States addressed to the Librarian of Congress a
printed copy of the title of his publication or other
matter for which he applies for copyright. He is
also required by the existing law, not later than
the day of publication, to deposit with the Librarian
of Congress two copies of such copyright book,
map, chart, etc., and the law expressly provides
that these two copies ‘shall be printed from type
set within the limits of the United States, or from
plates made therefrom, or from negatives or
drawings on stone made within the limits of the
United States, or from transfers made therefrom.’
The law which thus requires the deposit of two
copies of the publication and that the same shall
be printed from type set within the limits of the
United States, etc., before a copyright can be
obtained, does not require any proof to be filed
that such books have been thus printed within the
limits of the United States, nor does it impose any
penalty whatever upon an author or publisher who
obtains a copyright without having first complied
with this condition as to the printing from type set
within the limits of the United States.
“ After investigation your committee have reason
to believe that it is not only possible, but that in
some instances the present law has been evaded
and violated to the injary of American labour, and
that this can be done with comparative ease under
the existing law ; that there is no remedy and no
means of enforcing this condition as to printing
264
most trouble. And this fourth point again became
the real question upon which the case turned at
the appeal trial, two judges out of three (Moss,
C.J.O., Maclennan and Maclaren, JJ.A.: April
19th, 1904) devoting their judgments entirely to
it; and one out of three dissenting from the
opinion of the other two, and being in favour of
reversing the judgment of the Court below. It
may be assumed that the learned judges were in
agreement on all the other points.
Well, then, as to this fourth point. The question
was: Should Messrs. Black have given proper
notice to the Customs that they wished to bar the
importation of these “ Encyclopedias,” printed
without their authority, into Canada? They said
“No”; The Imperial Book Company said “ Yes.”
Two of the judges said “No”; the third said
“Yes.” Jt all turned on the construction of
Sections 151 and 152 of the Customs Act. Section
152 expressly states that notice must be given.
But Section 151 states as expressly that the Customs
Acts are to apply to all British Possessions except
such as shall by local Act or ordinance make entire
provision for the management and regulation of the
Customs of any such Possession, or make, in like
manner, express provisions in lieu or variation of
any. of the clauses of the said Act.
Was Canada such a Possession? Moss, C.J.,
said ‘“ Yes”; Maclennan, J.A., said “Yes”;
Maclaren, J.A., said “No.” As this is the sole
question upon which the judgment turned, so it is
the sole question in the case which demands of the
interested reader some attention before he can
master the reasons for and against it; because, in
dissenting from his learned brothers, the last judge
showed very skilfully how a Copyright Act may
get confused with a Customs Act, resulting in
serious differences of opinion in construing them,
as in the present case.
Now Section 151 of the Act says, “ Such Posses-
sion as shall make entire provision for the regula-
tion ofits Customs.” “But,” asked Maclaren, J.A.,
“tis Section 152 to be regarded as part of a Customs
Actatall 2?” Isit not an amendment of the English
Copyright Act? Section 17 of that Act states at
large that piracies must not be imported; it
says nothing about notice to the Customs.
Then comes this Section 152 of the Customs Act,
cutting down the right given by making notice
necessary. Well, then, is not this Nection 152
really a Copyright Act? But, if so, it does not
matter how much provision Canada might have
made for the regulation of her Customs—this
Section 152 is outside her control ; in other words,
the notice required by it should have been given.
But, again, Section 151 says: ‘“‘ Such Possession as
shall make entire provision for the regulation of its
Customs.” And Canada had made, in regard to
THE AUTHOR.
the importation of books, no provision at all!
Therefore, again, Section 151 does not operate to
exclude Canada from the effect of Section 152.
The opinion of the dissenting judge has here
been given first, in order that the judgment of the
agreeing judges may be more easily grasped as by
way of reply to it. The Chief Justice said :
“Section 152 undoubtedly forms part of the
Customs Act... and I do not see how it
can be separated from Section 151 . . . which
nowhere says that it is when the British
Possession has provided protection for the
owners of copyrights that the exception is to
take effect.”
That is to say: Whether Canada had or had not
made provision for the regulation of copyright is
not the question. She had made provision for the
regulation of her Customs ; these provisions did
not happen to touch the present case; but the fact
of her having made them excludes her from the
effect of Section 152 by bringing her under the
operation of Section 151.
In like manner Maclennan, J.A. :
“Tt is argued that Section 152 is not a
Customs but a Copyright Act . . . and that,
therefore, it applies to Canada notwithstanding
Section 151... . Itis also argued that Section
17 of the Copyright Actis also a Customs Act,
and is withheld from application to Canada by
Section 151, in which case importation would
no longer be illegal! JI cannot agree with
either contention. Section 17 provides against
importation into England and the British
Possessions. . . . If all the Customs Acts
were repealed this enactment would not be
effected. ... No more is Section 152 a
Copyright Act, nor less part of a Customs Act
because, in order to facilitate the transaction
of Customs business, it permits the importation
of copyright works as a penalty for omitting
to give notice. . . . Section 152 is applicable
to the United Kingdom, and to all British
Possessions as have not made provision for the —
regulation of their own Customs, but it is nob
applicable to Canada.”
To the student of Copyright law and its intricacies
it may still seem a trifle doubtful as to which side
has the better of what is after all a mere technical
point, and he may look forward still to seeing the
case before the Privy Council. There will, however,
be little doubt as to which side is in the right.
The space at disposal does not permit of reference —
to the other chief but simpler points in the case, —
all of which underwent clear and thorough elucida-
tion at the hands of the learned judges. Particularly -
interesting and lucid was the distinction which —
Judge-Advocate Maclennan drew between an
THE AUTHOR.
assignment and a licence; and Mr. MacGillivray
came in for another compliment in being quoted
by the Court of Appeal as well as in the Court
below.
CHARLES WEEKES.
of 6
COPYRIGHT LEGISLATION IN THE 58TH
CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES.
—“~-
(From The United States Publishers’ Weekly).
F the bills to amend the Revised Statutes
relating to copyrights only one became law,
namely, that providing for copyright pro-
tection to exhibitors at St. Louis.
The amendment to Section 4952 of the Revised
Statutes, making provision for an extension of the
present system of providing for authorised transla-
tions, was favourably reported in both houses, but
did not secure a vote.
Bill 5314, introduced in the Senate by Mr. Platt,
of Connecticut, to limit free importation of books
copyrighted in the United States, was read twice
and referred to the Committee on Patents. The
modification, given below in italics, occurs in
Chapter 3, Section 4956 :
“ . . but the privilege accorded to certain institu-
tions, under paragraph 515 of Section two of the said
Act, to import, free of duty, not more than two copies
of books, maps, lithographic prints and charts, shall
apply to the importation of books, maps, lithographic
prints and charts, which have been copyrighted in the
United States, only when holders of the American
copyrights thereof in writing consent to such importa-
tion; and except in the case of persons purchasing
for use and not for sale, who import subject to the
duty thereon and with the written consent of the
holders of the American copyrights, not more than
two copies of such book at any one time.”
The Bill No. 13355, introduced in the House by
Mr. Tawney, requiring the filing of proof that
copyright books, etc., are printed from type set
within the limits of the United States and provid-
ing a penalty for the making of false proof or
wilful failure to comply with the condition of the
present law, passed the House, but did not reach
the Senate. The amendment was proposed to take
the place of the last two provisions of Section 4956,
and reads as follows :
“That accompanying the two copies of the
book, photo, chromo or lithograph required to be
delivered or deposited, as herein provided, there
shall be an affidavit under the official seal of any
officer authorised to administer oaths within the
United States, duly made by the person desiring
265
the said copyright or by his duly authorised agent or
representative residing in the United States, setting
forth that the two copies required to be so deposited
have been printed from type set within the limits
of the United States or from plates made there-
from or from negatives or drawings on stone made
within the limits of the United States or from
transfers made therefrom; and the place within
the limits of the United States at which such type
was set, or plates or negatives were made, and by
whom. :
“Sec. 2. That any person violating any of the
provisions of this Act or who shall be guilty of
making a false affidavit as to his having complied
with the conditions thereof for the purpose of
obtaining a copyright shall be deemed guilty of
a misdemeanour, and upon conviction thereof shall
be punished by a fine of not more than one thou-
sand dollars, and of all his rights and privileges
under said copyright shall thereafter be forfeited.”
Mr. Otis, from the Committee on Patents, sub-
mitted a report on Mr. Tawney’s amendment, which
concludes as follows :
“The law now provides that no person shall be
entitled to a copyright unless he shall on or before
the day of publication in this or any foreign
country deliver at the office of the Librarian of
Congress or deposit in the mail within the United
States addressed to the Librarian of Congress a
printed copy of the title of his publication or other
matter for which he applies for copyright. He is
also required by the existing law, not later than
the day of publication, to deposit with the Librarian
of Congress two copies of such copyright book,
map, chart, etc., and the law expressly provides
that these two copies ‘shall be printed from type
set within the limits of the United States, or from
plates made therefrom, or from negatives or
drawings on stone made within the limits of the
United States, or from transfers made therefrom.’
The law which thus requires the deposit of two
copies of the publication and that the same shall
be printed from type set within the limits of the
United States, etc., before a copyright can be
obtained, does not require any proof to be filed
that such books have been thus printed within the
limits of the United States, nor does it impose any
penalty whatever upon an author or publisher who
obtains a copyright without having first complied
with this condition as to the printing from type set
within the limits of the United States.
« After investigation your committee have reason
to believe that it is not only possible, but that in
some instances the present law has been evaded
and violated to the injury of American labour, and
that this can be done with comparative ease under
the existing law ; that there is no remedy and no
means of enforcing this condition as to printing
(266
from type set by American labour and within our
own country. That being the case, your committee
is of the opinion that the person applying for a
copyright should be required as a condition prece-
dent to furnish proof in the form of an affidavit
that all of these conditions with respect to the
labour employed in the printing and the place of
printing the copies of books to be deposited have
been complied with, and in the event that any
false statement is made in said affidavit concerning
a material fact, and upon conviction thereof, the
person thus attempting to obtain a copyright
should be punished and the copyright forfeited.”
oo —
CoMMENT.
Tue United States publishers have always been
to the fore in promoting satisfactory Copyright
Legislation, but the heart of the politician is
hardened and he still seeks to hamper the litera-
ture of his own country for the benefit of the
printer and typesetter.
Commenting on the question of extended trans-
lation rights The Publishers’ Weekly states as
follows :—
“It is certainly to be hoped that some relief will be
given to foreign authors by replacing the requirement for
simultaneous publication with a provision permitting time
for making adequate arrangements between an American
author and a foreign author, and for the actual work of
translation. So strong has been the German feeling
against the present limitation, or nullification, of pro-
tection for translations, that there is a movement in
Germany among authors and publishers to request the
German Government to withdraw from copyright relations
with this country. This would be doubly unfortunate, as
it would not help here in bringing about better arrange-
ments, and would definitely harm the German music and
art interests, which are protected under the present
copyright law.”
This action on the part of Germany is the first
sign of dissatisfaction with and retaliation against
the United States Act. The United States
publishers see the danger, and with the strenuous
exertions of Mr. Putnam have succeeded for atime
in removing it. If the amendment is passed Ger-
many may be temporarily satisfied, though there
are other nations not altogether satisfied with the
so-called reciprocity created by the present Act.
Ifthe amendment is not passed Germany may
think fit, as she has already threatened, to cancel
her treaty, and the politician will begin to reap the
fruit of his hardness of heart. When the clamour
of the United States authors, who are now, even
under this limited protection, growing in numbers,
is heard, he will perhaps realise who are the real
producers of a country’s literature.
The question of the importation of copies is not
one of great account, and it can be passed over,
THE AUTHOR.
but the question of insisting upon an affidavit being
made, and an affidavit before an officer authorised
to administer oaths in the United States, will not
only seriously hamper all foreign authors in obtain-
ing copyright, but will be another difficulty to the
producers of literature in the United States itself.
The Publishers’ Weekly makes the following
comment :—
“The proposal to require from publishers affidavits as to
manufacture in this country seems to be an unnecessary
annoyance, unless it can be shown that this is necessary to
carry out the manufacturing clause, on which the present
law is centred. We have become affidavit crazy in this
country, and the number of affidavits to be taken by a
business man, especially for governmental accounts, is so
great that the oath has become as perfunctory as the
signature of government officials. It was claimed at the
hearing in this proposal that many publishers were import-
ing plates as junk and printing from them copyright
editions. If this can be shown to be true to any consider-
able extent, that would be sufficient reason for the proposed
affidavit, which otherwise would be considered unnecessary.
“It is to be regretted by the friends of a true international
copyright that so little progress has been made in this
country since 1891 towards a better system, such as is
almost universally adopted by other civilised countries
under the terms of the Berne Convention. The need is
generally felt, and now generally expressed, of a larger
treatment of the question than is possible in piecemeal
legislation, and the pressure for a copyright commission is
becoming so general that before long we should see a body
of experts representing the several interests involved,
including those of authors and readers as well as manu-
facturers, appointed by Congress or under Congressional
authority by the President.’’
The publishers take a clear and correct view of
the situation. It is clear and correct from the
standpoint of those who produce the work, from
whose minds the stories are evolved, and by whose
labour they are made into a marketable commodity,
Germany has threatened to retaliate if the amend-
ment relating to translations is not passed ; but
this question of affidavits may bring forward
retaliation on the part of other countries, and
if the retaliation is followed by a demand for
strict reciprocity, or carried further by the
cancellation of the existing arrangements, the
authors of the United States will find themselves
face to face with the loss of a great part of their
income and some of their largest markets, and the
publishers with that dread competition in pirated
works which was one of the reasons that caused the
American trade to throw the whole of its support
on the side of a satisfactory copyright law.
When before 1891 piracy was legitimate, the
United States had but few authors and little
literature, and it was with difficulty owing to their
small numbers they got a hearing for the protection
of their rights, but, under this present copyright
law, full of limitations as it is, the protection
afforded has brought to the front many writers,
and much literature, and has given a strong stimulus
THE AUTHOR.
to the publishing trade. It is not likely, therefore,
that this body of writers, now numerous and
influential, will allow itself tamely to be sat upon
by those trades who fancy they may suffer.
Perhaps the day will come when the United
States as a whole will grasp the fact that the
larger the protection given to their authors the
greater will be the literature of their country, and,
no doubt, as a corollary the greater will be the
business which will accrue to the typesetter and
printer.
—_——_—__—_—_e——__—_
THE UNITED STATES COPYRIGHT
LEAGUE.
—
HE American Copyright League, communi-
cating with the Society, expressed a desire
that the Committee of the Society of Authors
should make a Report, expressing in their opinion
the present difficulties existing under the United
States Copyright Act.
The League, however, barred from the discus-
sion the question of printing in the United States.
This is, of course, the most important point of
difference, one which particularly needs amend-
ment; but in accordance with the wishes of the
American Copyright League, the Committee, after
full consideration of the subject, forwarded a Report,
omitting this question entirely. It may interest
the members to see the points set ont in detail ;
the Committee have therefore decided to print
the Report with the answer of the Copyright
League.
It is drafted in the form of a letter from the
Secretary of the British Society to the Secretary of
the United States League.
Report of the Copyright Sub-Committee on the Amendment
of the United States Copyright Law.
To
THE SECRETARY THE AMERICAN COPYRIGHT LEAGUE,
March 29th, 1904.
DEAR §1R,—While thanking your Association once more
for the desire you have expressed that the Author’s Society
should send a report of its views on the amendment of the
United States Copyright Act, the Committee feel that you
have placed them in a somewhat difficult position by the
exclusion from the discussion of the question of type-
setting in the United States, the point to which, before all
others, they attach the greatest importance.
In accordance with the information contained in my
former letter, on the authority of the Managing Com-
mittee, the Copyright Sub-Committee was called together.
They met at the offices of the Society on March 25th, and,
after careful consideration and discussion, desire the
following report to be forwarded to you.
Firstly, they would place before you the question of
simultaneous publication. They consider that the term
should be more clearly defined, and if possible a longer
period allowed for the production in the United States of
267
work published in England. The Committee would like to
draw your attention to the definition on page 17 of the
draft Bill enclosed.* This Bill embodies, so far as it goes,
the present views of British authors and publishers as to
the amendment of the existing British Copyright Law, and
it will, no doubt, form the basis of any alteration of the
law that may be passed by the Government. At present,
however, there appears to be no immediate prospect of the
Government taking up the matter, and the Bill is only set
before you to draw your attention to various points, and to
afford an example of the present trend of copyright amend-
ment in this country. On page 17 referred to, you will see
a proposed definition of “‘ simultaneously,’’ and the Society
of Authors considers that it would be a great advantage, if,
in the United States, you could put forward some similar
definition. The period to be fourteen days at the least.
Any longer period which might be suggested would, of
course, be of still greater advantage to British authors.
The second point to which the Committee would draw
your attention is the duration of copyright.
In the present Act of the United States, copyright exists
for twenty-eight years, and for a further period of fourteen
years in certain circumstanees. We would like to call
your attention to Sec. 4, Sub-sec. C., of the Bill enclosed.
After taking into consideration all the conflicting interests,
the Committee have come to the conclusion that the best
length for the duration of copyright would be the life of
the author and thirty years. In some cases, no doubt,
under the present British law, copyright might endure for
a longer period, since, as you are no doubt aware, the
present term of copyright is for forty-two years from
the date of publication, or the life of the author, and
seven years afterwards, whichever is the longer period,
so that, in exceptional circumstances, a change in the law
might reduce the term of copyright twelve years. But the
Society of Authors supports the change for two reasons,
firstly, it does away with the necessity of determining the
exact date of publication ; secondly, it is in conformity
with the period of copyright which finds most favour in
European countries, and might thus, if generally adopted,
form a step towards the codification of the international
law on the subject.
The third point to which we should like to draw attention
is the necessity for a summary remedy in cases of infringe-
ment of copyright and dramatic rights, in regard to which
the Committee beg to refer you to page 9, Clause 25, of the
Bill. It has been found on many occasions difficult to
secure any adequate protection against one who infringes
copyright or performing right, owing to the fact that there
is no summary procedure. The Committee understand that
this difficulty has also occurred in the case of infringement
of dramatic rights in the United States, where an actor
manager has infringed a performing right in one State, and
has entered the jurisdiction of another State. With regard
to musical copyright, infringement in Great Britain has
been so universal, and has inflicted such a serious loss upon
the holders of musical copyright property that the Govern-
ment has been forced to pass a small Amending Act (see
copy enclosed) by which musical copyright holders are
empowered to take very stringent and summary proceedings,
and a further Amending Bill is now before Parliament (see
copy enclosed). Proceedings of a similar nature, we suggest,
would prove a great advantage in the United States.
Finally, our Committee desire to call your attention to
copyright in a review or a magazine, Section 10, page 5,
in order that the ownership of the copyright in these circum-
stances may be more clearly defined.
There is one further point, which does not so much deal
with the amendment of the copyright law, as the method of
* The Committee enclosed the final Draft of the last
Copyright Bill.
268
administration of the present Act. An article or a book
may be copyrighted in the United States as well as in
England. For some reason or other there is a desire to
introduce the work into the United States, printed and pro-
duced in England. For this purpose the English copyright
owner prints on the copy “ Copyright in the United States,”
under the terms of your Act. The Custom House authorities
refuse to pass the book, because of the imprint ‘* Copyright
in the United States,” which they say is contrary to the
law. ‘This may, no doubt, be the case ; but if, on the other
hand, the book is introduced without this notice, pirates in
the United States assert that they have obtained a copy
which does not bear the requisite copyright notice under
the Act, and that, in consequence, the copyright has not
been properly secured. The pirates, therefore, consider that
they are at liberty to reprint in any form they think fit.
It would seem that if these literary thieves secured only
one book, on which the copyright Notice was omitted,
there would be a danger of the work being pirated,
It must be clearly understood that in regard to simul-
taneous publication, and to the duration of copyright for
the life of the author and thirty years, the reforms herein
suggested could not be put in operation in the United
Kingdom until an amendment of the existing law had been
passed.
The Committee feel honoured by the distinction you
have conferred upon the Society by asking its opinion on
this most difficult question, and I trust that the report
which they are submitting herewith, together with the
draft Bill enclosed, may be of material assistance in bring-
ing about some alteration in the United States Copyright
Act.
Believe me to be, yours very truly,
G. HERBERT THRING,
Secretary.
April 27th, 1904.
DEAR SrR,—At a meeting of the Executive Council of
the American Copyright League held yesterday, I had the
honour of presenting your letter of March 29th, 1904,
which was carefully considered by the Council. On behalf
of the Council I thank your Society for your attention to
our request, and also for the drafts of the proposed British
copyright legislation. Your Society’s suggestions will be
given full attention in any legislation covering the scope
of them.
On one point I may call the attention of your Committee
to a misapprehension. There is no lack of protective
legislation in this country relative to the infringement
of dramatic rights. The Society of Dramatic Authors,
supported by this League, some years ago procured from
Congress a Bill enabling the process of one judicial district
to be enforced against a violation of copyright law in
another district, thus putting an end to the previous
security of the one-night stand pirate, whose peripatetic
offences against the law could not be promptly reached.
In addition to this there are eight of our States in which
special legislation has been passed, making it a misdemeanor
to produce plays without permission of the owner of the
copyright, and this legislation is likely to be still further
extended. You will therefore see that there is really
nothing left to be done in the matter of American security
for dramatic copyright. This is the only form of copyright
invasion which is an offence against both the civil and the
criminal law,
T am, indeed,
Very respectfully yours,
R. U, JOHNSON,
Secretary.
G, HERBERT THRING, Esq.,
Secretary Incorporated Society of Authors,
39, Old Queen Street, Storey’s Gate, 8. W.,
London, England.
THE AUTHOR.
MAGAZINE CONTENTS.
— +
THE BOOKMAN,
Three Nature Writers — ‘ Isaac
| Walton,’ “ Gilbert
White,” “ Richard Jefferies.”
By G. Forrester Scott,
BLACKWOOD’sS MAGAZINE,
A Scottish Philosopher's Autobiography.
The late Prof. York Powell.
In “ Musings without Method,’’
Mr. Boutmy’s Generalisations,
A Great Proconsul.
THE CONTEMPORARY REVIEW.
Frances Power Cobbe. By the Rev. John Verschoyle.
The Riddle of the Universe. By Prof. C. Lloyd Morgan,
Jean Louis Nicode, By A. E, Keeton.
THE CORNHILL MAGAZINE.
Sir John Moore.
Maxwell, Bart.
By the Right Honble. Sir Herbert
THE FORTNIGHTLY.
Shakespeare's Protestantism. By W. 8. Lilly.
Herbert Spencer : His Autobiography and his Philosophy.
By Francis Gribble,
The Prologue of Arcturus. By Edmund Gosse.
The Plague of Novels. By J. Cuthbert Hadden.
INDEPENDENT REVIEW.
Leslie Stephen, By Sir Frederick Pollock.
Mr, Sturge Moore’s Poems. By Robert Trevelyan,
MACMILLAN’S MAGAZINE,
The Girlhood of George Sand.
THE MONTHLY REVIEW.
A Note on Leslie Stephen. By R. E. Crook.
Thackeray's Boyhood. By the late Rev, Whitwell
Elwin,
John Dyer.
Frederick York Powell.
By J. C. Bailey.
By Theodore Andrea Cook.
THE NATIONAL REVIEW.
The New Ireland. By Sir Gilbert Parker.
Napoleon and the United States. By J. R. Fisher,
The Poet’s Diary, No. 6. Edited by Lamia,
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
How They ‘Train Actors in Paris, By Richard Whiteing.
The Kingsley Novels. By Walter Frewen Lord,
THE PALL MALL MAGAZINE,
Our Degenerate Stage—Opinion and Suggestions of
French Dramatists and Actors: M. Paul Hervien, M.
Francois Coppee, M. Jules Bois, and M. Coquelin.
THE WORLD'S WORK.
Herbert Spencer's Life.
The Making of a Time Table. By W. J. Scott.
There are no articles of literary, dramatic or musical
interest in Zhe Month or Longman’s Magazine.
THE AUTHOR.
WARNINGS TO THE PRODUCERS
OF BOOKS.
—+
ERE are a few standing rules to be observed in an
agreement. There are four methods of dealing
with literary property :—
I. Selling it Outright.
This is sometimes satisfactory, if @ proper price can be
obtained. But the transaction should be managed by a
competent agent, or with the advice of the Secretary of
the Society.
Il. A Profit-Sharing Agreement (a bad form of
agreement).
In this case the following rules should be attended to:
(1.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro-
duetion forms a part without the strictest investigation.
(2.) Not to give the publisher the power of putting the
profits into his own pocket by charging for advertisements
in his own organs, or by charging exchange advertise-
ments. Therefore keep control of the advertisements.
(3.) Not to allow a special charge for “ office expenses,”
unless the same allowance is made to the author.
(4.) Not to give up American, Colonial, or Continental
rights.
(5.) Not to give up serial or translation rights.
(6.) Not to bind yourself for future work to any publisher.
As well bind yourself for the future to any one solicitor or
doctor !
III, The Royalty System.
This is perhaps, with certain limitations, the best form
of agreement. It is above all things necessary to know
what the proposed royalty means to both sides. It is now
possible for an author to ascertain approximately the
truth, From time to time very important figures connected
with royalties are published in Ze Author.
IV. A Commission Agreement.
The main points are :—
(1.) Be careful to obtain a fair cost of production.
(2.) Keep control of the advertisements.
(3.) Keep control of the sale price of the book,
General.
All other forms of agreement are combinations of the four
above mentioned.
Such combinations are generally disastrous to the author,
Never sign any agreement without competent advice from
the Secretary of the Society.
Stamp all agreements with the Inland Revenue stamp.
Avoid agreements by letter if possible.
The main points which the Society has always demanded
from the outset are :—
(1.) That both sides shall know what an agreement
means.
(2.) The inspection of those account books which belong
to the author. We are advised that this is a right, in the
nature of a common law right, which cannot be denied or
withheld.
(3.) Always avoid a transfer of copyright,
s—~>
WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS.
og
EVER sign an agreement without submitting it to the
Secretary of the Society of Authors or some com-
petent legal authority.
2. It is well to be extremely careful in negotiating for
the production of a play with anyone except an established
manager,
269
: 3. There are three forms of dramatic contrac
in three or more acts :—
(a.) Sale outright of the performing right. This
is unsatisfactory, An author who enters into
such a contract should stipulate in the contract
for production of the piece by a certain date
and for proper publication of his name on the
play-bills.
(>.) Sale of performi i i
( p ing right or of a licence to
perform on the basis of percentages on
gross receipts. Percentages vary between 5
and 15 per cent. An author should obtain a
percentage on the sliding scale -of gross receipts
t for plays
in preference to the American system. Should
obtain a sum inadvance of percentages. A fixed
date on or before which the play should be
performed. :
(¢.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to
perform on the basis of royalties (i.c., fixed
nightly fees). This method should be always
avoided except in cases where the fees are
likely to be small or difficult to collect. The
other safeguards set out under heading (@.) apply
also in this case. :
4. Plays in one act are often sold outright, but it is
better to obtain a small nightly fee if possible, and a sum
paid in advance of such fees in any event. It is extremely
important that the amateur rights of one-act plays should
be reserved. :
5. Authors should remember that performing rights can
be limited, and are usually limited, by town, country, and
time, This is most important.
6. Authors should not assign performing rights, but
should grant a licence to perform. The legal distinction is
of great importance.
7. Authors should remember that performing rights in a
play are distinct from literary copyright. A manager
holding the performing right or licence to perform cannot
print the book of the words.
8. Never forget that United States rights may be exceed-
ingly valuable. ‘hey should never be included in English
agreements without the author obtaining a substantial
consideration,
9, Agreements for collaboration should be carefully
drawn and executed before collaboration is commenced.
10. An author should remember that production of a play
is highly speculative: that he runs a very great risk of
delay and a breakdown in the fulfilment of his contract.
He should therefore guard himself all the more carefully in
the beginning.
11. An author must remember that the dramatic market
is exceedingly limited, and that for a novice the first object
is to obtain adequate publication.
As these warnings must necessarily be incomplete, on
account of the wide range of the subject of dramatic con-
tracts, those authors desirous of further information
are referred to the Secretary of the Society.
oe
WARNINGS TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.
>
ITTLE can be added to the warnings given for the
assistance of producers of books and dramatic
authors. It must, however, be pointed out that, as
a rule, the musical publisher demands from the musical
composer a transfer of fuller rights and less liberal finan-
cial terms than those obtained for literary and dramatic
property. The musical composer has very often the two
rights to deal with—performing right and copyright, He
270
should be especially careful therefore when entering into
an agreement, and should take into particular consideration
the warnings stated above.
——— ee
HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.
1
1, VERY member has a right toask for and to receive
K advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-
lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his
business or the administration of his property. The
Secretary of the Society is a solicitor, but if there is any
special reason the Secretary will refer the case to the
Solicitors of the Society. Further, the Committee, if they
deem it desirable, will obtain counsel’s opinion. All this
without any cost to the member.
2. Remember that questions connected with copyright
and publishers’ agreements do not fall within the experi-
ence of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use
the Society.
3. Send to the Office copies of past agreements and past
accounts, with a copy of the book represented. The
Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new
or old, for inspection and note. The information thus
obtained may prove invaluable.
4. Before signing any agreement whatever, send
the document to the Society for examination.
5. Remember always that in belonging to the Society
you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you
are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are
advancing the best interests of your calling in promoting
the independence of the writer, the dramatist, the composer.
6. The Committee have now arranged for the reception
of members’ agreements and their preservation in a fire-
proof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as
confidential documents to be read only by the Secretary,
who will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers:
—(1) To read and advise upon agreements and to give
advice concerning publishers. (2) To stamp agreements
in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep
agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to
agreements. Fuller particulars of the Society’s work
can be obtained in the Prospectus.
7. No contract should be entered into with a literary
agent without the advice of the Secretary of the Society.
Members are strongly advised not to accept without careful
consideration the contracts with publishers submitted to
them by literary agents, and are recommended to submit
them for interpretation and explanation to the Secretary
of the Society.
This
The
8. Many agents neglect to stamp agreements.
must be done within fourteen days of first execution.
Secretary will undertake it on behalf of members.
9. Some agents endeavour to prevent authors from
referring matters to the Secretary of the Society; so
do some publishers. Members can make their own
deductions and act accordingly.
10, The subscription to the Society is £1 4s. per
annum, or £10 10s for life membership.
THE AUTHOR.
THE READING BRANCH.
—-——+ —
EMBERS will greatly assist the Society in this
branch of its work by informing young writers
of its existence. Their MSS. can be read and
treated as a composition is treated by a coach. The term
MSS. includes not only works of fiction, but poetry
and dramatic works, and when it is possible, under
special arrangement, technical and scientific works. The
Readers are writers of competence and experience. The
fee is one guinea,
+—
NOTICES.
Se
HE Editor of Zhe Author begs to remind members of
the Society that, although the paper is sent to them
free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a
very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great
many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest
5s. 6d. subscription for the year.
Communications for Zhe Author should be addressed to
the Offices of the Society, 39, Old Queen Street, Storey’s
Gate, S.W., and should reach the Editor not later than
the 21st of each month.
All persons engaged in literary work of any kind,
whether members of the Society or not, are invited to
communicate to the Editor any points connected with their
work which it would be advisable in the general interest to
publish.
NE
Communications and letters are invited by the
Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on
no other subjects whatever. Every effort will be made to
return articles which cannot be accepted.
—+~>
The Secretary of the Society begs to give notice
that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post,
and he requests members who do not receive an
answer to important communications within two days to
write to him without delay. All remittances should be
crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery Lane, or be sent
by registered letter only.
LEGAL AND GENERAL LIFE ASSURANCE
SOCIETY.
—+ e+ —
ENSIONS to commence at any selected age,
either with or without Life Assurance can
be obtained from this socieiy.
Full particulars can be obtained from the City
Branch Manager, Legal and General Life Assurance
Society, 158, Leadenhall Street, London, E.C.
THE AUTHOR.
AUTHORITIES.
—_1~9—+—
HERE has been fresh discussion raised in
the papers as to the 100 best books, and
various lists have been printed and various
comments have been made.
After all, there is only one satisfactory answer
from any person who, in these days of education,
has read as many as a hundred books, that is, there
is only one list—his own.
Tue Musical Copyright Bill is dead for the
present. We chronicle the fact with regret.
There will be a meeting of protest held on
July 4th, in order to urge the Government, if
possible, to save the Bill.
We see it mentioned in one of the papers that
Mr. Boosey, of Chappell & Co., states, as an argu-
ment that publishers do not make handsome profits,
that Messrs. Chappell & Co. only pay 5 per cent. to
their ordinary shareholders, and that out of 100
songs published last year only ten paid for the
cost of printing, circulating and advertising. It
would appear that this is rather an argument that
some publishers are bad tradesmen and do not
know their business; and not that music publishing
cannot bring in profits if conducted on proper
lines. It is most unsatisfactory for composers
that publishers should continue this gambling
with the composer’s property. It ruins the
publishing business, and necessitates those
terrible contracts against which we have often
inveighed, on one of which we comment in this
issue. When will composers make a_ united
endeavour to resist this method of doing business ?
From a cutting in the Lilerary World it appears
that the articles in The Author on Agents, signed
«G. H. T.” and Gale Pedrick, have called forth
the following comment :—
“ A question of some interest to beginners in fiction—for
it is only in that class of writings that it can ordinarily
arise in practice—is whether an author should bind himself
by a contract with a publisher to give him the right to
bring out the next two books he may write on the same
terms (or slightly modified ones) as those proposed for the
book under discussion. Both sides of the case have been
ably stated by ‘G. H. T.’and Mr. Gale Pedrick, in The Author,
The former strongly advises against the practice, but the
latter, who is the managing director of a literary agency,
puts forward very plausible reasons for conceding the point
in certain cases. He cites an instance where an author,
anxious to secure publication, accepted such an offer against
his agent’s advice, with the result that his book, which
would otherwise most probably have remained unpublished,
has already gone into a fourth edition. The argument, of
course, turns almost entirely on the worth of the assump-
tion as to the probability of non-publication on other
271
terms. If a sufficient number of publishers made the
‘next two books’ clause a sine qua& non, authors would
naturally have no option.”
We should like to call particular attention to the
last sentence of the quotation.
The writer seems to forget, in the American
phrase, that “there are others,” and if a large
number of publishers endeavoured to force an
unequal clause on the producers of literary pro-
perty, fresh publishers would at once arise who
would be willing to enter into a fair contract. A
remark of this kind reminds one somewhat of the
suggestion made by one of the trade, that if authors
insisted on demanding better terms they would
destroy the trade of publishing and be unable to
obtain a market at all. The question, of course,
is one of supply and demand. If, however, all the
publishers at present in existence withdrew from
business, the author could still place his work
before the public by his own efforts should he
desire to do so, although he might not in his
infantile beginnings obtain so large a market in
the first instance. :
THE Jorning Post makes public the following
particulars of a publishing contract :—
“An author sent a little song to a publisher of the
highest repute, and received an offer of a certain amount
for ‘all serial rights.’ This she accepted, and on sending
another song, she was told that it would be accepted ‘on
our usual terms.’ Several others were taken in the same
way. Then the publishers issued a book of songs which
included some of these. The author wrote and protested,
as she had hoped to bring her songs together in a book of
her own. The publishers serenely replied that ‘our usual
terms’ meant ‘serial rights and copyright.’”
The Morning Post comments strongly on the
publisher’s action, and deservedly so. Ifthe author
had been a member of the Society and had cared
to lay the matter before the committee, there is
little doubt but that they would have taken the
case vigorously in hand with a view to obtaining
justice. It is just such a case as this that should
be published in Ze Author, with the names of the
publishers concerned. We have known some
extraordinary contracts from publishers of books,
and more extraordinary contracts from the pub-
lishers of music, but it is not often that a bargain,
or rather, a trick, to the discomfort of the author,
so bad as that quoted above, is brought off.
Ir is the custom of the Editor of 7ruth to make
caustic remarks on matters that come under his
ken from time to time.
During the past month he has devoted one or two
paragraphs to the Biographical Press Agency, and
suggests taking up this form of business himself, as
he seems to think it would be highly remunerative.
272
It appears that those gentlemen who have paid
£10 10s. to the agency secure thereby fifty copies
of their biography written by themselves, adorned
with their portraits, executed by the agency’s photo-
graphers, plus the possible satisfaction of seeing
the biography published in the Gossip columns of
a halfpenny newspaper.
In addition to the economic question which
Truth has so criticised, there is this further danger
to be considered, namely, the danger of assigning
the copyright either in your own photograph or in
your own biography. If the distinguished gentle-
men who have paid their guineas thus dispose of
their rights and allow them to slip beyond their
control they may find their biographies printed and
their photographs published at times inopportune,
and in places unsatisfactory.
It is important to those whose position entitles
them to the doubtful honour of publicity to be
able to control where and when their biographies
should appear and their photographs be reproduced.
As Truth points ont, the economic side of the
question is very instructive, as nowadays the
competition for the personal paragraph is so great
that the editor ought to be more anxious to pay
for the information he receives than the subject for
the information he gives.
In the Westminster Gazette we see it stated that
Miss Beatrice Harraden’s novel, “Ships that Pass
in the Night,” brought her only the sum of £125.
The writer states, “It is a remarkable object lesson
on the mistake of an unknown author parting with
the entire copyright of her first book.” With this
statement we heartily agree.
But the price which Miss Harraden received is
quite a record when compared with the prices paid
by one well-known publisher who, in order to
induce young authors to accept his terms, lays
before them the fact that other authors, whose
names he mentions, have received the same sum—
from £20 to £30—-for the entire rights of their
first works. He also states, with the same show
of generosity, that it is not an uncommon thing to
take up a first book paying the author a royalty
after the sale of 2,000 copies. Readers will naturally
suppose that after the sale of so large a number
the author reaps his reward by a large return, but
no, the royalty that the publisher vouchsafes after
2,000 copies is a modest 10 per cent. It would be
interesting to know how many of these first books
with this royalty ever sell more than 2,(00 copies.
A publisher with a true sense of his position,
instead of making a boast of his cheap bargains
to authors ought rather to be silent. Such open-
ness is not as good a bait as a spinning minnow
in a trout stream.
THE AUTHOR.
EPITAPH FOR AN AUTHOR’S TOMBSTONE,
—>
O child beloved of the Gods, nor born
In the fortunate glow of a climbing star ;
No prince, no hero of hope forlorn
Was the dust beneath me, tra la la.
Fame, a harlot, as all assert
Who slide from the slope of her hazardous car,
Passed him by with a close-drawn skirt
Like an honest woman, tra la la.
Wealth he knew not, nor greed of place,
But loved green valleys, and wandered far,
Counting the voluble waves that race
O’er the scrambling shingles, tra la la.
Faith he lost where the cities sweat
In grime to the sky, where the dogmas are,
But found in meadow and rivulet
A foolish comfort, tra la la,
He died, and was buried under me,
Hopeless, heedless of Avatar,
Far from the city, close to the sea,
Tra la, tra la Ja, la la, la la!
Sr. Joun Lucas.
Lg ag
THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.*
—_-
a last volume of Sir Leslie Stephen’s work,
displaying, as it does, his power of sane,
clear-sighted criticism wholly undimmed, is
a fitting climax to more than thirty years of
scholarly labour. Of the five lectures which it
contains, the first is devoted to a defence of the
historical and inductive method of criticism—a
method employed by Sir Leslie Stephen himself in
the course of the lectures, whilst the remainder
deal with the periods terminated respectively by
the death of Queen Anne (1714), the declaration
of War with Spain (1739), the close of the Seven
Years’ War (1763), and the year of the Regency
‘Bill (1788). To this time—
“The century, as its enemies used to say, of coarse
utilitarian aims, of religious indifference and political
corruption; or, as I prefer to say, the century of sound
common-sense and growing toleration, and of steady social
and industrial development,”
he applies the modern method of criticism which
holds that
“ Literary history . . . isan account of one strand, 80 10
speak, in a very complex tissue; it is connected with the
* “English Literature and Society in the Righteenth |
Century.” (Ford Lectures, 1903.) By Leslie Stephen
(Duckworth.)
2 ee Be Soe
THER AUTHOR.
intellectual and social development; it represents move-
ments of thought which may sometimes check and be
sometimes propitious to the existing forms of art; it is
the utterance of a class which may represent, or fail to
represent, the main national movement ; it is affected more
or less directly by all manner of religious, political, social,
and economical changes; and it is dependent on the
occurrence of individual genius for which we cannot even
profess to account.”
Certainly no period inthe history of our Literature
is so apt as the Highteenth Century in affording
an illustration of the dependence of literary form
on national movement. The drama, to take a
single line of literature as an example, ceased to
be fine not because, as Matthew Arnold asserted,
the Puritans crushed it; for in reality the Puritans
only became powerful when the drama was already
dancing down the road of decadence ; but because,
as Sir Leslie Stephen shows, the cleavage between
the Court and the nation had destroyed the
popularity, and hence the means of existence of
that essentially aristocratic institution, the Stage.
This example of the method employed by the
“inductive” critic affords an agreeable contrast
to the judicial attitude which held that every new
author was to be tried by a kind of court-martial
with Aristotle’s poetics asa code of law, and
caused Voltaire to utter ineptitudes on Dante and
Shakespeare. ‘The critic’s function is rather to
enquire
“What pleased men, and then, why it pleased them ;
not to decide dogmatically that it ought to have pleased
or displeased on the simple ground that it is or is not
congenial to himself.”’
Sir Leslie Stephen was already stricken with
mortal illness when he wrote these lectures, but
the lucidity of the style, so simple, so energetic,
and so buoyant, never flags ; and the philosophic
breadth of view, the wide knowledge, and fine
sense of proportion, render the book as delightful
as anything that he has written, One can
scarcely think of higher praise than this.
+ 0
THE ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
MEMORIAL.
—*
HE Memorial to Robert Louis Stevenson was
unveiled in St.Giles’s Auld Kirk, Edinburgh,
on Monday, June 27th, by Lord Rosebery,
No fitter place could have been chosen than “ The
auld Kirk ” of that city, which is so full of personal
reminiscences of the author, with which so many
of the characters in his books are associated. The
fitness of the place was equalled by the beauty of
the memorial itself. It is a bronze in low relief of
Stevenson lying on that couch from which it was
273
his misfortune so often to be compelled to write,
with paper on knee and pen in hand. It is a fine
work of art.
A large crowd assembled early, and the period
of waiting was filled in by a recital on the organ.
Then at two o'clock Lord Rosebery entered the
building and took his place on the platform. He
stated that he had not come to make a long speech
or indulge in a eulogy of Stevenson. All that took
place eight years ago, when the movement was
taken in hand which was completed that day. He
asked that the services of those who had assisted
in carrying out the object before them, those
willing givers of time and money, should be re-
membered. He called especial attention to the
labours of the sculptor (Mr. Saint Gandens)
and the work of the secretary (Mr. Napier). It
was a memorial of a man of genius by a man of
genius; but, he continued, great as was the result as
a work of art, the true memorial to Louis Stevenson
was not here. It was in the hearts of the readers,
and, he might say, the worshippers, of his writings ;
and, lastly, in that great edition of his works that
they had seen produced. It was no doubt a sad
reflection that one who had loved the Scottish hills
and dales with so true an affection, and who had
chronicled his love with so vigorous a pen, should
be buried far off in the Pacific islands in Samoa.
But genius was world-wide, and took no count of
time or place.
His Lordship then stepped forward and un-
veiled the bronze, given, as he stated, by the bounty
and piety of the author’s fellow-countrymen, and
many other lovers of his work.
Mr. Sidney Colvin, Stevenson’s old friend, then
handed over the monument to the Very Rev. J.
Cameron Lees, minister of the church. His speech
was full of sad recollections of the struggle of the
indomitable spirit against the weakness of the body.
He called to mind the characteristic attitude of
Stevenson, so ably set forth in the memorial, when
physical weakness resulting from dangerous heemor-
rhage necessitated his lying on a couch. He told
how often, when he was not allowed to speak,
Stevenson used to converse in writing, cheerful and —
indefatigable. He stated that for some reasons he
was glad that the execution of the undertaking
had not come till eight years after Stevenson’s
death. ‘Time must always be the test of genius,
and he saw no falling off in the rising generation
of that love for Stevenson’s Romances which was
also in the heart of his contemporaries. He then
formally handed over the work, and the Rev. J.
Cameron Lees, who had known the author in his
early years, spoke a few suitable words in acceptance.
The following gentlemen were present on the
platform :—Lord Rosebery, Chairman; to the:
right of the chair—Mr. Sidney Colvin, the Very
274
Rey. J. Cameron Lees, Principal Donaldson, of
St. Andrew’s University, Prof. Campbell Fraser,
Mr. J. D. G. Dalrymple, of Meiklewood, Mr. Charles
Beckett, of Glasgow, Mr. John Maclauchlan and
Mr. James Cunningham, of Dundee ; to the left
of the Chairman—Prof. Masson, Lord Kinross, Prof.
Baldwin Brown, Prof. Flint, Mr. Holmes Ivory,
W.S., Mr. Rufus Fleming, United States Consul,
Mr. W. B. Blaikie, Mr. W. D. M‘Kay, R.S.A., Mr.
G. Herbert Thring, representing the Incorporated
Society of Authors. :
The following were also present :—Sir Arthur
Mitchell, Sir James Guthrie, P.R.S.A., Sir Charles
Logan, Rev. David Macrae, Rev. Dr. W. W. Tul-
loch, P. W. Adam, R.S.A., Pittendrigh Macgilli-
vray, R.S.A., R. J. Mackenzie, Esq., M.A., David
Robertson, A.R.S.A. (President Scottish Arts
Club), Bailie Murray (Senior Magistrate of Edin-
burgh), A. N. Paterson, M.A., A.R.I.B.A., Glasgow,
G. Stratton Ferrier, R.I., R.S.W., J. Campbell
Mitchell, P.S.S.A., Very Rev. Archibald Scott,
D.D., J. B. Sutherland, 8.8.C., J. Wilson Brodie,
Esq., Harry Cheyne, Esq., W.S., J. B. M‘Intosh,
Esq., W.S., R. Jameson Torrie, Esq., W.S., T. N.
Hepburn, Prof. Neicks, Prof. Cossar Ewart, Prof.
Rankine, Prof. A. R. Simpson, John A. Inglis,
Esq. (representing the Speculative Society), John
Harrison, Esq. (Master of the Merchant Company),
Alex. Buchan, LL.D., Representatives of the
St. Giles’s Board, Representatives of the St. Giles’s
Kirk Session, Mr. J. H. Napier, Solicitor (Secretary
ito the Memorial Committee).
It was felt a great pity that it had been impos-
sible to bring together a larger attendance of his
fellow-workers in fiction. The notice, however, was
‘Short, and the time somewhat inopportune, while
.the distance from London was great.
The Secretary had to chronicle a long: list of
regrets. Among the number who were unavoid-
-ably absent, he mentioned the names of George
Meredith (President of the Society of Authors),
Douglas Freshfield (Chairman of the Committee
-of the Society), J. M. Barrie, Thomas Hardy,
A. T. Quiller Couch, Anthony Hope Hawkins,
Andrew Lang, Stanley Weyman, Edmund Gosse,
Augustine Birrell, A. W. Pinero, Sir A. Conan
Doyle, Miss Beatrice Harraden, Robert Bridges,
Dr. John Watson (“ Ian Maclaren”), Lord Balfour
-of Burleigh, Right. Hon. A. J. Balfour, Prof.
Dowden, Prof. Saintsbury, Dr. Richard Garnett,
Prof. Bradley, Oxford, R. Maclehose (Treasurer,
Glasgow Committee), H. Bell (Treasurer, Liver-
pool Committee), A. Bennie (Treasurer, Man-
chester Committee), W. S. Gilbert, and many
-others.
_ Oe
THE AUTHOR.
THE WOMEN WRITERS’ DINNER.
nl
T the annual dinner of the Women Writers
on June 20th there were some 200 members
present. Miss Beatrice Harraden under-
took the position of chairwoman. She made a brief
and light speech, in which she said she had been
told by the secretaries that she was to speak ten
minutes. This, she averred, she had never done in
her life, and was quite incapable of doing either
then or at any other time, also, that there were so
many subjects tabooed. Man, for instance: she
could have spoken eloquently upon man—or love,
or the Fiscal Question, or the iniquities of the
Income Tax, or on any of those subjects of which
too much has already been heard elsewhere. She
would, therefore, only congratulate the Women
Writers on their annual meeting to eat, drink,
smoke and talk together, having numbered its
fifteenth anniversary. Others might affirm that it
was love that made the world go round, but that,
for her own part, she believed that it was tact—
tact, that quality in which all women excelled, and
our hon. secretaries more than any.
Miss Harraden having resumed her chair, Mrs.
Sidney Webb gave a very brilliant and clever speech.
She rose, she said, at the request of the secretaries
to speak, because, she supposed, she must appear
to be the very opposite to the novelist—a mere dull
economist. But that whereas the novelist dealt
with the facts of life, the economist dealt with the
fictional side—the mighty fiction of the “ average
man.” ‘The novelists drew men and women as they
found them, or read them, the fictional part of
their work lay in the plot; and it was from the work
of the novelists that the economists sought for the
great ruling motives that influenced the average
man. She laid at the doors of Swift, Gay and
Fielding, and the writers of the eighteenth century,
the horrors of the sweating system, because it was
the habit of that time, and of those writers, to dwell
upon the motives of insatiable grasping after
wealth and pleasure in mankind. I think some of
Mrs. Sidney Webb’s hearers felt a trifle aghast at
this calling to account of the mighty dead, and
welcomed her story of Herbert Spencer who, when
he wished to study the subject of matrimony, asked
her, and others, what novels he should read. She
said she herself read all the best novels that came
out, but that they bored her horribly. There was
one thing that bored her more, and that was a
poem. She concluded by warning novelists to
write with charity and hope of mankind, because of
that strange truth that what is believed in, and
insisted upon, becomes at last a truth,
Mrs. De La Pasture returned in her speech
to lighter themes. She pointed out how the
THE AUTHOR.
incomparable Jane Austen used in her old-fashioned
day to throw a cover over her work when anyone
came to see her. Mrs. De La Pasture suggested
that when the modern novelist wrote anything that
might hurt the young, or offend the old, that they
should throw over it the “handkerchief of Jane
Austen.” We, hearing her, and remembering
much of modern work, were inclined to think that
the sale of pocket handkerchiefs would be enor-
mously increased if Mrs. De La Pasture’s advice was
acted upon.
The committee for 1904 consisted of the follow-
ing distinguished ladies :—Chairwoman of Dinner,
Miss Beatrice Harraden ; Mrs. Baillie-Reynolds,
Mrs. Hugh Bell,* Miss Clementina Black,*
Mrs. Burnett-Smith,* Mrs. W. K. Clifford, Mrs.
Craigie,* Miss Ella Curtis, Madame Sarah Grand,*
Mrs. M. St. Leger Harrison,** The Honourable Mrs.
Henniker,* Mrs. Percy Leake, Mrs. L. T. Meade,*
Miss Elizabeth Robins,* Miss Adeline Sergeant,*
Mrs. Alfred Sidgwick, Mrs. Steel, Dr. Margaret
Todd, Miss Billington, Mrs Francis Blundell, Miss
Christabel Coleridge, Mrs. B. M. Croker, Mrs. De
La Pasture, Mrs. Alfred Felkin (i. Thorneycroft
Fowler),* Mrs. J. R. Green, Miss Violet Hunt,
Mrs. Belloc-Lowndes, Miss Honnor Morten, Miss
Evelyn Sharp, Mrs. Arthur Stannard,* The
Duchess of Sutherland,* Mrs. Alec Tweedie,”
Mrs. L. B. Walford, Mrs. Humphry Ward,* Hon.
Secretaries (Miss G. M. Ireland Blackburne, Miss
L. R. Mitchell) ; and the following were appointed
to preside at the tables :—Table 7, Mrs. Steel and
Miss Netta Syrett ; Table 6, Miss Ella Curtis and
Mrs. Baillie-Reynolds ; Table 5, Mrs. J. R. Green
and Mrs. Croker; Table 4, Miss Beatrice Harraden
and Mrs. Francis Blundell; Table 3, Mrs. De La
Pasture and Mrs. W. K. Clifford; Table 2, Mrs.
Belloc-Lowndes and Mrs. Walford ; Table 1, Mrs.
Stepney Rawson and Miss Violet Hunt.
ArtHuR Hoop.
Oa
DINNER AT THE AUTHORS’ CLUB.
1
HE last Dinner of the Authors’ Club for the
present season was held at 3, Whitehall
Court, on Monday, the 30th of May, and
passed off most successfully.
Mr. J. M. Barrie was the Chairman of the
evening, and Mr. P. F. Warner was the guest.
Amongst those present were Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle, Capt. Wynyard, Mr. K. J. Key, and Mr.
Hesketh-Prichard. There was no vacant seat in
the room.
Mr. Barrie’s enthusiasm for cricket is well
* Unavoidably absent.
275
known, and in proposing the health of the guest of
the evening he gave further evidence of this. He
stated that when the news arrived of Mr. Warner’s
successful attempt to bring back an article which
he would not particularise, he had read the account
in Piccadilly, with hansoms and four wheelers
passing over him, though he scarcely felt them.
He was glad to chronicle the fact thaf Mr. Warner
had done something far bigger than merely win the
rubber. He had had entrusted to him the reputa-
tion of the game for honesty, fair play, and
courtesy. He had brought it back unsullied. Up
to the present he (Mr. Barrie) had only had the
pleasure of seeing Mr. Warner play cricket twice.
On one occasion he had made one run, and on the
other occasion he had not been so successful.
Finally, he remarked that if Shakespeare had not
invented cricket, as no doubt he did during the
two years when even Mr. Lee did not know what
he was about, Mr. Warner would have been bound
to have done so.
Mr. Warner responded to his health in a some-
what more serious vein. He did not think he
could have done much in Australia if he had not
been perfectly sure of the loyalty and confidence of
the other members of his team. With regret it
must be stated that in his opinion the Austra-
lians at the present time were not as good as they
were some Six or Seven years ago, that their bowl--
ing seemed to have deteriorated. He hoped that
when they came over here next year the Test
Matches would be played out to a finish. He
closed his speech with the remark that, although
many, taking a pessimistic view of the cricket of
the present day, said it was going to the dogs,
he personally could find nothing wrong with the
game, or in the method of playing it.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle proposed the health of
the Chairman.
oe
NOTES OF SPAIN.
ee
OUIS PARDO, the well-known author, has
just published an erudite work, entitled
“De arte al comienzo del siglo” (Art at
the Commencement of the Century), and those
interested in the evolution of taste will read with
pleasure the information given by a man so well
versed in his subject.
‘Las Confesiones de un pequeiio plosofo” (Con-
fessions of a Little Philosopher), by J. Martinez
Ruiz, is a book which commends itself to Spanish
ladies, from its interest as a psychological study of
a child, given in a form so sympathetic and charm-
ing that it opens a new and easily opened door to
Castilians in the study of children.
276
Don Augusto C. de Santiago has just given to
the world a book called “ La Jura de la bandera”
(The Oath of the Banner). The trend of the
work is to foster the patriotism of Spain by cele-
brating the thoughts and deeds of men, both past
and present, who have served their country well.
The national colours on the cover, and the portrait
and biography of King Alfonzo XITI. at the begin-
ning of the work, shows the place occupied by
the young monarch in the ideal of patriotism.
Indeed hardly a day passes without Spain being
more and more assured of the sympathy of her
King in all that is for her welfare ; and the pre-
diction voiced by Colonel Figuerola Ferretti on
page 149 of his celebrated “ Cantos de Espaiia ”
(Songs of Spain, or the History of the Regency in
a lyrical form), that a visit of the King to Barcelona
would banish the shadow of separation has proved
true, and the land bodes well to be one in its
interests. Not only has Alfonzo XIII. notified his
intention of learning Catalan, and patronised the
chief meetings for the welfare of Catalonia, but
the warm welcome recently given at Madrid to the
Catalonian theatrical company of Enrique Borras,
shows that Barcelona can also feel in sympathy
with its sister city in the realm of drama, which is
a door to the understanding of the psychological
characteristics of each. This was especially seen
in the plays of “‘Mar y cel” and ‘Sierra baja,”
portraying ideas and customs quite different to
those of Madrid, and the consummate acting of
Borras, the manager, with that of Fernando
Mendoza, Thuillier, Fuentes, etc., soon won the
sympathy and the admiration of the audience. It
is said that the manager was extremely nervous
before making his début on the stage of Madrid,
but his fears were unfounded—his genius was at
once felt, and Madrid, both social and intellectual,
figuratively fell at his feet.
The Apolo theatre has lately given with great
success the new play by Caballero, called “ Hl
abuelito,” which hangs mainly on the subject of
divorce.
Tt seems strange that the tragic fate impending
on a man’s career as a picador is not more often
treated in Spanish plays. The serious injuries
recently received by the two picadors, Mazzantini
and Rodas, at a bull fight in Madrid, excited and
interested the whole city, but one cannot but think
that “prevention would be better than cure.”
Much sorrow was expressed in Spain at the
death of Urrabreta Vierge, a Spanish author of
great repute, who has been living in Paris since
1869. He is well known for his illustrations of
“Don Quixote,” ‘Gil Blas,” etc.
In a country like Spain, where oratory plays
such an important part, it is flattering to see Azorin
cite English orators as the most clever, and this
THE AUTHOR.
by dint of their power of enforcing expression by
well regulated pauses and judicious lowering of
the voice. In these particulars Sefior Maura, the
Prime Minister, seems to excel.
The celebrated physician, Ion Francisco Huertas,
was distinguished the other day by being received
as a member of the Academy by Alfonzo XIII.
With his customary intelligence the young
monarch expressed his interest in all that con-
cerns the intelligence and culture of his country, to
the delight of the learned Corporation, and the
numerous sages who assisted at the ceremony. It
was not long ago that the young King won the
hearts of all at the important conference, held at the
Atheneum on Agriculture, when he said : “ It ismy
wish to be the first agriculturist in Spain.” It is
by such expressions that a king makes willing slaves
of his subjects.
Whilst the terribly vexed question of capital and
labour causes so much trouble in Spain, the notable
book called “ Socialismo y democracia christiana,”
by D. Mariano Pascual Espamol, is welcomed as a
possible solution of some of the difficulties. The
work is the result of long study and labour, and his
comparison of the two forces, with the physical
elements kept in their right spheres by the atmo-
sphere, which if removed would cause combustion,
is philosophical, and his appeal to this atmosphere
of reason to equilibriate the powers of labour and
capital comes with the authority of justice, as his
methods of equilibriation are stated as the result of
long enquiry.
“Love, Duty and Honour” is the title of a
striking play just published by Lieut.-Colonel
Figuerola Ferretti. The scene is laid in Cuba
during the war, of which he can speak with the
dramatic force of one who took part in it, and the
different standpoints from which these three great
qualities are viewed and acted upon show that the
author is a psychologist of no mean order. The
situations and the conversations seem to commend
the play for the boards as much as for a mere
book. The three women characters are clever
presentments of three kinds of love.
The late Prime Minister Siloela has again shown
himself a true exponent of the Ideal. In his well-
attended conference on the necessity for Spain of
centres of instruction both technical and practical,
as seen in other lands, he spoke eloquently of the
necessity of love in education “for (he said) it is
the indestructible basis of all ideas and the princi-
ples that affect the hearts and minds of men, for all
ideas and all doctrines devoid of love are bound to
die.”
The present Summer Exhibition of Fine Arts at
Madrid shows that Spain holds her own in that
domain, ‘The visit of the Infanta Dofia Eulalion
with the popular Infanta Dofia Isabel during the
'
THE AUTHOR. 277
election of the gold medallist exhibitor, excited
much enthusiasm, and one only felt sorry that .
Sefior Rancés, the sub-secretary of Public Educa-
tion, who presided at the election, was obliged to
declare that not one of the competitors had received
the requisite number of votes. José Mongrell is
distinguished as a master of colouring—especially
seen in his “ Tormenta,” and his portrait of a lady.
Fillol is one of the chief Spanish painters who ex-
presses ideas in his pictures, and “ Hl hijo de la
Revolucion” (The Sons of the Revolution), and
“‘Hijos de quien” (Whose sons?) are pictures
of life’s tragedies. Blasco Ibanez and Rodrigo
Soriano are also dramatic in their works. In a
picture called “ Barcelona in 1902” Casas gives a
large presentment of the Civil Guard and a crowd,
and the same picture would doubtless do for the
same circumstance on other occasions. Bilbao,
who ever since his great success in 1887, when his
picture “ Idilio” was so deservedly applauded, has
never failed his country, is seen at his best in his
“Salida de la Fabrica de Tabaco.” Nobody who
has witnessed the girls leaving the cigar factory at
Seville can ever forget the picturesqueness of the
scene, and it is only a master of form and colouring,
like Bilbao, who can make it a living picture in a
frame.
Percy Horspur.
1 —>—
SWEDEN AND THE BERNE CONVENTION.
—+—~<>—+ —
HE following letter from His Majesty’s
Representative in Sweden, sent to the
Foreign Office, has been forwarded to the
Society of Authors. The Committee have much
pleasure in printing the information.
STOCKHOLM,
May 20th, 1904.
My Lorp,—With reference to Sir W. Barring-
ton’s despatch of this series, No. 30 of the 16th of
December last, I have the honour to report that the
Bill framed with a view to enabling the Swedish
Government to adhere to the Copyright Union has
now been voted and will become law on the Ist of
July next.
According to this Bill paragraph 3 of Chapter I.
and paragraph 14 of Chapter II. of the Law of
August 10th, 1877, respecting copyright in this
country are modified as follows :—
CHAPTER I. PARAGRAPH 3.
_“ Literary work which an author publishes
simultaneously in different languages, and the fact
whereof is stated on the title page or first pages of
the work, shall be considered as having been com-
posed in each of the languages used. No transla-
tion can be made without the author’s consent
within ten years of the publication of the work.” |
CHAPTER II. PARAGRAPH 14.
“The rights of authors and translators mentioned
in this chapter hold good during the lifetime and
for three years after their death. If authors or
translators have not put their names to their works
any one can print or perform them five years after
publication.”
The Bill also contains the following clause :
“This law enters into force on the 1st of July,
1904. It affects all literary productions published
previously. ‘Translations which were made before
that date and which have been published in
accordance with the terms of the former law without
the consent of the author may continue to be
published.
“If anyone, before this law enters into force,
has in accordance with the former law and by per-
mission performed dramatic, musical or musico-
dramatical works, he may continue to do so.”
Certain formalities will, I understand, have to be
gone through before the adhesion of the Swedish
Government to the Berne Union can take place,
and I could gain no information at the Ministry
for Foreign Affairs as to the probable date when
the matter would be finally settled.
I have, &c.,
(Signed) F. 8. CLARKE.
Tue Marquess oF LANsDowNE, K.G.,
&e., &¢c., &.
<>
THE VALUE OF RELICS AND POETRY.
—<_e
N the summer of 1877, at the Albert Memorial
I Hall, some relics of Lord Byron were dis-
played. Among other things were a little
silver watch, a meerschaum pipe, two helmets
which the poet wore in Greece, a drinking glass
given by Byron to his butler, and five pieces of
hair lent by Lady Dorchester, the Rev. H. M.
Robinson, D.D., Mr. John Murray, and Mr. E. J.
Trelawney. It is recorded that the hair was not
of fine texture and was brown mixed with grey.
The exhibition, I believe, was not a success.
Could it well be otherwise ?
What profit is there to the mind in such
mementoes of departed greatness ?
«The poet’s eye ina fine frenzy rolling’’ looked
upon Nature, and ideas were rendered into words.
which are a treasure for all generations. Let the
lover of Byron’s verse imagine—surely imagina-
tion is inherent in those who read and appreciate
278
poetry—himself or herself at the Albert Hall in
1877. The watch, the pipe, two helmets, a drink-
ing glass, and five pieces of hair! They belonged,
at one time, to the poet ; does the sight of these
call forth any pleasurable sensations? I opine it
does not.
Let the same reader of Byronic stanzas imagine
himself or herself—on the occasion of the usual
autumnal holiday—in sight and within sound of
the rolling waves. Is there not a natural beauty
in the expanse of the wild, wind swept waters ?
Is there not health in the briny breeze? Is there
nothing more ?
Not much—always, of course, remembering that
health and beauty are two of the most glorious
gifts Nature offers—without the aid of the poet.
But with the words which he penned there is a
charm added to what one looks upon—the charm
of human sympathy, of human thought of no mean
power, ;
“Roll on thou deep and dark blue ocean.”
“ Do not the words appeal to us, not so much as
a quotation from a poem, as a reflex of our own
unuttered feeling? And then we will take together
the two fine images or visions which are conjured
up by the following lines :—
“Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain ;
Man marks the earth with ruin—his control
Stops with the shore...
The armaments which thunderstrike the walls
Of rock-built cities, bidding nations quake,
And monarchs tremble in their capitals.
. - . These are thy toys.”
Surely there is here--to quote Byron in favour
of Byron—-that which :—
‘Lends to loneliness delight.”
The veriest lad of any village school will under-
stand and appreciate the personal element in
this :— .
*‘ And T have loved thee, ocean! and my joy
Of youthful sports was on thy breast to be
Borne like thy bubbles onward ; from a boy
I wantoned with thy breakers.”
Consider now the lounger by the sounding sea
turning away from the shore towards the rooms
he or she occupies. The evening is passing into
night ; the lights of the town are flashing ; the
stars are not yet out; at least not in thronging
multitudes. One parting glance is given at old
ocean, and with that glance the ever-beautiful
word-picture is once again remembered :—
‘Thou glorious mirror, where the Almighty’s form
| Glasses itself in tempests ; in all time,
Calm or convulsed—in breeze, or gale, or storm,
icing the pole, or in the torrid clime
Dark heaving, boundless, endless and sublime.
* * * * *
Time writes no wrinkle on thine azure brow—
Such as creation’s dawn beheld, thou rollest now.’?
THE AUTHOR.
It would be a prosaic mind, indeed, that could
assert Byronic stanzas had not materially heightened
the pleasure of this meditative stroll.
J. Harris Briguouse,
ae PP
THE IDEAL PUBLISHER.
—— 4
A Dream or Farr Traps.
HE other night I hada curious and unusually
circumstantial dream. I thought I was walk-
ing along a narrow, dingy street which seemed
to be Paternoster Row at one end and Henrietta
Street at the other. On nearly every door was the
name of a well-known publisher—it was really a
most literary thoroughfare. I had a heavy brown-
paper parcel under my arm which I knew contained
& manuscript ; nevertheless I hurried past the im-
posing buildings, which housed the well-known firms
(my haste may have been partly due to the fact
that I’d had business dealings with most of them)
till I came to a modest-looking frontage at the end
of the street, on the windows of which was the
legend, *‘The Open Books Publishing Company.”
‘The name aroused my curiosity and I was attracted
by the simplicity of the exterior, having good reason
to distrust “marble halls” in connection with
publishing. ¢t-entered, and instead of being re-
ceived with cold suspicion and studied arrogance
by the clerks in the outer office, 1 was welcomed
with respectful cordiality. ‘“ Yes, Mr. Jay, the
manager, is here; he always is from nine till
six,” said a responsible-looking person. ‘“ He’s
disengaged now.” And I was ushered into the
sanctum in a state of bewilderment, since never
before had I seen a publisher until I had awaited
his pleasure for at least ten minutes in a virulent
draught. Mr. Jay was a young man of “good
appearance,” as the advertisements say, but he
did not attempt to patronise me, nor did he
greet me as a dear old friend. He bowed in a most
business-like manner, and inquired what he could
do for me. I told him that I had a MS. to place,
and that I had been attracted by the title of his
company. Would he please explain what it
meant. :
“If you have had any experience of literary
business,” he said, “ you will know how essential it
is that confidence should be restored between author
and publisher.” a
This struck me as an unpromising beginning be-
cause each of the eight distinguished publishers with
whom I had had previous dealings, had put forward
the same platitude ; so I looked my doubts.
S
ao
ilstAsaVEIS ORE Caste
THE AUTHOR.
“‘ Hitherto,” he continued, ‘‘publishers have
demanded the complete confidence of authors, as
between tried and trusty friends, and any attempt
to conduct the sale of a manuscript on an ordinary
business footing has called forth sentimental
reproaches. Now publishing is the only trade, so
far as I can discover, in which all parties directly
interested are not given equal opportunities of know-
ledge where the conduct of the business is con-
cerned. No trustful sentiment is demanded from
persons with a claim to a share in the profits of
other commercial enterprises, but the books are
examined and passed by chartered accountants.”
‘*The fact that authors don’t usually risk any
money in the business is supposed to make. a
difference,” I said.
“ But the author of a book is in precisely the same
position, commercially speaking, as the author of a
play,” he replied. ‘And in every properly-con-
ducted theatre the accountants go in on Saturday
nights to examine the books, and each week the
persons with a claim to a percentage of the profits
—there are often several involved—receive their
share, as vouched for by the accountants. When I
started this business, I determined to run it on
ordinary commercial lines, and to throw overboard
all the publishing shibboleths and conventions—
otherwise tricks of the book trade. I could not
stand being alweys under suspicion, and for my own
sake I have my books periodically inspected by a
firm of chartered accountants recommended by the
Society of Authors. I pay half the expense myself,
and the remaining half is distributed among my
authors.”
«That sounds satisfactory,” I said, “as long as
one can trust to the books being correctly kept.
But, of course, mistakes might creep in.”
“JT have arranged for another safeguard,” he
proceeded. “I have often heard writers complain
that they have no means of knowing how many
copies of their books have been sold. Accordingly
I have borrowed an idea from the music-trade, and
I have each copy of an edition stamped with a
number. I also invite authors to visit my ware-
house at stated times in order that they may see for
themselves how many copies of their books remain
on hand.”
“But how about the American market ?” I
inquired, for my distrust was too deep-rooted to be
easily allayed. ‘‘ You publishers usually take fifty
per cent. of the profits on an American edition, and
you never seem able to dispose of the copyright.
You send out so many hundred copies in sheets,
and the profits are amazingly small.”
“ Not amazingly swall,” hecorrected. “Ifyou
remember that most English publishers are openly
or secretly in partnership with a firm on the other
side. They tell you, don’t they, that the American
279
publisher will only give a nominal price per copy,
hardly enough to cover expenses ie -
“Yes,” I exclaimed. “ And I often see that a
book is selling well in the States at four or five
times the price nominally paid for it to the English
publisher, while the author’s total profits amount
to something like ten pounds. I have often asked
for items of the American sales and expenses, but
have always been refused.”
“Exactly,” he returned, with an air of satisfaction,
“and you naturally suspect that the actual profits
on the transaction are divided between the English
and American partners. The direct result of this
wide-spread suspicion has been the rise of the
literary agent, who is content with ten per cent.
of the American profits. It is bad policy to
starve or frighten away the goose that lays the
golden eggs. Now I’m offering to arrange for
the publication of my authors’ books in America
for the same percentage charged by agents—ten
per cent. I shall probably extend this system to
Indian and Colonial editions.”
“JT have heard it stated,” I observed, ‘that,
owing to the immense competition in the publish-
ing trade, it is impossible to make the business
pay on straightforward commercial lines—that is,
without secret profits.”
«That is absurd,” he returned. ‘I’m convinced
that publishers lose money every year owing to
their system of keeping authors in the dark. For
example, certain methods of publishing have fallen
into absolute discredit—I mean publishing on com-
mission, and on the half-profits system. There are
plenty of writers who would be willing to publish
works dealing with specialised subjects on commis-
sion, if they could be certain of straightforward
treatment. Again, many young euthors would
sign a half-profits agreement if they knew that the
balance-sheets would be passed by a qualified
accountant. For a young publisher without
much capital, who is anxious to build up a
business, these two methods of publishing offer
modest profits with the minimum of risk.”
“Are you introducing any other new methods
into the publishing trade?” I asked.
“Yes. I render accounts half-yearly in the old
way ; but I pay my authors one month, instead of
four or six months, later. Then, so far as the
author is concerned, I don’t count thirteen copies
as twelve, because that is an arrangement made
between publishers and booksellers for their own
(supposed) convenience, and the author has never
been consulted in the matter. Then I’ve got
several new ideas on the subject of advertising—
there is a lot of money spent on the advertising of
books in England, with very poor results. Also,
I’ve patented a new detachable cover, which I
propose to use for copies supplied to circulating
280
libraries. The cost is very small, and it can be
replaced as soon as it gets soiled or damaged,
Again % :
At this point he was interrupted by a rapping at
the door. I was just about to hand him my manu-
script, and ask if he would undertake its publica-
tion, when a voice in my ear said :
“Right o’clock, and [ve turned on the water in
the bath-room.”
I awoke with a start, and realised to my bitter
disappointment that the Open Books Publishing
Company was only a dream.
But why shouldn’t it be a reality ?
E. M.S:
a
~~
“FATTY DEGENERATION OF THE SOUL.”
—1 +
SUPPOSE there is something in a habit of
| silence that encourages people to make those
who wear it the recipients of their confi-
dence. That habit, at all events, is one of mine,
and upon no other hypothesis can I explain the
fact that I am entrusted with what I think must be
an unusual amount of early intelligence of what
my friends are doing and planning in the shape of
literature. Sometimes I attribute it, with a feeling
of humility, to the probability that it never occurs
to them to regard me as a possible competitor with
themselves: they know I am keenly interested in
literature in general and their owncontributions toit
in particular, but they regard me as too , L do
not know precisely what, but something unflattering
to my vanity, to be afraid to unbosom themselves
to me. Whatever the reason may be, I am, at one
time and another, given glimpses into the inner
self of some of my friends which I cannot believe
they permit to many others. All of these glimpses
furnish me with material for thought; some of
them are amusing ; some of them are sad ; for the
imaginative man, if frequently vain, is always
sensitive, and the road up Parnassus is girt about
with thorns.
One such glimpse was permitted me a night or
two ago. A young fellow of my acquaintance
whom I had invited to dine with me, made a
mistake in the date, with the result that he had
myself .as entire audience. I discharged my
functions so successfully that from being merely
garrulously agreeable he became gravely con-
fidential.
Our talk had turned upon the income to be
derived from literature as distinct from journalism,
and I quoted the substance of a passage in ‘“ The
Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft,” which, by the
THE AUTHOR.
way, my friend had never read, where N—, a
representative of the best and brightest side of
literary success, informs his host that in the
twelve months just concluded he has earned two
thousand pounds. My guest, I should premise, is
a particularly glossy youth, always, as he would
phrase it, very well groomed, and J, knowin
nothing of his private affairs had always suppose
him to be the recipient of a handsome allowance
from his father who is a drysalter in a large way of
business.
My guest was interested.
“J don’t know who N— may be,” he remarked,
“but that is pretty good hunting.” For a moment
he seemed a trifle envious, but then added hope-
fully : “Still, I ought to makeas much soon. I’ve
made over nine hundred this year, and it is not
ended yet.”
I was amazed. I knew that he was what
another friend of mine terms “a writing cove,”
but that is a vague term which might cover
anything from a professional addresser of enve-
lopes to a leader-writer on the Z%mes, neither of
whom, I imagine, would earn so much. I fear,
too, that my opinion of him was enhanced : ‘‘ fear,”
becanse one’s estimation of a man should not be
affected by his income.
“Do you do much journalism ?” I enquired.
“Oh! no,” he answéred ; it is all from fiction.”
I cast my mind back over a considerable period
of time, but could not recall a single book bearing
his name ; then at the risk of seeming ignorant or
discourteous, I said so, hazarding an enquiry as to
whether he used a pseudonym. :
“‘ Several,” he replied, “‘ but I write over my own
name too. It depends on how many stories I have
running simultaneously.”
Again I was amazed, for this was a revelation of
fecundity undreamed of by me. Then he explained
that he wrote serial stories for newspapers.
“J am writing three now,” he said quite simply.
“Not writing them simultaneously ?” I pro-
tested.
“ Certainly,” he answered ; “but they are all for
weekly papers: five thousand words a week each,
and I send in the copy three weeks in advance.
It’s a bit of a teazer sometimes when you're
writing for a daily.”
I supposed it might be.
‘“« What papers do you write for?” was my next
question.
He named three, of not one of which had I ever
heard before.
‘« And how long are the stories ?” I asked.
“That depends on how they go down with the
readers,” he said. ‘I go on just as long as they
are keen, and bombard the editors with corre-
spondence about the yarn.”
THE AUTHOR.
“So you don’t work out the whole thing
according to your own ideas, and simply publish
a finished story in instalments ?”
“Oh! no,” he said again. “The editors give
me the tip as to what bits are catching on with
the public, and I work those up for all I am worth.
Sometimes, of course, they send me sensational
pictures to write up to.”
There was no suggestion of irony in his tone
when he said “of course.”
“Whether they are @ propos of the story or
not ?” I asked.
“T make them & propos,” he replied.
“It is very ingenious of you,” I said weakly; I
could not at the moment think of a happier
phrase ; ‘‘but—forgive me—is not the story a
little—well, spotty, in the event ?”
“Perhaps it is,” he admitted. “But it’s all
right,” he jerked out suddenly. “The editor’s
happy and the readers are happy, and nine hundred
pounds is nine hundred pounds.”
T allowed that that was true; but I detected a
look of vague discontent on his clean-shaven face.
“And are you happy?” I asked with affected
nonchalance.
It was then I got the glimpse of the inner man
‘ which has prompted me to record the conversation.
His own story was sufficiently common-place. His
father, a respectable and successful business man,
had followed the policy, common nowadays, of
giving his sons a public school and university
education, with the result, also common nowadays,
that they deemed themselves too good for the
trade to which they were indebted for their
advantages, and were inclined to disparage the
father who had begotten them. This particular
lad left the university with the smattering of many
things and inadequate knowledge of any one, which
seems so contemptible to men of his father’s kidney,
and after an acrimonious debate flatly refused to
adopt drysaltery, and announced his intention of
embracing literature.
Perhaps if his father had been inexorable and
had cut off all supplies from this recalcitrant son,
so that he had come to know what it really means
to be cold and hunery, the muses might have
smiled upon him, and his dilettantism might have
been hardened into something enduring ; but his
mother’s heart was infinitely large and his father’s
purse was capacious ; his allowance was diminished,
it-is true, but only so much as to compel him to
burn pipe tobacco instead of cigars before the altar
of the goddess Fame, and he was never placed in
the position of being obliged to write for dear life.
It is the overloaded stomach that causes night-
mare, but I fancy it is the empty one that knows
visions. My young friend in his comfortable little
Gat found time pass not unpleasantly, but at the
281
end of the two years which are generally supposed
to enable a man to judge whether or not he has it
in him to attain some measure of success in the
world of letters, he was no further forward than
when he forsook the parental home at Tooting for
the less decorous purlieus of the King’s Road.
_ Then he was given an opportunity of getting
into this fiction mill, and seizing the chance was
whirled merrily round and round, grinding words
as he went, to which, for whatever reason, he did
not attach his name, and earning an income which,
as I have said, amounted to nine hundred pounds
in a fraction under the last twelve months.
_His method of work is simple. He dictates
his stories into a phonograph and the records are
transcribed in a typewriting office and sent direct
to the newspapers; thence the stories return to
him in proof, and he corrects the literal mistakes
and keeps a casual look-out for howlers. He has
dozens of stories, of enormous length, cut from the
variegated papers in which they appear and pasted
up in exercise books, and it was the recollection of
these volumes that brought the expression of dis-
content to his face when I asked him if he was
happy. For that is the end of his stories. No
publisher will look at them ; no critic of standing
has ever heard of them; no literary agent thinks
it worth while to accept him as a client; these
last cannot help him in his serial work which,
from time conditions alone, does not allow of
intervention by any third person ; and the reputa-
tion be has made in his particular line has become
an insuperable obstacle to his making any reputa-
tion in literature. He has, in short, committed
the fatal mistake of making the wrong reputation,
to lose which is much more difficult than it is to
make a right one at the outset. The fluidity of
language which enables him to keep pace with his
engagements is incompatible with the nicety of
language necessary to the production of literature ;
he has lost all sense of the values of words in a
calculation of their vaine; his apprehension of a
dramatic idea has been shaken by his passion for a
melodramatic situation. He has discovered that
in doing work of a lower kind in order to earn the
means to live while doing work of a higher, he has
lost the power to do the latter. This last discovery
has, indeed, been tested practically. A publisher
of repute, who lay under some obligation of friend-
ship to the old drysalter, hearing that his friend’s
son was an author, asked him to write a novel;
full of hope, the son complied ; but the taint of
the cheap serial was over it all, and the book was
hopeless; after a second unsuccessful essay the
plan was abandoned by consent. My author,
instead of being fed like a running horse, bas been
fattened, and, to use George Gissing’s pregnant
phrase, heisavictim to fatty degeneration of thesoul.
282
Is it an incurable disease? That. is what I
should greatly like to know, for I fancy there are
not a few “ writing-coves” amongst us, to whom
an answer would be fraught with interest.
Of course I know it is an ancient story. Nearly
a hundred and fifty years ago the suggestion was
put forward, and put forward well, if rather dog-
matically. Here is the passage ; and if my g euest
of the other night should happen to see this
article, it may amuse him to trace the quotation,
and it will assuredly benefit him to read the little
work in which it appears:
“The author, when unpatronized by the great, has
naturally recourse to the bookseller. There cannot per-
haps be imagined a combination more prejudicial to taste
than this. It is the interest of the one to allow as little
for writing, as of the other to write as much as possible.
Accordingly tedious compilations and periodical magazines
are the result of their joint endeavours. In these circum-
stances the author bids adieu to fame, writes for bread, and
for that only, imagination is seldom called in. \ He sits
down to address the venal muse with the most phlegmatie
apathy; and, as we are told of the Russian, courts his
mistress by falling asleep in her lap. His reputation never
spreads in a wider circle than that of the trade, who gene-
rally value him, not for the fineness of his compositions, but
the quantity he works off in a given time.
“ A long habit of writing for “bread thus turns the ambi-
tion of every author at last into avarice. He finds that he
has written many years, that the public are scarcely
acquainted with his name; he despairs of applause, and
turns to profit, which invites him. He finds that money
procures all those advantages, that respect, and that ease
which he vainly expected from fame. Thus the man who,
under the protection of the great, might have done honour
to humanity, when only patronized by the bookseller
becomes a thing little superior to the fellow who works at
the press.”
A YS.
—————_+—_>—¢
CIVIL LIST PENSIONS.
——>—+—_.
HE following pensions have been granted
during the year ending March 31, 1904,
under the provisions of the Civil List Act,
1901 :—
Mrs. Anna Johnson Henley £125
In consideration of the literary merits of. her late
- husband, Mr. W. E. Henley, and of her inadequate
means of support.
Sir William Laird Clowes :
In recognition of his services to naval literature.
Mrs. Charlotte Michael Stopes ..
In consideration of her literary work, and of her
straitened circumstances.
Mrs. Mary Gertrude Henderson
In consideration of the distinguished services of
her late husband, Lieutenant- Colonel G. F.C.
Henderson, C.B.
Maria, Lady Gilbert
In recognition of the services of her ‘late hasband,
Sir Henry Gilbert.
100
THE AUTHOR.
Mrs. Lucy Allen ...
In recognition of the services of her late husband,
Mr. R. W. Roberts, Master, R.N., in connection with
the disembarkation of troops during the Crimean
War.
Mrs. Sarah Elizabeth May
In recognition of the artistic merits of ‘her late
husband, Mr. Phil May, and of her straitened
circumstances.
Emma, Lady Fitch
In consideration of the ser vices of her late busband,
and of her straitened circumstances.
John Wesley Hales S
In consideration of his services to English literature,
Miss Henrietta Keddie ...
In consideration of her services to literature, and ‘of
her straitened circumstances,
Leonard Gissing and Alfred Gissing ...
In consideration of the services to literature of their
late father, and of their straitened circumstances.
Alfred Theobald Palmer.. ;
In consideration of his services to history.
Mrs. Edith Louisa Stopford Porson
In consideration of the services rendered to astrono-
mical science by her late husband.
Frances Elizabeth Dobson
Mary Dobson
Julie Dobson A
In recognition of the s services rendered to zoological
science “by their late brother, Sur. ‘geon-Major George
Edward Dobson.
CORRESPONDENCE.
—_1+—~< +
CRITIC AND PUBLISHER.
Srr,—Last autumn Messrs. Harper and Bros.
published Vol. III. of my ‘“ History of the German
Struggle for Liberty,” a work which is mapped
with a view to making six volumes.
Many honest critics hold me responsible because
my publishers have published this volume without
an index. They also note with just surprise that
the book pretends to be complete in three volumes.
Also, they note that the illustrations are not in
harmony with the character of the work.
So far I have passed the matter over in silence.
Now, however, it may be of service to my fellow
victims to enquire if a law cannot be framed to
protect us in the future. I was not consulted in
regard to my book either as to illustrations, title
page, or index. The publishers had no excuse for
their conduct save the stereotyped one, against
which I am protesting—to wit, that they know
best what is good for a book.
Would it not be fair to the author if the pub-
lisher warned the reader, and especially the book
reviewer, whenever he has seen fit to print a page
or picture without the knowledge or consent of
the author? I have literary sins of my own in
abundance, and I object to carrying any for
publishers, however scholarly they may be.
Pouttney BiGELow.
THE AUTHOR. 283
EXETER ENGLISH.
I.
Str,—Almost all writers, whatever their emi-
mence, are guilty of solecisms and bad grammar, but
this does not justify the deliberate perpetuation of
‘such errors by inscription of them in public places.
Numbers of good authors are extremely hazy about
the difference between the perfects and participles
of tie and lay, but “laid awake”’ or “ there let him
Jay,” would not look well in Exeter or any other
cathedral. “ Destruction and happiness is in their
ways” may be good old English, as ‘et Venus et
puer risit ” would be capital Horatian Latin, but
a plural subject with a singular verb is now merely
a sign of slovenly writing, just as ‘‘to try and do”
is a mistake, though countenanced by Demosthenes,
and a plural verb with the disjunctive “neither ”—
“nor,”’ as, for instance, “neither he nor his brother
are coming” is wrong, whoever uses it.
Your obedient servant,
REGINALD HAINES.
—— +9
Il.
Smr,—Perhaps it may be of interest to quote
the opinion of some of the greatest of modern
French writers on the question of using a plural
verb with a singular subject having a tail tacked
on to it by means of the preposition “ with.”
On the 31st of July, 1900, M. Leygues, then
Minister of Public Instruction, issued some new
“rules” (or rather “tolerations”) for French
Grammar. Amongst them the following appeared ;
“On tolérera toujours le verbe au pluriel dans : Le
général avec quelques officiers sont sortis (ou est
sorti) du camp.”
_ The Académie appointed a committee to con-
sider these new rules, consisting of such men as
Henry Houssaye, Gaston Boissier, Hervieu, Gaston
Paris, Mezieres, Gréard Brunetiére, Coppée, de
Vogué, Jules Lemaitre, de Héredia, Gabriel
Hanotaux. ‘he criticisms made by this committee
were adopted by the Académie.
‘I'he remark made on the above rule was: “ Dans
exemple ; le général avec quelques officiers sont
sortis (ou est sorti) du camp, le mot avec n’étant
pas un adverb d’énumération, mais une préposition,
le pluriel est irrégulier.”
__ Surely this is the only logical conclusion. Even
if good writers have used a plural verb in a fit of
absentmindedness, there is no reason why we
should imitate them in their faults.
Yours truly,
G. H. CLARKE.
Dovus.e Tires or Books.
Smr,—I wish to draw attention to a curious
phenomenon of modern date. I remember a time
when every book was reviewed under the title
which the author gave it. But a fashion has since
arisen whereby the reviewer is ashamed of quoting
such a title, because he prefers to show his ability
in improving upon it. As this fashion is fast
becoming universal, I think I am doing no harm in
quoting two examples from the June number of
Lhe Author, At p. 237, a book entitled “'The
Making of English” is reviewed under the title
“English in the Making”; and another book
entitled ‘‘Stones from a Glass House,” is reviewed
under the title of “ A Round Stone or Two.”
There is a great practical inconvenience about
this custom. The unreal and secondary title is
the one under which the review is quoted in the
“Contents” and in the “Index.” Consequently
the author or other student who wishes to consult
the review is denied any help which an index may
afford him. And no author has now the oppor-
tunity of ascertaining that a review of his book
has appeared in a given journal. I venture to
think that this is undesirable and inconvenient in
a very high degree.
T am unable to understand the underlying prin-
ciple. Ifa title has been deliberately chosen by
an author, why should it be deliberately neglected,
to the confasion of all to whom an index is
supposed to be helpful? Surely this is not busi-
ness, but something more nearly approaching to
a thoughtless indifference to the wants of a serious
student.
On the other hand, the custom proves that
authors are wholly wrong in complaining of the
difficulty of finding good titles. For whatever
titlean author may select, it can always be bettered
(at any rate in the estimation of a competent
critic, for they are all competent) by an alternative
arrangement. Why do not authors compile lists of
alternative titles from old journals? Ifa book is
reviewed in six journals, it obtains six alternative
titles, all of them (by the nature of the case) better
than the original! Surely this is a phenomenon
worthy of attention. :
Water W. SKEAT.
—_— st
LIQUIDATION IN THE UNITED STATES.
Str,—The following may serve as a warning.
In December, 1902, I received a notice from a firm
of lawyers in Boston that an assessment was to be
made of the affairs of an American journal to
which I had contributed for thirty-two years. I
agreed to the winding up of the company—all the
creditors being asked to do so.
284
Time went on and I received no information.
Last summer a friend wrote to some one in Boston
to enquire into the case on my behalf. He was
informed that all creditors had been paid 10 per
cent. except the foreign contributors “as their
accounts did not agree with those of the company.”
My account was £24—in the company’s books it
was £17. The head of the firm said he had
8 dollars odd in my name, which he would send
over as soon as he had enquired into the dis-
crepancy.
I wrote in October to the effect that I desired
payment of the 8 dollars held by him.
No answer has been sent, and I have written
three or four times. In my last letter I said if
they did not send me the amount by return, I
should make the matter public in 7e Author, with
your permission.
Surely it is strange that the foreign contributors
(an Italian and myself—possibly more) should all
have made mistakes in their accounts, and that
they alone amongst the creditors are not paid !
Yours faithfully,
8. B.
~~
ANCIENT Sirtver Bouquet Houpers.
Dear Srtr,—Can any of your readers, or members
of the Incorporated Society of Authors, give me
any information upon the subject of ‘Ancient
Silver Bouquet Holders,” or refer me to any work
treating of such articles ?
Yours truly,
W. J. Hassan.
Stretton-on-Dunsmore, Rugby,
June 13th, 1904.
1s
AutHors’ AGENTS.
Srr,—I have read with much interest the various
insertions in Zhe Author on “ Authors’ Agents,”
and the “ Rights of Authors.”
My view is that a great many of the troubles of
authors, and the small sums they obtain for their
works, really arise from the great ignorance of
the authors themselves. They know s0 little about
the business side of getting out a book.
I would advise all authors to study to some
extent :—(1) The law of contracts ; (2) the law of
copyright (including International copyright) also
the Berne Convention ; (3) the cost of production
of books, paper, printing, moulds, stereotypes, etc. ;
(4) and last but not least the management of
accounts (including bookkeeping by double entry).
Accounts sent in by publishers are frequently
most bewildering, and require a trained accountant
with access to the publishers’ books to understand.
Added to above it is useful to know the law of
THE AUTHOR.
accountancy, or .rather the law as it affects
accountants,
A man who knows nothing about the art of
driving horses is not likely to succeed in driving
well at his first or second attempt, nor will he be
able to do so till he has really learnt his business.
And so it is also with the author and book
production.
The reader may possibly get frightened at what
T have said, and think to himself, “I have so much
to learn.” But he need not be scared at what I
have advanced. The secretary of the society will
no doubt put him in the way of suitable books to
read on the various subjects I have named, and
armed with the knowledge obtained from these
books the author will be able to contend against
imposition, over charges, and secret profits, all of
which are more or less attempted to the injury of
the unbusiness, unskilful author. —
All the tricks practised in the past for the pur-
pose of imposing on the author have been brought
about by the dense agnorance of the author himself,
and many will say he deserved it, for if he will not
look after, and learn what so closely concerns him-
self, he must needs suffer, nor is the world as yet
so fair a planet that the well-informed will teach the
lazy as against the material interests of the former.
On the other hand, much as to the art of publish-
ing has been kept dark, which art is now more fully
known.
Why should not authors rouse themselves, and
let them remember that “God helps those who.
help themselves.” A few words I should like to
add as to the great usefulness of the Authors’
Society. To myself it would appear that all literary
men, whether novelists, dramatic writers, poets,
historians, or musical writers, should do all in
their power to uphold the Society, and by carefully
reading the monthly publication of the Society (The
Author), the most unlearned will more easily learn
the art of publishing, and the knowledge he will
thus attain will be invaluable to him.
Publishing has distinctly entered on a new era,
and the sooner authors learn this truth it will be
the better for them and for all concerned,
Messrs. Sprigg, Pedrick & Co., Limited, write
learnedly about authors’ agents. They say: ‘He,
the author, should never entrust his work to an
agent unless he is confident in the first place that
the man he employs conducts his general business.
with an entire absence of favouritism.”
Alas for authors’ agents if I read the late Sir
Walter Besant aright. There appeared to him at
the time he wrote that there were but two agents.
he could recommend. And authors who know
their business can tell pretty correctly who those
two agents were.
A
SENEX.
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The Author, Vol. 14 Issue 10 (July 1904)
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<em>The Author</em>, Vol. 14 Issue 10 (July 1904)
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A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&collection=&type=&tags=&exhibit=&date_search_term=&submit_search=Search+For+Items&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022.
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Che HMuthor.
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)
FOUNDED BY SIR WALTER BESANT.
Vou. XIV.—No. 9.
TsLEPHONE NUMBER :
374 VICTORIA.
TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS :
AUTORIDAD, LONDON.
—____—>_+____—_-
NOTICES.
——
OR the opinions expressed in papers that are
signed or initialled the authors alone are
responsible. None of the papers or para-
graphs must be taken as expressing the opinion
of the Committee unless such is especially stated
to be the case.
Tur Editor begs to inform members of the
Authors’ Society and other readers of 7he Author
that the cases which are from time to time quoted
in The Author are cases that have come before the
notice or to the knowledge of the Secretary of the
Society, and that those members of the Society
who desire to have the names of the publishers
concerned can obtain them on application.
— >
List of Members.
Tu List of Members of the Society of Authors
published October, 1902, at the price of 6d., and
the elections from October, 1902, to July, 1903, as
a supplemental list, at the price of 2d., can now be
obtained at the offices of the Society.
They will be sold to members or associates of
the Society only.
The Pension Fund of the Society.
Tux Trustees of the Pension Fund met at the
Society’s Offices on the 19th of February, and
having gone carefully into the accounts of the
fund, decided to purchase £250 London and North
Western 3 % Debenture Stock. Accordingly, the
investments of the Pension Fund at present
standing in the names of the Trustees are as
follows.
Vou. XIV.
JUNE Ist, 1904.
[Prick SIXPENCE.
This is a statement of the actual stock; the
money value can be easily worked out at the current
price of the market :—
Wonsols 28 4 i £1000 0 O
Docal boas 0. 500 0 O
Victorian Government 3 % Consoli-
dated Inscribed Stock ............64- 291 19 a1
War loan... 2019 3
London and North Western 3 % Deben-
ture StOCk’; 3 .-6..4.56 prs 250 0 0
AB ap eure asa £9243 9 2
Subscriptions from October, 1903.
: £8. cd.
Nov. 13, Longe, Miss Julia. 20) 50
Dec. 16, Trevor, Capt. Philip. - 0 58 0
1904.
Jan. 6, Hills, Mrs.C. H. . ~ 0 5 0
Jan. 6, Crommelin, Miss . : 20 10 0
Jan. 8, Stevenson, Mrs. M. EK. . - 0.5 0
Jan. 16, Kilmarnock, The Lord . .~ 0 10-0
Feb. 5, Portman, Lionel . : ~ ob 00
Feb. 11, Shipley, Miss Mary 2 0 5 0
Mar. Diiring, Mrs. . : : 707 5) 0
Mar. Francis Claude de la Roche . 0 5 O
Ou
o
April18, Dixon, W. Scarth
April18, Bashford, Harry H. : . 0 10. 6
April19, Bosanquet, Eustace F. . . O10 6
April23, Friswell, Miss Laura Hain. 0 6 0
May 6, Shepherd, G. H. Ob 0
Donations from October, 1908.
Oct. 27, Sturgis, Julian : : -90 0 90
Nov. 2, Stanton, V. H. : : 7 5b 0 0
Nov. 18, Benecke, Miss Ida . : 7 1.00
Novy. 23, Harraden, Miss Beatrice 75 020
Dee. Miniken, Miss Bertha M. M.. 0 5 0
1904.
Jan. 4, Moncrieff, A. R. Hope . 5 0 0
Jan. 4, Middlemass, Miss Jean . 010 O
Jan. 4, Witherby, The Rev. C. . 0 5 0
Jan. 6, Key, The Rey. 8. Whittell 0. 5 0
226
£8, d.
Jan. 14, Bennett, Rev. W. K., D.D. 015 0
Jan. 2, Roe, Mrs. Harcourt 010 O
Feb. 11, Delaire, Miss Jeanne 010 O
May 16, Wynne, C. Whitworth 5 0 0
—_—__+ 0 ——__—_
FROM THE COMMITTEE.
—+—>— +
HE Committee held their monthly meeting
on May 2nd, at 39, Old Queen Street. The
first business, as usual, was the election of
members and associates, and seven fresh mem-
bers and associates were elected. The number
is small owing to the fact that the April meeting
was held towards the middle of the month, and the
May meeting at the earliest possible date in May.
The total number of elections for the current year
now reaches 110.
Two cases were before the Committee. The
first referred to a question of accounts between an
author and a puohehee The Committee decided
to endeavour to obtain a settlement of the case by
entering into negotiations direct with the publisher,
hoping by these means to discover, if possible, an
explanation of the points in dispute. The second
case raises questions of interest and of some diifi-
culty between a member of the society and an
author’s agent. As the matter is still under the
consideration of the Committee, no further state-
ment can be made at present.
It was decided, subject to the approval of the
President of the Society, to forward an address to
the President of the Spanish Academy on the ter-
centenary of the production of “ Don Quixote.” The
draft of the address was laid before the Committee
and approved. Mr. George Meredith, the President
of the Society,. has also signified his approval of
the draft.
——
Cases.
Since the May issue of 7’he Author eight cases
have been placed in the Secretary’s hands for
settlement ; three for money, one for money and
accounts, two for the return of MSS., one for the
settlement of contracts between author and pub-
lisher, and one for accounts merely.
Taking them in reverse order, the case for
accounts referred to a Canadian firm, and conse-
quently cannot be settled for some time. Again
the case for the settlement of contracts, owing to
complicated negotiations, cannot be adjusted imme-
diately. Where demands were made for the return
of MSS., the MSS. have been sent to the Society’s
office, and returned to the members concerned.
THE AUTHOR.
In the case of accounts and money, with the con-
sent of the Chairman, the matter has been placed
in the hands of the Society’s solicitors, as it has
been found impossible to get any answer from the
publisher. Of the three cases for money, one has
been satisfactorily settled, one has had to be post-
poned for technical reasons, and the other has been
postponed owing to the absence of the publisher
from his office.
The last case contains some curious points, as
the publisher sold a portion of the author’s rights
some time ago without communicating with the
author, and without accounting for the amount he
received, when rendering his usual statement. No
doubt, however, a satisfactory explanation will be
forthcoming when the Society has put forward the
author’s just demands.
Another small case which was placed in the
hands of the Society’s solicitors has been satis-
factorily settled, without the necessity of taking it
into Court.
May Elections.
Jackson, John ; . St. Dunstan’s House,
Fetter Lane, Fleet
Street.
Kenward, James, F.S.A. 48, Streatham High
(Elvynydd) Road, 8.W.
Kirmse, Mrs. L. Fontainbleau, Manor
toad, Bourne-
mouth.
Kirmse, Richard Fontainbleau, Manor
Road, Bourne-
mouth.
Shepherd, Geo. Henry 27, King Street, St.
- James’s Square,
Hilfield, Bath Road,
Bournemouth W.
Simpson, Miss Gaynor
Stowe, Edwin "
Oo
BOOKS PUBLISHED BY MEMBERS OF
THE SOCIETY.
— to
(In the following list we do not propose to give more
than the titles, prices, publishers, etc., of the books
enumerated, with, in special cases, such particulars as may
serve to explain the scope and purpose of the work.
Members are requested to forward information which will
enable the Editor to supply such particulars.)
AGRICULTURE.
Buy EnGuisH AorES. By C.F. Dowsetr. 2nd Edition.
83 x 54, 224 pp. The Author: Winklebury, Basing-
stoke, 33. 6d.
THE AUTHOR. 227
ART.
Great Masters. Parts XIII.and X1V. Edited by SIR
Martin Conway. Heinemann. 5s. n. each.
IMPRESSIONIST PAINTING: ITS GENESIS AND DEVELOP-
MENT. By WyNFoRD DEWHURST. 124 x 83, 127 pp.
Newnes. 25s. n.
BIOGRAPHY.
ELEAN 2 OrmMEROD, LL.D., EcoNoMIC ENTOMOLOGIST.
Autobiography and Correspondence. Edited by ROBERT
WALLACE. 9 X 53, xx.4+ 348 pp. Murray. 21s. n.
Kings AND QuEENS | Have Kyown. By HELEN
VACARESCO. 9 X 53,330 pp. Harper. 10s. 6d.
DRAMA,
SUPERLATIVE FRIENDSHIP. ‘“ A Home or School Play
for Ladies or Girls.’ By the Rev. JOHN BRUSTER.
Simpkin, Marshall & Co., Ltd. 9d. nett.
EDUCATIONAL.
ELEMENTARY SCIENCE AND NATURE ‘STUDY. By H.
THISELTON Monk. Simpkin Marshall & Co. 1s. 6d. 1.
THE GLOBE GEOGRAPHY READERS. By Vv. T. MURCHE.
Macmillan, 2s. ‘
FICTION.
Ture Girt. By S. MACNAUGHTAN. 72 X 5, 309 pp.
Hodder & Stoughton. 6s.
CELIBATE SARAH. By J. BuyrH. 73 xX 54, 292 pp.
Grant Richards. 6s.
For Love AND Ransom. By ESME STUART, 7% X 5,
379 pp. Jarrold. 3s. 6d.
Miss ARNOTT’S MARRIAGE, By RICHARD MARSH. 73 X 5,
341 pp. J. Long. 6s.
Bats av TWILIGHT. By HELEN M. BouLTON. 74 X 5,
304 pp. Heinemann. 6s.
THe OrANGERY. A Comedy of Tears. By MABEL
DEARMER, Author of “The Noisy Years,’ etc. Smith,
Elder. 6s.
NATuURE’s COMEDIAN. By W. E, Norris. 7] X 55,
310 pp. Longmans. 63.
GLENCAIRLY CASTLE. By H.G. HurcHINson. 7] X 5,
326 pp. Smith, Elder. 6s.
BrRoTHERS. The True History of
By Horace ANNESLEY VACHELL.
Murray. 6s.
CourT CARDS.
Unwin. 6s.
In THE Wronc Box. By Fox RUSSELL,
317 pp. Everett. 3s. 6d.
ARouND A Distant STAR. By JEAN DELATIRE. 7$X 5,
301 pp. Long. 6s.
ENGLAND'S ELIZABETH. By His Honour JuDGE i. A.
PARRY. 7% X 5,351 pp. Smith, Elder. 6s.
BIANCA’S CAPRICE, and Other Stories. By MorRLEY
Roperts. 8 X 5,312 pp. White. 6s.
THE BLUNDER OF AN INNOCENT. By E. MARIA ALBANESI,
New Edition. 7% x 5, 322 pp. Methven. 6s.
Mapes ov Money. By DorRoTHEA UERARD.
336 pp. Methuen.
OvuR MANIFOLD Nature. By SARAH GRAND. Cheap
Edition. 74 x 4%, 282 pp. Heinemann. 2s.
SmoKING FLAx. By the Rey. Sivas HocKkIne. 7% X5h,
340 pp. Partridge. 3s. 6d.
Musm%. The Story of an Anglo-Jap imese Marriage.
Pearson. 6d.
Treason. A Romance of Politics. Tynedale Press
a Fight against Odds.
8 x 54, 397 pp.
By ANSTICE CLARE. 7} X 5, 315 pp.
7% xX 5,
7% X 5,
6d.
DorotHEA. By MAARTEN MAARTENS. 7} X 9, 573 pp.
Constable. 6s.
A PRINCE OF CORNWALL.
7% x 54,410 pp. Warne. 6s.
By C. W. WHISTLER.
IN THE WHIRL OF THE RIsinc, By B. MITFORD.
72 X 5,311 pp. Methuen. _ 6s.
THE MASQUERADERS. By “Rrta.’’ 7% X 5, 371 pp.
Hutchinson. 6s.
THE WINE OF LOVE.
311 pp. Nash. 6s.
DEALS. By Barry PAIN. 72 X 5}, 279 pp, Hodder &
Stoughton. 5s.
Love's Proxy. By RicHarpD BaGor. 73 X 5, 305 pp.
Arnold. 6s.
THE LovETHAT HE PAsseDBy. By Iza Durrus HARDY.
74 X 5,388 pp. Digby Long. 6s. é
THE STONE-CUTTER OF MempHiIs. By W. P. KELLY,
72 X 5,371 pp. Routledge. 6s.
A WisE AND A FoontsH VIRGIN. By GERTRUDE
WARDEN. 73 X 5, 296 pp. F. V. White. 6s.
A JAPANESE MARRIAGE. By Dovugnuas SLADEN. New
Edition. 8} x 53,401 pp. Treherne. 6s. n.
ALLAN QUATERMAIN. By H. Riper HaGearp. (Cheap
Edition.) 8% x 53, 182 pp. Longmans. 6d. n.
Youna Love. By L. DouGAut. (Cheap Edition.) 74 X 5,
179 pp. Black. 6d.
AN ISLEIN THE WATER. OH, WHAT A PLAGUEIS LoVB!
By KATHARINE TYNAN. (Cheap Edition.) 74 X 5,
221 +150 pp. Black. 6d. each,
By H. A. HInKSON. 74 X 5,
HISTORY.
SociaL LIFE UNDER THE Stuarts. By ELIZABETH
GoDFREY. 82 X5%, 298 pp. Richards. 12s. 6d. n.
THE PUNJAB IN PEACE AND WAR. By 8S. 8. THORBURN,
Indian Civil Service (retired). Blackwood & Sons.
12s. 6d. n. Two maps and four battle plans,
LITERARY,
SrortEs FROM DANTE. ~ By NortEY CHESTER. 7} X 43,
238 pp.. Warne. 2s. 6d. n.
Ke.Lric RESEARCHES. By E. W. Byron NICHOLSON.
800 pp. H. Frowde: Oxford University Press, 21s. n.
MEDICAL.
THe MerpicaL CurricuLumM. By Proressor E. A.
SCHAFER, LL.D., F.R.S. .82 x 53,30 pp. Elinburgh :
The Darien Press.
ORIENTAL.
SAYINGS OF K’UNG THE MASTER. (The Wisdom of the
Kast.) Selected, with an Introduction, by ALLEN
Upwarp. 64 xX 5,50 pp. The Orient Press. 1s.n.
POETRY.
GRANUAILE, A QUEEN OF THE WEST. A Poem in Six
Cantos. 2nd Edition. By CHARLES RICHARD PANTER,
LL.D. 74 X 54, 207 pp. Jarrold & Sons. 5s.
Porms. By Sir Lewis Mornis. (Authorised Selections)
54 X 34, 340 pp. Routledge.
POLITICAL.
GREATER AMERICA. By A. R. COLQUHOUNs
436 pp. Harpers. 16s.
FiscAL Facts AND Ficrions. By F.G. SHAW.
4s. n.
9 x 6;
Saillitre,
SOCIOLOGY.
THe PRIZE: SOCIAL Succpss. By F. C, CONSTABLE.
7 x 43,177 pp. Grant Richards. 5s. n,
TECHNICAL,
A TEXxT-BoOK OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING. By
Witrrip T. LINEHAM. ‘7th Edition. 1066pp. Chay-
man & Hall. 12s, 6d. n.
228
THEOLOGY.
Paraposis, or “In the Night in Which He was (?)
Betrayed.’’ By E. A, ABBOrT, (Diatessarica, Part IV.)
9 x 6, xxiii. + 216 pp. Black. 7s, 6d, n.
THe YOUNG PRIEST. Conferences on the Apostolic Life.
By HERBERT CARDINAL VAUGHAN. Edited by his
Brother, MONSIGNOR CANON J.S. VAUGHAN. 7] X 5,
347 pp. Burns & Oates. 5s.
TOPOGRAPHY.
Tur New Forest. By Horace G. HUTCHINSON.
94 x 68,310 pp. Methuen. 21s, n.
STRATFORD-ON-AVON.
(Illustrated Pocket Library.)
3s. Nl.
THe QUANTOCK HILLS: THEIR COMBES AND VILLAGES,
By SrpNeY LEE. New Edition.
7 x 5, 304 pp. Seeley.
By BratTrRIx F. CresswELL. Homeland Association.
2s. 6d. n.
TRAVEL.
PRESENT-DAY JAPAN. By AuGusTaA M. CAMPBELL
DAVIDSON. 94 X 6, 331 pp. Unwin. 21s.
THe SToRY OF ALPINE CLIMBING. By FRANCIS
GRIBBLE. (The Library of Useful Stories.) 6 x 39,
180 pp. Newnes. Is.
A WINTER
New (and cheaper) Edition.
mais. 65. RB.
PILGRIMAGE. By H. RipER HAGGARD.
81 x 53, 376 pp. Long-
Oo
LITERARY, DRAMATIC, AND MUSICAL
. NOTES.
——
NTHONY HOPE’S new book “ Double
Harness,” a story of modern life, is to be
published by Messrs. Hutchinson & Co., in
the antumn.
It is announced that a volume of short stories
may be expected from the pen of Mr. Rudyard
Kipling in the autumn.
We are informed that his Majesty the King has
accepted a copy of Mr. James Cassidy’s new book
“Love is Love,” published by Messrs. Simpkin,
Marshall & Co., at the price of 2s. 8d. net. The
volume contains sixteen short stories, each of
them founded on a true incident.
“Where is your Husband, and Other Brown
Studies” and “A Medley Book” are the titles of
two books by George Frost, copies of which have
been accepted by her Majesty the Queen.
‘Lost Angel of a Ruined Paradise,” is the title
of a work by the Rev. P. A. Sheehan, D.D., which
Messrs. Longmans & Co. are publishing.
The same firm is also publishing Mr. Wilfrid
Ward’s ‘‘ Memoir of Aubrey De Vere,” based on
unpublished diaries and correspondence.
Mr. Poultney Bigelow has been appointed a
Professor in the Law Faculty in the University at
Boston. Mr. Bigelow’s department deals par-
ticularly with ‘Foreign Relations and Colonial
Administration,” and his lectures dealing with
this subject will commence in the winter of the
THER AUTHOR.
present year. We understand that this is a new
department in college education, and has for its
object the training of young men for honourable
employment.
A second edition of ‘ Rita’s” new book “ The
Masqueraders” is in the Press, as the first edition
was sold out soon after publication.
“Impressionist Painting: Its Genesis and
Development,” by Wynford Dewhurst, has been
published in a handsome volume by Messrs. George
Newnes, Limited, at the price of 25s. net.
Mr. Dewhurst has written the book with a view
to preaching the doctrine of impressionism, parti-
cularly in England where he considers this style of
painting is very little appreciated. The book
contains many illustrations which serve most
effectually to demonstrate the methods set forth.
Mr. Dewhurst trusts that the volume may be of
real service to the cause of art education.
“Buy English Acres” is the title of a book
written by Mr. C. F. Dowsett, at the beginning of
this year. The second edition, which contains
much added matter, is now placed before the public.
The book can be obtained from the author at
Winklebury, Basingstoke, Hampshire. The price
is 8s. 6d. net, post free.
Mr. A. W. Marchmont, author of “ By Right of
Sword,” has a novel entitled ‘“ Miser Hoadley’s
Secret’ appearing in Methuen’s Sixpenny Library,
and in the companion series, The Novelist, the
same author’s popular book, “A Moment’s Error”
is to be published.
Owing to the great amount of revision which
has been necessary in order to bring Mr. E. A.
Reynolds Ball’s book, “ Mediterranean Winter
Resorts” up to date, the fifth edition will not be
published till the 1st of October, 1904.
The intrigues between the English and Scottish
Courts during the closing years of the sixteenth
century form the material for Austin Clare’s new
novel, entitled “Court Cards,” which Mr. Fisher
Unwin has published.
Mr. Grant Richards has just published a volume
of essays from the pen of Mr. F. C. Constable,
under the title of ‘The Prize: Social Success.”
The essays treat of moral and social questions.
The French Minister ‘ de l’Instruction Publique
et des Beaux Arts” has lately created Mr. G. H.
Clarke “ Officier d’Académie.”? Mr. Clarke has
edited or written alone or in collaboration the
following works: “ Le Misanthrope,” Moliére ;
“Les Fourberies de Scapin,” Moliére ; “Table of
the Order of French Pronouns” (Williams and
Norgate) ; ‘School Grammar of Modern French”
(J. M. Dent & Co.) ; “ Les Femmes Savantes,”
Moliére ; ‘‘ Waterloo,’ Victor Hugo; “Primer
of Old French”; ‘Le Voyage de Monsieur
Perrichow.” (Blackie & Son); “ Intermediate
THE AUTHOR.
French Grammar ” (John Murray) ; “ La Bataille
de Waterloo,” Houssaye (A. and C. Black),
A new work by Mr. J. E. Gore, F.R.A.S., entitled
“Studies in Astronomy,” is in the press, and will
shortly be published by Messrs. Chatto and Windus.
It will be illustrated by some fine photographs of
nebulz and clusters.
Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co. have published with
illustrations a work entitled “ Aspects of Social
Evolution,” by J. Lionel Tayler, at the price of
7s. 6d. The book deals with the question of
heredity, environment, and temperament, and is
both social and medical in its character.
Messrs. Brown, Langham & Co. publish early in
June a new novel by Mr. E. H. Lacon Watson,
author of “The Templars” and several other
books. “The Making of a Man” is the title
chosen for the new story, which will deal, ter alia,
with the career of a celebrated minor poet.
In this month’s (June) Chambers’s Journal is an
informing article by Eustace Reynolds- Ball, dealing
with the vie intime of the Piedmont peasantry.
This is a somewhat novel subject, on which the
author has had special opportunities of acquiring
information.
In the new issue (being the 41st) of the Sfates-
man’s Year Book, edited for Messrs. Macmillan &
Co. by Dr. J. Scott Keltie and Mr. J. A. Renwick,
a series of statistical tables and diagrams has been
brought together illustrative of the conditions of
British trade and shipping from 1860 to the present
date. Besides this compilation, so necessary for
students of the fiscal question, may be mentioned
a diagram showing the extent to which Belleville
boilers are employed in the various fleets. In the
general revision to which the book has been sub-
jected may be noted the first appearance of a section
devoted to Panama as an independent State.
Mr, W. S. Gilbert produced, at the beginning of
last month, a new play at the Garrick Theatre.
We are pleased to welcome the return of this
author to the dramatic stage. ‘That the piece is
full of the old humour is clear from the fact that
Mr. Arthur Bourchier is turned into a clown, and
Miss Violet Vanbrugh into a columbine, and a
Judge of the High Court into a pantaloon. The
piece was received with much favour.
“Tna,” a play in four acts by Mr. R. O. Prowse,
was put on the stage of the Court under the
auspices of the Stage Society. It is a study in re-
morse, as the heroine thinks she has been virtually
guilty of the death of her husband.
Two plays by William Toynbee—“ Dolly’s
Ordeal,” in one act, and “ Necessity Knows No
Law: a Comedy of Personages,” in four acts—
will be produced at a matinée at one of the West
End theatres during the present season.
229
PARIS NOTES.
—
HE book of the month is undoubtedly “ La
Cominune,” by MM. Paul and Victor Mar-
gueritte. In the form of a novel the authors
give us the history of the Commune as they under-
stand it, and show us a series of pictures of life
in the various ranks of society during the troubled
time which followed the Franco-German war,
On reading this book one understands Mlle.
Dosne’s anxiety to publish earlier than she had
intended her brother-in-law’s book, ‘‘ Notes et
Souvenirs de M. Thiers (1870-1873).”
MM. Paul and Victor Margueritte endeavour to
show us the various causes which led to the terrible
insurrection in Paris. They describe in detail the
miseries which the Parisian working-class and the
bourgeois families had endured during the siege,
their suspense, disappointments, distrust of their
chiefs, hunger and discomfort of every kind, and
finally their humiliation on hearing that the Prus-
sians were to enter the French capital. The patriotic
citizens were beside themselves with indignation
and, taking advantage of this state of things, all the
riffraff of the population thought the moment pro-
pitious for a general rising against order and au-
thority of any kind.
The portraits of many of the historical personages
are admirably well drawn, the description of the
entrance of the enemy into the city, the story of the
murder of Clément ‘Thomas, of the death of Mon-
seigneur Darboy, and the account of the awful
scenes of fire, bloodshed, and destruction are most
tragic and pathetic.
Many books have been written on the subject of
the Commune, but none have given a more vivid
and graphic description of that fatal insurrection
than this novel by MM. Paul and Victor Mar-
gueritte. The reader who cares to know both
sides of an argument should certainly study ‘* Notes
et Souvenirs de M. Thiers” before commencing
“Ta Commune,” as it is just as well to know the
difficulties with which M. Thiers had to contend
before reading the verdict of the brothers Mar-
gueritte.
M. Pierre Loti appears to have renounced fiction
for atime. His last book was ‘ L’Inde,” and his
new one “ Vers Ispahan.” The former was pub-
lished with two different titles ; the edition for
France was “ L’Inde (sans les Anglais),” and the
edition for sending abroad was simply ‘“ L’Inde.”
In the preface to this new book the author tells
us what to expect : “Qui veut venir avec moi voir
i Ispahan la saison des roses prenne son parti de
cheminer lentement & mes cOtés, par ctapes. .
Qui veut me suivre, se résigne a beaucoup de jours
passds dans les solitudes, dans la monotonie et les
mirages.... ”
230
This is a warning not to be despised, as the
book is really a description of a voyage. It is
charming, and has all the poetry of description to
which one is accustomed in Loti’s works. One of
the most interesting chapters in the volume is the
one telling of a visit to the tombs of the two
poets Saadi and Hafiz. The latter is buried under
a tomb of agate in the midst of an enclosure with
avenues of orange blossom and roses. ‘This garden,
which was at first reserved for him, has become an
ideal cemetery, as muny admirers of the poet have,
at their request, been also buried there. Their
white tombs are surrounded with flowers, and the
nightingales are to be heard every night.
A little farther on is the tomb of Saadi. This
ig much more modest than that of Hafiz, and is
marked by a white stone; but it, too, has a wealth
of flowers around it. “Vers Ispahan” should be
kept as a charming, restful book for a summer
holiday. It is impossible to hurry through it, as
every word is worth reading.
«lias Portolu,’ by Madame Grazia Deledda,
is a delightful study of humble life in Sardinia.
The authoress was born in Nuoro, a little town con-
taining 7,000 inhabitants, and she places her story
there. In the opening chapter Elias has just
returned home after a sojourn in a penitentiary.
His family and friends assemble in honour of this
event and of the engagement of Pietro, the eldest
son of the house. Elias is féted like a student
returning home for the holidays, for among
these primitive people when once a sin has been
punished there is no further grudge against the
culprit. He may begin an entirely fresh page
in his life and he will not be taunted with his
past.
There is no strong plot to the story, but as a
psychological study of Sardinian peasants it is
very charming, and gives us an idea of an entirely
different world, and of a totally different way of
looking at many things from that to which we
are accustomed. There is great originality, too,
in the way in which the story is told.
“Crainquebille, Putois, Riquet et plusieurs autres
récits profitables ” is the title of a volume of short
stories and sketches by M. Anatole France.
“ Crainquebille” is a literary gem, one of the
simplest and most pathetic of episodes told in
the simplest and most exquisite style imaginable.
The hero of the story is only a costermonger, and
the incidents déscribed are such as one might
witness every day in crowded cities, but every
person lives, and there is deep pathos and tragic
humour underlying the whole.
“Putois” is a charming sketch, an excellent
example of the way in which history can be built
on a foundation of fiction.
“Riquet,” though only a little dog, has not
THE AUTHOR.
lived with M. Bergeret to no purpose. He is mar-
vellously philosophical, and his “ Thoughts ” are
well worth reading. There are about a dozen
other sketches or stories in the volume, each one of
which has its special raison d’étre.
“ Joseline,” by M. Edouard Delpit, is a book
which will please readers who prefer a dramatic to
a psychological novel. There is plenty of incident,
the characters are well drawn, and the story itself is
quite possible. The most interesting personage in
the book is a wealthy, self-made man, who, until
the age of fifty, has had a very lonely life. He falls
in love with a young girl who is secretly engaged
to a young workman. For the sake of her family
she consents to marry the millionaire. He, how-
ever, discovers the true state of matters, and shows
great nobility of character. The dénowement is
tragic.
Among the new books are: “ Paravent de soie
et dor,” by Madame Judith Gautier; “Le Mar-
quis de Valcor,” by Daniel Lesueur ; “ Isolée,” by
Brada ; “ Autour des Iles bretonnes,” by M.
Caradec ; “La Vie d’un simple, or Mémoires
d’un métayer,” by M. Guillaumin ; “ De la Paix,
du Désarmement et de la Solution du probleme
social,” by Madame Winteler de Weindeck; ‘‘Visions
bréves,” by M. Radet.
M. Jules Claretie has just published the sixth
volume of “ Vie 4 Paris.”
An interesting case has been brought into the
law courts. The widow of Leconte de Lisle pro-
tested against the publication of a book entitled
“ Premicéres Poésies et Lettres inédites de Leconte de
Lisle.” The verses and letters were wrilten during
his college days (about the year 1858) by the poet,
and M. Guinaudeau, who brought out the volume,
received them from a former friend of Leconte de
Lisle.
The widow of the poet, as residuary legatee,
objected to the publication of poems, which her
husband had never deemed worthy to include in
his complete works, and the sale of the volume was
stopped until a decision was given.
M. Guinandeau claimed that these poems came
under the heading of ‘‘ posthumous works,” and as
such belong to the person who owns them, and that
this person has the same rights as an author with
regard to them.
M. de Hérédia, M. Henry Houssaye, M. de
Nolhac, and other distinguished literary men wre
to Madame Leconte de Lisle expressing
pathy with her and their approval of the
had taken in the matter.
The judgment has just been g
Guinaudeau and his publisher have to
francs indemnity to Madame Leconte
The destruction of the books canna
by this Court, so that in order
THE
Stop the circulation of the volumes the case will
probably be brought before another Court.
In an interesting article by M. Théry in the
Economiste européen the question of the “Theatre
Trust” is discussed in detail, The writer praises
the Société des Auteurs for having “ vigorously
attacked this scheme of monopoly.” M. Thery
points out that by doing away with competition
between theatre managers the result would be no
competition between artistes, authors, decorators, or
costume designers, so that French theatrical art
would lose one of its chief elements of success and
of universal influence.
The Société des Auteurs dramatiques at its annual
meeting discussed the question of the “Theatre
Trust,” and decided to continue to oppose it
energetically.
The Syndicate of Dramatic Critics also held a
meeting, at which a vote was passed that the critics
would stand by the authors on the question of the
“Theatre Trust.”
At the theaties Madame Sarah Bernhardt con-
tinues “ Varennes” until she leaves for Belgium. At
the Gymnase “ Le Retour de Jérusalem” has held the
pill for 200 performances, and M. Antoine has had
great success with ‘ Oiseaux de Passage.”
At the Gaite “La Montansier,” too, holds the bill
until Madame Réjane’s departure, and at the
Ambigu “ La Baillonnée” is another success for M.
Decourcelles. The Porte St. Martin has put on
“Blectra,” a Spanish play, and the Vaudeville
“La Troisieme Lune.”
On the occasion of the centenary of Georges Sand
the Odéon will give a performance of the “ Démon
du Foyer.” M. Ginisty has received permission
from the Ministry to have a Georges Sand Exhibi-
tion in the foyer of the theatre. There will be on
view the most celebrated portraits of the great
authoress, some sketches and water-colour paintings
of hers, and various relics and souvenirs connected
with her.
At the Comédie Frangaise, for the centenary of
Georges Sand, M. Jules Claretie has decided to
give “ Claudie.”
The piece which Madame Judith Gautier and
M. Pierre Loti have written for Madame Sarah
Bernhardt is entitled “Fille du Ciel.” It is a
Chinese drama, and will be put on next season.
China certainly seems to be in favour at present.
The new play by Madame Fred Grésac and M. Paul
Ferrier is a Chinese comedy entitled “La Troisicme
Lune.”
M. Maurice Bernhardt has dramatised the novel
by M. Sienkiewicz, “Par le Fer et par le Feu.”
This is to be put on next season at the Sarah
Bernhardt Théitre with M. Huguenet in the role
of Zagloba.
Auys HALLARD.
AUTHOR.
231
AUTHORS’ AGENTS.
———+—
WW" have read, very naturally with interest,
the able and well-considered paper pub-
lished under this heading in the April
issue. Upon several points we emphatically agree
with G. H. T., but upon one or two others we
should like to make a few observations, which
might even be useful to members, and should be
glad if you will kindly allow us space.
That the methods of agents are of growing
importance, authors will not dispute ; indeed, in
the interests of literature a wider separation is
desirable between the literary and commercial side
of the matter than exists now ; doubtless this will
eventually obtain, and therefore it is essential
that those methods should be sound and beyond
reproach,
That to the beginner the agent can be of very
little service we cannot quite accept. lar more
than to the experienced and established writer
(who has little difficulty in finding a market for
his wares) is he of use to the novice. To the
beginner, in fact, he can, and should be, a very
material help. ‘The novice desires to enter a re-
stricted, yet highly competitive field, the customs,
methods and requirements of which he is almost
absolutely ignorant, and in furthering his endeavour,
an agent, cognisant of all these, is of the utmost
value. Again, as a rule, the beginner is too apt to
rush to pen and paper upon the least provocation,
without fully considering the general interest, or
publishing probabilities of his idea when developed,
and in cases of this sort the ageat who knows his
business and has the interests of his client at
heart, can, by giving judicious counsel, save him
much time, and spare him much disappointment
and, moreover, often put him upon the right trend.
The reason why nine-tenths of rejected MSS, are
declined is that they are written without con-
sideration, rhyme or reason. As you fairly point
out, the business of a literary agent is not run
upon philanthropic lines, but it is hardly necessary
for him to give greater attention to authors who
earn him a large income than to such whose return
ig small. Work of very well-known authors sells
automatically, is besought ; it is the work of lesser
authors which in the placing requires skill, know-
ledge, judgment and energy. When an author’s
output is not large enough to pay an agent, he can
scarcely expect the agent to make any particular
effort on his behalf on commission alone, but if he
pays a fee to an honest agent to cover specified
work, he should be able to rely upon that work
being done. In theselection of an agent, however,
there are two important points upon which the
author, whether established or not, needs to
232
exercise caution. He should never entrust his
work to an agent unless he is confident, in the
first place, that the man he employs conducts
his general business with an entire absence of
favouritism, and in the second place has no per-
sonal misunderstandings with any publisher or
editor. Agents cannot afford to have personal
animosities against either.
As to the rate of commission, we consider this
more of a personal question, and one dependable
upon particular/circumstances, which might safely
be left to author and client. Amongst authors
earning large incomes there are very few so
“hopelessly unbusinesslike ” as to allow unfair,
or disproportionate deductions from their profits ;
moreover, it must not be forgotten that it is the
agent who, generally speaking, finds the openings
for the author. But that the agent should always
keep the welfare of his clients well before him, is
only a principle of common business honesty, and
whenever he plays into the hands of a publisher
he is guilty of a gross breach of trust.
But in indicating a system under which the
agent becomes financier as well, and buys work
from impoverished authors with a view of selling
at a large profit to himself, G. H. T. puts his
finger upon a very evil practice. The system is
varied by the moneylender-agent advancing sums
against unwritten work, and in this way (as he
takes care not to let the author get out of his debt
by always having a pocket open to him) not only
secures a continuance of the “agency” but receives
an unjust rate of interest for the accommodation.
The evils of this system are manifold. Generally
speaking, carelessness in regard to money matters
is an attribute of the literary temperament. In
some cases extravagance leads to difficulties, and
resort to the moneylender-agent, who like Barkis
is always “ready and willin’,” becomes a necessity.
The ultimate effect of this upon the author is
financially disastrous ; to other authors for whom
the moneylender-agent acts, but who do not require
his financial assistance, it is unfair, since obviously
he has a deeper interest in the man who is bound
to him, and consequently exploits him further,
whilst, what is of more consequence, the de-
moralizing effect upon literature is even more
disastrous. Instead of working for, art’s sake,
and endeavouring to express the best that is in
him, the involved author has to grind away at
“pot boilers” in order to meet obligations he
never succeeds in freeing himself from, There
are certain publishers guilty of the same disre-
putable practice, but whilst the system is at all
times an immoral one, they occupy a position very
different from agents.
For ourselves we see no reason whatever why an
agent should not werk in unison with the Authors’
THE AUTHOR.
Society, and be an ardent supporter as well (indeed
we consider the Society should have the support of
all in any way concerned with literature and its
production). If he is afraid to have his contracts
and methods inspected by an authoritative body
obviously he is not conducting his business upon
honest lines.
Upon the subject of contracts, especially the
“‘ next-two-book ”’ clause, we should like to make
a few remarks. ‘The position of the beginner is
this. He is unknown, and has a book which he
requires published without any risk to himself.
The publishers who are at all likely to undertake’
this are few at the most. It is the publisher who
is called upon to speculate in the venture, not the
author, and it is he that dictates the terms of
publication, and not the other, who can either
accept or reject them. If he accepts, the book is
published ; if he refuses, it is not. Harsh as
existing conditions may seem—it must not be
forgotten, however, that there is also the pub-
lisher’s point of view—there they are, and an
author, if he wishes to aim at fame and fortune
must, until he is strong enough to make his own
terms, accept them. Authors moreover should
remember, what is frequently overfooked, that no
book is absolutely necessary, that the world will
still revolve if his song remains unsung, and to
dictate terms to a publisher is in these days to
incite his amusement.
As to the “ next-two-book ” clause in particular,
G. H. T. advises that no author should in any
circumstances bind himself to a publisher for
more than one book, but against this advice we
must, with deference, again adduce our immediate
argument—that until an author is strong enough
to make his own terms he stands between accepting
those of the publisher and being published, or
refusing them and remaining in obscurity. A
case came within our business not long since. A
publisher—who does not enjoy the reputation of
being the most generous in the trade—agreed to
publish a first work on condition that he had the
refusal of the next two. At the time, as a matter
of fact, we advised the author not to sign. The
publisher replied that those were his terms and
could be taken or left. The author in question,
anxious to secure publication, accepted, with the
result that the book has boomed and gone already
into a fourth edition, Now, if this author had
declined these terms, from our experience and
knowledge of the character of the work, we are
certain no other publisher would have undertaken
it; and if the author had not accepted them,
instead of being established as a successful author,
he would still be in obscurity and likely to remain
there. It is perfectly true that he is tied to this
publisher, upon not very liberal terms, for the
THE AUTHOR.
next two books, but on the other hand he has
now a literary reputation which cost him nothing
to achieve; he has even made an immediate cash
profit through the achievement. There is also the
publisher's point of view. Now that this author has
made a reputation, through the publisher’s enter-
prise, certain other publishers are very anxious
to secure his future books, but the publisher in
question speculated in the first instance, and after
all it is only reasonable that he should reap the
benefit of his enterprise instead of others who were
prepared to risx nothing. In view, therefore, of
the present conditions of publishing, we do not
think that an author will be wise in all cases to
follow the advice of G. H. T. upon this point.
The difficulties of a new writer procuring first
publication are becoming increasingly complex,
and we do, not consider they are likely to be
reduced by’ the novice attempting to dictate terms.
We should not have the least objection to the sub-
mission of an agreement of this or any character to
the Society, but at the same time we should feel it
incumbent upon ourselves fully to explain the
novice’s position in the literary world of to-day.
There is no profession the working arrangements
of which can be regarded as altogether perfect,
and since all are humanly exercised we doubt if
there ever will be one. Certainly we do not think
that G.H.T. is right in thinking that the ideal
literary agent would be one who worked for a fair
number of authors at a fixed annual sum. An
agent is now remunerated by commissions upon
orders which he secures. Naturally, his com-
mission is the only inducement he has to obtain
orders, and if his commission were compounded for
an annual sum the inducement would be lost and
the author the first to suffer. However conscien-
tious the agent may be, it would be impossible for
the author to obtain from him the same satisfactory
results as he does when the agent’s profit depends
entirely upon his successes.
Spricc, Peprick & Co., Lrp.,
GALE PEDRICK,
Managing Director.
—_—__—_—_—<>_+—_—_-
LEGAL NOTES.
et
Wuat’s In A Name?
HE right of an author or of his assignee
in the name which he has given to his book
sometimes occasions inconvenience to another
author who has selected a similar name for his own
work ; and the law upon the subject is perhaps a
little indefinite and is not always clearly under-
stood. Whatever the precise nature of the right
233
may be, it is not easy for the writer of a new work
to avoid infringing it, and a number of interesting
suggestions have been made in The Author for pre-
venting, by a scheme of registration, infringements
from occurring in future. Obviously if the author
can search in a complete register of book-names
he will have a chance of avoiding for himself the
inconvenience of a dispute arising out of his
adoption of a title already used. The matter,
therefore, divides itself naturally into a discussion
of the existing state of things, and the definition,
if possible, of the rights at present existing, and of
the proposals made with a view to improvement in
the future. here have not been many cases
decided in the law courts with regard to the right
to names of individual books, for reasons which are
not difficult to guess at. On the other hand, there
have been several where the names of periodical
literary productions have been concerned. The
selection of names for individual books lies with
the author, and any confusion with the name of
another is accidental on his part. The selection of
names of magazines by publishers is done more or
less deliberately. A name is chosen on account of
the merit which it is believed to possess, and the
chooser of it is usually aware of the existence of
the rival publication. Where he has knowingly
chosen a name which runs close to that used by
another he naturally defends his choice. The
author or publisher of a book usually withdraws in
order to save trouble, if not for any other reason.
The right to the name of a book is not copy-
right, as has been frequently explained in he
Author ; and the name is not atrademark. At
the same time there is in a title a right which is
capable of protection, and it is in some cases of
importance to an author that it should be pro-
tected. In others it is a source of great annoyance
to an author when some brother writer endeavours
to prevent him from using a name which he fancies
in order to protect a work which is of no value, and
which consequently needs no protection. At all
events, there are two points of view from which
the matter can be contemplated : that of the author
of the formerly existing work and that of the
author of the second or projected work. Most of
the writers who have discussed the subject in 7'he
Author have apparently found themselves in the
latter class.
With regard to the nature of the right. In
Bradbury v. Beeton, 18 W. R. 33, a case in which
the proprietors of Punch sought to protect their
title against one which might have been confused
with it, Vice-Chancellor Malins said: “The de-
fendants have no right to use a name which is
calculated to mislead or deceive the public in pur-
chasing.” ‘I'his simple phrase sums up the law on
the subject. No author has a right to deceive the
234
public or to injure his brother writer by using a
title which may mislead persons who, wishing to
buy the book of the latter, might find themselves
purchasers of the book of the former.
In Kelly v. Hutton, L. R. 3 Ch. 903, Lord
Hatherley said that there was nothing analogous
to copyright in the name of a newspaper, but that
the proprietor had a right to prevent any other
person from adopting the same name for any other
publication. It has also been pointed out that,
should a journal change its name, anyone can
adopt the old name for another periodical, so long
as he does not in any way hold out the latter to be
in fact the former.
In the dealings of ordinary commerce there is a
protection afforded to the labels and wrappers or
to the name of a well-known article of commerce
which is not derived from the registration of a
trademark. This offers a close parallel to the
protection afforded to the title of a published
book, and it would appear to be founded upon the
same principles. Traders are not always honest,
and are sometimes ready to “‘ pass off” their goods
as the better-known goods of some other producer.
The goods of the latter may be distinguished by a
trademark, and this may be imitated, together with
the general design and ‘“‘get-up” of the article
sold. The injured party then proceeds to ask the
Court to forbid the infringement of his trademark,
and to forbid the goods of the rival being “ passed
off” as his. In defence, the rival may assert that
the trademark is one not properly upon the register
and move to strike it off. If he fails in this, the
plaintiff will be entitled to the full protection which
he seeks, but even though upon this point the
judge’s decision is adverse to the plaintiff, and
the trademark is found to be one which should
not be on the register, there may still be a decision
in favour of the plaintiff upon the question of
“passing off.”
“No man has a right to pass off his goods as
though they were the goods of another.” There
can be no doubt as to this, but it is essential in a
‘passing off” case to prove where a trade name
or wrapper or similar thing has been imitated that
the name or thing sought to be protected is generally
known as distinguishing the plaintiff's goods. It
is enough to prove that the “ passing off” is likely
to interfere with the sale of the plaintiff's goods ; it
is not necessary to prove that it has in fact so
interfered, or that it was intended to do so. In
The Author of August, 1900, there was quoted an
instructive case as to titles tried in America, where
the University of Oxford obtained an injunction
against an American publishing firm to stop them
from bringing out a Bible entitled an‘ Oxford Bible:
The Sunday School Teachers’ Edition.” The learned
judge said with reference to the use of the name
THE AUTHOR.
Oxford and to the point taken that this was merely
a place name: “But this word is part of the
plaintiffs’ name, and as such has given name to the
plaintiffs’ Bibles and has come to be a means of
showing their origin. The defendant has no con-
nection with the place or name, and this use of
the name by the defendant can be for no purpose:
but to represent the defendant’s Bibles as coming
from the plaintiffs.”
Of course the intentional use of the name made
this instance worse, but it was not essential, andi
the case is otherwise interesting as showing the:
grounds on which the injunction was granted.
This, therefore, it is submitted, is the legal position =
that A. must not take for his book the name used
by B. so as to have his (A.’s) book mistaken for
B.’s. Probably in a great majority of the cases.
where an author of a new book is attacked by the
author of an old one because he has published, or
has let it be known that he is going to publish, a
work under the name used for the old one, the-
author of the old book could suffer no damage, as.
nobody ever heard of his book, or everyone has.
forgotten it, and nobody could mistake the
new one for the old. In a great majority of these-
cases A. can snap his fingers at B. if he chooses to-
do so, so far as any action at law is concerned. In
practice, however, he may not like to run the risks,.
or if he does not mind doing so, his publisher is
nervous, and declines to go on unless the name is.
changed. From the other point of view, the author:
who sees that another writer is going to bring out
a book with a name which he has used for a book.
which is in circulation has a legal right to prevent
this being done, andit would be difficult to show that
he is not perfectly justified in protecting his own pro-
perty. When he is merely bluffing or asserting for his.
deceased work a claim to fame which it does not
possess, the question has to be decided whether he-
is to be treated with contempt or humoured. If I
appear tohave minimised the danger or the annoyance-
arising from the question of a used title, it is only
because I think that to someextent it is exaggerated
by writers on the subject in The Author. I
have myself suffered from the nuisance, as I had
to change the name of a novel, after it had been:
announced in advance, because the writer of a.
short story having the title I had chosen, declared
that she was bringing out, or was thinking of
bringing out, a volume of tales in which that par-
ticular short story (for which she had used the name-
I had chosen) would figure as the first item, giving
its name to the book. My publisher was desirous.
of treating a lady with courtesy, and of avoiding
controversy, 80 my name was changed, although the:
first pages were already set, and although we agreed
that the other author had no legal right to stop us
and could not have succeeded in any action brought.
THE AUTHOR.
with that intention. My book is as dead now as
a doornail. I certainly should have no right to
prevent anyone from using the title I ultimately
chose, and I should not try to do so.
With regard to the question what amount of
circulation or “life” a book should have in order to
enable its author or the owner of its copyright to
prevent a new book from being published under the
same name, it is difficult to find or to suggest any
definite rule. I would submit, however, that a book
discoverable in the bulky “ Publishers’ Catalogue
of Current Literature” would be entitled to protec-
tion, and that a book not to be found in that and
never heard of by the author of the new work, or
by his publisher or the publisher’s reader, would
probably be held to be entitled to none. I have
said nothing about such titles as “Tom Jones” or
“Qlarissa Harlowe,” which someone suggested.
No author or publisher would be responsible for a
new book so named, and no bookseller would sell
it. I propose in a future article to discuss the
remedies suggested for the existing state of things.
The suggestions have been principally made in
order that the author of a new book may know
whether his proposed title has been used before.
BE. A. ARMSTRONG.
—___—_——_—>_+___
MUSICAL COPYRIGHT BILL.
—_+—~ + —
As AMENDED BY THE STANDING COMMITTEE ON
Law.—Printep, March 24, 1904.
Arrangement of Clauses.
1. Offences.
», Power to apprehend persons committing
offences under Act.
3. Appeal to quarter sessions.
4. Alternative procedure by production of true
copy of entry of copyright,
5. Search warrant and seizure of pirated music.
G. All copies and plates seized to be brought
before court.
7, As to forfeiture and destruction of copies
and plates seized.
8. Penalties.
9. Recovery of penalties.
10. Interpretation.
11. Short title.
12. Registration of copyright and date of first
publication.
13. Commencement and application of Act.
14, Application to Scotland.
15. Saving for foreign copyright.
Be it enacted by the King’s most Excellent
Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of
235
the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons,
in this present Parliament assembled, and by the
authority of the same, as follows :—
1. Any person who—
(1) Prints, or causes or procures to be printed,
any pirated musical work ;
(2) distributes or carries about any copies of
any pirated musical work for the purpose
of sale, or of being dealt with in the course
of trade ;
(3) sells, or causes or procures to be sold, or
exposes for sale, or offers or keeps for sale,
or solicits orders by post or otherwise, for
any copies of any pirated musical work; -
(4) is found in the possession of any copies of
any pirated musical work or the plates
thereof for any of the purposes above
mentioned ;
shall be deemed to have committed an offence
under this Act if it be proved to the satisfaction of
the court that he knew that—
(a) such musical work was pirated ;
(b) or that such plates were the plates of pirated
musical works.
2. It shall be lawful for any police constable, on
the request in writing of the owner of the copyright
or of his agent thereto authorised in writing, and
on the production to such constable of a copy of
the entry of such copyright in the book of registry
certified under the hand of the officer appointed by
the Stationers’ Company, and impressed with the
stamp of the said company, in terms of the Copy-
right Act, 1842, and at the risk of such owner,
to take into custody, without warrant, any person
who, within view of such police constable in any
public place, or place to which the public have
access on payment or otherwise, commits an offence
under this Act, and whose name and address shall
be unknown to and cannot be ascertained by such
constable.
3. If any person feels aggrieved by any convic-
tion made by a court of summary jurisdiction for
an offence against this Act, he may appeal there-
from to a court of quarter sessions where the fine
imposed exceeds forty shillings, or the value of the
articles seized exceeds forty shillings.
4, Whenever a certified and stamped copy of an
entry of a copyright in the book of registry is
required by this Act to be produced to any person,
it shall be sufficient if instead of such production
a true copy thereof is given to and left with such
person.
5.—(1) Where on the information upon oath by
the owner of the copyright in any musical work, or
of his agent authorised thereto in writing, of an
offence under this Act, a court of summary juris-
diction is satisfied that there are reasonable
236
grounds for believing that pirated copies of
such musical work specified in such informatior, or
the plates thereof, are being kept for purposes con-
stituting an offence under this Act, and are to be
found in or upon any house, premises, or place
within its jurisdiction, the court may, by warrant,
authorise any police constable named and referred
to in such warrant to enter such house, premises,
or place at any time between the hours of nine in
the morning and six in the afternoon, and to search
for and seize and carry away such copies and plates.
(2) The court may, if it appears necessary,
empower the constable named in such warrant with
such assistance as may be found necessary to use
“force for the effecting of such entry as aforesaid,
whether by breaking open doors or otherwise.
6. All copies of musical works and _ plates
thereof so seized shall be brought before a court
of summary jurisdiction for the purpose of its being
determined in accordance with the provisions here-
inafter contained whether the same are or are not
liable to forfeiture and destruction under this Act.
7.—(1) As soon as may be after any copies of
pirated musical work, or plates thereof, shall have
been brought before a court of summary juris-
diction under the provisions of this Act or the
Musical (Summary Proceedings) Copyright Act,
1902 (in this Act referred to as “the Act of
1902’), the owner of the copyright, or his agent
thereto authorised in writing, shall, if the person
alleged to have been dealing with such copies or
plates, or to have been in possession thereof under
such circumstances as to constitute an offence
under this Act, is known or can be found, apply to
the court to issue a summons to such person to
show cause why the same should not be furfeited
and destroyed, and the court may issue such
summons accordingly, and on the hearing of the
summons may order that the said copies and
plates or any part thereof be forthwith forfeited
and destroyed, or be otherwise dealt with as the
court may think fit.
(2) If such person is unknown or cannot be
found an information or complaint shall be laid by
or on behalf of the owner of the copyright, or by
his agent thereto authorised in writing, or on
behalf of the police, for the purpose only of enforcing
the forfeiture and destruction of such copies and
plates, and the court may without summons, on
proof that the musical work to which the copies or
plates seized relate is pirated, or that such copies
or plates were in the possession of such person
under such circumstances as to constitute an
offence under this Act, order such copies or plates
or any of them to be forfeited and destroyed at
the expiration of a period of two months from
the making of such order, unless within the said
THE AUTHOR.
period some person alleging himself to be the
person in whose possession the copies or plates
were found, or to be the owner of the copies or
plates to which such order relates, or of any part
thereof, shall attend before such court and shall
lodge a claim in writing to such copies or plates or
any part thereof, and stating therein his true name
and address, and shall thereupon apply to the said
court to issue a summons (which the said court
shall upon such application issue) to the person
claiming to be the owner of the copyright, to show
cause why the same should not be given up to him.
(8) If such applicant at the hearing of the said
summons establishes to the satisfaction of the
court his claim to have the whole or any part of
such copies or plates given up to him, the court
may make an order to that effect, but at the
expiration of the said period of two months, or, if
a claim is then pending, on the determination of
such claim, all the said copies or plates (if any)
referred to in the original order of the court, and
not given up as aforesaid, shall be forfeited and
destroyed or be otherwise dealt with as the court
may think fit, and thereafter no person shall be
entitled to any compensation or redress in respect
of such forfeiture and destruction.
8. Every person who shall commit an offence
under this Act shall be liable to a fine not
exceeding five shillings for each copy and five
pounds for each plate in respect of which the offence
was committed, provided the whole fines inflicted
on any one offender in respect of the same offence
shall not exceed twenty pounds.
9. All fines under this Act shall be recoverable
and applied, and any act or thing authorised to
be done by or in a court of summary jurisdiction
shall be done under the provisions of the Summary
Jurisdiction Acts in England, Scotland and
Ireland respectively. :
10. In this Act the several expressions to which
meanings are assigned by the Act of 1902 have the
same respective meanings.
The expression “ plates” includes any stereotype
or other plates, stones, or matrixes or negatives
used for the purpose of printing or reproducing
copies of any pirated musical work,
11. This Act may be cited as the Musical Copy-
right Act, 1904, and this Act and the Act of 1902
may be cited together as the Musical Copyright
Acts, 1902 and 1904, and shall be construed
together as one Act.
12. On and after the commencement of this Act
the proprietor of the copyright in any musical
composition first published after the commencement
of this Act, or his assignee, shall print, or cause to
be printed, upon the title page of every published
copy of such musical composition the date of the
first publication thereof, and otherwise this Act and
the Act of 1902 shall not apply.
13.—(1) This Act shall come into operation on
the first day of October one thousand nine hundred
and four, and shall extend to and apply in the Isle
of Man as well as to and in the United Kingdom.
(2) In the application of this Act to the Isle of
Man all penalties recoverable under this Act and
all Acts by this Act or the Act of 1902 authorised
to be done by or in any court of summary juris-
diction may be recovered or done before or by a
high bailiff or two justices of the peace.
14. In the application of this Act to Scotland,
the following provisions shall have effect. :—
(1) All jurisdiction necessary for the purpose of
this Act is hereby conferred on sheriffs :
(2) In section five hereof the words “order (in
which atime and place of hearing shall
be named)” shall be substituted for the
word “summons,” and the words “ after
parties have been heard at such time and
place as may be named in the order” for
the words “on the hearing of the sum-
mons,” and “at the hearing of the said
summons”; and the words ‘“ without
summons” in said section five (subsection
two) shall not apply.
15. In any case to which an Order in Council
under the International Copyright Acts applies in
respect of musical copyright an_ extract from a
register or a certificate or other document stating
the existence of the copyright, or the person who is
the proprietor of such copyright, if authenticated
as directed by the seventh section of the Inter-
national Copyright Act, 1886, may be deposited
with the officer appointed by the Stationers’ Com-
pany for the purposes of the Copyright Act, 1842 ;
and the deposit of such extract, certificate, or
document, and the registration of such extract,
certificate, or document, on the books of the
registry kept under the provisions of the Copyright
Act, 1842, shall, for the purposes of this Act, be
deemed to be the registration of a copyright within
the meaning of the Copyright Act, 1842, and the
owner of such copyright, or the person who, under
the said section, is authorised for the purpose of
any legal proceedings in the United Kingdom, and
is deemed to be entitled to such copyright, shall,
for the purposes of this Act, have all the rights
and be subject to all the liabilities conferred and
imposed on the owner of a copyright registered
under the Copyright Act, 1842, or his authorised
agent, and a true copy of such extract, certificate,
or document may be given to and left with any
person, Whenever a certified and stamped copy of
an entry of a copyright in the book of registry is
required by this Act to be produced to such person,
THE AUTHOR.
237
ENGLISH IN THE MAKING.*
—_. <4 —_
HE knowledge of language and the study of
English, ought to be to the author what the
mixing of colours and the study of technique
is to the artist.
There are some artists who delight to boast
their ignorance of technique. Their cult is small.
Unfortunately there are many authors who attempt
to write without any studied knowledge of language
and the use of words. They do not make a boast
of their ignorance. They are not cognisant of it.
Nor are the semi-educated public who read their
works.
It is essential from time to time that a seer (in
its original sense) should step forth and proclaim
as Mr. Bradley has done in his book the causes by
which the more remarkable changes in the language
were brought about, and the effect which these
changes have had on its fitness as an instrument
for the expression of thought.
He commences with a chapter on the making of
English grammar. He continues by showing the
extraordinary influence of foreign tongues upon the
formation of the language. How the words of one
tongue have been accepted, of another rejected
without, in some cases, apparent reason.
Then follows the process of word-making in
England after English had become a settled speech,
and lastly, chapters on the changes of meaning, and
some makers of English.
~ To the author who would be an artist in language
the last chapters are the most important. To
know the right meaning of a word and its proper
application, is half-way to the writing of clear and
forceful English.
The book does not deal with the subject
exhaustively. Yet it may suffice to sow the good
seed, and the seed in some cases may bring forth
the good fruit. On this hope the book is recom-
mended to all.
—__—___+—<—_+—___———_
A ROUND STONE OR TWO.
(EMBEDDED IN A Book.)
—- + —
«Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones.”
Old Proverb,
N a terse preface of justification Miss Findlater
asserts (with a ‘‘ venture”) that such dwellers
may : at least it is their privilege to throw a
few. Then with well-considered aim from the
honourable interior of her own glass Fiction-House,
* “The Making of English,” by Henry Bradley. Pub-
lished by Messrs. Macmillan & Co.
+ “Stones from a Glass House,” by Jane Helen Findlater
(James Nisbet & Co., 68.).
.238
this novelist-critic proceeds to throw her stones
straight from the shoulder—in eleven fairly hard-
“hitting chapters. To be plain, Miss Findlater
considers that the writer of fiction must know
more than the mere reader of it, about the merits
or defects of a story. ‘To have attempted to
write fiction is to know its difficulties; and a
realisation of these gives at once more leniency
and more severity to criticism. The novelist will
always judge technical faults severely ; because he
knows that it is generally possible to avoid such
blemishes by care and skill. But he will always
be more merciful than the novel reader in judging
faults of conception, knowing, as every writer does,
that this is a matter over which the writer has
very little control. The novelist has a further
excuse for writing about novels—that no one can
write about them with the same deep interest.”
Miss Findlater says she has tried to treat some of
our present-day fiction in a synthetic manner, so
as to show the cause, development, and tendencies
of each group of books. The present state of
book reviewing is, she considers, extremely unsatis-
factory. ‘Criticism, from being practised by the
few and competent, has become a trade carried on
by the many and singularly unfit. The first and
most glaring defect in modern criticism is its
tendency to over-praise. ‘I'o spoil our authors by
injudicious praise is quite as bad as, if not worse
than, crushing, or trying to crush them by over-
severity ; in either case the goose that lays golden
eggs for a greedy public may be killed ; there is,
however, a refinement of cruelty in the modern
method of author-murder decidedly reminiscent of
the butt of Malmsey. There should be a standard
of art in the mind of every real critic by which
we can measure the stature of each applicant for
fame. The true critic is the author’s best friend.
Moderate praise, temperate adjectives, a degree of
fault-finding, and,a sympathetic appreciation for
what is attempted as well as what is accomplished,
these are the signs of the true critic. Reviewers
have two snares laid ready for their unwary feet:
they are apt either to hail some new-comer who is
not a genius as if he were one; or they entirely
fail to discern genius when they encounter it. It
is always possible, however, to compare the scope
of a new writer with that of his predecessors,
however widely separated the form in which he
finds expression may be from the models of other
days. Does he touch life at as many points as
they did? Is he as true to nature as they were ?
It is on these things and not on the perpetually
changing element of form that a writer’s claim to
greatness must eventually rest. And until the
critics realise this, that a book with small ideas
cannot be great, and that greatness must be sought
for in the constitution of a book, its essential ideas,
THE AUTHOR.
not till then will reviewing be other than it is,”
“As Compared with Excellence” is the title of
this excellent chapter on criticism and reviewing,
Pressure on space prevents further quotation from
this very interesting and thoughtfully written
“Essay in criticism”’: it is well worth a careful
perusal,
$$ —_
MAGAZINE CONTENTS.
9
THE BOOKMAN,
Cardinal Newman,
THE CONTEMPORARY.
The Nestor of Living English Poets.
By T. Churton
Collins. ;
THE CORNHILL.
How I traced Charles Lamb in Hertfordshire.
Rev. Canon Ainger.
Historical Mysteries. V. The Case of Elizabeth Canning.
By Andrew Lang.
THE FORTNIGHTLY,
A French King’s Hunting Book. By W. and F. Baillie-
Grohman.
R. D. Blackmore and His Work.
A Plea for a Reformed Theatre.
thorpe.
By the
By James Baker,
By Mrs, B. A. Cracken-
HARPER’S.
The Primitive Book. By Henry Smith Williams, LL.D.
THE INDEPENDENT REVIEW.
“ The Life of John Bunckle, Esq.” By John Fyvie.
MACMILLAN’S MAGAZINE.
The English Theatre. By G, G. Compton,
THE MONTHLY REVIEW.
Literature and History. By C. Litton Falkiner,
THE NATIONAL REVIEW.
Huxley. By Sir Michael Foster, K.C.B.
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
The State and Scientific Research. By Sir Michael
Foster, K.C.B.
Against a Subsidised Opera. By Hugh Arthur Scott,
Lord Acton’s Letters. By The Right Honble. Sir
Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff, G.S,C.I.
THe PALL MALL MAGAZINE.
The Country of George Meredith. By William Sharp,
More Avowals. By George Moore,
TEMPLE BAR.
“T Seminatori :” A Translation from D’Annunzio.
A, H, Clay.
By
THE WORLD'S WORK.
Edward Elgar: His Career and his Genius, By Rose
Newmarch.
Continental Armies in Current Fiction. By Chalmers
«Roberts,
WARNINGS TO THE PRODUCERS
OF BOOKS.
—_+—
ERE are a few standing rules to be observed in an
agreement. There are four methods of dealing
with literary property :—
I. Selling it Outright.
This is sometimes satisfactory, if a proper price can be
obtained. But the transaction sbould be managed by a
competent agent, or with the advice of the Secretary of
the Society.
Il. A Profit-Sharing Agreement (a bad form of
agreement).
In this case the following rules should be attended to:
1.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro-
duetion forms a part without the strictest investigation.
(2.) Not to give the publisher the power of putting the
profits into his own pocket by charging for advertisements
in his own organs, or by charging exchange advertise-
ments. Therefore keep control of the advertisements.
(3.) Not to allow a special charge for “ office expenses,”
unless the same allowance is made to the author.
(4.) Not to give up American, Colonial, or Continental
rights.
(5.) Not to give up serial or translation rights.
(6.) Not to bind yourself for future work to any publisher.
As well bind yourself for the future to any one solicitor or
doctor !
III. The Royalty System.
This is perhaps, with certain limitations, the best form
of agreement. It is above all things necessary to know
what the proposed royalty means to both sides. It isnow
possible for an author to ascertain approximately the
truth. From time to time very important figures connected
with:royalties are published in Zhe Author.
1V. A Commission Agreement.
The main points are :-—
(1.) Be careful to obtain a fair cost of production.
(2.) Keep control of the advertisements.
(3.) Keep control of the sale price of the book,
General.
Allother forms of agreement are combinations of the four
above mentioned.
Such combinations are generally disastrous to the author.
Never sign any agreement without competent advice from
the Secretary of the Society.
Stamp all agreements with the Inland Revenue stamp.
Avoid agreements by letter if possible.
The main points which the Society has always demanded
from the outset are :-—
(1.) That both sides shall know what an agreement
means.
(2.) The inspection of those account books which belong
to the author. Weare advised that this is a right, in the
nature of a common law right, which cannot be denied or
withheld.
(3.) Always avoid a transfer of copyright,
—___—_+—>_+—______—-
WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS.
gg
EVER sign an agreement without submitting it to the
Secrétary of the Society of Authors or some com-
petent legal authority.
2. It is well to be extremely careful in negotiating for
the production of a play with anyone except an established
manager.
THE AUTHOR.
239
3. There are three forms of dramatic contract for plays
in three or more acts :—
(a.) Sale outright of the performing right. This
is unsatisfactory. An author who enters into
such a contract should stipulate in the contract
for production of the piece by a certain date
and for proper publication of his name on the
play-bills.
(b.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to
perform on the basis of percentages on
gross receipts. Percentages vary between 5
and 15 per cent. An author should obtain a
percentage on the sliding scale of gross receipts
in preference to the American system, Should
obtain a sum inadvance of percentages. <A fixed
date on or before which the play should be
performed.
(c.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to
perform on the basis of royalties (‘.c.. fixed
nightly fees). This method should be always
avoided except in cases where the fees are
likely to be small or difficult to collect. The
other safeguards set out under heading (.) apply
also in this case.
4, Plays in one act are often sold outright, but it is
better to obtain a small nightly fee if possible, and a sum
paid in advance of such fees in any event. It is extremely
important that the amateur rights of one-act plays should
be reserved.
5. Authors should remember that performing rights can
be limited, and are usually limited, by town, country, and
time. This is most important.
6. Authors should not assign performing rights, but
should grant a licence to perform. The legal distinction is
of great importance.
7, Authors should remember that performing rights in a
play are distinct from literary copyright. A manager
holding the performing right or licence to perform cannot
print the book of the words.
8. Never forget that United States rights may be exceed-
ingly valuable. ‘They should never be included in English
agreements without the author obtaining a substantial
consideration.
9. Agreements for collaboration should be carefully
drawn and executed before collaboration is commenced.
10, An author should remember that production of a play
is highly speculative: that he runs a very great risk of
delay and a breakdown in the fulfilment of his contract.
He should therefore guard himself all the more carefully in
the beginning.
11. An author must remember that the dramatic market
is exceedingly limited, and that for a novice the first object
is to obtain adequate publication.
As these warnings must necessarily be incomplete, on
account of the wide range of the subject of dramatic con-
tracts, those authors desirous of further information
are referred to the Secretary of the Society.
OO
WARNINGS TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.
1
ITTLE can be added to the warnings given for the
assistance of producers of books and dramatic
authors. It must, however, be pointed out that, as
a rule, the musical publisher demands from the musical
composer a transfer of fuller rights and less liberal finan-
cial terms than those obtained for literary and dramatic
property, The musical composer has very often the two
rights to deal with—performing right and copyright. He
240
should be especially careful therefore when entering into
an agreement, and should take into particular consideration
the warnings stated above.
—__—_—_—_+—<>—_+____—_-
HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.
— 1
1. VIERY member has a right to ask for and to receive
advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-
lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his
business or the administration of his property. The
Secretary of the Society is a solicitor, but if there is any
special reason the Secretary will refer the case to the
Solicitors of the Society. Further, the Committee, if they
deem it desirable, will obtain counsel’s opinion. All this
without any cost to the member.
2. Remember that questions connected with copyright
and publishers’ agreements do not fall within the experi-
ence of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use
the Society.
3. Send to the Office copies of past agreements and past
accounts, with a copy of the book represented. The
Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new
or old, for inspection and note. The information thus
obtained may prove invaluable.
4. Before signing any agreement whatever, send
the document to the Society for examination,
5. Remember always that in belonging to the Society
you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you
are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are
advancing the best interests of your calling in promoting
the independence of the writer, the dramatist, the composer.
6. The Committee haye now arranged for the reception
of members’ agreements and their preservation in a fire-
proof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as
confidential documents to be read only by the Secretary,
who will keep the key of the safe. ‘I'he Society now offers :
—(1) To read and advise upon agreements and to give
advice concerning publishers, (2) To stamp agreements
in readiness for a possible action upon them, (3) To keep
agreements. (4) J'o enforce payments due according to
agreements. Fuller particulars of the Society’s work
can be obtained in the Prospectus.
7. No contract should be entered into with a literary
agent without the advice of the Secretary of the Society.
Members are strongly advised not to accept without careful
consideration the contracts with publishers submitted to
them by literary agents, and are recommended to submit
them for interpretation and explanation to the Secretary
of the Society. ~
This
The
8. Many agents neglect to stamp agreements.
must be done within fourteen days of first execution.
Secretary will undertake it on behalf of members.
9. Some agents endeayour to preyent authors from
referring matters to the Secretary of the Society; so
do some publishers. Members can make their own
deductions and act accordingly.
10. The subscription to the Society is £1 4s. per
annum, or £10 10s for life membership.
THE AUTHOR.
THE READING BRANCH.
—_ +o
EMBERS will greatly assist the Society in this
branch of its work by informing young writers
of its existence. Their MSS. can be read and
treated as a composition is treated by a coach. The term
MSS. includes not only works of fiction, but poetry
and dramatic works, and when it is possible, under
special arrangement, technical and scientific works. The
Readers are writers of competence and experience. The
fee is one guinea,
—__—~—¢
NOTICES.
ee
HE Editor of Zhe Author begs to remind members of
the Society that, although the paper is sent to them
free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a
very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great
many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest
5s. 6d. subscription for the year.
Communications for Zhe Author should be addressed to
the Offices of the Society, 39, Old Queen Street, Storey’s
Gate, S.W.. and should reach the Editor not later than
the 21st of each month.
All persons engaged in literary work of any kind,
whether members of the Society or not, are invited to
communicate to the Editor any points connected with their
work which it would be advisable in the general interest to
publish.
Ne ee aE SEED
Communications and letters are invited by the
Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on
no other subjects whatever. Every effort will be made to
return articles which cannot be accepted.
Oe
The Secretary of the Society begs to give notice
that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post,
and he requests members who do not receive an
answer to important communications within two days to
write to him without delay. All remittances should be
crossed Union Bunk of London, Chancery Lane, or be sent
by registered letter only. :
LEGAL AND GENERAL LIFE ASSURANCE
SOCIETY.
——
ENSIONS to commence at any selected age,
pP either with or without Life Assurance can
be obtained from this socieiy.
Full particulars can be obtained from the City
Branch Manager, Legal and General Life Assurance
Society, 158, Leadenhall Street, London, E.C.
AUTHORITIES.
eps
N last month’s Author we stated that the
J Masical Copyright Bill had passed the second
reading in the House of Commons, had been
referred to the Standing Committee on Law, had
been amended by the Standing Committee after
the hearing of evidence, and printed as amended.
Some time has elapsed since this took place, and
the Bill is no further advanced. We wonder
whether it will meet the fate of all modern copy-
right legislation, and be shelved to give place to
measures which have a closer influence on party
votes.
In another column we publish the Bill as
amended.
Tur following letter has been forwarded to the
Authors’ Society. We have much pleasure in
giving it prominence :—
3rd May, 1904,
* We believe that the friends of the late Sir Leslie Stephen
would wish to give some outward expression of their affec-
tion and regard for him,
It has been suggested that in the first instance an
engraving should be made of the portrait by Mr. G. F.
Watts, R.A., and that copies should be presented to the
London Library, to the Atheneum Club, to Harvard
University, to Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and to other
institutions with which Sir Leslie Stephen was closely
associated. Mr. Sidney Colvin has kindly undertaken to
superintend the execution of the work.
The proposal is warmly approved by Sir Leslie Stephen’s
family.
It would be convenient if subscriptions and communica-
tions be forwarded to Mr. Sidney Lee, 108, Lexham Gardens,
Kensington, London, W.
GEORGE MEREDITH.
JAMES BRYCE.
FREDERIC HARRISON,
HENRY JAMES.
A, C. LYALL.
JOHN MORLEY.
One of the members of the Society forwarded a
poem to the editor of a well-known weekly religious
paper. The editor as he was bound to do in cases
where no payment is made, wrote to the author
before publication, stating the fact, and was
informed in answer that the member did not desire
any remuneration.
The writer was therefore all the more astonished
to see his poem reproduced in the paper with one
verse deliberately cut out.
Considerable margin is very often given to
editors in dealing with ephemeral matters in daily
and even in weekly papers; but it is doubtful
whether in a magazine, or in the case of literary
work which, like a poem, is complete in itself,
THE AUTHOR.
241
the editor ever takes the liberty of acting in the
manner set forth above.
Yet one other instance comes to mind: Does
not Mr. Oliver Wendell Holmes state in “The
Autocrat of the Breakfast Table,” that he was
commissioned by the committee of a certain society
to write a poem for a festive gathering? He
accordingly gave full praise to wine, and the
pleasure of “ quaffing the flowing bowl,” and was
astonished to find his poem reproduced with
various alterations, owing to the fact that the
society was a temperance society. In the book,
the full poem with corrections, is printed.
Such a mistake might justify the editor or the
society in refusing the poem, but, surely, not in
making the alterations.
ONE of the daily papers has been much interested
in the number of different nouns of multitude used
in the English language, for the differentiation of
animals and men, but the writers of the paragraphs
seems to be unaware that a full list is given in one
of the earliest books on sport, entitled “The Boke
of St. Alban’s,” of which the first edition appeared
in 1486, and the last in 1881.
It is one of the most prized treasures of the
older authors.
bibliophile, containing treatises on hawking, hunt-
ing, and coat-armour, mostly compilations from
Out of the whole list we print a few examples
which may prove of interest to some of our
members.
Herde of Swannys.
Herde of Cranys.
Herde of Harlottys.
Bevy of Ladies.
Bevy of Roos (Roes).
Bevy of Quaylis.
Sege of Heronnys.
Mustre of Pecockys.
Congregation of Peple
(people).
Hoost of Men.
Fflight of Doves.
Route of Knyghtis
(Knights).
Pride of Lionys (Lions).
Sleuth of Beeris (Bears).
Litter of Wellpis
(Weips).
Kyndyll of Yong Cattis
(Kittens).
Dryft of Tame Swyne.
Harrosse of Horses.
Rago of Coltis
Rakoe \ (Colts).
Trippe of Hares.
Gagle of Geese.
Brode of Hennys (Hens).
Bedelyng of Dokis
(Ducks).
Scole of Clerks.
Doctryne of Doctoris.
Fightyng of Beggars.
Drifte of Fishers.
Rage of Maidenys
(Maidens).
Rafult of Knavys
(Knaves).
A Blush of Boys.
Covy of Partriches.
Desserte of Lapwyng.
Fatt of Woodcockis.
Congregation of Plevers.
Swarme of Bees.
Cast of Hawkis.
Flight of Goshawks.
Flight of Swallows.
Teldyno of Rookes.
Shrewdenes of Apis.
242
A Nest of Rabbettis. A Pontifacalite of Pre-
A Mute of Houndes. latis.
A Kenet of Rachis. A Dignyte of Chanonys
A Soundre of wilde (Canons).
A Discretion of Prestis.
A Rascalt of Boyes.
A Blast of hunters.
A Disworship of Scottis.
Swyne.
A Chase of Assis.
A Multiplieng of Hus-
bondis.
At the request of the Marquess-of Lansdowne,
an interesting return of the financial support
given from State or Municipal Funds to dramatic,
operatic, or musical performances in foreign
countries, has been made by the various repre-
sentatives of His Majesty in Europe, North and
South America, and Cairo.
It would appear that in nearly all countries
such assistance is given—sometimes out of the
Sovereign’s purse, as in Germany, sometimes out
of the Government Funds, and not infrequently
out of municipal funds.
Support is given in various forms—by giving
sites for theatres, by actually maintaining theatres
at municipal or Government cost, or by paying the
deficit in the annual statement of certain theatres.
The two countries that do not appear to con-
tribute in any way to operatic or dramatic perform-
ances, are the United States and Great Britain,
and the country which contributes most is
France.
Four national theatres in France occupy without
payment the buildings in which they are situated,
subject to certain not very onerous conditions, and
Parliament grants annually a subsidy fixed some
years since at the following figures :—800,000 frances
(£32,000) for the Opera ; 300,000 frances (£12,000)
for the Opera Comique ; 240,000 frances (£9,600)
for the Theatre Francais; and 100,000 francs
(£4,000) for the Odeon.
In Belgium the subsidy seems to be granted, not
merely to the performances, but also to the com-
posers of musical and dramatic works. They are
entitled to certain grants on those works which
have passed successfully a committee appointed by
the Government.
In no other country does it appear that the
subsidies are paid direct to the author or the
composer. As, however, the work is bound to be
written by a Belgian, they will not benefit the
writers of any other country.
The return has been collected in order to enable
the Government to arrive at some conclusion on
the question of the national opera or national
drama for Great Britain, and will afford very
favourable evidence for those who have been
agitating in the matter.
THE AUTHOR.
Str Henry M. Sranuey died on May 10th at
his town residence, Richmond Terrace, Whitehall,
With regret we chronicle the decease of one of
the most distinguished explorers of modern times,
In this character his first claim to fame was his
finding of Livingstone in 1874, and his last the
famous leadership of the expedition for the relief
of Emin Pasha in 1885.
His literary labours consisted mainly of the
volumes written after his great journeys, though
in his early days he had done considerable work as
a journalist in New York. He had been a member
of the Society for some years, no doubt prompted
by a sympathetic feeling for his fellow authors, as
he did not utilise the benefits of the society to any
great extent.
—_r-—
MISS ELEANOR A. ORMEROD, LL.D.*
— oe
PYNHE Life of Miss Eleanor A. Ormerod, edited
by Mr. Robert Wallace, has just been pub-
lished by Mr. John Murray.
It is the record of a life devoted to the benefit of
her fellow creatures. Mr. Wallace calls her an
“Economic Entomologist.” This is a_ highly
technical description of the talented lady. Born
of a good old Gloucestershire family, she was
devoted from her childhood to the science of
Natural History. As she grew in years she turned
her knowledge to practical use for the good of
others. She studied how she could remedy the
many ills brought by insect pests to the farmer’s
crops. Her work was carried on with untiring
unselfishness, and with the greatest modesty.
The book, which is a record of that work, is full
of interest on account of the strong personality of
the subject. The letters that Miss Ormerod wrote
for the benefit of those who suffered were very
numerous, and the subjects she dealt with brought
her into correspondence with many of the best
known scientists of the last century.
Through her life she obtained much recognition
of her untiring and useful work. She was presented
with Gold Medals from the Royal Horticultural
Society in 1900, and University of Moscow in 1872,
and Silver Medals from the Royal Horticultural
Society for Collection of Economic Entomology
in 1870, Société Nationale d’Acclimatation de
France Entomologie Appliquée in 1899, Inter-
national Health Exhibition, London in 1884,
Moscow Polytechnic Exhibition in 1872, and was
the first woman to receive the honour of LL. D. of
the University of Edinburgh.
* Eleanor Ormerod, LL.D., Economic Entomologist,
Autobiography and Correspondence, Edited by Robert
(John Murray.)
Wallace,
THE AUTHOR.
The Society of Authors, acknowledging her dis-
tinction in the work which she had made her own,
endeavoured also to show its recognition of the
value of her studies. In the year 1896, twelve
years after the foundation of the Society, it was
decided to elect ladies us members of the Council.
In order to show the wide extent of the Society’s
work in all branches of Literature, the Committee
desired to appoint some lady whose scientific
researches and literary reputation would entitle
her to this position. The lady best qualified
was Miss Eleanor Ormerod, and her qualifica-
tions were so great as to exclude all other com-
petitors. She was unanimously elected a member
swith five others—Mrs. Oliphant, Miss Charlotte
M. Yonge, Mrs. Lynn Lynton, Mrs. Humphry
Ward, and Miss Flora Shaw (Lady Lugard) the
first lady members of the Council of the Society.
—_—_______s—_<—_2__—__—_
FROM FAR WESTERN CANADA.
eee
HERE is no doubt plenty of the raw material
of literature in British Columbia. But for
the most part it is very raw, and accessible
only to the adventurous. The wildest, the most
picturesque, and the richest in natural resources of
all the provinces of the Dominion of Canada, it is
at the same time the most westerly. It fronts on
the Pacific, and, therefore, is farthest away from
such stores of literature, art, and learning as
Canada possesses. To some extent, therefore, the
conditions are disadvantageous. A belt of country
on either side of the Canadian Pacific Railway has
been written about with great assiduity, so that
the traveller now knows what to expect after he
has passed the vast expanse of the North-West
prairies and begins to approach the inaccessible
and snow-capped Rockies and Selkirks. | But
those grand and silent barriers once passed and
British Columbia entered, the explorer cannot fail
to feel that he has come to a new region. The
feeling will be accentuated, if with knapsack and
gun on shoulder, he wanders away from the main
avenue of traffic, through a land of mountains,
lakes, streams, deer, bears, Indians, mountain
goats, and scattered mining and ranching opera-
tions. As the Switzerland of the Dominion, it
has 400,000 square miles against Switzerland’s
16,000, and against the 121,000 of the United
Kingdom. Its population of less than 200,000
persons, 28,000 of whom are Indians, and 14,000
Chinese, are chiefly occupied (with the exception
of these interesting aliens and aborigines), in
pushing their fortunes in mining, agriculture,
fishing, ranching, lumbering, and politics. They
are all, so to speak, up to the neck in natural
resources the most splendid and various. The
243
waters teem with fish, the soil is astonishingly
productive, there is gold and copper in the hills,
and the timber in the forests is of appalling
magnificence. But, Tantalus-like, many of these
pioneers are unable to take advantage of the wealth
around them. The day has yet to come in British
Columbia when the necessary capital for operations
is bestowed with a wise and liberal hand. At the
present time the astute financier of the United
States is awaking to the unrivalled opportunities
of the country, and cutting out the more
elephantine Croesus of Britain. ‘The difference
between them is that the American looks after his
money and sees that it is put to good use, while
the Britisher flings abroad his gold and lets it look
after itself.
It will be readily gathered that in a country of
this kind, there is not much call for literature of
the higher kind. There is a great sale of the
ten-cent magazines of the United States. There
would be an equally good sale of English periodicals
if the postal arrangements of the United Kingdom
were not so absurdly restrictive. Something lurid
and dramatic in the way of a story is as much
appreciated here as it is in other unformed and
rudimentary communities, and the publishers of
Toronto, as well as of the United States, supply us
with a continuous succession of fresh literary
mushrooms put up in the most taking style. It
must, however, be allowed that there is a saving:
remnant of cultured people who are glad to hear:
the distant echoes of a life they once enjoyed, and
who are the pioneers of art and literature in the
midst of a life that is almost entirely devoted
to subduing the earth and the pursuit of the
dollar. The praiseworthy efforts that are being
made by the Province in the cause of primary, and.
to a small extent in secondary education, give
room for the hope that its percentage of intelligent
readers will ultimately not be less than that of
Hastern Canada. Also, the library at the really
fine Legislative Buildings at Victoria is much
more “literary” than might be expected, and there
is a Carnegie library in the city of Vancouver, con-
taining a few works on history and science, and: —
many volumes of fiction that are already redolent
of microbes from frequent perusal.
Besides, there are writers. The newspaper
Press is far better than could be expected. British.
Columbia has in E. Clive Philipps-Wolley a poet
who, in his “Songs of an English Esau,” has
shown that he possesses the divine gift in no small,
measure, and who has also written a number of
clever novels. Mrs. L. A. Le Fevre has written
a creditable little book of verse, and she appears.
also on the pages of Lord Dufferin’s very interesting
volume to the memory of his talented mother..
Mrs. Julia W. Henshaw has written several novels.
244
besides many magazine articles. Mr. R. E. Gosnell,
formerly Government Librarian and now Secretary
of the Bureau of Provincial Information, is the
author of the most important current standard
work on the position and resources of the Province,
as well as many cognate articles. He is also en-
gaged on a Life of Sir James Douglas, the first
Governor of the Province, The names of Agnes
Deans Cameron, Isabel A. R. Maclean, and
J. Gordon Smith, are on the list of those British
Columbians who are doing honourable service with
their pens ; and there may he others that a wider-
sweeping or narrower-meshed net than the present
writer is casting, might gather in.
But even the briefest survey of things literary
in British Columbia would be incomplete that did
not mention the work of Father A. G. Morice,
O.M.I., a French missionary-priest, who began his
work among the Déné Indians of the interior in
1885. In addition to making a language for the
Dénés, which he has reduced to written phonetic
signs, he has contributed many philological papers
and articles on aboriginal manners and customs to
the proceedings of scientific societies. He is now
engaged on a history of British Columbia, treating
especially of its early days under the Hudson’s
Bay régime, and the publication of this important
work may be looked for during the present year.
It is understood that it will contain much informa-
tion from original sources, and that in some of its
conclusions it will contradict the statements of
former historians. Father Morice is possibly the
only author of this continent who makes a practice
of printing his own works. This was forced upon
him in the first instance by the fact that he was
too many miles, by forest trail, from any printer’s,
to be able to avail himself of expert assistance in
making and setting up the strange shorthand-
looking type from which the Déné prayer books are
printed. He therefore had his printing outfit
“packed” out to the distant settlement and
accomplished the typography with his own hands,
Lying before me as I write is a very neatly-printed
pamphlet of 74 pages, which the worthy Father
set up and “worked off,” entirely unaided. It is
entitled “A First Collection of Minor Essays,
mostly Anthropological, by Rev. Father A. G.
Morice, O.M.I., Hon. Mem. Philological Society of
Paris, and of the Natural History Society of British
Columbia, Corresponding Mem., Canadian Insti-
tute, and the Geographical Society, Neufchatel.”
Mrs. Julia W. Henshaw, whose name I have
already mentioned, is at work on “A Book of
Mountain Flowers,” which, when it is published,
will be highly prized by those who are awake to
the beauty and paramount interest of the western
mountains from Alaska to the Sierras, Mrs.
Henshaw is an expert in photography, and she is
THE AUTHOR.
making a most comprehensive collection of photo-
graphs of the various plants im situ, which, of
course involves much intrepid climbing. There is
probably no one so well furnished for this task as
this clever journalist. She has had much expe-
rience in the mountains, and is an ardent sports-
woman and a keen observer.
Bernarp McEyoy.
———_-——_> _____.
THE BLACKMORE MEMORIAL.
a,
E regret that an account of the unveiling
of the Blackmore Memorial in Exeter
Cathedral was too late for insertion in the
May number of The Author. An event so full of
interest to members of the Society cannot pass
unchronicled.
No one could have had better qualifications for
the duty than Mr, Phillpotts. He has long been
known as a sincere writer on, and chronicler of
the beauties of Devonshire. ‘To no one, therefore,
would Mr. Blackmore’s work appeal more warmly.
John Ridd, Davy Llewellyn, the Doone Valley, and
the Bideford district must be to Mr. Phillpotts
familiar faces and familiar places, so that his address
was bound to come from the heart, and be touched
with the same spirit which fired the author of
“Lorna Doone” and “ The Maid of Sker.”
Mr. James Baker, another member of the
Society, had heen acting as Chairman of the Com-
mittee and Mr. R. B. Marston as Honorary
Secretary and Honorary Treasurer of the Fund.
The Memorial took the shape of a tablet with a
bas-relief head of the author and a stained-glass
window. The marble tablet with the portrait was
executed by Mr. Harry Hems, of Exeter, and is
a good likeness. The window portraying the
character of John Ridd was largely given by
Mr. Perey Bacon. The corrected wording of the
tablet is as follows :—
This Tablet and the window above area tribute
of admiration and affection to the
memory of
RICHARD DoDDRIDGE BLACKMORE, M.A.,
Son of the Rey. John Blackmore,
Educated at Blundell’s School, Tiverton, and
Exeter College, Oxford (Scholar).
Barrister of the Middle Temple, 1852.
Author of “Lorna Doone,” * Springhaven,”
and other works.
Born at Longworth, Berks, 7 June, 1825,
Died at Teddington, Middlesex, 20 June, 1900.
“Insight, and humour, and the rhythmic roll
Of antique lore, his fertile fancies sway'd
And with their various eloquence array’d,
His sterling English, pure and clean and whole,”
* He added Christian courtesy,and the humility
of all thoughtful minds, to a certain grand, and
glorious gift of radiating humanity.”
Crapock NOWELL.
pom val NO Sige | pod eh
THE AUTHOR.
The great nave of the Cathedral was filled with
visitors from all parts of the kingdom when Dean
Earle, Bishop of Marlborough, the Bishop of
Crediton, the Chapter and Choir passed in pro-
cession to the north-west door, where the monu-
ment is erected. Mr. Eden Philpotts here gave
his eloquent address upon Blackmore as a writer
and as a man, and then unveiled the monument
and window. The Dean, in an interesting speech,
recalled the literary memories of the Cathedral,
and eulogised the work of Blackmore. Mr. James
Baker followed, referring to the elevating power of
Blackmore’s writing, and thanked all, American
and English, who have helped forward the work of
the Committee. The special service, including the
collect written by the Dean for the occasion, was
then proceeded with, and at its conclusion the
Dean welcomed the friends of Mr. Blackmore at
the Deanery, giving an opportunity for hearing
many a reminiscence of Blackmore and his work.
—_—_——_——_—__—_+—____——_
POSTAL RATES.
——_——+—
A CANADIAN GRIEVANCE.
S in the United States, so in England, the
question of Postal Rates has been brought
prominently forward.
The Committee of the Society, the Publishers’
Association, and the Chamber of Commerce have
used their influence with but poor effect as far as
British Postal Rates are concerned. Yet the point
raised would appear to be more than a mere question
of authors’ and publishers’ rights, and of the best
way of marketing their wares. Under existing
conditions Canada is an especial sufferer. A
Canadian bookseller writes :—
“We sell American periodicals better because they are
cheaper. They cost almost the same at the offices of publi-
cation, but. the difference in postage is so great, that the
British magazine (value for value) costs the purchaser
about double the price of the American.
“ A few figures will show you how this affects our sales,
We sell about
BRITISH, AMERICAN.
45 Royal. 215 Strand (American
60 Harmsworth. edition).
55 Windsor. 125 Pearson’s (American
15 Young Ladies’ Journal, edition).
8 Pall Mall. 180 Munsey.
2 Studio. 60 McClures’,
2 Connoisseur. 165 Ladies’ Home
9 Chambers’ Journal, Magazine.
15 Century.
15 Harper’s Monthly.
14 Scribner’s.
67 Smart Set.
“ We have a long list of subscriptions for English periodi-
cals, but we sell few of any one.
“That Canadians would gladly buy British periodicals,
if not too expensive, is shown by the number of Zhe
245
Strand and Pearson's we sell. These cost us 74 cents
in New York, and are mailed to us at 1 cent per lb.
(this we pay), while if we bought the English editions we
should pay about 9 cents in London and 8 cents a lb.
postage. Should the American edition of Zhe Strand be
withdrawn, and we be compelled to buy the English
edition, our sales would soon drop down to forty or fifty
copies per month.
“I have taken these two magazines as typical : the same
can be said of every popular English periodical published.
Can you not see how very important this question of
postage is? How the authorities at home are compelling
the Canadian public to buy American publications, publi-
cations that are often openly anti-British? Can you not
see that this system hits every writer of English fiction,
by closing a large part of his market, and by preventing
his name becoming familiar with a book-buying com-
munity? Can you not see, too, how we are teaching the
rising Canadian generation American methods and ideas,
by forcing such publications upon them? In Eastern
Canada it has been suggested that a change be made in
the tariff laws, and in-coming magazines be made duti-
able. This would not meet the case at all, as the duty
would be a tax upon British as well as American publica-
tions. It would only compel the American publishers to
sell by direct subscription through agents (duty cannot be
levied upon single copies). The periodical business would
thus be taken out of the booksellers’ hands, and the situa-
tion would not be relieved one iota.
“No, the only cure is a cut in the English postal rate. If
the United States can afford to mail such matter from New
Orleans to Alaska for 1 cent. a lb., surely the British
Government can afford to charge less than 8 cents. per Ib.
for mailing the same matter between London and Montreal.
But it is not only the Canadian trade that suffers.
The Canadian is patriotic and Imperialistic. He
is proud of being a member of the Empire, and he
desires that his children should be nurtured with
British ideas. He feels more than hurt, therefore,
that, owing to a difficulty which might be easily
remedied, the United States literature is gaining
a large circulation in the Dominion and spreading
views which he considers to be unhealthy and
unsound.
That the feeling is strong may be gathered from
the contents of an article written by Mr. J. A.
Cooper, editor of “The Canadian Magazine,” ”
which appeared in The Toronto News. In it he
states as follows :—
“At present news-dealers’ counters are loaded with
United States publications. The newsboys throughout
the country peddle the cheapest of United States journals,
The boys and girls of Canada are fed upon literature which
is anti-Canadian and often immoral. On almost every
Canadian table the flamboyant, sensational journals of
the United States are given the place of prominence.
British publications reach only the newspaper offices and
a few of the large public libraries. Canadian publications,
other than newspapers, are given slight consideration,
though a few are making a plucky fight against national
indifference.
“Tf this country is to remain British in sentiment and
material interests, there must be a greater familiarity with
British literature and political discussions. If trade between
Canada and Great Britain is to grow, there must be a mutual
exchange of newspapers and class journals, At present
Canada studies only United States politics, industrial
methods, and advertisements.’’
246
Commenting on the large circulation of United
States periodicals, Mr Cooper states as follows :—
“The answer must be divided into two parts: First,
as to British publications ; second, as to Canadian. British
magazines and weeklies are crowded out of their market
partly because the British publisher has made little attempt
to keep them thereand partly because of official indifference.
The British publisher once had a fairly good trade in
Canada, but he bartered his inheritance for a mess of
pottage. For example, the “Strand’’ and “ Pearson’s ”’
sold here are not English editions. The sharp Yankee did
not want English advertisements to circulate in the United
States or Canada; therefore he bought the right to sell
these two magazines in America. He gets out an imitation
of the English publication of the same name, fills it with
United States articles and United States advertisements,
and it is these editions that Canada buys. Examine any
copy of each of these publications and you will see that
this is true. Trade follows the advertisement nowadays,
not the flag ; therefore the wily United States manufacturer
looks after the advertising pages of what his countrymen
read, and of what Canadians read.
“ Attempts have been made to induce the British Govern-
ment to allow monthly magazines and monthly class papers
to be mailed from Great Britain to Canada at one cent per
pound, instead of eight cents, in order to meet United
States competition ; but the British Postmasters-General
cannot see any necessity fora change. They see no reason
why English periodicals should sell in Canada—why British
literature would be good for British connection—why
British advertisements would be good for British trade.
They may see it some day, but tkey refuse to see it now.
They are as blind to their best interests on this continent
as they were in the days of the American Revolution.
When Austen Chamberlain was Postmaster-General, he was
waited on by a large deputation from British Chambers
of Commerce and certain publishing interests, but he was
unconvinced. The matter has been discussed several times
in the British House of Commons, but the appeal fell on
deaf ears.”
Mr. Cooper dwells many hundreds of miles from
the writer of the printed letter, and a longer
distance from Mr. McEvoy, of British Columbia,
who kindly contributes an article from far Western
Canada. Yet the last named makes a similar
complaint against postal rates and United States
literature.
If the United States are working for postal reform
merely with a business end in view,—to get better
sales and a large circulation, surely the British
Author and the British Publisher should make
some greater effort, when in addition to the
stimulus of business they have also the Imperial
ideal. Imperial Penny Postage was, no doubt, a
great bond of union, and worked with great power
for the extension of ideas between the dwellers
in the Empire, but the printed book, Empire-
circulated, would have still greater influence.
Imperial copyright is one great factor; this
already exists. It is to be hoped that at no
distant date the author may be able to distribute
his property throughout the Empire with the same
ease with which he now controls it,
1s: 1,
1
THE AUTHOR.
A CAPE LETTER,
—— +
ONTRARY to expectations, the Artistic
Copyright Bill described in my last letter
failed to pass into law, owing to the abrupt
termination of the Parliamentary session and dis-
solution of the Houses which followed the Minis-
terial crisis of last year. The new Attorney-General
has expressed his entire sympathy with the measure,
and has promised to introduce it at the earliest
possible date ; but, with the session half over
and an Opposition policy of stubborn obstruction
impeding business, there appears little hope of a dis-
cussion of the Bill before the next prorogation takes
place. In the new Parliament, of course, the pro-
gress made last year counts for nothing ; were it
otherwise, little time would be required to end the
Bill’s vicissitudes.
Musical piracy, so often referred to in The
Author, seldom finds an exponent in this Colony ;
but a person named Simmonds, residing in Cape
Town, has lately been the object of legal atten-
tions by the Musical Copyright Company, Messrs.
Chappell & Co., Ltd., and Messrs. Boosey & Co.,
in regard to unauthorised editions of various songs.
In the case of the first-named plaintiff the Supreme
Court has ordered an account to be kept, and in
that of the third-named it has granted an interdict
and the surrender of the copies, in both cases pend-
ing an action; whilst the Resident Magistrate’s
Court has awarded Messrs. Chappell damages to
the extent of £20, the limit of jurisdiction.
As a result of a certain transaction in dramatic
rights, a shameful attempt at money-wringing has
come before the Supreme Court. A Cape Town
merchant named Koenig sued the proprietress of
the now dissolved theatrical company known as
Hall’s Australian Juveniles for a sum of £1,260
(plus interest), representing performing fees on
certain musical plays. From the evidence it
appeared that plaintiff, who had a diverse con-
nection with the Company, was engaged by its
proprietors to secure certain rights; the assign-
ment of these rights he quite unjustifiably obtained
in his own name, on the strength of which fact he
now claimed the rights as his own property. The
Court unhesitatingly dismissed the plea, save as
regarded an amount whiclr had been tendered by
defendant, to cover royalties for which plaintiff
was liable under the assignments. This amount,
with costs to date of plea, was-awarded to plaintiff,
by whom, however, the remaining costs were
ordered to be paid. The sum claimed, which was
reckoned on a basis of £15 15s. per night, was
in itself preposterous; reliable evidence being
adduced to show that the ordinary charge for the
right of playing these musical pieces in South
THE AUTHOR.
African towns ranged from £1 to £3, or in
exceptional cases £5, per night.
From judicial decisions we may turn to judicial
authorship. Two volumes of “ The Institutes of
Cape Law,” by the Hon. A. F. S. Maasdorp, B.A.,
Chief Justice of the Orange River Colony, have
been published by Messrs. J. C. Juta & Co., Cape
Town, and a third is to follow. Asub-title describes
the work as “a Compendium of Common Law,
Decided Cases, and Statute Law of the Colony of
the Cape of Good Hope,” and Books I. and II.
respectively deal with “The Law of Persons” and
“The Law of Things”; whilst the remaining
volume will have for its subject “The Law of
Obligations.” In his preface, the author disclaims
all pretence to original research, the work being
simply a welding together of earlier text-books,
with the latter’s. contradictions and archaicisms
harmonised and brought up to date. Each volume
is prefixed by a long table of cases cited, and the
foot of every page is well weighted with references
to authorities.
In “ On Circuit in Kafirland, and Other Sketches
and Studies” (London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd. ;
Cape Town: J. C. Juta & Co.), the Hon. Perceval
M. Laurence, LL.D.. has collected a number of
papers which have previously appeared in the South
African Law Journal and elsewhere. “They are
rather a mixed lot,” says the author, “representing
some of the recreations, legal and literary, of a
colonial judge.” Two of the papers deal with cireuit
reminiscences, four with legal matters ; three are
biographical sketches ;_ whilst the volume closes
with a short story translated from the French, and
an address on Dr. Johnson. Apologising for the
last-named item, the genial judge gives notice that
“well-informed people are respectfully warned off!”
The subjects of the biographical papers are respec-
tively Cecil Rhodes, Lord Russell of Killowen, and
Sir Frank Lockwood.
A number of books treating of South African
affairs from the inside have been issued from
British houses during the last few months. One
of the most notable of these is “The Essential
Kafir,” by Dudley Kidd (London: A. & C. Black),
which professes to be a composite portrait of the
South African native, without distinction of tribes.
The word “ Kafir” is used in a very wide sense,
embracing many tribes, the “ essential ” likeness
underlying whose variations Mr. Kidd has en-
deavoured to depict. The book is “intended to
serve as a warm-blooded character-sketch of the
South African natives, in which everything that
is of broad human interest takes precedence of
departmental aspects of the subject.” A hundred
exceptionally fine full-page photogravures grace
the volume.
‘A more modest work on an allied subject is “The
247
Native Problem in South Africa,” by Alex. Davis,
appended to which is “A Review of the Problem in
West and West Central Africa,” by W. R. Stewart
(London: Chapman & Hall, Ltd.). This contains
chapters on “ Native Character and Customs” and
on the “Influence of Exeter Hall,” several others
being grouped under the general heading of “ Mines
and Labour.” “It is an endeavowr to enlighten
the British public on the question, and place before
the authorities in power sufficient connected data
to enable them to understand the real position in
Africa.”
Under the somewhat vague title of “ The African
Colony : Studies in the Reconstruction” (London :
Wm. Blackwood & Sons), Mr. John Buchan, for-
merly private secretary to Lord Milner, has pro-
duced a volume designed to supply the inquiring
Uitlander with some fuller information concerning
South Africa than that derivable from statistics.
He has divided his subject into three parts,
historical, geographical, and political ; and an index
and a map are provided.
“ Happy Days and Happy Work in Basutoland,”
by the Deaconess 8. B. Burton (London: 8.P.C.K.),
is a chatty little volume devoted to missionary life
among the Basutos. here are a preface by the
Right Rev. Bishop Webb, Dean of Salisbury, and
several illustrations. Another minor publication,
also illustrated, is an anonymous ‘‘ Memoir of the
Life and Work of Rev. John Brebner, M.A., LL.D.,
late Superintendent of Education in the Orange
River Colony” (Edinburgh: Lorimer & Chalmers).
“Old Cape Colony,” by Mrs. A. F. Trotter
(London: A. Constable & Go.), is “a chronicle of
the Colony’s men and houses from 1652 to 1806.”
Some of the material for this book appeared in a
Christmas number of the Cape Times, entitled “ Old
Cape Homesteads,” some five years ago. Mrs.
Trotter brings to her task a keen enthusiasm.
The volume contains reproductions of a number of
her own drawings, and is affectionately dedicated
to her “ unpunctured bicycle.”
“Natal: An Illustrated Official Railway Guide
and Handbook of General Information,” compiled
and edited by ©. W. Francis Harrison (London :
Payne Jennings), is a substantial volume, con-
taining a large fund of detailed information, and
provided with a profusion of good photogravures,
and with plans and maps.
From a Hamburg house (Cape Town: J. C.
Juta & Co.) comes “The Native or Transkeian
Territories, or Kaffraria Proper,” a handbook of
the history, resources, and productions of that
portion of Cape Colony, compiled by Caesar C.
Henkel, who is also responsible for the excellent
photographs with which it is illustrated. A large
map accompanies the book.
‘A series of artistic souvenirs, under the general
248
title of “ Brydone’s Tourist Handbooks,” has been
published in Cape Town, the booklets issued de-
scribing ‘ Groote Schuur,” “Cape Town,” “ A Trip
round the Kloof,” and ‘Table Mountain.” Among
other small local publications are “Glimpses in
Rhyme,” by A. Cunningham-Fairlie, a collection
of miscellaneous verse; ‘ Looking Forward,’
repnted to be.the work of a spirit signing itself
“ Aziel ”—a sort of South African “ Julia ”—-who,
in a series of letters to Earth, communicates a
Dantesque description of the world beyond ; “ The
Mountain Club Annual,” an illustrated record of
Cape mountaineering.
Two works by residents in this Colony, but
otherwise unconnected with the country, are
‘‘ Shakespeare’s Books,” by H. R. D. Anders, B.A.
and “ The Bible from the Standpoint of the Higher
Criticism of the Old Testament,” by Rev. R.
Balmforth (London : Swan Sonnenschein & Co.).
Not the least important fruits of colonial author-
- ship are the volumes of “ Transactions of the South
African Philosophical Society,” a number of which
have appeared during recent months ; whilst the
South African Association for the Advancement of
Science has initiated a similar series with its first
annual report, just published. ‘he latter body
has, within the last few weeks, concluded its second
annual session, the proceedings at which will pro-
vide matter for its next volume.
New magazines have been less frequent of late.
Of those issued, three deal with commercial and
trade matters, viz., Zhe African Insurance, Bank-
ing, andCommercial Gazette, edited by R. R. Brydone;
The Colonist, edited by E. Verne Richardson; and
Lhe South African Clay Worker and Builder. The
Examiner, whose brief existence was recorded in a
previous letter, has been succeeded by The New
Era, a weekly review published in Cape Town,
and edited, like its predecessor, by Chas. H.
Crane.
In the course of his last annual report to Parlia-
ment, Dr. G. M. Theal, the colonial historiographer,
bitterly complains of the treatment received by his
“ History cf South Africa.” Unable, in any case,
to repay the great cost of production, the volumes
are undersold by others whose contents have been
extracted from them. Dr. Theal has now accepted
a proposition, made by his publishers, to issue a
new edition of the work at so low a price that the
buccaneers will find reproduction unremunerative.
This edition will contain additional matter, and
will occupy seven volumes, as against the six of
the previous edition.
The Keeper of the Archives, Rev. H. C. V.
Leibbrandt, though he has been busy at various
sections of his work, has, owing to the late disso-
lution of Parliament, not yet been able to publish
any of the matter which is ready for press.
THE AUTHOR
There died at Johannesburg a short time ago
Dr. M. J. Farrelly, author, among other works, of
“The Settlement after the War,” an authority on
international and constitutional law, and adviser
on these subjects to the Government of the late
South African Republic.
Another writer has passed away in the person of
Mr. J. D, Ensor, Serjeant-at-Arms to the House of
Assembly. Before coming to this country about
twenty-three years ago, Mr. Ensor had been for
some fifteen years on the staff of the Daily Tele-
graph, for which he acted as war colrespondent in
Mexico. He was also intimately connected with the
Boy’s Own Paper, and for a time acted as amanu-
ensis to W. H, G. Kingston. He came out here
for the benefit of his wife’s health, relinquishing
journalism for a Civil Service appointment.
Literary work, however, continued to claim some
of his time, and a couple of volumes of “Kafir
Stories” are recorded to his credit.
Sypnky YorKeE Forp.
Cape Town, April 27th, 1904.
———_—_——_+—@— —___
INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT.
—1~>— +
“ ECUEIL des Conventions et Traités con-
cernant la Propriété Littéraire et Artisti-
que publiés en Francais et dans les
langues des pays contractants avec une introduc-
tion et des notices par le Bureau de l'Union
Internationale pour la Protection des C&uvres
Littéraires et Artistiques.” Berne, 1904. 8vo.
Pp. xxxli. 876,
The benefits conferred upon authors by the
labours of the Berne Bureau of the International
Union for the Protection of Literary and Artistic
Property are so justly and universally appreciated
by the whole literary profession, and the value of
the works that have from time to time been
published under the auspices of the Bureau is so
generally realised by all students of international
copyright (and not less by those who approach its
problems from the ethical and philosophical stand-
point than by those who concern themselves with
the legal aspect alone) that the last publication put
forth by the Bureau in a handsome volume of more
than nine hundred pages might well stand suffi-
ciently recommended by the prestige of its prede-
cessors. But it may be asserted without hesitation,
and without the least fear of preparing a disappoint-
ment for any one, that the collection of legal
documents and of notes and observations accom-
panying them which has been recently produced
under the title above quoted exceeds in value and
interest all previous publications that have emanated
THE AUTHOR.
from the same source. As a manual of inter-
national copyright law it is both fuller and brought
more nearly up to date than any other with which
we are acquainted, and at the same time presents
an important feature possessed by no other work
of the same scope in the presentation of all the
leval texts in their original languages” ; whilst
the comments and notices interspersed among the
legal texts represent an invaluable history of the
appreciation, the present position, and the future
prospects of copyright in the various countries,
which is not only unique but must be also of the
highest interest to all intellectual readers.
Some work of this kind which should show
the whole of the present situation of international
copyright in a single view has long been a desidera-
tum. So long ago as 1891 M. Jules Lermina, the
Secretary of the International Literary Associa-
tion, declared that it was desirable to have exact
reports of the views held regarding international
copyright by the various countries. The sub-
stance of what these several reports would have
contained is here collected and presented to the
lawyer and student in a single volume ; and the
compilers are undoubtedly justified in remarking
in the “ advertisement ” which they have placed at
the opening of their work that “collections of this
kind are a direct assistance to the propagation of
equitable ideas, to the formulation of lucid legisla-
tion, and to the preparation of means for a con-
stantly more and more complete unification of
measures for mutual protection.” The lessons
suggested by a perusal of the volume are indeed
innumerable, and not the least striking of them is
the occasion which the facts here recorded present
for some painful reflections upon the want of pro-
portion between the boasted intellectual advance-
ment of certain countries and the evidence their
legislatures give of the national appreciation of
intellectual rights; whilst it is impossible not to
be struck by the self-restraint and sanity of the
remarks which deal with the lines upon which it is
alone possible to hope for some advance towards a
greater consistency of profession and practice.
The compilers must be particularly congratulated
both upon the skill with which they have in this
work managed to group and present the ency-
clopaedic mass of matter with which they were
called upon to deal, and upon their success in
having made a volume of an engaging character
out of materials that might have been perusable
only by specialists and statisticians.
The book is primarily divided into two parts.
Of these the former is wholly in French (the
* Japan forms a solitary exception; the difficulties of
presenting the language in Roman characters having
limited the production of the Japanese treaties to a French
translation,
249
official language of the International Bureau), and
consists of two sections ; 1. International Unions,
that of Berne, (1886, 1896), that of Montevideo
(1887), and that of the Hague (1896) ; 2. Par-
ticular Conventions between several pairs of States.
In this section short *t Notices ” relate the history of
copyright in the several states, and also sketch the
present literary situation. Here are to be found,
in alphabetical order, not those countries alone
which have entered into agreements of international
copyright, but all whose literatures have any claim
to consideration. The latter part of the book
presents first five authorised translations of the
text of the Berne Convention, German, English,
Spanish, Italian, and Norse, in this order; and
then similar translations of the Convention of
Montevideo. Its second section consists of the
Particular Conventions in the original languages
from which the French translations in the first
part of the book are made. An appendix, similarly
divided into a French and a polyglot section, con-
tains additions bringing the work up to date, and
the Danish version of the Berne Convention, received
whilst the work was in the press. The whole is
preceded by an introduction which sketches the
history of International copyright from its earliest
origins, gives an account of the existing Inter-
national Literary Unions, and describes the develop-
ments that have, since its foundation, taken place
in the Berne Union.
Whilst the legal documents, and especially the
polyglot originals (calculated to arrest the atten-
tion of the linguist even if he has neither legal nor
copyright sympathies), must figure as the most
substantially important portion of the work, much
that is of superlative interest is included in the
interspersed “ Notices” which trace the copyright
and literary history of all states that can rightly
make any claim to be considered. These little
résumés Which, as well as the introduction, are from
the pen of M. Ernest Roetlisberger, the Secretary
of the Bureau, are particularly admirable. In a
few lines they sketch lucidly the history of copy-
right in the various countries, the views at present
held in each instance respecting it, and give an
appreciation of the present literary situation from
which more may be rapidly learned than could be
gathered with much iabour from any ordinary
works of reference. To any one interested in
foreign literature these felicitous little “ Notices”
may be recommended as mines of information that
alone furnish more than sufficient reason for a high
recommendation of the book.
M. Roetlisberger’s summaries and annotations
everywhere abound with plums of engaging details.
Thus we learn that a reproduction in an engraving
of Rubens’ “ Descent from the Cross,” was an early
object of a triple privilege in France, Belgium, and
250
Holland, “cum privilegiis regis christianissimi,
principuum Belgarum, et ordinum Balaviae” A
decree of Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla of the
22nd of December, 1840 (whilst Italy was still
divided into a number of States), furnishes an
example of protection of foreign works, harmonising
with an unique feature of the present Italian copy-
tight law. ‘ Foreign works are national property,
saving dispositions to the contrary in political
conventions.” In the “ Notice” on Denmark, a
remark on piratical translation, made by Professor
Torp at the congress of Dresden, in 1895, is quoted,
which supports the view, more than once insisted
on in the pages of The Author, and frequently
enforced in the present volume, that piratical and
unauthorised translations are deleterious to national
literary progress.
“Freedom of translation has an effect the
opposite of the normal and beneficial tendencies
that aim at giving the intellectual cultivation of
a people a truly national character. The great
bulk of books read by the masses who are without
intellectual training is composed for the most part
of translations of dubious value, which cannot
possibly assist to the shaping of a real national
spirit of a healthy and elevated type.”
These are but specimens gathered at hazard of
the sort of interesting observations with which the
work abounds. Uninviting as its title may appear
to some readers, it is scarcely possible to imagine
the man of letters who will not find pleasure in
perusing its pages. In the hands of the student
of international law it will be found to be indis-
pensable ; hardly less so to the student of the
comparative development of foreign literatures,
and in point of fact immensely interesting to
anyone who sympathises with the intellectual
progress of humanity.
———_—_—_+—@— ______
THE BEGINNING A LITERARY CAREER
IN ENGLAND.
—_1-~ +
From THE PerRsonaL STANDPOINT OF A COLONIAL.
MAY at once say that there are two main
points that have to be borne in mind by a
Colonial or American coming to England if
he would avoid disappointment.
The first is that the English people, owing to
their historical antecedents and the feudal con-
stitution of their society, have no admiration for
intellect as such, nor are they disposed to yield
any special deference or consideration to its
possessors. The questions they inwardly ask of
every man they meet are:—First, is he a
“gentleman” in the technical sense of the term,
THE AUTHOR.
by birth, profession, or breeding ? Secondly, is he
a man of personal honour and integrity? If he
be both, he may pass anywhere, and will be treated
with respect in any society ; but if he have the
latter qualifications without the former, if he be a
working man for example, or retail shopkeeper, or
engaged in any occupation forbidden to the class
of “gentleman,” neither intellect nor character will
avail. He will not count, he will have no personal
influence, and, except for political purposes, no one
will be interested either in himself or his opinions,
The aristocracy scarcely read at all, much less
read solid works, and have, in consequence, little
interest in the writers of books; and the other
classes have accepted their estimate. Intellect is
regarded by the people rather as a commodity than
as a personal attribute, a thing to be bought in the
market as it is required, like a pair of shoes,
without more ado; and it has, in consequence,
little more differential interest in itself than the
corn or wine or cloth with which a merchant deals,
and out of which he makes his income.
In all the other great nations of the world a large
amount of admiration, personal deference and
consideration are accorded to men of intellect as
such. It isnot so in England, and hence it is that
of all men a cultivated Englishman is least under-
stood by the cultivated men of other nations ; and
until his sterling qualities of character have had
time to disclose themselves, is perhaps the least
liked, I shall never forget my amazement when I
first came to England on being asked by a cultivated
and charming lady, with whom I was dining, as to
what interesting sights or persons I had seen. On
my answering that I had been to hear Spurgeon
and Morley Punshon and Dr. Parker, she coldly
replied, “Oh ! we don’t think much of them,” the
“we” meaning the class of ladies and gentlemen to
which she belonged, and who alone count either
personally or in matters of opinion. And what she
said I found to be largely true. The reason was,
that, in spite of the world-wide reputation of those
men, and the vast congregations to whom they
ministered, there were not, perhaps, in any of these
congregations, especially that of Spurgeon, more
than half-a-dozen families belonging to the recog-
nised class of “ladies and gentlemen.” It was as
if in America a man should imagine that he could
get personal admiration or consideration by having
the reputation of being the preacher who could
draw the largest congregation of negroes !
The second point to be borne in mind seems a
paradox after what I have just said, but is never-
theless true. It is that, in spite of this want of
interest in intellectual things, nowhere else perhaps
in the world will be fonnd a greater number of
competent and accomplished critics of every side of
life or thought ; and this is owing to the immense
a
id
7
a
THE AUTHOR.
complexity and variety of the intellectual material
of all kinds that proczeds from London as from a
workshop, to supply the rest of the English-
speaking world ; the quality of the demand every-
where calling forth the appropriate talent to
meet it.
How, then, is this to affect the decision of the
young Colonial ambitious of making a literary
reputation in the Mother Country? In answer, I
should say that if his aim is to bea novelist, a poet,
a dramatist, or a humourist, he may come over at
once, for he will be in no way handicapped by the
jand of his birth, The recognised critics know
their business thoroughly, and will be sure to do
him full justice. And even if they did not, as all
classes read novels, the number of cultured and
competent readers and of experienced play-goers
is so large that his merits will be at once recognized.
Gilbert Parker had no difficulty in getting a
hearing as a novelist, or Haddon Chambers, the
Australian, as a dramatist. But if he is a writer
on serious subjects, on the other hand, he must be
prepared for a considerable amount of preliminary
disappointment. The way it operates is somewhat
in this wise ; When the leading monthly magazines
took to signed articles, editors were no longer
required, as formerly, to have sound general know-
ledgeofthe subjects discussed, but, like stockholders,
only of the market value of the names of the men
who discussed them. And, as the readers, as I
have said, have but a languid interest at best,
either in writers on serious subjects as such, or
in their writings, and when condemned to read
them, require them to be of recognised brand, the
Colonial coming over here is likely to be trebly
handicapped, by the indifference of the public
to intellectual men and things as such, by their
aversion to seeing unknown names discuss them,
and by the want on the part of the editors (with
one or two notable exceptions) of a sufficient
knowledge of the subjects discussed, to be able to
appraise at their true valueindications of exceptional
originality, penetration or power.
And even if he get some eminent man to interest
himself in his work, it will avail him nothing with
an editor, unless the said eminent personage will
refer to it publicly, and so prick the public
curiosity. But this again men of eminence are
usually as chary of doing for budding authors who
have still their spurs to win, as the editors are of
accepting their work.
Then again, if tired of having your magazine
articles returned to you, you venture to publish in
book form, other but equal difficulties will con-
front you. The publisher will pass your MS. on to
his reader for his verdict ; and the fact that you
hail from a colony will go seriously against you,
whereas did you but come from Germany, for
251
example, it would be in your favour. The result
is that you must publish at your own expense.
But even after you have published at your own
expense your troubles will only have changed their
shape. Your difficulty now will be with the Press.
When the publishers send a press copy of a book
which they have published at the author’s expense,
they mark on it “from the author,” not “ from
the publisher.” And as the leading critical journals
are practically obliged to review the books brought
out by the publishers who advertise in their
columns, the moment the editors see a book in-
scribed “from the author,” they are relieved from
this obligation ; and as their space is limited, and
the pressure on it is great, it is very questionable
whether you will get a review at all, good, bad, or
indifferent. And the moral of it is that most, if
not all, of the advantages of having the name of a
good publisher on your books will be quite thrown
away if the press copies are sent out as “from the
author” and not “ from the publisher.”
Once your book is in the hands of the reviewer
it will get fair play, and your preliminary troubles
will be over; for there are no men more fair or
manly than Englishmen, or greater lovers of
justice.
J, BEATTIE CROZIER,
—_—_—_—_—_——_e—<>—_+___—__
CORRESPONDENCE.
—
Book DIsTRIBUTION.
Er
Srr,—In the April Author “A Protestant” puts
the query “ Why do not booksellers write straight to
publishers?” etc. The nearest com mercial traveller
or the nearest grocer can tell him why—and the
reason is that the country bookseller is a sober,
respectable, retail tradesman, just like his neigh-
pour the grocer or the draper. I, too, ordered a
certain book, the second work of its author. The
bookseller sent off for it, and a week later trium-
phantly handed me the first work of that author,
with the information from—one of the firms men-
tioned by “A Protestant ’”’—that this was the only
work of that author. I delivered myself of the
remarks, expletives and observations natural to the
occasion, and was answered that the firm in ques-
tion was “ the largest house in London,” “ known
all over the world,” &c., and so I stilted off and
left it at that.
Afterwards it occurred to me (triumphantly !)
that there is a reason for everything. I considered
that the bookseller is a shopkeeper, and a shop-
keeper is remarkably like the ruck of human beings
—at least to look at. Now a few conversations
252
with shopkeepers of the grocer variety showed me
that a retail tradesman must of necessity deal with
a distributing middleman. It is baldly impossible
for him to deal direct with the manufacturer or
importer of every article he sells. The nearest
cominercial traveller will tell you that, as a rule,
every shopkeeper is in debt to the wholesale house
from which he gets his goods. That is to say, he
is the slave of a running account, and is farther or
less far behind with his payments according as
times are good with him or not. This running
account is very handy for him and keeps him
going at an easy level, instead of leaving him to
the violent ups and downs which would need such
a large capital sum to weather if he paid cash on
the nail while his own customers paid cash when
they couldn’t help it. But it keeps him tied to
the wholesale house, more or less, and so makes
the wholesale house saucy, also more or less, as
the tradesman finds when he sends for anything
which that house does not, for any reason in the
world, supply.
Now the running account is just as handy in
“these hard times ”—which began with trade and
will end with it, being the atmosphere of trade—
to the country bookseller as to the country draper.
We flare up in Zhe Author with pages of print on
the status and failings of the bookseller, but the
bookseller, being just human and just a retail
tradesman, continues in the same old groove that
trade has rutted out for him. The fault is with
us, in ranking our business as suppliers of a
marketable commodity so high, that we fancy that
all who have to do with it should “carry on” as
totally oblivious of mere business details as the
presbyters and deacons of any other high mystery
and religion you like.
The one direction in which relief—for this par-
ticular complaint—is to be looked for is in the estab-
lishment of the “two new enterprising libraries,”
if that means “two new middlemen.” The
establishment of half-a-dozen new ones might do
the trick. The natural pressure of competition
would abate the sauciness of the present middle-
men monopolists. Tor if the “ Almightly Middle-
man” disappeared from the book trade to-morrow
the country bookseller would disappear with him,
unless the publishers at once combined to establish
a clearing house or distributing centre which could
be to the bookseller just what the “ Almighty
Middleman” had been—a keeper of running
accounts; a giver of credit to ordinary everyday
shopkeepers,
Will the publishers ever establish such a clearing
house and credit-giving centre? Not much. “It
would be too much trouble.” “The game wouldn’t
pay for the candle.” The game in fact is not too
bad for the publisher as it stands now—is not the
THE AUTHOR.
very existence of the Incorporated Society of
Authors emphatic testimony to that? The onl
help to be looked for then, is in the establishment
of still more middlemen—tons of ’em. Authors
who have made such huge profits (vie published
figures) out of their work might cast an eye this
way and, upon dying, instead of endowing a college
ora cat, direct the establishment of another middle-
man business as wholesale bookseller. So shall we
hear less upon this point, either from fellow authors.
or from our own lips, which explode so fierily upon
occasion against that respectable clerk of the
mysteries, the country bookseller, dash him !
I remain, yours, ete.,
ANOTHER PROTESTER.
—1+—
II.
Sirn,— Would your columns allow of m y suggest-
ing to “A Protestant” that he should make the
experiment of ordering the books he wants from
the nearest tobacconist-newsagent. I have found
this enterprising individual more obliging and a
great deal more capable than the local bookseller,
and pleased to increase his business by attending
to orders which the bookseller appears to consider:
beneath his dignity.
Yours truly,
A CaTHOLIC,
a
Exeter ENGLISH.
Srr,—Evidence is rapidly accumulating of pre-
cedents by high and learned authorities proving
the inscription on the R. D. Blackmore monument
to be correct. “ This tablet with the window above:
are a tribute.” If the inscription offends against
a supposed grammatical rule, yet it offends in the-
company of some of our greatest writers. A
professor of English literature sends me the
following quotations, and earnestly hopes that the
Committee will not have the inscription altered.
Stubbs, III. 106. Line3:
“On the 8th of March, the King, with Bedford,
Beaufort and the Council were at Canterbury.’’
* Julius Caesar.” Act. 4, Scene III. :
“Impatient of my absence,
And grief that young Octavius with Mark Antony
Have made themselves so strong.’’
Fielding. ‘Tom Jones.” Chap. IIL. :
“ Your poor gamekeeper with all his large family have:
been perishing.”’
Alison. “ History of Europe "’:
* The Duchy of Pomerania with the island of Rugen
were added by Sweden to the Danish Crown.’’
Your obedient servant,
JAMES BAKER.
Shakespeare.
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Che Huthbor.
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)
FOUNDED BY SIR WALTER BESANT.
Vou. XIV.—No. 8.
May Ist, 1904.
[Prick SIXPENCE.
TELEPHONE NUMBER :
374 VICTORIA.
TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS :
AUTORIDAD, LONDON.
_—________¢ ~<—e —___—_-
NOTICES.
—+—<> +
OR the opinions expressed in papers that are
signed or initialled the authors alone are
responsible. None of the papers or para-
graphs must be taken as expressing the opinion
of the Committee unless such is especially stated
to be the case.
Tue Editor begs to inform members of the
Authors’ Society and other readers of The Author
that the cases which are from time to time quoted
in The Author are cases that have come before the
notice or to the knowledge of the Secretary of the
Society, and that those members of the Society
who desire to have the names of the publishers
concerned can obtain them on application.
_
List of Members.
Tue List of Members of the Society of Authors
published October, 1902, at the price of 6d., and
the elections from October, 1902, to July, 1903, as
a supplemental list, at the price of 2d., can now be
obtained at the offices of the Society.
They will be sold to members or associates of
the Society only.
—_+—+——
The Pension Fund of the Society.
Tx Trustees of the Pension Fund met at the
Society’s Offices on the 19th of February, and
having gone carefully into the accounts of the
fund, decided to purchase £250 London and North
Western 3 % Debenture Stock. Accordingly, the
investments of the Pension Fund at present
standing in the names of the Trustees are as
follows.
Vou. XIV.
This is a statement of the actual stock; the
money value can be easily worked out at the current
price of the market :—
Gorisols 24 96.5.2... .... £1000 0 O
Local laosis: <...-..2--. 6.7...) 500 0 0
Victorian Government 3 % Consoli-
dated Inscribed Stock .............--
War loan 3... ees
London and North Western 3 % Deben-
GUC SLOCK 00h ee
291 19 11
20k 9 8
250 0 0
Subscriptions from October, 1903.
Nov. 18,
Dec. 16,
1904.
Jan. 6, Hills, Mrs. C. H. .
Jan. 6, Crommelin, Miss .
Jan. 8, Stevenson, Mrs. M. BE. .
Jan. 16, Kilmarnock, The Lord .
Feb. 5, Portman, Lionel .
Feb. 11, Shipley, Miss Mary
Mar. Diiring, Mrs. . : :
Mar. Francis Claude de la Roche
April18, Dixon, W. Scarth .
April18, Bashford, Harry H.
April19, Bosanquet, Eustace F.
April23, Friswell, Miss Laura Hain
Longe, Miss Julia.
Trevor, Capt. Philip
OS Oo 1 So or
on
SGCanmnocooocorooooo
Se
NDOOrn
Donations from October, 19038.
Oct. 27, Sturgis, Julian
Nov. 2, Stanton, V.H. .
Noy. 18, Benecke, Miss Ida.
Nov. 23, Harraden, Miss Beatrice :
Dec. Miniken, Miss Bertha M. M. .
1904.
Jan. 4,
Jan. 4,
ooococo
Moncrieff, A. R. Hope .
Middlemas, Miss Jean .
Jan. 4, Witherby, The Rev. C. .
Jan. 6, Key, The Rey. S. Whittell
Jan. 14, Bennett, Rev. W. K., D.D.
Jan. 2, Roe, Mrs. Harcourt
Feb. 11, Delaire, Miss Jeanne
ee ooo co}
THE AUTHOR.
FROM THE COMMITTEE.
1
T the meeting of the Committee held on
Wednesday, April 13th, at the Office of
the Society, twenty-five members and
associates were elected, making the elections for
the current year one hundred and three. The
recent steady increase in the Society’s numbers is
well maintained.
A suggestion was laid before the Committee that
the Society should take up the additional duties of
Authors’ agents. The Committee, after careful
consideration rejected the proposal on the ground
that to take such action would be contrary to the
principles on which the Society was founded.
Several members of the Society entered into
contracts some years ago with a firm of publishers
for the publication of certain works in a series
which the firm stated it was their intention to
issue. This series appears at present to be incom-
plete. No accounts have been rendered and the
firm asserts that under the existing agreements it
is not liable either to render accounts or to pay
anything. So far, accordingly, the members have
received no remuneration for the works whichhave
been published. The legal position is difficult and
involved. The Committee decided to take Counsel’s
opinion in order to ascertain whether it would not
be possible, under the contracts, to force the firm
in question to render accounts, and pay royalties
on the books already issued.
Since the last issue of The Author the Committee
have taken further steps with regard to the infringe-
ment of copyright in the case of Mr. Rudyard
Kipling’s “ Barrack Room Ballads.” They have
received an answer to the Report which was laid
before the Chief Commissioner of the Police, and
they have placed a full statement of the case in the
hands of the Home Secretary. It is the intention
of the Committee to take all the steps in their
power to obtain an alteration in the existing law.
The Report of the Copyright Sub-Committee on
the United States Copyright Law was read to the
Committee. It had already been forwarded, in
accordance with the Committee’s former instruc-
tions, to the American Copyright League. The
Committee propose to print the Report in a future
number of Zhe Author.
There was one contentious matter before the Com-
mittee, and they decided on the advice of the
Society’s solicitors to take action against the
publisher involved.
1
Cases.
One of the county court cases taken in hand
last month has been satisfactorily settled—the
debt and costs were paid the day before the hearing.
In another county court case which was placed in
the hands of the Society’s solicitor, the money was
paid and the matter settled before the summons
was taken out.
Ten cases have been in the secretary’s hands.
Of these, two were for accounts, four: for money,
and four for MSS. Prompt settlements have been
the rule. The accounts have in one case been
rendered, and will, doubtless, be rendered in the
other case also, though the matter must be delayed
owing to the fact that the demand is against a
New York firm. In the four cases where money
has been demanded, three claims have been satisfied,
whilst the fourth is still waiting settlement. Two
of the four cases for the return of MSS. have been
settled, but in the other two—more recent—the
issue is still open.
Of the cases remaining in the hands of the
secretary from former months there are only two
unsettled, one of which for the cancellation of an
agreement, is very nearly adjusted. There has
been some correspondence, but the final arrangement
has not yet been arrived at. In the other case
the publisher has promised to forward the accounts
which are in demand, but they have not yet come
to hand.
ES
April Elections.
Alliston, Norman . . Kamesburgh, Becken-
ham, Kent.
Daly’s Theatre.
Education Office,
Maritzburg, Natal.
Barrington, Rutland
Barnett, P. A.
Bashford, Henry Howarth
Bissett, J. L. ; :
80, Sherwell Street,
Johannesburg, 8S. A.
Nethercote, Colwyn
Bay, North Wales.
Woodsgate, Pembury,
Tunbridge Wells.
Vevey La Tour, Swit-
zerland.
Mount
Hampstead.
41, Princes Square, W.
11, The Mount, York.
22, Grafton Street, W.
Les Quenetens, Bar-
riere Rouge, Pont
de Briques, P. de
C., France.
St. Michael’s Vicarage,
Burleigh Street, W.C.
“ Seabreeze,” Netley
Abbey, Hants.
Aber Maw, Wimble-
don, 8.W.
Bolton, Miss Anna
Bosanquet, Eustace F.
(S. Ashton) : :
Chesney, Major-General
F. R.
Chidell, E. F. (Viator) . 2, Vernon,
Davidson, A.F..
Dixon, William Scarth
Harcourt, R. Vernon
Hight, G. A. . :
Hunt, Rev. W. Henry
Metcalfe, Ethel E. . :
Myall, Mrs. Ambrose
(Laura Hain Friswell)
15, Woodville Gardens,
Ealing, W.
26, Rue du Mont Tha-
bor, Paris.
Oxenham, John
Pavitt, A. (Saxo-Norman)
Plunkett, The Right
Hon. Sir Horace,
105, Mount Street, W.
37, Norfolk Square, W.
Evening Mail Cham-
bers, Nutchett
Street, Bendigo,
Australia.
27, Southampton Street,
Strand, W.C.
“Plasisaf” Caerwys,
Flintshire.
One member does not desire the publication of
name or address.
9
K.C.V.0., F.RB.S., ete.
Prideaux, Miss 8. T.
Taylor, Charles E.
Weymouth, Edward S. .
Williams, E. C.
BOOKS PUBLISHED BY MEMBERS OF
THE SOCIETY.
—
(In the following list we do not propose to give more
than the titles, prices, publishers, etc., of the books
enumerated, with, in special cases, such particulars as may
serve to explain the scope and purpose of the work.
Members are requested to forward information which will
enable the Editor to supply such particulars.)
a
ART.
THe PHin May Fouio of Caricature Drawings and
Sketches in Line Block, Half-Tone, and Photogravure.
With a Biography. 17$ x 11, xv. + 245 pp. Thacker.
£2 28. n.
Greav Masters. Part XI. With Introduction by SIR
MARTIN Conway. Heinemann. 5s. n.
Great Masters. Part XII. With Introduction and
Descriptive Text by Str MARTIN CONWAY. Heine-
mann. 58. n.
BIOGRAPHY.
Kines AND QuEENS I HAVE
VACARESCO. 9 X 5%, 320 pp. Harpers. 10s. 6d.
New Lerrers or THOMAS CARLYLE. Edited and Anno-
tated by ALEXANDER CARLYLE. Two Vols. 8% X 5%,
xiii. + 326 + 359 pp. Lane. 25s. n.
Str WiLtLIAM Henry Fiower, K.C.B., F.R.S., &c., late
Director of the Natural History Museum, and President
of the Royal Zoological Society. A Personal Memoir.
By C. J. Cornisu, F.Z.S., author of “ The Naturalist on
the Thames,” &c. 9 x 6,274 pp. Macmillan. 8s. 6d. n.
Rosserr1.—By A.C. Benson. (English Men of Letters.)
745, 238 pp. Macmillan. 2s, n.
Known. By HELENE
BOOKS OF REFERENCE.
THe STATESMAN’S YEAR-Book, 1904. Edited by J.
Scorr Ketrte. Forty-first Annual Publication.
74 x 5, 1,398 pp. Macmillan. 10s. 6d. n.
DRAMA.
His PontricaAL Conscience. By HA,RoLxo. 2nd edition,
9 x 54,73 pp. Burleigh. 2s. 6d. n.
THE AUTHOR.
199
ECONOMICS,
FiscaAL Facts AND Fictions. By F. G, SHAw, F.G,.S.,
Assoc. M. Inst. C.E., &c. 83 X 54, 240)pp. Bailliere.
5s. n.
FICTION.
THE CELEBRITY AT Home. By VIOLET HUNT.
304 pp. Chapman and Hall. _ 6s.
Wuat OvugHt SHE TO Do? By FLORENCE WARDEN.
73 x 5,311 pp. Chatto and Windus. 6s.
Tatty. By EMILy PEARSON FINNEMORE.
304 pp. Hurst and Blackett. 3s. 6d.
THe GAGE OF RED AND WHITE. By GRAHAM HOPE.
73 x 5, 323 pp. Smith, Elder. 6s.
73 x 5h,
7% x 54,
Comin’ THRO’ THE RyE. By HELEN MATHERS. Popu-
lar Edition. 7 X 5,437pp. Simpkin, Marshall. 1s.
JOHNNY FoRTNIGHT. By EDEN PHILLPOTTS. (Cheap
Edition.) 84 x 54,127 pp. Arrowsmith. 6d.
THE MoNEyY-MakeER (Le Brasseur D?’Affaires). 3y
GeEorGES OHNET. Translated by F. ROTHWELL.
72x5, 851 pp. Chatto and Windus. 6s.
Ayuwin. By THEODORE WATTS - DUNTON. (The
World’s Classics.) 6 X 4, xv. + 486 pp. Grant
Richards. 1s. n.
RuLeRs oF Kinas. By GERTRUDE ATHERTON. 7? X 5},
358 pp. Macmillan. 6s.
THe AMAZING VERDICT. By MARIE LEIGHTON.
73 X 54, 468 pp. Grant Richards. 6s.
RANDAL OF RANDALHOLME. By AUSTIN CLARE. 7$ X 5,
341 pp. Chatto and Windus. 6s. 7
THE ORIGINAL WOMAN. By FRANKFORT MOORE.
343 pp. Hutchinson. 6s.
THE FIGHT FOR THE Crown. By W.E. Norris. (Cheap
Edition.) 84 x 53,120 pp. Seeley. 6d.
“ SrpE SHows.” By HELEN MATHERS. Popular Edition.
74 X 4%, 245 pp. Simpkin Marshall. 1s.
Nepo THE NAILER. By 8. BARING-GOULD.
Edition.) 8% X 53,123 pp. Cassell. 6d.
THE CourT OF SACHARISSA. A Midsummer Idyll. By
HvuGH SHERINGHAM and NEVILL MEAKIN. 7%} X 5,
314 pp. Heinemann. _ 6s, ’
By SNARE oF Love. By A. W. MARCHMONT. 7} X 54,
375 pp. Ward, Lock. 6s.
Mapr oF Money. By DoroTHEA GERARD. 7} X 54,
1= X 6,
(Cheap
330 pp. Methuen. 6s
ANNA, THE ADVENTURESS. By E. PHILLIPS OPPEN-
HEIM. 7# X 5,320 pp. Ward, Lock. 6s.
A DANGEROUS QU
Long. 68.
st. By F. E. Youne. 7? x 43, 319 pp.
THe SANYASI. By F. E. PENNY. 7% X 5, 328 pp.
Chatto and Windus. 6s.
THe VINEYARD. By JOHN OLIveR HOBBES. 7% X 5,
376 pp. Unwin. 6s. e :
URIAH THE HITTITE. By DoLF WYLLARDE. 7% X 4§,
307 pp. Heinemann. 6s. A
THe SuccEssor.—By R. Pryce. 735,332 pp. Hutchin-
son. 62.
Happy THougutTs.—By Sir Francis C. BURNAND.
7x 4g, 244 pp. Bradbury, Agnew. 2s. 6d. n.
A DEAD RECKONING.—By JOHN BLOUNDELLE BURTON.
725, 306 pp. White. 6s,
PAULETTE D’EsterRE. By HAROLD VALLINGS. 7}X5,
307 pp. J. Long. 6s.
HISTORY,
INDIA IN THE VicTORIAN AGE.—By RomesH Dutt,
C.1.E., Lecturer on Indian History at University College,
London. 84 x 53.628 pp. Kegan Paul. 10s. 6d.
A Hisrory oF SourH Arrica. From the First Settle-
ment by the Dutch, 1652, to the Year 1903. By H. A.
BRYDEN. 8 X 5,363 pp. Sands. 6s.
200
By ELIZABETH
SocIAL LIFE UNDER THE STUARTS.
Grant Richards.
GopFREY. 93 x 53, xxiii. + 273 pp.
12s. 6d. n.
LITERARY.
THE DANTE SOCIETY LECTURES.
Austin, H. J. CHAYTOR, and Others.
The Athenzeum Press. 2s. 6d.
Vol. I. By ALFRED
64 X 44, 241 pp.
MUSIC,
To MeEmoriIzE Music, with
By C. Frep Kenyon.
Numerous Musical
How
7% X 54, 56 pp.
Examples.
Reeves. 1s. :
OLIVET TO CALVARY CHURCH CANTATA for Lent. By
J. H. Maunder. Novello. Ils, 6d.
PAMPHLETS.
THE FOUNDATIONS OF A NATIONAL DRAMA — A
Lecture delivered by HENRY ARTHUR JONES at the
Royal Institution, Albemarle Street, W., on Friday
evening, March 18, 1904. Chiswick Press,
POETRY,
Porms.—By ST. JOHN Lucas. 73X5},127 pp.
be. n.
POLITICAL.
THE New Far East. By A. Diosy,
83 X 53, xviii. + 368 pp. Cassell. 38. 6d.
[ With brief new preface. |
REPRINTS.
THE HAMPSTEAD SHAKESPEARE. With THE LIFE OF
SHAKESPEARE, by S. LEE. Four Vols. 7} x 54, 544+
6444 666+xxvi.+495 pp. Finch. 21s. and 27s, n.
SPORT.
GREAT GOLFERS.—Their Methods at a Glance.
BELDAM. 9 X 6, xxiv.+480 pp. 12s. 6d. n.
FISHING HoLipAys.—By STEPHEN GWYNN.
299 pp. Macmillan. 7s. 6d.
Constable
4th Edition.
By G. W.
84x54,
TRAVEL
THE BALKANS FROM WITHIN.—By R. Wyon, 9 x 53
475 pp. Finch. 15s. n.
2
LITERARY, DRAMATIC, AND MUSICAL
NOTES.
————+_.
7. Autobiography of Mr. Herbert Spencer
has been published in 2 Vols. demy octavo,
with his Portrait and other illustrations, at
the price of 28s. net.
Mr. Spencer himself, in the Preface, states as
follows :—
“Tt has seemed to me that a natural history of myself
would be a useful accompaniment to the books which it has
been the chief occupation of my life to write.
In the following chapters I have attempted to give such
a Natural History. That I have fully succeeded is not to
be supposed, but perhaps I have succeeded partially. At
any rate, one significant truth is made clear—that in the
genesis of a system of thought the emotional nature is a
ree factor, perhaps as large a factor as the intellectual
nature.”
THE AUTHOR.
An American friend of Mr. Herbert Spencer, who
has read the book, says :-—
“Tt is as broad and many-sided as human experience,
and the marvel and charm of it is its simple, straight-
forward, and obvious truthfulness. It seems to me to
exceed any of his former works in interest and practical
value, and I have been a constant reader of his writings
from their first publication in this country. Mr. Spencer’s
supreme loyalty to truth and his native frankness have made
his account of his life very open and unreserved.
The report which was circulated in the St. James’
Gazette that Dr. Richard Garnett had written a
play with Shakespeare as the leading character for
production at a West End house is incorrect. We
have Dr. Garnett’s authority for stating that he has
written a play, which will shortly be published,
founded on an incident in the life of Shakespeare,
but it was written without any view to the stage,
and the possibility of its performance has not yet
been considered.
Mr. Richard Pryce’s new book, “ The Successor,”
has just been issued by Messrs. Hutchinson. If
the subject—-an unspoken understanding between
a husband and wife—is a little risky, the papers
appear to acquit the author of any offence in the
treatment.
The exhaustive “Guide for Authors, Editors,
Correctors of the Press, Compositors, and Typists,”
on which Mr. F. Howard Collins has been working
continuously for moresthan two years, and in which
Mr. Herbert Spencer took a practical interest until
prevented by ill-health, is now completely in type,
and the revision well in hand. Among those who
have read all the proofs may be mentioned Prof.
Skeat, Mr. Henry Bradley (of the Oxford English
Dictionary), Mr. Theo. L. De Vinne, of New York,
the Oxford and Cambridge University Presses,
some of the largest firms of English and Scotch
Printers, and many members of the London
Association of Correctors of the Press.
Miss Constance Hill’s book “Juniper Hall,”
with illustrations by Ellen G. Hill, has been
published by Mr. John Lane at the price of
£11s.net. It is a pleasant account, with some
hitherto unpublished particulars, of certain French
refugees, who lived for a time at Juniper Hall near
Mickleham in Surrey, and it contains, incidentally,
the story of the courtship and marriage of Fanny
Burney, afterwards Madame D’Arblay.
One of the expensive books of the season will be
the forthcoming “Master of Game,” the oldest
English hunting book, which singularly enough has
hitherto remained unpublished. A modern text as
well as the old one will be given. It is illustrated
with 52 plates. President Roosevelt has written
the Foreword for the American edition, but it
will also be given in the English edition. His
Majesty the King as well as the Prince of Wales
have become subscribers. Ballantyne, Hanson &
Co. are publishing it for the editors, Mr. and Mrs.
Baillie-Grohman. Ordinary copies £5, edition de
luxe £30, of the latter only two remain unsubscribed.
It will be out this month. -
We are pleased to see that The Country Life
Library of Sport, under the editorship of Mr.
Horace G. Hutchinson, is slowly increasing.
The books are demi-octavo, illustrated, bound in
cloth, at the price of 12s. 6d. a copy. Cricket
and Shooting have already been issued, and
Fishing is about to appear. Mr. Hutchinson’s
name is a sufficient guarantee for the accuracy of
the works.
The next volume in the Woburn Library pub-
lished by Messrs. Hutchinson and Co. will be
Mr. F. G. Aflalo’s work on “ British Salt Water
Fishing.” This book, like all its predecessors in
the series, will be iilustrated with coloured plates.
Mr. Aflalo, as the former editor of “ The Encyclo-
peedia of Sport,” is well known as a great authority
on all fishing, but especially on sea fishing.
Theatrical papers, like Ze Fra, have welcomed
Mrs. Alec. T'weedie’s last volume, “ Behind the
Footlights.” Messrs. Hutchinson are the publishers.
The price is 18s. net. In Sicily, Mrs. Alec. Tweedie
has found much material for a new volume, which
she hopes to have ready for autumn publication.
Edith C. Kenyon’s new serial, “ Rex Harley’s
Stratagem,” will commence shortly in the columns
of Woman’s Life. Her serial, “Two Girls in a
Siege” is nearing its conclusion in Our Own Gazette.
“Little Robin Grey,” by the same writer, is in the
press, and “A Girl ina Thousand” by her will
also be published in the autumn.
Mr. James Blyth, the author of “ Juicy J oe,” has
written a new novel, “Celibate Sarah.” Like its
author’s first book, it treats of life in the marsh-
lands and the question of the regeneration of the
marsh people. Mr. Grant Richards published the
book on April 20th.
“ Oddities, Others and I,” is the title of a new
book which Miss Henrietta Corkran has published
through Messrs. Hutchinson & Co. The price is
16s. net. It is, as the title suggests, a revelation
of the author herself, and her impressions of the
people she has met.
The same firm has also published Mr. Frankfort
Moore’s new novel entitled ‘‘ The Original Woman.”
It is a story of modern life with the element of
witchcraft interwoven. He treats the ancient cult
from the standpoint of the modern man of science.
“ The White Causeway ” is the title of another work
by Mr. Moore, the opening chapters of which will
appear in the May number of 7'he Lady's Realm.
‘A second edition of Mr. W. H. Wilkins’ book,
“A Queen of Tears,” has been issued by Messrs.
Longmans and Co. at the price of 36s.
THE AUTHOR.
201
Messrs. Longmans also announce the publication
of a new romance entitled “‘Lychgate Hall,” by
M. E. Francis (Mrs. Francis Blundell) at the price
of 6s.
“Qld Hendrik’s Tales,” by Capt. Arthur 0.
Vaughan, is a collection of animal stories gathered
by the author from the Hottentots during the
recent Boer War. Messrs. Longmans and Co. are
the publishers.
A new novel, by the author who writes under the
pseudonym of “ Airam,” entitled “ Rudderless
Ships,” will be published shortly by Mr. Henry
Drane, at the price of 6s. It is a novel with a
purpose—its purpose being to endeavour to prevent
the increase of insanity by deterring children whose
parents have any taint of insanity from marrying.
The author has for many years had much to do with
the treatment of mental disorders, and has felt the
necessity for some steps to be taken to prevent
their increase.
The Gentleman’s Magazine for April contains a
Russian story, in four chapters—* A Painter of
Shrines ”—by Robert Bowman.
«The Padre,” by Rose Harrison (author of
“Esther Alington’’) is a story which depicts the
stress, storm, and triumph of human experience in
a world of temptation.
Mr. Grant Richards has published a new sensa-
tional story by Marie Connor Leighton, entitled
“The Amazing Verdict.”
Mr. T. Werner Laurie, for many years manager
to Mr. Fisher Unwin, will shortly commence
publishing on his own account. His address till
June 30th, is 11, Paternoster Buildings, H.C.
Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co. have published a
novel by his honour Judge Parry, entitled
“ England’s Elizabeth.”
Mr. Brimley Johnson has just published a new
shilling edition (5th imprint) of “A Maid of the
Manse,” by Mrs. E. Rentoul Esler. The book
is excellently produced, in a tasteful paper
cover. The new edition has a preface by the
author.
“The Shrine in the Garden.””—As applications
are being made for this work, the Orient Press
finds it necessary to state that its publication is
unavoidably delayed. The book in question, which
is a portion of the diary of a person recently
deceased, is being kept back pending a legal
decision in regard to certain matters with which it
deals.
Professor Lewis Campbell has edited a selection
from the Poems of Thomas Campbell for inclusion
in Messrs. Macmillan & Co.’s Golden Treasury Series.
The poems are specially arranged for this issue,
and a biographical and critical introduction is
contributed by the editor.
Mr. R. Mounteney Jephson, who has just
202
returned from the South of France, has been
astonished to find his death reported in the Daily
Chronicle.
The paragraph referring to the republication in
cheaper form of Mr. Jephson’s excellent story,
“Tom Bulkeley,” stated that the Author died as
recently as 1885, and that he had written eight or
nine military and sporting novels. Mr. Jephson,
we are glad to say, has returned from his stay
abroad in the best of health, and is about to
publish a new novel entitled “Froth.” The
publisher is Mr. G. A. Morton, Edinburgh.
The book is in two parts and written with a light
en.
= ?Op o’ my Thumb,” the one act play by
Messrs. Frederick Fenn and Richard Pryce which
was produced last month by the Stage Society has
been bought by Mr. Frank Curzon for Miss Hilda
Trevelyan, who made so great a success in the
title-role.
“Saturday to Monday,” by the same authors,
was produced by Mr. George Alexander at the
St. James’s Theatre, on April 14th.
Mr. R. C. Carton’s new comedy, ‘The Rich
Mrs. Repton,” was produced at The Duke of
York’s Theatre, on Wednesday, April 20th. Miss
Compton took the leading part.
eg ae ge
PARIS NOTES.
—-—o— 1 —_
HE French Academy has awarded the Gobert
Prize of 10,000 francs to the Marquis Pierre
de Ségur for his work entitled “ Le maréchal
de Luxembourg.” The second prize of 1,000 francs
is awarded to M. Thouvenel for his works, “ Pages
de Phistoire du second Empire ” (1854-1866) and
“Trois années de la question d’Orient” (1856-
1859).
The Thiers Prize of 3,000 francs for the encou-
ragement of historical literature and research has
been given to the Abbé Sicard for his book in three
volumes, entitled, “ Ancien Clergé.”’
_ The Academy of Moral and Political Sciences has
divided the Audiffred Prize between M. Henri
Hauser, for a book on the teaching of Social
Science; M. Piolet on “La France hors de
France” ; M. Vast for his volume on “ PAlgérie
et les colonies francaises,” and to M. Salaun for
his work on ‘1’Indo-Chine.”
The laureates of the Societé de Géographie are
M. Sven-Hedin, who has been presented with the
gold medal, the Capitaine Lenfant, M.M. Alfred
Lacroix, Paul Pelet, Lieutenant Chédeville, Lieu-
tenant Drot, Lieutenant Nieger, M. Bonnel de
Mézieéres, the Commandant O. Barré.
THE AUTHOR.
“Force ennemie,” the novel by M. John-Antoine
Nau, which has won for its author the first prize
awarded by the Académie Goncourt, is a most
remarkable book. It is supposed to be written by
a madman who realises in his lucid moments that
he is living in a private lunatic asylum. He gives
an account of his coversations with his keeper, his
doctor, and various inmates of the asylum. He
analyses his own state of mind, discusses the
various arrangements of the house, criticises the
doctors, and describes in detail many of the inci-
dents that take place. One of the other lunatics
discusses with him their mental state and explains
that the cause of their misfortune is the “ Force
ennemie” within them. This idea haunts Veuly,
and as time goes on he is convinced that it is true,
and that he is “inhabited” by another creature
who obliges him to do and say things entirely con-
trary to his own inclinations. Unlike. Guy de
Maupassant’s ‘‘ Horla,” this unwelcome guest is
no second self, but a visitor from another planet,
who introduces himself to Veuly by the name of
“Kmdéhotn.” He informs his host that he had
been waiting to find a human body to inhabit, and
that he chose Veuly, because from one pole to the
other he could never have found a man s0 easy-
going, so wanting in energy, and altogether so
weak-minded and imbecile. Veuly is not precisely
flattered by this preference, and he is horrified at
the thought that he can never again be alone, that
whether he should wish it or not, from henceforth
he must share every secret thought with this
uncanny visitor. There is much unpleasant reading
in the book, as the “ Force ennemie” induces
Veuly to act entirely against his own judgment, so
that he earns for himself a terrible reputation and
can never succeed in explaining to the doctors that
he is not responsible for his actions when under
the influence of his unpleasant guest. The book
is extremely curious and original, and the unplea-
sant parts are relieved by the amusing conversations
of the keeper. The author, who was comparatively
unknown, has come to the front, thanks to the ©
Goncourt Prize, and his book is now in the seventh
edition. :
“Le Lac Noir,’ by M. Henri Bordeaux, is an
entirely different book from anything to which this
author has accustomed us. Once again the scene
is laid in Savoy. The story turns on a trial for
murder and the zeal of the lawyers employed in
the case.
The object of the book appears to be to give a
psychological study of a conscientious lawyer and
magistrate, and also to prove how much super-
stition still exists among the peasant classes of
Savoy. The whole volume is delightfully written,
and the various characters live, but the story itself
is gruesome.
THE AUTHOR.
“La Vie Amoureuse de Francois Barbazanges,”
by Marcelle Tinayre, is an exquisite picture of
seventeenth century life in the quaint little town of
Tulle. The authoress of “La Maison du Péché ”
has given us another gem of literary workmanship.
The story opens in 1673 with the birth of Francois.
His father, M. Barbazanges, is devoted to astrology,
and he at once studies the heavens in order to
calculate his son’s horoscope. Francois grows up
an imaginative boy with romantic ideas. Just
as the hero of the “ Maison du Péché ” is steeped
in religious traditions so Frangois is devoted to old-
world romance. He grows up unlike other youths
and is always in search of the ideal Jadye of his
dreams. His various adventures on his way
through life until he meets her take up the
greater part of the volume. His strange meet-
ing with his ideal woman, and his tragic fate are
told in the final chapters. There is no strong plot
to the story, and the charm of the book lies in
the word-painting and the faithful evocation of the
seventeenth century in provincial France.
“Le Fléau,” by Gustave Guitton, is a book that
might be read with profit in England as well as in
France. It is a story of life in the working class,
and shows the temptation which is placed in the
way of the working-man in manufacturing
districts by the drink shop, which is always so
near to the factory. The author has taken the
trouble to get statistics in proof of what he asserts.
He tells us that in 1830 there were 281,000 public
houses in France, that in 1899 there were 540,000,
and that since that date there are 10,000 more.
In this novel we follow a workman in his
career and see how almost impossible it is for
him to steer clear of the temptations with which
he is beset. It isa tragic story and most pitiful
as regards the hereditary taint in his children,
When finally he is being tried for manslaughter his
advocate boldly asserts that if his client should be
condemned it would be unjust for the wealthy
members of Parliament who have won _ their
fortunes by his degradation to get off with no
penalty. He declares that “drunkenness is a
State institution, that through it the budget is
‘supplied with vast sums of money, that it is the
source and foundation of many hundreds of huge
fortunes, and that it is tacitly approved and
encouraged by many members of Parliament, who
are styled ‘ Honorable,’ and who are treated as
honest men.” The book is well worth reading, as
many facts are set forth which are worthy of con-
sideration.
Several interesting translations have appeared
recently from various languages.
Among these is “Le Troisitme Sexe,” by
Ernst von Wolzogen, translated by the Prince B.
Karageorgevitch. The translation is excellent,
203
and the book seems to gain rather than lose by its
conversion into a more concise and elegant
language.
The “third sex’ is an admirable title, as without
this definition one would be ata loss where to place
the group of “creatures” described by the German
author. Judging by this novel, one would imagine
that just as in the “modern style” craze many of
the German artists exaggerated the new idea until
their designs were mere caricatures, so the “‘ New
Woman” in German dress appears to be a carica-
ture. Looked upon as a third sex she is merely a
curiosity.
We are introduced in this novel by M. von
Wolzgen to the most extraordinary individuals.
There is a doctoress of medicine and two sisters
who are bankers, a she-lawyer, and then a group of
the kind of men who can admire these specimens of
the “ third sex.” Altogether the persons to whom
one is introduced are not the kind one would care
to know in real life, but meeting them in this way
one is entertained by their conversation, their
theories about life, their philosophy, their egotism,
and, above all, their absurdities. The book is a
clever satire and well worth reading, and, as we
have already said, it is more readable in French
than in the original.
In the theatrical world the subject of a Theatrical
Trust is once more being agitated. The Société
des Auteurs dramatiques is very firm on this
point, and will not hear of a “Trust” being
formed.
M. Deval, actor-manager of the Athénée, and
M. Richemond, manager of the Folies Drama-
tiques, have had great success with these two
theatres. M. Roy, a banker, took over the lease
of the Bonffes, and wished to be nominal
manager of this theatre, with Messrs. Deval and
Richemond to run it. The Société des Auteurs
dramatiques objected to this arrangement, and a
lawsuit is now going on between M. Roy and the
Société. More recently M. Alphonse Franck,
manager of the Gymnase, applied to M. Roy,
and there was a plan formed for running this
theatre on new lines.
Once more the Société des Auteurs dramatiques
has interfered. Another lawsuit is the consequence,
so that M. Roy’s “ Theatre Trust” does not seem
likely to succeed.
M. Alfred Capus, President of the Committee of
the Société des Auteurs dramatiques, explains
that it would be against the interests of the authors
and artistes to allow several theatres to be in the
hands of one man. “The author’s rights,” he
says, ‘‘the percentage on every performance exacted
by the Société would be given up, a play would
be bought for a fixed sum varying according to
If the “ Trust” only
the celebrity of the author.
204 THE AUTHOR.
bought from these authors, what would then
become of the others who are anxious to make a
beginning ?”
M. Deval and M. Richemond reply to this by
quoting the words of M. Capus, who declares that
“authors need artistic managers to control the
theatres, and not directors of financial companies.”
M. Deval then goes on to say that if authors want
theatres at all for their pieces, they will have to sub-
mit to having their theatres supported by financiers.
As regards the author's rights, MM. Deval and
Richemond declare that “ they are prepared to pay
the same as the present contract with the Société
exacts, 12 per cent. on the gross receipts and the
100 frances of billets de faveur for each performance.”
They then go on to answer the other objections
raised by the Société, and they propose that
a clause should be added to the contract, stipu-
lating that every year each theatre should be com-
pelled to put on a piece by an author who either
does not belong to the Société, or who has had no
piece played for five years.
It is very evident that the idea of this “Trust”
is very tempting to the capitalists, but the Sociéte
des Auteurs dramatiques holds the reins in France,
and it does not consider that authors would gain
much by following the example of Americans with
regard to Theatre Trusts. It might be good for
the few, but not for the majority, and as M. Capus
is one of the most successful of French authors,
one cannot help admiring the way in which he is
fighting for his confreres.
The great theatrical event is of course the new
play at the Sarah Bernhardt Theatre. “ Varennes ”
is a piece in six tableaux by MM. Lavedan and G.
Lendtre. It is most admirably staged, and as
regards the historical details it is well known that
M. Lendtre is one of the greatest living authorities
on this period. M. Sardou frequently consults him
on any doubtful points of history, so that with
M. Lendtre’s knowledge of the subject and M.
Lavedan’s brilliant dialogue, the success of the
literary side of the play was assured. Everyone
was curious to see Madame Bernhardt in the réle
of Marie Antoinette. She is admirable in her
part, so admirable in fact that the great regret of
everyone is that her réle is not enough. In the
scenes where she does not appear there is a general
feeling of disappointment—the other artistes are
excellent, M. Magnier as Fersen, Mme. Dufréne as
Mme. de Rochereux, M. Guy most amusing in his
part; but the whole company cannot make up for
the absence of Madame Sarah Bernhardt, and the
spectators were inclined to blame the authors for
causing them this disappointment.
As regards the other theatres, “Le Retour de
Jérusalem ” is certainly the greatest success of the
season. At the Vaudeville “1’Esbroutfe” is still
running, and at Antoine’s “ Oiseaux de Passage,”
At the Gaité “a Montansier,” and at the Ambignu
M. Pierre Decourcelle’s piece “ La Baillonnée ” ig
a great success. At the Athenée, with the “ Prince
Consort,” there is always a full house, and at the
ThéAtre Victor Hugo M. Bour has put on “ Don
Quichotte.”
Atys HALLarp.
a
SPANISH NOTES.
—-~>+—_
i
T is difficult for English people to realise the
important part played by the imagination
in Spain. “'
The King has lately issued a Royal Decree with
respect to the celebration of the tri-centenary of
the publication of “ Don Quixote” in May, 1905,
which shows the place taken by that book in the
hearts of the Spaniards. For this Royal Decree
commands that a Committee be formed of the
President of the Congress, the Ministers of State,
War, Navy, and Public Instruction ; representatives
of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando ;
the Society of Authors and Artists; and the
Scientific, Literary, and Artistic Atheneum of
Madrid, with the Director of the National Library,
etc., etc., to consider the best modes of doing honour
to the great work of Cervantes in their different
departments.
“After the present Prime Minister questioned
the right of a newspaper editor, who is a deputy,
to publish the uncalled-for attacks consequent on
his appointment of Sefior Nozaleda as Archbishop
of Valencia, several telegrams purporting to come
from the land of Shades were read aloud at the
Press Banquet to give voice to the spirit of censure
against Senor Maura ; and the other day one of
the leading newspapers published a long discourse
supposed to have been sent by Sagasta from the
other world. ‘The Republicans who recently strove
to start disloyal discourses in the public streets
were quickly silenced, ana the speeches of such
dissentients in the Congress as Canalejas, Moret,.
Villaverde, etc., are more easily controverted than
an attack from such an unassailable source as that
of the deceased Prime Minister." Sagasta is sup-
posed to mock at Seftor Maura’s ideal of making
the Congress “the point of contact between the
Crown and the country,” which he is hoping to:
accomplish by the reform in the Parliamentary
Elections whereby the deputies would be voted
for at the public polls instead of being appointed
by the ministers, which has been the custom since
1812. ‘This idea was first propounded in Colonel
Figuerola Ferretti’s loyal Petition to his beloved.
cd
sovereign on 3rd November, 1902.* Had Sagasta
allowed the Petition to reach King Alfonzo, who
is always anxious for the welfare of his country, the
successive governments of Silvela and Villaverde
would probably not have been so quickly over-
thrown and the present one in such danger now,
for it was respectfully suggested that a Provisional
government composed of sections of each party
with a Royal decree sanctioning the elections at
the polls for a new government, would secure the
adhesion to the Monarchists of those who waver to
Republicanism from their despair of seeing this
reform. Many members of a well-known London
Club addressed Colonel Figuerola Ferretti a letter
appreciative of a patriotism sincere enough to
seek the consolidation of the monarchy even at
a sacrifice, presumably only temporary, of his own
position at Court. His “ Cantos de Espana”
(giving the history of the Regency) breathe
devotion to the King and Queen and present an
interesting lyrical picture.
Speaking of literature reminds me that Galdos, the
great novelist and dramatist, has just produceda new
drama in Madrid called “ El abuelo ” (the Grand-
father) which is shortly to be performed in German
in Berlin, Frankfort, Munich, and Vienna. Senor
Linares Rivas-Astray (son of the government
minister) has just given to the stage a striking
picture of “high life” in Madrid, in a play called
“ Aire de Fuera,” in which the well-known actress
Sefiora Guerrero, wife of Senor Diaz de Mendoza,
a grandee of Spain, takes the first part. Women
also begin to rank as dramatists in Spain, for
Senora Emilia Pardo Bazan’s piece at the theatre
of the Princesa called ‘lia Suerte”? (Fate) was the
one chosen for the Benefit of Maria Tubau.
“Ta Catedral,” the last work of Blasco Ibanez,
has now also excited great attention in Madrid, but
the author’s Republican views detract from the
interest of the féte given in his honour. The
Spanish capital is looking forward with great
enthusiasm to greeting the wife of Maurice
Maeterlinck this month, for under her well-known
name of Georgette Leblanc she is to play in her
husband’s celebrated play of “ La Joyzelle” at one
of the leading theatres.
Music also claims much attention in Madrid
just now. The daughter of the well-known pro-
fessor Sefior Benaiges has shown great talent in
her recent pianoforte recital, and Sauer’s concert
was a great success, under the patronage of the
Royal family.
His Majesty King Alfonso has testified his
appreciation of practical literary work in pre-
senting Don Ezequiel Solana with the prize as the
Oe
* The Paris New York Herald of November 12th, 1902,
applauded this movement.
THE AUTHOR. 205
first teacher in Madrid; for this energetic director
of a boys’ school has just published as the outcome
of his two years’ travel and study, “A Manual of
the Schools of Europe,” and two other Spanish
books entitled respectively, “ Primary Education
in Italy” (“ La Enseianza primaria en Italia”),
and “Practical Guide to Manual Educative Work”
(“Guia practica del trabajo manual educativo ”).
The King’s trips into the provinces tend greatly
to add to his popularity in the country, for not
only was his important rencontre with the
Emperor of Germany at Vigo preceded by most
successful visits to Segovia and Toledo, but his
time in Barcelona bids fair to dispel the shadow of
separatism.
The literary taste of Sefior Silvela (the late
Prime Minister) is evidenced by the active part he
took in the weekly conferences held at the charm-
ing theatre of San Luis. On the one day he held
forth on the life and character of Maria de Agreda,
the potent counsellor of Philip IV., and on another
his lecture on Beatrice Galindo, the governess and
companion of Isabel I. of Spain, shows that he
appreciates the power exercised in the past by the
fair sex in his country.
The Infanta Dona Maria de la Paz, sister of the
late King Alfonso XII. and wife of Prince Louis
Ferdinand of Bavaria, of world-wide reputation
in the science of surgery, has recently published a
charming little book called ‘* Mi Peregrinacion a
Roma,” which gives a most interesting account of
her visit to the “ Eternal City.” The wondrous
churches and picture galleries are described in the
poetic spirit characteristic of the Princess. Her
emotion at the benediction of her children by the
late Pope shows the fervour of her religious senti-
ment, and her pleasure at again meeting Cardinal
Rampolla, known to her in her youth as the Pope’s
Nuncio in Madrid, and her enthusiasm at the sight
of the Spanish pilgrims at St. Peter’s testify to her
abiding love of her own country. The secretary
of the royal authoress tells me that the book has
just been translated into English by Frau Johanna
Szeliuska.
Echegaray’s new play “ La Desequilibriada”’ has
excited great interest in Spain. The heroine, as
the title shows, is an unbalanced character—
unbalanced in her love which she sets against her
admirer’s sense of honour in a matter of business ;
so unbalanced in her hatred of her husband when
she found that his subterfuge had won her as his
wife, that she compassed his death ; and finally so
unbalanced in her sense of maternal duty that she
abandons her child for ever, leaving him in the
care of her lover, from whom her remorse also
separates her.
Senor A. Palacio Valdés, well known in England
by his novels, “ Froth,” “The Grandee,” and “The
206
Fourth Estate,” has added to his reputation by his
last work, entitled “ La Aldea Perdida” (the Lost
Hamlet). The sweet harmonious joys of a Spanish
village, described from the experiences of the
author’s own boyhood form a truly pastoral poem,
but the romantic becomes tragic when the un-
bridled passions of the new-comers who work the
mines, cause the death of two of the four chief
characters.
When mentioning Galdos’s new play of “ El
Abuelo,” which has created such a furore in
Madrid by its masterly presentation of the force
of the human passions and the superhuman power
of gratitude, I should have added that the great
novelist and dramatist has himself elicited that
virtue by the generous way he has just devoted the
rofits of his Benefit to the Chipiona Sanatorium
for Sick Children.
When Senor Picon, the well-known author of
“Bl Enemigo” (the Enemy), declined the other
day the invitation of the President of the Congress
to make a speech, the newspaper called Hspana
said the writer evidently wished to show that deeds
are of more value than words, and in this Sefior
Galdos has excelled.
Percy Horspur.
———_————— 2 —__—_
LEGAL NOTES.
+4
The Attempt to Maintain Net Prices in the State of
New York.
N important case for authors and publishers
who place books upon the market within
the state of New York has recently been
decided by the New York Court of Appeals. It is
one also which, owing to the principles involved, is
of interest to those who do not publish books
within the jurisdiction of the Court in question.
The appellants sought to establish the legality
under Chapter 690, laws 1899, New York, of a
combination of publishers and book agents to keep
up net prices, by refusing all dealings with retail
booksellers who sold books published at a net price
below that price, or who had any connection, either
proved or suspected, with any such underselling.
The combination had been declared unlawful in
the court below and the Court of Appeal upheld
this ruling by a majority of five judges to two.
The act in question was passed :
“To prevent monopolies in articles or commodities of
common use and tojprohibit restraints of trade and
commerce... .”
And it provides that—
“ Every contract agreement, arrangement or combination,
whereby a monopoly in the manufacture production or sale
in this state of any article or commodity of common use 1s
THE AUTHOR.
or may be created, established or maintained, or whereby
competition in this state in the supply or price of any such
article or commodity is or may be restrained or prevented,
or whereby for the purpose of creating, establishing or
maintaining a monopoly within this state of the manufac-
ture, production or sale of any such article or commodity,
the free pursuit in this state of any lawful business, trade
or occupation is or may be restricted or prevented, is
hereby declared to be against public policy, illegal and
void.”’
Those alleged to have offended against this law
were the American Publishers’ Association and
others connected with the publishing business,
representing about 90 per cent. of the book trade,
and the complainants were R. H. Macy & Co., a
firm conducting a “department store” in New
York, in which they do a very large business and
own a book department of considerable size.
Messrs. Macy & Co.’s complaint alleged—
“That during the year 1900 a number of prominent
publishers, including defendants hereinbefore described as
publishers for the purpose of securing to themselves an
unreasonable and extortionate profit and at the same time
with intent to prevent competition in the sale of books and
for the purpose of establishing and maintaining the prices
of all books published by them, or any of them, and all
books dealt in by them, or any of them, and preventing com-
petition in the sale thereof, unlawfully, illegally and con-
trary to the public policy and the statutes of the state of
New York . .. combined and associated themselves
together ’’ etc.
The methods used were further described thus :
“ That as a part of said unlawful scheme and combination
the members of said association agreed that such net copy-
righted books, axd all other books, whether copyrighted or
not, or whether published by them or not, should be sold
by them to those booksellers only who would maintain the
retail net price of such net copyrighted books for one year,
and to those booksellers and jobbers only who would
furthermore sell books [the word “ copyrighted ’’ is omitted
at this point] at wholesale to no one known to them to cut
or sell at a lower figure than such net retail price, or whose
name would be given to them by the association as one who
cut such prices.”’
In explaining and commenting upon the arrange-
ment thus described Chief Justice Parker made the
following observations :
“It will be seen that while the leading object of this
portion of the agreement apparently is to maintain the
retail net price of copyrighted books, it operates in fact so
as to prevent the sale of books to dealers who sell books of
any kind to one who retails copyrighted books at less than
the net retail price.
“ And the agreement further provides that evidence shall
not be required by the bookseller or jobber in order to
restrain him from selling to one who has been blacklisted,
but that all that shall be required to govern his action, and
to prevent him from selling to such a person, shall be that
the name has been given to him by the association as one
who cuts such net prices. It has been admitted, and must
be, that the agreement may be so worked out as to deprive
a dealer from selling any books whatever, thus breaking up
his business.’’
The actual carrying out of the agreement thus
entered into was also referred to, and after
®
THE AUTHOR.
reviewing its terms and the facts, which were not
disputed, the learned chief justice held it to be an
undertaking to interfere with the free pursuit of a
lawful business in which any member of the com-
munity was free to engage. He accordingly, with
the assent of the judges who concurred with him,
dismissed the appeal.
In delivering a dissenting judgment of some
length, Judge Gray pointed out that the agree-
ment of the appellants only endeavoured to govern
the sale of copyright books to be sold at net price,
and not that of others.
“The contract,’? he observed, ‘ did not extend to the
copyrighted books other than by way of penalty, as the
refusal to deal in them might be incidental to the refusal
to deal with booksellers who would not co-operate in an
agreement to maintain the net retail price of a copy-
righted book. It is not unlawful for a person to refuse to
deal with others as his judgment or fancy may impel him.
His business is his own, and the only limitation upon his
pursuit of it is that he shall not interfere with the legal
rights of others. It seems to me that what he may law-
fully do himself he may unite with others in doing, if of
some common advantage.”
The other dissentient judge, Judge Bartlett,
followed the same line of argument; he asserted
the right of the individual to trade with whom he
pleased, and maintained that more than one might
combine to do what one might do alone, adding
that
“The refusal to maintain trade relations with a given
individual is an inherent right which every person in
business may exercise for reasons which he deems
sufficient, or for no reason whatever.”
Judge Bartlett also made some pregnant obser-
vations on the cutting of prices by big traders to
the injury of small ones and of the trade generally,
characterising the procedure adopted as one of the
saddest phases of modern business life.
“Tt is a well-known fact,’’ he said, “that the great
department stores of the country have encroached upon
many lines of trade entirely distinct from the main and
legitimate business in which they are engaged. As an
illustration, a dry goods establishment, engaged in selling
a vast number of articles legitimately related to its busi-
ness, concludes, in order to promote its principal trade, to
offer for sale books, furniture, druggists’ sundries and
numerous other articles that need not be mentioned, at cut
prices, representing only the cost of production, and often-
times far below it. The inevitable effect of this policy is
to draw a large number of people to these establishments,
and in the final result the dealer makes good his losses in
the outside trade by the prices he obtains in his legitimate
business.
It may be fairly assumed that the general business is
conducted at a profit.
The result is a large number of the retail dealers in the
various kinds of articles thus undersold are driven out of
business, many of them at a time of life when they are
unable to reinstate themselves in some other calling.
It also results in great damage to manufacturers, pro-
ducers, and wholesale dealers in loss of customers, who have
been driven into insolvency.”
207
To this he added that no doubt the proprietors
of department stores had a right to sell as cheaply
as they pleased, or, indeed, to give away their
goods to their customers, but that equally manu-
facturers, producers, and wholesale dealers had a
right to protect themselves by dealing or not
dealing as they pleased, such a right being inci-
dental to the right to exist and to act in self
defence.
With regard to this case it may be observed that
the wording of the New York law as quoted appears
to justify the finding of the New York Court of
Appeals, although the principles laid down by
the dissenting judges will commend themselves to
many as being based upon justice and sound sense.
In England, combinations alleged to be in restraint
of trade have, from time to time, occupied the
attention of the Courts. These have usually had todo
with the relations between masters and workmen,
and it was in a case of this kind (Allen . Flood, 1898,
A.C. 1) that the law upon the subject was recently
reviewed at great length. It seems impossible from
the judgments in that case to conclude that a com-
bination among publishers such as that which has
been held illegal under the New York law could be
successfully attacked by a bookseller under the
Common Law of England. The opportunity, how-
ever, is not likely to arise. The difficulty of com-
bining and of organising the numerous units which
make up the publishing trade in Great Britain and
Ireland so as to drive out of the book trade all
retailers suspected of disregarding net prices would
be too great. In the State of New York it was
possible to obtain the co-operation of 0 per cent.
of the publishing houses, all unanimous in support-
ing a policy of net prices. Similar efforts have
been made in England, but not upon so compre-
hensive a scale, and without such unanimity and
without the power to crush or to injure seriously
the trade of the recalcitrant bookseller, the action
of only a limited number of publishers, even though
they acted in unison, could hardly be open to the
suggestion of illegality, or even of moral turpitude.
There are two ways, moreover, in which an arrange-
ment for the restraint of trade may be looked at.
The agreement entered into may be void as between
the parties to it, so that they cannot legally enforce
it against one another, without being illegal so as
to lay it open to attack from without. This, how-
ever, may be described as a matter of legal detail.
Attempts to bind down the retail dealer to a
minimum price, below which he may not sell
whether at a profit to himself or not, are not, of
course, confined to the book trade. In any trade, how-
ever, in England in which a large number of manu-
facturers, both great and small, are engaged, it has
been found difficult as a rule to secure the necessary
unanimity and organisation. In the bicycle trade,
208
to quote a recent example, great efforts were at one
time made to keep up prices, and retailers who did
a large cash business in machines and in their
accessories were ‘‘ boycotted’ or an endeavour was
made to “ boycott” them by manufacturers, whose
small customers naturally protested that they could
not compete with the prices of their stronger rivals.
Of the precise position of the matter at the present
day I am not aware, but a considerable cheapening
of everything has taken place, and I think I am
right in saying that the artificial keeping up of
prices by combination among manufacturers and
wholesale distributors has been found impracticable.
As to the conditions under which it is possible in
the book trade, the Macy case in New York isa
good example. :
Only the questions of legality, and of the
possibility of combination have been discussed in
this article. The desirability of maintaining net
prices, and of keeping up the price of books
generally has not been gone into. It involves the
consideration of whether such a policy would keep
in the trade a greater number of small booksellers,
while it curtailed the trade of bigger dealers, and
this again would raise doubts as to whether the
larger number of smaller dealers selling at higher
prices or the smaller number of larger dealers
selling at lower prices is the better condition for
the author, for the publishers, and last but not
least, for the reading public. These are interesting
problems which have frequently been ventilated in
the Author, and no doubt will continue to be so in
the future.
E, A, ARMSTRONG.
<> ¢
THE LITERARY YEAR BOOK.*
a
General.
HE “Literary Year Book” for 1904 is now
a before the public. ‘his is the eighth year
of issue.
In the main features of this useful annual
publication no alteration has been made, and, on
the whole, the 1904 edition is an improvement on
its predecessors. Like other works of reference its
tendency is to increase in size, so that the editor
may expect, before long, to be confronted by the
necessity of omitting those parts which are least
wanted. The “calendar” and “signs used in
correcting proofs” could be easiest dispensed with,
and the resumé, which occupies twenty-seven pages,
might be considerably condensed. Nevertheless,
* “Literary Year Book,’ 1904: George Allen, 5s.
THE AUTHOR.
rather than delete any feature or reduce the size of
the type, it would be more serviceable were the
book printed on thinner paper. Without increasing
the bulk of the work, extra pages could then be
added after the style of the “ Unique Manuscript
Register” (A. J. Baynes, 441, Strand), on which
the author could record conveniently an account of
his year’s labours for future reference. The advan-
tage of this to the “ Year Book” publisher would
be, that the volume so used would not be lent, and
each author would have to buy his own copy.
To ensure a work of this character being gene-
rally referred to, every list given ought to be as
complete as possible. Turning to the ‘ Calendar”?
we miss a record of the birthdays of the following
well-known authors :—In January—Maria Edge-
worth, R. Savage, Aikin, Bentley ; in February—
Archbishop Whateley, Hallam the historian, About,
Lowell, Grimm and Lover; in March—Manzoni ;
April—Mme. de Staél and Froude; May—Le Sage,
J. S. Mill and Lytton; July—Klopstock and
Petrarch ; August—Fénélon; September—Chateau-
briand, M. J. Daumas, Korner, Jane Taylor and
Mrs. Hemans; October—S. T. Coleridge and
Adelaide Procter; November—Hans Sachs and
Shenstone ; December—E. Burritt, Mary Mitford,
A. Cunningham and Samuel Smiles.
The “Obituary” section has no note of the
death of the eminent musical writer, H. J. Hipkins,
author of the monumental ‘‘ Musical Instruments,”
published by Black, the “ History of the Piano-
forte” (Novello), and contributor of upwards of
five hundred articles in Grove’s “ Dictionary of
Music” and the “Encyclopedia Britannica.”
Other names excluded from last year’s death list
are Mrs. E. T. Cook, author of “The Bride’s
Book,” ‘Highways and Byeways of London”
(d. June 19); J. A. McNeill Whistler, author of
the “Gentle Art of Making Enemies” (July 17) ;
Wilfrid Cripps, C.B., F.S.A., author of “Old
English Plate,” “Old French Plate,” (Oct. 26) ;
James Innes Minchin, translator of Dante’s
“Divine Comedy” (Jan. 13) and Richard Savage
(Oct. 11). In the section devoted to “ Books of
Reference” there is no mention of the “ World
Directory of Music,” published by De Witt,
Leipzig.
Coming to “Authors,” when lesser lights are
included, why are the following names overlooked ?
Gilder, Joseph B., author of ‘‘Carnegie’s Gospel
of Wealth,” ‘“Lowell’s Impressions of Spain,”
&e.; Bruce, John Mitchell, author of much medical
literature and assistant editor of Quain’s Dic-
tionary ; Parkin, G. R., author of ‘ Imperial
Federation,” “Round the Empire,’ “The Great
Dominion,” &c.; Edwards, Osman, author of
“Studies of Theatrical Life,’ “A Gauntlet,”
“ Japanese Plays and Playfellows,” &c. ; Watson,
Aaron, author of “ Brown Studies,” ‘ Waifs
and Strays,” “For Lust of Gold,” &c. ; Foakes
Jackson, Rev., author of the “ History of the
Christian Church,” &c. ; Angus, Orme, author of,
“Sarah Tuldon,” a Story of Wessex Life ; Ford,
William, author of “ Baja the Freebooter,” “ Pun-
jaub Coach,” &c. ; Forrest, Sir John, author of
‘ Explorations in Australia,” &c.; Prowl, Ebenezer,
author of about a dozen authoritative text books
on music which have been translated into French,
German, and Italian ; Fraser, J. Foster, author of
“ Round the World on a Wheel,” &c. ; Lancaster,
W. J. Cosens, author of many excellent nautical
novels. Victor Spiers is mentioned, but why is
R. Phené Spiers, the author of valuable architectural
works, left out ?
Space restricts our naming more omissions of
general writers, but, if we particularise in one
department, and turn to the topic of most interest
this year—i.e. the War—and recall the books
dealing with Russia, Korea, and Japan brought
before the public towards the end of last year, we
will find that the writers of such works are con-
spicuous by their absence in the “ Literary Year
Book,” published last March. There is no mention
of the authors of the following :—“‘The Russian
Advance ” (Albert Beveridge), “Sixteen Years in
Siberia” (Leo Deutsch), “ In the Uttermost East”
(Chas. H. Hawes), “The World’s History “(Dr
H. F. Helmolt), “Manchuria” (Alex. Hosie),
“The Far East: its History and its Question ”
(Alex. Krausse), “‘The Path of Empire” (George
Lynch), “History of Russia” (Alfred N. Ram-
baud), “The Great Siberian Railway ” (Michael
M. Shoemaker), “Korean Sketches” (Rev. J.
S. Gale), “Japanese Girls” (Alice M. Bacon),
“Japan: its History, &c.” (Captain F. Brink-
ley), “The Heart of Japan” (C. L. Brownell),
“Things Japanese” (Basil Hall Chamberlain),
“ Handbook of Japan” (W. Mason), “ Evolution
of the Japanese” (Sidney Gulick), “ Japanese
Training” (H. Irving Hancock), “Japan and
her People” (Anna ©. Hartshorne), “ Kokoro”
(Lafcadio Hearn), “ Feudal and Modern Japan”
(Arthur May Knapp), “Tales of Old Japan”
(A. B. Mitford), “History of Japan ” (Fred.
Millard), “Japan and its Trade” (J. Morris),
“Japan in Transition” (S. Ransome), “ Tmpres-
sions of Japan” (G. H. Rittner), ‘‘ Three Rolling
Stones in Japan” (Gilbert Watson), “ Japan :
Aspects and Destinies” (Petrie Watson), and
“ Ships and Shipping” (Francis Miltoun). Many
of the above topical works are new editions of
old ones, and few of the authors are novices.
The incompleteness of the List of Authors seems,
indeed, to imply that the value of the “ Year
Book” for personal reference is overlooked. A
reliable directory of the iiterary world would enable
THE AUTHOR. 209
a publisher to communicate direct with any author
he pleases. In these days, when an author seldom
confines himself to one publisher, the public also
should be able to refer to the “‘ Year Book” for a
complete list of the works of a favourite author ;
and, to facilitate such inquiry, the addition of a
List of Titles, classified under Theology, Travel,
Science, Fiction, Poetry, &c., would be welcome.
The list of periodical publications needs also
more careful revision. For instance, the London
addresses of the following papers are wrong :—
Belfast News Letter, 435, Strand ; Daily Dispatch,
Manchester, 68, Fleet Street ; Newcastle Chronicle,
22, Essex Street ; Norfolk Chronicle, 149, Strand ;
Nottingham Daily Express, 75, Fleet Street.
Musical periodicals are nearly all omitted. Not
one of the following well-known papers is given :—
British Bandsmen, 188,Strand, W.C. ; Music Trades
Review, 1, Racquet Court, E.C.; Journal of the
Incorporated Society of Musicians, 19, Berners Street,
W.; Musical Record, 199, Regent Street, W. ; Music,
188, Wardour Street, W.; J/usical Opinion, 35,
Shoe Lane, E.C. ; Musical Standard, 83, Charing
Cross Road, W.C.; Orchestral Association Gazette,
28, Gerrard Street, W.; Organist and Choirmaster,
9, Berners Street, W.; Strad, 3, Green Terrace,
Rosebery Avenue.
Amongst the Press Cutting Agents no German
firm is mentioned, and amongst magazine photo-
graphers one of the most enterprising firms—the
City Art Photo. Co. (manager, Mr. W. D. Horn)
—is overlooked.
We offer the foregoing criticisms in the friendliest
spirit, our desire being that so excellent a publica-
tion may be made as perfect and complete as
possible, for there is no reason why, with proper
organization, the “Literary Year Book” should
not be as comprehensive and up-to-date as
“Dod’s” Peerage or “Crockford’s” Clergy List.
If advantage is taken of such hints as those we
have given, the result will be profitable to the
publisher and the immense community to which
he appeals.—A. R.
Legal.
The legal side of the book is one which, more than
any other, needs the consideration of members of
the Society of Authors.
The articles included deal with the numerous
points on which authors desire information and
protection, but in most cases, though correct,
so far as they go, are insufficient. This is the
real difficulty in the production of a book of this
kind. Insufficient information may often lead an
author into serious errors, but we do not desire to
cavil and find fault. We fully recognise that it is
impossible for an editor to provide against all
210
contingencies on any question, more especially
when those questions deal with copyright and the
legal side of literary property. Even with the
added assistance of the “ Literary Year Book” an
author should be particularly careful, and in many
cases should not consider himself secure without
special expert advice. : :
Agreements and copyright, in their respective
chapters, with some slight deflections, are admir-
ably dealt with, clearly and lucidly expounded, and
very accurate.
The agreements are classed under the following
four heads— :
Royalty Agreement ; Sharing profits ; The author
commissioned ; The publisher commissioned.
This is a fairly satisfactory division, but The
Author Commissioned is rather a different form of
agreement to the sale outright. If the publisher
commissioned a book from an author he would be
entitled to make larger demands from the author
than if he merely purchased the copyright. On
the whole, the divisions set forth in The Author
are the more satisfactory. Sale Outright, Profit
Sharing Agreement, The Royalty System, and The
Commission Agreement.
Mr. Charles Weekes, who is responsible for these
chapters, sets out a series of usual clauses, explains
them, and notes their omissions, but expresses no
opinion as to how far he considers an author has a
right or is entitled to make demands from a pub-
lisher. From his point of view, as editor, he is
justified in taking this line, if, indeed, it is not the
only line he could adopt.
The question of serial rights is treated hardly at
sufficient length. This is often the most important
side of the property of the writers of fiction, and
also of writers of educational and technical works.
The Editor states, ‘‘ All serialisation should cease
when the book is published”; but difficulty often
arises owing to the lack of finality in the contract
with editors when the sale takes place.
It would have been a good thing if he had dealt,
perhaps in a separate article, with serial rights and
the contract for the sale of those rights, and the
difficulty that surrounds it.
There is also another omission of great import-
ance to authors—the agreements made between
authors and their agents ; for as the agent is ina
position more confidential to the author than the
publisher or anyone else who deals with his pro-
perty, it is essential that his agreement should be
carefully controlled, and the author should see,
when dealing with the agent, that he is not dealing
with a man who is also acting on behalf of the
publisher.
There is very little fault to find with the other
comments Mr. Weekes has made. In “The Author
Commissioned” it might be as well for the author
THE AUTHOR.
to insist as one term of the contract that no altera-
tion should be made in the MS. without his
sanction, for although it is stated “that the
assignment of copyright does not convey the right
‘to alter or revise the book in such a manner that
the author’s reputation suffers,” yet there are
many alterations possible which would annoy and
disgust an author, but which need not necessarily
be considered by a judge and jury as damaging to
his reputation.
Turning from the Agreements to the chapter on
Copyright, we are pleased to say that the errors
are few, as far as the exposition of the copy-
right law is concerned. Only those who have
tried the task can imagine how exceedingly
difficult it is to compress a subject of this kind
into so small a space, but the statements made
are clear, correct, and, within limits, satisfying.
The author, under the heading of “ Extent,” says
that an assignment for any less period than the
whole term of copyright, would be a licence only.
From whence does he get this statement? Surely,
it is possible to assign the whole copyright for a
limited period, without merely assigning a licence
to publish; otherwise, there would be no need for
the registration of assignments at Stationers’ Hall.
Under the heading of Magazines and Periodicals,
the distinction that exists under the eighteenth
section between Encyclopedias and Reviews,
Magazines, etc., is hardly sufficiently emphasised.
To anyone who read the paragraph as an amateur
the difference would certainly not be clear. The
writer states under the same heading, ‘‘ The work
of a servant would vest in his employer from the
first.” This point, in the absence of any evidence
to the contrary, must be yielded; but he continues,
“it is doubtful if the sender of a voluntary con-
tribution, though his work was used, would have
any rights unless the terms were expressly men-
tioned.” This sentence is enigmatical. Does the
writer intend to convey that the author in those
cases where a contribution has been sent without
a special demand to an editor, and the contribution
has been printed and paid for, would possess no
rights whatever, and would therefore be considered
to have sold the copyright ? Surely, this deduction
cannot be correct.
Again, under the heading of “Drama,” the
following statement appears—
“ After publication in print, but before authorised
representation, it is doubtful whether a common
law action would lie against an unauthorised per-
former.” This is contrary to the view taken by
Mr. Scrutton, whose statement of the law we
personally are inclined to follow. Under the same
heading, the writer is certainly ambiguous in the
following sentence :—
“As to performing right and copyright as they
may be retained or lost by first performance or
publication outside the United Kingdom, first
performance in ‘America does not divest the Com-
mon Law right here.” This passage surely needs
a little further explanation for the uninitiated.
Under the “International” heading, it will be
seen that Austria and Hungary are included in the
Berne Convention. This is not correct. Austria
and Hungary have a special Treaty with Great
Britain, and some other countries, but they are
not members of the International Convention.
To sum up, however, the impression conveyed
to a critic of that portion of the work, dealing with
the legal side of literary property, is thab it is
sound and trustworthy, and may, with limitations,
be safely employed by those who seek information
on the points which the writer has sought to
elucidate. G. H. T.
——_+—>—_+—___——_
MUSICAL COPYRIGHT.
————+—
Minority Report.
N the March number of 7'he Author we printed a
summary of the majority report on the ques-
tion of Musical Copyright, issued by the
departmental committee.
Since that date the Musical Copyright Bill
introduced by Mr. Mount has come up and passed
a second reading in the House of Commons, and
has been referred to the Standing Committee on
Law. It has gone even further, It has been
amended, and printed as amended.
Mr. Caldwell, the sole author of the minority
report, took the opportunity of placing his views
before the House of Commons in his speech on the
second reading ; perhaps, however, it would be
fairer to take the statement of his views from his
considered report rather than from his speech.
In the opening paragraph he states as follows :—
“The general evidence given disclosed the existence of
another interest—that of the general public interested in
the cultivation of music—an interest, however, which was
not specially represented at the enquiry ; which is prac-
tically ignored in the report of the majority of the Com-
mittee, but which, nevertheless, fails to be considered in any
amendment of the law which may be deemed necessary.
“The whole of the witnesses examined (excepting the
‘King of the Pirates’) regard musical copyright as a right
of property, such as a man has in his watch, entitling the
owner of the copyright to exercise his right of property in
any manner he pleases without any regard to the interests
of the general public or to the advancement of music in the
community. It is also upon that assumption that summary
proceedings, analogous to those of the criminal law, seem to
be recommended.
“ A slight consideration will show that copyright is not
such an absolute right of property as is claimed, but is a
‘liberty’ or privilege, conferred by Parliament, with the
THE AUTHOR.
211
view of encouraging music in the general community into
which the public interest enters, as well as that of the
owner of the copyright, and over the exercise of which by
the owner of the copyright Parliament has and exercises a
right of control.’
In order to prove the final contention he quotes
at length the Acts on which copyright is founded.
We venture to think that his judgment is
entirely incorrect, and that a deeper consideration
of the subject would have secured a sounder
opinion.
The Government found a certain form of pro-
perty existing, which, perhaps, more than any
other, should be reckoned the sole property of its
originator. They found that this property was
ill-secured and easily filched from the owner.
Accordingly, in order to secure it, they passed
Copyright Statutes. At that time a cry was raised
by people who, like Mr. Caldwell, considered they
represented the public ; but the plea of the public
was shown many years ago by the most distin-
cuished authorities, and those who had given the
matter their fullest attention to be without
foundation. It is late in the day to bring up the
question again, and it would take too much space
to quote the learned authorities referred to. It
would be interesting to enquire whether Mr. Cald-
well has studied the legislation dealing with copy-
right property since the passing of the Act of
1842; whether he has noted that all modern
legislation in all the countries of the world has
been to confirm the property in the author, to give
him wider limits, not only as far as country but also
as far as time! is concerned ; and that in the great
majority of cases which have been taken into the
courts of law the Acts have as a rule received the
most liberal interpretation in favour of the authors
of literary, dramatic, and musical property.
He goes on to state that the owners of musical
copyright have exercised their sole and exclusive
“liberty” in a manner highly detrimental to the
interests of the general public, as well as to the
advantage of music, and have practically tempted
and induced piracy.
“To find anything like an approach to the present piracy
of musical copyright, one has to go back to the piracy of
books by American editions, owing to the high prices
charged for books in this country placing books of educa-
tional value quite beyond the reach of the general public,
notwithstanding the cheapness of paper and printing. By
the issue of cheaper editions for the general public the
temptation to piracy has been removed ; and the public
being now supplied at a reasonable price there is no market
for pirated books, notwithstanding the somewhat irrelevant
reference in the concluding paragraph of the report of the
majority as to the alleged piracy of Mr. Arthur Balfour's
pamphlet and Mr. Kipling’s poems.
“The evidence has disclosed that the author or composer
of a musical composition does not himself publish the sub-
ject of his copyright. A trade or business has sprung up
of publishers, who purchase musical copyrights either for a
small sum, cash down, in the case of unknown composers,
212
or for a royalty of from one penny up to fourpence per copy
sold—the customary royalty being threepence per copy,
subject to a deduction of one-seventh. The publisher in
the case of such purchases takes the place of the original
owner of the copyright, with the same powers and subject
to the same limitations and responsibilities.
“ The publishers who are purchasers of copyright appear
to have an arrangement amongst themselves with regard to
the prices to be charged. The prices charged to the public
seem to be the same in all cases, irrespective of the royalty
paid to the author and composer, although the discount to
the trade may vary as regards individual compositions and
individual publishers. The successes are made to pay for
the failures ; and as the failures are said to be five-sixths of
the total, a heavy tax is by this arrangement laid upon the
general public. A business arrangement of this kind is not
contemplated by the Copyright Acts, which, although
necessarily permitting sales of copyright, confer no further
power in the assignee than that which existed in the
original owner of the copyright.”’
The statements contained in the first paragraph
just quoted are not in accordance with fact ; it
must, therefore, logically follow that the deductions
are equally erroneous.
No doubt he is, to a certain extent, correct with
regard to the attitude of the publishers. They
purchase, in many instances for small prices, from
the composers, and then market the music for
their profit without any consideration for the
public which Mr. Caldwell so boldly champions.
This point of view has been well set forth in a
statement received from a member of the Society,
dealing with the present situation :—
“ Hitherto the public has only been acquainted with the
matter from the point of view of the publishers. Inasmuch
as the publisher and shopkeeper are bosom friends, the
composer, unless he is a genius with business ability who
can look after himself, comes off worse even than the public,
in the bargain. In private, the composer is willing enough
to air his grievances, but in public, inasmuch as there is no
combination amongst composers for mutual defence, the
individual musician who has suffered, being afraid that his
further compositions may not be accepted, thinks that dis-
cretion is the better part of valour, Unfortunately for
the composer there is no Sir Walter Besant in the musical
profession. Zhe Musical News, which could do much for
him, concentrates its attention on the evils of bogus colleges
which interfere with the earnings of the music teacher, but
the members of the syndicate owning that paper who could
criticise music publishing methods if they liked, much to
the distaste of the publishing houses, preserve a policy of
silence. As nearly all the other musical periodicals, like
the Musical Times and Musical Record, are owned by pub-
lishers themselves, the individual composer, who is of little
use to the advertisement manager, has no channel through
which to air his wrongs.”
But we cannot agree with Mr. Caldwell in com-
paring the present musical piracy with the piracy
of works in the United States some years ago, and
a moment’s consideration will show his reason to
be false. It must be clear to anyone who has
studied the subject, that any literary, dramatic or
musical property can always be produced by the
pirate at a cheaper rate than it can be produced on
behalf of the owner of the copyright. The pirate
THE AUTHOR.
has merely to think of his profit on the cost of
production ; the legitimate publisher has to con-
sider the profit of the author, in addition to the
profit on the cost of production. Mr. Caldwell is,
no doubt, right in some of his deductions as to the
profit that is paid to the composer, as it is clear
from the frequent instances which come before the
Secretary of the Society, that the unfortunate com-
poser is in a much worse position than is the author
of literary and dramatic pieces, owing to his un-
willingness to join an organised body of defence,
which exists in the Society; but if the composer
obtained the full share of the profit of the work, the
outcome of his brain, it is not likely that the price
of music would be appreciably reduced to the
public. Mr. Caldwell should also remember that
the surest way of increasing the study of music is
by protecting adequately the producers of this
work. If one, who has within him the capacity of
a great composer, is to obtain a living wage, he
must receive some fair security for his labours.
This security, confirmed by Statute, must necessa-
rily raise the price of these labours to the public.
Mr. Caldwell states, with a precision which is
hardly justified : “ Piracy of musical composition
is due, therefore, to the same causes which at one
time produced piracy in the case of books, and
which, in the case of books, has been removed by
the issue of cheaper editions, at a price within the
reach of the general public.”
The piracy of musical compositions is not really
due to the same causes which brought about the
piracy of books in the United States. The piracy
of books in England never existed to a great
extent, and the piracy of books in the United
States only existed because there was no protective
law, and not for the reason put forward by Mr.
Caldwell, that they desired cheaper books on the
market. There are many other interesting remarks
in the minority report which have not been dealt
with, and there are many interesting remarks in
the evidence of Mr. James Frederick Willetts,
known as “The Pirate King,” who wishes to pose
as an altruist and public benefactor ; but it is hardly
worth while to deal with the question at great
length.
It was essential, however, that members of the
Society should comprehend fully some of the argu-
ments—fallacious though they be—which are still,
unfortunately, put forward to prevent remedial
legislation for the protection of copyright property.
There are, no doubt, many disputed points in
copyright law, arising from the different interests
of authors and publishers, but it is astonishing in
the twentieth century to see arguments soberly
put forward, which ought to have been laid in
their graves seventy years ago.
G. HoT.
THE PUBLISHERS’ ASSOCIATION.
——
HE Report of the Annual General Meeting
a of the Publishers’ Association was printed
too late to be inserted in the April number
of The Author. We are pleased to hear that Mr.
’ Reginald Smith, K.C., of Messrs. Smith, Elder and
Co., has been elected to the Presidency of the
Association. We congratulate Mr. Smith on his
honourable appointment, and the Association on
having secured so able a President.
There seems to have been, at the meeting and
during the past year, considerable work done in
dealing with the sale of educational books and the
question of preferential discounts to educational
houses. ‘The matter is one of great importance to
all writers of educational works.
We are pleased to see that the Publishers’ Asso-
ciation made a substantial grant to the expenses
of the defendants in the case of Aflalo and Cook v.
Lawrence and Bullen. Mr. Longman, in his speech,
said that the resulting judgment established a
principle of considerable importance to the publish-
ing trade. The Committee of the Authors’ Society
also considered the legal point important. The
fact that the Publishers’ Association supported the
defendants on the grounds put forward by their
President finally does away with the ill-considered
conclusion hastily arrived at by some members of
the trade, that the action, commenced by the
plaintiffs and supported by the Society, was
frivolous and vexatious,
In the Report are also issued the definitions of
some simple publishing terms, which it would be
useful for authors to remember :—
Inpression—A number of copies printed at any one
time. When a book is reprinted without change it
should be called a new “impression,’’ to distinguish
it from an “edition,’’ as defined below.
Edition. An impression in which the matter has under-
gone some change, or for which the type has been
re-set.
Re-issue.-—A republication at a different price, or in a
different form, of part of an impression which has
already been placed on the market.
It is exceedingly useful to have these explana-
tions authoritatively promulgated, and it is hoped
that they will be strictly enforced. We can-
not help, however, putting forward once again
that it would be still more advantageous if the
Association settled on the unit of an impression,
and insisted on the members adopting the unit
universally. Thus, if the unit was fixed at 1,000
copies, a limited issue of 500 copies would be half
an impression, a sale of 100,000 copies would be
100 impressions. If this rational course was
adopted, the trade would get rid of the absurdity
of an imprint on a book of “Third impression”
THE AUTHOR. 213
when only thirty copies had been sold. Such
action is not only ridiculous, but it constitutes a
mild fraud on the public.
—_———_<$*_1———_e———____
THE APRIL MAGAZINE CONTENTS.
LiveRARY, Dramatic, AND Musical
BLACKWOOD’S MAGAZINE.
Lord Acton’s Letters—The Scientific Historian in Theory
and Practice—Tacitus and his Translations in “ Musings
without Method.”
CONTEMPORARY REVIEW.
Lord Acton’s Letters. By Augustine Birrell, K.C,
Tshaikovski’s Operas. By A. E. Keeton.
CORNHILL MAGAZINE.
Sir Leslie Stephen. By Frederick Harrison.
Memories of “The Times.’’ By Alex. Innes Shand.
THE EDINBURGH REVIEW.
The Philosophy of Herbert Spencer.
Mr. Morley’s Life of Gladstone.
The Letters of Ernst Curtius.
The Letters of Horace Walpole.
Sir George Trevelyan on the American Revolution.
THE FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW.
Of the True Greatness of Thackeray. By H. H.
Statham.
Mr. Bodley on the Crown. By Justin McCarthy.
D’ Annunzio’s New Play. By May Bateman.
Letters on the Drama. Madame Navarro; Mrs.
Craigie.
INDEPENDENT REVIEW.
Lord Acton at Cambridge. By John Pollock.
Mr. Paul’s History of England. By Augustine Birrell,
K.C
“To Soria-Moria Castle.’’ By Edmund Garret,
MACMILLAN’S MAGAZINE,
Alfred Ainger. By the Master of Peterhouse.
THE MonTHLy REVIEW.
Edward Fitzgerald. By the late Whitwell Elwin.
The True Story of the Stratford Bust. By Mrs. Stopes.
THE New LIBERAL REVIEW.
The Rise of the Drama in Ireland. By John Campbell.
THe NINETEENTH CENTURY REVIEW.
The Place of Whistler. By Frederick Wedmore.
Aeschylus and Shakespeare. By the Rev. R. §. De
Courey Laffan.
THE QUARTERLY REVIEW.
Gabrielle d’Annunzio. By Henry James.
Leslie Stephen and his Works.
The Novels of 'homas Hardy.
Marco Polo and his followers in: Central Asia.
TEMPLE BAR.
On Browning in a Library. By the Rey. Archie F.
Wibling.
214
WARNINGS TO THE PRODUCERS
OF BOOKS.
BEDE
ERE are a few standing rules to be observed in an
agreement. There are four methods of dealing
with literary property :—
I. Selling it Outright.
This is sometimes satisfactory, if a proper price can be
obtained, But the transaction should be managed by a
competent agent, or with the advice of the Secretary of
the Society.
II. A Profit-Sharing Agreement (a bad form of
agreement).
In this case the following rules should be attended to:
(1.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro-
duction forms a part without the strictest investigation.
(2.) Not to give the publisher the power of putting the
profits into his own pocket by charging for advertisements
in his own organs, or by charging exchange advertise-
ments. Therefore keep control of the advertisements,
(3.) Not to allow a special charge for “ office expenses,”
unless the same allowance is made to the author.
(4.) Not to give up American, Colonial, or Continental
rights.
(5.) Not to give up serial or translation rights.
(6.) Not,to bind yourself for future work to any publisher.
As well bind yourself for the future to any one solicitor or
doctor !
III. The Royalty System.
This is perhaps, with certain limitations, the best form
of agreement. It is above all things necessary to know
what the proposed royalty means to both sides. It isnow
possible for an author to ascertain approximately the
truth. From time to time very important figures connected
with royalties are published in Zhe Author.
IY. A Commission Agreement.
The main points are :—
(1.) Be careful to obtain a fair cost of production.
(2.) Keep control of the advertisements.
(3.) Keep control of the sale price of the book.
General.
All other forms of agreement are combinations of the four
above mentioned.
Such combinations are generally disastrous to the author.
Neyer sign any agreement without competent advice from
the Secretary of the Society.
Stamp all agreements with the Inland Revenue stamp.
Avoid agreements by letter if possible.
The main points which the Society has always demanded
from the outset are :—
C1.) That both sides shall know what an agreement
means. :
@.) The inspection of those account books which belong
to the author. We are advised that this is a right, in the
nature of a common law right, which cannot be denied or
withheld.
(3.) Always avoid a transfer of copyright.
——_+—>—_
WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS.
og
EVER sign an agreement without submitting it to the
Secretary of the Society of Authors or some com-
petent legal authority.
2. It is well to be extremely careful in negotiating for
the production of a play with anyone except an established
manager,
THE AUTHOR.
3. There are three forms of dramatic contract for plays.
in three or more acts :—
(a.) Sale outright of the performing right. This
is unsatisfactory. An author who enters into
such a contract should stipulate in the contract
for production of the piece by a certain date
and for proper publication of his name on the
play-bills.
(b.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to
perform on the basis of percentages on
gross receipts. Percentages vary between 5
and 15 per cent. An author should obtain a
percentage on the sliding scale of gross receipts
in preference to the American system. Should
obtain a sum in advance of percentages. A fixed
date on or before which the play should be
performed.
(c.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to:
perform on the basis of royalties (i.c.. fixed
nightly fees). This method should be always
avoided except in cases where the fees are
likely to be small or difficult to collect. The
other safeguards set out under heading (0.) apply
also in this case.
4. Plays in one act are often sold outright, but it is
better to obtain a small nightly fee if possible, and a sum
paid in advance of such fees in any event. It is extremely
important that the amateur rights of one-act plays should
be reserved.
5. Authors should remember that performing rights can
be limited, and are usually limited, by town, country, and
time, This is most important.
6. Authors should not assign performing rights, but
should grant a licence to perform. The legal distinction is
of great importance. :
7. Authors should remember that performing rights in a
play are distinct from literary copyright. A manager
holding the performing right or licence to perform cannot
print the book of the words.
8. Never forget that United States rights may be exceed-
ingly valuable. They should never be included in English
agreements without the author obtaining a substantial
consideration.
9. Agreements for collaboration should be carefully
drawn and executed before collaboration is commenced.
10. An author should remember that production of a play
is highly speculative : that he runs a very great risk of
delay and a breakdown in the fulfilment of his contract.
He should therefore guard himself all the more carefully in
the beginning.
11. An author must remember that the dramatic market
is exceedingly limited, and that for a novice the first object
is to obtain adequate publication.
As these warnings must necessarily be incomplete, on
account of the wide range of the subject of dramatic con-
tracts, those authors desirous of further information
are reterred to the Secretary of the Society.
0
WARNINGS TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.
oe
ITTLE can be added to the warnings given for the
assistance of producers of books and dramatic
authors. It must, however, be pointed out that, as
a rule, the musical publisher demands from the musical
composer a transfer of fuller rights and less liberal finan-
cial terms than those obtained for literary and dramatic
property. The musical composer has very often the two
rights to deal with—performing right and copyright. He
THE AUTHOR.
should be especially careful therefore when entering into
an agreement, and should take into particular consideration
the warnings stated above.
——__—__—_—_—_+—>—_>—__—_
HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.
so
1. VERY member has a right toask for and to receive
advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-
lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his
business or the administration of his property. The
Secretary of the Society is a solicitor, but if there is any
special veason the Secretary will refer the case to the
Solicitors of the Society. _ Further, the Committee, if they
deem it desirable, will obtain counsel’s opinion. All this
without any cost to the member.
2, Remember that questions connected with copyright
and publishers’ agreements do not fall within the experi-
ence of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use
the Society.’
3. Send to the Office copies of past agreements and past
accounts, with a copy of the book represented. The
Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new
or old, for inspection and note. The information thus
obtained may prove invaluable.
4. Before signing any agreement whatever, send
the document to the Society for examination.
5. Remember always that in belonging to the Society
you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you
are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are
advancing the best interests of your calling in promoting
the independence of the writer, the dramatist, the composer.
6. The Committee have now arranged for the reception
of members’ agreements and their preser ration in a fire-
proof safé. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as
confidential documents to be read only by the Secretary,
who will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers :
—(1) To read and advise upon agreements and to give
advice concerning publishers. (2) To stamp agreements
in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep
agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to
agreements. Fuller particulars of the Society’s work
can be obtained in the Prospectus.
7, No contract should be entered into with a literary
agent without the advice of the Secretary of the Society.
Members are strongly advised not to accept without careful
consideration the contracts with publishers submitted to
them by literary agents, and are recommended to submit
them for interpretation and explanation to the Secretary
of the Society.
8. Many agents neglect to stamp agreements This
must be done within fourteen days of first execution. The
Secretary will undertake it on behalf of members.
9. Some agents endeavour to prevent authors from
referring matters to the Secretary of the Society; so
do some publishers. Members can make their own
deductions and act accordingly.
10. The subscription to the Society is £1 1s. per
annum, or £10 40s for life membership.
215
THE READING BRANCH.
— 1+
EMBERS will greatly assist the Society in this
branch of its work by informing young writers
of its existence. Their MSS. can be read and
treated as a composition is treated by a coach, he term
MSS. includes not only works of fiction, but poetry
and dramatic works, and when it is possible, under
special arrangement, technical and scientific works. The
Readers are writers of competence and experience. The
fee is one guinea.
oe
NOTICES.
—-—+—
TYNHE Editor of Zhe Author begs to remind members of
the Society that, although the paper is sent to them
free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a
very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great
many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest
5s. 6d. subscription for the year.
Communications for Zhe Author should be addressed to
the Offices of the Society, 39, Old Queen Street, Storey’s
Gate, §.W., and should reach the Editor not later than
the 21st of each month.
All persons engaged in literary work of any kind,
whether members of the Society or not, are invited to
communicate to the Editor any points connected with their
work which it would be advisable in the general interest to
publish.
— nl
Communications and letters are invited by the
Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on
no other subjects whatever. Every effort will be made to
return articles which cannot be accepted.
ge
The Secretary of the Society begs to give notice
that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post,
and he requests members who do not receive an
answer to important communications within two days to
write to him without delay. All remittances should be
crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery Lane, or be sent
by registered letter only.
++
LEGAL AND GENERAL LIFE ASSURANCE.
SOCIETY.
+
ENSIONS to commence at any selected age,
either with or without Life Assurance can
be obtained from this socieiy.
Full particulars can be obtained from the City
Branch Manager, Legal and General Life Assurance
Society, 158, Leadenhall Street, London, E.C.
AUTHORITIES.
19
N the month of May, 1905, the Spanish
I nation will celebrate the Tercentenary of the
production of Don Quixote.
To publish at this period an article on the
subject, and the sonnet, the reproduction of
which Mr. Austin Dobson has kindly sanctioned,
may seem to some anticipating events; but the
Spaniards were making arrangements for the fétes
in honour of this celebration so early as the end
of 1903. If the Spaniards are taking action we
musi not be behindhand. In a future number of
The Author we shall give full details of the pro-
posed fétes. The arrangements are in the hands
of a Special Commission, including among its
members the Mayor of Madrid, the Prime
Minister, and other influential people, and a
large sum has been voted towards the expenses.
It has always been a kindly jest against the
Spaniards that they put off everything till “ to-
morrow,” but in this case they seem to be taking
‘time by the fore-lock.”
WE regret to see in the March number of The
American Author notice that the periodical will
cease to exist with that issue. This must bea very
serious matter to all those who have wished for the
success of the American Authors’ Society. The
Editor states that “the periodiocal joins the long
phalanx of publications which have failed for lack
of financial backing.” This can only mean that
the majority of the Authors of the United States
have not joined the combination of their profession
as they should have done. What is the reason of
this? Perhaps we can give some explanation from
our own experience. For many years now we have
been endeavouring to obtain the cost of production
of different forms of American books. We have
applied frequently to the American Authors’
Society asking for information on this point,
but so far without success. When passing through
New York we had the honour of meeting the Secre-
tary and the President of the Society, and suggested
the advisability of issuing books on the same lines
as the English Society’s Cost of Production, and
Methods of Publishing, as on these two points was
based the whole system of authors’ profits. Is it
possible that the citizens of a nation like the United
States, who flatter themselves that they are so
go-ahead and possessed of such strong business
capacity, have shown themselves in the question of
authorship alone wanting in the power of combina-
tion, and lacking in the solution of the practical
issues. We sincerely hope the withdrawal of The
Amerwan Author is only temporary, and that at
THE AUTHOR.
no distant date, when the Authors’ Society shall
embrace all those whose names are constantly
swelling the ranks of writers, the periodical will
be started again under more healthy auspices.
WE regret to chronicle the death of Mr. Julian
Sturgis, who was a warm supporter of the Societ
and its aims, He was a subscriber of £50 to the
Pension Fund, and joined the Society in 1892.
—_1.—~»~—+ ___
SIR EDWIN ARNOLD.
—_— 1
N Sir Edwin Arnold, whose death took place
I in South Kensington on March 24th, English
literature has lost an ardent worker, and a
host of friends a personality whose charm was
appreciated best by those who had the privilege of
the most intimate acquaintance with it. Born in
June, 1832, the distinguished writer had thus nearly
completed his seventy-second year at the time of
hisdeath. Educated at King’s School, Rochester,
and King’s College, London, he won a scholarship
at Oxford, and it was there his taste for letiers
showed itself, almost his first essay in poetry, the
“Fall of Balshazzar,” winning the Newdigate
prize for English verse. His love for Oxford and
University College is indicated by the fact that
vnly two months ago, at the other extreme of a
strenuous life spent in the continuation of studies
to which Oxford gave him the first incentive, he
asked that his ashes, after cremation, might go
back and rest in her classic precincts.
After leaving College with a Master of Arts
degree, he was attached for a time to King
Edward’s school, Birmingham, and from thence,
with his wife and one young child, went out to
India as Principal of the Government Deccan
College at Poona. If Oxford had filled him with
the learning of Greece and Rome the East opened
his mind to the knowledge of still earlier civiliza-
tions. He took an instant and heart-whole delight
in a people whose ancient philosophies and beliefs
it is one of his best memorials to have done more
than any other Englishman to make intelligible to
his countrymen at home. “The Light of Asia,”
though not written till long afterwards, was the
outcome of actual contact with those to whom the
great epic is a living reality. It is undoubtedly
Sir Edwin Arnold’s chief work as a poet, yet it was
written not in the calm seclusion that would have
seemed essential to such a labour, but during the
stress of busy London life, and amongst scenes the
very antipode of those with which it deals.
After five years in India Sir Edwin returned to
THE AUTHOR.
England, and subsequently joined the staff of the
Daily Telegraph, working unceasingly for that
paper practically up to the day of his death, and
“ contributing to its columns an incalculable volume
of material, historical, descriptive, or imaginative,
and worthy to rank with the very best journalistic
work of its generation.”
A great traveller in all parts of the world, to him
to travel and write were inseparably connected.
Few of his books in this branch of literature have
been so popular as those upon Japan. He made
that charming land his own, and foresaw her place
amongst the nations long before alliances or
successful wars had awarded it to her. His third
wife was a Japanese lady, to whom it fell to
lighten the burden of his last days, a task accom-
plished with unswerving tenderness. In the course
of such a life, in the centre of politics and society,
it was inevitable Sir Edwin should make innumer-
able friendships, and the volume of his Memoirs
which is to appear shortly will be not the least
interesting of the many such books which have
appeared of late. At one time a keen sportsman,
and always a lover of nature and the country, Sir
Edwin, moved by the kindly precepts of the
religions he had studied, latterly put by rod and
gun and devoted himself to yachting, for which he
had a great fondness. None but those who knew
him intimately could value fully the gentleness of
his nature, the brightness of his outlook on life and
the future, or the immense stores of knowledge to
which even his books give but hasty and inadequate
expression. To such his loss is indeed irreparable.
The position that Sir Edwin Arnold held among
the writers of the day and the value and beauty of
his work has been dealt with so fully in the papers
that it would be superfluous to say anything more
in this short article. It must be added that he
was a member of the Society and Council since its
foundation.
It is sad at so short an interval to have to
chronicle the death of another of the earliest
members of the Society.
——__+—<_+____—__
SIR HENRY THOMPSON, BART.,
M.B.LOND., F.R.C.S.ENG.
——_— +
IR HENRY THOMPSON, whose death took
place on April 18th, after a few days’ illness,
wag one of the earliest members of the Society of
Authors. He joined almost on the foundation of
the Society, and showed genuine sympathy with
our efforts at a time when the scheme of our asso-
ciation was barely formulated, and when the support
of a man so well-known in artistic, literary, social
and scientific circles was especially valuable to us.
217
Sir Henry Thompson was born in Framlingham,
a small Suffolk town, where his father was long in
business. He was educated at a local Grammar
School, and elected rather late in life to be a
medical man, for he was twenty-eight years of age
when he entered University College, London, as a
medical student, and in the “forties” it was cus-
tomary for the medical man to commence his
curriculum at the age of sixteen or seventeen.
His University career was one of unmitigated
success. He took prizes and scholarships in most
subjects, graduated with honours at the earliest
opportunity, and immediately received a junior
appointment at University College Hospital. Suc-
ceeding within four years of obtaining his first
surgical diploma to a place on the staff of the
hospital, he was marked out for a career of excep-
tional brilliance, and he fulfilled his promise. He
was an admirable artist, heredity probably playing
a part here, for his mother was the daughter of
Samuel Medley, the portrait painter; he was also
the possessor of a clear literary style, and had a
logical way of arranging his knowledge. It is not
surprising, therefore, that his medical writings
were an immediate success, and as his hospital
work gave him full opportunities for perfecting his
practice in the special departments of surgery to
which his theories mainly related, he soon became
one of the best known surgeons in the world. He
operated upon the late King of the Belgians and
the late Emperor of France, and for at least a quarter
of a century his name was a synonym for the per-
fection of skill and resource in his particular branch
of operative surgery.
Sir Henry Thompson joined our body, however,
as an author of fiction, for, as is now well-known,
he was the writer, under the pseudonym of Pen
Oliver, of two novels, “ Charlie Kingston’s Aunt,”
and “ All But.” The first of these books achieved
considerable success, which it deserved, for it
contained an excellent situation, while it furnished
an accurate and interesting picture of the manners
of the London medical student in what may be
termed the mid-Victorian epoch. But as a painter
he was much more in his own groove than he was
asa novelist. His pictures, which for some years
were hung regularly in the Academy and some-
times in the Salon, were the result of careful
observation and skilled training; there is no
doubt that if his professional calling had failed
him his skill as an artist would have brought him
into prominence. As a host Sir Henry Thompson
was famous for his dinners of eight courses for
eight persons at eight o’clock, known as “ octaves.”
He was a skilled gastronomist, and until recently
knew every one in the literary, artistic, and
scientific worlds, and he gave as much thought to
the selection of the company at his table as to the
218
preparation of the food. He aimed at making his
‘“‘ octaves” as much a mental as a gustatory treat,
and invariably he hit his mark. :
Sir Henry Thompson was President of the
Cremation Society, a keen opponent of municipal
abuses, and an ardent automobilist, and his pen
was constantly active in the columns of The Times
or The Lancet, now praising modern locomotion,
now denouncing the crude methods of earth to
earth burial, and now calling attention to the
shortcomings of our sanitary authorities. Old age,
which came slowly upon him, was accompanied by
no abatement of ardour in his many pursuits;
rather, by bringing him leisure from his surgical
work, it left him more free to expend energy in
other and multifarious directions.
The Society of Authors has lost a useful friend
in this brilliant and many-sided man.
—— ee
THE TRUE SPIRIT OF DON QUIXOTE OF
MANCHA.
T is reserved for only the very greatest
| makers of fiction to create a character the
interest of whose individuality shall equal or
exceed the author’s. Dickens has done this; so
has Thackeray ; and, in a more conspicuous degree,
Cervantes. I do not know how Thackeray died ;
but I remember, one by one, the last moments of
Colonel Newcome. Most of us could write offhand
a biography of Don Quixote; but it takes a
specialist, with years of wearying research behind
him, to produce a biography of Cervantes. And
has not Argamasilla de Alba a wider fame as the
birthplace of the Sorrowful Knight than Alcala
de Henares as the birthplace of the Sorrowful
Novelist.
Many will think it late in the day to analyse
Don Quixote’s character with any critical or cor-
rective purpose. Nevertheless, it has been said
and echoed by the vulgar of all time that
Cervantes’ object in producing the Quijote
was to sweep away a certain class of literature.
Once more I protest against this fallacy. There is
no moral aim in Cervantes’ chapters, any more than
there is a moral aim in Shakespeare’s plays. No
work “with a purpose” could soar so high or
live so long. The aim is flawless portraiture,
the only base of all immortal art. Homer,
Velazquez, Dante, Cervantes, Shakespeare—serene,
dispassionate, punctilious portraiture denotes them
every one. The more the artist haggles over this
or that opinion, the more he subdivides his interest.
He pleads a selfish cause—his own. Notso if he
THE AUTHOR.
presents a portrait. Something of ourselves will
certainly be here, broad enough and bold enough
Therefore it is not his own _
for all to recognise.
selfishness that the author should indulge, but that
of his audience, offering them a fragment, more or __
less considerable, of their personal image. And we
are so inexorable in this selfish expectation that it
gives us greater pleasure to see our own vices
delineated, than the virtues of another.
The motive for the introduction of the books of
chivalry was technical, not moral.
Don Quixote’s exploits is the treeless, thinly-popu-
lated region of La Mancha, possessing at the most.
a wild Titanic beauty derived from emptiness and
space, but never from diversity. It is nota region
fitted for adventure. Similarly the Manchegans
are not—are not reported tc have been—a com-
munity of adventure-seekers. To frame a narrative
out of these chilling factors demands some stimulus
extraordinary, beyond the people and the place.
This stimulus was provided by the books of
chivalry, a means of making incident, where inci-
dent, under normal circumstances, was sheerly
inconceivable. Don Quixote must plunge into
adventure ; yet if he lead a regular Manchegan
life no possible adventure can encounter him. In
a little world whose motto is tranquillity, only the
criminal or the madman can tweak society’s nose
and make a veritable stir. The criminal in this
case was inadmissible. Therefore Don Quixote
must be mad ; just mad enough to turn the hum-
drum upside down, but never incoherent to the
point ot idiocy. He must, in fact, be cursed (or
blessed) with just a half or quarter madness, such
as most of us are credited with, His mania, too,
had better be grandiose and kindly. And so with
aquiline perception Cervantes pounced upon a
fashionable and attractive madness, a Spanish
megalom: nia, the craze for knight-errantry. Here
were pa‘. .os, humour, energy, in abundant store,
together vith vital interest in the portraiture for
manya paniard and non-Spaniard to behold their
own ru.zction. Such, I am positive, was the
genesis of Don Quixote’s “ eccentricity.”
Apart from detail of this nature it is no slur
upon the Spaniards to say that Don Quixote is a
permanent likeness of their inmost shape and
quality. The church and the sword, or perhaps I
had better say the monastery and the sword, have
created between them the whole of Spanish history.
What is Don Quixote but a joint embodiment of
the ascetic and the warrior? He wages war; he
worships women ; but his warfare, like his gallantry,
is that of a Sir Galahad :—
““ My good blade carves the casques of men,
My tough lance thrusteth sure,
My strength is as the strength of ten,
Because my heart is pure.
The theatre of 7
THE AUTHOR. 219
« How sweet are looks that ladies bend
On whom their favours fall !
For them I battle till the end,
To save from shame and thrall.”
All women in Don Quixote’s eyes are equally
beautiful, equally supramundane. All of us
at some time have attempted to believe the same.
Here, then, are lines of universal portraiture ; and
as we titter at Don Quixote’s madness, we stumble
with asudden cry upon our own.
Returning to the eminently Spanish features of
our hero. Don Quixote, regarded as typical of
Spain, displays to us a nation whose magnanimity
is equalled by her roughness. The singular im-
pulse marking the crusader and the knight-errant,
particular apostles of those only objects of peren-
nial worship, God and woman—has lasted longer
in Castile than anywhere, developing, throughout
that region and between the eighth and eighteenth
centuries, into an over-ripeness highly detrimental
to the commonwealth. Even now this spirit in
Spain is not extinct. Manuel Bueno asserts with
perfect truth that his countrymen are at once
generous and inhuman. The paradox, borne out
by Fouillée and other authorities, applies with
obvious fitness to Don Quixote. I would suggest,
however, that the Spaniard’s generosity is older
and less eradicable than his inhumanity ; witness,
once more, Don Quixote. The baser quality is the
fruit of centuries of fighting. The nobler is
apparently indigenous.
Then, as the complement of Don Quixote the
Spaniard, we have Don Quixote the brother of us
all, or even (dropping modesty and clinging to our
comfortable classic*) our very self. His character
is therefore regional and extraterritorial. Compare
him in this aspect with Hamlet, miscalled the
Dane. Both fragile Hamlet and the fragile
champion of La Mancha are exquisitely human,
but only Don Quixote is exquisitely national
besides. Hamlet is one of us; Don Quixote one
of us, and also one of our friends the Spaniards.
To this extent Don Quixote’s is the fuller portrait.
He has been described as “the emblem of faith.”
Tf this be so, Hamlet is just as much “ the emblem
of doubt”; and faith and doubt between them
keep the world a-spin. But faith and doubt in
these two instances are carried to an ecstasy, and
want of mental balance is the outcome. We must
not doubt, we must not hope—except with modera-
tion. Is it not insignificant that of these two
* “Whilst [| study to find how I am a Microcosm, or
little World, I find myself something more than the great.
There is surely a piece of Divinity in us, something that
was before the Elements, and owes no homage unto the
Sun. Nature tells me I am the Image of God, as well as
Scripture: he that understands not thus much, hath not
his introduction or first lesson, and is yet to begin the
Alphabet of man.”—Religio Medici.
characters, Hamlet and Don Quixote, who stand
together upon the very pinnacle of fiction, one
should be mad and the other mad enough to be
suspected of madness? This sometimes prompts
me to suppose that only the insane is worth
recording in the chronicles of human thought.
“What is beyond?” is the question which Don
Quixote always asks. The same question is always
on the lips and in the heart of Hamlet. But
where Don Quixote asks with confidence, the other
asks with dread. Otherwise, what have they not
in common? “A virgin heart in work and will”
belongs to both. Hamlet’s words are very
frequently as “ wild and whirling ” as Don Quixote’s
deeds ; but the ambitions and aspirations of either
are equally sound and equally charitable.
How often, as I roamed across La Mancha, did
I believe myself to contemplate Don Quixote in
the flesh and in the soul. How noble was his
forehead, how fearless and benign his glance, his
upward gaze how earnest and inspired, how lucid
and majestic his address. Each of these aspects
and emotions came upon me with a jewel crisp-
ness :—
Parea ciascuna rubinetto, in cui
Raggio di sole ardesse si acceso,
Che ne’ miei occhi rifrangesse lui.
As to the scenes Don Quixote has immor-
talized—somnolent Argamasilla, the mournfal
Cave of Montesinos, the sedgy meres, with their
Arthurian sadness, of Ruidera—these seem to stand
before me even now, detached with meteor clear-
ness from the firmament of memory, and crystal-
lized by time and truth into unclouding splendour.
LronarpD WILLIAMS.
-——<—_
DON QUIXOTE.*
ao
EHIND thy pasteboard, on thy battered hack,
Thy lean cheek striped with plaster to and
fro,
Thy long spear levelled at the unseen foe,
‘And doubtful Sancho trudging at thy back,
Thou wert a figure strange enough, good lack !
To make Wiseacredom, both high and low,
Rub purblind eyes, and—having watched thee go—
Dispatch its Dogberrys upon thy track :
Alas ! poor Knight ! alas ! poor soul possest !
Yet would to-day when Courtesy grows chill,
And life’s fine loyalties are turned to jest,
Some fire of thine might burn within us still !
Ah, would but one might lay his lance in rest,
And charge in earnest . . . were it but a mill!
Austin Dosson.
* Printed from the last Edition, 1902, of Mr. Austin
Dobson's collected poems, with his kind permission.— Ep,
220
THE ANNUAL DINNER.
—1—<—+—_
(PNHE Annual Dinner of the Incorporated
Society of Authors, was held on April 20th,
at’ the Hotel Cecil, the Chairman of the
Committee of Management, Mr. Douglas Freshfield,
occupying the chair. Nearly 150 members and
guests were present, the latter including Lord
Alverstone, Lord Chief Justice of England, and
Sir W. B. Richmond, R.A., who occupied seats to
the right and left of the Chairman, the Right Rev.
the Lord Bishop of Bristol, Admiral Edward
Field, C.B., Sir Harry Johnston, Major Darwin,
Mr. Appleton, the well-known New York pub-
lisher, Mr. W. Heinemann, and many others. At
the conclusion of dinner, for which grace was
said by the Bishop of Bristol, the usual loyal
toasts were duly honoured, and the Chairman rose
} to propose success to the Society, for which he
suggested a more appropriate name might have
been “The. Society for the Protection of Authors,”
or even ‘“ The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty
to Authors,” since it was concerned with the legal
and business rather than with the literary aspects
of authorship. They were equally ready to protect
the rights of a writer on golf or of an immortal
poet. Their Committee discussed not matters’ of
style and taste, but of accounts and agreements.
Business had been said to be the bane of author-
ship. But this was an antiquated and obsolete
view. The days of Grub Street were long past,
and no one now seriously held that it was incon-
sistent with the dignity of authorship to write for
money. With regard to the relations of author
and publisher, the public was apt to pay too much
regard to the pecuniary risk run by the publisher,
| and to disregard the value of the capital introduced
| by the writer, consisting of that which the average
| common-sense man did not so much esteem, and
i perhaps did not keep a stock of—brains. / Mr.
Freshfield went on to refer to the decision in
» Aflalo vy. Lawrence and Bullen in the House of
_ Lords. The satisfactory point about this decision
was that, although it had entailed heavy expenses
to the Society, it had finally determined a doubtful
and very important question in copyright law. In
arriving at this result it was a satisfaction to the
Committee to feel that they had been acting in
co-operation with the Publishers’ Association,
which, recognising the importance of the point
involved, had, it was announced, contributed to
the costs of the defendants. While he in no way
presumed to question the decision arrived at, Mr.
Freshfield thought that as to one matter of fact
the Law Lords had gone astray. It was surely
unfair to argue that the mere fact that a contri-
butor to a magazine or encyclopedia received a
THE AUTHOR:
snbstantial sum for his article was evidence that
he intended to part with all his rights in it. The
amount of the return the publisher might reason.
ably expect, or had actually obtained, from the
original periodical publication, as well as the
amount paid down by him, was an_ essential
element in the consideration of the bargain. Re-
ferring to the present multiplication of middlemen
in literature, Mr. Freshfield suggested that the
main work to be done by the Author’s Society was
to make the best of the present system of book
production. He looked back with regret to the
eighteenth century. In those days, under the old
system of subscriptions, the author went round to
his friends. He collected their money, and he had
not to wait twelve months to get it. Publishers
and booksellers had not then been differentiated,
and he simply went to the publisher and had his
book printed and distributed. Nowadays there
was the printer, the illustrator, the bookbinder,
and after they had passed by them they had to
reckon with the literary agent, the publisher, and
the bookseller. All of them must make their
profit, and he did not say they made an exorbitant
profit. Fortunes were not made by publishers at
all to be compared with the great fortunes that
were made in other businesses. ‘The Dictionary
of National Biography ” was published not with
the profits of publishing, but, as Mr. Murray Smith
often used to avow, with the profits of Apollinaris.
Mr. Freshfield next made allusion to a recent
article on the subject of Literary Agents in The
Author, and expressed a wish to see a reply to it
which should indicate the proper sphere of such
agency, which he understood had been found
serviceable by many distinguished authors, though
it was no doubt open to abuse. He also touched
upon the correspondence concerning the “ ghost”
in literary work, pointing out that the system of
making use of a “ ghost ” for latin verses was one
of very old standing in public schools, where the
employer, when discovered, was likely to receive at
the hands of the headmaster a summary lesson in
{literary morals. /In conclusion, Mr. Freshfield paid
/ a tribute to the honourable dealings of the better
i class of publishers, and reverting to his comparison
between the Society and that for the protection of
children, suggested that while many authors are
in their business dealings very like children, pub-
lishers might be considered like parents, as defined
by a member of the rising generation, as ‘‘ good on
the whole, but the better for being looked after.”
The toast of the Society was replied to by Mr.
Sidney Lee, who alluded early in his speech to the
confidence of all members in the Committee and in
the Secretary, as carrying on the traditions of the
founder of the Society, Sir Walter Besant. He
also referred with satisfaction to the decision in
THE AUTHOR.
the Aflalo case as settling a doubtful legal point.
In touching upon the relations between author and
publisher, Mr. Lee spoke of the Committee as
exercising judicial functions, and pointed out that
publishers were not the ogres that the fancies of
some authors painted them, whereas there existed
arrogant humbugs among authors. The author's
grievance, he observed, might really be against the
reading public, but that it was for the interest of
both author and publisher to encourage the main-
tenance of a high standard of literary work.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle proposed the health of
the guests in a vigorous speech, declaring that as
a man was known by his friends so a society was
known by its guests. The Author’s Society had as
its guests the Lord Chief Justice of England and
Sir William Richmond, the former of whom was a
lawyer, an author, and a sportsman, whose fair
play and ruthless honesty recently displayed in
connection with the Alaska arbitration, would
make-the name of Lord Alverstone descend as a
peer of those great men who made his office famous.
With regard to Sir William Richmond, Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle pointed out that he had turned his
back upon a life of ease and material gain in order
to serve the community upon the London County
Council, a body of which it might be said that
none on earth needed the presence of an artist
more, if London was to cease being a city of mean
streets and lost opportunities, and to become the
greatest city that the world had ever seen. In
conclusion, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle observed that
a schoolboy had defined ‘“‘elocution” as “an
American method of putting criminals to death,”
and suggested this as a reason for not prolonging
hisspeech. With the names of guests mentioned he
associated those of the Bishop of Bristol, Admiral
Field, Sir Harry Johnston, and Major Darwin.
Before Lord Alverstone rose to reply for the
guests, the Chairman read a friendly message which
he had justreceived from the Institute of Printers and
Kindred Trades, who were dining in another room,
and he informed the society that he had returned
suitable good wishes and congratulations in reply.
The Lord Chief Justice, after thanking Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle for the complimentary terms
in which reference had been made to his own
judicial and other public services, expressed his
admiration of and gratification at the manner with
which the Authors’ Society regarded its litigation,
and particularly the late adverse decision in the
House of Lords. He expressed himself wishful
that all litigants might accept their defeats in the
law courts in the same calm spirit. One of his
predecessors, Lord Coleridge, had said that it was
the duty of a judge to dismiss all suitors from his
court wquos placatosque, and he should himself look
forward in the future to seeing both sides satisfied
221
because a point of law had been settled and
established. His Lordship expressed his pleasure
and interest in social intercourse with authors,
dwelling upon the distinction between the lawyer's
task in dealing with facts, having but little
scope even in advocacy for the play of his fancy,
and the work of the author, who could give his
imagination free play.
Sir W. B. Richmond, K.C.B., R.A., observed
that he had trained himself for the position of
Alderman which he had accepted upon the London
Council, by serving first upon the Council in his
borough, and spoke of the work that he had done
in combating Philistinism. Referring to the
decoration of St. Paul’s, he declared that if crimes
in that connection were charged against him the
Bishop of Bristol, who sat near him, had been a
culprit with him. With regard to the cry of
“ Art for Art’s Sake,” Sir William avowed him-
self unable to understand its meaning, but he
deprecated any doctrine that one art should divorce
another. Alluding to any demand that might be
made that artists should paint “on lines of highest
technique,” Sir William Richmond likened the
stress laid upon technique, in art criticism, to
judging the author of a book by his handwriting.
He dwelt on the inspiration derived by artists
from the Bible, from the works of Homer,
Sophocles, Virgil, Shakespeare, Milton, and other
classic writers. He also alluded in complimentary
terms to the subjects for his skill which the artist
might find in the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
“ Great authors,” he said, “ stimulate painters with
ideas.”
In proposing the health of the Chairman, the
Bishop of Bristol protested against Mr. Freshfield
posing as merely a business man. He was, his
lordship said, a distinguished author who, like Sir
Leslie Stephen, began writing through his desire
to describe the Alps. His volumes upon the
Caucasus were among the “ heaviest” books in his
(the Bishop of Bristol’s) library, but there was not
a dull page among them, and he had recently added
to them an excellent description of the Himalaya.
Mr. Freshfield, in reply, regretted that the Pre-
sident of the Society, Mr. George Meredith, should
be prevented by ill health from taking the chair,
and expressed his thanks to the company for the
kindness they had shown to him as a substitute.
In excusing himseif from prolonging the evening
by anything but a brief speech, he mentioned that
at a previous dinner of the Society he had over-
heard one lady author say to another on her way
from the dining hall, “ My dear, [am nearly dead,”
to which the other had answered, “I am quite.”
Mr. Freshfield had no desire to diminish the number
of the Society’s Members in the manner indicated,
and he accordingly invited those present to adjourn
222
to the next room, where the usual conversazione
was held, and where the rest of a highly successful
evening was spent.
The following members and guests were present :
Madame Albanesi, W. W. Appleton, E. A. Arm-
strong, Miss Agnes Armstrong, A. W. a’Beckett,
The Rev. F. W. Bamford, Robert Bateman, Mrs.
Beville, Miss Helen Boddington, Miss Philippa
Bridges, Clifford Borrer, Oscar Browning, Mrs.
Mona Caird, F. Carrel, Miss Challice, A. R.
Colquhoun, Mrs. Colquhoun, Sir William Charley,
Mrs. E. M. Davy, Miss Jean Delaire, Miss Sarah
Doudney, C. F. Dowsett, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,
Miss O’Connor Eccles, Mrs. Edison (“ George
Frost’), T. Mullett Ellis, W. B. Home Gall,
»R. Garnett, C.B., Mrs. Aylmer Gowing, Horace G.
Groser, Lady Glover, A. P. Graves, Francis
Gribble, Mrs. Gribble, Major Arthur Haggard,
Major-General Sir Reginald Hart, K.C.B., A.
Hope Hawkins, Miss Henslowe, Miss Con-
stance Hill, Mrs. Katherine Tynan Hinkson, Mrs.
Willoughby Hodgson, H. Martin Holman, Miss
M. C. Home, Mrs. Humphreys (“ Rita’’), The Rev.
Henry N. Hutchinson, Miss Ionides, Scarboro
Johnson, Mrs. Jordan, C. A. Kelly, G. T. Knight,
Mrs. Knight, Sidney Lee, Robert J. Lees, Mrs.
Low, Mrs. Belloc Lowndes, ‘‘ Maarten Maartens,”
Miss M. M. Macpherson, Miss Constance Maud,
Athol Maudsley, Mrs. Maudsley, E. K. Muspratt,
E. P. Oppenheim, Louis N. Parker, 8. F. Pells,
Mrs. Perrin, Major Douglas Phillott, C. Harvard
Pierson, Lionel Portman, Jaakoff Prelooker, G. W.
Prothero, Miss Lucy Redpath, Sir W. B. Richmond,
K.C.B., Mrs. Reeves (‘Helen Mathers”), Emil
Reich, A. Rogers, Miss Rossi, “ Leicester Romayne,”
William Royle, C. M. Russell, Miss May Sinclair,
Prof. W. W. Skeat, LL.D., Mrs. Michael Smith,
Mrs. Isabel Smith, Miss Hannah Stanton, A. A.
Strong, F. Stroud, Miss Stroud, Arthur J. Thomas,
G. Herbert Thring, Mrs. Thring, Herbert Trench,
Mrs. Alec Tweedie, Miss E. Underdown, H. Faure
Walker, Mrs. Faure Walker, Percy White, “ Dolf
Wyllarde,” R. Whiteing, and W. Wellington
Young.
9
“WHAT’S IN A NAME?”
1
HERE is no copyright in the name of a book
or play. It does not form part of the thing
copyrighted, which is the “composition,”
a.¢., the play or the book.
In the year 1881 the Judges of the Court of
Appeal held that no one could seize upon a few
words of the English language and create a
monopoly in them by saying that thenceforth
nobody else could apply them publicly as the name
or description or label of another composition.
THE AUTHOR.
Such few words are not capable of giving rise to
any proprietary rights such as copyright involves,
But, and it is obviously a large But, the ordinary
common law doctrine of fraud or misrepresentation
applies, that is to say, according to the technical
phrase of the common law an action of “ deceit”
will lie, wherever one man tries to pass off his goods
as if they were another’s. For example, if a book
or a play by A.has acquired a market value (or draws
the public) and is known to the public by a certain
name, X., then B. cannot use the name X. in such
a way as to induce the public to come and buy or
see his own, a different, book or play, under the
belief that it is the well-known X.
You will observe that it is an essential fact in —
such a case that the particular book or play by A.,
named X., has acquired already a trade reputation
with the public. who identify it by the name X.
The result is that when two or more books or
plays are brought out at the same, or practically
about the same time, under the same title, none of
them can stop the others from using that title ;
for in the early stages there can be no public repu-
tation grown round any of them. That was the
case which came before the Court of Appeal, where
two serial tales appeared both in the same year,
entitled ‘‘Splendid Misery,” one being by Miss
Braddon.
With a play, no doubt, if it were a success,
the public reputation would grow round it, and
become attached (as part of its “ goodwill’) very
rapidly. But if a play be a failure, I take it that
anybody can always produce another under the
same name, for the whole doctrine of “ deceit ” or
“* passing off” could not apply in such a case.
When a play from its age or from its inferiority
has no market reputation to draw the public it is
obvious that no one who uses its name for another
work is trying thereby to trade upon the reputation
of the prior play.
If two plays appeared about the same time at
West End London theatres by authors of. equal
fame or equally unknown, under the same title—
although it might be an inconvenient thing, no
action would lie—in the absence, that is to say, of
any other evidence of “ deceit ” or of desire on the
part of the less successful venture to create confu-
sion in the public mind between the two plays.
When the older play had a well-established
market reputation attaching to it—which might
accrue very rapidly—it would clearly be a risky
business to bring out a new play under the same
title, for the public would be sure to confuse the two,
and the author of number 2 could hardly prove
the innocence of his intentions in using that title.
Between new plays a very slight difference in
title would clearly prevent confusion.
W. S. SHERRINGTON.
THE AUTHOR.
CORRESPONDENCE.
—_1——+
Tas New DEPARTURE IN EpITING.
Drar?Str,—Will you allow me a few lines to
reply to M.P.’s letter in the April Author on “ The
New Departure in Editing ?”
In the first place neither of the phrases which
he quotes—* Feeble in plot” and “ Weak in style”
—appears in the printed form which we send with
returned manuscripts : and in the second place,
our editorial comment 7s welcomed, as our corre-
spondence testifies, by many hundreds of writers
who have submitted stories for our consideration.
It is difficult to understand M.P.’s attitude ;
have editors been unkind to him ; is he an unsuc-
cessful aspirant to literary fame ? I do not know.
But I feel sure of one thing. No “self respecting
writers ” (to use his own phrase) would wish to
associate themselves with his views.
A person who describes as impertinent a sugges-
tion which, whatever its merits, was conceived in
the interests of writers and is undoubtedly appreci-
ated by them : who deliberately misquotes, or who ©
does not take the trouble to read the document
which he is criticising: and who speaks dis-
paragingly of the stories published in magazines to
which every author of repute is contributing, has
certainly little claim for consideration at the hands
of either author or editor.
Yours faithfully,
Tue Epitor,
Pearson’s Magazine.
—1— 1 —
Wuat’s In A NAME?
Sir,—The pages of The Author have already
chronicled certain views upon the important
subject of the ownership of book-titles. Those
interested in the matter—and who of us is not ?
—-should refer to the October and December, 1896,
and May, 1898, numbers of this journal, wherein
sundry defensive methods similar to those now pro-
posed by Miss Mary Cholmondeley were put forward.
“(Can anything be done?” this lady aptly
enquires. The passage of years has increased
rather than lessened the difficulties of a solution.
I imagine, however, the idea of a registration
bureau of some sort founded on the lines indicated
still finds most favour ; with, presumably, a time
limit for the shelter of any bantling which may be
catalogued.
It certainly does seem hard that all the labour
expended upon selecting an appropriate attractive
name for a work in process of construction may
become liable to wreckage through an unfortunate
conflict of choice. The experience of many writers
must point to vexatious collisions of this nature ;
223
in my own humble way I have been the victim of
mishap. be ee
It will be wise, therefore, to seek a safe remedy
for one of the by no means minor trials which
beset the paths of authorship. Union is strength.
Combined effort should surely result in the dis-
covery of some satisfactory scheme for the relief of
a troubled community.
Grcin CLARKE.
—-—>—+—
Srr,—I have adopted the above title, not because
I intend to answer the question which it embodies,
but because 1 propose to deal with some of the
contents of Mary Cholmondeley’s communication
under that heading in the April issue of The
Author.
In that are raised, among others, the questions of
how to ascertain whether a title is new ; whether
it is possible to institute a register of the titles of
books, to which all new ones should be added ; and
whether it is possible for arrangements to be made
for securing a title in advance of the publication
of the work, on payment of a fee.
All of these questions are intimately connected
with those of Registration of Copyright and the
management of our National Library ; and, in
what follows, I confine myself to books and to the
British Isles.
The suggestion of securing a title in advance of
publication was mentioned in 7’%e Author of June,
1894 (p. 6), as having been made by Mr. George
Haven Putnam. It is one which could very easily
be carried out if the chaos which, in this country,
goes by the name of copyrighting were reduced to
system.
Such a proposed new title would, of course,
need to be entered in a register, and that register
would (likewise, of course) need to be kept at the
office of registration. ‘The office at which pro-
yisional copyright is thus to be secured would
need, of course, to be the Copyright Registry, or
Office; and, to enable the registrar to know
whether any proposed title were new, he would
need to be able to consult the register of titles
already used.
At present there is no such register ; there is
only a list of those titles which have been regis-
tered at Stationers’ Hall, and the British Museum
catalogue. Now, Stationers’ Hall, where copy-
rights are registered, is not a government institu-
tion, but the head-quarters of the Company of
Stationers, to whom the registering of copyright
has been delegated, and it has no other means of
ascertaining what title is new than from its own
registers, which are not consulted unless the
applicant makes special payment therefor. The
British Museum catalogue is an author’s, and not a
224
title-catalogue—except in the case of anonymous
works—and search therein for a title is, therefore,
extremely difficult.
For the purposes of copyright in this country,
registration of a work (which would, of course,
include the title) is not necessary ; copyright comes
into being from the mere fact of publication; neither
is it necessary, to secure copyright, to deposit a
copy of any work either at the Copyright Registry
or at the National Library. Consequently, many
works are not entered on the copyright register,
although copies of them are to be found in the
British Museum ; and, also, many works are not
sent to the British Museum, because, although the
delivery of a copy of all British-published books
thereat is by law compulsory, there is such laxity
in enforcing the law, that advantage is taken of it
not to deliver them.
There is, thus, no complete catalogue of British-
published books.
What is wanted to remedy this state of affairs
is, first of all, that the Copyright Registry be made
a branch of the National Library, and the registers
of books in possession of the Company of Stationers
be transferred to the British Museum. The
second thing required is that the British Museum
compile a titles-catalogue which, besides containing
all the titles in the Stationers Company’s registers
and in its own catalogue, should contain those of
all books known to have been published in the
British Isles, whether in the library or not. Those
not in the library would be easy distinguishable
from those present by the absence of a press-mark.
The third thing required is that, to secure copy-
right, registration of the work and the copyright-
owner’s name, at the National Library, should be
compulsory on the day of publication ; and that,
at the time of registration, there should be delivered
at the Copyright Registry (which would be the
National Library) a copy of the work registered.
No copyright should exist in any work published
in this country unless those two conditions be
fulfilled, and any one should be at liberty to
reprint and sell such British-published works as
had not been thus dealt with.
A further condition, in the case of an anonymous
work, should be the depositing, at the time of
registration, a sealed envelope containing the
writer’s name, which, unless permission be given
previously, should be revealed at the expiration of,
say, fifty years, or at the writer’s death.
No charge should be made in the first instance
for registration of the copyright, the book being
regarded as its equivalent in value ; but charges
might be made for a certified copy of any entry ;
for the transference of a copyright ; and, where it
is desired to register a title in advance, for an
examination of the register.
THER AUTHOR.
By the above-suggested means the ownership of
the copyrights of all British-published books would
always be beyond dispute, and all British-published
books and their titles would find their way auto-
matically into the National Library and its
catalogue.
As the novelty or otherwise of a title would,
thus, be instantly ascertainable, an outcome of this
proposed plan could easily be the registration, in
a separate register, of new titles, in advance of
publication, for a period of, say, one year, on pay-
ment of, say, one guinea; and the ability, to
secure a title temporarily would be a great con-
venience to many writers, besides being a source
of revenue to the Copyright Registry.
The completing, so far as possible, the list of
British-published works, would, I believe, help
largely to complete a national collection of them ;
and to have, as nearly as possible, a complete
collection of British-published books is, it seems to
me, one of the chief functions of a British National
Library.
Huprert Hags.
——*——+—
A PLEA FoR PEDANTRY.
Sir,—I have been interested to see the mention
of “that terrible compound whatever” in your
correspondent’s letter under the above title. I
am well aware that the word is under a ban. But
I must confess that I have never understood the
exact rationale of the ban. And I sometimes
doubt whether those who are most inexorable in
enforcing it themselves know exactly what it
means. Does it mean that not whatever but what-
soever is the correct form? Or does it mean,
for this is what some of the expressions used seem
to imply, that whatever is simply a vulgar equiva-
lent of what? But whilst whatever and whatsoever
are evidently interchangeable, it seems to me that
there is the same distinction between what and
whatever as between where and wherever, or between
the Latin guod and quodcunque. And I think it
would require some courage, or ignorance, to assert
that quod and quodcunqgue have identical meanings.
Of course to use whatever for what is a blunder ;
but it is not an equal blunder to use what for
whatever. When Rossetti (“House of Life,”
Sonnet XLVII. 9) writes :—
But now, whatever while the soul is fain
To list that wonted murmur—
it is evident that whatsoever might (if the verse
would admit it) be substituted for whatever, but
what would alter the meaning. 1 too “ am not an
expert,” but I wish that one of your readers who is
would kindly make the situation logically plain.
ANOTHER MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY.
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The Author, Vol. 14 Issue 08 (May 1904)
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<em>The Author</em>, Vol. 14 Issue 08 (May 1904)
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Che Huthbor.
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors.
Monthly.)
FOUNDED BY SIR WALTER BESANT.
Vou. XITV.—No. 7
TELEPHONE NUMBER :
374 VICTORIA.
TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS :
AUTORIDAD, LONDON.
—————_+——¢
NOTICES.
Boe
OR the opinions expressed in papers that are
signed or initialled the authors alone are
responsible. None of the papers or para-
graphs must be taken as expressing the opinion
of the Committee unless such is especially stated
to be the case.
Tue Editor begs to inform members of the
Authors’ Society and other readers of The Author
that the cases which are from time to time quoted
in The Author are cases that have come before the
notice or to the knowledge of the Secretary of the
Society, and that those members of the Society
who desire to have the names of the publishers
concerned can obtain them on application.
es
List of Members.
Tue List of Members of the Society of Authors
published October, 1902, at the price of 6d., and
the elections from October, 1902, to July, 1903, as
a supplemental list, at the price of 2d., can now be
obtained at the offices of the Society.
They will be sold to members or associates of
the Society only.
os
The Pension Fund of the Society.
Tue Trustees of the Pension Fund met at the
Society’s Offices on the 19th of February, and
having gone carefully into the accounts of the
fund, decided to purchase £250 London and North
Western 3% Debenture Stock. Accordingly, the
investments of the Pension Fund at present
: os XIV.
Aprit ist, 1904.
[PRicE SIXPENCE.
standing in the names of the Trustees are as
follows.
This is a statement of the actual stock; the
money value can be easily worked out at the current
price of the market :—
Wonsolg2t £1000 0 0
Weocal oaus ©... 500 0 0
Victorian Government 8 % Consoli-
dated Inscribed Stock ............... 291 19 11
War loan <0... 201 9 8
London and North Western 3 °% Deben-
MUTE SOCK 250 0 O
Oba eS 2243 9 2
Subscriptions from October, 1903.
£s.d.
Nov. 13, Longe, Miss Julia. ; - 0.900
Dec. 16, Trevor, Capt. Philip 0. 5 0
1904.
Jan. 6, Hills, Mrs. C. H 075 0
Jan. 6, Crommelin, Miss 010 0
Jan. 8, Stevenson, Mrs. M. E. 0 5 0
Jan. 16, Kilmarnock, The Lord . 010 0
Feb. 5, Portman, Lionel . : ~ 1 0.0
Feb. 11, Shipley, Miss Mary ‘ ~ 0 5 0
Diiring, Mrs. . ; - 0 5 0
Francis Claude de la Roche . 0.50.0
Donations from October, 1903.
Oct. 27, Sturgis, Julian : .50 0 0
Noy. 2, Stanton, V. H. : : - dO 0
Nov. 18, Benecke, Miss Ida. : . 1:0 0
Noy. 23, Harraden, Miss Beatrice 5 0 0
Dec. Miniken, Miss Bertha M. M.. 0 5 0O
1904.
Jan. 4, Moncrieff, A. R. Hope . . oo 0 0
Jan. 4, Middlemas, Miss Jean . ~ 0 10 20
Jan. 4, Witherby, The Rev. C. . 0 5 0
Jan. 6, Key, The Rev. S. Whittell 0. 5.0
Jan. 14, Bennett, Rev. W. K.,D.D. . 015 0
Jan. 2, Roe, Mrs. Harcourt : , 010 6
Feb. 11, Delaire, Miss Jeanne . . 0 10 0
THE AUTHOR.
FROM THE COMMITTEE.
——
HE March meeting of the Committee was
held at the offices of the Society on Monday,
March 7th.
Twenty-six members and associates were elected,
making the total number of elections for the current
year 78. ‘There is no sign that the steady increase
in the Society’s numbers is falling off. The number
of fresh members who have joined during the past
three months of the current year is in excess of the
number for the same period during the past three
years.
; ‘A letter from the Secretary of the United States
Copyright Association was submitted to the Com-
mittee, The Secretary of the Association desires
a report from our Society on the disadvantages of
the present United States Copyright law, but in
his letter excludes the question of printing in the
United States which under the present law
is essential. His Association consider that no
alteration could be made in that direction unless
there was a change in the Tariff Policy of the
country. The Managing Committee of the Society
have decided to call together the Sub-Committee
on Copyright, and, taking up the Secretary’s sug-
gestion, will send a full report on the present
aspects of the law, in answer to the courteous
request of the Association.
The Sub-Committee which was appointed to con-
sider some points in the editorship of Zhe Author
laid their report before the Managing Committee,
who gave their general approval to the proposed
alterations. Members will, in the fulness of time,
see the slight alterations and modifications that
have been suggested by the Sub-Committee.
The Chairman and Secretary gave a full report
of the action that had been taken to deal with the
infringement of Mr. Rudyard Kipling’s ‘“‘ Barrack
Room Ballads.” The Committee assented to the
course.
On the receipt of a letter from the Clerk of the
London County Council, the question of a site for
the replica of the Besant Memorial was further
considered. The Committee decided to adhere
to their former proposal that the bronze should be
placed, if possible, on the Embankment.
One or two other matters of no great importance
were discussed, but no cases for legal action came
forward for the consideration of the Committee,
although, during the past month, the Chairman
has sanctioned three County Court actions.
es
Cases.
During the past month thirteen cases have been
in the hands of the Secretary.
Five of these were for the payment of money
for published contributions, one for money and
accounts, three for accounts, and three for the
cancellation of agreements. From the first class
three have been settled and the money paid. The
case for money and accounts has been placed in
the hands of the Society’s solicitors, as it was
impossible for the Secretary to obtain any satis-
factory reply to his communications. In the
next class one publisher has promised to forward
the statement in a few days; one has complied with
the Secretary’s request, and in the remaining case
the letter of demand has only just been written.
There are three cases for cancellation of agree-
ments. These not unfrequently arise under the
following circumstances. ‘The publishers under an
agreement to publish bring out books, and when
there is no longer a demand for the work sell off
the stock as “remainders.” The book may then
be off the market for some years ; but the agree-
ment for publication still exists between author and
publisher, though there is no probability of its
being of any monetary value to the publisher in
future. The author, for sentimental reasons, very
often desires the agreement cancelled so that he
may regain all the rights in his property. It is
extraordinary the difference that a publisher will
place on the value of an agreement of this kind
when he is buying, from when he is trying to sell.
Sometimes it happens that the publisher offers the
remainder of the book and the cancellation of the
agreement to the author as a matter of courtesy at
a reasonably low price, but if before the publisher
has made the offer, it appears that the author is —
desirous of purchasing, then the price is generally
twice as large. Again, if the right to publish a —
book which has been off the market under these
conditions, is offered to a publisher, he will usually
state that it is not worth his while to give anything
for the licence, but if the author desires to purchase
the rights from the publisher under the agreement,
the price asked is exceedingly high. The publisher
prefers to sit like the dog in the manger.
This, however, is not always the case, as it
occasionally happens that the publisher will make
every effort to assist an author, and will give him
every facility for recovering his rights.
One of the County Court cases sanctioned by —
the Chairman has been satisfactorily concluded.
oe
March Elections.
Barrett-Hamilton, Capt. Kilmanock House, a
G. E. ’ Arthurstown, Water- _
ford, Ireland.
Rangoon, Burma.
The Hollies, Egham, —
Surrey. :
Basevi, Capt. W. H. F. .
Budgen, Miss
. .
127, Beverley Road,
Hull.
110, Musters Road,
West Bridgford,
Notts.
Crum, W. E., Secretary of 33, Manchester Street,
the Text and Transla- W.
tion Society,
Elliott-Drake, Lady
Cohen, E. E. (Ellic Owen,
Saville Street)
Cooke, W. Bourne .
Nutwell Court, Lymp-
stone, Devon.
Evans, T. Howell . . 31, Bridge Avenue
Mansions, Hammer-
smith, W.
c/o Capt. Ivey, 45,
Fergusen, Dugalf .
Cassland Road, 8.
Hackney
Francis Claude de la _ 6, Glebe Place, Chelsea,
Roche S.W.
Gerrard, P. N. : Greenage, Sidney
Parade, Dublin.
9, Trafalgar Buildings,
Charing Cross, W.C.
18, Essendine Road,
Elgin Avenue, W.
41, South Grove, High-
gate.
16, Carlisle Mansions,
Carlisle Place, 8.W.
13, Marlswick Terrace,
St. Leonards-on-Sea.
Inner Temple, E.C.
11, Neville Court,
Abbey Road, N.W.
134, Abbey Foregate,
Shrewsbury.
Woodbridge, Suffolk.
Wood Dalling, Nor-
wich.
Manor House, Totnes.
Glen-Walker, Miss T. B.
Macdonald, William ;
Marriott, Mrs.
Ransome, Stafford .
Redpath, Miss Lucy
Ryan, Hugh S. K. . .
Shaw, Frederick G. :
Stanway, Miss Kate
Thonger, Charles . :
Vicars, G. Rayleigh :
Young, Miss F. E. .
Four members do not desire the publication of
their names or addresses.
————_1 <> _——
BOOKS PUBLISHED BY MEMBERS OF
THE SOCIETY.
—-——+ —_
(In the following list we do not propose to give more
than the titles, prices, publishers, etc., of the books
enumerated with, in special cases, such particulars as may
serve to explain the scope and purpose of the work.
Members are requested to forward information which will
enable the Editor to supply such particulars.)
ART anp ARCHITECTURE.
Pewter Puate. A Historical and Descriptive Hand-
114 X 7}, xxi. + 299 pp.
book. By H.J. L.J. MAss&.
Bell, 21s, n.
THE AUTHOR.
171
GREAT MAsTERS SERIES. Parts VIII. and IX. With
Descriptive Text by Str MARTIN ConwAy. Heinemann.
5s. net each part.
FREDERIC LEIGHTON.
illustrations (Little Books on Art).
Methuen. 2s. 6d. n.
BIOGRAPHY.
Brownina. By HE. DoWDEN.
8 x 54, xvii. + 404 pp.
By ALICE CORKRAN. With 38
6 X 44, 221 pp.
ROBERT
Biographies.)
(The Temple
Dent. 4s. 6d. n.
DRAMA.
A QueeEN’s Romance. A Version of Victor Hugo’s
“ Ruy Blas.’? Written for Lewis Waller by J. DAVIDSON.
73 x 54, 111 pp. Grant Richards. 3s. 6d. n.
BY ORDER OF THE Czar. A Drama in Five Acts. By
JoseEepH Harron. 7% X54, 172 pp. Hutchinson.
2s. 6d.
GouF PLAYS AND RECITATIONS. By R. ANDRE. 7 X 43,
127 pp. Everett. 1s. 6d. n.
EDUCATIONAL.
“THe Times’? COMPETITION. Answers of the first prize
winner. 83 x 53. Published by L. ASHE, 17, Newburgh
Road, Acton, W.
FICTION.
THE MAN FROM DOWNING Strent. By W. Le QUEUX.
73 X 5, 322 pp. Hurst and Blackett. 6s.
OLD SHROPSHIRE Lire. By LADY CATHERINE MILNES
GASKELL. 73 X 54, 308 pp. Lane. 6s.
Room Five. By HamintoN DrumMonp. Illustrations
by Cyrus Cones. 73 X 54,312 pp. Ward, Lock. 6s.
A Krne’s Desrre. By Mrs. AYLMER GOWING. 7} X 5,
320 pp. J. Long. 6s.
THE TRIUMPH OF Mrs. Sv. GeorGE. By Percy WHITE.
74 X 5,327 pp. Nash. 6s.
THE Frence WIFE. By KATHARINE TYNAN.
309 pp. White. 6s.
Strong Mac. By 8. R. CROCKETT.
Ward, Lock. 6s.
FACING THE Fururs, or The Parting of the Ways. By
RoBert THYNNE. 72 x 51, 254 pp. TI. Fisher
Unwin. 6s.
THE BINDWEED.—By NELuiE K. BLISSETT. 73x 5, 330pp.
Constable. 6s.
Tue Evtwoops.—By C. 8. WELLES, M.D.
Simpkin Marshall. 6s.
Tue ONE Brrore.—By Barry PAIN.
7&x5, 231 pp. Grant Richards. 1s. n.
wa
(= X 9,
8 xX 51, 406 pp.
8 x 54, 346 pp.
(New Edition.)
HISTORY.
FouNDATIONS OF MopERN EvRoPE.—Twelve Lectures
Delivered in the University of London by EMI REICH.
81x51, 262 pp. Bell. 5s. n.
LAW.
THE CONTRACT OF AFFREIGHTMENT AS EXPRESSED IN
GHARTERPARTIES AND BILLS oF LADING.—By T. E.
Scrutron, K.C.,and F. D, MackINNon. Fifth edition,
by T. E. Serutton. 846,430 pp. Clowes. 18s.
LITERARY.
THe ENGLISH DIALECT Dicrionary.—Kdited by JosEPH
Wricut, Professor of Comparative Philology in the
University of Oxford. Parts XIX. and XX., K—Sharp.
Parts XXI.-XXIII., Sharpen—Syzzie (completing
Volume V.). 129%, 896 pp. Frowde. 15s. n. and
30s. n. each part.
172 THE AUTHOR.
NATURAL HISTORY.
THs TWENTIETH CENTURY Doa.—(Non-Sporting.) By
H.Compron. Vol. I. 84x 5$, 350 pp. Grant Richards,
7s. 6d. D.
REPRINTS. ‘
we WoRKS OF CHARLES AND MARY LAMB.—Ed. by
E.V. Lucas. Vol. IV. Dramatic Specimens and the
Garrick Plays. 9x6, xviii. +643 pp. Methuen, 7s. 6d,
CoRIDON’S SONG, and Other Verses from Various Sources.
—(Ilustrated Pocket Classics.) With Introduction by
Austin Dopson. 7X44, xxxi,+163 pp. Macmillan.
28. 1.
SOCIOLOGY.
THE COMMON SENSE OF MUNICIPAL TRADING.—By
BERNARD SHAW. 74X5,120pp. Constable. 2s. 6d.
TOPOGRAPHY.
Juniper Hatui.—A Rendezvous of certain Illustrious
Personages during the French Revolution, including
Alexandre D’Arblay and Fanny Burney. By CONSTANCE
Hrip. Illustrations by ELLEN G. HILL, 8]x6,
275 pp. Lane. 21s. n.
THEOLOGY.
Tue COVENANT COMMONLY CALLED THE OLD TESTA-
MENT: Translated from THE SEPTUAGINT.—By C.
THOMPSON. A New Edition by S.F.PELLs. ‘Two Vols.
[Not paged.] 12s.n. HADES, the * Grave ’ in “ Hades,’’
or the “ Catacombs ’’ of the Bible and of Egypt. 190 pp.
82x53. Skeflington. 5s. n. :
LoyALTY TO THE PRAYER-Book (Pamphlet).—By PERcY
DEARMER, M.A., Vicar of St. Mary’s, Primrose-hill.
Mowbray. 2d.
TRAVEL.
ADVENTURES ON THE Roor of THE WoRLD.—By Mrs:
AUBREY LE BLOND (Mrs. Main). 9X6, xvi. +333 pp-
Unwin. 10s. 6d. n.
THE Japs AT HomE.—By DOUGLAS SLADEN.
Edition.) 84X54, 220 pp. Newnes. 6d.
(Cheap
——_—__+—_+____—-
LITERARY AND DRAMATIC NOTES.
—
NEW novel by Mrs. Gertrude Atherton will
be published shortly, by Messrs. Macmillan.
Its title is “ The Rulers of Kings.” It isan
historical romance in which real and imaginary
personages figure. Among these real people are
the Emperors of Germany and Austria. ‘The action
centres round the Hungarian crisis. The heroine
isan imaginary daughter of the Austrian Emperor.
The hero is a brainy, ambitious American, who
has inherited many millions.
The same firm is to publish “ Fishing Holidays,”
by Mr. Stephen Gwynn. In this volume the author
relates his experiences when angling for trout and
salmon from Donegal to Kerry. He also describes
the scenery and people about the various lakes and
rivers. ‘There are, too, a couple of papers on sea-
fishing, and there is an essay on Izaak Walton’s
recently discovered fishing bag.
“Helen Mathers” has written a long novel
entitled “The Ferryman.” It is to be published
this autumn by Messrs. Methuen. She is now
engaged on a serial story to be called “The
Spitfire.” She is also producing “ Comin’ Thro’
the Rye,” in paper cover, 1s., and in cloth at 2s. ;
and shortly afterwards a volume of essays, entitled
“Side Shows,” is to be issued at 1s. and 2s.,
respectively. ‘‘ Bam Wildfire” and “ Dimples”
are also to be put into cloth covers at 2s.
Mr. R. F. Gould’s “ Concise History of Free-
masonry” is just out. The publishers are Messrs.
Gale and Polden, London and Aldershot, and the
Macoy Publishing Company, New York.
Mr. Blundell Burton’s new story, “A Dead
Reckoning,” will be published at once by F. V.
White & Co., Ltd. It will belong to the class of
‘* Novels of To-day,” which the author has of late
alternated with his romances, and will deal with the
misery of a woman of good position, who is suffer-
ing for amistake made in her girlhood.
Messrs. Chatto & Windus announce a new novel
by Mrs. F'. E. Penny, the authoress of “ A Mixed
Marriage” and other Indian stories. It is called
“The Sanyasi.” It deals with phases of Anglo-
Indian and native life in the south of India, not
hitherto dealt with in fiction.
“‘Rita’s’? new book is entitled ‘“‘ The Masquer-
aders.” It will be published early in the spring by
Messrs. Hutchinson. ‘“ Rita’s” book on “ The
Sin and Scandal of the Smart Set” has gone into a
fourth edition. This authoress has a_ serial
running in Chic. Itis called “ The Silent Woman.”
Mr. M. H. Spielmann’s ‘The Magazine of Art ”
for March contains, anong other articles, some
recollections of Jean Léon Géréme by the Editor.
“How to Draw in Pen and Ink”—a few hints to
special artists written and illustrated by Harry
Furniss, and Part I. of a “Symposium on L’Art
Nouveau: What it is and what is thought of it.”
The Magazine of Art volume for 1903 is now
ready. Its priceis £1 ls.
Among the novels most in demand during the
past few weeks we note Mr. Max Pemberton’s “Red
Morn”; Mr. Eden Phillpott’s “American
Prisoner”; Mr. Halliwell Sutcliffe’s ‘‘ Through
Sorrow’s Gates”; Mr. Frankfort Moore’s ‘ Ship-
mates in Sunshine”; Mr. F. M. Crawford’s “ Heart
of Rome”; and Mr. H. Rider Haggard’s “ Stella
Fregelius.”
Mr. Arthur Sykes has just published “Mr.
Punch’s Museum ; and other Matters.” Bradbury,
Agnew& Co. are the publishers. Its price is 3. 6d.
Mr, Sykes is the author of “A Book of Words”
(verses and sketches from Punch, etc.),and “ Without
Permission ” (from Punch, etc). :
ae
ed Daa AB
THER AUTHOR.
Shelley's “ Adonais,” edited with introduction and
notes by Mr. William Michael Rossetti, hasrecently
been issued by the Clarendon Press. It is a new
edition, revised with the assistance of A. O.
Prickard, M.A., Fellow of New College, Oxford.
‘The Padre” is the title of a novel by Rose
Harrison, authoress of “ Esther Alington.” It
is an illustrated story, published by Richard R.
James.
“On the Wings of the Wind” is the title of
Allan Raine’s new novel. Messrs. Hutchinson and
Oo. are the publishers.
Professor Flinders Petrie’s new book, ‘‘ Methods
and Aims in Archeology,” is intended primarily
for working archeologists, and the whole field of
archeological labour is covered by the Professor in
this volume of some two hundred pages. He
deals with such points as the management of
labourers and arrangement of work, recording in
the field, and the copying, photographing, pre-
servation, and packing of objects. There are
illustrations reproduced from photographs.
The monument and window that is to be placed
in Exeter Cathedral as a memorial to R. D.
Blackmore, will be unveiled on April 26th. Mr.
Eden Philpotts is to speak the eulogy of the famous
Devonshire author, and in the May issue of 7'he
Fortnightly Review will appear a lengthy article on
“R. D. Blackmore and his work,” by Mr: James
Baker, who has acted as Chairman of the
Blackmore Memorial Committee.
The pamphlet “ National Education to National
Advancement,” that will shortly be published by
Simpkin, Marshall and Co., is the development of
an article written for The Times by Mr. James
Baker, F.R.G.S., and embodies several suggestions
not only for developing technical and agricultural
work in the counties, but also for utilising the
love of drill innate in all boys. The writer touches
also upon the work in girls schools.
Mr. Ricwarp Bacor’s new novel entitled
“* Love’s Proxy” will be published on the 27th of
this month, by Mr. Edward Arnold in England and
Messrs. Longmans, Green & Co., in the United
States of America.
Tue next (the twenty-sixth) Congress of the
International Literary and Artistic Association
will take place at Marseilles towards the end of
September, 1904.
Temple Bar for March contains a complete story
by Miss M. L. Pendered.
Miss Montgomery Campbell’s article on the
“Armour of Schloss Ambras’” began in the February
number of Zhe Connoisseur, and was concluded in
the March number.
A cheap edition of Mr. Barry Pain’s “ The One
Before,” has been issued by Mr. Grant Richards.
The same publisher has added Mr. Theodore
178
Watts - Dunton’s “Aylwin,” to the “ World’s
Classics ” series.
Mr. Richard Whiteings “ Yelloy Van” is now
in a sixth edition.
ee
PARIS NOTES.
—1—~<— +
N the volume entitled “ Notes et Souvenirs de
M. Thiers (1870—1873),” his sister-in-law,
Mlle. Dosne, gives to the worldsome extremely
interesting details which will be invaluable to
future historians. It appears that M. Thiers did
not write any Memoirs, but he was in the habit of
jotting down notes about his more important
undertakings. Mlle. Dosne had not intended to
publish this volume at present, but on account of
certain misrepresentations with regard to her
brother-in-law’s actions she deemed it better to
refute the statements by giving to the public the
exact facts as written down by M. Thiers. The
first part of the volume is taken up with an account
of his diplomatic voyage in September, 1870.
M. Thiers went first to England on the 12th
September, but he has left no notes about his visit
there. M. Jules Favre published an account of
this mission to London in his Gowvernement de la
Défense Nationale.
M. Thiers begins with an account of his journey
to Russia, leaving London on the 18th of Septem-
ber. From St. Petersburg he goes to Vienna, and
then to Florence, before returning to Paris.
The second chapter of the book is taken up with
the account of the interviews between M. Thiers
and Bismarck to discuss the terms for an armistice,
in October, 1870. The third chapter treats of the
preliminaries for peace in 1871. The notes are
very brief, but one can read between the lines all
that it cost a man like Thiers to hold his own and
to fight for his beloved country with the Iron
Chancellor. The remaining part of the volume is
composed of notes written by M. Thiers from the
time he was elected President of the French
Republic in February, 1871, until May, 1873,
when he resigned office.
In these pages we read of the great difficulties
in the way of re-establishing order after so terrible
a war, of reorganizing the army, and of paying off
the enormous ransom for the territory.
M. Thiers also explains his plans for the
government of his country, and tells how he had
hoped with the support of members of all parties
to organize a Government strong enough to pre-
serve France from the excesses of democracy.
Much that has seemed complicated and incompre-
hensible in the history of France during the three
174
years which followed the war of 1870 becomes
clear when one has read the details noted down by
the man who was in a position to know more
about the workings of the political machinery than
anyone else.
There is also an appendix to the volume, giving
the exact text of various documents quoted or
bearing on the subjects treated.
Among the new novels is “Le Chemin de la
Gloire,” by Georges Ohnet. It is the story of a
young musical composer, who, after his first great
success, is lionized to such a degree that he drifts
into society and neglects his art. The inevitable
wealthy American girl swoops down on him and
decides to marry him. He escapes to Venice, but
with a yacht and plenty of money at command the
American woman is not baffled. She and her
family call upon him, invite him for a cruise with
them, and before he realizes all that is happening,
he has proved himself faithless to the actress
whom he really loves, and for whom he has written
his opera, and has married the brilliant heiress from
the New World. As time goes on the musician
discovers that he has made a huge mistake. The
atmosphere of his new home stifles him, and the
ractical ideas of his charming wife make him
shudder. Considering the circumstances the
dénouement is the only one possible. There is more
psychology in this novel than in most of those by
the same author. The characters are delicately
drawn and are very true to life, without a touch
of exaggeration.
“Le Secrétaire de Madame la Duchesse,” by
Léon de Tinseau, is a charming story, and one
which would certainly be appreciated in England,
as it has the indispensable “happy énding.”
Philippe Hurault obtains a post as secretary to the
Duchess of Clerval and leaves his mother and
Jiancée in order to make his fortune at the Clerval
Chateau. He is soon a great favourite in his new
home and is treated almost like one of the family.
The plot is a very slight one, and the chief interest
of the story is the psychological study of Philippe.
He finds himself in an entirely new world, and when
the chateau is filled with a large house-party he
soon falls a victim to the fascinations of a certain
society woman, who imagines that she has lost her
heart to the handsome secretary. All the characters
are well drawn, but unfortunately the story is told
by means of letters from the various persons, and
these letters scarcely vary enough in style to be
convincing. In spite of this the novel is very
readable and thoroughly interesting.
“L’Empire de la Méditerranée,” by M. René
Pinon, treats of “ l'état politique et social du Maroc,
la question marocaine, l’affaire de Figuig, la con-
quéte du Touat, la Tripolitaine, Bizerte, Malte,
Gibraltar.” There is also an important article on
THE AUTHOR.
‘“‘1’Entente Franco-Italienne.” It isan invaluable
book for politicians and historians.
Among the new books are ‘‘ Un petit coin du
monde,” by Jules Perrin; “La Commune,” by
Paul and Victor Margueritte; “Le Droit des
Vierges,” by M. Paul Hyacinthe Loyson; “La
Politique protectioniste en Angleterre,’ by G.
Blondel ; ‘‘ Le Pére Didon,” by Stanislas Reynaud ;
“La Politique Franco-Anglaise et L’Arbitrage
International,” by M. Gabriel Louis Jarais, with
preface by M. G. Hanotaux ; “La Guerre Com-
merciale,” by M. Maurice Schwob ; “ L’Apprentie,”’
by M. Gustave Geffroy ; “ Le Docteur Haramburg,”
by J. H. Rosny; and “ Au Japon,” by M. de
Guerville.
In the Nouvelle Revue there is a curious article
by Jules Bois on “Les Professeurs de Volonté.”
It is in reality a chapter taken from “ Le Miracle
Moderne,” a book which is to be published shortly.
In this article M. Jules Bois speaks of Dr. Lié-
beault, who died recently at Nancy. He had made
a special study of hypnotism and was the first
doctor to apply it professionally. It appears that
when Dr. Liébeault had made a sufficient income
to enable him to retire, he gave his time to the
study of this subject and treated his patients
gratuitously. M. Jules Bois maintains that his
name should be honoured as the pioneer of medical
hypnotism, and that it should be remembered that
Dr. Liébeault preceded Dr. Charcot.
In the second March number of La Grande
Revue, M. Gaston Deschamps gives his experiences
in America under the title of “Au Seuil du Nou-
veau Monde.” ‘There is also an interesting article
by M. E. Sémenoff ; “Le Role mondial du Japon
prédit par un Grand Ecrivain Russe.”
M. Frantz Funck Brentano writes “ L’Aigle
et l’Aiglon.” M. Calmettes gives some details
about hand-made laces, “ Dentelles et Dentelliéres,”
and M. Romme an article on “Les Idées de M.
Behring.”
In the second March number of the Revue de
Paris there is an instructive article by Colonel de
Grandprey on ‘Les Armées de la Chine,” and
another one by M. Contenson on “ L’Evolution de
la Propriété rurale.”
In the Revue des Deua Mondes there is a rather
sensational article entitled “ Les Derniers Jours
de Léon XIII. et le Conclave de 1903 par un
Témoin.”
M. Gaston Cadoux writes on “L’EKclairage
Paris, Londres et Berlin” and M. Pierre Leroy-
Beaulieu “Le Japon et ses Ressources dans la
Guerre Actuelle.” There is also an article on
“T/Exposition des Primitifs Francais,” by M.
Bouchot.
The bold venture of M. Blés to establish in
Paris a critical review in English and French
THE AUTHOR. 175
appears to have supplied a need. One of the most
important French papers announces that “la nou-
yelle revue Franco-Anglaise, Zhe Weekly Critical
Review, a pris définitivement rang parmi les publi-
cations artistiques les plus estimées.”
Members of the Bacon Society might be inte-
rested in an article which appeared in the Revwe
des Iilées No.1. It is by M. Remy de Gourmont,
and is entitled “Francois Bacon et Joseph de
Maistre.”
In speaking of the “ Examen de la Philosophie
de Bacon” by de Maistre, M. de Gourmont tells us
that “le cerveau de Joseph de Maistre est une
forge qui, au lieu de dévorer les statues de bronze
qu’on y jette, les rend intactes et plus belles,
purifies de toutes souillures, de toutes tares, de
toutes rugosités.” In the same number there is
an article on Herbert Spencer.
Several of the plays this season are having long
runs.
Madame Sarah Bernhardt has scored an immense
success with “ La Sorciére.” She plays her réle to
perfection, and in one or two instances there are
touches of pathos which are unsurpassed in any
pieces she has ever put on the stage.
“Le Retour de Jérusalem” is another of the
plays which has been given more than a hundred
times.
“La Dette,’ by MM. Gavault and Georges
Berr, has been bought for Italy and Germany.
Miss Marbury has also bought it for America.
M. Porel has lost his case against Madame
Réjane. He had applied to the Court for an
injunction forbidding her to play “La Mon-
tansier” at the theatre to which she has emigrated,
on the plea that this piece was accepted for the
Vaudeville theatre. M. Porel maintained that his
wife could not appear in this play without his
consent. The Court has decided against him, and
Madame Reéjane is triumphant.
Miss Lindsay, who made her début some little
time ago at the Paris Opéra with such success, has
now been entrusted with the ré/e of Juliette.
M. Bour has discovered another play, ‘“ Les
Pantins,” in which he appears to be having as
much success as in the famous “ Alleluia,” which
made his name. This new piece treats of an
unsuccessful comedian and his poverty and domestic
troubles. In the last act, while his child is dying
in one room, the wretched man is endeavouring to
learn his new réle. His troubles are, however, too
much for him, and he loses his reason. It is in
this scene that M. Bour is at his best.
A scheme is now being discussed by a group of
authors who prefer editing and publishing their
books themselves. It is proposed to found a
Librairie Associée des Gens de Lettres as a depdt
for volumes on sale. There are to he only twenty-
five members, and each member is to pay a sum of
400 francs for the first year to the company.
Every member will then have the right to place
two works in the depot, the number of copies not
to be limited. The profits of other books sold by
the company are to be shared by the members. The
other books would be those placed with the com-
pany by non-members. A committee meeting is to
be held shortly in order to discuss the subject.
ALys HALLARD.
a a a rs
UNITED STATES NOTES.
————— +
| AM inclined to consider as the most important
event that has taken place duving the present
year in the American literary world the
publication of Professor N. 8. Shaler’s dramatic
romance “Elizabeth of England.” Even if it
amounts to no more than a considerable tour de
force it shows, at least, that poetry is alive on this
‘side the Atlantic.
The professor is a geologist ; and he set out to
show the world that whatever may have happened
to Darwin, there is no reason in the nature of
things why devotion to science should kill the
literary sense. I believe that it is agreed by those
who have read this rather amazing work that it is
a successful demonstration of this contention.
The “dramatic romance,” which is issued by
Houghton, Mifflin & Co., is then to be regarded
rather in the light of an experiment than considered
on too severely critical grounds. It is divided into
five parts, named respectively “The Coronation,”
“The Rival Queens,” “Armada Days,” “ The
Death of Essex,” and “The Passing of the
Queen.” The greatly daring romancist not only
deals forcefully with these themes in some fifteen
thousand lines of blank verse, but makes the
Virgin Queen discourse with Shakespeare and
bandy philosophy with Bacon.
A spring book which is sure of a wide circulation
is Francis E. Leupp’s “'The Man Roosevelt.” The
author has known the president for more than
twenty years, both as private individual and public
man, and has been in a position to record things
yet unknown to history.
Meanwhile the New York Critic has been
exploiting Mr. Roosevelt for its own purposes.
It has induced him to contribute to its columns
an article upon the Republican party ; and it
offers sets of his works at a considerable reduc-
tion as a bait to catch subscribers. This is great
honour for a literary President.
On the other hand, the “ Review” has to bewail
the loss of a prospective contributor in the person of
176
Mr. Jack London, who has gone to the Far
East as a war correspondent. The author of
“The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come,” has
also gone out to write articles for Seribner’s
Magazine.
Before commenting further on books and literary
happenings of the present year, I ought to repair
an omission from my last notes. I should have
included in my references to biographical publica-
tions the very readable “ Reminiscences of an
Astronomer”? which Professor Newcomb gave to
the world last autumn. The book has a double
yalue—it is both scientific and human; and it
should by no means be overlooked.
The fine reprint of Father Hennepin’s “ New
Discovery of a Vast Country in America,” which
has been so ably edited by Reuben Gold Thwaites,
makes a strong appeal to everyone interested in
early American history. The editor holds the
vivacious Franciscan himself responsible for the
borrowings from other sources with which his work
was enriched, and does not allow the plea that a
publisher hath done this.
A much discussed recent publication is Senator
Beyeridge’s book upon Asiatic Russia. In spite
of the Slavophile proclivities of its author and its
very decided deficiencies as a piece of writing,
“The Russian Advance” deserves serious consider-
ation on account of the large quantity of informa-
tion, collected at first-hand, which it contains, and
the real grasp of the subject which it shows.
There is a chapter upon Japan.
Sculpture has been the department of art in
which Americans have chiefly excelled. It is,
therefore, highly satisfactory that American
sculpture should have found so competent a
historian as Mr. Lorado Taft, and so critical an
admirer as Mr. Charles H. Caffin. The treatises
of the two authors supplement each other, and
together cover the whole field.
“ The History of American Art” by Sadakichi (?)
Hartmann, on the contrary, excels neither in
critical discernment nor chasteness of diction.
Rather off the lines of conventional biography is
Mrs. Talbot’s life of her father, General Samuel
Chapman Armstrong. Armstrong did brilliant
work for the North at Gettysburg, but his title to
fame is the great educational work which he carried
on after the war at Hampton, where he trained
Indians side by side with his negroes.
The “Life and Letters of Margaret Preston,”
edited by her step-daughter, is also rather a
remarkable work. It gives a picture of the
women of the South during the Civil War, from
the pen of one who, though the wife of one of
Jackson’s staff, was the daughter of an abolitionist
and had come from the North. A writer of
stirring war songs, Mrs. Preston numbered among
THE AUTHOR.
her correspondents Longfellow, Whittier, and Jean
Ingelow.
Perhaps the most notable novel that I should
mention here is Philip Payne’s political study,
«The Mills of Man,” which shows considerable
skill in characterisation and no slight constructive
power. Chicago is the scene of action and a
millionaire uncle plays a dominant part in it.
Another story to be read is Mary Findlater’s
«The Rose of Joy,” a nicely balanced study of
incompatible temperaments and many happily hit-
off minor characters.
Bridge is supplanting fictions in some circles, and
its players have to be catered for. One publishing
house alone advertises three books upon the game,
one of which, “Sixty Bridge Hands,” purports to be
exhaustive! However, there is still for the elect
Messrs. Scribner’s manual, ‘ Elwell on Advanced
Bridge.”
By the way, the last-named firm has been incor-
porated. Among spring announcements of theirs
are new novels by Thomas Nelson Page and Mrs.
Wharton, and a tale with the strange title of
“Peace and the Vices.”
The Lothrop Company found it advisable to
make an assignment in February, but their affairs
are well in hand and they have plenty of prospective
business.
The Madison Book Company have become
Reilly and Britton, incorporated.
From April 1st juvenile books are to be classed
with fiction and sold at net prices. Some dis-
cussion has been going on as to the working of the
net system, it being maintained in some quarters
that the publishers are not working it fairly. The
excessive output of fiction has also been debated.
That there is a superfluity is actually admitted by
a few houses, who confess that the staple of their
business is really literature of a solider type ; but
even these are sanguine that there is a real advance
in the standard demanded by readers of every class
of publication.
A copyright treaty between the United States
and China was signed in the autumn of last year,
ratifications were exchanged on January 13, 1904.
Mark Twain and Mr. Marion Crawford are each
writing new novels, and Mr. Lorimer is losing no
time in following up the success of the Letters
of his Self-made Merchant.
The chief names in my obituary list are those of
George Francis Train, a prolific author who had
tried numerous other trades before he took tohis pen ;
Professor Von Holst, of Chicago, a Russian refugee,
who wrote monographs on the constitutional history
and law of his adopted country, besides lives of
Calhoun and John Brown; and Parke Godwin,
the son-in-law and biographer of Bryant. His last
work was a study of Shakespeare’s Sonnets. ,,\"*
woe
LITERARY, DRAMATIC, AND MUSICAL
PROPERTY.
ee
Sweden and the Berne Convention.
From tHe “Svenska Daq@BLaD.”
Tur Swedish Parliament has again lying before
it the question of certain alterations in the national
laws concerning copyrights, since those now in
force prevent Sweden’s adhesion to the inter-
national agreements which are to a certain extent
already in force in the country, or, more plainly, her
adhesion to the union known as the Berne Conven-
tion. The subject has been so frequently discussed
in these columns that we may on this occasion
limit ourselves to a few remarks, which we are
urged to make by the fact that the business stands
to-day on the list for discussion.
It is His Majesty the King who now suggests, in
terms of a proposal which has been already
described, an alteration of sections 3 and 14 of
the law regarding literary copyright. The altera-
tion of the former of the above-mentioned sections
would have the result that the present protection
of works from translation, which is of two years’
duration, would be extended to ten years ; whilst it
is proposed to give the latter section such a form
that the author’s or translator’s rights in transla-
tions, adaptations, etc., should have a duration of
the author’s life and thirty years afterwards,
instead of extending only to the authov’s life and
five years afterwards, as now.
The former modification would remove the
difficulty of Sweden’s joining the Berne Conven-
tion on the terms of the original text, and is,
therefore, the one concerning which opinions are
most likely to be divided.
The legal committee has moved the Royal pro-
posal, and further, on the ground of motions made
by Messrs. Hammarlund and Luidhagen, has
invited the Parliament to request that His Majesty,
going far beyond a mere declaration of Sweden’s
adhesion to the International Union for the
Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, founded
by the Berne Convention, and also entering into
other agreements with foreign powers involving
reciprocal protection for literary and artistic
property, should at the same time make such
limitations that the aforesaid adhesion or agree-
ments should not restrict Swedish citizens from
acquiring legal rights, nor place any legal restric-
tion upon the continuance of their right to obtain
for their purposes the use of stereotypes, clichés,
lithographic stones, and plates of all other kinds,
as well as other means of reproduction which may
be lawfully used.
In the meanwhile Messrs. Walderstrém and ().
Olsson, of the legal committee, have expressed
THE AUTHOR.
177
reservations opposed to this, and have submitted a
protest against the Royal proposal.
As everyone who takes any interest in these
questions may easily observe the objections to
joining the Convention, objections grounded on
purely interested motives (which are still the
fashion with some few people in Sweden), have to
a great extent given way before a continually
clearer and clearer perception, that we have really
in the first place to deal with a question of the
probity or improbity of the nature of the labour
which the author’s production represents. Were
both the publishing firms and the publishers’
societies fully assured of legal difficulties about to
arise for the publishers and journals of Sweden in
consequence of adhesion to the Berne Convention,
still adhesion to it would be suggested by a certain
sense of national shame, that after both Norway
and Denmark had shown themselves ready to regu-
late a legal protection of literary rights in their
dominions, still Sweden should remain without
any corresponding enactments, and tolerate instead
what is as good as an unlimited piracy.
But we look in vain for a trace of any such
shame in the reservationists. The only reason, in
the view of the reservationists, prompting adhesion
to the Berne Convention is ‘‘ an extremely dubious,
and at the best comparatively insignificant economic
advantage to be gained by a trivial number of
authors”; after which it is no wonder to find that
“the right of free translation” is preferable. In
the meantime it is to be hoped that the Parliament
will show itself to be more amenable to points of
honour, which amongst those principally interested
has shown itself to possess sufficient authority to
overcome no inconsiderable hesitation based upon
their own interests.
As regards authors, both motions conduce to the
same results. The reservationists have certainly
aimed at causing the majority of authors to find it
to their interest that the present state of things
should continue ; but the result is that anyone who
has been expecting anything from Parliament will
have reason to rely rather upon the assistance of
the Swedish Society of Authors than upon the
reservationists.
See
Literary Competitions.
DRAWING Room Puay. £10 PRIZE.
Ar a concert or an evening party at home a short Play
forms an agreeable variation from the usual programme,
The great difficulty, however, is to get a piece within the
capabilities of ordinary amateur performers, not too long,
that does not require anything in the way of scenery and
stage effects.
By way of supplying this “felt want” we offer a Prize
of £10 for the best Original Short Play suited to the
following requirements, The length, including dialogue,
178
stage directions, etc., should not exceed 5,000 words. The
characters must not exceed six in number. The scenery
and stage effects must be such as can easily be provided in
a drawing room or small hall.
The dialogue must be simple and natural, and both it
and the scenes and incidents must be in accordance with
the strictest good taste. ;
Simple stage directions should be given, and the dresses
to be worn by the various characters should be described
in cases where something different from ordinary costume
is required.
What is wanted is something after the style of a “curtain
raiser” —a piece embodying an incident rather than an
elaborate story.
The terms of the competition set forth above
have been taken from a North Country paper. It
has from time to time been the duty of 7’he Author
to point out the difficulties that may arise to those
who enter these competitions owing to the want of
finality in the terms propounded.
We have no reason to raise objection to this
method of obtaining copy to a certain extent—no
doubt, it acts as a stimulus to young writers—
but it is especially needful to bear in mind that
on many occasions the contracts are indefinite in
terms, and this lack of clear legal draftsmanship
may possibly lead to disputes and confusion when
the prize is awarded.
The paper from which the cutting is taken offers
a prize of £10 for the best original play written
according to the published requirements.
What does the proprietor desire to purchase ?
Does he desire to purchase anything? Does he
simply wish to crown the author who wins the
prize with a £10 note, or does he desire to obtain
the copyright, or the performing right, or both,
or does he merely desire to have the right to print
the play in his own paper? It is impossible to
determine from the wording of the notice what is
in the proprietor’s mind. It is equally impossible
to determine what is in the mind of the competitors
when they forward their deathless works.
If a prize is given at a cattle show for the finest
animal of a certain breed, the authorities who have
promoted the show do not claim the animal as
their own. They do not even claim the use of it.
It may be, however, as we have suggested,
that the proprietor merely desires to give the
winner of the competition the sum of £10, but
from our knowledge of these competitions, as a
general rule, more than this is required. Some-
times it is simply desired to print the prize
competition in the paper. Sometimes, as sug-
gested, for the proprietor to obtain the whole
copyright. These matters should be clearly set
out. If they are not clearly set out, competitors
should be warned not to send in their MSS. until
they have obtained a definite form of contract.
We understand that one competitor who wrote
to the proprietor was assured that he did not
THE AUTHOR.
claim the copyright. This is so far satisfactory,
but still, what did he want to claim ?
This special offer may be, and no doubt is, bond
fide in purpose. It has been quoted in order
that the attention of members of the Society might
be called to the difficulties and snares that are
constantly recurring.
0
LEGAL NOTES.
Sees
_Authors’ Royalties and the Sale of Remainders. :
HE action of Farmer v. Grant Richards, tried
by Judge Woodfall at the Westminster
County Court on February 26th, involved
questions of law and fact of considerable interest
to authors, and the history of the case showed
that other questions of a similar character might
have been dealt with in connection with it, as to
which His Honour was not called upon to give a
decision. The plaintiff, an author, sued the defen-
dant, a publisher, for royalties under an agreement
for the publishing of a book. The publisher had
agreed to pay a royalty upon copies of the book
sold, and the retail price was stated. There was
no provision for any sale at any other price by the
publisher than such trade price as this might imply.
The publisher had, however, sold off a large number
of copies asa “‘ remainder.” The author claimed his
full royalty upon each copy so sold. The publisher
offered a percentage, but denied, apparently, that
even this was due. Evidence was given by the
defendant and another publisher with a view to
establishing that the latter was justified by custom
in acting as he did in all particulars, that the
agreement as to a royalty did not apply to copies
sold as a “remainder,” and that either little or
nothing was due to the author upon such a sale.
The judge did not decide the questions of fact as to
the custom, which obviously should not be decided
by any tribunal without ample evidence establish-
ing a custom known and recognised by authors
and publishers alike. As to this he said in his
judgment :—
“JI should be very sorry if it were necessary for me to
determine this alleged custom in the publishing trade on
the evidence which is before me, because to me it is a
custom fraught with such extremely important conse-
quences both to the publishing trade and to authors, that
if I had to determine this case upon the alleged custom of
remainders, I should feel it was determining it upon wholly
insufficient evidence, but I do not think it is necessary to
determine it.”
His Honour continued :—
“The plaintiff's claim is for royalties in respect of 786
copies. Therefore what I have to do is to look at the
agreement whereby the defendant agreed to pay him
royalties, and then to see whether the sale of these 786
copies comes within the four corners of that agreement.
_. . It is impossible to come to any other conclusion than
this, that the royalty was to be paid upon copies which were
sold at 10s. 6d. and to say that the parties have agreed
that royalty should be paid in respect of the copies sold
under the circumstances under which these 786 copies were
sold seems to me a perfectly untenable contention. It may
very well be that the plaintiff has an action against the
defendant for damages. but I am quite confident that he
has no ground whatever to claim royalties in respect of
these 786 copies . . . on the construction of the agree-
ment made between them as to royalties, Isay the plaintiff
is not entitled to royalties.”
In a discussion which followed judgment, His
Honour said,
“JT tell you candidly your action should be one for
damages for selling these books in breach of an agreement.”
Judgment was given for the defendant with
costs, and in the subsequent discussion referred to,
doubt was expressed as to how far an appeal would
lie against the decision. It was one apparently of
mixed fact and law, but as it mainly turned upon
the correct construction to be put upon the agree-
ment between the parties, there can be little doubt
that the Divisional Court would have had jurisdic-
tion to hear an appeal had one been brought. I
am informed that none is to be attempted, which
is a matter for regret, as although the defendant
may not have contemplated paying royalties on the
“ yemainder,” it would have been interesting to
see whether a Divisional Court would have held
that he nevertheless bound himself by the terms
of his agreement to do so. The sale of the
“remainder” of the copies of a book after its
general sale is believed to be over is not an un-
common incident of publishing, and in consequence
of this it is not unusual to find a clause regulating
the conditions of such sale in an agreement. When
this has been omitted the publisher, if he desires
to sell, usually negotiates with the author before
doing so. At all events, it is open for him to do
so, and if he does this the author has the oppor-
tunity of discussing whether the necessity for such
sale has arisen. If the publisher does not so nego-
tiate, but sells instead, presumably for his own
benefit, is he not bound by any form of words in
which he has promised to pay a royalty to the author
upon copies of the author's work sold by him ?
This is the question which His Honour Judge
Woodfall appears to have decided against the
author and in favour of the publisher, and whether
it is assumed that his decision is correct, or not,
it is one which other Judges may give in similar
circumstances, and against the possibility of which
authors in their own interests can protect them-
selves. In other words, the questions whether the
author is to receive his royalty upon remainders as
upon other copies of the book, or whether he is to
be paid at some other rate in respect of them, and
THE AUTHOR.
179
if so at what rate, or whether he is not to be paid
for remainders at all, are matters for which every
publishing agreement should specifically provide.
There can be no reason why it should not do so,
and the introduction of a clause dealing definitely
with the matter, or even the attempt to introduce
one, will call the attention of both parties to it.
Should such a clause be discussed, the author
would be very likely to protest against a stipula-
tion that upon copies sold as a “remainder” he
was to receive nothing. As to this there was
evidence at the hearing of Marmer v. Grant Richards,
given by Mr.Grant Richards himself, that he allowed.
5 per cent. upon such sales, so that he presumably
would not object to inserting a condition to
that effect in his agreements. Mr. Heinemann,
however, gave evidence that his own custom was
to allow the author nothing upon such occasions.
He is therefore an instance of a publisher, who, if
asked to insert such a condition, would decline to
do so, and if sued for even 5 per cent. upon the
product of a remainder would dispute the claim, and
it is hardly necessary to point out that an action in
such a case, with conflicting evidence as to trade
custom would be, whatever its issue, unproductive
of any substantial benefit to either party. On the
other hand, if the author endeavoured to get
inserted into his agreement a covenant to pay the
full rovalty on all surplus copies sold, he would in
my opinion, be extremely likely to meet with
refusal. In any case, however, the matter would
be arranged beforehand, and an opportunity for
future litigation would be avoided. Anagreement
with regard to the sale of remainders should define
the circumstances in which they are to be sold,
whether at the end of a given time or other-
wise, and it must be pointed out that with some
books not expected to have an ephemeral sale
only, it may be important to guard against any
such sale taking place at all. It also seems fair
that an author should stipulate for notice of
such a sale being given to him, because he may
like to buy in his own books so as to deal with
them afterwards himself. The publisher can hardly
refuse such a condition, as it is to his own
interest that the price should be enhanced as it
might be in such circumstances. The proviso
that the author should have the option of buying
at a fixed price is also possible. All these con-
ditions pre-suppose to some extent that the pub-
lisher is an honest man who will push the sale
while it is possible to do so, but the price of a
remainder is not likely to tempt the dishonest to
neglect to sell at the full rate as long as it is
possible to do so, even at some cost in advertising,
and a publisher not carrying out his contract lays
himself open to an action like any other man. Tt
will be observed that the Judge at the Westminster
180
County Court repeatedly pointed out the other
form in which Mr. Farmer’s case might have been
presented. He meant that had the action been
brought for damages sustained by the plaintiff
through a breach of his agreement, and had it been
proved that the agreement was so broken, the
plaintiff would have been entitled to compensation
in the form of damages, although he was not
entitled to it in the form of royalties. In such
an action it would have been necessary to prove
that the agreement was not carried out by the
publisher, and that the sale of the remainder
was in violation of it. Any action fought out
upon facts calculated to test the relative rights
of publishers and author, to determine, what is
reasonable fulfilment of the duty of a publisher
bound by an agreement not specific upon every
point, is no doubt of interest to writers and pub-
lishers alike. It is, however, better to provide as
far as possible for the usual risks and contingencies
of book publishing beforehand. In order to do this
some knowledge of those risks is necessary, and it
is, I believe, in order to provide that knowledge
that the Society of Authors offers its advice and the
fruits of its experience to its members.
i. A. ARMSTRONG.
+
Il.
What Constitutes Acceptance?
Art the City of London Court on March Ist,
the writer of an article, sent unsolicited to
the Sportsman, sued for payment, on the ground
that it had been accepted for publication. His
evidence with regard to this appears to have
been that he was told by the editor, or by some
one representing him, that the article was “‘ reserved
for use.” This does not seem to have been dis-
puted, but whether it was or not, Judge Lumley
Smith held that the words “reserved for use” did
not necessarily mean that the article was accepted,
and he gave judgment for the defendants. This
decision, that the defendant did not accept, or in
other words, did not agree to print and publish the
article, is one of fact, and therefore, presumably,
there will be no appeal in the case. As a decision
of fact, upon the story as it was reported in the
Daily Chronicle of March 2nd, it is open to
criticism. “‘ Reserved for consideration” is a
phrase which might have been used, which would
have been perfectly understood, and which would
have given the author an opportunity for saying
that he desired a more definite decision at once,
had he been inclined to take such a course.
“Reserved for use’? would to most persons have
a different meaning. An Editor “uses” an article
when he publishes it, and “reserved for publica-
THB AUTHOR.
tion” could hardly mean less than that the
editor intended to publish the article and promised
to do so, although the word “reserved” might
imply that the publication would not be immediate,
but would take place within a reasonable time at
the editor’s convenience. Ifthe judge was really
satisfied that the words “reserved for use” were
either spoken or written by the editor or by some
one having a right to make a contract on behalf of
the paper, it seems a little difficult to account for
the interpretation which he put upon a tolerably
clear and not uncommon English phrase. He
seems, however, to some extent to have been
influenced by recollection of a past decision of his
own which he appears to have regretted, and
which he hinted he would not now repeat in
similar circumstances. In giving judgment he
alluded to a similar case in which he gave a verdict
for the plaintiff, but in which the article appeared
in print, and he added, according to the report in
the Daily Chronicle, that he had since been “ told by
literary men that many contributions were so
illegible that they- had to be set up in print to see
if they were worth using.” The past decision to
which Judge Lumley Smith referred was evidently
that in Jlacdonald v. The National Review, tried
by him when judge of the Westminster County
Court in 1893, of which a full account is to be
found in The Author for June of that year. Many
will remember it, because it excited a good deal of
criticism at the time, and the Society of Authors
was commended by some and blamed by the
Saturday Review and others for the part which
it took in obtaining the decision given. The ques-
tion at issue, put in its shortest form, was whether
the sending of a proof of an unsolicited article to
the author constituted acceptance by the editor
and bound him to pay for the article. In dac-
donald v. The National Review delay on the part
of the editor in publishing the article had caused
remonstrance by the author, and the editor had
claimed the right to return the article in conse-
quence. The decision of the judge that the
sending of the proof constituted acceptance of the
article, commended itself to most authors, and
was not dissented from by all editors, and if
Judge Lumley Smith has altered his opinion for
the reason quoted above he has done so upon
grounds which scarcely seem to be adequate. It
was pointed out in Zhe Author of June, 1893,
p- 15, that “if the proof does not mean acceptance
it would cost the editor nothing more than a
printed slip to say so.” A printed slip equally
would inform the author that the editor finding
his article illegible in manuscript had had it set
up in order to see whether it was readable in print.
It is not necessary to discuss whether any such
practice on the part of editors, accompanied by
the sending of proofs to the authors, exists to an
appreciable extent.
The point upon which emphasis is laid, is that
if such a thing is done, the author can and should
be informed of the editor’s intention, and all cause
for future misunderstanding thereby removed.
The object in sending a proof upon such an
oceasion would be to make sure that the printer
had been able to decipher the article, before the
editor had the trouble of reading it, not the
correction of the article as a preliminary to publi-
cation.
It is hardly unreasonable, however, to suggest
that a proof is usually sent to an author that he
may correct it for publication. The corrections
which he makes, whether they may alter the article
(perhaps so as to bring it up to date), or may
simply set right printers’ errors, are scarcely
needed in order to aid the editor in forming an
opinion upon its merits. They are, beyond dispute,
desirable if it is going to be published, and it is
because it is going to be published, and at the
time when it is going to be published, that the
editor in most cases sends the proof to the author.
It may be very convenient for an editor to read an
article in print, to reserve it without binding
himself to use it, to have it as corrected by the
author ready to hand in case it may be needed in
an emergency, but the author has a right to
understand and to assent to or dissent from such a
course of business. Equally the editor who should
intimate to the author that he was retaining an
article without definitely accepting it, would be
entitled to a prompt acceptance or refusal of his
conditions.
—_—_____—_e—<—e-—_——
AUTHORS’ AGENTS.
1
rWVHE methods of the Author’s Agent are of
[ growing importance to all those who live
by the production of literary property.
There are many who consider that they have
only to put their work into the hands of an agent
in order to obtain a literary success, or at any rate,
a large increase in their incomes. These, after the
lapse of a year, often give up the employment of
an agent as they find no increased benefit from his
assistance. There are many, again—especially
those whose incomes from their literary works run
to four figures—who derive no small benefit from
an agent’s help. For these the agent works with
untiring zeal, as the work is not difficult to place,
and the returns are large. ‘There are those, again,
who are hopelessly unbusinesslike. For these an
agent is essential whether the author’s returns are
large or not.
To the beginner, as a rule, the agent is of very
THE AUTHOR.
181
little use. The author’s marketable output is so
small that it does not pay the agent to make any
considerable effort. ‘To the author who is aiso a
man of business, unless he can make an arrange-
ment at a considerably lower figure than the usual
10 per cent., the agent is again of very little use.
The only people, therefore, to whom an agent
is really essential are those writers with a medium
or large output, who lack business capacity, and,
in some cases, those writers with a large output
who hold a reasonable contract ; but a reasonable
contract is certainly not 10 per cent. on all income
continuing while the copyright lasts. The figure
of remuneration should be determined by arranging
either for a lower percentage or 10 per cent. up to
a fixed sum.
The business of a literary agent is not run on
philanthropic lines any more than that of a pub-
lisher, and it is necessary therefore, and natural,
for him to give more detailed attention and greater
care to those who bring him in a large income,
than to those whose output is small. But there
are one or two important questions which call for
remark, and one or two dangers to be avoided
which, arising out of the employment of the
middleman, fall outside the agent’s legitimate
work.
In many cases an editor, in order to avoid
trouble, goes to an agent and says that he wants
a story by a certain author for which he will pay
a certain price. The agent, who has not the
name of the author on his books, finds out his
address and writes to him. ‘The author consents
to the contract and the agent takes 10 per cent.
from him, Surely, on this occasion, the agent is
acting, not for the author, but for the editor, from
whom his commission should come? The author
is, no doubt, to blame, and could dispute the
charge if he was fully cognisant of his legal posi-
tion, but unfortunately he yields himself an easy
prey to the persistent agent.
Again, agents have been known to go round to
editors and offer to obtain stories for them from
authors whose names are not on their books—
again with a beneficial result to the agent out of
the author’s pocket. But it is the wrong person
who pays. Some literary agents indeed clearly
state that they are acting for publishers and
editors. If this is the case they have no right to
charge the author commission on work placed with
one of the editors or publishers for whom they are
acting. The point is becoming one of great, and
grave importance, as there are signs that agents
do not always keep the welfare of the author before
them, but are inclined to play the publisher’s hand
rather than the author's.
The facts must be plainly stated, and some
clear understanding must be arrived at. An agent
182
cannot act for both parties in a financial bargain.
If he attempts to hold such an anomalous position, it
is clear that one party must suffer. As a rule the
sufferer is the author, who is much less capable of
solving these financial difficulties than the editor
or publisher. But in whatever way the bargain
goes, the agent must be tarnished. This is no
imaginary case, and matters are getting more
serious as the competition amongst agents Increases.
The second point arises where an agent purchases
and sells literary work acting as principal. The
commencement of this dangerous practice is in
this wise. An agent is employed by an author
whose works have more literary merit than public
approval, and enters into a contract with a pub-
lisher or editor on his behalf, under which payment
is to be made at certain future dates. The author
feels the grip of poverty. The agent, with com-
mendable charity, provides the money at con-
siderably more than the bank rate of interest.
This method is then carried a step further, and
the agent actually purchases copy outright, merely,
of course, to oblige the author, and, waiting
his opportunity, sells again to the publisher or
editor at a figure which amply covers all risks, and
is much more profitable than dealing at 10 per
cent. Eventually he finds it better policy to
interest himself in the rising author on this basis,
and neglects the business of those who still desire
to employ him as a bond fide agent on commission
terms. Although the author acquiesces in the
arrangement, he does so to the danger of his fellow
craftsmen ; for this mixture of principal and agent
is no less dangerous than the other practices referred
to, and brings discredit on the middleman.
There is a further point to be considered. An
agent obtains an introduction for an author to an
editor. Is the author bound to pay commission
on any future work placed with the same editor ?
Some agents claim that this is the case so long as
the author is still employing them, even though
the employment may be in other matters. Some
go so far as to claim it even when the agency
contract is at an end. There is, of course, the
agent’s point of view—that it would be possible to
find markets for an author, and it would be possible
for the author to determine his arrangement with
the agent as soon as he found that his markets were
sufficiently numerous.
But what is tobe said of the agent who, while
continuing to carry on his business, abuses his
employers in no measured terms, and is particular
to remark that they must be kept out of the toils
of the Authors’ Society.
Tf he thinks so badly of his employers, he is no
doubt anxious to avoid the toils of the Society for
his contracts as well as his authors. By such a
proclamation he, at any rate, throws his cards on
THE AUTHOR.
the table. If he is overcome with this feeling
would it not have been wiser—to carry the simile
further—that he held up his hand to the bitter
end. This is positive aggression, but the negative
pole is more difficult to deal with. In this case
an agent, when an author comes to him, does not
tell him to avoid the Society, but takes good care
not to refer to it at all. When the author gets
into legal difficulties, whether rising from the
fault of his guide or from other reasons, instead of
giving encouragement to his becoming one of the
body of his fellow workers where he would get his
legal difficulties set right free of cost, he takes
him off to his own solicitor and avoids in this way
“the toils of the Society.” But the unfortunate
author has to meet the lawyer’s bill.
In any case, there appears to be only one
reason why an agent should not work in harmony
with the Society, and also be an ardent supporter of
it, and that is, that he does not care for a too
careful inspection of his contracts and of his
methods of dealing with the literary property of
those who employ him.
From the cases quoted above, it is quite clear
that, on many occasions, there is very good reason,
from the agent’s point of view, why the Authors’
Society should not be brought into consultation ;
but other reasons arise why it is necessary that the
author should keep a watchful eye over the
negotiations, even when the agent is engaged in
his legitimate business.
To begin with, literary agents are not as a rule
lawyers, and, therefore, are hardly competent to
draw up a legal document or to advise the author
on signing the same.
This point has become apparent on reviewing a
series of contracts which have been brought to
the Society’s offices, unfortunately after signature
and after accepting the agent’s advice.
An agent has allowed an author to enter into
half-profit agreements, and royalty agreements
with exceedingly low royalties, and to bind him-
self to the publisher for the next two books on the
same terms.
That the agent should pass an agreement for
half profits and for low royalties might perhaps
be excusable under exceptional circumstances,
but that an agent should pass the two-book clause
is absolutely and entirely inexcusable. Such
action shows either a complete disregard of the
author’s interest or an absolute ignorance of the _
agent’s own business, unless, absit omen, there are
other and deeper reasons for the step.
This rule must be laid down as absolute : Wo
author should, in any circumstances, bind himself to
a publisher for more than one book.
Do not sign agreements containing the above
condition, not even though the agent may stand
over you pen in hand and demand your signature,
stating that he can do no more for you if you
refuse to sign.
Again, agreements made through an agent are
frequently brought forward, which assign transla-
tion rights, Continental rights, American rights,
and even dramatic rights, to the publisher, and the
author has to allow the publisher 50 per cent. if he
succeeds in selling or getting rid of them.
Now, it is not the publisher’s business but the
agent’s to sell these rights. This has repeatedly
been explained. In any case, the publisher is not
entitled to 50 per cent. of the returns.
Again, it is possible that such a case as the
following might occur :
An agent is exceedingly busy with the works
of many authors. It is important that he should
get some of them settled and off his hands at the
earliest opportunity.
Therefore, in a moment of carelessness he
advises an author to accept such terms as will
not be satisfactory in their result.
This case, like the former, points to the fact
that the author cannot be too careful about what
agreement he enters into, whether such agree-
ment is put before him directly by the publisher
or by the publisher through his (the author’s)
own agent.
The mere question of the financial terms of an
agreement is by no means the only one which
should be looked into. Jn some cases the control
of the property is even of more importance to the
author than the financial question.
In conclusion, therefore, it is evident that agents
are not only in many cases incompetent to act as
legal advisers, but that often they are wanting in
a knowledge of their business as the confidential
assistants of authors.
Tf authors have any doubt about the document
laid before them they should certainly consult
the Society, even though the agent may see objec-
tions, as he surely will, to their adopting this
course.
In this paper has been set forth the many
difficulties and dangers that surround an author in
his dealings with the literary agent, and the
subject has been treated in full detail. It must
not be thought, however, that there is no brighter
side to the relations. Although the number of
authors’ agents is increasing, they are still a small
body. There are those who do not take up the
work of a great many authors, but limit them-
selves strictly to work which they can do thoroughly
and satisfactorily. Accordingly those for whom
they deal have to report nothing but pleasant
intercourse and satisfactory negotiations. There
are those again, whose work on behalf of a great
many authors is painstaking and reliable, and
THE AUTHOR.
183
the authors reap the benefit by an increased
income and a larger market. The real per-
fection of literary agency, however, is still to be
desired. Perhaps the ideal literary agent would
be one who for a fixed sum per annum, worked
for a fair number of authors. Considerable work
on this basis would be of the greatest benefit to
those who employed him, and the least expense to
the agent, as it would hardly be necessary for him
under these circumstances to rent an office or
employ a large staff of clerks.
Again it must be stated that the matter is of
serious import, and that authors should give careful
consideration to the difficulties of their position.
GH YF.
+ —o+—____——-
THE MARCH MAGAZINE CONTENTS.
——+-—<—
LITERARY, DRAMATIC, AND MUSICAL.
BLACKWOOD’s MAGAZINE.
The Future of Public Taste in Literature : “ Musing
Without Method.”’
CONTEMPORARY REVIEW.
Recollections of Renan. By Emily Crawford.
Studies in Literary Psychology :—111. Carlyle and the
Present Tense. By Vernon Lee.
CORNHILL MAGAZINE.
Herbert Spencer. By Hector Macpherson.
LONGMAN’S MAGAZINE.
“ A Defence of Play Reading.’’ By W. E. Hicks.
MACMILLAN’S MAGAZINE,
Matthew Arnold as a Popular Poet. By W. A. Sibbald.
TEMPLE BAR.
Heine and Sir Walter Scott. By James H. Henderson.
THE FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW.
Growing Distaste for the Higher Kinds of Poetry. By
Alfred Austin.
Collected Poems of Christina Rossetti.
Hueffer.
By Ford Madox
THE MONTHLY REVIEW.
Ainger Canon : A personal impression.
Two Unpublished Poems by Crabbe.
Hudson.
By Edith Sichel.
Edited by R.
THE NATIONAL REVIEW.
Is Fiction Deteriorating? By Miss Jane H. Findlater.
Barly Recollections of Mr. Lecky. By A College Friend.
Tue NINETEENTH CENTURY REVIEW,
The Reorganization of the British Drama by the State.
By Henry Arthur Jones.
THE QUARTERLY REVIEW.
Mr. Creevy and his Contemporaries.
The Homeric Question ?
The Abbé Loisy.
184
WARNINGS TO THE PRODUCERS
OF BOOKS.
—1_—>—
ERE are a few standing rules to be observed in an
agreement. ‘There are four methods of dealing
with literary property :—
I, Selling it Outright.
This is sometimes satisfactory, if a proper price can be
obtained. But the transaction should be managed by a
competent agent, or with the advice of the Secretary of
the Society.
Il. A Profit-Sharing Agreement (a bad form of
agreement),
In this case the following rules should be attended to:
C1.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro-
duction forms a part without the strictest investigation,
(2.) Not to give the publisher the power of putting the
profits into his own pocket by charging for advertisements
in his own organs, or by charging exchange advertise-
ments. Therefore keep control of the advertisements,
(3.) Not to allow a special charge for ‘‘ office expenses,”
unless the same allowance is made to the author.
(4.) Not to give up American, Colonial, or Continental
rights.
(5.) Not to give up serial or translation rights.
(6.) Not to bind yourself for future work to any publisher.
As well bind yourself for the future to any one solicitor or
doctor !
III. The Royalty System.
This is perhaps, with certain limitations, the best form
of agreement. It is above all things necessary to know
what the proposed royalty means to both sides. It is now
possible for an author to ascertain approximately the
truth. From time to time very important figures connected
with royalties are published in Zhe Author.
IY. A Commission Agreement.
The main points are :—
(1.) Be careful to obtain a fair cost of production.
(2.) Keep control of the advertisements.
(3.) Keep control of the sale price of the book.
General.
All other forms of agreement are combinations of the four
above mentioned.
Such combinations are generally disastrous to the author.
Never sign any agreement without competent advice from
the Secretary of the Society.
Stamp all agreements with the Inland Revenue stamp.
Avoid agreements by letter if possible.
The main points which the Society has always demanded
from the outset are :—
C1.) That both sides shall know what an agreement
means.
(2.) The inspection of those account books which belong
tothe author. We are advised that this is a right, in the
nature of a common law right, which cannot be denied or
withheld.
(3.) Always avoid a transfer of copyright.
gg
WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS.
age
N “Seer sign an agreement without submitting it to the
a Secretary of the Society of Authors or some com-
petent legal authority.
2. [t is well to be extremely careful in negotiating for
the production of a play with anyone except an established
manager.
THE AUTHOR.
3. There are three forms of dramatic contract for plays
in three or more acts :—
(a.) Sale outright of the performing right. This
is unsatisfactory. An author who enters into
such a contract should stipulate in the contract
for production of the piece by a certain date
and for proper publication of his name on the
play-bills,
(4.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to
perform on the basis of percentages on
gross receipts. Percentages vary between 5
and 15 per cent. An author should obtain a
percentage on the sliding scale of gruss receipts
in preference to the American system. Should
obtain a sum in advance of percentages. <A fixed
date on or before which the play should be
performed,
(c.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to
perform on the basis of royalties (i.c., fixed
nightly fees). This method should be always
avoided except in cases where the fees are
likely to be small or difficult to collect. The
other safeguards set out under heading (0.) apply
also in this case.
4. Plays in one act are often sold outright, but it is
better to obtain a small nightly fee if possible, and a sum
paid in advance of such fees in any event. It is extremely
important that the amateur rights of one-act plays should
be reserved.
5. Authors should remember that performing rights can
be limited, and are usually limited, by town, country, and
time. This is most important.
6. Authors should not assign performing rights, but
should grant a licence to perform. The legal distinction is
of great importance.
7. Authors should remember that performing rights in a
play are distinct from literary copyright. A manager
holding the performing right or licence to perform cannot
print the book of the words.
8. Never forget that United States rights may be exceed-
ingly valuable. ‘lhey should never be included in English
agreements without the author obtaining a substantial
consideration.
9. Agreements for collaboration should be carefully
drawn and executed before collaboration is commenced.
10. An author should remember that production of a play
is highly speculative : that he runs a very great risk of
delay and a breakdown in the fulfilment of his contract.
He should therefore guard himself all the more carefully in
the beginning.
11. An author must remember that the dramatic market
is exceedingly limited, and that for a novice the first object
is to obtain adequate publication.
As these warnings must necessarily be incomplete, on
account of the wide range of the subject of dramatic con-
tracts, those authors desirous of further information
are referred to the Secretary of the Society.
ae 6
WARNINGS TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.
eee,
ITTLE can be added to the warnings given for the
assistance of producers of books and dramatic
authors. It must, however, be pointed out that, as
a rule, the musical publisher demands from the musical
composer a transfer of fuller rights and less liberal finan-
cial terms than those obtained for literary and dramatic
property. The musical composer has very often the two
rights to deal with—performing right and copyright. He
should be especially careful therefore when entering into
an agreement, and should take into particular consideration
the warnings stated above.
—_—___—_—_1+—>—_+_—_
HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.
—— >
i VERY member has a right toask for and to receive
advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-
lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his
business or the administration of his property. The
Secretary of the Society is a solicitor, but if there is any
special reason the Secretary will refer the case to the
Solicitors of the Society. Further, the Committee, if they
deem it desirable, will obtain counsel’s opinion. All this
without any cost to the member.
2. Remember that questions connected with copyright
and publishers’ agreements do not fall within the experi-
ence of ordinarysolicitors. Therefore, do not seruple to use
the Society.
3. Send to the Office copies of past agreements and past
accounts, with a copy of the book represented. The
Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new
or old, for inspection and note. The information thus
obtained may prove invaluable.
4. Before signing any agreement whatever, send
the document to the Society for examination.
5. Remember always that in belonging to the Society
you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you
are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are
advancing the best interests of your calling in promoting
the independence of the writer, the dramatist, the composer.
6. The Committee have now arranged for the reception
of members’ agreements and their preservation in a fire-
proof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as
confidential documents to be read only by the Secretary,
who will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers :
—(1) To read and advise upon agreements and to give
advice concerning publishers. (2) ‘To stamp agreements
in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep
agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to
agreements. Fuller particulars of the Society’s work
can be obtained in the Prospectus.
7. No contract should be entered into with a literary
agent without the advice of the Secretary of the Society.
Members are strongly advised not to accept without careful
consideration the contracts with publishers submitted to
them by literary agents, and are recommended to submit
them for interpretation and explanation to the Secretary
of the Society.
8. Many agents neglect to stamp agreements This
must be done within fourteen days of first execution. The
Secretary will undertake it on behalf of members.
9, Some agents endeavour to prevent authors from
referring matters to the Secretary of the Society ; so
do some publishers. Members can make their own
deductions and act accordingly.
10. The subscription to the Society is £1 1s. per
annum, or £10 10s for life membership.
THE AUTHOR.
THE READING BRANCH.
= ——+ -
EMBERS will greatly assist the Society in this
3b branch of its work by informing young writers
of its existence. Their MSS. can be read and
treated as a composition is treated by a coach. The term
MSS. includes not only works of fiction, but poetry
and dramatic works, and when it is possible, under
special arrangement, technical and scientific works. The
Readers are writers of competence and experience. The
fee is one guinea,
o> e
NOTICES.
7
HE Editor of Zhe Author begs to remind members of
the Society that, although the paper is sent to them
free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a
very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great
many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest
5s. 6d. subscription for the year.
Communications for Zhe Author should be addressed to
the Offices of the Society, 39, Old Queen Street, Storey’s
Gate, 8.W., and should reach the Editor not later than
the 21st of each month.
All persons engaged in literary work of any kind,
whether members of the Society or not, are invited to
communicate to the Editor any points connected with their
work which it would be advisable in the general interest to
publish.
ope
Communications and letters are invited by the
Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on
no other subjects whatever. Every effort will be made to
return articles which cannot be accepted.
1
The Secretary of the Society begs to give notice
that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post,
and he requests members who do not receive an
answer to important communications within two days to
write to him without delay. All remittances should be
crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery Lane, or be sent
by registered letter only.
<>
THE LEGAL AND GENERAL LIFE
ASSURANCE SOCIETY.
1
N offer has been made of a special scheme of
Endowment and Whole Life Assurance,
admitting of a material reduction off the
ordinary premiums to members of the Society.
Full information can be obtained from J. P. Blake,
Legal and General Insurance Society (City Branch),
158, Leadenhall Street, H.C.
THE AUTHOR:
AUTHORITIES.
—
INCE the article translated from the Swedish
paper came to the office special information
has been received that the law has been
passed under which Sweden will become a member
of the Berne Convention. The Bill was passed in
the First Chamber without the least opposition and in
the Second Chamber by an overwhelming majority.
This is satisfactory news, as the steady influx of
members to the Convention makes the isolated
case of those outside itstill more conspicuous. It is
hoped that at no distant date Austria and Hungary
will come in, and that when Russia has settledits war
with Japan and its Domestic Copyright, it will also
join the ranks of civilised European society ; then
the United States will be the only country of any
importance outside the pale.
It is interesting to note that Sweden, like all
other nations that have legislated recently in copy-
right matters, has increased and confirmed the right
of property to the originator, and thus follows the
tendency of modern ideals. The reference to the
Swedish Authors’ Society has a goodring about it.
BorH the Authors’ Society and the National Union of
Teachers ought to be interested in a controversy which is
just now disturbing educational circles in New York. The
City Comptroller, Mr. Grout, is about to introduce a Bill
providing that no school officer shall receive for his own
use any income or royalties arising out of his authorship of,
or interest in, books used in the city’s schools, but shall pay
any such profits into the City Treasury. The person at
whom this proposed legislation is particularly aimed is Dr.
Maxwell, Superintendent of Schools, who is alleged to be
drawing 20,000 dols. annually in royalties from text-books
of which he is the author.
This cutting, taken from the Westminster Gazette,
will, doubtless, interest all those members of the
Society who publish educational works.
The subject is one which could be argued on
both sides with some effect, but if we take it for
granted that the educators of the younger genera-
tion are men of probity, there seem to be no
persons more capable of knowing what should be
taught, how it should be taught, and the form
in which it should be represented to the pupils.
Under these circumstances, it is scarcely fair
that the teachers should be debarred from the
profit arising from the result of their labours,
and a policy of this kind might tend to bring
upon the market an inferior article. It is
unlikely that the greatest educators would devote
themselves to the writing of books by which their
educational methods might become known, if they
were not likely to receive some reward.
It will be interesting to see whether the Billever
becomes law.
Tur Saturday Review has published a series of
letters on the question of “ tags.” The corre-
spondents have put forward many which they
consider should be removed from the English
language, and one correspondent has gone so far
as to say that when a person is given to the use of
these “tags” in his writings, he, at any rate, shows
he has ceased to think. Surely, this deduction is
quite wrong. Many “tags ” are the crystallisation
of a thought or of an idea in its most shapely form,
and are therefore, in some cases, artistic works of
a very high order. Because a work of high art is
constantly reproduced, and is seen everywhere, it
does not therefore lose its artistic merit. Besides,
the user may have given the matter his most
earnest consideration, and, after having tried every
turn of phrase that a genius could invent, may
have come to the conclusion that the method of
expressing his idea most clearly and lucidly is
through the means of a “tag,” which may have
been crystallised previously by some other genius.
It does not necessarily follow that all “tags”
are works of high art, but let us not remove them
from the English language merely because they are
in common use. Olearness of expression is more
desirable than literary pyrotechnics.
«“ TAGS.’’—SATURDAY REVIEW.
Advancing by leaps and bounds.
Conspicuous by his absence.
More honoured in the breach than the observance.
What the soldier said is not evidence.
“ Which,’’ as Euclid would say, “ is absurd.”’
Like Mrs. Harris, “I don’t believe there’s no sich a
person.”
It is always the unexpected that happens.
A mad world, my Masters.
"Tis true, ‘tis pity ; and pity ‘tis, ’tis true.
There is much virtue in an “if.”
Se non e vero e ben trovato.
Like Topsy, “I spect I grow’d.”’
Like the late Lord Beaconsfield on a famous occasion
“On the side of the Angels.”’
Like Brer Rabbit, ‘To lie low and say nuffin.”
Like Oliver Twist, “To ask for more.”’
Like Sam Weller’s knowledge of London, “ Extensive
and peculiar.”’
Like Napoleon, “ A believer in big battalions.”’
Pyrrhic Victory.
Parthian dart.
Homeric laughter.
Sturm und Drang.
Intelligent anticipation of events.
Masterly inactivity. :
Splendid isolation.
Unctuous rectitude.
Mute inglorious Milton.
The sword of Damocles.
The thin end of the wedge.
The long arm cf coincidence.
The soul of goodness in things evil.
Hobson's choice.
Frankenstein's monster.
Macaulay's schoolboy.
Lord Burleigh’s nod.
RRA
Sir Boyle Roche’s bird.
Mahommed’s coffin.
Davy Jones’ locker.
“ Waiting,’ as Mr. Micawber says, “for something to
turn up.”’
Mr. Punch’s advice to those about to marry—‘ Don’t.”’
The pen is mightier than the sword.
The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.
The battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of
Eton.
This gives us pause.
Take him for all in all, we ne’er shall look upon his
like again.
Cesar’s wife.
Facilis descensus Averni, etc.
Tempora mutantur, etc.
Coelum non animum, etc.
Sunt lachryme rerum, etc.
Dum Fluvii currunt, etc.
Exegi monumentum, etc.
Sic vos non vobis, etc.
Non tali auxilio, nec, etc.
Suaviter in modo, etc.
Penny wise and pound foolish.
Qui s’excuse s’accuse.
Not wisely but too well.
THE members of the Society will, we are sure,
join with us in thanking our President for the
note he contributes in memory of his late friend,
Sir Leslie Stephen, and in congratulating him on
the improvement in his health, which has made it
possible for him to resume his pen.
The article by the Chairman of the Committee,
which follows, was printed before Mr. Meredith’s
note was received, and we publish it as it stands,
although the last paragraph might have been
omitted had Mr. Meredith’s tribute to “The
Tramps” been before Mr. Freshfield.
—_—____—_e——_e—__
SIR LESLIE STEPHEN, K.C.B.
Se
I
HEN that noble body of scholarly and cheer-
ful pedestrians, the Sunday Tramps, were
on the march, with Leslie Stephen to lead
them, there was conversation which would have
made the presence of a shorthand writer a bene-
faction to the country. A pause to it came at the
examination of the leader’s watch and Ordnance
map under the western sun, and word was given for
the strike across country to catch the tail of a train
offering dinner in London, at the cost of a run
through hedges, over ditches and fallows, past pro-
clamations against trespassers, under suspicion of
being taken for more serious depredators in flight.
The chief of the Tramps had a wonderfully calcu-
THE AUTHOR. 187
lating eye in the observation of distances and the
nature of the land, as he proved by his discovery
of untried passes in the higher Alps, and he had
no mercy for pursy followers. I have often said of
this life-long student and philosophical head, that
he had in him the making of a great military
captain. He would not have been opposed to the
profession of arms if he had been captured early
for the Service, notwithstanding his abomination
of bloodshed. He had a high, calm courage, was
unperturbed in a dubious position, and would con-
fidently take the way out of it which he conceived
to be the better. We have not to deplore that he
was diverted from the ways of a soldier, though
England, as the country has been learning of late,
cannot boast of many in uniform who have capacity
for leadership. His work in literature will be
reviewed by his lieutenant of Tramps, one of the
ablest of our writers. The memory of it remains
with us, as being the profoundest and the most
sober criticism we have had in our time. The
only sting in it was an inoffensive humorous
irony that now and then stole out for a roll over,
like a furry cub, or the occasional ripple on a lake
in grey weather. We have nothing left that is
like it.
One might easily fall into the pit of panegyric
by an enumeration of his qualities, personal and
literary. It would be out of harmony with the
temper and characteristics of a mind so equable.
He, the equable, whether in condemnation or
eulogy. Our loss of such a man is great, for
work was in his brain, and the hand was active
till close upon the time when his breathing ceased.
The loss to his friends can be replaced only by an
imagination that conjures him up beside them.
That will be no task to those who have known
him well enough to see his view of things as they
are and revive his expression of it. With them
he will live despite the word farewell.
GEORGE MEREDITH.
—-—<>—-+——
IT.
In Sir Leslie Stephen, who died on the 22nd
of February in his seventy-second year, the world
of letters has lost one of its most prominent
figures, and English criticism its acknowledged
head. Poets, according to an obiter dictum of
Tennyson, must be estimated by the quantity
as well as the quality of their work. If the same
standard may be applied to critics Stephen is likely
to hold a very high place in the judgment of
posterity. At the beginning of his literary career
he was content to do hack-work; he even translated
a mediocre German work on the Alps. But he
never gave the public anything but his best. A
188
more conscientious literary craftsman never lived.
Though he had little sympathy with Dryasdusts,
he was indefatigable in research. When his own
shelves failed him for a reference he—as he once
told me—went first to the Atheneeum, then to the
London Library, and finally, not without a groan,
made a pilgrimage to the British Museum. It
would be difficult to point out a single piece of
indifferent or hasty workmanship in the list of his
published volumes. That list, from the “ Play-
ground of Europe” (1871) to his last volume,
“ English Literature and Society in the Highteenth
Century,” is an astonishingly long and varied one ;
yet it represents only a portion of his labours. We
have also to take into account his long connection
with journalism—particularly with the Saturday
Review in its golden days, and the Yall Mali
Gazette, and in later years his many articles in the
National Review and the Dictionary of National
Biography, and further to remember that, while its
editor, he was engaged in a task that most men
would have found altogether engrossing. If the
original idea of this gigantic undertaking came
from its publisher, Mr. George Murray Smith, it
owed to Stephen its scope, its proportions and its
success. He collected and ruled a staff of capable
contributors, he set them models in the admirable
articles he wrote himself, he trained a successor
to follow him in the task when his own health
broke down. His wide knowledge and sympathy,
and his discriminating fairness to all who came
under his ken made him an ideal editor for sucha work.
Stephen’s literary talent was late in development.
His first book, and that a book of travel (though it
opens with a brilliant review of Alpine literature)
was published when he was thirty-nine. For at least
fourteen years he led the life of an athletic Don
at Cambridge, running countless miles beside his
College boat, and performing strange feats of
pedestrianism—which culminated in his walking
to London, fifty miles in twelve hours, to attend
an Alpine Club dinner. Of this period in his
career a record exists in the little volume of
“Sketches from Cambridge by a Don,” first
published in the Pall Mall Gazette.
Stephen was by nature a critic both in literature
and philosophy. But he approached criticism from
its human side, through biography. He investigated
systems through their teachers. It is characteristic
that when he wishes to defend the eighteenth cen-
tury, and put its case against the nineteenth, he
evokes the ghost of Gibbon as his spokesman.
The passage is brilliant, and might give cause for
profitable reflection to popular politicians of the
twentieth century.
As an historian and essayist the philosophy and
thought of the century of utilitarianism and
common sense were congenial to him, and supplied
THE AUTHOR.
the subject of his chief works. But his many
volumes of collected essays furnish proof of the
width and variety of his literary sympathies.
In “An Agnostic’s Apology” Stephen defined
his attitude towards religious beliefs. He held
that ‘there lives more faith in honest doubt
than (not in half but) in all the Oreeds.” He
considered them blind guesses in a region beyond
human knowledge, and consequently unsound bases
for any rule of life. He had a distrust of senti-
mentalism, which he defines somewhere as “emotion
for its own sake,” and a rooted dislike for all kinds
of makebelief, above all for makebeliefs about the
place of man in the Universe. He held that we
ought to be able to do our duty to our fellows
without the support of theological speculations.
The main tendency of Stephen’s philosophical
writings was, therefore, negative or destructive.
But in the two volumes of his Addresses to the
Ethical Society, he sets himself to work as a con-
structive agent. He labours to show how humanity
may grow in wisdom and happiness without seeking
for a sanction for conduct in regions beyond its
scope. He could not enter into the feelings of
those, the majority of mankind, who find an
irresistible attraction in any speculation that pre-
tends to fill up the void beyond our view—and are
therefore, as he put it, apt to conceal ignorance by
dogma.
In his literary criticisms, as in his ethical
writing, Stephen’s first aim was to see things as
they are. He distrusted enthusiasm, even his
own. He thought it a quality out of place in a
judge on the literary Bench. If he deviated in
this direction he generally qualified the lapse by
a quick touch of humour. At times he seems
almost too just: the reader would welcome a few
more expressions of personal feeling, or even pre-
judice. The atmosphere, like that of a mountain
top, is too clear and devoid of colour for the xsthetic
mind. Stephen had not, it must be added, a
creative intellect. He does not warm and kindle
his readers with those illuminating flashes which
one genius may throw on another when genius
takes to criticism. He was himself very acutely
alive to this fact, which he has alluded to in
print with exaggerated self-depreciation.
Stephen appeared to the public as a man of
somewhat austere mind and presence. But beneath
this cold exterior, constantly coming to the surface
in his life and not infrequently in his writing, was
a highly sensitive and emotional nature. He was
through life a lover of poetry. He tells us in one
of his recently published autobiographical chapters
how as an undergraduate he rejoiced to catch some
Freshman and recite to him Tennyson’s early
poems ; and in the preface to his first book he
alludes to his dislike to the retouches made in
‘
lL
i
them by their author. Through life he appreciated
his contemporaries, and his old friends have often
heard him recite poems of Browning and Fitz-
gerald, Swinburne and Meredith. In an after-
dinner speech on the day the news of the death
of Stevenson, whom he had introduced to The
Cornhill, reached England, he declaimed with
singular effect half of “A Grammarian’s Funeral.”
In his essay on Matthew Arnold he describes his
test for poetry : “ I believe in poetry which learns
itself by heart. There are poems which dominate
and haunt one; which once admitted sting and
cling to one; the tune of which comes up and
runs in one’s head at odd moments ; and which
suddenly revive after years of forgetfulness as
vigorous and lively as ever.” And yet a critic in
the Atheneum has had the courage to assert that
“Stephen did not really care for poetry any more
than Jeffrey, and consequently was not fully quali-
fied to criticise it.” ‘Chis writer might have done
well to peruse the account of Jeffrey’s “ amazingly
systematic and comprehensive blundering ” in
poetical criticism given in the chapter on The
First Edinburgh Reviewers in “ Hours in a Library :
(third series).
Stephen was happy not only in his profession,
but also in a hobby which satisfied all his require-
ments, physical and intellectual, mountaineering.
His love of mountains was, as he has himself
explained, complex. Climbing was to him primarily
a sport, undertaken for the sake of adventure and
enjoyment, a recreation in which he could give
lay to the muscular energy of the primitive man
and the holiday humours of the genial Don, who
in Stephen underlay the critic and the philosopher.
But he found the scenery of the High Alps
sympathetic to his intellect, and that in more
ways than one. “ Its charm,” he writes, “ lies in
its vigorous originality.” And again: “The
mountains represent the indomitable force of nature
to which we are forced to adapt ourselves ; they
speak to man of his littleness and his ephemeral
nature, and therefore they should suggest that
sense of awestruck humility which best befits such
petty creatures as ourselves.” The Alps were for
Stephen a playground, bnt they were also a
cathedral. “If I were to invent a new idolatry,”
he says, “I should prostrate myself not before
beast, or ocean, or sun, but before one of these
gigantic masses to which, in spite of all reason, it
is impossible not to attribute some shadowy per-
sonality. Their voice is mystic, and has found
discordant interpreters; but to me at least it
speaks in tones at once more tender and more awe-
inspiring than that of any mortal teacher. The
loftiest and sweetest strains of Milton or Words-
worth may be more articulate, but do not lay so
forcible a grasp on my imagination.”
THE AUTHOR.
189
Yet to give the scale and point the moral he
drew from the High Places of the Earth, Stephen
required—if not an inn at least some trace of
pastoral life, ‘‘a weather-stained chalet” in the fore-
ground. “Scenery,” he says, “even the wildest
that is really enjoyable, derives half its charm from
the occult sense of the human life and social forms
moulded upon it. ‘he Alps would be unbearably
stern but for the picturesque society preserved
among their folds.” Yet surely in the recesses of
remoter ranges where no trace of man’s presence
is visible there is a sublimity like that of the
starry heavens which would have appealed to his
mind. Stephen, I suspect, since such scenery
never came within his reach, invented a reason
why he might not have cared for it.
With such tastes Stephen naturally became one
of the most ardent of the early members of the
Alpine Club, its third President, and for two years
the Editor of its Journal. In this capacity, and
still more in “The Playground of Europe,” pub-
lished in 1871, which he revised and added to in
1894, he set the note which has been followed ever
since in Alpine literature. He showed that “a
sense of humour is not incompatible with imagina-
tive sensibility.” He pictured the splendours of
the snows, or the unearthly grandeur of a sunset
seen from the summit of Mont Blanc in pages
which combine accuracy of observation with
enthusiastic appreciation and sentiment. At a
later date he became one of the discoverers of that
enchanting Dreamland, the Alps in Winter. The
chapter which bears that title is the most emotional
and eloquent he ever wrote. Some of its descrip-
tive passages have hardly been surpassed by any
lover of mountains, even by Ruskin.
Stephen did more than describe scenery. He
communicated to the world the keen spirit of
enjoyment of his comrades, amongst whom he
gained many lifelong friends. He made light of
his own feats in order to give the credit to his
guides, who returned the compliment by regarding
him as a hero. The fame of “Herr Stephen”
will long be associated in the Vale of Meiringen
with that of Melchior Anderegg. He maintained
with much vivacity that no excuse was needed for
climbing ; he declined, he said, to carry scientific
instruments in order to ascertain how far amateur
measurements might differ from those of profes-
sional surveyors. The frequent speeches he made
during thirty years at the annual dinners of the
Club became celebrated. Their heartiness, their
sudden and unexpected transitions from sentiment
to humour never failed to delight the listeners.
Given a sympathetic audience Stephen was one of
the best after-dinner speakers of his time.
Stephen’s love of pedestrianism was not limited
to its higher branch—mountaineering. He founded
190 TAB AUTHOR.
and for many years led on alternate Sundays
a band of philosophers, authors and lawyers “ over
hill over dale,” and I fear occasionally “over park
over pale,” within the 30-mile radius from Charing
Cross. We had now and then a judge in the
company, and rumour ran that Stephen had once
personally conducted a future bishop. Stephen’s
frame was adapted for speed, and when a train had
to be caught he strode ahead, as a more portly
editor described him, “like a pair of compasses.”
These walks and talks would on high days end
in a lunch or a dinner at Mr. Darwin’s or Mr.
Meredith’s, for the “Company of Tramps” had
distinguished honorary members.
With little taste for general society, Stephen,
until deafness cut him off from most social pleasures,
was fond of congenial company, and played a
stimulating part in it. He had a singular power
of attracting the affection of his numerous friends,
whose frequent” visits he was happily able to enjoy
to the last. -
“ Multis ille bonis flebilis occidit.”
D. W. F.
THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING FOR
1904.
+
HE annual General Meeting of the Society
a was held in the rooms of the Medical and
Chirurgical Society, in Hanover Square,
on March 16th, Mr. Douglas Freshfield, Chairman
of the Committee of Management, in the chair.
The Secretary, Mr. G. H. Thring, having read
the agenda, the Chairman proceeded to put
forward the report for consideration and discus-
sion. This had been duly forwarded to all sub-
scribing members, and in conformity with the
usage of the Society was not read at the meeting.
In commenting upon the more salient features of
the Society’s history during 1903, Mr. Freshfield
first dwelt upon the long list of distinguished
members lost to the Society or literatare through
death, making special reference to the names of
Sir Joshua Fitch, Colonel Henderson, Mr. W. E. H.
Lecky, Mr. Herbert Spencer, Mr. J. McNeill
Whistler, as well as to the more recent death
during the present year of Sir Leslie Stephen. In
calling attention to passages in the report relating
to the proper functions of the Society, he ohserved
that it was not an Academy of Letters, and that a
suggestion made that the Society should urge the
burial of Mr. Herbert Spencer in Westminster
Abbey seemed to seek to impose upon it duties
hardly within its province. In the same category
were other suggestions that the Society shouid
undertake at its own cost any litigation any mem.
ber might desire to enter‘upon, or that it should
act asa literary agent for its members. With regard
to this latter proposal it was pointed out that any
such commercial enterprise would be inconsistent
with the conditions under which the Society was
registered, and would provoke the interference of the
Board of Trade. Having proceeded to comment
upon the legal proceedings instituted and carried on
by the Society during the past year, Mr. Freshfield
explained the circumstances in which the Society
had incurred a liability for heavy costs in the ease
of Aflalo v. Lawrence and Bullen. It had asserted
an important principle on behalf of a member with
success in the Court of First Instance. Against the
decision there obtained appeal had been lodged, and
as respondent it had won a second time in the Court
of Appeal. The defendant, unsnecessfal in two
courts, had appealed further, as he had a perfect
right to do, and the Society had had no choice but
to defend its position, and the two judgments
already obtained, in the House of Lords. ‘That it
had done so without success was unfortunate ; they
might not as members of the Society agree with
the decision, but they must submit to it. The
moral was that an author in selling his work for
use in a magazine or encyclopedia, if he did
not wish at the same time to part with his copy-
right, must say so in plain terms. Mr. Freshfield
also referred to the street piracy of literary works,
upon methods similar to those adopted in’ the case
of music, to which he said the Society was giving
attention, and making efforts to check the proceed-
ings of the pirates. He concluded his speech by
an allusion to the unveiling of the memorial to
Sir Walter Besant in the Crypt of St. Paul’s
Cathedral, and to the proposal that a replica of the
memorial should be placed upon the Thames
Embankment, the arrangements for which would,
he hoped, be shortly concluded with the County
Council, which had met the Society in the matter
in a very sympathetic spirit.
When the Chairman had concluded his speech,
Mr. Basil Field rose and expressed a desire to
make it clear to the Society that the item of
£908 8s. 6d. included in the balance sheet as a
liability to Messrs. Field, Roscoe and Co., the
Society’s solicitors, included a large sum paid to
Messrs. Lawrence and Bullen after their successful
appeal to the House of Lords, in respect of costs
in the House of Lords, the Court of Appeal, and
the Chancery Division.
Sir William Charley, K.C., congratulated the
Society on its successful conduct of its litigation
generally, and the Secretary for the part played by
him therein, and paid a tribute to the memory of
Sir Walter Besant.
THE AUTHOR.
Mr. Hume Nisbet then rose and put a series of
questions to the Chairman, of which he had given
notice to the Secretary in writing on the day
preceding the meeting.
The questions with the answers made to them
were as follows :—
Question I.—Is the Authors’ Society a Company
as well as a Society ? Answer.—Yes.
Question II.—Who are the shareholders? ‘.e.,
Is there a printed list to be had? Answer.—The
Shareholders are the Council. The lists of the
Council in the Report and elsewhere are printed
lists of the shareholders.
Question II.—Do they, the shareholders, receive
any profits on their shares? Answer.—They do
not, and are prohibited from doing so by the
memorandum of association of the Company.*
Question IV.—What salary does the Secretary
for Society and Club draw? Also, what salaries
or emoluments does he get for his numerous other
duties, such as acting Manager and “'reasurer for
Society and Club, Solicitor, etc.? His salary as
Editor is alone printed in the present Report of
the Committee of Management for 1903. Answer.
—The Society has nothing to do with any club.
The salary of the Secretary of the Society is £360
a year, which covers his services as solicitor. He
receives £50 for editing Zhe Author. He has
no other emoluments from the Society. There is
no Acting Manager, and the Secretary is not the
Treasurer.
Question V.—Are these numerous duties not too
heavy for one ordinary man to fulfil properly ?
Answer.—The Committee have no reason to con-
sider that Mr. Thring is not performing his duties
to the satisfaction of the members of the Society
as well as to their own.
Question VI.—Have the same Committee of
Management not sat long enough? ie. for the
good of the Society, ought they not, along with
the Council, to resign without submitting their
names for re-election, if the Society is for the
benefit of authors, and not a company for the
benefit of shareholders ? Answer.—The election
of members to fill vacancies on the Committee
is placed in the hands of the Committee by
the articles of association. In order to avoid
the difficulties attending the alteration of the
articles of association of a company and at the
same time to enable members of the Society to
have a voice in the matter, should any desire to do
so, a circular was upon a recent occasion addressed
to the members by the Committee, asking them
to submit the names of candidates. No suggestion
was received in reply to this. The Chairman
on behalf of the Council further repudiated and
condemned the suggestion put forward in the
191
question that the Society was being carried on as
a company for the benefit of shareholders.*
In a discussion which followed Mr. Hume Nisbet
did not press any specific charge against either the
Committee of Management or the Secretary, although
he expressed dissatisfaction with their conduct of
the affairs of the Society. Nor did he meet with
any support from those members present who
addressed the meeting upon the subject of the
questions asked. These included Mr. Edward Rose,
Major Arthur Haggard, Mr. Charles Garvice, Mr.
Francis Gribble and others. Mr. E. Rose called
attention to the actual composition of the Com-
mittee of Management and to the changes which in
fact had taken place in it, and pointed out that the
changes were frequent for such a body. Other
speakers expressed themselves as thoroughly satis-
fied with the efficiency of the Secretary and with
the assistance which he afforded to members in
the matters upon which they consulted him.
Mr. Francis Gribble protested against the Society
having such questions as those raised by Mr. Hume
Nisbet sprung upon it at a general meeting without
previous notice of them being included in the
agenda, and concluded by moving a vote of confi-
dence in the Committee of Management and the
Secretary, which was carried by an overwhelming
majority. A large majority also assented to a
resolution moved in a second speech by Major
Arthur Haggard to the effect that the Committee
should be requested to consider the expediency of
raising the salary of the Secretary whenever the funds
of the Society permitted such a step to be taken.
With regard to the two matters which composed
the agenda for the meeting, the accounts and report
of the Committee of Management were approved,
and Mr. M. H. Spielmann, who had in due order
resigned his position as a member of the Pension
Fund Committee, was re-elected, no other candidate
being proposed. A vote of thanks to the Chairman
for his conduct of the meeting and of the affairs of
the Society as Chairman of the Committee of
Management was duly proposed and seconded, and
was carried by acclamation.
Those present included, besides those already
* Norre.—the Society of Authors is registered as a com-
pany with limited liability under the Companies Acts, but
is one of those associations which are permitted by the
Board of Trade to dispense with the word “ Limited” after
their names under the 23rd section of the Act of 1867, and
to enjoy other privileges. These are classed together as
“ Agsociations not for Profit,” and it has to be shown that
they are formed for the purpose of promoting commerce,
art, science, religion, charity, or some other useful object,
that it is their intention to apply their profits, if any, to
promoting their object, and to prohibit the payment of any
dividend to their shareholders. The licence of the Board
of Trade is granted subject to conditions and regulations
which have to be inserted in the memorandum and articles
of association.
192
mentioned: E. A. Armstrong, A. W. a Beckett,
The Rev. F. W. Bamford, Mackenzie Bell,
Lewis Benjamin, Herbert Bentwich, Sir William
Charley, K.C., Miss E. E. Charlton, Miss Ellen
Collett, Miss E. J. Curtis, Miss Violet Defries,
Austin Dobson, Miss C. O’Conor-Eccles, A. Hope
Hawkins, Mrs. Heron Maxwell, Miss E. M. Hine,
Eyre Hussey, The Rev. 8. Whittell Key, Mrs.
Knight, Mrs. Lechmere, J. M. Lely, Robert
Machray, Miss Jean Middlemass, Mrs. Neila Parker,
Miss Olive Katherine Parr, M. O. Portman, Hesketh
Prichard, Mrs. Romanes, J. M. Sloan, Francis
Storr, Albert A. Strong, Miss L. E. Tiddeman,
Perey White, Miss Aphra Wilson, and others.
+— >
THE ANNUAL DINNER.
aes
HE Annual Dinner of the Society of Authors
will take place at the Hotel Cecil, on
Wednesday, April 20th, at 7.30. Mr.
Douglas Freshfield will take the chair.
Notices have already been sent out to the mem-
bers and associates of the Society.
The following ladies and gentlemen have kindly
allowed their names to stand as stewards —
President, Mr. George Meredith,
THE AUTHOR.
Humphreys, Mrs. Des-
mond (“ Rita’),
Hunt, The Rey. G. Bon-
avia.
Hunt, Miss Violet,
Hyne, C. J. Cutcliffe.
Jones, Henry Arthur,
Keltie, J. Scott, LL.D.
Kennard, Mrs, Edward.
Lee, Sidney.
Leighton, Mrs. Connor,
Lely, J. M.
Lennox, Lady William.
‘‘ Maarten Maartens.”
Marsh, Richard.
McCarthy, Justin.
Middlemass, Miss Jean.
Norman, Henry, M.P.
Norris, W. E.
Oppenheim, E. P.
Pain, Barry. ,
Parker, Louis N.
Pinero, A. W.
Plunkett, The
Hon. Horace.
Pollock, Sir Frederick,
Bart, LL.D.
Right
Prothero, G. W,
Pryce, Richard.
Reich, Emil.
Serutton, Prof. T. E.
Seaman, Owen.
Senior, William.
Shaw, G. Bernard.
Sidgwick, Prof. Alfred,
Spielmann, M. H.
Spiers, Victor.
Sprigge, 8. Squire.
Stanford, Sir Charles
Villiers, Mus. Doe.
Street, G. S.
Thompson, Sir Henry,
F.R.S.
Todhunter, John.
Underdown, E. M., K.C.
Underdown, Miss E.
Upward, Allen.
Wain, Louis.
Watts-Dunton,
dore.
Wells, H. G.
White, Percy.
Whiteing, Richard.
Zangwill, Israel.
Theo-
—>—+—_____
2’ Beckett, A. W.
Aflalo, F. G,
Archer, William.
Atherton, Mrs. Ger-
trude.
Ball, Sir Robert, F.R.S.
Bateman, Robert.
Beddard, F.E., F.R.S.
Bell, Mackenzie.
Belloc-Lowndes, Mrs.
Benson, A. C.
Bergne, Sir
K.C.B.
Besant, W. H., LL.D.
Browning, Oscar.
Bryce, The Right. Hon.
James, M.P., D.C.L.
Bullen, F. T.
Burnand, Sir Frank,
Campbell, Lady Colin.
Capes, Bernard.
Carey, Miss Rosa N,
Cholmondeley, Miss
& Mary.
Church, Prof. A. H,
Clemens, S. L.
Clodd, Edward,
Collier, The Hon. John.
Colquhoun, A. R.
Henry,
Conway, Sir W. Martin.
Cookson, Col. Fife.
Corelli, Miss Marie,
Davidson, John.
Doudney, Mrs. Sarah.
Douglas, Sir George,
art.
Dowden, Prof. Edward,
Esmond, H. Y.
Foster, Sir Michael,
K.C.B.
Garnett, Richard, 0.B.
Gilbert, W. 8.
Gollancz, Israel.
Grand, Madame Sarah.
Graves, Alfred P.
Gribble, Francis.
Grundy, Sydney,
Haggard, Major Arthur.
Harraden, Miss Beatrice.
Hart, Major-General Sir
Reginald,
Hassal, John, R. I,
Hatton, Joseph,
Hawkins, Anthony
Hope.
Hinkson, Mrs.Katherine
Tynan,
Hocking, Rey, Silas K.
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
—— >
HERE is a great deal in a name, especially if
it is the title of a book. I fancy someone
once said, “A rose by any other name
would smell as sweet.” But a book by any other
name might not sell as well.
“The title is an important and radical part of a
book,” as Miss Frances Peard has lately remarked
in the Spectator. I remember reading her interest-
ing novel, “An Interloper,’ when it came out
some years ago. We hear from Miss Peard that
two novels called “ An Interloper” now exist, and
most of us have read Mrs. Jacob’s most recent and
clever novel, “ Zhe Interloper.”” That makes three
novels of (virtually) the same name. Miss Peard’s
was, I understand, the first of the three ; but
which happened to be published first is not to the
point—I mean the point I want to make. The
point is: First, is there a possibility of safe-
guarding a title? Secondly, how can one make
sure that one is not inadvertently guilty of using
a title already taken ? i.
It must be as annoying to Mrs. Jacob as it is to
Miss Peard that they are now both pledged to the
same title. a
It has always been a matter of great difficulty
THE AUTHOR.
to me to discover whether a title has already been
used.
“ Red Pottage”’ was my fourth book, but it was
the first (if I omit a small story) which was
published with its original name.
«Diana Tempest” had, as it seemed to me, an
admirable title, but when the book was actually in
proof it was discovered that a serial of that name
was running in a small local newspaper. I was
obliged to give up my title, and Mr. Bentley (who
had spared no pains to discover whether the title
had been used, and had come to the conclusion it
had not) was at the expense of the correction of
many sheets. The feeble name, “ Diana Tempest,”
was only taken for lack of a better one, because
the Press was waiting.
Yet no book having the title I so reluctantly
gave up has since been published, as far as I can
make out, and I have watched carefully.
On another occasion I had to relinquish a title.
This time there was no doubt about it. It had
been used. Nevertheless, several years later, the
same title, word for word, was taken by one of
our most distinguished novelists, and used with
éclat.
Surely a title should be copyright, or an author
should be able to pay a fee to make it so.
Would it be possible to institute a register of the
titles of books, to which all new titles coald be
added without delay, if the author wished to
safeguard them.
The author would thus, at least, know whether
he has a right to the title he wishes to use by
consulting this register.
A moderate fee for the registration of a title,
and a smaller fee to consult the list, would be
gladly paid, I imagine, by anyone whose thorny
lot it is to write books.
Is such a recognised register quite impossible ?
Also, would it be possible to register (as it were
to bespeak) a title in advance ?
It is an awful thing for an expansive and con-
fiding nature to go about for three years with a
title bottled up inside it. The first use (or rather
mis-use) I should personally make of this register
would be to feverishly inscribe thereon—as my own
property—about twelve “taking” titles for my
next book. I would not mind paying a guinea
each, just to keep the wolves (I mean my brother
novelists) from the door.
Of course I should be sat upon at once by the
gods who created the Register, who would no
doubt make some tiresome rule in order to coerce
me. Perhaps on the whole it would be fairer if we
were only allowed to bespeak one title, and that
only for a certain number of years.
Can anything be done ?
: Mary CHOLMONDELEY.
193
A PLEA FOR ENGLISH.
oo
HAVE read the remarks in “A Plea for
Pedantry” in the March number of The
Author with much interest. But there are
two statements made there on which I should
like to comment. One of these recommends the
study of the Latin grammar because “it inculcates
the difference between nominatives, datives, and
accusatives.” This is no doubt useful advice, but
it is not the most excellent way. If any one really
wishes to learn such points of grammar with a view
to writing English, and not Latin, it would be far
safer to study Dr. Sweet’s Anglo-Saxon Primer, and
to learn the use of such cases by reading some of
_ the works of our greatest master of Old English
prose, whose name was Ailfric.
Another method is to study the metre of Chaucer.
Any one who will be at the trouble of ascertaining
how the final e, which is of such value for the
scansion of his lines, invariably depends upon con-
siderations of etymology and grammar, will learn
more about English grammar in two or three weeks
than he will by studying Latin grammar for two
or three years. Why writers usually neglect such
obvious precautions is indeed a mystery. Perhaps
it is due to the old prejudice which was certainly in
vogue when I was myself at school. It was then
generally believed that English grammar is the
same thing as Latin grammar—which it is not—
and that the study of Old English is one that is
only fit for antiquaries and other harmless drudges.
I fear that the same idea is still common, and that
the serious study of English is still too much
despised.
The other statement is one to which I demur
altogether, viz., that “grammar is really a branch
of logic.” Strictly speaking, this can be defended ;
but it is apt to be misleading. Grammar is only
founded upon logic in the main ; but in details
every language varies from logic according to its
own idiosyncrasies ; else there would be no idioms.
In Greek, the use of a neuter plural with a verb in
the singular is strictly grammatical, though it
utterly contradicts logic ; and the same may be
said of the use of the double negative. Latin
grammar and English grammar differ widely ;
where Latin says “ Balbus eedificat murum,”
English says “Balbus is building (rather than
builds) a wall.” ‘Turn the dog out” is perfectly
good English ; but ‘verte canem ex ” has rightly
been considered as canine Latin. I hold that
nothing is more illogical than to judge of the
usages of one language by the standard of another.
By all means learn Latin and Greek and French
and German ; but do not imagine that these alone
will teach you native English idioms.
Water W. SKEAT.
194
UNITED STATES PUBLISHERS’
ASSOCIATION.
—1-—~ +
Points for Consideration.
HE Publishers’ Association in the United
States is a very active body.
The efforts which it put forward in order to bring
about the passing of the Copyright Act are known
to all members of the Society. Mr. George Haven
Putnam has taken upon himself the mantle of his
father, in dealing with these matters. It was
mainly through his instrumentality that Germany
was persuaded to continue its Copyright Treaty
and await the result of the efforts of the United
States publishers to amend the law which dealt
with the output of books in foreign languages.
All these things are matters of record.
We await further developments of the United
States Publishers’ Union towards free and fuir
trading in other quarters.
But it is not alone in questions of copyright that
the activity of the Association is in evidence. It
has made a great effort to benefit the lot of the
bookseller by producing net books, and has carried
on expensive litigation—not always, it is feared,
with success—in order to confirm those rules of
the Association which the majority of booksellers
and publishers consider best for the trade.
It seems clear, if it is possible to arrive at a just
decision from the support that is given it, that the
net system in the main works satisfactorily.
“ Fiction,” however, and “ Juveniles” have not
as yet been included in this system either in England
or the United States,”
The Publishers’ Weekly (United States) writes as
follows on the subject :—
“The recent action of the American Publishers’ Associa-
tion shows that the majority of the trade is not yet ready
for the inclusion of fiction in the net system, though we
believe that a step forward in this direction is only a
matter of time after the net system shall have been
thoroughly established. We cannot repeat too often that
it is a matter for congratulation that, despite the attacks
on the net system, so much progress has been made with so
few drawbacks in the short Space of two years, whereas
in other countries twice and thrice this time has been
required to affect as much betterment in trade methods.
It is, on the whole, wise in such matters to go slowly ; and
although there will doubtless be dissatisfaction here and
there that the Publishers’ Association is not ready for
another forward step, yet it must be admitted by the
advocates of that step that there are many reasons for
holding back. One of these is the geographical extent of
this country, which makes carriage from the publishing
centres to the extreme parts of the country a costly expense
which must be paid for out of the margin of profit—the
result of which is that prices on fiction are fairly held in
part of the country, and that a reduction of price conse-
quent on the application of the net system would work
hardships. This, of course, is an objection to the whole
THE AUTHOR.
net system, and the present situation is really a compromise
between the new net system and the old “ go-as-you-please ”
and demoralising method. A decided advance, however,
was made in limiting the discount on fiction, so that
fiction cannot be sold at absolutely cut-throat prices as
bait or advertisement for other lines of goods.
“The movement to include ‘juveniles’ as fiction is
perhaps so strong that it cannot be stayed. We regret
this fact for the two reasons that it will be extremely
difficult to define the limits of ‘juveniles, and that the
change is a step backward instead of a change forward.
There is considerable pressure, however, from housés which
deal largely in ‘juveniles,’ and only protests from the retail
trade to such houses, between the present time and the
next meeting of the Association, can avert a change. It is
important that the real feeling of the retail trade, pro and
con, should thus be communicated either directly to the
interested houses or to the columns of The Publishers?
Weekly, which invites communications on this subject.”’ *
Again the Association is interesting itself in
postal reform.
A favourable vote was passed on the following
resolution :—
“That the American Publishers’ Association instruct its
Postal Committee to inquire into the efforts of the Postal
Congress League to secure postal advancement, and into
its endeavours to secure a parcel post and to secure postal
rates not inimical to the interests of publishers and book-
sellers, and if said Committee shall approve of such work,
such Committee to report to the Board of Directors for any
further action.”
Now all these points are directly and indirectly
important to British authors. They are methods
of dealing with authors’ property. Accordingly,
they should be carefully considered and not
thoughtlessly set aside.
With regard to the United States copyright,
there is nothing to be said that has not been said
hundreds of times and in a hundred places already.
“Everything comes to him who waits.” If the
Authors’ Society endures to the end it will no
doubt see the perfect copyright law not only the
other side of the water, but in the British Empire
also.
The question of net prices and the booksellers’
trade was dealt with, as far as British Trade was
concerned from the author’s standpoint, in two
articles in the issues of The Author for J anuary and
March, 1903. To these members are referred.
So far it has been impossible to obtain definite
information from the United States concerning the
sales of books. When they come to hand they
will be recorded.
* Since the above was written, the Association have
decided that on and after April Ist juvenile books may be
published at a net price or on the same basis as fiction, at
the option of the individual publishers.
+ $e»
THE AUTHOR. 195
FRIENDS IN NEED.
———
HAVE four boards and four pegs. The boards
are about a foot and a-half each in length
and, together, an inch or more in thickness.
So, it will be seen, they will pack into a very small
compass in a portmanteau. They are really the
two sides and the two shelves, with the fastenings,
of a small bookcase ; the four pegs bind shelves
and sides in a firm grip, making them ready to
receive books.
Now for the books! Within the space the case
allows I have fifty-four volumes. ‘These comprise
the best of the works of Shakespeare, Bacon,
Milton, Dryden, Sir Thomas More, Addison, Pope,
Byron, Shelley, Keats, Carlyle, Sir Humphrey
Davy, Boccaccio, Cowper, Burns, Wordsworth, and
sixteen other famous authors. Now for the cost
of the whole. The bookcase T bought for one
shilling and_threepence; the books (with the
exception of Milton’s poems, which once belonged
to my father ; a pocket edition, bearing date 1818)
were purchased for ten shillings and sixpence !
For this small sum I can enjoy the labours of
many writers ; never be without companionship,
and that the wisest and best.
But, you may ask, why not have higher priced
editions, placed on permanent shelves in the study ?
T answer, because this portable library of mine can
be taken, when the glorious spring-time comes,
into the country districts where, perhaps, only the
inhabitants will be found tedious :
“Why, Nature, waste thy wonders on such men.”’
There in the quietude of the evening, when the
sitting-room of the village inn might seem a trifle
uninteresting, my dainty volumes can “ teach me
what is good,” can, as is 80 beautifully expressed in
the well-known lines,
“ Save me from folly, vanity, and vice,
From every low pursuit ; and feed my soul
With knowledge, conscious peace and virtue pure,
Sacred, substantial, never failing bliss.”’
J. Harris BRIGHOUSE.
—— oO
« JOURNALESE.” (THE NEW BAD
LANGUAGE.)
og
We an ancient language dies
Some new one will arise,
Hence no one feels surprise
At “ Journalese.”
With the time we must keep pace (?)
So the Anglo-Saxon race -
Has decided to embrace
« Journalese.”
The “split infinitive ”
Is a voice you must forgive
When the folk with whom you live
Talk “ Journalese.”
If they say you're “different to
Other writers ””—that can do
Very little harm to you—
It’s “‘ Journalese.”
If “ Parliament” you think
Needs a plural verb, they'll wink
At an error, writ in ink—
(It’s “ Journalese.”’)
You never need to mind
That your style should be refined
When you cater for the kind
“ Journalese.”
If a “dictionary word”
You should scoff at (as absurd)
Such as “laughable ”—it’s heard
In “ Journalese.”
You can’t “laugh” a thing, you know,
But you have to let it go,
Because folk love it so
In “ Journalese.”
Your adverbs you may “chuck
All around” and trust to luck
‘As to where they may “ get stuck ”
In “ Journalese.”
And superlatives you pile
Till you make the angels smile
For they call that “ trenchant style”
In “ Journalese.”
All the charms of this new speech
If I sang, the song would reach
From Shanghai to Brighton Beach.
For “ Journalese ”
Borrows slang from every tongue
With which man has prosed or sung ;
It began when Earth was young
Did “ Journalese.”
BE. Urwick.
a
CORRESPONDENCE.
—
A PLEA FOR PEDANTRY.
I
Sir,—If the Society of Authors could persuade
that “ puri sermonis amator,” the Pall Mall Gazette,
to cease from splitting infinitives, ‘‘ to further queer
the pitch,” and from using “ momentoes” for
“« mementoes,” and “to while away the time ” for
“to wile away the time,” I should rejoice greatly.
Your obedient servant,
Freperick WILLIAM ROLFE.
196
o
Sir,—I wish that Miss Black had given a few more
specimens of how English is, and ought nof, to be
written in her “ Plea for Pedantry ” in The Author
for March. Even Miss Masson, in the February
number, did not mention that—may I say ?—
terrible compound “ Whatever do you mean?”
““ Whyever did you say that?” It is to be found
in the works of some of the sbest of our modern
novelists. In Ireland shall and will puzzle the
native, but “sofar,” “idear,” “« Mariar,” etc, are
not heard, and, as a rule, Irish clergymen did not
pray God to bless “ Victoria—rour Queen.”
And again, there is the pitfall of the adverb
squeezed in between two parts of a verb, as, for
instance, “The boy is unquestionably lazy,” “The
girl is distinctly satisfied with herself,” “ He stoutly
refused,” “ He strenuously opposed,” and so on.
For Miss Black’s collection of sentences which
are topsy-turvy, I give the following. They were
copied by me from newspapers.
“On the 10th inst., at Dash Road, N., John James Fowler
in the sure and certain hope of a blessed resurrection, in
the house of his mother-in-law,”’
“To be sold, a grand piano, the property of a lady with
carved legs.’’
** Lost, a cameo Brooch, containing Venus and Adonis on
the Edgeware Road.”’
Miss Black would have been kind if, for the
benefit of the less well instructed, she had ex-
plained, exactly, how the sentence beginning
* Those whom” should run. I should have written
“ Those who had been destined by Providence to be
the chief ornaments—.” But I am not an expert,
therefore I do not dogmatise. | hope that the
Pleas for Pedantry will be continued in The
Author.
A MEMBER oF THE Socrery.
— 1
Boox Disrrigurion,
Sin,—It seems to me high time that authors
and publishers should form a mutually defensive
alliance against the encroaching power of the
great book distributors. I have good reason
to be convinced that unless Messrs. Simpkin,
Marshall & Co., Smith & Co., and Mudie choose
to take up a book, that book might as well remain
in MS., for not all the reviewing and advertising in
the world will sell it against their inclination !
They are able to dump down upon the country
whatever books they like and withhold any that,
for some reason or other, they do not care to
supply. Anybody who lives in the provinces will
Support me in the assertion that it is almost
impossible to obtain the books one wants to read,
THE AUTHOR.
if those books happen to be by unpopular writers
or of a type not palatable to the general taste. J
have been trying hard for more than a year to get
a book I saw favourably reviewed in December,
1902, but three provincial libraries have not been
able to procure it !
And not only are we helpless at the libraries,
but the buying of books is made difficult for us,
A friend who ordered my last novel from a book-
seller at Christmas was shown a letter (I presume
from the almighty middleman) stating that the
first edition was exhausted, which was a deliberate
lie ; and the manager of a country bookstall, who
also ordered it, was told that there was some diffi-
culty with the publishers, another equally false
statement. I havea serial coming outina magazine
that is not very well known, and several of my
friends have tried to get it. But no bookseller
seems able to achieve this feat. The agents simply
declare that such a magazine does not exist !
It will be asked, why do not booksellers write
straight to publishers for the works published by
them? ‘To that I can make no reply, except that,
as a rule, they will not. I suppose it is a question
of postage.
The agents will say that they supply whatever is
demanded, which means, whatever is popular. But
there is an increasing demand for better books than
those we find in our country libraries. Even the
Philistine is dissatisfied with the rubbish foisted
upon him, and everywhere we hear the complaint,
“ { can’t get anything fit to read.”
Are publishers content to let this go on, to
remain helpless in the hands of these autocrats
who govern the market? If they are, I suppose
we authors can do nothing. I am hoping that two
new enterprising libraries, recently established,
may help to break up the ring ; but who knows ?
They may follow the old lead.
Yours truly,
A PROTESTANT.
Se
Epitine,
Sir,—I presume Mr. Pretor’s letter on “The
New Departure in Editing,” in the March Author,
is intended to be sarcastic. Those Editor’s com-
ments of Pearson’s Magazine seem to me simply
impertinent. Surely no self-respecting writer would
send a second story to an editor who had presumed
to label his work “feeble in plot” or “ weak in
style.” :
When one reads the stuff that finds its way into.
the illustrated magazines, one certainly does not.
yearn for the counsel and criticism of their editors !
Yours truly,
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The Author, Vol. 14 Issue 07 (April 1904)
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<em>The Author</em>, Vol. 14 Issue 07 (April 1904)
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The Author
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<em>The Author</em>
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A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&collection=&type=&tags=&exhibit=&date_search_term=&submit_search=Search+For+Items&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022.
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Che Hutbor.
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors.
FOUNDED BY SIR
Monthly.)
WALTER BESANT.
Vou. XIV.—No. 6.
TELEPHONE NUMBER :
374 VICTORIA.
TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS :
AUTORIDAD, LONDON.
———_—____¢—~<>_-4-
NOTICES.
—_1——+—_-
OR the opinions expressed in papers that are
signed or initialled the authors alone are
responsible. None of the papers or para-
graphs must be taken as expressing the opinion
of the Committee unless such is especially stated
to be the case.
Tue Editor begs to inform members of the
Authors’ Society and other readers of The Author
that the cases which are from time to time quoted
in The Author are cases that have come before the
notice or to the knowledge of the Secretary of the
Society, and that those members of the Society
who desire to have the names of the publishers
concerned can obtain them on application.
— 9
List of Members.
Tue List of Members of the Society of Authors
published October, 1902, at the price of 6d., and
the elections from October, 1902, to July, 1903, as
a supplemental list, at the price of 2d., can now be
obtained at the offices of the Society.
They will be sold to members or associates of
the Society only.
4 —_——+——
The Pension Fund of the Society.
THE investments of the Pension Fund at
present standing in the names of the Trustees are
as follows.
Vou. XIV.
Marcu ist, 1904.
[PRICE SIXPENCE.
This is a statement of the actual stock; the
money value can be easily worked out at the current
price of the market :—
COMBOS OR 8 ieee £1000 0 0
Wbocal Loans: 30.0... 500 0 0
Victorian Government 8 % Consoli-
dated Inscribed Stock ............... 291 19 11
War log... ck. 201 9 8
Mota a. £1,995. 9° 2
Subscriptions from October, 1903.
& s. d.
Nov. 13, Longe, Miss Julia . : : 0 5 0
Dec. 16, Trevor, Capt. Philip 5 0
1904.
Jan. 6, Hills, Mrs. C. H. . : ~ 0-50
Jan. 6, Crommelin, Miss . : . 010 0
Jan. 8, Stevenson, Mrs. M. E. . 2600 50
Jan. 16, Kilmarnock, The Lord . - 0 10 0
Feb. 5, Portman, Lionel . : ~ 120 0
Feb. 11, Shipley, Miss Mary : 7005 0
Donations from October, 1903.
Oct. 27, Sturgis, Julian 4 : . 50 0.0
Nov. 2, Stanton, V.H. . ; — 5°08 0
Novy. 18, Benecke, Miss Ida. 1 0 0
Noy. 23, Harraden, Miss Beatrice ~ 5 0.0
Dec. Miniken, Miss Bertha M. M.. 0 5 0
1904.
Jan. 4, Moncrieff, A. R. Hope . = 5 0 0
Jan, 4, Middlemas, Miss Jean . . 010 0
Jan. 4, Witherby, The Rev. C. . <0) D0
Jan. 6, Key, The Rev. S. Whittell . 0 5 0O
Jan. 14, Bennett, Rev. W. K.,D.D. . 015 0
Jan. 2, Roe, Mrs. Harcourt : . 010 0
Feb. 11, Delaire, Miss Jeanne . « 010 0
There are in addition other subscribers who do
not desire that either their names or the amount
they are subscribing should be printed.
FROM THE COMMITTEE.
oo
HE second meeting of the Committee in 1904
was held on Monday, February Ist, at the
offices of the Society, 39, Old Queen Street,
Storey’s Gate.
Mr. Douglas Freshfield was re-elected Chairman
of the Managing Committee, and Mr. A. W. a
Beckett was re-elected Vice-chairman.
The next business was the election of members
of the Society, and, as in January, the number of
applications was well . maintained—twenty-two
members and associates being elected. The list, as
usual, is printed below.
It was decided to offer the London County
Council a replica of the Besant Memorial, as the
subscriptions received justified the Committee in
taking this step. The funds in hand do not, how-
ever, cover the whole expense, and the Committee
would be glad to receive further contributions.
The date of the General Meeting of the Council
(the shareholders of the Society) and of the
members, has been fixed for Wednesday, March
16th. Notice of the meeting, together with the
report and balance-sheet, will be sent to all
inembers in due course. The place of the meeting
will be the large rooms of the Royal Medical and
Chirurgical Society, 20, Hanover Square, W., and
the time 4 p.m., precisely.
Mr. Percy White and Mr. E. W. Hornung were
elected members of the Council of the Society of
Authors, and subsequently members of the Com-
mittee, to fill the places left vacant by the resigna-
tion of Sir Gilbert Parker and Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle.
‘There is no need to set forth the literary claims
of the two new members of the Council. Both
have, for many years, taken great interest in the
Society’s work, and the fact that they live in
London will enable them to attend the meetings of
the Committee. This is a qualification which
limits the Committee’s choice. Many writers, well
known in the literary world, and most eligible
otherwise as members of the Committee, are pre-
vented from serving owing to the fact that, living
in the country, they would be unable to attend its
frequent meetings.
V'he date of the Annual Dinner of the Society
has also been settled. It will take place on
Wednesday, April 20th, at the Hotel Cecil. Ac-
cording to the rule in force, the Chairman of the
Committee, Mr. Douglas Freshfield, will again take
the chair on that occasion.
The question of the sale by street hawkers of Mr.
Rudyard Kipling’s “ Barrack Room Ballads” at
1d. and 2d. a copy, was brought before the Com-
mittee, and they decided to take such steps as they
THE AUTHOR.
might be advised were possible and expedient, in
order to stop piracy of this kind.
A case against an American publisher was con-
sidered. The Secretary, on the Committee’s in-
structions, has written to the Society’s agents in
the United States to obtain a legal opinion on the
exact position.
The Committee desire to record the fact that
one of the plaintiffs in the action that was taken
to the House of Lords, has contributed a sub-
stantial sum towards the costs incurred by the
Society.
a
Cases.
During the past month thirteen cases have been
taken in hand by the Secretary.
Of these seven have been settled satisfactorily,
the remainder are still incomplete.
The nature of the cases was as follows :—
One, infringement of copyright ; one, infringe-
ment of title ; three, lost MSS. ; three, accounts ;
three, money and accounts; two, money.
Of the cases left open from last month there is
only one still unsettled. This will be completed
in the course of a few days.
+
February Elections,
The Hon. 9, Little College Street,
S.W.
49, Ashworth Mansions,
Elgin Avenue, W.
Trusley Manor, Trusley,
Derby.
Kingsley Hotel, Hart
Street, Bloomsbury,
W.C.
Putford Rectory, North
Devon.
Rosenhein, Guernsey.
Moor Garth, Lkley.
79, Truro Road, Wood
Anstruther,
Mrs.
Burroughes, Miss R.
Coke, Desmond F. T.
Geil, W. E.
Gratrex, J. J.
Henderson, Miss M.
Hering, Henry A. .
Hinson, Mrs. Mary
Green.
Hodgson, W. Hope Park Mount, Revidge,
Blackburn.
Jones, Miss E. H. . Hotel D’Itali, Mont
Estoril, Portugal.
Lacey, The Rev. T. A. 8, Park House Road,
Highgate.
Malcolm, Ian, M.P. Kentford lodge,
Wadham Gardens,
S. Hampstead.
Malcolm, Mrs. Ian, Kentford Lodge,
“ Jeanne Malcolm.” S. Hampstead, N.W.
Power, A. D.. ‘ ‘
THE AUTHOR.
6, Onslow Studios, 183,
King’s Road, Chelsea.
Avon Cottage, Dews-
bury, Yorks.
Shiel, M. P. . 2 . 7, Medina Mansions,
Gt. Titchfield Street,
Wo
South Wold, Suffolk.
Kenilworth House, St.
" Andrews, N.B.
47, St. Leonards Road,
Hove, Sussex.
Langdale House, Park
Town, Oxford.
Reynolds, Frank
Saintsbury, H. A. .
Shipley, Miss Mary E.
Watson, Gilbert
Wooton, BE. L.
Wright, Joseph, Ph.D.
—_____+—» + —___
OUR BOOK AND PLAY TALK.
——+
R. J. Beattie Crozier is at present engaged
on Vol. IV. of his “ History of Intellectual
Development.” He hopes to have it ready
for publication some time this year. Mr. Crozier
has in hand an article for the Fortnightly Review
entitled “Some Unused Political Assets.”
Mr. Sidney Lee’s “Life of Queen Victoria” is
now issued by Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co. in a
cheap edition. Its price is 6s.
Madame Sarah Grand is at work upon a short
novel, a play, and a new lecture.
His Majesty the King has graciously accepted
a copy of Mr. F. Stroud’s book for the royal
library at Windsor Castle. The title of the book
is “The Judicial Dictionary or Interpreter of
Words and Phrases by the British Judges and
Parliament.”
Messrs. F. V. White will shortly publish a new
novel by Miss Gertrude Warden. It isa study of
the temperaments of two cousins. The opening
scenes are laid in Venice.
We understand that Dr. H. Bellsyse Baildon,
of University College, Dundee (author of “ Robert
Louis Stevenson: a Life-Study in Criticism,”
and other works), has been working during last
summer on an edition of “ Titus Andronicus”
for the “ Arden Shakespeare ” of Messrs. Methuen
& Co. In his introduction Dr. Baildon goes
thoroughly into the much-disputed question of
authorship of this tragedy, and comes to the
conclusion that the play is, to all intents and
purposes, Shakespeare’s. This conclusion, if correct,
has an important bearing, not only on the author-
ship of the earlier plays attributed to Shakespeare,
but on the Baconian and other anti-Shakesperian
theories in general.
Miss A. Maynard Butler’s book “The First Year
of Responsibility,” which was published last
143
September, to which the Master of Trinity College,
Cambridge, contributed an introduction, is now
going into a third edition.
“he Cardinal’s Pawn,” K. L. Montgomery’s
novel, was issued the other day by Messrs. F,
Fisher Unwin-in their First Novel Series. The
action of the story moves principally in Venice,
and centres round Capelli and Medici intrigues
concerning Bianca Capelli and her struggle for the
crown of a Grand-Duchess of Florence.
“Rita’s” articles on the “Sin and Sunday of
the Smart Set”? have now been published in book-
form. A special copy has been accepted by H. M.
the Queen.
“The Trackless Way,” just published by Mr.
Brimley Johnson, is the third of the four books
in which Mrs. Rentoul Esler continues to treat of
the pivot on which individual history turns.
“The Way of Transgressors” dealt with love of
the lover, “The Wardlaws” with love of the
family, ‘The Trackless Way ” deals with love of
the race. When the fourth volume is ready for
publication the set will be issued in uniform
binding. The sub-title of “The Trackless Way”
is “The Story of a Man’s Quest of God.”
Mr. John Long will publish shortly Mrs. Aylmer
Gowing’s new novel, “A King’s Desire,” which
describes how Prince Conrad, born and bred an
Englishman, owing to a separation between his
parents, succeeds to a throne in Germany. ‘The
young King has left behind him Elfrida Fountaine,
a county heiress, whom he is bent on marrying.
Etiquette and precedent, as represented by an all-
powerful Minister, combine to cross “A King’s
Desire,” together with a revengeful woman, an
accomplice of the Anarchists, by whose aid her
designs are all but carried through.
The S.P.C.K. is bringing out a book for children
called “ Peterkin and His Brother.” It is written
by Miss E. M. Green, authoress of “ The Child of
the Caravan,” “The Cape Cousins,” etc., etc.
In his book, “ Omnibuses and Cabs: Their
Origin and History,” Mr. Henry Charles Moore
urged the local authorities to remove the name
“ Regent Circus” from Oxford Circus—the circus
at the intersection of Oxford Street and Regent
Strect. He gave strong reasons for its removal,
and the London County Council has now called
the Marylebone Borough Council’s attention to the
matter, with the result that the latter body has
decided to remove the name. “Omnibuses and
Cabs” has been quoted several times before the
London Traffic Commission now sitting.
Messrs. Seeley and Co. have just published a
new story by Miss Beatrice Marshall. It is a tale
of London life in the seventeenth century, and
is entitled “An Old London Nosegay, Gathered
from the Day-book of Mistress Lovejoy Young,
144
Kinswoman by Marriage of the Lady Fanshaw.”
It is illustrated, and the price is 5/-.
Mr. Grant Richards has just published Volume I.
of “The Twentieth Century Dog,” by Herbert
Compton. The first volume treats of the Non-
Sporting Dog. : :
Mrs. Philip Champion de Crespigny is engaged
on a novel which she hopes to have ready by the
spring. It is a story of the time of George I., and
the scene is laid in both town and country. The
heroine is one of the Princess of Wales’ Maids of
Honour.
Mr. G. Bernard Shaw has issued, through
Messrs. Constable and Co., a volume entitled “ The
Common Sense of Municipal Trading.” It consists
of a preface and twelve chapters, dealing with such
subjects as, ‘The Commercial Success of Municipal
Trading,” “Commercial and Municipal Prices,”
“ Difficulties of Municipal Trading,” ‘ Electrical
Enterprise,” and “‘ The Housing Question.”
Miss Ellen Collette is about to make arrange-
ments for a copyright performance of a three-act
cantata playette. The music is by Miss Natalie
Davenport, daughter of the authority on harmony.
In addition to the playette, Miss Collette has
written a good many lyrics.
Two lectures were delivered last month by pro-
minent members of the Society. On the evening
of February 6th, the Poet Laureate lectured at the
Royal Institution on “The Growing Dislike for
the Higher Kinds of Poetry.” The Duke of
Northumberland was in the chair, and the audience
was a largeone. On the afternoon of February 9th,
Mr. Edmund Gosse delivered a lecture on “The
Influence of French Literature on English Poetry ”
in the hall of the Geographical Society, Paris. The
subject of the lecture was suggested to Mr. Gosse
by M. Brunetiére, M. Edouard Rod, and M.
Gaston Deschamps on behalf of the Société des
Conférences.
We must congratulate Mr. Gosse on his appoint-
ment to the office of Librarian to the House of
Lords.
The third volume of Mr. Andrew Lang’s
“ History of Scotland from the Roman Occupation”
(Blackwood), covers the period from the death of
James VI. to the death of Dundee. Mr. Lang
examines the forces which went to the making of
the Scottish folk. He also sketches the life and
manners of each period.
A romance by Jean Delaire, the author of “A
Dream of Fame,” will be brought out this month
by Mr. John Long, under the title of “ Around a
Distant Star.”
Another romance by Jean Delaire (founded on
pre-medizeval French history), is at present appear-
ing serially in Womanhood under the title of
“Waldrada the Fair.”
THE AUTHOR.
Mr. Somerset Maugham’s play, “A Man of
Honour,” was produced at the Avenue Theatre
on the evening of February 18th. A year ago
this piece was produced by the Stage Society.
Since then Mr. Maugham has re-written the last
act.
4 =~ tt
PARIS NOTES.
a
MONG the new books are “Les Petites
A Provinciales,” by M. Gabriel Trarieux ;
“T’Kcole des Rois,” by M. Reepmaker ;
‘“‘ Fantome de Terre-Neuve,” by M. Léon Berthaut;
“ Sceur Alexandrine,” by M. Champol.
“ Cagliostro,” by M. Henri d’Alméras, is a
biography as interesting as any novel. The diffi-
culty in writing about this famous personage is not
that historical documents with regard to him are
wanting, but that they are too numerous, and it
requires a great amount of time and patience to
discover which are true and which are false.
“ La Vie et les Livres,” by M. Gaston Deschamps,
is a volume containing many of the articles
published by the author in Le Temps. He
divides the articles into three series, “Cycle de
Napoléon,” “ Cycle de Ja Guerre,” and “ Exotisme
Colonial et Pittoresque.”
“La Russie Economique,’ by M. A. Anspach,
comes at an opportune moment. The author evi-
dently knows his subject well, but this is not
to be wondered at, as he has lived in Russia for
twenty-seven years.
Among the translations are “ L’Idéal Américain”
by Roosevelt, translated by A. & E. de Rousiers;
and “Ta Merveilleuse Visite” by H. G. Wells,
translated by M. Barron.
Few serial writers have as much encouragement
as the author of the “ Mystéres de Paris.” Eugéne
Sue, whose centenary has just passed, received six
hundred letters from readers of his famous serial,
while it was running in the paper.
Some of the principal articles in recent numbers
of the Reviews are ‘Vers Ispahan,” by Pierre
Loti; “Revue des Deux Mondes;” ‘“ L’Art
Francais 1 Rome,” by M. Bertrand ; ‘“‘ Le Théatre
de M. G. d’Annunzio,” by M. Dornis ; “ La Corée,”
by M. Villetard de Laguérie.
In the Revue de Paris there is an article on
“La Question du Radium” by M. Marcel Magnan,
and one by M. Victor Bérard on “ Lord Curzon et
le Tibet.”” Madame Marie Anne de Bovet continues
her serial, “ Ame d’Argile.”?
In the Renaissance Latine, “ Le Trans-
formisme de Spencer,” by M. Frédéric Houssay ;
“ Walden ou la Vie dans les Bois,” by Henri-David
Thoreau ; “ Le Dualisme Austro-Hongrois,” by M.
Albert.
THE AUTHOR.
In La Revue des Idées, “Le Radium et la
Radio-Activité de la Matiére,” by Dr. Georges
Bohn ; “La Valeur Scientifique de l’ceuvre de
Renan,” by M. Vernes.
In the Weekly Critical Review “ The Need of a
Minister of Shipping,” by Arthur Bles.
There is also an article in this review which is
causing much discussion in Paris. It is written
by M. A. Mariotte, and is an attempt to prove
that the picture known as Raphael’s “ Belle
Jardinitre” in the Louvre Museum is not an
authentic painting by the great master.
La Revue is continuing its “ Enquéte sur le
Patriotisme devant les sentiments internationaux.”
The opinions are given of M.M. Déroulede,
Deschanel, Dion, Estournelles de Constant, Lock-
roy, Haeckel, Franz Kossuth, Lombroso, Maeter-
linck, Nordau, Lord Avebury, and others.
In Le Carnet is an excellent article on ‘“‘ Barbey
d’ Aurévilly,” by M. Louis Sonolet.
The discovery of M. and Mme. Curie is responsible
for the floating of a new monthly paper devoted to
the news of radium in all parts of the world.
M. Curie gave a lecture on the 18th of February,
at the Sorbonne. He made various experiments
and gave some very interesting details with regard
to radium as an electrophage.
Mr. Edmund Gosse, who was invited by the
Société des Conférences to lecture here, chose for
his subject “The Influence of French Literature
on English Poetry.”
After the lecture a banquet was given by the
Société in honour of Mr. Gosse. M. Faguet pre-
sided and M. Marcel Schwob, and M. René Doumic,
spoke. Among the guests were M.M. de Herédia,
Rodin, Maeterlinck, Verhaeren, Davray, Dumur,
Uzanne, Mr. Barnard, Mr. Heinemann and Mr.
Stanton.
M. Porel has at last produced the much dis-
cussed play by M. A. Guinon, entitled “ Decadence.”
The subject of this piece is very much the same as
that of “ Retour de Jérusalem,” and is based on the
idea of the impossibility of Jewish and Christian
marriages. In ‘“Décadence” the situations are
reversed; the bride is the daughter of a French
aristocrat of the profligate type, and the man she
marries a wealthy Jew.
The general opinion seems to be that the author
of the play has exaggerated the vices of the types
he has taken to such a degree as to make them
untrue to life.
The French aristocrat, his daughter and her
friends all behave in such an extraordinary way
that one wonders where such types of the aristo-
eracy are to be found.
In a remarkably fine article by M. Leon Daudet
on this subject, we learn that M. Guinon lives a
great part of the year away from his fellow creatures
145
in the solitude of the country. “A quiconque
veut chatier le monde” writes M. Daudet, “je
déclare : ‘Sois mondain et sache ce dont tu parles,
Fréquente et observe les milieux.’”’ Further on, he
adds : ‘‘ Les types les plus caractérisés de décadence,
si l’on se donnait la peine de les rechercher, se
découvriraient, sans doute, parmi les parvenus.”
The piece will probably have a certain amount of
success, as it is daring, cleverly written, and, of
course, well staged.
After ‘Monsieur Betsy,’ in which Madame
Réjane has been appearing, the Variétés is re-
producing ‘‘La Boule,” by M.M. Henri Meilhac
and Ludovic Halévy.
London used to have a French theatre giving
representations at stated times every year. It was
under the direction successively of M.M. Raphael,
Felix, Valnoy, and, until his death just recently,
of M. Mayer. Madame Sarah Bernhardt’s London
performances were given under the direction of
M. Mayer, who was a most able impressario.
On the 7th of March the Avenue Theatre is to
give a series of French plays under the direction of
M. Victor Silvestre.
Some interesting cases with regard to authors’
rights are now being tried here.
M. Rouff, a publisher, made arrangements some
years ago with M.M. Théodore Cahu, Pierre
Decourcelle, Demesse, Mario, Mary and others,
for the publication of a certain number of works
by these authors.
At present this publisher is-bringing out a
periodical, Les Grands Romanciers, in which he is
republishing some of these works and advertising
the others as the next ones for his paper.
The Société des Gens de Lettres, in its own
interests and in the interests of the authors in
question, has brought a case against M. Rouff,
claiming that the novels were not sold for publica-
tion in a journal.
M. Mario will next bring a case against M. Routf
for advertising in his paper the forthcoming pub-
lication of “the works of M. Mario,” as this gives
the idea that M. Rouff has the sole right of pub-
lication of this author’s novels. M. Mario. will
demand a contradiction of this in the Parisian and
provincial papers, as the circulation of the first
numbers of M. Rouff’s Grands Romanciers was
1,800,000.
These two cases are to be followed by others.
The Société des Gens de Lettres is, from a finan-
cial point of view, specially interested in this matter,
as a certain commission is paid to the Société by
authors whose works are reproduced in newspapers
and magazines.
French daily papers publish either one or
two serial stories in every number, and the
weekly papers, fashion journals, and many other
>
146
publications, give a supplement containing a serial.
Very much of this fiction is reproduction. One of the
more important daily papers publishes an author’s
work in the first instance, the author retaining all
his rights, except this first serial use of his story.
He then announces in the paper issued twice a
month by the Société des Gens de Lettres, that this
novel “may be reproduced by all papers having a
treaty with the Société.”
There are at present over thirteen hundred news-
papers which have signed a contract with the Society.
By this contract they engage to use annually repro-
ductions of work by members of the Society to a
given amount, paying the same sum per line to all
authors and supplying the Society with a copy of
their journal containing these reproductions. At
stated times the accounts are made out, a com-
mission is deducted by the Society, and the author
has no trouble with his financial affairs for the
reproduction of his stories, except to call at the
offices of the Society and receive the money that is
awaiting him. When he publishes his novel for
the first time in serial form, he usually stipulates
that a certain number of the corrected proof sheets
be supplied to him. As the Society does not under-
take to furnish the journals with the copy, the
author must attend to this himself.
By this scheme the Société des Gens de Lettres
is a sort of huge co-operative society or syndicate,
and there can be no partiality shown to any
members, as the Society very wisely refrains from
sending out copy.
Newspaper editors having a contract with the
Society, can write to any authors for stories they
may wish to read, or the author can find out suit-
able papers for his work and send it in himself.
He may be sure, though, that if a story of his
should be used in a dozen different papers, he will
receive a dozen payments for it, less the commission
deducted by the Société des Gens de Lettres for
secretarial work.
The number of journals having a contract
with the Society is steadily increasing year by year.
. there were 1051; at present there are
The system is extremely simple for all parties
concerned. Editors who have a contract with the
Society pay a deposit which covers, I believe, their
three or six months’ account, and this is held as a
security as long as their contract exists.
As publishing syndicates appear to be making
such enormous profits in England, could the
Society of Authors not help its members to form a
syndicate on the same lines as that of the Société
des Gens de Lettres ?
There is a similar institution in connection with
the Société des Auteurs Dramatiques here. The
author’s rights are paid into that Society so that
THE AUTHOR.
financial questions do not hamper the French
author in the same way as they do his English
confrere. Auys HaLuarD.
Oo
LITERARY, DRAMATIC, AND MUSICAL
PROPERTY.
ae aT.
United States Copyright in Books of Compilation,
T was held lately by Judge Lacombe, of the
I United States Circuit Court, in the case of the
Colliery Engineering Company against Fred
W. Ewald and others, that the owner of the copyright
in a school book, a law digest, a dictionary, a gazet-
teer, business or social directory, or any book which
is not a work of creative or imaginative literature,
cannot prevent a subsequent writer upon the same
subject from comparing the copyrighted work with
the original sources, eliminating therefrom all that
was not copied from such sources and then repub-
lishing the rest of the book. While Judge Lacombe
thinks this rule a harsh one, he feels constrained
to follow it, inasmuch as a recent decision of the
Circuit Court of Appeals seems to sanction the
principle involved. Judge Lacombe gives the
following hypothetical case to show that the rule
may at times produce inequitable results: A., we
may assume, prepares an entirely new classified
business directory of the city of New York, wholly
from original investigation, and publishes the same.
The undertaking is an enormous one, and can be
accomplished only by the employment of hundreds
of men at the cost of thousands of dollars. B.
undertakes thereafter to publish a directory of all
the architects in New York City. To cull their
names out of the world of business activity in such
a hive of industry as this by original research
would be a task nearly as difficult and costly as
the one A. undertook. But if the defendant could
take only the list of architects found in A.’s book
and then visit the places named therein to “see
whether the existing facts concur with the descrip-
tion,” retaining the name, address, names of
partners, etc., where such occurrence was found
and striking them out where death, removal, or
withdrawal from business had eliminated them,
B. could prepare a “Directory of Architects in
New York City” at a mere trifling expenditure,
because A. had already done the work which B,
thus appropriated.
This decision is contrary to that established
in the English Courts, and if confirmed by the
highest Courts in the States, would make the pro-
duction of Directories a labour of love only. It
would seem, therefore, in the land of the almighty
dollar that the producer of Directories must cease
to exist or be a millionaire philanthropist.
THE AUTHOR.
be paragraphed during the week make it impossible
for the reviewer to obtain more than a superficial
Serial Rights.
A member of the Society has sent to the
office the following form of agreement which he
has received from the editor of a well-known
paper :—
“To
“The Editor of has considered the MS. entitled
ss ” submitted by you, and is willing to pay you the
sum of per thousand words for rights. If you
accept this offer a cheque will be sent you on publication ;
if you do not the contribution will be returned. Kindly
state Yes or No, and post this form in the accompanying
envelope.
Reply
Name
Address
If the amount per thousand words is fair and
the rights the author is asked to convey are not
_ too large, then the arrangement would be eminently
satisfactory, but for one striking exception, namely,
“the cheque will be sent on publication.” This is
much too indefinite, and every editor ought to
arrange to fix a definite date on which the
money must be paid should publication not have
preceded it. It is possible that the financial side
of the contract as it stands could be enforced,
owing to the fact that the Courts would consider
that publication must take place within a reasonable
time ; eer and editors do not desire to have
the troubfe and worry of an action ; and finality
in a contract should always be obtained prior to
execution.
With these exceptions the contract is by no
means unsatisfactory.
Any method under which the contract is clearly
set fortin before the work is set up in type must be
better than the system so often referred to, and
exposed in Zhe Author, by which no acceptance of
a MS. is given, and no communication made with
the author until he receives a cheque, the endorse-
ment of which purports to be a conveyance of the
copyright.
The author should, however, remember, on
returning this present form of contract, to keep
an accurate copy of it, as the editor does not as a
rule send it in duplicate. he author’s copy would,
in the absence of primary evidence, be sufficient
to establish the terms that existed.
Ethics of Reviewing.
THE vagaries and errors of modern book re-
viewers—we can hardly call them critics—ar\
constantly before the minds of those members oi
the society whose works come under their ken,’
In many cases the number of books which have to
knowledge.
147
The tendency therefore, is to praise
the book rather than to decry it—whether the
reviewer is justified or not—as praise will bring
no evil consequences, but blame may lead the
author to commence an action for libel.
In the case about to be quoted there are some
curious misstatements
of facts.
The
review
appeared in a well-known Scottish newspaper.
STATEMENT BY THE
REVIEWER;
1. A young man_ goes
abroad to California and
is seen making his way out
there, haunted, however, by
home sickness and so indig-
nant when he learns that he
has at home been given out
for dead that he throws
himself in a sort of religious
agony under the protection
of a Spanish padre.
2. The young man had
been married before he went
away, and though his wife
has died she has left a son.
3. The tracing out of this
connection accompanied by
the remorse of the Marquis
and the dreams in distant
lands by which the Son’s
existence is suggested to his
Father forms the business
of the latter part of the tale.
Its end is likely to be long
anticipated by an experi-
enced reader.
ACTUAL FACTS,
The young man never
exhibits the slightest symp-
ton of home sickness, never
throws himself in a religious
agony under the protection
of a Spanish padre, never
indulges in the remotest
approach either to a reli-
gious agony or religious
emotion of any kind.
The young man had not
been married when he went
away, nor was he married
until nearly eleven years
later, and, in consequence,
no child was born at that
period.
There are no dreams, and
the one narrated is dreamed
hy the sox, and naturally
contains no suggestion of
the son’s existence, but is
indeed a revelation of the
Father’s desire to welcome
the son’s return.
Curiously enough, the same book has received
another review containing some misstatements, in
the columns of a religious paper. In the latter
case, however, the Editor has, after a letter of
remonstrance from the author, confessed his errors,
and at the end of the paragraph says: “Our
reviewer owns up to the fact that he read the
later chapters rather hurriedly, and trusted over-
much to an uncertain memory in summarising his
impressions,” and proceeds : ‘‘ The story is original
and romantic. It would have gained, however, by
some compression.”
The Editor of the religious paper must be com-
plimented on his Christian spirit and his frank
acknowledgment.
General experience tends to show that, as a rule,
the author or contributor is completely at the
mercy of the editorial pen.
It is essential for a good Editor to be full of
Christian charity, especially when he is in the
wrong. :
148
MR. “ABSOLUTE’S” AGREEMENT.
———+—
AGREEMENT made this day of BETWEEN
of (hereinafter called the AUTHOR) of the
one part and of (hereinafter called the
PUBLISHER) of the other part, WHEREBY it is agreed as
follows :—
1. The PUBLISHER agrees to purchase and the AUTHOR
agrees to sell the entire copyright, without any reserve, in
the United Kingdom and all other parts of the world, of a
work entitled , the completed manuscript executed
in a proper manner of which the AUTHOR has delivered to
the PUBLISHER, and all future editions thereof in considera-
tion of the following payments, viz. :
A royalty of on the published price of all copies
sold up to 3000, a royalty of after 3000 (this last
increase only taking place as long as the book is not
reduced in price lower than 6s. and as long as 500 copies
are sold in each year).
2. The PUBLISHER will according to his own judgment
and in such a manner as in his unfettered discretion he may
consider advisable at his own cost print and publish a first
edition of the said work, and further editions if in his judg-
ment further editions are required, and in his absolute
discretion advertise the same, and shall determine all
details and in his absolute discretion make all arrangements
of and incidental to the printing, publishing, advertising,
sale price, and reviewing of the said work.
3. The PUBLISHER shall in his absolute discretion have
the right to sell, exchange, assign, or otherwise dispose of
all and every right of publication or of translation of the
said work on any terms and for any period and either
wholly or partially or exclusively or otherwise as he shall
think expedient for the colonies and foreign countries, and
an amount equivalent to 50 per cent. of the net profits
realised and actually received by the PUBLISHER shall be
paid to the AUTHOR.
4. If the PUBLISHER shall sell an edition (or such number
of copies as may be fixed on by the PUBLISHER in his own
absolute discretion as constituting an edition for the purpose
of this clause) to a publisher or bookseller in the United
States of America, the provision as to royalties in clause 1
hereof provided shall not apply, but the AUTHOR shall be
paid a royalty equivalent to one half the royalty that would
be paid were the copies in question sold to the English
trade.
5. If the said work shall be included in any edition of
works published in England for exclusive sale in any
colony, the royalty shall be 2d. on each copy sold.
6. The PUBLISHER may, in his absolute discretion, sell,
exchange, assign, or otherwise dispose of the remainder of
any edition at remainder prices, and the AUTHOR shall not
be entitled to any royalty in respect thereof, but shall in
lieu thereof be entitled to a payment equivalent to 5 per
cent. of the net profit realised by such sale and actually
received by the PUBLISHER.
7. The AUTHOR shall revise and return for press with all
reasonable speed the proof sheets of the work so that the
same may be printed without interruption.
8. If the printer’s charges for author's corrections of the
first or any other edition of thesaid work exceed an average
of 6s. per sheet of thirty-two pages, the excess shall be
repaid to the PUBLISHER by the AUTHOR and may be
deducted from royalties due or to become due hereunder or
from any moneys held by the PUBLISHER on account of the
AUTHOR.
9. The AUTHOR shall revise with all possible despatch
any new edition of the said work and correct the proots and
otherwise assist as may be required by the PUBLISHER.
10. The AUTHOR shall not write or publish, either
THE AUTHOR.
‘it for the benefit of members.
directly or indirectly, any other work on the same subject
of such a kind that the sale of the work shall bein any way
prejudicially affected, and should he write another work on
the same or cognate subjects he shall in the first instance
give the PuBLISHER the right to acquire the work by’
purchase or otherwise as may be arranged.
11. This agreement is entered into by the PUBLISHER on
the warranty by the AUTHOR that the said work does not
infringe any copyright, and that the said work does not
contain anything of a libellous nature. If the said work
does contain anything constituting or alleged to constitute’
a breach of such warranty, and proceedings are threatened
or brought for any alleged infringement of copyright or for
any alleged libel, and it is deemed advisable by the PUB-
LISHER in his absolute discretion not to contest the matter
but to arrive at a settlement thereof, or if the action is
successfully contested, then and in every case the AUTHOR
shall pay in advance to the PUBLISHER a sufficient sum to
cover the estimated costs of the PUBLISHER in defending
such action or threatened proceedings, and shall at the same
time give to the PUBLISHER security satisfactory to him to
indemnify him against any damage awarded in such action,
and shall on demand repay to the PUBLISHER all costs {as
between solicitor and client), damages, and expenses
incurred by the PUBLISHER in respect of or resulting from
or incidental to the publication, advertisement, withdrawal
of, and other dealings with the said work, to the effect that
the PUBLISHER shall have full and complete indemnity
from the AUTHOR in respect of all out of pocket expenses
in connection with the said work.
12, The PUBLISHER shall keep proper books of accounts.
showing the number of copies of the said work sold, and
also accounts showing the sales up to the 30th day of June’
and the 31st day of December in every year, as far as can
be accurately ascertained, shall be delivered to the AUTHOR.
as soon as practicable after these respective dates, and the
royalties due and payable shall be paid not 1 than the
ensuing 30th day of November and the 31st day of May
respectively in every year, and in estimating such royalties
thirteen copies of the said work shall be counted as twelve.
13. The PUBLISHER shall give to the AUTHOR free of
charge six copies of the said work.
14, Nothing in this agreement contained shall constitute
or be taken to constitute a partnership between the
parties.
T is the custom to print from time to time
I and comment on agreements which from the
Author's point of view are exceptionally
unsatisfactory. This system has two distinct
advantages: (1) in the case where similar terms
are placed before a writer he is able to recognise
them and act accordingly ; (2) in the case where
the agreement is forwarded to the offices of the
Society, it is possible to forward a copy of The
Author to the member concerned, and thus save
the time that must necessarily be spent in writing
an elaborate and exhaustive criticism of the separate
clauses.
The agreement printed above appeared in The
Author some four years ago. The copies of the
issue containing it have almost all been sold owing
to the fact already mentioned.
Tn consequence, as examples of this agreement
are still being placed before the members of the
Society, it has been thought expedient to republish
Ae
THE AUTHOR.
The agreement contains nearly all the faults
which, from the Author’s point of view, it could
possibly contain. These faults have been criti-
cised over and over again in The Author, and
also in the work published by the Society en-
titled ‘© Forms of Agreement issued by the Pub-
lishers’ Association, with Comments by G. Herbert
Thring and Illustrative Examples by Sir Walter
Besant.”
Ciause 1.—The author sells every right he has
in the world in England, her Colonies and
Dependencies, in the United States, and under the
Berne Convention. The folly of this course is
evident. The English publishers should only hold
a licence to publish in England, her Colonies and
Dependencies. All other rights are generally left.
in the hand of an agent, and much better so than
in the hands of publishers, for this reason—that a
publisher does not as a general rule undertake the
work of a literary agent ; that his office is not to
place literary work in other hands, but to produce
literary work for the author; that work of this
kind left in the hands of publishers is not likely
to receive anything like the same attention as it
is if left in the hands of a literary agent; that
the publisher is the only person who gains by
having control of this work, and that the author
loses by leaving it in his hands. It should be
pointed out further that the publisher does not
anywhere in the agreement undertake to secure the
United States copyright for the author, nor even
to do his best to obtain it. It may pay an
English publisher better to sell sheets or stereos
to America and pay the author a royalty as per
clause 4. It should be added (see clause 3) that
for this agency work, while the literary agent
charges 10 per cent., the publisher generally asks
from 30 to 50 per cent. (in this case 50 per cent.).
Out of a large series of agreements before the
Society from all sorts and conditions of pub-
lishers the lowest charge for this literary agency
business has been 25 per cent., and this only in
one case.
Farther, a publisher who makes his profit out
of the English book publication looks upon the
increase in his profits from these other sources as
little extra luxuries. He does not push to get a
fair price for the author or to keep up the author's
position in the literary market, but he readily
accepts any offer that is made.
An example was recently before the Secretary
where the serial rights of a 6s. novel, held by the
publisher, were sold for £30. The book was by
an author of no mean reputation, who could obtain
without difficulty £100 if his work had been fairly
marketed.
There is another point—that publishers very
often delay the publication of a book in order to
149
market these minor rights, and it is quite pos-
sible that, as the agreement stands, if the pub-
lisher was desirous of serialising both in England
and the States the publication might be delayed
almost indefinitely.
That there should be a rising royalty is only
fair if the author cannot claim the highest
royalty at once. On this point, nothing further
need be said, the amount that an author can
obtain in royalty being merely a matter of bar-
gaining, but attention should be drawn to the
latter part of the clause, which is inserted in
brackets. It might lead the unsuspecting author
into considerable difficulty, as the publisher
nowhere undertakes to produce the book at 6s.,
and it is possible that he might, if the sales were
averaging about 500 a year, stop them before they
reach that number.
In Cuause 2 Mr. “ Absolute” has everything at
his “unfettered discretion ” and practically takes
all the powers into his own hands. He does not
mention the date when he will publish, and he does
not mention the form in which he will publish, nor
does he mention the price at which he will pub-
lish, and at his ‘‘ absolute discretion” he adver-
tises or not, and at his “absolute discretion-”’ he
makes what arrangement he likes with regard to
the production of the book. He is particularly
“absolute” in this clause. It is needless to say
that such a clause as this is “absolutely” bad
from the auther’s point of view. Some of the
difficulties of CLAUSE 3 have already been pointed
out when commenting on CLAusE 1, but Mr.
“ Absolute” makes his position exceedingly clear
to the unfortunate author. The publisher, as
already pointed out, pockets 50 per cent. of the
profits, for which the negotiations, in many cases,
entail the mere writing of one or two short letters ;
and again it should be pointed out that the sale
of these minor rights may entail great delay in
publication in addition to the efforts of the
publisher being careless and half-hearted.
Again, in Cuause 4, the publisher safeguards -
himself should he fail to obtain the United States
copyright. As a general rule, it does not pay
a publisher to obtain this copyright for an author.
In Cuauss 4, if he does not obtain such copyright,
the author is to have half the royalty that he
would obtain if the copies had been sold to the
English trade; this, quite irrespective of any
bargain which Mr. Absolute”? may make with
the American house with which he is dealing.
The arrangement may be an exceedingly good
arrangement for the publisher ; no doubt he will see
that it is a good arrangement, otherwise he will not
accept it, as the acceptance or rejection lies entirely
with him.
- In Cuause 5 it will be noticed that the author
”
150
is to have 2d. on each copy sold to the Colonies.
As the book to which this agreement refers is
presumably a 6s. book (no price being actually
fixed), it is as well to point out that the ordinary
price paid to an author is from 4d. to 43d. a
copy. The arrangement by which the author
gets 2d. is an exceedingly good one for the
publisher.
The next clause (6) is also a dangerous clause for
the author. It is wearisome to repeat the reasons,
but attention should be drawn to the fact that the
author is paid 5 per cent. on the nef projils, the
publisher taking the rest.
With regard to CuauseE 8, it is fair that the
publisher should be protected against the heavy
expense of corrections brought about by the
author, but the amount of 6s. per sheet of thirty-
two pages, quoted in this agreement, is perhaps
the smallest amount that has been allowed to any
author in any agreement that has come before the
Society.
In Chavusz 9, again, the author is entirely at the
beck and call of the publisher. The work is the
author’s, but he is not allowed to revise it unless
the publisher desires him to do 80, and his revision,
even, is subject to the publisher’s discretion.
In CLAUSE 10 the author is forbidden to publish
a work which is likely to conflict with the interests
of Mr. “ Absolute,” but it would be possible, under
this agreement, for anyone who desired to control
the market in a certain style of publication to kill
a book at his “absolute discretion” in order that it
might not in any way conflict with a work owned
by himself on the same subject already on the
market. If the author is bound not to produce,
it is only fair that the publisher should be equally
bound.
CLAUSE 11 is perhaps the most absolute clause
of this absolute agreement. If the book was the
author’s, and the publisher had a licence to publish,
it is fair under certain circumstances, and to a
certain limited extent, to guarantee the publisher
_against infringement of copyright and libel ; but
as the book is the publisher’s, he ought to protect
himself before the purchase. In any case, the
author is asked to concede much too much. A
case once arose in which the publisher of a scientific
book dealing with the sex question on scientific
lines was prosecuted by the police. The publisher
pleaded guilty to obscene publication, and the
author, although his book was approved by some of
the greatest scientists in Europe, had no power of
clearing his character. This case is not an exact
analogy: but power is given to the publisher to
make any agreement and the author has no
opportunity to clear himself. It is possible that
under similar circumstances the publisher might
consent to the payment of a large sum to satisfy
THE AUTHOR.
a case rather than permit the author to vindicate
his character with regard to what he had written.
Besides, the fact that the publisher is protected
from all loss would necessarily render him careless
as to the costs he might incur, the settlements
he might make, and his whole course of action.
The author would be powerless under the clause
as it stands. It must be repeated that where
a publisher makes an out-and-out purchase, as he
does in this agreement, the motto should be caveat
emptor, and the author should not give a guarantee
to the publisher.
The account clause (12) is not satisfactory ; it
is not, however, as bad as some. The irony of
clause 14 is perhaps its most amusing point.
Apology must be made for but a slight com-
mentary on this extraordinary agreement. If any
member of the Society would care to have further
details he must apply to the Secretary. There
is no space to unravel further the mystery of Mr.
“ Absolute’s ’’ methods.
WILSON vy. THE UNICORN PRESS, LTD.
a
N Friday, January 15th, 1904, an action,
brought by Mr. G. Wilson against the
Unicorn Press, Ltd., for damages for breach
of contract was tried by His Honour Judge Wood-
fall in the Westminster County Court.
Mr. Horace E. Miller (instructed by Messrs.
Harding and Leggett) appeared for the plaintiff.
The facts of the case are as follows :—
Mr. Wilson, on June 17th, 1903, paid to the
defendants a sum of money, in consideration of
which they undertook to publish a book written by
the plaintiff, not later than August 15th of the
same year. Defendants failed to publish on that
date, and after some correspondence, a later date
was agreed upon for such publication, but the
defendants again failed to produce the work as
agreed ; and the plaintiff, being unable to obtain a
fulfilment of the contract, on December 3rd, 1903,
instituted the present proceedings.
A few days before the trial, defendants made
certain overtures for the withdrawal of the action
upon terms which the plaintiff could not accept.
When the action came before the Court, the
defendants did not appear, and, after plaintiff had
been called in support of his case, His Honour
entered judgment for him, for the return of the
money originally paid for the publication of the
work, £3 3s. Od. damages, cancellation of the
agreement, and costs.
THE AUTHOR.
THE PROPERTY IN A TITLE.
—
LL cases decided, either in the United
States Courts or in our Courts of Justice,
which deal with vexed questions of Copy-
right Property must contribute, to some extent,
to the further interpretation of existing diffi-
culties. Disputes about property in titles, in that
they do not come under any special copyright
statute, but are argued on the analogy of trade
marks law, are especially interesting.
We quote the following case from the United
States Publishers’ Weekly :—
“In the case of W. H. Gannetts, publisher of
the magazine entitled Comfort, against William F.
Rupert, publisher of the magazine entitled Home
Comfort, to restrain the latter from using the word
‘comfort’ in connection with his title, Judge Coxe,
of the U. 8. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, in
granting an injunction to restrain the defendant,
said :
‘This is a trade mark case pure and simple. It
is not a case of unfair competition. It is founded
on a technical, common law trade mark. With
this distinction in mind it is obvious that many of
the propositions argued by the defendant are
irrelevant. For fifteen years the complainant and
his predecessors have published a monthly periodical
called Comfort. Under this name a large, lucrative
and growing business has been established. A
person publishing a newspaper or a magazine may
give it a name by which it is known and by which
its authenticity is attested. This name is entitled
to the same protection as if it were affixed to
other articles of merchandise. The purchasing
public know it by that name and no other. The
name is a badge of origin and genuineness. It is
as much a part of the proprietor’s property as his
counting room or printing press. A rival pub-
lisher has no more right to appropriate the name
of the periodical than the individual name of its
owner. But it is objected that “Comfort” is a
standard English word not fanciful or manufac-
tured, but descriptive, suggesting the purpose and
errand of the paper. It certainly is descriptive ;
but of what ? Surely not of a family newspaper.
Some of the synonyms of comfort are consolation,
contentment, ease, enjoyment, happiness, pleasure,
satisfaction, but would any of these be used by a
rational being to describe a monthly journal
intended to circulate in the rural districts ? Would
the word ‘“‘ease,” for instance, when conveyed to a
newspaper convey to the reading public any
accurate information of its errand or purpose
or the character of its contents? It is thought
not.
151
«“ Comfort” is, it is true, a common English
word free to all, but so are century, cosmopolitan,
forum and arena. The last two are suggestive of
ancient contests, physical and intellectual, but not
of a modern literary review. Such words are con-
tinually being selected, arbitrarily, to designate
publications which in time become known solely by
the names so bestowed npon them, and such use is
protected by the courts.
‘The defendant is publishing a monthly paper
circulating, in part at least, in the same territory
as the complainant’s paper and covering a somewhat
similar field. He calls his paper Home Comfort.
This is enough to justify the relief prayed for. It
is of no moment that the proof fails to show
deception, confusion or injury to any marked
extent. Such proof is unnecessary where infringe-
ment of a valid trade mark is clearly established.
The defendant is using the complainant’s property,
and, as he is acting without color of right, the
complainant is entitled to have that use discon-
tinued. If the defendant’s contention be correct
that actual damage must be proved before an
injunction can issue, it follows that if to-morrow
a new infringer should commence the publication
of a paper with a Chinese copy of the complainant’s
trade name on its title page, the Court would be
powerless to grant relief until the infringement
had been carried on long enough to cause actual
provable damage. Equity is not so helpless and
impotent. It is the policy of the law to arrest the
pirate before he actually makes off with the
plunder.
‘The complainant has waived an accounting. It
follows that the decree must be reversed with costs,
and the cause remanded to the circuit court with
instructions to enter a decree for an injunction
restraining the defendant from infringing the
complainant’s trade-mark.’ ”
—_—_—__+—_>_+_____—-
THE UNITED STATES BOOK TRADE.
+ —~— 4
Imports and Exports of Books and other Printed
Matter.
HE summarised statement of the values of the
imports and exports of books and other
printed matter of the United States for the
month ending November, 1903, and for the eleven
months ending at the same date, compared with the
corresponding periods of 1902, shows the following
result (page 152) as regards books, music, maps,
engravings, etchings, photographs, and other
printed matter :
152 THE AUTHOR.
y VALUES OF BOOKS AND OTHER PRINTED MATTER, FREE, IMPORTED FROM OTHER COUNTRIES,
Month ending November, 11 months ending November,
1902, 1903, 1902, 1903,
Imported from :
United Kingdom... os me ap set +» | $118,301 $138,472 $1,057,909 $1,327,750
France Se z “ = i es oe 16,180 20,002 174,236 167, 965
Germany oe ve ai ae see te ae 58,505 68,239 615,140 623, 889
Other Europe... ae ec ay a ae 25,636 24,863 379,047 264,037
British North America . as a on ‘” 3,471 3,252 42,091 33,563
Other Countries a aes a cs Oe 3,967 2,843 20,379 21,658
Totals ee Ne ie ies fe oe 226,060 257,671 2,288,802 2,438,862
VALUES OF BooKS AND OTHER PRINTED MATTER, DUTIABLE, IMPORTED FROM OTHER COUNTRIES.
Imported from: ‘
United Kingdom ... os bes ae ee | $134,273 $132,138 $1,112,017 $1,181,049
France oe mes ie <s a oe ace 11,989 9,519 76,201 82,800
Germany ay oe ie ce me oan Ae 30,018 34,257 261,464 307,691
Other Europe... “ee oe oe i ee 6,967 6,066 83,059 96,381
British North America bse a as ae ea 4,366 3,404 48,228 46,127
China .., Gee pee nee ose as De Ae 56 5 3,308 3,728
Japan ... ao nk me ie et oh 1,928 787 15,256 21,117
Other Countries th a yee pe m ie 513 1,503 5,869 5,266
Totals aes oe ae me me a 190,110 187,679 1,605,402 1,744,159
VALUES OF BOOKS AND OTHER PRINTED MATTER, OF DOMESTIC MANUFACTURE, EXPORTED FROM
THE UNITED STATES BY COUNTRIES.
Countries to which Exported :
United Kingdom eee cae Ss eee a a $118,339 $102,015 $1,094,341 $1,102,248
Belgium a ae oS sad ee ue bes 3,080 1,916 25,183 27,251
France oe eh Re ae ee sy Me 6,001 4,912 70,143 49,852
Germany = 11,270 12,914 199,060 193,125
Maly 36, es oo ae 1,923 1,060 17,317 27,038
Netherlands ... a ae ese a ae ee 1,339 1,383 11,695 10,735
Other Europe... bes te sc an ae 2,988 2,073 35,867 33,294
British North ecacy a ae ee 150,049 155,711 1,362,903 1,557,331
Central American States and British Honduras... ee 1,840 1,100 19,475 15,978
Mexico ook ai as ms Ss oS os 18,444 16,806 220,129 152,499
Cuba . a se ce a 5,110 21,955 70,134 80,864
Other WwW est Indies and Bermuda 5 ay a me 2,494 1,915 31,517 32,316
oo ne a oat eee vA 6,600 9,488 35,232 46,911
Brazil . ne os eee es ete ae ee 2,702 676 30,927 40,199
Chili... oe oe um pe ses iy a 4,903 8,209 44,488 37,582
Colombia os Be ee Oey ees i as 11,742 129 36,612 10,237
Venezuela... oe see a ue Be 494 170 19,700 3,499
Other South America f aS ave se ce 3,252 2,272 47,115 61,951
Chinese Empire ate oe eis oe See ae 3,100 2,032 30,740 25,750
British East Indies ... ee aye ee i a 6,846 4,824 29,796 22,826
Japan ... ak as he nae a oe TA57 4,153 59,897 56,083
British ‘Australasia aes te oe oes ee va 32,421 15,355 239,677 191,031
Philippine Islands... a ees ee sae sae 3,390 4,543 140,881 52,159
Other Asia and Oceanica ... eke a ee ae 1,285 1,206 23,258 20,698
British Africa oc oe ne sa ec se 6,334 9,522 109,293 50,164
All other Africa a oe ie a sal ie 1,096 771 11,465 9,979
Other Countries a ~~ ec ae a aa — — — ' 34
Totals ee Pea Be oe os 414,499 387,110 4,016,845 3,911,634
Although the war between Japanand Russiais ab- scope to some of the wonderful dealers in figures.
sorbing the attention of the majority of people, there They will undoubtedly be able to prove either that
is still a little interest left in the fiscal question. the trade of England is progressing or that the
The columns printed above will no doubt give British Empire is on the high road to ruin,
THER AUTHOR.
Tt is not our intention to admit either the one
or the other, but there are a few points which may
be noted.
In the list headed the “values of books and
other printed matter, dutiable, imported from other
countries,” it would appear that the imports from
the United: Kingdom have increased in 1903 to the
extent of 60,000 dollars, whereas the exports from
the United States into the United Kingdom have
only increased about 8,000 dollars.
These figures cause some surprise, as it has
been asserted, with apparent truth, that the
United States have been providing their own
literature, and have been producing less work from
the pen of British authors during the past few
years. If this is the case, how is the increase
accounted for? It must be remembered that the
imports into the United States do not alone
represent the production of English literary labours;
to them must be added the books printed under
the United States Copyright Act, in the States
themselves. A satisfactory explanation of an
apparent contradiction would prove interesting.
Again, the imports into the United States from
British North America have decreased about 2,000
dollars, whereas, exports from the United States
to British North America have increased nearly
200,000 dollars.
It seems clear, therefore, that this enormous
increase of exportation into British North America
arises from the fact that postage is cheaper, and
that it is easier for the Canadians to obtain their
supplies of literature from the States than from
the Mother Country. The result is bad, not only
from the financial point of view, but also, on
account of the sentiments with which the rising
generation in British North America must be
imbued. It is compelled to read the literature of
the United States in preference to the literature
of the British Empire, to study the sentiments
and views of those who, not infrequently, bitterly
hostile to everything British, do not hesitate in
plain terms to say so.
The Imperial point of view is of importance.
An analogous case may be quoted to show that
the same difficulty has arisen at other times in
other countries.
It was not long ago that a deputation of
Hungarians applied to their Government to join
the Berne Convention, putting forward this im-
portant reason that the literature circulated in
Austria-Hungary was the pirated literature of
other countries, calculated in every way to destroy
the national feeling of the Hungarian, or if not
actually calculated to destroy it, at any rate, not
calculated to foster the great traditions of the past,
or inculcate ideals for the future welfare of their
country,
158
The other items need but little comment.
Speaking generally, the imports to the United
States appear to have increased, the exports to
have decreased, and this in spite of Protection.
—_————__+—>_+__—__
UNITED STATES NOTES.
1+
he Library of Congress at Washington has
issued a statement of the Copyright Busi-
ness completed to December 31st, 1903.
From this it would appear that the total number
of entries touched very nearly 100,000—the exact
number being 99,436, and the total fees received
during the same year amounted to 70,230 dollars.
The paper goes on to state that the entries for
the new year promise to be large, as on the first
legal day of the present year 4,031 were made, and
the fees for that one day amounted to over 2,000
dollars.
The department also issued a table of the fees
received over a period of years. These show a
constant increase, save in 1900 and 1901, when
they fell from 65,000 dollars in 1899, to 63,000 in
1900, and 64,000 in 1901. Is it possible that this
decrease had anything to do with the Boer War?
It is very probable that this was the case.
The Copyright Office seems to be running now
on thoroughly satisfactory lines, and the staff is
competent to deal with the enormous press of
work that comes to hand.
We quote from the article before us :—
“ The question is frequently asked, How soon is it possible
to obtain a certificate after an application has been filed ?
The great variance in the number of titles filled per day
leads to considerable unavoidable corresponding variance
in the time of mailing the certificate or notice. Taking
however, a fairly normal month for illustration ; during
November, 1903, a month having twenty-four working
days, the bulk of the certificates for two dates were mailed
within three days ; for fourteen dates within four days ; for
six dates within five days; and for two dates in six
days ; but in the case of three dates certificates for certain
classes required seven days before mailing, and on Novem-
ber 28th, the periodical entries were so numerous that nine
days were required to clear the certificates of that class.
It should be remembered that the month included five
Sundays and one holiday, Thanksgiving Day, Theaverage
time, therefore, may be said to be about five days, although
the certificates for sixteen out of the twenty-four total days
were mailed within four days.” ‘
The United States Government have passed an
Act to afford protection to exhibitors of foreign
literary, artistic, and musical works at the Louisiana
Purchase Exposition.
This action is very interesting and worthy of
note. A copy of the Act is printed below, together
154
with a copy of the necessary formalities issued
from the Library of Congress.
It is possible that some members of the Society
may desire to avail themselves of this privileged
protection.
An Act to AFFORD PROTECTON To EXHIBITORS OF
FoREIGN LITERARY, ARTISTIC, OR Musical WORKS
AT THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE EXPOSITION.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives
of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that
the author of any book, map, chart, dramatic composition,
musical composition, engraving, cut, print, chromo, litho-
graph, or photograph published abroad prior to November
thirtieth, nineteen hundred and four, but not registered for
copyright protection in the United States copyright office,
or the heirs and assigns of such author, shall have in the
case of any such book, map, chart, dramatic composition,
musical composition, engraving, cut, print, chromo, litho-
graph, or photograph intended for exhibition at the Louisiana
Purchase Exposition the sole liberty of printing, reprinting,
publishing, copying, and vending the same within the
limits of the United States for the term herein provided
for upon complying with the provisions of this Act.
Sec. 2. That one copy of such book, map, chart, dramatic
composition, musical composition, engraving, cut, print,
chromo, lithograph, or photograph to be exhibited as herein
provided shall be delivered at the copyright office, Library
of Congress, at Washington, District of Columbia, with a
statement duly subscribed to in writing that the book or
other article is intended for such exhibition and that the
copyright protection herein provided for is desired by the
copyright proprietor, whose full name and legal residence
is to be stated in the application.
Sec, 3, That the registrar of copyrights shall record the
title of each volume of any such book or other article herein
provided for, or if the article lacks a title, shall record a
brief description of it sufficient to identify it, in a special
series of record books to be designated the “ Interim copy-
right record books,” and shall furnish to the copyright
claimant a copy of record under seal of such recorded title
or description, and the said title or description is to be
included in the Catalogue of Title Entries provided for in
section four of the Act of March third, eighteen hundred
and ninety-one.
Sec. 4. That a fee of one dollar and fifty cents shall be
paid to the register of copyrights for each title or description
to be recorded and a certified copy of the record of the
same, and in the case of a work in more than one volume
the same amount, one dollar and fifty cents, shall be paid
for each volume, and the register of copyrights shall deposit
all such fees paid in the Treasury of the United States, and
report and account for the same in accordance with the
provisions in relation to copyright fees of the appropriation
Act approved February nineteenth, eighteen hundred and
ninety-seven.
Sec. 5. That the copyright protection herein provided for
shall be for the term of two years from the date of the
receipt of the book or other article in the copyright office.
Sec, 6. That if at any time during the term of the copy-
right protection herein provided for, two copies of the
original text of any such book, or of a translation of it in
the English language, printed from type set within the
limits of the United States or from plates made therefrom,
or two copies from any such photograph, chromo, or litho-
graph printed from negatives or drawings on stone made
within the limits of the United States or from transfers
made therefrom, as deposited in the copyright office, Library
of Congress, at Washington, District of Columbia, such
deposit shall be held to extend the term of copyright pro-
tection to such book, photograph, chromo, or lithograph for
THE AUTHOR.
the full terms provided for in title sixty, chapter three, of
the Revised Statutes of the United States, computed from
the date of the receipt of the book, photograph, chromo, or
lithograph and the registration of. the title or description
as herein provided for.
Sec. 7. That in the case of an original work of the fine
arts (a painting, drawing, statue, statuary, and a model or
design intended to be perfected as a work of the fine arts)
which has been produced without the limits of the United
States prior to the thirtieth day of November, nineteen
hundred and four, and is intended for exhibition at the
Louisiana Purchase Exposition, the author of such work of
art, or his heirs and assigns, shall be granted copyright
protection therefor during a period of two years from the
date of filing in the copyright office, Library of Congress,
at Washington, District of Columbia, a description of the
said work of art and a photograph of it, and upon paying
to the register of copyrights one dollar and fifty cents for
the registration of such description, and a copy of record
under seal of such recorded description.
Sec. 8. That, except in so far as this Act authorises and
provides for temporary copyright protection during the
period and for the purposes herein provided for, it shall not
be construed or held to in any manner affect or repeal any
of the provisions of the Revised Statutes relating to copy-
rights and the Acts amendatory thereof. That no registra-
tion under this Act shall be made after the thirtieth day of
November, nineteen hundred and four.
FoRMALITIES,
The Congress of the United States has passed a law pro-
viding protection upon any of the following productions
made abroad and exhibited at the Louisiana Purchase
Exposition at St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America,
in 1904:
Group I. Group II.
Books, Original works of Art.
Maps or Charts, Paintings,
Dramatic Compositions, Drawings,
Musical Compositions, Statues,
Engravings, Cuts, or Prints, Statuary,
Models or Designs intended
to be perfected as works
of the fine arts.
The protection may be obtained by complying with the
provisions of the law as explained.
Chromos or Lithographs,
Photographs.
Group J.
For articles in Group I., the author, or his heirs or assigns,
is required to deliver at the Copyright Office, at Washing-
ton, D.C., one copy of his book ; map or chart ; dramatic
composition ; musical composition; engraving, cut, or
print ; chromo or lithograph ; or photograph, together with
a statement duly subscribed to in writing that the book or
other article is intended for ‘exhibition at the Louisiana
Purchase Exposition at St. Louis in 1904, and that copy-
right is desired by the author (whose full name and legal
residence should be stated), or by the author's heirs or
assigns : in which case their names and legal residences
should be given. Printed blank application forms to be
used in making these statements may be obtained upon
applying to the Register of Copyrights.
In addition to the above statement of the applicant, there
should be sent with each book or other article the fee pro-
vided by law, namely, $1.50 for each book or other article.
In the case of a work in more than one volume, $1.50 is
required to be sent for each volume. A certificate of entry
of title will be returned to the applicant.
Group IZ.
In the case of original works of the fine arts, such as
paintings, drawings, statues, statuary, and models or designs
THE AUTHOR.
intended to be perfected as works of the fine arts, which
are to be exhibited at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition
at St. Louis in 1904, the author of any such work of art, or
his heirs or assigns, is required to deliver at the Copyright
Office, Library of Congress, Washington, a brief description
of the said work of art, with a photograph of it, and $1.50
for each separate description.
FEES.
The fee for each registration is $1.50 ; that is, $1.50 for
each separate production; and in the case of a work in
more than one volume, $1.50 for each volume. This fee
should be forwarded by means of an International Money
Order, payable to the Register of Copyrights.
If applicants desire to deposit the copy, file the necessary
application, and pay the fee through an agent in New
York, or elsewhere in the United States, that may be done.
TERM OF PROTECTION.
The sole liberty of printing, reprinting, publishing,
copying, and vending the book or other article is granted
for a period of two years from the date of the receipt of
the book or other article in the Copyright Office, Library
of Congress, Washington, as provided for above.
EXTENSION OF TERM OF PROTECTION.
1f within the two years, in the case of a book, Two Copies
of the original text of any such book, or of a translation of
it in the English language, printed from type set within
the limits of the United States, or from plates made there-
from, are deposited in the Copyright Office, Library of
Congress, Washington, the term of copyright protection of
such book is extended for the full terms provided for by
the present copyright laws, namely, 28 years and 14 years,
computed from the date of the first receipt of the book.
In the case of a photograph, chromo, or lithograph, if
within the two years Two Copies of any such photograph,
chromo, or lithograph, printed from negatives or drawings
on stone made within the limits of the United States, or
from transfers made therefrom, are deposited in the Copy-
right Office, Library of Congress, Washington, the term of
the copyright protection is also extended for the full terms
provided by the present copyright laws.
THORVALD SOLBERG,
Register of Copyrights.
Notice.—No registrations can be made under the law
after November 30th, 1904.
——___—_+—~<>—_ —____
MAGAZINE CONTENTS.
+4 —
BLACKWOOD’S MAGAZINE.
A Song of England. By Alfred Noyes.
Viscount Gough. By George W. Forrest, C.I.E.
John Chileote, M.P. By Katherine Cecil Thurston.
The Pytchley Country.
A Lad of Promise.
On the Portrait of a Beautiful Woman carved upon her
Tomb. Translated by Sir Theodore Martin, K.C.B.
Scolopaxiana : Habits and Habitat. By Scolopax.
Whitaker Wright Finance.
Fort Drouthy. By X.
Ode: To a New Tall Hat. By Selim.
Musings without Method: Objections to a National
Theatre — Future of Public Taste in Literature—In
Defence of the Study of Greek.
The Opening of the War. By Active List.
The Session.
155
THE COoRNHILL MAGAZINE.
The Truants (Chapters vii.—ix.). By A. E. W. Mason.
Colonial Memories. III. A Modern New Zealand. By
Lady Broome.
Debita Flacco.
Historical Mysteries.
Andrew Lang.
Herbert Spencer. By Hector Macpherson.
A Day of My Life in the County Court. By His Honour
Judge Parry.
The Structure of a Coral Reef.
Bonney, F.R.S.
French Housekeeping. By Miss Betham-Edwards.
A Hungry Heart. By Hugh Clifford, C.M.G.
Ballade of St. Martin’s Clock. By L. H.
The Wreck of the “ Wager.” By W. J. Fletcher.
The Powder Blue Baron. By Mrs. Alfred Sidgwick.
By E. H. Pember, K.C.
III. The Case of Allan Breck, By
By Professor T. G.
LONGMAN’S MAGAZINE.
Nature’s Comedian (Chapters xvii., xviil.).
Norris.
Modder River.—I. By Captain Vaughan.
Mademoiselle and Friulein. By M. E. Francis.
Pat Magee’s Wife. By Lena Barrington.
The Sound of the Desert. By Louisa Jebb.
A Wherry Elopement. By C. F. Marsh.
A Defence of Play-reading. By W. E. Hicks.
At the Sign of the Ship. By Andrew Lang.
By W. E.
MACMILLAN’S MAGAZINE.
The Court of Sacharissa (Chapters x.—xii.).
Sheringham and Nevill Meakin.
Education and its Machinery. By P. S. Burrell.
The German Army in German Fiction. By H. C.
Macdowall.
The Message of the Winds.
Our Irish Friends. By the Rey. J. Scoular Thomson.
The Last of Limmer’s. By Gerald Brenan.
At the Home of the Deceivers.
The Gardens of Tokio. By Reginald Farrer.
Matthew Arnold as a Popular Poet. By W. A. Sibbald.
THE WoRLD’S WORK.
By Hugh
Portrait of Mr. John Hay, Secretary of State of the
United States (frontispiece).
The War—and After. By Henry Norman, M.P.
The Emperor of Japan.
The Torpedo: Its Value in War. By Fred. T. Jane.
The Lesson of the Free Trade Controversy. By R. B.
Haldane, K.C., M.P. (with portrait).
The Clean Sweep at the War Office.
Dilke, Bart., M.P.
The Great Motor Show.
The Crisis in the Cotton Industry : Its Position and its
Future. By ©. W. Macara (with portrait).
The Free Trade Debate.
The Day’s Work. XI. A London Policeman.
Home Rule for the Thames.
To See Oneself Think. By E. 8. Grew.
Perfect Feeding of the Human Body.
Marcosson.
The Coal Miner and His Work. By W. Meakin.
Mining by Electricity. By J. E. Hodgkin, M.1.E.E.
The Man without a Bed. By Clarence Rook.
Every Man His Own Fruit Grower. By
Counties.”
The World’s Play. XI. Ladies’ Sports.
The Work of the Book World, with portraits of Mr,
William Archer, Mrs. Baillie Reynolds, Mr. Vincent Brown,
Mr. Edmund Gosse, LL.D.
A Fresh Start in a British Industry.
Among the World’s Workers: A Record of Industry.
By Sir Charles
By Isaac I".
“ Tome
156
WARNINGS TO THE PRODUCERS
OF BOOKS.
—_-——+—
ERE are a few standing rules to be observed in an
agreement. There are four methods of dealing
with literary property :—
I. Selling it Outright.
This is sometimes satisfactory, if a proper price can be
obtained. But the transaction should be managed by a
competent agent, or with the advice of the Secretary of
the Society.
Il. A Profit-Sharing Agreement (a bad form of
agreement).
In this case the following rules should be attended to:
C1.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro-
duction forms a part without the strictest investigation.
(2.) Not to give the publisher the power of putting the
profits into his own pocket by charging for advertisements
in his own organs, or by charging exchange advertise-
ments. Therefore keep control of the advertisements.
(3.) Not to allow a special charge for “ office expenses,”
unless the same allowance is made to the author.
(4.) Not to give up American, Colonial, or Continental
rights.
(5.) Not to give up serial or translation rights.
(6.) Not to bind yourself for future work to any publisher.
As well bind yourself for the future to any one solicitor or
doctor !
III. The Royalty System.
This is perhaps, with certain limitations, the best form
of agreement. It is above all things necessary to know
what the proposed royalty means to both sides. It is now
possible for an author to ascertain approximately the
truth. From time to time very important figures connected
with royalties are published in Zhe Author,
IY. A Commission Agreement.
The main points are :—
(1.) Be careful to obtain a fair cost of production.
(2.) Keep control of the advertisements.
(3.) Keep control of the sale price of the book.
General.
All other forms of agreement are combinations of the four
above mentioned.
Such combinations are generally disastrous to the author,
Never sign any agreement without competent advice from
the Secretary of the Society.
Stamp all agreements with the Inland Revenue stamp.
Avoid agreements by letter if possible.
The main points which the Society has always demanded
from the outset are :—
C1.) That both sides shall know what an agreement
means.
(2.) The inspection of those account books which belong
to the author. We are advised that this is a right, in the
nature of a common law right, which cannot be denied or
withheld.
(3.) Always avoid a transfer of copyright.
——_——_—o——_2—_____
WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS.
—_1~- +.
EVER sign an agreement without submitting it to the
Secretary of the Society of Authors or some com-
petent legal authority.
2. It is well to be extremely careful in negotiating for
the production of a play with anyone except an established
manager. be
THE AUTHOR.
3. There are three forms of dramatic contract for plays’
in three or more acts :—
(a.) Sale outright of the performing right. This
is unsatisfactory, An author who enters into
such a contract should stipulate in the contract
for production of the piece by a certain date
and for proper publication of his name on the
play-bills,
(d.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to
perform on the basis of percentages on
gross receipts. Percentages vary between 5
and 15 per cent. An author should obtain a
percentage on the sliding scale of gr0ss receipts
in preference to the American system. Should
obtain a sum in advance of percentages. <A fixed
date on or before which the play should be
performed.
(¢.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to
perform on the basis of. royalties (i.c., fixed
nightly fees). This method should be always
avoided except in cases where the fees are
likely to be small or difficult to collect. The
other safeguards set out under heading (6.) apply
also in this case.
4. Plays in one act are often sold outright, but it is
better to obtain a small nightly fee if possible, and a sum
paid in advance of such fees in any event. It is extremely
important that the amateur rights of one-act plays should
be reserved.
5. Authors should remember that performing rights can
be limited, and: are usually limited, by town, country, and
time. This is most important.
6. Authors should not assign performing rights, but
should grant a licence to perform. The legal distinction is
of great importance.
7. Authors should remember that performing rights in a
play are distinct from literary copyright. A manager
holding the performing right or licence to perform cannot ,
print the book of the words.
8. Never forget that United States rights may be exceed-
ingly valuable. ‘hey should never be included in English
agreements without the author obtaining a substantial
consideration.
9. Agreements for collaboration should be carefully
drawn and executed before collaboration is commenced.
10. An author should remember that production of a play
is highly speculative: that he runs a very great risk of
delay and a breakdown in the fulfilment of his contract.
He should therefore guard himself all the more carefully in
the beginning.
11. An author must remember that the dramatic market
is exceedingly limited, and that for a novice the first object
is to obtain adequate publication.
As these warnings must necessarily be incomplete, on
account of the wide range of the subject of dramatic con-
tracts, those authors desirous of further information
are referred to the Secretary of the Society.
————
WARNINGS TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.
a.
ITTLE can be added to the warnings given for the
assistance of producers of books and dramatic
authors. It must, however, be pointed out that, as
a rule, the musical publisher demands from the musical
composer a transfer of fuller rights and less liberal finan-
cial terms than those obtained for literary and dramatic
property. The musical composer has very often the two
rights to deal with—performing right and copyright. He
THE AUTHOR.
should be especially careful therefore when entering into
an agreement, and should take into particular consideration
the warnings stated above.
—_+——_e—___
HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.
4
VERY member has a right toask for and to receive
advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-
lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his
business or the administration of his property. The
Secretary of the Society is a solicitor, but if there is any
special reason the Secretary will refer the case to the
Solicitors of the Society. Further, the Committee, if they
deem it desirable, will obtain counsel’s opinion, All this
without any cost to the member.
2. Remember that questions connected with copyright
and publishers’ agreements do not fall within the experi-
ence of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use
the Society.
3. Send to the Office copies of past agreements and past
‘accounts, with a copy of the book represented. The
Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new
or old, for inspection and note. The information thus
obtained may prove invaluable.
4. Before signing any agreement whatever, send
the document to the Society for examination.
5. Remember always that in belonging to the Society
you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you
are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are
advancing the best interests of your calling in promoting
the independence of the writer, the dramatist, the composer.
6. The Committee have now arranged for the reception
‘of members’ agreements and their preservation in a fire-
proof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as
confidential documents to be read only by the Secretary,
who will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers:
—() To read and advise upon agreements and to give
advice concerning publishers. (2) To stamp agreements
in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep
agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to
agreements. Fuller particulars of the Society’s work
can be obtained in the Prospectus.
7. No contract should be entered into with a literary
agent without the advice of the Secretary of the Society.
Members are strongly advised not to accept without careful
consideration the contracts with publishers submitted to
them by literary agents, and are recommended to submit
them for interpretation and explanation to the Secretary
of the Society.
This
The
8. Many agents neglect to stamp agreements
must be done within fourteen days of first execution.
Secretary will undertake it on behalf of members,
9. Some agents endeavour to prevent authors from
referring matters to the Secretary of the Society ; so
_ do some publishers. Members can make their own
_ deductions and act accordingly.
\ 10. The subscription to the Society is £1 1s. per
annum, or £10 10s for life membership.
THE READING BRANCH.
—+—— + —
EMBERS will greatly assist the Society in this
branch of its work by informing young writers
of its existence. Their MSS. can be read and
treated as a composition is treated by a coach. The term
MSS. includes not only works of fiction, but poetry
and dramatic works, and when it is possible, under
special arrangement, technical and scientific works. The
Readers are writers of competence and experience. The
fee is one guinea.
ope
NOTICES.
—-—>+—
HE Editor of Zhe Author begs to remind members of
the Society that, although the paper is sent to them
free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a
very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great
many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest
5s, 6d. subscription for the year.
Communications for Zhe Author should be addressed to
the Offices of the Society, 39, Old Queen Street, Storey’s
Gate, S.W., and should reach the Editor not later than
the 21st of each month.
All persons engaged in literary work of any kind,
whether members of the Society or not, are invited to
communicate to the Editor any points connected with their
work which it would be advisable in the general interest to
publish.
Oe
Communications and letters are invited by the
Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on
no other subjects whatever. Every effort will be made to
return articles which cannot be accepted.
—1+—>+
The Secretary of the Society begs to give notice
that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post,
and he requests members who do not receive an
answer to important communications within two days to
write to him without delay. All remittances should be
crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery Lane, or be sent
by registered letter only,
—_————\— 6
THE LEGAL AND GENERAL LIFE
ASSURANCE SOCIETY.
—— +
N offer has been made of a special scheme of
Endowment and Whole Life Assurance,
admitting of a material reduction off the
ordinary premiums to members of the Society.
Full information can be obtained from J. P. Blake,
Legal and General Insurance Society (City Branch),
158, Leadenhall Street, H.C.
158
AUTHORITIES.
——>— + —
DEPARTMENTAL Committee has been
appointed by the Secretary of State’ to
enquire into “the complaints of the musical
publishers as to the sale, especially in the streets,
of pirated copies of their publications, and to
report whether any, and if so what amendment of
the law is necessary.”
The Committee is composed of the following
eentlemen :—
"Mr. Fenwick, Chairman; Mr. J. Caldwell ;
Mr. F. L. P. Elliott, Secretary; Mr. W. J. Gallo-
way, M.P., Mr. John Murray, and Mr. T. E.
Scrutton.
The names of the Committee are a sound
enarantee that the work will be done energetically
and exhaustively. Among the number we are
pleased to see the name of Mr. Scrutton, whose
work on behalf and knowledge of copyright is so
well known.
It seems strange, however, that on a cominittee
of this kind, dealing with the property of com-
posers (for the pirated music does not always
belong to the publisher; it is sometimes the pro-
perty of the person from whose brain it evolved),
that not one of those distinguished gentlemen, and
no representative from the Authors’ Society, which
acts as their protector, should have been asked to
join the number. Again, there is no musical pub-
lisher on the board. ‘The only publisher is Mr. John
Murray, whose business among the first of those
which deal with a certain branch of the trade, does
not cover the publication (so far as we are aware)
of musical compositions.
It is hoped that if the Government undertake to
deal with the matter, they will not be content with
passing an amending Act, which after all, if we
consider the number of small musical Acts, will
only make the question more complicated; but
will take in hand the consolidation of musical
copyright.
Wi: regret to chronicle the death, after a long
illness, of Sir Leslie Stephen, K.C.B.
It is impossible, while going to press, to do more
than draw the attention of the members of the
Society to the loss that English literature has
sustained. _ oe
As editor of The Cornhill, of the ‘“ Dictionary
of National Biography,” and as the author of
numerous philosophical and biographical works, as
well as of lighter volumes dealing with literature
and Alpine travel, he added largely to the wealth
of English literature. His death leaves a gap
that will be long felt.
The sincerity and courtesy of his literary style
THE AUTHOR.
was in aceord with his character. In all matters of
business there was no man more pleasant to deal
with, no man more thoughtful of, and interested
in, the efforts of the younger generation of the
profession of letters.
Aone the correspondence we print a letter from io
Miss Hallard, the Paris correspondent of The a
Author, who was for many years a friend of George ie
Gissing. ‘The Secretary, acting with the sanction 14
of the Chairman of the Committee, will be glad to
accept any contributions that may be forwarded to
the Society’s office, in response to the suggestions jf
contained in Miss Hallard’s note, and the Society fis
will willingly act as agents in carrying out any i
proposition upon which Mr. Gissing’s friends may ¥s
decide in order to show their appreciation for his fid
work and their love for his memory. :
A curious case of infringement, in which fy
Aubrey Newton was the culprit, has come before &
the Society: A short story written by one of 16
its members, which appeared some years ago in Hi
the Illustrated London News, was taken bodily,
with the title changed, and offered by Mr. Newton a
to a penny weekly paper. The editor finding the
story was a good one, purchased it, and subse-
quently printed it in his columns. :
Some months afterwards the matter was brought %
to the attention of themember. He at once placed b
his case in the hands of the Society, when the facts alo
above stated came to light. The case has now We
been settled ; the editor has paid a sum for infringe-
ment of copyright, and inserted an apology in his #
paper.
ee
THE RECOMPENSE.
1
E rhymers wear our hearts upon our sleeve >
And pawn cur blood for fame; our tears «
are bonds
That Fate repays at last,—thus runs the grim
Ancient indictment.
O undying songs
That thrill across the inexorable years,
O hearts self-fathomed for the world to plumb,
Was this your end? O gradual pulse of dawn,
Heavy with lifeblood of the unborn day ;
Dim, ancient coasts raped by the looting sea,
Sun, storm and thunder, and immortal siars,
And moon that leans and listens to the tides,
Are all your names but dice that poets cast
To cheat oblivion ?
Rather let them say
That even as some timid lover who laid
ee
i
é
THER AUTHOR.
A scroll that he had writ with joy and fear
All the June night, where the dear feet should pass
Of her he worships, watches from afar,
Aching lest it shall fall in alien hands,
So we who pour our treasure, gold or dross,
Where every eye may reckon it, are content
If one shall weep with us, if one shall glow
With passionate joy because our hearts were flame;
Yea, we abide the mockery of a world
For the sweet sake of one who comprehends.
Sr. Joun Lucas.
—____—_+o_+___
MUSICAL PIRACY.
— 7.
HE Report of the Departmental Committee
appointed by the Secretary of State for the
Home Department to inquire into the piracy
of musical publications, together with notes and
appendix, has now been issued in the form of a
Blue Book.
To all members of the Authors’ Society, whether
writers or composers, this Blue Book is full of
interest. Although the holder of musical copy-
right is at present the worst sufferer by this form
of infringement, the author of books is not entirely
exempt. It is therefore of the greatest importance
that an Act be passed to deal in an adequate
manner with the doings of the pirate.
Mention has already been made in this number
of “The Author ” of the names of the gentlemen
sitting on the Committee. There is no need to
repeat the list.
The following witnesses were called to give
evidence before them :—
Mr. Arthur Boosey, of Messrs Boosey & OCo., Mr.
David Day, of Messrs Francis Day and Hunter, Mr.
Emile Enoch, of Messrs Enoch & Co., who attended
as representative of the French Music Publishers’
Association, and Mr. H. R. Clayton, of Messrs
Novello & Co. ; Mr. John Abbot, Assistant Secre-
tary, and Mr. Preston, Provincial Agent, of the
Music Publishers’ Association; Mr. Lione. Monckton
and Mr. Maybrick, two well-known musical com-
posers ; Superintendent Moore, of the Metropolitan
Police; Sir H. Poland, K.C.; Mr. Dickinson
and Mr. Rose, Metropolitan Magistrates; and
Mr. Willetts, who is known also by the name of
Fisher and “ King of the Pirates,” manager of the
People’s Music Publishing Company. It will be
noticed that there are six representatives of the
trade, and only two composers. When will the
fact be fully recognised that although the trade,
especially the music publishing trade, are constant
purchasers of copyright, yet the composer is the
159
originator of the work, and has the prior right to
consideration ?
The evidence, which is full of interesting infor-
mation, cannot be dealt with in this number. The
report of the majority of the Committee alone is
summarized.
Mr. Edward N. F. Fenwick (Chairman), Mr.
William J. Galloway, M.P.. Mr. John Murray,
and Mr. T. E. Scrutton, K.C., signed the Report.
Mr. James Caldwell, M.P., dissenting, put forward
his views in a separate document.
Firstly, they deal with the manner in which the
pirated music is sold by the hawkers to the public.
This point is one of considerable importance, as on
it are based the suggested remedies by which the
street vendors may be dealt with.
Secondly, with the method by which the works
are printed and distributed to the hawkers in order
to ascertain how to deal with the printers and
distributing agents.
Thirdly, they show from the evidence the
enormous increase of this piratical trade.
In 1901, 47 copyrights were infringed. There
are now no less than 231 pirated editions of copy-
right music on the market; and 460,000 copies.
of pirated music were seized in the Metropolitan
Police District alone between the Ist day of
October, 1902, and the 31st day of December,
1903.
To show how inadequate were the original
remedies, Mr. Boosey stated that out of 12 civil
actions prosecuted successfully by his firm, at the
cost of £500, in two instances only did they
succeed in recovering their costs from . the
defendants.
The Report states ‘it has been suggested the
public benefit by the sale of pirated music,” but.
the Committee have come to the conclusion that
* the public have no right to benefit by assisting to
plunder a class on which the Legislature has con-
ferred statutory rights of property, although the
protection afforded by the statute has proved
insufficient to deal with an evil which was not for-
seen at a time when the Act was passed.”
The Committee next discussed the two following
points raised in the evidence : (1) “ ‘hat the price
charged for legitimate music is out of all propor-
tion to the cost of production,” and (2) “that as a
matter of fact it would be more profitable for both
publisher and composer if a smaller royalty were
paid and a less charge made for music.”
The evidence and the deductions are not entirely
satisfying. The price charged for legitimate music
must be a question of supply and demand. This
has been proved to be the case in the book market.
There has been no complaint that a copyright
book cannot be obtained at a short price, if there
is a demand for a cheap form. Commenting on the
160
second point the Report states that one firm of
publishers had tried the experiment of issuing 6d.
editions of certain songs, but this had not saved
them from being pirated. ‘The witness stated that
the pirates used the 6d. legitimate edition as a
cloak, keeping it at the top of their stock to
conceal inferior pirated copies.
Dealing with the loss to publishers and com-
posers, the Committee state “the composer, seeing
his income gradually appropriated by others by
illegal means, and the publisher, who has invested
large sums of money in his business, on the
strength of Parliament having given a property in
copyright, look to Parliament, not unreasonably,
to give them adequate protection.” This is true,
but will they get what they want? Authors have
been clamouring for years, but still there is no
Copyright Bill.
The incapacity of the existing law to check the
evil is made apparent on the evidence, and the
Committee proceed to dissect the inadequate
remedies of the Act of 1902. Studied considera-
tion of the reasons why the Act is not sufficiently
powerful, are put forward. The Act gives power,
under conditions, to seize pirated copies, and
having seized them, to carry them before a Court
of Summary Jurisdiction for destruction. The
right of seizure, however, is limited, and no power
is conferred by which premises can be entered by
force and searched. ‘The power of destruction is
also limited, as it is impossible to destroy without
serving the hawker with a summons. Owing to
the false address given by most hawkers it is
almost impossible to do this. According to one
witness, out of five or six thousand summonses
issued only 287 have been served.
Having set out succinctly all the preliminary
issues, the Majority Report of the Committee sets
‘out its summary and its recommendations as
follows :—
SuMMARY.
It will be seen from the above facts that an extensive
‘system of infringing copyright has sprung up which the
remedies at present provided by law are powerless to sup-
press. The opinion given by owners of musical copyright,
that the Act of 1842 and the Act of 1902 have been quite
ineffective to deal with the mischief, was corroborated by
such experienced lawyers as Sir H. Poland, Mr. Dickinson,
the magistrate at the Thames Police Court, and Mr. Rose,
‘the magistrate at the West London Police Court, and we
find it to be quite justified by the facts.
The hawker in the street cannot be successfully attacked
by civil proceedings in the High Court, such proceedings
being useless against an anonymous person of no means,
He cannot be suppressed by the Act of 1902, for there is no
power to obtain his true name and address for the purpose
of serving a summons on him.
Even if he is served, nothing can be done but to forfeit
the few copies he is offering for sale at the time of seizure;
and while the order is being made he is selling in another
street fresh copies obtained from the secret store of the
middleman,
THE AUTHOR.
The Act of 1842 cannot successfully restrain a printer
and middleman who remain in the dark, who have no
recognised place of business, nor means to pay damages or
costs, and who, restrained by injunction, get a relation or
friend to carry on their business. The Act of 1902 fails
against them owing to the absence of a power of search.
RECOMMENDATIONS,
In our opinion, no remedies will be effective which do
not recognise that the persons engaged in dealing in pirated
music are men of no means or settled abode, nor amenable
to civil proceedings, and are people who, as Sir H. Poland
expressed it, are engaged in a common law conspiracy to
infringe on rights of property. In our opinion, legislation
to deal effectively with this evil must give :
(1) A summary method of recovering penalties for
printing and distributing piratical works. Such a proce-
dure already exists in the Fine Art Copyright Act, 1862,
and the Merchandise Marks Act, 1887.
(2) In certain cases, a power of arrest, modelled on the
procedure under the Metropolitan Police Acts, which
has worked effectively and without causing complaint
for some 60 years. This is essential to ensure that the
offender shall be present at the summary proceedings
and shall suffer the penalty he has incurred.
(3) A power of search, between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m., to
be granted only on a magistrate’s order made after
hearing evidence on oath that it is probable that piratical
music is stored in a particular house or building. This is
necessary to reach the secret store where piratical copies
are printed or kept for the purpose of furnishing the
hawkers with supplies.
DETAILED CONSIDERATION OF THE REMEDIES
PROPOSED.
We recommend that it should be made a penal offence,
punishable by fine and forfeiture on summary conviction,
for any person—
‘“‘(1) to print or cause or procure to be printed any
pirated musical work ;
(2) to distribute or carry about any pirated musical
work for the purpose of being sold or dealt with in the
course of trade ;
‘‘@) to sell or cause or procure to be sold, or expose,
offer, or keep for sale, or solicit, by post or otherwise,
orders for any pirated musical work ;
‘“‘(4) to import or export or cause to procure to be
imported or exported any pirated musical work or the
plates thereof ;
‘*(5) to be found in possession of any pirated musical
work or the plates thereof for any of the purposes above
mentioned.” :
In the definition clause the word “plates” should be
defined to include any stereotype or other plates, stones,
or matrices or negatives used for the purpose of printing
any pirated musical work.
Finally, the Committee proceed to make fuller
suggestions simplifying and defining the powers
of arrest ; on what terms they should be given
and how far they should extend. Search warrants
are dealt with in the same way.
The concluding words sum up the position :—
(1.) That a widespread system of piracy which has
grown up is doing very serious injury to the property of
composers and publishers of music.
(2.) That this piracy owes its origin to the inadequacy of
the remedies provided by Parliament to protect the pro-
perty it has created against persons of no means and:no
settled abode who deliberately conspire to break the law.
(3.) That fresh legislation on the lines above indicated
jis necessary to protect adequately musical copyright, and
that this legislation should give (a) a summary power of
inflicting penalties on printers and sellers of piratical
works; (0) a power of arrest of such offenders to ensure
their being brought before the Court that can inflict those
penalties ; (¢) a power of search for piratical works, to
ensure their destruction.
—__—___—_-—<>—_e_
AUTHORS AND INCOME TAX.
—_+
HEN money is received by an author as
consideration for conveyance of copy-
right, should it be accounted as income ?
Should it be reckoned in assessment for income
tax ? Last December I wrote a short letter to
the Zimes on this question, expecting a reply, or,
possibly, many replies. There was none. Christ-
mas week is, perhaps, a time when men do not
care to discuss so unpleasant a subject as the
income tax. It may be that no one could either
improve my presentment of the problem or suggest
a solution : but that I can hardly believe. I find
that both publishers and authors have talked
about my letter, but have stopped short of writing.
I am disposed to return to the subject, treating it
more in detail.
1 showed that an absurdity can be deduced
either from an affirmative or from a negative
answer. If it be denied:that moneys received on
sale of copyright are income, it will follow that an
author producing much work in a year and selling
all copyrights to his publisher earns no taxable
income : which seems absurd. On the other hand,
if such moneys be reckoned as income, there is a
consequence which I set out in a hypothetical case.
J have published certain works which bring me in
royalties of £60 a year. I sell the copyrights for
£600, which I at once sink in a terminable annuity
of £40. The effect is to reduce my income from
this source by £20 a year. But if I reckon the
£600 as income, and strike a three years’ average
as usual, I shall make my taxable income from this
source £240 for the current year, £220 for the
next, and £200 for the third. I shall also be
paying income tax on my £40 annuity. In sum,
I shall pay for these three years income tax on
£780, my actual income being £120. This also
seems absurd. Can a solution be found for the
two absurdities 2?
In the case that I have supposed, the owner of
the copyright regards it as an investment of
capital. He realises this, and at once reinvests it,
accepting a smaller income for the sake of greater
security. If that be a true presentment, no one
will contend that he should pay income tax on the
sum received. But in the counter case of an
TAR AUTHOR.
161
author selling the copyright of his work as he
produces it, and living on the proceeds, what shall
we say? There is a distinction which seems to
afford a rough practical solution of our problem.
As the man treats the money received, so let it be
regarded ; if he spends it as it comes, let it be
called income ; if he reinvests it, let it be called
capital. And as we have to assess ourselves under
Schedule D, let each man return his income
according to his consciousness of his practice.
That seems fair ; but the solution will not bear
examination. If I realise the value of an inyest-
ment, [ am not bound to reinvest the money. I
may spend it on my current needs or pleasures ;
and the fact that I so spend it does not convert the
money into income. So, too, if the sale of a copy-
right is the realisation of capital, it does not
change its character because the seller squanders
or otherwise spends the money. A tax on money
so received and spent is not an income tax, but an
expenditure tax, of the kind which, I believe, the
French Government is contemplating.
On the other hand, if an author sell his copy-
rights as they are created, and invest all the money
received, he is accumulating wealth; and the
Income Tax Commissioners will pertinently reflect
that wealth is usually accumulated by saving out of
income. Income tax is not remitted on income
so saved, except illogically in the case of life in-
surance, and every penny which the author lays
by is income saved and invested. He should be
taxed on all his receipts.
That again seems fair at first sight. There is a
distinction between realising the value of a copy-
right and realising the value of an ordinary in-
vestment. ‘The author has actually created the
value of the copyright ; it is his payment for work
done. But again there is a difficulty. The value
of the copyright, created by his work, is the same
whether he sells it or retains it. If, in the one
case, the value received in cash is to be regarded
as income, then, in the other case, the value
retained in hand ought equally to be so regarded.
An author making out his income under Schedule D
should add to the sums actually received the esti-
mated present value of the copyright of all works
finished within the year. But will any one main-
tain that such a calculation is contemplated by the
law imposing the tax? A Surveyor of Taxes has
referred me to the parallel case of a painter. He
produces a picture as an author produces a book ;
he sells the picture as the author sells his copyright ;
what he receives for the picture is income. I do
not know enough about the ways of artists to
judge the accuracy of the comparison ; but, be it
just or unjust, I point out to the Surveyor of
Taxes that the painter enriches himself to the
extent of the value of the picture, whether he sells
162
it or no. He may retain it in hand for his own
pleasure or profit, or for a mere whim: whyshould he
escape income tax on that account? But do the
Income Tax Commissioners levy a tax on a painter’s
unsold pictures of the year ? Has Mr. G. F. Watts
paid on the estimated value of his great collection
as it was formed? If not, why should the copy-
right values created by an author's work be regarded
as taxable income? And why should those values
be taxable in one case and not taxable in another
case? What difference is made by the accidental
distinction between retaining the value in its
original form and exchanging it for an equal value
in cash ?
J have seen a distinction drawn between the sale
of a copyright by the author, and its sale by some
other person to whom it has been conveyed. In
the former case, I am told, the money received is
payment for work done, and so income; in the
latter case it is payment for an annuity realised,
and so is not income. I examine this distinction
by applying it to an actual case. Sir Walter Scott
died, leaving to his daughter many valuable copy-
rights. To that fact, indeed, we owe our present
law of copyright. I find it impossible to accept as
reasonable a statement that money received for the
sale of those copyrights would have been income
on the 20th of September, 1832, and would not
have been income on the 22nd of the same
month.
This attempted distinction, indeed, strengthens
my conviction that the proceeds of a sale of copy-
right are not in any case income. A copyright is
a parcel of property, and in no case is the price
received for sold property regarded as income.
Income arises out of such a sale only when a profit
is made by the act of selling, and that profit is
something altogether different from the price paid.
It is a trading profit. I do not know how an
author makes a trading profit by the sale of his
copyright. His agent does, no doubt; his pub-
lisher may do; but that is quite another matter.
The author should receive an exactly equivalent
value. Where then is the income? If he is to
pay income tax on the value that he has created
by his work, he must be assessed when the copy-
right comes into existence, not when it is sold :
the sale adds nothing to the value. But how
are the Commissioners of Income Tax going to
arrange such an assessment ?
A further difficulty presents itself. Payments to
an author sometimes include consideration for con-
veyance of copyright, without being wholly of that
character. The copyright of contributions to a
newspaper is understood to belong to the proprietors
of the newspaper, unless it be expressly reserved.
The publishers of some reviews and magazines
take a conveyance of copyright of all articles. In
THE AUTHOR.
these cases the author sells his copyright ; but the
sum received bears no settled relation to the value
of the copyright. That value is sometimes naught
the matter being only of passing interest. The
author has not in this case created a thing of
permanent value, an investment, a transferable
estate. But when this is granted, it may be said
that some books fall into the same category. No
one would ever dream of reprinting them, even if
there were no law in restraint. Perhaps it will be
answered that no publisher would pay anything for
the copyright of such a work, but I have excellent
reasons for knowing that an extraordinary act of
this kind is not impossible. Shall such payments
be regarded as mere eccentricities, minima with
which the law need not be concerned ?
This fantastic difficulty, however, may suggest
a possible solution of our problem. In producing
a work the copyright of which is valuable, an
author creates a value, which there are good reasons
for not regarding as income. His position is not
unique. An owner of an estate who improves it
by judicious management does the same thing:
he is not required to return the increased capital
value as income accruing, nor, if he sell the estate,
will he treat any part of the purchase-money as
income. His taxable income consists of the annual
returns from the estate, whether rent or profits
on occupation, secured without loss of ownership.
Apply the analogy ; an author’s income consists of
what he receives within the year for his works,
without loss of copyright. If he dispose of the
copyright on publication, he should divide the sum
received into two parts—what he receives for con-
veyance of copyright, and what he would receive
in this particular instance if the copyright were
reserved. The latter part is income, the former is
not. In the case of a newspaper article the latter
part may be the whole. In the case of a book
which would otherwise be published on royalty,
the former part will be the whole.
I offer this suggestion for a solution of the
problem. It may sometimes be difficult to dis
tinguish accurately between income and other
receipts ; but that is nothing new in the history —
of the Income Tax.
T. A. Lacey.
9
RECENT CHANGES IN THE BOOK
TRADE.
Le
favourite topic of discussion with all —
sections of the Book public, whether on —
the producing or the consuming side. The past —
year has witnessed a degree of discussion greater —
organisation of the Book Trade is a
y
5
5
¥
S
e
almost than during the interesting period when the
Society of Authors, in 1897, examined Publishers and
Booksellers, Authors and Readers, in an endeavour
to ascertain the causes of the decline in the book
trade and the conditions of improvement. This
revival of criticism is probably due in the main to
the advent of at least three new factors in the
competition for the public’s favour. From Not-
tingham has come a new patent in the shape of a
eash chemist who is covering the country with a
network of chemist shops interlarded with book
departments. _ Boots’ Booklovers’ Library and
Boots’ Book Departments are already rivalling
Mudie’s, Smith’s, and the great booksellers.
From America, heralded with paragraphs re-
counting phenomenal Canadian and States suc-
cesses, and floated with a capital of millions of
dollars, has appeared the Booklovers’ Library and
the Tabard Inn Library, a company setting forth
with the resolve to capture the field occupied at
present by Messrs. Mudie, Smith, Cawthorn, and
Hill on the one hand, and the London Library, the
Grosvenor Library, and other eclectic institutions
on the other.
From London, acclaimed by Mr. G. Bernard
Shaw, Mr. H. G. Wells, Mr William Archer, and
others, has appeared Bookshops Limited, a com-
pany which, with its Ideal Bookshops and Fiscal
and War Catalogues, has started on its professed
career of introducing new men and new methods
to the English bookselling world.
Whilst these are the conspicuous and obvious
causes of the revival of critical interest, there are
other and more far reaching movements in progress,
destined to have even greater results in moulding
the future of the book-trade. Of these the most
important is the revolution in educational machinery
effected by the Education Acts of 1902 and 1903.
The bulk of the children of the country have been
hitherto educated, not in the board schools, but
in the volantary schools. These schools, supreme
each over its own equipment, have made their own
terms and arrangements with local booksellers and
Educational Supply Associations as to the books in
daily use. To-day all these schools are controlled
by the County Educational Authorities under the
headship of the Education Department, and the
equipment is taken out of the hands of the local
trustees and managers. The County Education
Authority on the large scale, dealing directly with
the publishers or with the wealthier among the
Educational Supply Associations is destroying the
trade of the small country bookseller so far as the
supply of educational literature is concerned. ‘The
Bookselling Trade is going the way of all other trades
—the big industry and combined methods are
_ superseding the small industry and isolated methods.
There will soon be no room for the isolated book-
THE AUTHOR.
163
seller. In the meantime the Trade Journals and
the meetings of the Booksellers’ Association bear
witness to his apprehension.
To some extent the same causes are operating in
other countries. In France cutting prices and an
excessive output are creating the same difficulties
as have confronted the English bookseller. In
America similar troubles show themselves.
Side by side with the external changes in the
book trade are other causes actively at work
influencing the character of books bought. The
chief features of recent bookselling have been on
the one hand, the guinea book with colour print
illustrations, and on the other, the pocket reprints
of many firms, the more successful, the smaller and
more dainty the format. It is a long cry from the
Folio Shakespeare to the edition now inaugurated
with “Romeo and Juliet ” for the waistcoat pocket.
The six shilling novel, regarded by so many book-
sellers as the mainstay of business is circulated
more and more exclusively by libraries. The novel
at three shillings and sixpence, at two shillings, and
even at one shilling, is superseding it on the book-
sellers’ shelves. ‘I'he sixpenny reprints are no
longer confined to the bookstalls, but assist to
crowd the slender accommodation of the bookshops.
These changes, and their end is not yet, are
bitter to the bookseller. He can make his profit
only by careful buying, by a large turnover in
cheap literature, by an extension of his clienféle for
expensive books.
To the new companies, working on a larger scale,
certain of their thirteenth copy, with a carefully
audited system of accounts, these changes do not
present the same terrors and alarms; for the book-
buying public was never larger than to-day. ‘Two
generations of universal elementary education,
aided by an extension of the public library system
which is percolating almost to every village in the
country, are at last having their natural effect.
For every “ patron of literature ” and founder of a
private library of the past, we have to-day some
hundreds of readers of books borrowed from the
public libraries and of cheap books purchased from
the shops. For every private school, working with
the slenderest equipment and with cheap and
nasty school literature of the days before 1870, we
have to-day many publicly administered schools
working with public money and a high standard
of educational literature. And the libraries, re-
garded for so long by booksellers astheir competitors,
are proving more and more valuable as allies. As
a public librarian said recently to the writer of
this article, “fhe place for a bookshop is next door
to a public library.” The books read and appre-
or personal possession or to be distributed as gifts,
(Ciated by borrowers, are exactly the books bough)
Moreover, the recent movement among librarians
164
which is making the library a more sensible
institution, the lectures on books, the improved
cataloguing, the open shelves, all tend to increase
this ‘‘ book habit.”
One fear, a natural one, of the smaller book-
sellers has proved unfounded. It was expected
that large soulless corporations would prove to be
cutters, and would be a source of weakness to that
reform movement which has achieved the “net”
system. ‘They prove in effect to be supporters and
upholders of the “ net” system.
After all, the chief value of the system is that
it removes the competition from one of cutting to
one of competency. Under the old universal
discount system, two rival booksellers, competing
for a public library contract, would compete on
the question of terms only, ever lowering prices
until the attenuated margin of profit left no
adequate remuneration for staff, equipment, or
management. The library received its books at a
cheap rate, but at the cost of the efficiency of the
trade. The notorious decline of the trade, now
reviving at last under more reasonable conditions,
bore witness to the consequences.
Under a complete “ net” system the same book-
sellers would compete solely on the plane of effi-
ciency. The firm with the best stock ready for
examination by the Library Committee, with the
promptest methods and with the most expert
knowledge at its back, would secure the
contract.
The “net” system implies not only a higher
margin of profit, but also a greater security of
profit. Its extension, therefore, is desired not
only by the Booksellers’ Association, but by the
new companies, Each year has seen a consider-
able growth in this movement. Most expensive
books are now published “net,” most art books
are now “net,” most scientific books are now “net,”
most of the cheap art reprints are “net.” The
six shilling novel and the sixpenny novel are
the worst gaps in the system. The novel will
probably become “ net” at a lower price than six
shillings ; it may even drop to one shilling net
and achieve a large circulation by sale, in place of
its present lesser circulation by loan. The six-
penny book sold at 5d. and 44d., presenting the
slenderest profit to the bookseller, is a reproach to
the past organisation of the trade. With only a
limited foresight and a slender organisation, the
two Trade Associations could have made it a
“net” book. The public would have acquiesced
with entire willingness, and the whole book world
would have benefited.
The public libraries do not altogether welcome
this tendency, and in England, on the Continent,
and in the States the library discount question is
now under discussion.
THE AUTHOR.
Another change in progress in the trade is in
the trained capacity of the assistants. Bookselling
is a highly skilled trade. The narrow profits of
the past resulted in highly skilled work being
given to untrained hands and the downward
tendency was thereby accelerated. An improve-
ment, slow but gradual, is now taking place.
In the privately-owned shops of the old system
there was little prospect even for a competent
assistant. In the organisation of a modern com-
pany, many branches mean many managerships,
An incentive and a stimulus is thus given to all
grades. There is still great room for improve-
ment, as all book buyers realise, but the new
combined systems open the door to improvements
of which the result will be a trained and educated
assistant doing work in a trained and educated
manner.
In this connection the proposed School of Book-
selling is of practical interest. Germany has already
such a school, and with its initiation here we may
hope to realise the ideal expressed by Mr. William
Heinemann, at the Publishers’ Association Congress
in 1897: “Many assistants—I might almost say
most of the assistants—in booksellers’ shops in
Germany have matriculated at one of the Univer-
sities, and seldom, if ever, do you find an assistant
who is not capable of compiling a catalogue, for
instance, to satisfy the exigent requirements of the
Librarian of the British Museum.”
That such a school would be eminently desirable
there can be no two opinions. Probably it could
be most effectively organised by co-operation with
the Library Association. In the States the library
school at Columbia University is inspiring the
movement for education among booksellers. In
London the very practical programme of the
Library Association Courses given at the London
School of Economics could easily be adapted to
the requirements of booksellers’ assistants equally
with librarians’ assistants.. Lectures on classifica-
tion, cataloguing, the care of books, and book-
binding, would be as beneficial to one class of
assistant as to the other.
On all sides, then, the book trade shows signs
of rapid development. The older firms are some
of them realising the new conditions, and by
reasonable changes are adapting themselves to the
newera. The advent of new men and new methods
is proving a valuable stimulus. The old is in com-
petition with the new. It remains to be seen which
will absorb the other.
:
THE AUTHOR.
PUNCTUATION IN THE TWENTIETH
CENTURY.
oe -
Commas and points they set exactly right
And °twere a sin to rob them of their mite,
OR much of the punctuation of modern books
and newspapers the type setter or the
printer’s reader must I fancy be held respon-
sible, as a rule. I do not know whether eminent
authors ever venture to differ from the latter and
to assert themselves sufficiently to make alterations
in proofs where questions of principle are involved
and where stops have been in their opinion wrongly
inserted or omitted, but if any do this they must
be courageous and industrious persons. I once
showed the proofs of an unimportant work of my
own to an erudite, but withal fidgety, literary man,
and he raised an outcry at the liberal way in which
the first page was peppered with commas. At his
suggestion I therefore proceeded to take some of
them out, and indeed to a certain extent I shared
his objection to them, but when I had corrected a
page or two as he would have me do it, I realised
the labour which I had undertaken, if I was going
to pursue the same course through two or three
hundred pages. I also was impressed with the
certainty that by omitting to carry out in all cases
whatever principle I might endeavour to lay down
for myself, I should be inconsistent in many in-
stances. I accordingly changed my mind while
there was time, a few ‘“stets”’ replaced my correc-
tions and I am confident that whatever sense
there may have been in my work was not impaired
by my non-interference. Writers, of all men, should
give the devil his due.
If however the typist, who must not be for-
gotten, and the printer insert commas or substitute
colons and semi-colons for the author’s benefit,
excessive stopping amounts often to a nuisance,
and sometimes constitutes a danger. The couplet
from Pope at the head of this article, has been
borrowed (without verification I confess) from the
review of a work on punctuation published in 7’he
Gentleman’s Magazine, 1785. I have ventured to
differ from the reviewer by omitting a comma,
which he inserted at the end of the first line,
because I believe such a comma to be superfluous
with the “and” following. If I am wrong
perhaps some reader of The Author will correct
me and will say if there is any reason, such as a
change of subject in the second clause, to necessi-
tate a stop.
As an instance of the mischief of over stopping,
I would quote the speech with which Lafeu opens
« All’s Well that Ends Well,” Act IT., Scene 3:
“They say miracles are past, and we have our
philosophical persors, to make modern and familiar
165
things supernatural and causeless. Hence it is
that we make trifles of terrors.”
I have punctuated the quotation as it stands in
the First Folio Edition, but later than that (¢y.,
in the 8vo Edition printed by Tonson in 1709) it
remained practically the same. Afterwards, how-
ever, I suppose with the idea of making the
meaning clearer, a comma was put in, and nonsense
was made of the passage by placing it after
“things,” so that philosophers were represented
as “making familiar things, supernatural,” hardly
a step towards “ making trifles of terrors.”
How prevalent this stopping became I do not
know, but it exists in the text as edited by Malone,
1821, and was sufficiently common to cause a
writer in Notes and Queries to call attention to
it as the usual but erroneous punctuation in 1853.
He assigned the credit of the emendation which he
recommended (placing the comma after “ familiar ”
instead of after “ things”) to Mr. W. R. Grove,
Q.C. Mr. Justice Grove, as he afterwards became,
was a learned gentleman, well known as a man of
science and also apparently a lover of literature, as
well as a mere judge, and if he was the first to
point out the mistake, he deserves honour for it.
The comma is placed after familiar in the text,
edited by the Reverend A. Dyce, 1866, and pre-
sumably in all editions published since, but it is
open to the observation that no punctuation is
really needed although, correctly introduced, it
affords assistance. With regard to the stop after
“ past,” which in some editions is a comma, in
others a semi-colon, I submit that this is only
necessary in order to mark the end of the quotation
following “ they say.”
In the days when eccentricities of stopping
excited more attention than they do now the
following sentence, from Bentley’s “ Dissertation on
the Epistles of Phalaris,” as edited by Dr. Samuel
Salter, of the Charterhouse, was quoted as an
example of strange punctuation by an eighteenth
century critic with an expression of surprise at the
use made of the semi-colon: ‘It is evident then ;
that if Atossa was the first inventress of Epistles ;
these that carry the name of Phalaris, who was
so much older than her must be an imposture.—
But if it be otherwise; that he does not” etc. etc.
The use of “her” for “she,” if correctly quoted
by the writer is not commented upon.
Punctuation however does not seem now to require
dissertations and pamphlets to lay down its rules, or
to correct and discourage innovations. Possibly this
is because every man is a law unto himself in the
matter, with the lady at the typewriter, and the
printer’s reader, who at least is consistent with
himself, to introduce order where the author’s
unaided efforts do not result in uniformity or
sense. It cannot however I think be claimed
166
that all modern printers observe the same methods,
but simply that each follows a course of his own
as constantly as possible.
Minor guides to punctuation are obtainable, no
doubt, but they are hardly works of the literary
importance of their predecessors.
No modern law-reporter has emulated Sir James
Barrow with a work “ De Ratione et Usu Inter-
pungendi,” nor has any erudite divine endeavoured
in an “ Essay on Punctuation” to “illustrate a dry
and unpromising subject, with a variety of elegant
and entertaining examples,” or if they have done
so their work has not been sufficiently advertised
and [pushed to cbtain the modern equivalent for
fame.
Whether the compiler of “ Literary Anecdotes of
the Eighteenth Century ” in the sentence which I
have quoted from his complimentary notice of
the Reverend Joseph Robertson’s work inserted
a comma after “subject” in obedience to rules
laid down in it, I know not, for I have not read it,
but in any case I venture to protest against the
“virgil”’ as wholly superfluous.
In another place he writes of the same work
“ Although the subject is dry and unpromising, it
is enlivened, by the Author, with a great variety
of apposite examples, pleasing sentiments, and
ingenious remarks.” JI may be wrong but I
should omit two or three commas in such a
sentence, and I doubt if the sense would suffer.
Of course, if we regard stops as necessary guides
to a person who is. going to read the sentence
aloud at sight, I grant they may be useful
although they are not ornamental. They will
show him to some extent where to pause and
take breath. .
The colons which mark the pause in each verse
of the Psalms have often been protested against as
a misuse of stops for which an asterisk or some
other symbol should be substituted ; they are
however so familiar to English readers that they
are not misleading. That stops are not necessary
to sense is shown by the absence of them from
deeds, where they are omitted for the very reason,
that wrongly inserted as in the instance from
Shakespeare quoted above, they cause confusion.
Their absence however compels careful drafting
and close attention to the meaning of every word
and sentence,
I have not touched upon the history of punctua-
tion, which in its earlier stages appears to be some-
what obscure, but I take it that to some extent
printing rendered rules necessary, and that gradually
they came to be understood by the printer at least
as well as by the writer. There is a passage with
regard to them in an old book where “come” is
used for “colon” and “ virgil” for “comma,” of
course from virgula, the modern French virgule,
THE AUTHOR.
having as its origin a straight stroke of the
pen.
The learned author thus quaintly explains and
illustrates his meaning :—
“A. come is with tway tittels this wyse:
betokynynge a longer rest.” “A parenthesis is
with tway crokyd virgils, as an olde mone and a
new bely to bely.”” He adds that the words in
a parenthesis are.“ soundyde comynly a note lower
than the utter clause,” and the use of stops to
mark the pause for those who read aloud when
books were scarce, is evidently what he had in his
mind throughout. Books are not scarce in the
twentieth century, and reading aloud is little
practised, but no doubt even for those who read to
themselves, the free use of the comma and colon
helps to make the sense clear where the order of
the sentence would not alone be sufficient. I
venture to urge nevertheless that they should be
used as sparingly as possible.
E. A. A.
————1—~>—+
A PLEA FOR PEDANTRY.
—-—
ISS MASSON’S article in last month’s
Author tempts me to add a few more
examples of how English is, and ought
not to be, written.
The first of these is one of the many instances
in which the order of words presents a trap for the
unwary writer: “ Bob had been struggling with
his wife and one boy on a narrow income.”
Grammatically the statement is faultless ; but the
picture called up, of physical domestic strife, is
certainly not that which the author intended to
suggest. Here is a worse case—from the columns
of an old-established daily paper: “ Very winsome
is Maria Walpole, Countess of Waldegrave, whose
illegitimate birth did not hinder her from espousing
en secondes noces William Henry, Duke of Gloucester,
a kind looking man with an aquiline nose, though
the marriage was regarded with such disfayour by
George III., ete.”
The next comes from the pages of a particularly
successful novelist: “ He had been vouchsafed two
of the best gifts wherewith Providence can equip
aman.” Now, “him” in the expression “had
been vouchsafed him” is a dative; and a dative
cannot properly be made the nominative of a
passive construction.
Persistent misuse has rendered most of us
callous to “he was given” and “he was told” ;
but against “he was vouchsafed” we may still, I
hope, protest.
Akin to this is the shocking use of “ whom” as
a nominative: “those whom Providence had
destined should. be the chief ornaments of her
visiting list.” Twice within a hundred pages does
this “vicious locution” appear in the excellent
and careful novel of a well-known writer. IT am
tempted to borrow her own idiom and say of her :
“whom, I am sure, can never have learned Latin
grammar.” For indeed the study of the Latin
grammar, though it may perhaps yield but
inadequate returns for the inordinate amount of
time expended upon it does at least inculcate
the difference between nominatives, datives, and
accusatives.
Pronouns afford many opportunities both for
error and for ambiguity. I remember seeing a
school girl’s examination paper which contained
the statement : “Tyndale and Coverdale translated
the Scriptures and they were chained to the read-
ing desks in the churches an example that may
be commended to those grammarians who believe
« which” to be an equivalent of “and they.” The
next three instances all exemplify that common
variety of error: a want of grammatical concord
between the parts of a sentence. The first, I regret
to say, comes from a letter written in a publisher’s
office : “ While in this particular case we should
have liked to be charitable, we are not in a position
to do so.” The second is an advertisement by the
City of London Union: “Candidates must have
had practical experience in laundry work, and also
be a good ironer.” The third, which I unfortu-
nately omitted to copy into my collection, occurred
in a singularly ill-written novel. Its form was
as follows, the dotted line representing various
intermediate clauses: “ While still quite a young
man .. . his mother had died.”
Many of these faults display an ignorance of fine
grammatical—in other words of fine logical—dis-
tinctions, which is rendered possible by the com-
paratively uninflected character of our tongue. A
German of even rudimentary education would
know better than to write: “he had been youch-
safed.” The fact that gender and case are not
shown by our nouns and adjectives nor number by
our verbs makes it necessary to teach these dis-
tinctions with peculiar care to English children.
Grammar is really a branch of logic; and the
intelligent teaching of grammar—which in this
country is extraordinarily rare—is really an educa-
tion in thinking.
Another whole group of errors arises from the
further fact that the English language is so largely
made of words whose derivation is not evident
except to persons acquainted with some other
language. ‘This fact it is which allows the lady
who answers correspondents in a “ women’s paper C
to write: “Do not, I abjure you, have a red carpet
with those pink walls,” or for a working-man
speaker to draw distinctions—to the bewilderment
THE AUTHOR.
167
of his audience—between: “female labour and
manual labour.”
Whether the errors that stand last recorded in
my note book belong to this class, whether they
are an example of sheer aphasia or whether their
author might be a fitting candidate for that post
of “lunatic attendant ” which the local authorities
of St. Marylebone advertise as vacant, I cannot
take upon me to decide. ‘They come from a review
of a novel, and the review was published by a
newspaper which prides itself upon being literary
in tone: “he has too large and acute a failing for
ihe dramatic... . Io his latest: novel Mr. X-
suffers the lovers of the dramatic too lightly... .
There is Y. Z. comfortable, British, without humour
or imagination, but with a saving sense of
graduation.”
A “failing for the dramatic,” a “large and
acute” failing ? “A saving sense of eraduation”’ ?
What, in this context can “ graduation ” possibly
stand for? A dressmaker of my acquaintance
used to talk of “ gradulated”’ flounces. Had she,
I wonder, a saving sense of graduation ? These
questions have haunted me ever since I read these
dark passages as I sat at breakfast one morning
last autumn. I pass them on for solution to the
readers of Zhe Author.
CLEMENTINA BLACK.
—_————__+—-_ +"
CORRESPONDENCE.
a
Morr PEDANTRY.
Sir,—Surely “A Pedant” needs no apology for
calling the attention of your readers to the careless
style of composition so often met with in current
literature, and Ze Author will do a good work if
it encourages other pedants to come forward and
assist in freeing “our stately and beautiful lan-
guage” from some of the mistakes and inaccuracies
that so frequently disfigure it.
To the long list of errors noticed last month
may be added—obscurity caused by the misuse of
the ellipsis. It is difficult in conversation or in
hasty letter-writing to be always quite correct
in expression, and, as a rule, the speaker’s or
correspondent’s meaning is readily guessed ; but
deliberate composition should not be marred by
carelessness. Lillipsis is employed to avoid the
repetition of a word or a phrase, and it follows
that the word or phrase previously used should be
mentally supplied by the reader, not only in mean-
ing, but in number, gender, and tense of verb. It
is almost safe to assert that out of ten sentences
ending in the words ‘to do so ” or “doing so,”
168
eight are ungrammatical. The daily paper, “a
chartered libertine,” abounds in examples of such
sentences, but I give a few quotations from well-
known writers. “ Do you think of coming again ?”’
‘‘T want to.” ‘ Every one but the working man,
who, having no voice in Parliament, was regarded
as the common prey of those who had.” “T am
unable to think, however, that this had that adverse
effect upon their circulation that it ought to.” “I
have never heard one.” “ Let me advise you never
to do so.” “Yet he knew her, or ought to.”
“Backing bills was the one thing he never did,
never had done, and never would.”
ANOTHER PEDANT.
—_— t+
“NEw DEPARTURE IN EDITING.”
Sir,—The Editor of Pearson’s, and he alone,
so far as my experience goes, employs a novel
method in dealing with his rejected contributions.
He returns them in excellent time with no unneces-
sary delay, and makes an honest attempt to account
for their rejection in terms which should satisfy
any reasonable author.
This seems to me a noteworthy effort in the
direction of justice. And what he can do, other
editors can and ought to do.—Yours truly,
ALFRED PRETOR,
St. Catherine College,
Cambridge.
P.S.—I would suggest some such form as the
following—merely an amplification of Pearsons’
scheme :—
THE EpITOR’s COMMENT :—
Too long
Too short
Unsuitable in subject
ee
Feeble in plot |
ee
Weak in style
Promising |
renee ers
General Remarks—
ee ee Oa
With the Editor's Compliments,
THE AUTHOR.
GEORGE GISSING.
Dear S1r,—Unconsciously George Gissing wrote
his own epitaph in those last lines of one of hig
finest novels.
“* Dead, too, in exile, poor fellow !” are the words
of Godwin Peak’s friend, when he hears that the
wanderer is buried in a foreign land. :
George Gissing, too, was a wanderer; but no
man loved his native country more dearly, and hig
dream was to have an English home again. He ig
laid to rest in the little cemetery of St. Jean de
Luz. From his grave there is an admirable view
of the mountains of Spain—a view that he delighted
in himself. His grave is at present covered with
flowers, most of which have been sent from England
or laid there by members of the English colony at
St. Jean de Luz.
In the years to come, how can George Gissing’s
friends continue to send their flowers to his grave,
so far away? It occurred to me that perhaps
the Society of Authors could help us in this
matter.
When Guy de Maupassant’s mother died recently,
she left a certain sum of money with the French
Society of Authors, the interest of which was to be
used for keeping flowers on her son’s grave. As
George Gissing is buried in a foreign land, and
as there are, no doubt, numbers of his friends who
would like to have the privilege of sending their
little tribute to his tomb, would the Society of
Authors help us by receiving subscriptions and
making the necessary arrangements ?
Yours truly,
Auys HaLarp.
60, Rue de Vaugirard, Paris.
—— 1
SERIAL RIGHTS.
Sir,—In a past number of Zhe Author I see a
reference to a case where the serial rights of an
essay, having been sold to an American, were
reprinted in an English periodical.
I can parallel this ina very small instance that,
occurred to myself.
Some time ago I sent a photograph of a some-
what curious subject to an English journal with a
short descriptive article. It was declined and
returned tome. I then sent it to an American
publication who accepted and paid for it. Not very
long afterwards I was astonished to see a process
photo of the American engraving that had been
made from my contribution, in the very same
English journal that had declined it in the first
instance !—] am, yours truly,
“FREE LANCE.”
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The Author, Vol. 14 Issue 06 (March 1904)
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A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&collection=&type=&tags=&exhibit=&date_search_term=&submit_search=Search+For+Items&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022.
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1904-02-01
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14
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5
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19040201
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Che Hutbor.
(The Organ of the Incorporated Sociely of Authors. Monthly.)
FOUNDED BY SIR WALTER BESANT.
Vou. XIV.—No. 5d.
TELEPHONE NUMBER :
374 VICTORIA.
TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS :
AUTORIDAD, LONDON.
oe -
NOTICES.
—1—~— +
OR the opinions expressed in papers that are
signed or initialled the authors alone are
responsible. None of the papers or para-
graphs must be taken as expressing the opinion
of the Committee unless such is especially stated
to be the case.
Tue Editor begs to inform members of the
Authors’ Society and other readers of The Author
that the cases which are from time to time quoted
in The Author are cases that have come before the
notice or to the knowledge of the Secretary of the
Society, and that those members of the Society
who desire to have the names of the publishers
concerned can obtain them on application.
—+-—>—»
List of Members.
THE List of Members of the Society of Authors
published October, 1902, at the price of 6d., and
the elections from October, 1902, to July, 1903, as
a supplemental list, at the price of 2d., can now be
obtained at the offices of the Society.
They will be sold to members or associates of
the Society only.
——
The Pension Fund of the Society.
THE investments of the Pension Fund at
present standing in the names of the Trustees are
as follows.
This is a statement of the actual stock; the
Vou, XIV,
FEBRUARY Ist, 1904.
[PrIcE SIXPENCE.
money value can be easily worked out at the current
price of the market :—
@OnsOls 25 6 £1000 0 0
WioGal OWNS 6.0. 500 0 0
Victorian Government 8 % Consoli-
dated Inscribed Stock ............... 291 19 11
War Hoant 201-9 3
Wotal 6. 2. £1,993. 9 2
Subscriptions from October, 1903.
LS. We
Noy. 13, Longe, Miss Julia. : - 0 & 6
Dec. 16, Trevor, Capt. Philip. ~ 07) 0
1904.
Jan. 6, Hills, Mrs. ©. H. . : 0. 5 0
Jan. 6, Crommelin, Miss . ; 010 30
Jan. 8, Stevenson, Mrs. M. E. . 20 55 26
Jan. 16, Kilmarnock, The Lord . 0 107 6
Donations from October, 1903.
Oct. 27, Sturgis, Julian 50 0 O
Nov. 2, Stanton, V. H. : 56 00
Nov. 18, Benecke, Miss Ida. 120. 0
Noy. 23, Harraden, Miss Beatrice oo 0-0
Dec. Miniken, Miss Bertha M. M.. 0 5 0
1904.
Jan. 4, Moncrieff, A. R. Hope . 25-0 0
Jan. 4, Middlemas, Miss Jean . ~ 0 10.0
Jan. 4, Witherby, The Rev. C. . 0 500
Jan. 6, Key, The Rev. S. Whittell . 0 5 0
Jan. 14, Bennett, Rev. W. K., D.D. 015 0
There are in addition other subscribers who do
not desire that either their names or the amount
they are subscribing should be printed.
a aioe
FROM THE COMMITTEE.
eS
HE Committee of the Society met on Monday,
January 11th, at 389, Old Queen Street,
Storey’s Gate, 8.W.
This was the first meeting of the New Year,
which opens satisfactorily, as the Committee had the
pleasure of electing 30 Members and Associates.
114
Mr. Douglas Freshfield, Mr. Francis Storr, and
Mr. Sydney Grundy were re-elected Members of the
Committee.
The other matters discussed were either of
slight importance or were adjourned to the
following meeting.
—+—<—+ —
Cases.
Since the last issue of Ze Author three cases
have been taken in hand. From this it is evident
that during the Christmas holidays the Members
have given little thought to business. Of these
one has been settled and the Secretary is negoti-
ating for the settlement of the other two, on
favourable terms.
Of the cases quoted in the January number
there are still six which have not been concluded.
One deals with a demand in the United States, the
other five with matters at home, and there is every
hope that a satisfactory termination will be arrived
at. One case has been taken into the County
Court with the sanction of the Chairman, and will
be most probably heard in February. Other cases
in the hands of the Society’s Solicitors are pro-
ceeding. In cases of bankruptcy or liquidation the
progress is regrettably slow. This, however, is
not the fault of the Society or its Solicitors but of
the present system.
++
January Elections.
Bennett, The Rev. W. H. 18,
D.D.
Bernard, Henry
Denning Road,
Hampstead, N.W.
The Bath Club, Dover
Street, W.
Brewer, John Francis . 83, St. Quintin’s
Avenue, W.
The Brooms, Baldersby,
8.0., Leeds.
20, Endsleigh Street,
Gordon Square, W.C.
10, Dryden Street, Pil-
ing, Edinburgh.
221, Underhill Road,
Dulwich, 8.E.
Clark, Miss Margery Stan- 6, Esplanade, Seaford,
ley. Sussex.
Dearmer, Mrs. Percy 11, Chalcot Gardens,
England’s Lane, 8.
Hampstead,
Koniggratzer Strasse,
Berlin.
Ely,C. J... : . 26, Great Ormond
Street, Russell 8q.,
W.C.
Buckton, Mrs. Robert
Burgess, W. S.
Bryde, Margaretta (Mrs.)
Cassidy, James
Dillon, Dr. E. J.
THE AUTHOR.
Fabeck, Madame de Villa delle Grazie,
Alassio, Liguria,
Italy.
Gosset, Major-General Deadham, Essex.
Hamilion, Angus Authors’ Club, 3,
Whitehall Court,
S.W.
Hassall, John, R.T. 88, Kensington Park
Road, W.
Heath, Dudley ; . 10, Fitzroy Street, W.C.
Hicks, Rev. Edward, St. George’s Vicarage,
D.D. Macclesfield.
Kilmarnock, The Lord . 8, Rue du Taciturne,
Brussels.
Killaha, St. Albans.
c/o Messrs. Bemrose
& Sons, 4, Snow
Knight, Maude C. (Mrs.)
Mendis, M. . : :
Hill, E.C.
Pretor, Alfred Wyke, Weymouth.
Reynard, F. H. Camp Hill, Bedale,
Yorkshire.
Sackville, Lady Margaret Inchmery, Exbury,
Southampton.
Stidston, E. A. Dale View, Beech Alton,
Hants.
Trevor, Captain Philip
(“ Dux”).
Thackeray, Lance .
83, Mount Ararat Road,
Richmond, Surrey.
42, Linden Gardens,
W.
75, Clancarty Road,
Fulham, 8.W.
Workman, Mrs... . c/o Messrs. Brown,
Shipley & Co., 123,
Pall Mall, S.W.
Clarendon Road, Leeds,
Yorkshire.
Wood, Starr .
“Margaret Wilton ”
————_——_o—<——_e—___——_
OUR BOOK AND PLAY TALK.
—+——+ —
R. ‘Thomas Hardy’s “The Dynasts ” (Part L,
Macmillan) is just out.
nineteen acts; one hundred and thirty scenes.
“The Dynasts” is concerned, Mr. Hardy tells us, —
with the Great Historical Calamity or Clash of —
Peoples, artificially brought about some hundred
years ago. This chronicle-piece, is a kind of
panoramic show,
performance, and not for the stage.
dramas, other than that of contemporary OF
frivolous life.
some hundreds, exclusive of crowds and armies, —
and Phantom Intelligences are introduced as —
spectators of the terrestrial drama. .
It isa Drama of ©
the Napoleonic Wars in three parts; —
a play intended for mental :
Mr. Hardy —
raises the question whether mental performance —
alone may not eventually be the fate of all —
The dramatis persone number —
3 ai
fl
THE AUTHOR. 115
Mr. I. Zangwill, who will not return to England
for some months, is at present busily engaged on
acomedy in four acts, entitled ‘‘ The Serio-Comic
Governess,” based on his story of the same name.
Miss Norman Lorimer has just finished a novel
dealing with the brigands of Etna. In it the
scenery and life of the people are depicted, and
much information about the brigands and the
Mafia is interwoven. Between three and four
thousand copies of Miss Lorimer’s novel ‘“ By the
Waters of Sicily’ have been sold.
A new poetic drama entitled “ Philip of Macedon ”
by Frederick Winbolt, author of ‘“ Messalina,”
“Frithrof the Bold” etc., will very shortly be
issued by the De la More Press.
Miss Rosaline Masson is writing the letter-press
of “Edinburgh” for Messrs. A. & C. Black. The
illustrations are the work of Mr. Fullylove.
Major F. C. Ormsby-Johnson has written a novel
which is now in the hands of the publishers. He
has also nearly completed a tale some eighty-five
thousand words in length.
“Christian Thal,” the latest published work of
M. E. Francis (Mrs. Francis Blundell) deals
entirely with musical life. The interest chiefly
centres round the Leschetzki School of Music at
Vienna, which city figures in the book under the
name of Stattingen. Mrs. Blundell has recently
finished a romance of the days of Queen Anne
entitled “ Lychgate Hall,” which after running its
serial course in the Weekly Edition of the Times,
will be published in England and America by
Messrs. Longman.
A one act play from her pen in collaboration
with Mr. Sydney Valentine entitled “The Widow
Woos,” was successfully produced at the Hay-
market Theatre on the afternoon of January 9th.
Dramatic versions of two of Mrs. Blundell’s
recent romances are in course of preparation.
Mr. Charles Marriott has just completed a novel,
“‘Genevra,” which will be published by Messrs.
Methuen in the autumn of this year. The story is
an attempt at a study of feminine temperament,
and the scene is a farm in a valley in the Land’s
End district of Cornwall. Mr. Marriott is now
engaged upon two novels, one romantic, the other
realistic ; both dealing with the present day.
Mr. Robert Aitken has nearly completed a
volume of sea sketches which he hopes to issue
very shortly. That will be followed by a novel
which is already half finished.
Miss May Crommelin, whose novel “ Partners
Three” (John Long) has sold well, is at present
writing short stories for Zhe World. Having
spent a considerable portion of last year in
Palestine and Norway, Miss Crommelin is thinking
of studying Sicily, and writing a serial there.
Mr. Marmaduke W. Pickthall’s new novel,
entitled “ Enid,” is to be published early this year
by Messrs. Constable. The heroine, daughter of a
rich parvenu, marries a poet, to her discomfort and
his destruction. That is the main thread of the
story-design ; but there are others all contributing
to a view of the transition state of Society to-day.
Mr. Pickthall is now at work on another piece
of fiction, which will probably not see the light
until the Spring of 1905. Messrs. Methuen & Co.
have bespoken it.
Mr. M. H. Spielmann’s “Charles Keene:
Etcher”’ is out. The price of the best edition is
fifty guineas. The other edition can be bought for
thirty guineas. Both editions are strictly limited.
Mrs. M. H. Spielmann’s “ Littledown Castle ”
has gone into a second edition, and is being
translated into French.
Mr. W. L. St. John Lucas has just published a
book of short stories called “The Vintage of
Dreams” (Elkin Matthews), and Messrs. Constable
& Co. are bringing out his book of poems in the
early spring. Besides this Mr. St. John Lucas is
writing a weekly literary causerie for Zhe World;
he is about to begin a new novel.
Owing to pressure on space, we omitted to
mention that Mr. Clive Holland has a Japanese
novel partly written ; also, a story dealing with art
student life in the Quartier Jatin.
Messrs. Jarrold & Sons will issue this month
the second edition of Dr. Panter’s “ Granuaile,
a Queen of the West.”
Mrs. J. K. M. Iliffe’s “Tales Told at Twilight”
has been brought out in New York by Mr. H. W.
Bell. The Tales are in verse, being founded on
German and French folk-lore. It is appropriately
illustrated by Mr. Percy Billinghurst.
Mr. Laurence Binyon, whose new volume of poems,
entitled “ ‘The Death of Adam and other Poems,”
was issued quite recently by Messrs. Methuen at
3s. 6d. nett, has contributed an introductory note
to the first number of Messrs. Macmillan & Co.’s
new Art periodical, “The Artist Engraver,” a
periodical to be devoted entirely to original work.
Miss Nellie K. Blissett’s novel, ‘‘ The Bindweed,”
will be published shortly by Messrs. Constable & Co.
Her romance, “The Winning of Douce,” is running
as a serial in Zhe Free Lance.
Mr. Walter Del Mar has published through
Messrs. A. & C. Black a fully illustrated volume
entitled “Around the World Through Japan.”
Intending travellers will find his final chapter,
“Suggestions to Tourists,” particularly useful.
There is a good index.
In connection with the revival of the Book-
producing Trades of Ireland, Mr. ©. I. Jacobi
has been delivering a lecture on the “Art and
Craft of Printing” at Dublin, Cork, Limerick,
and Belfast, under the auspices of the Department
116
of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for
Ireland. The lecture is illustrated by lantern
slides, and by the exhibition of specimens. Mr.
Jacobi is the author of various technical works on
printing.
Mr. Francis H. Gribble, author of “ Early Moun-
taineers,” &c., has written “The Story of Alpine
Climbing” for the Library of Useful Stories,
issued by Messrs. George Newnes, Ltd., at 1s.
This little book is well illustrated, and is some-
thing more than a mere Tourist’s Guide.
Mr. A. R. Hope Moncrieff’s “ Around London”
is a Guide to the environs for twenty miles round.
Tt is issued in three parts, in paper covers, at 6d.
each. The three parts, bound together in one
yolume, can be had for 2s. 6d. (A. & C. Black).
Each section contains maps of the district dealt
with ; there is a list of railways and stations ; a
table of distances for cyclists, and an index of
places.
“Beyond the Northern Lights” is a tale of
adventure in unknown seas, by Mr. Reginald Wray,
author of “Tales of the Empire,” ‘ Adventures on
Land and Sea,” &c. This story for boys and girls
is published by Mr. T. Burleigh, and is No. 1 of
the Reginald Wray Adventure Series.
A story of world travel, by the Hon. Mrs. E. A.
Gordon, entitled “ Clear Round,” is now in a third
edition, revised and enlarged, with illustrations,
maps, and an introductory letter from the late
Professor Max Miiller. Mrs. Gordon has dedicated
this book to her children. Not long ago this
authoress published, through Messrs. Kegan Paul,
at 15s., “The Temples of the Orient and Their
Message.”
The first two volumes of Mr. Herbert Paul’s
“History of Modern England” are to be published
immediately by Messrs. Macmillan & Co, The
author takes as his starting point the fall of Sir
Robert Peel’s Cabinet in 1846. Though the work
will present a picture of England under Free
Trade, the book is not a mere history of politics,
but passes under review the whole life of the
nation as manifested also in science, literature,
and art.
The first of the two volumes of “ Modern
England” carries the story down to 1855; the
second begins with the Treaty of Paris, signed
after the Fall of Kars, and terminates with the
close of the Palmerstonian era in 1865.
Mr. W. M. Rossetti contributes a preface, a
memoir of his sister, notes and appendices, to
the new edition, in one volume, of “The Poetical
Works of Christina Georgina Rossetti,” which
Messrs. Macmillan will issue at once.
Lord Avebury’s new volume of “Essays and
Addresses, 1900—1903” (Macmillan), covers a
wide field. Among others, there are papers on
THE AUTHOR.
Our Fiscal Policy; Bank Holidays and Early
Closing ; Richard Jefferies and Macaulay; and
there is the first Memorial Lecture delivered at
the Anthropological Institute on Huxley’s Life
and Work.
Mr. G. 8. Layard’s novel, “ Dolly’s Governess.”
is to be published in April by Messrs. Isbister &
Co.
The February issue of The Monthly Review will
contain an article by Mr. Robert Machray on the
Eastern Question.
“Letty” reached its one hundredth perform-
ance at the Duke of York’s Theatre on Thursday,
January 14th. The next production at this theatre
will be “ Captain Dieppe,” the three-act comedy by
Anthony Hope and Harrison Rhoades.
“A Chinese Honeymoon” celebrated its 932nd
performance at the Strand Theatre on Wednesday,
January 20th, thus breaking the record as regards
musical plays.
“A Country Girl” celebrated its second anni-
versary at Daly’s Theatre on January 18th.
Mr. Beerbohm Tree will start two companies on
tour this month. One will play “The Darling
of the Gods”; the other will play a series of
Shakespearean dramas. In “The Darling of the
Gods”? Mr. Robert Pateman will take Mr, Tree’s
part of Zakkuri. In the Shakespearean plays,
Miss Constance Collier, Mr. Oscar Asche, and Mr.
Lionel Brough will appear.
At the Haymarket Theatre, on the evening of
January 19th, a brilliant comedy in three acts, by
Mr. H. A. Jones, was presented with marked success.
It is entitled “Joseph Entangled.” Mr. Cyril Maude,
Mr. Sam Waring, Mr. Sam Sothern, Miss Ellis
Jeffreys, Miss Winifred Arthur Jones, and Miss
Beatrice Ferrar are in the cast. At the end
of the play, Mr. H. A. Jones was called before
the curtain and received an ovation from the
appreciative audience.
———_—<\_+—<—__+____——
PARIS NOTES.
—+——
" E Pays natal,” by M. Henry Bordeaux, has
recently been published in a new edition, —
and, as this author is now in high favour,
everyone is glad to have the opportunity of reading
his first novel. There is nothing about it to suggest
that it is a first novel, and one can only conclude
that the author had very wisely waited until the
right time before sending out any of his work into
the world. -
“Le Pays natal,” like all the later books by M. -
Bordeaux, is remarkable for its simplicity and
od
ifs
THE AUTHOR.
absolute sincerity. There is no seeking for effect,
neither are there any wild stretches of the imagina-
tion. It is just a simple story simply told, but
with a whole world of meaning for those who care
to think.
It touches on a subject that has been much dis-
cussed of late years in France: decentralisation
and the individual responsibility of landowners.
The story opens with the return of Lucien
Halande, at the age of thirty, to his pays natal,
Savoy.
Since the death of his parents he has been
living in Paris, and his intention is to sell the
estate he has inherited and return to the capital
for the rest of his days.
This is not as easy as he had imagined it would
be. As he sets foot once more in the old home he
finds that it is full of old memories, and he also
wakes up to the fact that for the last ten years he
has been selfishly shirking his duties as a land-
owner. There is a romance, too, running through
the story from this point. Lucien meets again his
old playfellow, Annie Mérans, and if only he had
come back a few years earlier would certainly
have married her. He has returned too late, and
is only in time now to be a witness to the good
fortune of another man and a man who is quite
unworthy of Annie. Lucien settles down in his
old home and is tortured by all that he sees, and
by the thought that things might have been so
different had he not wasted ten years of his life.
The chief interest of the story commences with
Annie’s wedding, and never flags to the end of the
book. M. Bordeaux is too true and conscientious a
novelist to avoid all that is unpleasant when telling
his story, but he never lingers over unpleasant
things and does not drag in unnecessary details.
There is a wholesomeness about his books which
is as refreshing as that mountain air of his beloved
Savoy which seems to pervade most of his volumes.
“Terres de Soleil et de Brouillard,” by Brada,
is a most delightful volume, consisting of sketches
of Italian and English life. The description of
Tuscany and its people is most interesting, and
the explanation of many things connected with
Rome very instructive. When the author touches
on England and her people we are glad to see our-
selves for a time as others see us, but though we
agree with very much that is said about us, we
certainly think that there is something else to add
to these chapters on the “land of fog.”
Five books by the Abbé Loisy are prohibited by
the Catholic Church. The titles of these works are,
“Autour d’un petit livre,” ‘“L’Hvangile et
L’Eglise,” “ Etudes Evangeliques,” “ La Religion
d’Israé#l,” and “L’Evangile de St. Jean.” The
Abbé has distinctly advanced ideas.
Among other books published recently here are ;
117
“Les Etapes du socialisme”? by Paul Louis ;
“Les Amitiés francaises,” by M. Maurice Barrés ;
“‘ Mediterranée,” by Mlle. Lucie Felix Faure ;
“Tes Epées de fer,’ by Maurice Montégut ; “La
Jungle de Paris,’ by Jean Rameau ; “ Impres-
sions Africaines,” by Bonnafos; “ L’dme et
Lévolution de la littérature,” by Georges Dumes-
nil; ‘ Les Fiaacailles d’ Yvonne,” by J. H. Rosny ;
“Tes Arts et les Lettres,” by M. Leon Riotor ;
“T’Aube du théitre romantique,”’ by Albert Je
Roy.
The Goncouré Academy prize was awarded to
M. John Antoine Nau for his novel, ‘ Force
ennemie.”
Madame Arvéde Barine has just received the
decoration of Chevalier de la Légion d’ Honneur
for her literary work.
Madame Barine and Madame Daniel Lesueur
are the only two women writers in France who
have been awarded this distinction. Madame
Barine’s works are the following : ‘“ Portraits de
Femmes,” ‘“ Essais et Fantaisies,” ‘* Princesses et
Grandes Dames,” “ Bourgeois et Gens de Peu,”
“ Névrosés,’ ‘* Bernardin de Saint Pierre,”
“ Alfred de Musset,” “Francois d’Assise et la
Légende des Trois Compagnons,” “ La Jeunesse de
la Grande Mademoiselle.”
At the Comédie-Frangaise, M. Hervieu’s piece
“Te Dédale” is still being played, and at the
Odéon “ L’Absent.” The French version of “The
Second Mrs. Tanqueray” is soon to be given at
this theatre. At the Sarah Bernhardt Theatre
“ La Sorciére”’ still draws a full house.
M. Antoine continues to give us a three-play
bill and to put on new pieces with astonishing
rapidity. At the Vaudeville, since the departure
of Mme. Réjane, M. Porel appears to be trying an
experiment, which certainly deserves reward. He
has sent round a letter in which he states that since
‘Mme. Sans Gene” no piece has been given in his
theatre to which parents could take their daughters,
and he adds that the play he has now put ‘on,
“Frere Jacques,” is at the same time “ultra
Parisian ” and a “ piece de famille.”
At the Gymnase, “ Le Retour de Jérusalem,” and
at the Renaissance, “ L’Adversaire,” appear to be
greatly appreciated, so that altogether Parisians
cannot complain this season of any dearth of
excellent plays.
M. Bour has put on, at the Théatre Victor Hugo,
a somewhat daring piece entitled “Le Droit des
Vierges.” The author is M. Paul Hyacinthe
Loyson, son of the celebrated Pere Hyacinthe, and
the play is written with a distinct purpose. Inan
unpublished version of it which M. Loyson gave
me some time ago to read, there is a preface by
Bjérnstjerne Bjornson and a short explanation by
the author of “ Le Droit des Vierges,” in which he
118
tells us that the idea of this piece is founded on an
episode of which he was once a witness. M. Paul
Loyson has taken up a delicate mission most
courageously, just as his father did before him
many years ago.
M. Bour has staged this piece admirably, and
lays his own part to perfection.
The Weekly Critical Review published on the
92nd of January a double number in honour of
its anniversary. A special article was written for
it by the Viscount Melchior de Vogiié, whose book,
“Te Maitre de la Mer,” has been such a success
this season. The subject of this article is “ Joseph
Chamberlain,” and it is published in French and
English.
Other articles of interest in this number are
“Tes Décadents,” by M. Rémy de Gourmont ;
“ Le Retour au Paysage Historique,” by M. Frantz;
“Discovery of a Michel An gelo in Paris,” “ Bimini,”
by John Gurdon; ‘‘Le Roman Contemporain ;”’
“Moscow,” by Arthur Symons; and an exquisite
poem entitled “ Hymn to Earth,” by Arthur Symons.
This review has recently published several excellent
poems, among others “ ‘The Great Idea,” by George
Cabot Lodge, whose verses we have only seen,
hitherto, in Seribner’s Magazine. In these days
when poetry worthy of the name is so rare in
England, one is glad to see exceptional work of
this kind in the magazines.
The death of George Gissing has not passed
unnoticed here. By the deep regret expressed by
all who knew his works or who had met him since
his residence in France, one realises how thoroughly
he was appreciated.
That, in England, his success should have been
so tardy seems absolutely incomprehensible. The
first book of Gissing’s which was translated into
French drew attention to him here. After the publi-
cation of the second in serial form, in a daily paper,
he was spoken of as “the English Balzac.” The
French have undoubtedly the gift of discrimination
in literature, and one can only regret now that a
translation of each of Gissing’s books was not
brought out here soon after the publication of the
work in England.
Both “New Grub Street” and “ Eve’s Ransom”
have been used in French as serials and afterwards
published in volume form, The translation of
these two works is admirable. In some English
paper it was stated that Gissing translated “ New
Grub Street” himself, but this isa mistake. He
certainly had a thorough knowledge of the French
language, and another translator, who was then
at work on “The Whirlpool,” expressed great
surprise that Gissing did not write his books in
French as well as in English. “In the Year of
Jubilee” is to appear shortly in French as a serial
in a daily paper. “The Odd Women,” too, is
THE AUTHOR.
translated, and “The Paying Guest” and “The
Town Traveller ” are arranged for.
Personally, too, Gissing was highly esteemed
here. Exclusive as the French are, they were
more than willing to open their doors to him.
Shortly after his death I received a letter contain-
ing the following lines, bearing the signature of
one of the best known names in France: “ On
me dit que la mort de M. Gissing a été annoncée
dans le journal Ze Temps. Pouvez-vous me dire
si cette nouvelle est exacte, vous savez tout
Vintérét que je portais & cet homme de talent, de
coeur et d’ un caractére adorable.” Everyone who
had met him here speaks with genuine sorrow of
his death.
Auys HALLARD.
i
THE NOBEL PRIZE.
ee
MEETING of the Committee for the Nobel
prize for literature was held on Thursday,
January 14th, at the offices of the Incor-
porated Society of Authors, 39, Old Queen Street,
Storey’s Gate,S. W.,Mr. Rdmund Gosse in the chair.
The purpose of the meeting was to receive the
votes collected in answer to the circular sent out
last November by the Committee, and to authorise
their transmission to Stockholm. :
These votes will now be sent to the Committee wid
of the Swedish Academy, as an indication of the tee
wishes of those in England qualified under the
regulations of the Nobel Bequest, to express an
opinion. The award will be made in the autumn ig
of the present year, by the Committee of the Wa
Swedish Academy constituted for that purpose, |
with which Committee alone the power of decision
rests. The votes from the English contingent this
year are numerous, including in their list the names
of most of the eminent writers of the day.
———_—_?—<—_2—____-
SWEDEN AND THE BERNE
CONVENTION.
INCE Denmark has joined the Berne Conven-
tion the partisans of a similar step in Sweden
have recovered courage and are now making
new exertions to bring their country out of the isola-
tion which begins to press doubly hard upon them.
As early as the 12th October, 1894, the Swedish
Society of Authors (Sveriges Forfatterforening)
addressed to the king an address, strongly supported
by documentary evidence (an analysis of which
will be found in Le Droit d’ Auteur, 1896, p. 159,
etc.), in favour of the extension of international
protection of authors, and more particularly in
favour of a more liberal solution of the question of
if
wo
8 LD: pera
THE AUTHOR.
the rights of translation.
ber last the same Society presented a new petition
to the Swedish Government praying that a pro-
position for such a modification of the present
legislation as may enable Sweden to follow the
example of Denmark may be presented to the
Riksday. This petition was signed by MM. Karl
Warburg, Verner von Heidenstam, George Nor-
densvam, Gustaf af Geyerstam, F. U. Wrangel,
Axel Raphael, Knut Michaelson, Per Hallstrém,
Hellen Lindgren.
On the 19th of September M. Ossian Berger,
Minister of Justice, forwarded this petition to the
two societies of Swedish publishers, the Svenska
Bokforliggare-Foreningen and the Nya Bokforldg-
gare-Foreningen, as well as to the Society of Swedish
Journalists, in order to obtain their opinions on
the question. The first of the above-named
Societies has already arrived at a decision entirely
favourable to the desires of the authors. The
society also goes further and formally unites its
request with that presented in the petition ; and
this is the more remarkable seeing that the same
society in 1895 dissuaded the Swedish Govern-
ment from joining the Berne Convention. The
Swedish Parliament meets on the 15th of Janu-
ary ; and the friends of the Union firmly hope
that the Riksdag may be authorised to proceed to
a revision of the Swedish internal law of copyright,
and that so Sweden may in the course of the year
become one of the countries of the Union.
This hope has now been confirmed. The Society,
which has for some time been endeavouring to
obtain a special copyright agreement between
Sweden and the United Kingdom, has heard from
His Majesty’s Foreign Office that “ there will be
no need to proceed further in the matter as His
Majesty's Minister at Sweden reports that the
Swedish Government intend shortly to submit to
the Diet a proposal for the accession of Sweden to
the Berne Convention.”
or
THE CONTRACT OF BAILMENT.
Se
“ H. T.,” in the December Author, and
“An Editor” in The Author for
January, have treated the question of
the editor’s responsibility for the safety of
unsolicited manuscripts from different points
of view, and at first sight appear to hold
different opinions as to the principles which should
govern the question of his liability. Perhaps,
however, in considering concrete instances they
would frequently arrive at the same conclusions,
although sometimes their “ findings of fact” would
not be the same, and their deductions as to the
legal position would differ in corresponding degree.
119
On the 14th of Septem They would differ sometimes (and so would most
people having interests at stake, and being, there-
fore, to some extent, “ prejudiced”) as to what
constitutes or implies an invitation to strangers
to contribute to a periodical, and as to whether a
certain state of facts exists “for the benefit” of
both parties.
Let me quote the notice to would-be contri-
butors which appears in the Free Lance, a
weekly penny periodical probably known to some
if not to all of the readers of The Author :-—
IMPORTANT NOTICE TO CONTRIBUTORS.
While declining responsibility for the safety of MSS.
submitted to us, every possible care will be taken.
All MSS. must have the author's name and address
written legibly on the title page. When payment is
desired the price must also appear on the title page.
Every manuscript must be accompanied by a stamped
and addressed envelope for return in case of unsuitability.
In future all rejected manuscripts not accompanied by
stamped and addressed envelopes will be destroyed.
What is the position of the editor of the Free
Lance, assuming that his notice is brought under
the observation of his contributor? It is true
that he does not in terms invite anybody to write
for him, and that he “declines responsibility ” for
the MS. submitted to him at the commencement
of his notice ; but does not the whole notice,
including even the last two lines, constitute an invi-
tation to the author to submit MSS. to the editor,
and does it not thus establish a system of bailment
for the mutual advantage of both? In such cir-
cumstances is not the editor bound to take good
care of and to return any MS. which he may not
make use of ? I do not suggest that he is obliged
to convey it or even to post it to the sender (except
in those cases in which he gives a direct or implied
undertaking to do so), but I do not see why he
should not, at law, be responsible for it during a
reasonable time and be bound to hand it back to
the contributor who calls and asks for it. Has he
any right to treat it more carelessly than those
which he has accepted and will in due course make
use of to his own profit ? Can he lose it if he is
reasonably careful? In the notice quoted the
editor lays down acondition with regard to sending
stamped and addressed envelopes, which implies an
undertaking to return all MSS. accompanied by
these useful receptacles. The receptacle prepared
by him for the MS. not so accompanied is,
apparently, the waste-paper basket or the fire.
The editor deliberately warns his correspondents
of this, and the would-be contributor who reads
the notice will probably comply with it. Let us
suppose, however, that he does not do so either
(1) deliberately or (2) through temporary forget-
fulness. With regard to (1), would “ An Editor,”
who evidently has the advantage of a legal training,
venture to advise a client that he might invite the
120
deposit of valuable property upon his premises for
his inspection for the mutual good of the depositor
and himself, that he might couple with this invita-
tion a condition easily fulfilled, but at the same
time easily omitted, and that upon a failure to
comply with the condition he might safely destroy
the property so deposited? ‘An Editor” will
perhaps consider that I have overstated the case,
and that the “notice to contributors” which I
have quoted goes beyond anything which he con-
templated. I am inclined to doubt, however,
whether the editor of the Free Lance (except
in the fact that his notice affords evidence of his
position) is more liable to his contributors than
any other editor who selects from MSS. sent to
him unsolicited by strangers such as are suitable
for his paper, publishes and pays for them. If the
editor of a periodical never reads any unordered
MSS., and still more if he also puts a notice in his
paper to that effect, he occupies a very strong
position with regard to any unsolicited MSS. which
may find their way into his letter-box.
{ hazard the suggestion, however, that in fact
no such MSS. would ever reach his office except
through a mistaken idea on the part of the sender
as to the attitude of the editor. I may hate alcohol
with all the energy of the keenest prohibitionist,
and someone may send me a consignment of old
port of peculiar quality and rarity under the
impression that I am a connoisseur who will
jump at the chance of purchasing it. The mis-
take may be due to the grossest carelessness, the
most reckless want of inquiry, but I doubt if I
should therefore be justified in throwing that old
port into the sewer ; particularly if I knew the
name of the consignor, and had every reason to
believe that he would like to have it back and
would some day apply for its return, should I not
accept his offer. I have put the case (2) of tem-
porary forgetfulness where such a notice as that
of the editor of the Free Lance is concerned ; but
T am not sure that on principle temporary forget-
fulness on the part of the sender makes very much
difference to the position of the recipient who wilfully
destroys the thing sent. What is the position then
of the person who receives avaluable article, whether
a MS. article or a case of ’47 port or anything
else, without having asked for it either in terms or
by implication ? Would “G. H. T.” argue (to
quote from his last paragraph) that the articles are in
such a case “sent for the benefit of both parties,”
and that “ under these circumstances” the recipient
“ig more than a mere gratuitous bailee, and would
be responsible accordingly ?”” I should hardly agree
with him if he put his case so high as that. I
should say that the receiver had no right to destroy
the goods sent, or to refuse to give them up if
within a reasonable time a proper request were
THE AUTHOR.
made for them, but that beyond this the sender
would have little, if any, claim upon him, even if
he did not treat them as carefully as he would
have treated his own property. I should also say,
however, that a little want of tolerance and courtesy
on the part of either or both might land them in
litigation, of which the issue would be doubtful, and
would depend upon the particular facts proved.
This applies, no doubt, to many cases where
publishers or editors, and authors are concerned.
A little good sense and care on the part of the
author, as “ An Editor” very ably explains in_his
last paragraph but one, is of considerable aid in
avoiding difficulties. He should gain some super-
ficial acquaintance (say, by glancing at the cover
or index) with the magazine to which he sends his
work, or with the books of the publisher (say, by
glancing at his advertisements). He might in the
case of periodicals look for and read the “ notices
to contributors,” although this might prevent him
from some day denying on oath that he had seen
them. He would get a general idea of what was
in the editor's mind even from a notice such as
that in the Free Lance, although he might not be
able to grasp at once all the possible contingencies
which might follow upon non-compliance with the
conditions laid down. What, for example, is the
position of the editor of the Free Lance where a
contributor has written his name and address on
the back of his MS. instead of on the “ title page,”
or where he has given his address on the MS. and
has enclosed stamps for its return (a common
method with which many editors are quite satis-
fied), but has not sent a stamped and addressed
envelope? Surely*G. H. T.” and “ An Editor ”
might meet and confer upon the possibilities
suggested by the latter state of affairs.
editor in the circumstances suggested burn the
MS. and keep the stamps? If he may do this,
may he use the stamps for his private corre-
spondence ? If so, may he, should he prefer it,
burn the stamps and keep the MS., also for his
private use, such as to paper the walls of his office,
or in order to write his own copy on the back of
it? Or may he use for his own ends (other than
those intended by the author) both MS. and stamps?
All these questions suggest themselves and more
also, and in any case the particular facts must be |
known before an opinion can be worth much, and
T am not aware thata good typical case of the loss
or destruction of the unsolicited MS. has ever been
fairly tested. Perhaps this is partly because editors /
are not all quite as black sheep as some unlucky or:
imprudent authors would have us believe. I have
had MSS. lost myself. In one instance at least I
have been compensated, but then as far as I
remember, I had kept a copy and only asked
for the price of retyping it, which was all the
May the ~
THE
damage I had suffered. I am not at all sure, how-
ever, that I did not once receive the price of the
story after it was lost and before I had found my
copy, and forwarded it. In any case I have often
(I regret it from my personal point of view only)
received back unsolicited MSS. with which I had
enclosed neither envelope nor stamps.
HK, A. A,
—_—___e— > —____
AN ESTIMATE OF THE COST OF
PRODUCTION.
—+->-+—_
HEN the “Cost of Production” was first
issued by the Society there was an outcry
from some publishers and printers that it
was impossible to print on the terms set forth in
its pages.
Nevertheless, frequent proofs came to the
Society’s office that the figures were not only
reasonable, but in many cases in excess of the
estimates sent in by thoroughly responsible printing
houses who had their works in the country. It
was only in the case of some of the old established
London houses that the estimates were in excess of
those given in the “ Cost of Production,” and even
in these cases the difference was only a small one—
a matter of some 5 per cent.
The “Cost of Production” is out of print ; but
from time to time, as examples have come to the
office, specimens of estimates for book production
have been printed, and Sir Walter Besant in his
work “The Pen and the Book” wrote a chapter
under this heading.
Since the time when the “ Cost of Production ”
sold out, and since the date of the issue of
“The Pen and the Book,” prices have altered con-
siderably, and work is being done more cheaply.
In order to show this by definite example, the
cost of production, received through a publisher
from a firm in the country, of 1,000 copies of a
book, is printed for comparison with the cost of pro-
duction of a similar book, taken from the Society’s
former work.
The book is one of nine sheets of thirty-two pages
with about 250 words to a page, crown octavo.
The estimate is for 1,000 copies.
The estimate received this year is as follows :—
8.1.
Composition, 9 sheets of 32 pages at
38s. : : ; : ; » 17 2.0
Presswork, 9 sheets of 82 pagesat 16s. 7 4 0
Paper, 11 reams at 15s. : 12880
Binding, say in two colours on board
at per copy 4d. 16 13-4
£49 4 4
AUTHOR.
121
The figures for the same book, published in the
Society’s “ Cost of Production ” :—
& 8, a.
Composition, 9 sheets of 32 pages at
£2 15s. . ; : : . 2415 0
Presswork, 9 sheets of 32 pages at
Sits, ; : ; : 090
Paper, 9 sheets of 82 pages at £115s. 15 15 0
Binding, say at 4d. : : » 16 18 4
£66 12 4
It will be seen from a comparison of the two
sets of figures that the cost of composition is con-
siderably less ; that the cost of printing is about
the same, and the cost of paper enormously reduced,
and that these figures huld generally may be taken
as an accepted fact.
As a proof of this statement another estimate is
printed where the number of words on a page was
fewer, and the type in which the book was set up
was larger, the pages of the book being slightly
smaller than those in the book referred to in the
previous estimate.
Printing 1,000 Copies. £ sa.
Setting types, per 32 pages, say 9
sheets, 26s. . : : 1 14
Printing, 1,000 copies per 32 pages,
9 sheets, at 15s. 6d. : 619° 6
Paper (say)... ; : : - 1 100
Binding, 1,000 copies at 43/7. = 181540
£144 18 6
——————1——>—o—__
THE COPYRIGHT LAW OF THE UNITED
STATES AND THE AUTHORS OF THE
CONTINENT.
—_—
1 the Senate of the United States, December
8th, 1903, Mr. Platt, of Connecticut, intro-
duced the following Bill; which was read
twice and referred to the Committee on Patents.
A Birt To AMEND CHAPTER Forty-NINE HUNDRED
AND Firty-T'wo oF THE REVISED STATUTES.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of
Representatives of the United States of America
in Congress assembled, That section forty-nine
hundred and fifty-two of the Revised Statutes be,
and the same is hereby, amended so as to read as
follows :
“Sec. 4952. The author, inventor, designer, or
proprietor of any book, map, chart, dramatic or
musical composition, engraving, cut, print, or
photograph or negative thereof, or of a painting,
drawing, chromo, statue, statuary, and of models
or designs intended to be perfected as works of the
122
fine arts, and the executors, administrators, or
assigns of any such persons shall, upon complying
with the provisions of this chapter, have the sole
liberty of printing, reprinting, publishing, com-
pleting, copying, executing finishing, and vending
the same, and in the case of a dramatic composi-
tion of publicly performing or representing it or
causing it to be performed or represented by others ;
and authors or their assigns shall have exclusive
right to dramatize and translate any of their works
for which copyright shall have been obtained under
the laws of the United States.”
“ Whenever the author or proprietor of a book
in a foreign language, which shall be published in
a foreign country before the day of publication in
this country, or his executors, administrators, or
assigns, shall, within the twelve months after the
first publication of such book in a foreign country,
obtain a copyright for a translation of such book
in the English language, which shall be the first
copyright in this country for a translation of such
book, he and they shall have, during the term of
such copyright, the sole liberty of printing,
reprinting, publishing, vending, translating, and
dramatizing the said book, and in the case of a
dramatic composition, of publicly performing the
same, or of causing it to be performed or represented
by others.”
—<_?
In March, 1891, certain amendments were
inserted as part of the Copyright statute which
had for their purpose the bringing the United
States into copyright relations with the other
literature-producing nations of the world. The
several European States had, from an early
period in the century (1880—1834) entered into
individual treaties with each other under which
their authors (and artists) secured for their pro-
ductions reciprocal protection ; and in 1887 these
States came together, under the Berne Convention,
jn an association the regulations of which secure
copyright recognition throughout nearly the entire
territory of Europe (Holland, Austria-Hungary,
and Russia are still outside) and also in Tunis,
Liberia, and Japan. :
It had for many years been a ground for mortifi-
cation to citizens who were jealous for the good
name of their country, that the United States had
refused, in regard to the recognition of property
in literature, to enter into the comity of nations.
As far back as 1837, an association had been
organized (of which the late George P. Putnam
was secretary) to bring about an international
copyright, but a contest of more than half a
century was required before it proved practicable
to interest and to educate public opinion, and to
secure from Congress favourable action for a bill
THE AUTHOR.
securing property rights for foreign authors, and
(under reciprocity arrangements) protection across
the Atlantic for the productions of American
authors. Before the Act of 1891, copyright could
be secured in this country only for the productions
of citizens of the United States or of those who
could be classed as permanent residents. Under
the new law, the protection of the statute is made
to cover the works of authors whether resident or
non-resident, with the condition that for the non-
resident author the country of which he is a
citizen shall concede to American authors copyright
privileges substantially equal to those conceded by
such foreign State to its own authors. It is also
a condition (applying both to resident and non-
resident authors) that the book securing American
copyright shall be published in the United States
not later than the date of its publication in any
other country. It is a farther condition of such
copyright for all authors, whether resident or non-
resident, that all the editions of the work so copy-
righted must be printed “ from type set within the
limits of the United States or from plates made
therefrom.” This provision was instituted in the
new act at the instance of the Typographical
Unions and was insisted upon by them as essential.
The unions were under the apprehension that if
international copyright should be established with-
out such condition of American manufacture, a
large portion of the book manufacturing now done
in this country would be transferred across the
Atlantic, to the injury of American type-setters
and printers and of the other trades employed in
the making of books.
The provisions of the Act as finally passed were
not a little confused by amendments inserted
hastily during the last weeks of the session, amend-
ments which had not been planned in connection
with the original drafts of the bill and which pre-
sented certain new conditions more or less incongru-
ous with the general purpose of the bill and likely
to produce difficulties in the consistent working of
the law. These amendments were submitted for
the most part on behalf of the various interests
having to do with the manufacturing of books and
of reproductions of works of art, and were accepted
by Congress as in line with the general protective
policy of the country. The changes in the text of
the bill as originally drafted were accepted by those
who had been for many years working for inter-
national copyright, because if they had not been
accepted it would have been impossible to bring into
enactment any international copyright measure
whatsoever. It seemed better, for the cause of the
recognition of literary property irrespective of
political boundaries, to place upon the statute book
a law more or less imperfect and incongruous than
to leave the United States for a
further indefinite
THE AUTHOR.
term alone among civilized nations in its failure
to recognize the just claims of foreign authors and
artists. It was also increasingly important to
secure a recognition on the other side of the
Atlantic for the property rights of American
literary producers whose productions were securing
from year to year increasing attention from English
and continental readers.
It is proper to state that the law has, in many
respects, worked more smoothly than was antici-
pated. Attention has, however, been called by
more than one Attorney-General and also by the
present Librarian of Congress and by his assistant,
the Registrar in charge of the Bureau of Copy-
rights, to the material defects in the wording of the
statute. Fear has been expressed that these
defects would sooner or later stand in the way of
securing consistent action in the courts for the
adequate protection of the rights of literary pro-
ducers. It isthe case, however, that comparatively
few issues have as yet arisen in the courts under
which these unsatisfactory provisions of the law
could be tested.
The law has had the effect of securing from
year to year for an increasing number of British
authors very satisfactory returns from the sales in
the United States of their copyrighted property ;
and under the reciprocity arrangement, which came
into effect with Great Britain in July, 1891,
American authors are each year securing larger
returns from their readers in the British Empire,
returns which are bound to increase proportionately
with the development of American literature.
English authors have found some inconvenience
in connection with the requirement for simultaneous
publication (a requirement which also obtains
under the British law) and the further require-
ment for the manufacturing of the copyrighted
book within the territory of the United States,
but there has been no substantial difficulty, under
the arrangements that have come into force between
the publishers on either side of the Atlantic and
their respective circles of authors, in meeting these
two requirements for books originating in the
English language.
It is the case, however, that very serious and
well-founded criticisms of the law have come from
the authors of France, Germany, and Italy, who
find that, under the requirements of American
manufacture and simultaneous publication, the
difficulties are almost insuperable in the way of
securing American copyright for books which have
to be translated before they are available for the
use of American readers. In Germany, the dis-
appointment and annoyance at what are held to be
the inequitable restrictions of the American statute
have been so considerable that steps have been
taken on the part of authors and publishers to
123
secure the abrogation of the Convention entered
into in 1893 between Germany and the United
States. ‘he defenders of the Convention have
thus far succeeded in preventing it from being set
aside, but it is their report that they will not be
able to maintain this Convention for many years to
come unless the grievances complained of by German
authors shall receive satisfactory consideration.
The disappointment and the criticism on the part
of the authors of France are no less bitter. It is
only the fact that certain substantial advantages
have been secured under the law to continental
artists, and the expectation that the American
people will not long remain satisfied with granting
international copyright in form while refusing it
in fact, that prevent organised attacks not only in
Paris and Berlin, but also in Rome, upon the
present international arrangements.
I myself had occasion while attending, in June,
1901, the convention held at Leipsic of the Inter-
national Association of Publishers, to listen to a
memorial which had been prepared by the Associa-
tion of German Authors, and which was submitted
for the approval of the assembly of German pub-
lishers, which memorial had for its purpose the
abrogation of the Convention between Germany
and the United States. I succeeded at that time
in securing a decision on the part of the publishers
to lay upon the table a resolution approving this
memorial of the authors, and the authors them-
selves later also agreed to defer action. I reported
to the representatives of the continental publishers
and authors that, at the instance of the American
Publishers’ Copyright League, an amendment to
our statute had been drafted which had for its pur-
pose the remedying asfaras might now be practicable
these grievances of the authors of the continent.
I promised that nothing should be neglected on
the part of the American publishers, American
authors, and others interested in international
copyright and in maintaining the copyright rela-
tions of the United States with Europe, to secure
favourable attention from Congress for the amend-
ment in question. It has, however, proved more
difficult than was anticipated two years back to
secure such attention on the part of the legislators
in Washington. Other matters have intervened
in each session which seemed both to Representa-
tives and Senators of much more importance than
the question of copyright. Apart from the usual
delays on the ground of lack of interest in Con-
gressional committees in such a subject, the
representatives of the Publishers’ Copyright League
found that they had again to give consideration
to objections on the part of the typographical
unions. :
The amendment as first drafted provided that
the European author of a book originating in a
124
language other than English should be allowed a
term of twelve months (or, as later suggested, of
not less than six months), within which to secure
arrangements for an American edition of his book
and to have completed the required translation.
The American edition which was to have the pro-
tection of copyright was of course to be “printed
from type set within the limits of the United
States.” During this interregnum term of six
months, importation into the United States of
copies of the work as issued in the original text
could be made and the owner of the copyright was
rotected against any unauthorised appropriation
of his production. This provision was worded
with the purpose of avoiding the expense that
under present conditions must be incurred of
putting into type in this country an edition of
the work printed in the language of origin. There
is, as a rule, not sufficient demand from American
buyers, even in the case of an author of repute, for
a book originating in French or in German, to
make the American publication of such work,
printed in the original language, a satisfactory
business undertaking. It is, on the other hand,
as a rule, not practicable to have a translation
produced in time to enable the American edition
as translated to be issued in the United States
“not later than the date of publication” in the
country of origin. The French or German pub-
lisher is generally not willing to agree with his
author to lose a season’s sale of his edition of the
book for the chance of securing for such author
the advantage of an American edition.
The typographers objected to the amendment as
worded on the ground that it gave copyright pro-
tection for a term of, say, six months to a book in
an edition which had not been printed in the
United States. It was pointed out by the pub-
lishers (many of them themselves printers and all
of them interested in the production of American
editions) that no book could, under such amend-
ment, secure the final protection of the law unless
an American edition was produced. It was
emphasized further that, under the present con-
ditions, the publishers were not willing to make
investments in American editions of continental
works which were well suited for the requirements
of American readers, but that if the publishers
could, as would be possible under this amendment,
secure the copyright control of such editions, a
number of books would be put into print in the
United States which would not otherwise have been
taken up, and from the manufacturing of which the
printing and allied trades would secure business
advantage.
It did not prove practicable, however, to con-
vince the typographers that there might not be
some risk of disadvantage to their trade in the
THE AUTHOR.
proposition, The amendment was therefore re-
shaped so as to meet their objections. Under
the amendment as now worded, a work originating
in language other than English is left open to
“ appropriation” unless an authorised American
edition shall have been produced within the term
of twelve months after the first publication of the
book in the country of origin and unless such
edition shall have been produced and duly pro-
tected by copyright in advance of any unauthorised
edition. In case, however, within such term of
twelve months, the book shall be brought into
print in the United States in an edition which
shall comply with the other requirements of the —
law, the author of such book, or his assign, shall
enjoy for the term of copyright the full protection
of the law, not merely for such English version,
but for the entire text in any version. Under the
working of the present statute, the producer of an
English version (whether authorised or unautho-
rised) of a continental work secures the protection
of the law only for his own version. In case this
first version secures a success, there is always the
risk that other versions may be produced by
unauthorised reprinters desiring to take advantage
of the literary judgment and of the advertising of
the publishers producing the unauthorised version,
Such appropriation of the text of the original will
be impracticable when the pending amendment has
become a part of the statute.
The typographers have given their approval to
the amendment as now worded, realising that it
ought to have the effect of increasing the pro-
auction of American editions of continental works.
While it is an advantage that the continental book
should be open to “ appropriation” for a term of
twelve months (or less) and that should unautho-
rised editions have once been issued no copyright
control can be secured for the work through the
publication of an unauthorised edition, it is
believed that under actual business conditions
this advantage may not prove serious. It is the
fact that the unauthorised reprinters prefer, as a
rule, to follow the literary judgment of the pub- —
lishers who act us the representatives of the authors.
The “ piracy” firms find it “better business” in
the selection of works by continental authors to
appropriate a work which has secured the approval
of a leading publishing house than to risk ventures
based upon their individual judgments. :
The amendment in question has been introduced
into the Senate by Senator O. H. Platt, of Con- —
necticut, who is an old-time friend of international —
copyright, and whose service in connection with —
the Act of 1891 was of the greatest importance. —
The bill (which bears the number “ Senate 849 "oe
has been referred to the Committee on Patents, —
and its supporters hope to be able to secure —
THE
favourable action on it early in the regular session.
The amendment has also been introduced into the
House (House No. 2229) by Mr. Currier. It is of
essential importance, if the copyright relations of
the United States with France, Germany, and Italy
are to be preserved, that no further delay should
be incurred in remedying the very serious injustice
to which the authors of the continent are now
exposed. It would also be a serious mortification
for Americans who have at heart the good name
of their country to have these international copy-
right conventions cancelled on the ground that
the American Government had failed to carry out
in good faith the reciprocity conditions of the Act
of 1891 on the strength of which conditions the
States of Europe have extended to American
authors the full protection of their own copyright
laws.
TEORGE HavEN PUTNAM.
——_____—_—_e———__e—___—_
THE UNITED STATES PUBLISHING
CONTRACT.
_—~>—+ —_
HE contract of publication in the United
States is one that must with increasing
frequency be placed before writers in Eng-
land. Perhaps therefore a few notes on a form of
contract put forward by a United States publisher
may be of service to Members.
The difficulty of making alterations in such a
contract on account of the length of time that
must elapse between one mail and the answer to
that mail, is evident.
There are very few United States publishers
who have agents in London whose authority will
permit them to settle contracts on behalf of their
principals. Many authors, therefore, enter into
bad contracts in order that their books may be
produced simultaneously ; and others, wearying of a
lengthened and desultory correspondence, embrace
the same fault. The two remedies for this position
are that, firstly, the author should deal in full
time with the United States rights, and secondly,
should be careful to deal with the best United
States publishers. Then what they may lose on
some of the minor points in the contract, which
they have been unable for one reason or another to
settle satisfactorily, they may gain from the reputa-
tion and position of the publishing house with
which they are dealing.
As a rule the contracts from United States
publishers are voluminous, verbose, and even then
incomplete. They demand too much from the
author, and give insufficient security that the work
willbe carried out on the best lines. If, of course,
the author deals with a first-class house, the latter
mistake corrects itself.
AUTHOR.
125
It should be added that some of the latercontracts
received from the other side of the water, like some
of the later contracts received from English
publishers, contain considerably better terms, and
are drafted on a much more satisfactory basis for
the author, than those which were in existence five
or ten yearsago, An example of the United States
contract is printed here :—
MEMORANDUM OF AGREEMENT
between and
laws of the State of
Said being the author and proprietor of a work
entitled “ ” in consideration of the covenant and
stipulations hereinafter contained, agreed to be performed
by the said publishers, grants and guarantees to the
publishers the exclusive right to publish said work during
terms of copyright and renewals thereof, hereby covenant-
ing with said publishers that he is the sole author and
proprietor of said work.
Said author further guarantees to said publishers that
the said work is in no way whatever a violation of any
copyright belonging to any other party, and that it con-
tains nothing of a scandalous or libellous character and
that he and his legal representatives will hold harmless the
said publishers from all suits and all manner of claims and
proceedings which may be taken on the ground that said
work is such violation, or contains anything scandalous or
libellous ; and he further hereby authorises said publishers
to defend at law any and all suits and proceedings which
may be taken or had against publishers for infringement of
any other copyright, or for libel, scandal, or any other
injurious or hurtful matter or thing contained in or alleged
or claimed to be contained in or caused by said work, and
to pay to said publishers such reasonable costs, disburse-
ments, expenses and counsel fees as they may incur in
such defences.
Said publishers in consideration of the right herein
granted, and of the guarantees aforesaid, agree to publish
said work at their own expense, in such style and manner
as they may deem expedient, and to pay said author or his
legal representatives a royalty of per cent. on the retail
price of the first five thousand copies sold, and per cent.
thereafter.
Provided, nevertheless, that no percentage whatever
shall be paid on any copies destroyed by fire or water, or
sold at or below cost, or given away for the purpose of
aiding thesale of said work ; and provided further, that on
all copies of said work sold for export, whether sold in
sheets or bound, the amount of royalty to be paid on such
copies shall not exceed per cent. of the net price
received for such sales :—and in case the said publishers
are able to dispose of duplicate plates for export, there
shall be paid to the author a sum not to exceed per
cent. of the amount received for such sale.
Any expense incurred for alterations or additions made
by author after manuscript has been put into type,
exceeding ten per cent, of cost of composition and stereo-
typing or electrotyping said work, is to be charged to the
author’s account.
Statements to be rendered annually in the month of
February, and settlements to be made in cash within two
months after date of statement. The first statement shall
not be rendered until six months after date of publication.
If, on the expiration of five years from date of publica-
tion, or at any time thereafter, the demand for such work
should not, in the opinion of the said publishers be sufficient.
to render its publication profitable, then this contract shall
cease and terminate, and thereupon said author shall have
the right, at his option, to take from said publishers at not
made this day of
a corporation chartered under the
126
exceeding actual cost of manufacture the stereotype or
electrotype plates and engravings (if any) of said work,
and whatever copies, bound or in sheets, they may then
have on hand, or failing to take said plates and copies at
cost, then said publishers shall have the right to dispose of
the copies on hand as they may deem fit, free of any per-
centage or royalty, to melt up the plates, and to cancel this
contract.
In consideration of the mutuality of this contract, the
aforesaid parties agree to all its provisions for themselves,
their heirs, assigns, or legal representatives, and in testimony
thereof affix their signatures and seals.
Twelve complimentary copies to author.
Additional copies at best trade rates.
This document, although drawn in more concise
language than most agreements, yet contains many
faults which may, as suggested, be rectified by
dealing with a satisfactory house. For instance,
the style, manner, and date of publication appear
to be left in the hands of the publisher. It may
be a serious matter to omit any definite arrange-
ment on these points if the author does not happen
to be of the same opinion as the firm with which
he is contracting. The clause referring to libel and
infringement of copyright gives too wide a scope
to the publisher, although his power is somewhat
limited by the word ‘‘ reasonable ” at the end of the
clause, though “ reasonable costs, disbursements,
expenses and counsel fees” is a very indefinite
phrase. The main object of a contract is finality.
The proviso at the end of the second clause is
also unsatisfactory; and the account clause is bad.
There is no doubt that statements of account
should be rendered semi-annually, and this is
the arrangement which, by degrees, is becoming
universal in publishing houses. Annual accounts
may often leave the author’s money for an incon-
veniently long time in the publisher’s possession.
The clause dealing with the termination of the
contract is, on the whole, sound, the author having
the option of taking over the stock. In many of
the contracts with English publishers this clause is
very unsatisfactory. This is especially so in the
agreements drafted by the Publishers’ Association.
The worst point of the whole contract is that there
is no mention whatever of an arrangement to
secure copyright in Great Britain, her Colonies,
and Dependencies. There is no clause which binds
the publisher to produce by a certain date in order
to meet the requirements of the Act. It may, of
course, be argued that this is a United States con-
tract, but in answer to this, it should be stated
that this special contract was for the procuration
of the copyright in the United States of a book
that was to be published in England. Therefore,
such a clause should have been inserted.
In another United States contract, which is a
typical example of draftsmanship—who does under-
take to draw these contracts? Can the United
States Publishers’ Association explain ?—there is
THE AUTHOR.
an interesting clause with regard to simultaneous
publication. It runs as follows :—
“In order to fulfil the requirements of the revised
Statutes of the United States for securing copyright the
Author shall place in the hands of the Publishers, the
manuscript or fair typewritten copy, or advanced printed
sheets, of said work in ample time to allow the Publishers
to do the typesetting, electrotyping, presswork, and
binding, so that they may be able to publish their edition
simultaneously with any other edition of the said work, or
of any translation thereof, published in Great Britain or
elsewhere. The publication of any edition of the said
work, or of any translation thereof, other than that
published by the Publishers shall be made at such time
only as will enable them to make the publication of their
edition simultaneous therewith. They, on their part, agree
not to anticipate the authorised foreign publication of the
said work, and not to publish their edition until the day
mutually agreed upon by them and the Author. It is
further understood and agreed that if, by any act or
omission in the publication or edition of the said work
in any foreign country or in any way or manner without
the fault of the Publishers the copyright in and to the said
work within and for the United States of America shall be
lost or rendered nugatory, then the Author shall be respon-
sible to the Publishers for any loss or damage which they
may suffer thereby, and the Publishers may then, at their
option, terminate this Agreement, and in that event they
shall not thereafter be obliged to perform any of the acts
herein provided for.”
This clause in its verbosity is an example of the
rest of this agreement and needs no comment.
Should any members of the Society, from time
to time, have interesting forms of copyright agree-
ments with publishers in the United States, the
Secretary would be glad to see them. As a rule
the agreements run to fourteen or fifteen clauses.
The difficulty of dealing satisfactorily with them,
in a correspondence which may last for three or
four months, is considerably increased.
—_+-——_e_—__
RESUME OF THE NUMBER OF BOOKS
PUBLISHED IN THE PAST YEAR.
jo
REPRINTED FROM THE Publishers’ Circular BY
Krinp PERMISSION OF THE EDITOR.
HE total number of books recorded in 1903
is about a hundred below 1889 and 1898,
four hundred below 1897, and a thousand
above 1902; but there is an increase recorded in
Miscellaneous of about five hundred, and most of
these are pamphlets at a few pence each ; while
there were about three hundred sixpenny novels
during the year, most of them, of course, ‘new
editions,” not new books. The total of Fiction is
about a hundred more than in the previous year.
Theology, Educational, Politics, and Commerce are
up in number; Arts and Sciences and Law are
down ; History and Biography, Voyages and
Travels, about the same; Medicine, Year-Books,
Belles-Lettres, and Poetry and the Drama slightly
up.
THER AUTHOR. 127
| |
| | B 8 EB
Bo 2 eS SS
Subjects. e a S - : : 2 z 3 a l=
2 & |= < = 5 5 4 R Se | 2 A
So ae |
REG CRA Toe eee, \ { |
a (|a36| 42| 49] 63] 55] 51| 25] 431 42] 70| 86] 87 | 639
1. Theology, Sermons, Biblical ... 1|o 3 9 8 4 2 5 5 7) 3 2 <1 ie
| | | = 702
D Mincensl «Classical, and {| 2 61| 66| 70 | 86 | 65| 62| 83) 47| 51] 51| 65) 53 | 650
est—st—i | et} | 6] 4] 7) 9} 18| i6| 10] 98
748
3. Juvenile Works and Tales,|| ~ 97 | 98 | 150| 87/135] 98] 94] 155 | 169 | 296 | 347 | 133 1859
Novels, Tales, and other ;| 4, 98| 50| 67| 94] 85| 64] 50| 44| 52] 102] 108] 57/ 801
Fiction ) 2650
{la 7 5 8 3 4 6 3 3 i 1 5 ii 57
4. Law, Jurisprudence, &c. ib 2 3 8 5 5 ees 1 7 uf 6 30
87
5. Political and Social Economy, )| @ 42 43 |} 50) 34 51 37 82 | 46 | 29) 41 54 50 | 509
ee it 4] | o5| 12] 8] 7] wt] | 12] 2} 100
, —- 609
BF oad Wists 1 2 27 |) 26 | 82] 26) 88] 50] 17| 24) 85] 21) 46 | 71 | 413
ee ee Boel s | Ge 1) t| 2 1) 2) 8 kb 32
ee o us
Be be, ed Geo | 1 | | 9] 16] 18) 10) 15] 12) 6) 7) BF) 17
graphical Research ... fe 2 2 1 3 2 2 4 5 9; —| 34 ace
: (| @ 40 42 31 27 8 35 33 38 18 42 60 98 | 482
8. History, Biography, &c. wb 7) 18 8 5 9 4 4 4 6 5 6] 20] 91
— 573
(| @ 28 12 36 30 21 24 10 16 26 30 37 33 | 303
9. Poetry and the Drama 118 6 7 6 5 2 3 3 4 3 161 18 15 | 88
| 391
10, Year-Books and Serials in}|786| 35| 20| 23| 24) 24| 15) 15) 31 | 44| 55| 85 | 457
Volumes <... ee Re ee ee | ae me ae Fo ee
| | —— 457
as (ois) 91 te) ig) ib | 20 | 16) 28) 6. 18) 18 | 25 | 187
11. Medicine, Surgery, &c. sale 8 7 9 7 1 D Ge alt 13 | 14 1 95
| | 282
cs Mone || 2 10 | 81 28) 9 | oT) BL] AL] 19) 20) 39| 46) 33} 284
graphs, om : eee 1 2 7 2 | 2 : . Le 8 2 : 2) 31
: | 315
13. Miscellaneous, includin a@58| 66) 46) 65 3 o£) 67) 62) 71 48 | 50 | 32 | 687
Pamphlets, not Sermons Z b 6 8 | 26} 30 22 28 14) 29 16 10 | 18 12 | 219
| | oe
591 | 585 | 708 | 583 | 708 | 645 | 466 | 622 | 638 | 887 | 1089} 859 | 8381
a New Books; b New Editions.
The Analytical Table is divided into 13 Classes; also New Books and New Editions.
a | 1902. 1903. e
Divisions. | New Books. New Editions. New Books. New Editions.
Theology, Sermons, Biblical, &e. : oP ae eo 567 8] 639 63
Educational, Classical, and Philological | 504 68 650 98
Novels, Tales, and Juvenile Works | 1,743 lO 1,859 801
Law, Jurisprudence, &e. 88 46 57 30
Political and Social Economy, Trade and Commerce 463 130 509 100
Arts, Science, and Illustrated Works 420 44 413 32
Voyages, Travels, and Geographical Resear ch. 162 38 172 34
History, Biography, &c. . ie 480 57 482 91
Poetry and the Drama . 272 76 303 88
Year-Books and Serials in Volumes os see a 408 ao 457 —_
Medicine, Surgery, &c. . a oe bes 153 84 187 95
Belles-Lettres, Essays, Monographs, ee. ah 227 44 284 31
Miscellaneous, including Pamphlets, not Ser mons ... 352 Q 17 GSt | 219
1 | 5,839 1,542 | 6,699 1,682
5888 | 6,699
Z | 7,381 _ | 8,381
MAGAZINE CONTENTS.
—>—+—
BLACKWOOD’s MAGAZINE,
John Chilcote, M.P. By Katherine Cecil Thurston.
Three Gambits.
Scolopaxiana: Dogs. By Scolopax.
One Night’s Experiences in Thibet. By C. H. Lepper.
Old Galway Life: Random Recollections.
“Sally”: A Study. By Hugh Clifford, C.M.G.
The Siege of Arrah : An Incident of the Indian Mutiny.
By E. John Salano.
The Birds of Hawaii. By J. A Owen.
‘A Statesman-Adventurer of the Pacific.
Musings Without Method.—The Lost Influence and
Dignity of the Daily Press—The Speeches of an Emperor—
The Psalms of David in Daily Life.
‘A Fiscal Solution : For Commonplace Minds. By Selim.
Zussia and Japan : The Naval Outlook. By Active List.
Foreign Trade Fallacies.
THE CORNHILL MAGAZINE.
The Truants (Chapters iv.—vi.). 3y A. E. W. Mason.
Some Empty Chairs. By Henry W. Lucy.
Macedonia—And After?
‘A Grandmother's Budget. By Mrs. Frederic Harrison.
Historical Mysteries. I, The Campden Mystery. By
Andrew Lang.
Among Japanese Hills. By Ernest Foxwell.
The Welsh in London. By J. HK. Vincent.
Han and Kawan, By Laurence Housman.
The Motion of the Solar System through Space. By
Frank Watson Dyson, F.R.S.
The Improvement of Westminster. By Thomas Fairman
Ordish, F.S.A.
Theodor Mommsen. By Professor Tout.
Provincial Letters. XIV. From Beaconsfield. By
Urbanus Sylvan.
The Visits of an Editor. By Leonard Husley,
THE FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW,
What can be done to Help the British Stage? An
Appeal. With a List of Signatures.
First Principles in the Far East. By “ Calchas.”
The Financial and Economic Situation in Japan. By
W. Petrie Watson.
English History in Napoleon’s Notebooks. By Henry
Foljambe Hall, F.R.Hist.s.
George Gissing. By Arthur Waugh.
On Some French Novels of To-day. By Le Comte de
Ségur.
The State Discouragement of Literature, By William
Watson.
The Problem of High Asia. By Demetrius C. Boulger.
The Life of a Song. By Stephen Gwynn.
President Roosevelt. By Sydney Brooks.
The Protectionist Ideal of Foreign Trade. By W. M.
Lightbody.
The Royalist Movement in France. By Normannus.
Leonaine: An Unpublished Poem by H. A. Poe. By
Alfred R. Wallace.
Eugene Sue. By Francis Gribble.
Theophano. Chaps. x.and xi. By Frederic Harrison.
Correspondence :—The Known and the Unknown in Mr.
Chamberlain’s Policy.—A Correction. By A, C. Pigou.
LONGMAN’S MAGAZINE.
Nature’s Comedian (Chapters xv., xvi), By w. E.
Norris.
Sikhim, The Land where the Rhododendrons Grow. By
M. C. Paget.
THE AUTHOR.
Astrida’s Lover. By F. Whishaw.
The Swimming Powers of Animals. By Paul Fountain.
Miss Fenella. By May Kendall.
A Gateway of Empire. By Esther Hallam Moorhouse.
At the Sign of the Ship. By Andrew Lang.
MACMILLAN’S MAGAZINE.
The Court of Sacharissa. By Hugh Sheringham and
Nevill Meakin. Chapters vii.—ix.
The Training of Teachers. By Miss Hodgson.
Ten Years in a Prohibition Town. By John Davidson.
La Rata Encoronada. By W. Spotswood Green,
The Football Fever. By H. F. Abell.
The President of Mexico. By Andrew Marshall.
Studies in Shakespeare's History. By J. L, Etty.
VII. Antony and Cleopatra. :
Imperial Purposes and their Cost. By T. B. Browning.
THE PALL MALL MAGAZINE.
The Duke and Duchess of Devonshire at Devonshire
House.
Dr. Sven Hedin at Home. By Georg Brochner.
Master Worker: George Frederick Watts, O.M. By
Harold Begbie.
Pictures and the Public. By E. Rimbault Dibdin.
How and Why Animals are Coloured. By R. J. Pocock.
Literary Geography : Thackeray. By William Sharp.
Stories by Maurice Hewlett, Mrs. Craigie ( John Oliver
Hobbes”), H. Fielding Hall, W. H. Pollock, U. L. Silberrad,
Charles Marriott.
THE WORLD’s WoRK.
The March of Events—An Illustrated Editorial Record
and Comment :
A New Political Era.
The Far East.
The Future of Medical Science in London.
Our Commercial Advantage in France.
The Sale of Artificial Pearls.
India and Free Trade. By Sir Edgar Vincent, K.C.M.G
MP,
Crossing the Channel by Railway. By George Cerbelaud
The Pope's Secretary of State: Cardinal Merry Del Val.
The Conflict in the Far East. By Alfred Stead.
The Walking Wheel.
The St. Louis Exposition.
Colombia and the New Republic of Panama, By
Theodore 8. Alexander.
The Mosely Education Commission. By Alfred Mosely,
C.M.G.
The New Discovery Concerning Cancer. By E. 8. Grew.
The Potato Harvest and the Boom. By Toye Vise.
The British Tradesman Abroad. By U. P. R.
A Modern Hot-air Balloon. By Edward J. Forster.
Food-Frauds in France. By Frederic Lees.
The Girl Gardener: Is she Going to be a Success ?
«“ Home Counties.”
A New View of the Home. By Lady Mclaren.
How to Adopt the Metric System. By Thomas Parker.
‘A Revolution in Milk-Supply. By C. W. Saleeby.
Chair-Leg Turners at Work. By W. Bovill.
The Work of the Book World.
Among the World’s Workers—A Record of Industry :
«A British Industry Really Ruined.”
How Fast can a Horse go in Harness ?
Young Men as Irrigation Engineers.
A Floating Theatre.
A New Air Condenser.
Foreign Beer in the United Kingdom.
An Electrical Canal-‘owage System.
How London’s Tube Railways are made.
Geary
THE AUTHOR.
WARNINGS TO THE PRODUCERS
OF BOOKS.
oe
ERE are a few standing rules to be observed in an
agreement. There are four methods of dealing
with literary property :—
I. Selling it Outright.
This is sometimes satisfactory, if a proper price can be
obtained. But the transaction should be managed by a
competent agent, or with the advice of the Secretary of
the Society.
II. A Profit-Sharing Agreement (a bad form of
agreement).
In this case the following rules should be attended to:
(1.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro-
duction forms a part without the strictest investigation.
(2.) Not to give the publisher the power of putting the
profits into his own pocket by charging for advertisements
in his own organs, or by charging exchange advertise-
ments. Therefore keep control of the advertisements.
(8.) Not to allow a special charge for “ office expenses,”
unless the same allowance is made to the author.
(4.) Not to give up American, Colonial, or Continental
rights.
(.) Not to give up serial or translation rights.
(6.) Not to bind yourself for future work to any publisher.
As well bind yourself for the future to any one solicitor or
doctor !
III. The Royalty System.
This is perhaps, with certain limitations, the best form
of agreement. It is above all things necessary to know
what the proposed royalty means to both sides. It is now
possible for an author to ascertain approximately the
truth. From time to time very important figures connected
with royalties are published in The Author.
1Y. A Commission Agreement.
The main points are :—
(1.) Be careful to obtain a fair cost of production.
(2.) Keep control of the advertisements.
(3.) Keep control of the sale price of the book.
General.
All other forms of agreement are combinations of the four
above mentioned.
Such combinations are generally disastrous to the author,
Never sign any agreement without competent advice from
the Secretary of the Society.
Stamp all agreements with the Inland Revenue stamp.
Avoid agreements by letter if possible.
The main points which the Society has always demanded
from the outset are :—
C1.) That both sides shall know what an agreement
means.
(2.) The inspection of those account books which belong
to the author. We are advised that this is a right, in the
nature of a common law right, which cannot be denied or
withheld.
(3.) Always avoid a transfer of copyright.
eg ees
WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS.
Lo.
EVER sign an agreement without submitting it to the
Secretary of the Society of Authors or some com-
petent legal authority.
2. [t is well to be extremely careful in negotiating for
the production of a play with anyone except an established
manager.
129
3. There are three forms of dramatic contract for plays
in three or more acts :—
(a.) Sale outright of the performing right. This
is unsatisfactory. An author who enters into
such a contract should stipulate in the contract
for production of the piece by a certain date
and for proper publication of his name on the
play-bills.
(%.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to
perform on the basis of percentages on
gross receipts. Percentages vary between 5
and 15 per cent. An author should obtain a
percentage on the sliding scale of gross receipts
in preference to the American system. Should
obtain a sum in advance of percentages. A fixed
date on or before which the play should be
performed.
(¢c.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to
perform on the basis of royalties (i.c.. fixed
nightly fees). This method should be always
avoided except in cases where the fees are
likely to be small or difficult to collect. The
other safeguards set out under heading (0.) apply
also in this case.
4. Plays in one act are often sold outright, but it is
better to obtain a small nightly fee if possible, and a sum
paid in advance of such fees in any event. It is extremely
important that the amateur rights of one-act plays should
be reserved.
5. Authors should remember that performing rights can
be limited, and are usually limited, by town, country, and
time. This is most important.
6. Authors should not assign performing rights, but
should grant a licence to perform. The legal distinction is
of great importance.
7, Authors should remember that performing rights in a
play are distinct from literary copyright. A manager
holding the performing right or licence to perform cannot
print the book of the words.
8. Never forget that United States rights may be exceed-
ingly valuable. ‘hey should never be included in English
agreements without the author obtaining a substantial
consideration.
9. Agreements for collaboration should be carefully
drawn and executed before collaboration is commenced.
10, An author should remember that production of a play
is highly speculative: that he runs a very great risk of
delay and a breakdown in the fulfilment of his contract.
He should therefore guard himself all the more carefully in
the beginning.
11. An author must remember that the dramatic market
is exceedingly limited, and that for a novice the first object
is to obtain adequate publication.
As these warnings must necessarily be incomplete, on
account of the wide range of the subject of dramatic con-
tracts, those authors desirous of further information
are referred to the Secretary of the Society.®
—_—_———
WARNINGS TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.
——>+
ITTLE can be added to the warnings given for the
assistance of producers of books and dramatic
authors. It must, however, be pointed out that, as
a rule, the musical publisher demands from the musical
composer a transfer of fuller rights and less liberal finan-
cial terms than those obtained for literary and dramatic
property. The musical composer has very often the two
rights to deal with—performing right and copyright. He
130
should be especially careful therefore when entering into
an agreement, and should take into particular consideration
the warnings stated above.
fo a
HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.
——
1. VERY member has a right to ask for and to receive
advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-
lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his
business or the administration of his property. The
Secretary of the Society is a solicitor, but if there is any
special reason the Secretary will refer the case to the
Solicitors of the Society. Further, the Committee, if they
deem it desirable, will obtain counsel’s opinion. All this
without any cost to the member.
2. Remember that questions connected with copyright
and publishers’ agreements do not fall within the experi-
ence of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use
the Society.
3. Send to the Office copies of past agreements and past
accounts, with a copy of the book represented. The
Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new
or old, for inspection and note. The information thus
obtained may prove invaluable.
4, Before signing any agreement whatever, send
the document to the Society for examination.
5. Remember always that in belonging to the Society
you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you
are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are
advancing the best interests of your calling in promoting
the independence of the writer, the dramatist, the composer.
6. The Committee have now arranged for the reception
of members’ agreements and their preservation in a fire-
proof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as
confidential documents to be read only by the Secretary,
who will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers :
—(1) To read and advise upon agreements and to give
advice concerning publishers. (2) To stamp agreements
in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep
agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to
agreements. Fuller particulars of the Society’s work
can be obtained in the Prospectus.
7. No contract should be entered into with a literary
agent without the advice of the Secretary of the Society.
Members are strongly advised not to accept without careful
consideration the contracts with publishers submitted to
them by literary agents, and are recommended to submit
them for interpretation and explanation to the Secretary
of the Society.
8. Many agents neglect to stamp agreements This
must be done within fourteen days of first execution. The
Secretary will undertake it on behalf of members.
9. Some agents endeayour to prevent authors from
referring matters to the Secretary of the Society; so
do some publishers. Members can make their own
deductions and act accordingly.
10. The subscription to the Society is £4 ds. per
annum, or £10 10s for life membership.
THE AUTHOR.
THE READING BRANCH.
— +
EMBERS will greatly assist the Society in this
branch of its work by informing young writers
of its existence. Their MSS. can be read and
treated as a composition is treated by a coach. The term
MSS. includes not only works of fiction, but poetry
and dramatic works, and when it is possible, under
special arrangement, technical and scientific works. The
Readers are writers of competence and experience. The
fee is one guinea.
_____¢——e —___—_
NOTICES.
—_+-—<—+-_—_
HE Editor of Zhe Author begs to remind members of
the Society that, although the paper is sent to them
free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a
very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great
many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest
5s. 6d. subscription for the year.
Communications for Zhe Author should be addressed to
the Offices of the Society, 39, Old Queen Street, Storey’s
Gate, §.W., and should reach the Editor not later than
the 24st of each month.
All persons engaged in literary work of any kind,
whether members of the Society or not, are invited to
communicate to the Editor any points connected with their
work which it would be advisable in the general interest to
publish.
a
Communications and letters are invited by the
Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on
no other subjects whatever. Every effort will be made to
return articles which cannot be accepted.
——
The Secretary of the Society begs to give notice
that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post,
and he requests members who do not receive an
answer to important communications within two days to
write to him without delay. All remittances should be
crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery Lane, or be sent
by registered letter only.
—_—__——_e —>—_+___—_
THE LEGAL AND GENERAL LIFE
ASSURANCE SOCIETY.
——
N offer has been made of a special scheme of
Endowment and Whole Life Assurance,
admitting of a material reduction off the
ordinary premiums to members of the Society.
Full information can be obtained from J. P. Blake,
Legal and General Insurance Society (City Branch),
158, Leadenhall Street, E.C.
én
THE AUTHOR.
AUTHORITIES.
~+—<— —
N pursuance of the intention expressed in our
I January number, we print under Corre-
spondence the letters on “ Should Well-known
Writers ‘Farm-out’ Fiction,” held over from the
last issue by order of the Committee. The writers
have had, and have in several cases availed them-
selves of, the opportunity of revising their com-
munications after perusal of the Committee’s note
on “ Proxy’s”’ letter.
THERE is no need to add anything to the appre-
ciation of Mr. George Gissing, from the pen of
Mr. E. W. Hornung, except to state that Mr.
Gissing had been a member of the Society since
1894, and, with Mr. Justin McCarthy, was elected
a member of the Council in March of last year.
It is with great regret that we must add one more
to the distinguished list of members of the Society
who have died during the past six months.
We print elsewhere a copy of a proposed Bill
brought forward for the purpose of amending the
existing United States Copyright Law, followed
by an article from the pen of Mr. George Haven
Putnam, which appeared in the New York Critic.
In the “ English Bookman” there was a short
reference to this Bill, stating that it upset the
copyright as existing between the United States
and Great Britain, and calling the Society’s atten-
tion to the point. We thank the editor for his
courtesy, but fear he must have been misinformed,
as the present Bill does not alter the effect of the
section as far as Great Britain is concerned.
GEORGE GISSING.
—1+—<——
HE death of George Gissing came as a
complete shock to most of us who mourn
him. Delicate he had been for years, but
in no such degree as to alarm his friends, who
were under the impression that he had derived
great benefit from his protracted sojourn at St.
Jean de Luz. Only a few days before Christmas
one heard with delight that there was just a chance
of his coming back to live in England. He must
have been upon his death-bed at the time. He
had been working very hard. Hard work with
131
Gissing meant as much writing in a day and a
half as most men accomplish in a week. His book
was his life while it lasted; often it had almost
been his death, for he scorned to spare himself till
the last page was written. His last book was
never finished. It was one that he had carried
in his mind for many years ; it is said that he was
within sight of the end; the irony might have
have been his own. Pneumonia struck him down ;
in three weeks he was dead.
It is hard to write of a dead man and his living
-work, especially when one knew the man better
than the work, and cared for him infinitely more.
There are many who speak of Gissing and his
work as though the two were warp and weft.
Those who knew him best will be the last to
accept that view. The man was one of the most
lovable ; the work was hardly that. The man had
abundant humour ; there is little humour in the
bulk of his books. He had a glorious laugh—a
laugh inconceivable to those who have only read
him. There was an appreciative sympathy, a
cordial humanity, which it would be difficult to
deduce from his writings. His serious view of
life may have been acrid and even savage, but he
was certainly not in the habit of obtruding his
serious view of life. This, of course, is only to
speak of the man as one had the privilege of
knowing him ; it is not to pretend to have known
the whole man, or to have plumbed his depths, but
only to have found him all unlike his books,
humorous, human, and humane.
On the other hand, there can be no denying that
much of his own personality and many of his
own experiences found or forced their way into
his fiction. Too fine a nature to sit down
deliberately to “make copy” of his joys and
sorrows, he was too true an artist not to dip his
en into his own cup as his inspiration urged.
At first sight it would appear that his knowledge
of life was entirely first-hand, his poverty of mere
imagination only compensated by the depth and
truth of his extraordinary insight into the secrets
of the heart. Yet there is more imagination in
“ New Grub Street” alone than is ever likely to
meet the ordinary eye. It was written in the days
when George Gissing frequented the Reading Room
at the British Museum. He made that the chief
scene of his story, likened the Readers in the wheel
of radiating desks to the flies in a spider’s web, and
drew their imaginary lives. There was, I believe,
in the author’s mind at least, a flesh-and-blood
original of every literary person in the book; and
some of them are Readers to this day. Written
as the book was, on Gissing’s own showing, in six
weeks to pay the rent, one of the characters,
Reardon, is depicted in that self-same plight ;
and when, in a candid criticism of Reardon’s
132
work, it is claimed for him that his best pages
were instinct with a certain “ intellectual glow,”
the self-portrait seems complete. There could be
no fitter phrase for the peculiar literary quality
which distinguishes the characteristic pages of
George Gissing. But the contrasting type, the
cynically successful young man of letters, is at
least as justly realised, as strongly drawn. And it
is difficult to believe that Gissing ever fraternised
with such a one in all his literary life.
During the last few years he had made a second
reputation for himself as a sane and illuminating
critic of Charles Dickens.
were discussed with equal sympathy and acumen
in a monograph and in the introductions to the
Rochester edition in course of publication by
Messrs. Methuen. It is greatly to be hoped that
all the introductions, so honest alike in. their
strictures and their enthusiasm, have long been in
the publishers’ hands. “I don’t relish this critical
writing,” he wrote with the task in hand; but it
is to be doubted if he ever did anything very much
better; for that beautiful veiled autobiography,
“The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft,” brilliantly
written as it is, and touchingly eloquent of the
man, is in many places marred for his friends
by an alien misanthropy and an almost morose
erversity of view.
Notable novelist as he was, with a vogue among
his peers indubitably dearer to his fine soul than
the plaudits of the crowd, there are those who
knew George Gissing through and through, and
who hold that novel-writing was not his true
vocation. ‘They say he was a greater scholar than
could possibly be gathered from his books, and that
he would have been truly great as a scholar pure
and simple. He had indeed a passion for the
classics, and the very temperament to have taken
kindly to a cloistered life; but it is futile to
pursue the thought. He spent his life in writing
the most modern novels imaginable, in a miscro-
scopic hand (a thousand words to the sheet of
sermon paper) in keeping with his microscopi¢
observation; and he has left behind him more
than one that may well survive as uncompromising
transcripts of their time. And a vivid memory of
the man, of his fine face, his noble head, his winning
kindness, will endure as long as the last of those
who knew him. That he retained his great personal
charm through all the storms of his inner life, is not
more extraordinary than the fact that he remained
to the last the most acutely sensitive of men. Into
the secret of those storms, as into the entire peace
cof his last years abroad, he admitted only his chosen
few ; for the rest of us it is enough to know that
the storms had long abated, and that the last years
swere the happiest of his life.
E. W. Hornune.
2 THE AUTHOR.
‘he immortal works ©
HENRY SETON MERRIMAN.
—1——+
HE many lovers of high-class fiction begin
this year with an irreparable loss. Two of
our leading novelists have fallen out of the
ranks, both in the prime of life and at the height
of their powers. Mr. G. Gissing is spoken of
elsewhere. He wrote under his own name. Mr.
Hl. S. Merriman did not. His name, no doubt
familiar to all readers of “ The Author,” was Hugh
Stowell Scott. He was a north-countryman, a
Tynesider, whose father, a successful self-made
man, wished his sons to adopt business as a
career. Though he knew the leaning of one
of his sons towards literature he did not desire to
encourage it. :
One day taking up a book that had interested
him, called “ Young Mistley,’ he said, “If you
could write like this I should not object to your
following a literary career.” As a matter of fact
Hugh Stowell Scott “could write like that,” for he
was its author. But he did not divulge the fact
at the time.
The writing both of Mr. Gissing and Mr. Merri-
man was close and intimate, charged with refine-
ment. But the advantage in subject was probably
Merriman’s. Merriman was so early a traveller as
to lay the story of “ Young Mistley” in India.
His characters were people of position. He was
able to write with as much realistic accuracy of
Paris and of peasant and noble in Russia in “‘ The
Sowers,” as he had done of India and of life on a
P. and O. boat in “ The Grey Lady,” and was to do
of Dantzic in “ Barlasch.” This last work was
perhaps the finest effort of his genius, and the
investment of his subject with local colour showed
the work of a great writer. He possessed at the
same time a marvellous faculty for creating character
to accord withit. All is bitten in with the clearness
of an etching, and one feels his thorough command
of idea and pen. The book is permeated with
historical atmosphere ; and while he presents an
immense background dominated by Napoleon, he
achieves the vital success of projecting into the
foreground all sorts and degrees of men with per-
sonalities equally strong. Here as ever he wrote
with convincing assimilation of, the incidents
moulding the lives he created. Alas! never again
can we say “A new novel by Merriman!” In
bidding adieu to Barlasch we bade adieu to his
maker. The one is as real to us as the other.
And each must have passed with the same supreme
satisfaction in good work accomplished.
, Mary Enz. Stevenson,
Author of “ A Maid of the Moor,” ete.
THE AUTHOR.
MEDICAL LITERATURE IN PUBLIC
LIBRARIES.
—_— eS
By A MepicaL AUTHOR.
HAVE just had placed in my hands the first
of a series of “ Special Bulletins” which has
been ordered by the Public Libraries Com-
mittee of Birkenhead to be printed and circulated
for the information of those interested. It is my
idea that all members of a society like the Society
of Authors should be interested in Public Libraries,
for every day, I think, brings us nearer to the time
when libraries, whether municipally conducted, or
founded by private munificence, or run on business
lines, will be the chief customers of the author.
These “Special Bulletins” form a sort of sub-
catalogues to the general catalogue of the six
Public Libraries at Birkenhead, and are issued to
show how the libraries provide for different sections
of the ratepayers of the town. The first of the
series is a classified list of books on medicine and
kindred subjects, contained either in the Central
Library or the Reference Library, and when I had
read it I was certain that a good many books got
into public libraries that are not in themselves of
much use and the perusal of which might do
considerable harm. I will take the sense of
readers of 7’he Author on these points.
The classified list is arranged alphabetically, and
under the head of “‘ Anatomy and Physiology ” we
have thirty-two works. Of these several are com-
pletely obsolete, while others owe their interest
more to their historical position than to their
actual advancement of modern learning. Under
the head of “ Bacteriology” we have nine works,
of which one at least is a completely worthless
book, while three are shown by their dates to be
more or jess obsolete. Under the head of “The
Brain” we have seventeen books which are fairly
well selected ; two of them, however, are distinctly
not standard works, and one—exactly the one that
I can imagine the lay public being most anxious
to obtain—is a distinctly unsound work. Under
the head of “ Diseases of Children” there are
sixteen books, largely of the advice-to-mother
order. Of these books two are never heard of
among medical men, and two were published
twenty years ago and have not, as far as I know,
been republished. They were, however, at their
date of issue good text-books, and if editions have
been issued since 1885 it might be worth while
for a public library to obtain them. Of the seven
books intended to form medico-domestic guides to
young mothers this much may be said—such
books are useful if they are intelligently used, and
mischievous if they are not. ‘I'he twelve books on
“The Eye” are on the whole well chosen, though
133
the teaching of two must be obsolete. ‘Twenty-six
books are arranged under the heading of “ Food,”
and they form a curious medley, for four are
obsolete ; one seems to be a cookery-book; two
are completely unknown to scientific students of
dietetics ; and several others cover identical ground.
Then follow seven books on ‘The Hand,” four
books on chiromancy being catalogued in company
with such genuinely scientific works as that of
Galton on Finger-Prints, that of the late Professor
Humphry on the Human Foot and Hand, and
Sir David Wilson’s disquisition on Right and
Left-handedness. Next come five books on
Hydrophobia, of which three are obsolete.
Then we have eighty-four books on Hygiene
and Public Health, which are on the whole well
chosen. Of: these thirty-two are made up by
the Transactions of the International Congress of
Hygiene and Demography of 1891 and of the
International Health Exhibition of 1884. Such
transactions have a proper place in a reference
library. Several of the other books are obsolete,
and of one or two I have no knowledge even by
hearsay. The remainder are thoroughly well-
chosen works. ‘The next eight volumes deal with
Hypnotism and Mesmerism, the best known book
on the subject not being included among them,
while the Transactions of the Psychical Society and
the works of the leaders of that Society are also
absent. Then come seventy-one books headed
*‘ Medicine and Health.” This is a heterogeneous
collection ranging from well-known manuals and
text-books, through household medicines and
popular guides, to such works as a dissertation on
a particular mineral-water, an indictment of vac-
cination, a seventeenth-century epitome of The
Secrets of Surgery, an eighteenth-century Her-
barium, an essay on Dress in its Relation to
Health, a Student’s Guide to the Medical Pro-
fession dated before the passage of the Acts of
Parliament by which the medical profession is now
regulated, and a Girls’ Book of Health and Beauty.
Then we have twenty-two books upon “ Nursing,”
among which are some of the more valuable treatises.
Under the head of “Physical Culture” we have
seventeen works of varying value and scope. On
the whole the works in this section are good, but
Sir Frederick Treves, Mr. Eugene Sandow, and
the late R. A. Proctor can hardly before have ,
found themselves in the same special class of a
library catalogue. Under the head of “Surgery ”
are included works on surgical anatomy and ambu-
lance lectures. The two best manuals of surgery
are in this list—a comparatively short one, consist-
ing of twenty-four works only. Works on Throat
and Voice and on Vivisection are followed by a
heading called “Miscellaneous ””—and miscella-
neous it is—for under it fall a work on scientific
134
dressmaking, a herbalists’ manual, a work on
artificial limbs dated fifty years ago, a note on
hydropathy, a highly scientific work by the late
Professor Tyndall, and a note on scent by a
well-known perfumer.
It will be seen from this rough and ready
analysis that the ratepayers of Birkenhead are in
possession of a fairly good medical library, not
sufficiently modern or comprehensive to be of any
use to medical men engaged in research work or
scientific literary pursuits, but including more
standard works than anyone not a medical man is
likely to want to consult, or to be benefited by
reading. I am not sure what purpose Free
Libraries are meant to serve, but it seems to me
that the collection of works in the Special Bulletin
No. 1 of the Birkenhead Public Libraries caters
for no one. It is not a scientific collection and it
is not a popular collection. As far as scientific
workers are concerned, Free Libraries can never be
of much good in the more progressive branches of
science, for the ratepayers cannot be expected to
provide new and expensive works on bacteriology
or physiology every year, yeb every year brings
some new discovery which ought to be recorded.
As regards the needs of the general public such
works are not of much use, unless the practical
application of their teaching to the needs of every-
day life is well brought out. This is the case in
only a small proportion of the books in the Special
Bulletin ; but just where the public are mostly in
want of instruction—that is to say, in matters
relating to food and general hygiene—it is gratify-
ing to point out that the Birkenhead Free Libraries
supply sound literature.
I wonder if members of the Society of Authors,
whose special knowledge lies in different directions
to my own, have any experience of the contents of
the large Free Libraries as far as their own
pursuits are concerned. Is law, is theology, is
engineering similarly served? Are the works
dealing with these branches of learning, supplied to
the public out of the ratepayers’ money, either not
scientific enough or modern enough for the
purposes of the serious student, or too abstruse for
the general reader? Because if so, Free Libraries
would seem somewhat to fail in their aims. As far
as medical books are concerned, I am quite sure
that the Committees that manage Free Libraries
ought to pursue one policy. They should save the
ratepayers’ money by buying only a few standard
medical works, renewing these when their advisers
in the matter warn them that new editions are
necessary. Special care should be taken that the
medical works put into general circulation are
sound and authoritative, while works on palmistry,
cookery, and district nursing should not be
catalogued as medical. Preference also should be
THE AUTHOR.
given to books of general instruction, books
containing general principles, dictionaries and
works of reference. Manuals for students should
not be bought. There is never any particular
reason for purchasing one special treatise more
than another, while the premises of Free Libraries
are not intended to shelter genuine medical
students for whom other provision is always made.
With regard to amateur medical students, it is
important that medical books should be inspected
from the point of view of the wholesomeness of
their contents before they are put into circulation.
Some medical books make dangerous public reading.
The composition of our Free Libraries is a
matter of national importance. Too many people
think that when they have voted for a library-rate
they have done their duty, and that a well-chosen
collection of books will immediately occur. This
need not be the case, at any rate if general con-
clusions may be drawn from the special cireum-
stances to which I have alluded.
gee 9
A PLEA FOR PEDANTRY.
—1 >
“ (P\HAT ain’t sense!” a well-known member
[ of the House of Commons is reported to
have remarked after the reading of an
amendment; and the ejaculation, both in its
matter and its manner, is characteristic of the
age. How often the dignity of sense suffers in
the expression of it! “There is a good deal of
sense in that article,” remarks pater familias,
buttoning his overcoat before starting for the
City; and his eldest son, “fresh from the
beauty and the bliss” of Balliol, takes up the
paper and reads, “The Liberals are clamouring
and Mr. Balfour obdurately silent ’—and all he
notices is that the writer is ungrammatical,
because, great man though the Prime Minister
be, he can claim only the singular verb like any
ordinary mortal. Sense may be the dish; but
style is the cookery: and the palate of the purist
receives many a rude shock. In these modern
days of newspapers full of paragraphs “ written
up” by a jaded journalist overnight, and hastily
scanned by an equally jaded reader in the stifling
“Tube” next morning ; of letters spoken into a
phonograph and typed off in duplicate ;—yea, of
novels produced in the same fashion at the rate of
three or four a year; of political pamphlets and
books of biography and of travel hastily put
together and rushed through the printing press
in order to catch an ephemeral market ;—in these
modern days, what chance has our stately and
beautiful language, with all its history behind it ?
THE AUTHOR.
Then let us welcome the pedant and the purist, for
_ they have their uses.
The lack of leisure, in literature as elsewhere, is
accountable for much, since many errors are due to
the habit of condensing. ‘You must try to love
me as you have your parents ” is ungrammatical,
yet harmless ; but how about the assertion that
“He loathed sausages as much as his wife” ?
What a picture is given of domestic disquietude !
__whereas the reality, fatally obscured by the omis-
sion of the little word “did,” was a distinctly
harmonious breakfast-table. It is painful to read
that “when the chemical students had given in
the results of their researches, they were sealed up
in test-tubes and set aside to be analysed by the
professor.” What a fiscal problem is presented by
this sentence: ‘He spent two guineas a week on
cigars which he might have given to the poor ”!
Many errors are due, not to condensing, but to
bad arrangement :—“ Tennyson’s ‘ May Queen ’ is
a poem about a girl divided into three parts.”
And, “opposite stretch the long lines of blanched
walls, where now live the King of United Italy
and his fair Queen Margherita of Savoy, some-
what plain-faced and bald, and descending whole
streets in their enormous length and breadth of
circuit.’ The words only, merely, and not are
pitfalls in this respect, and the Post Office authori-
ties fell headlong into one of them when they
informed the public “The address only. to be
written on this side.” ‘To the purist, this conveys
that the address is only to be written, not, for
example, typed.
When once the habit of noting errors becomes a
hobby, they seem to crop up everywhere—in news-
papers, sermons, speeches, books, letters, advertise-
ments. How often we hear of “a house on the
left side going down the street,” or “a cab-stand
coming up the road.” “Each of us have” and
“neither of them were’’ are sadly familiar, even
within bookcovers. When there are two brothers,
is not the elder invariably the eldest ? And of
two apples, is not the bigger always the biggest ?
“This is one of the commonest errors that has
crept into the language,” one is told. “Has
they?” the pedant answers mildly. “ Strictly
speaking, there was no necessity ”__noor participle,
without a relation to support it !
Often pronouns are the cause of woe. What
can be made of this: “He told me his brother
had a friend and he wished him to emigrate ; but
he had said he ought to wait till he saw if his
uncle would help him, as he told him he would if
he approved of him.” Then there is the fatal
impersonal pronoun “one,” that no Briton can
handle with safety. The British are less successful
than the French with verbs also. How often the
novelist, in the midst of a narrative, leaps from
135
the past tense to the present and back again !
And how hopelessly muddled the reporter becomes
during three columns of indirect quotation ! And,
most familiar of all, “ Mr. Jones will have much
pleasure in accepting Mrs. Smith’s kind invitation.”
“ What ought you to say instead of ‘I shall have
much pleasure in accepting’ ?” a teacher asked his
class. “I will have much pleasure!” cried an
eager Scot. Folk north of the Tweed have to
submit to much quizzing for their use of shall
and will and for other Scotticisms ; but there are
not a few colloquialisms peculiar to the dwellers
south of that river. It strikes the Scottish ear at
once when someone says “ different to” instead of
“ different from,” or “differ with” instead of
“differ from.” It was perhaps a rash and
carping pedantry that prompted someone to
demand of a renowned barrister that he should
say “disagree from.” He listened to the logic
and courteously announced himself convinced ; but
presently he was heard to mutter below his breath,
“] disagree from you, my lord,—my lord, i
disagree from you. No,no! Couldn’t! Couldn’t
possibly!” The English seem prone to the use of
“lay” instead of “lie”—Byron and Shelley are
both defaulters—“ There let it lay” : and to the
substitution of “like” for “as”—‘ Like I did.”
But perhaps the Englishism most noticeable to
the stranger is to be heard in the addition of
the letter 7 after the vowel a—‘ the sofar is,”
_“the idear of it!’”—“ Mariar ought.” This is
now as prevalent as the inserted 4, and among a
more cultured class. As with the h, the r is not
only inserted where it ought not to be, but is left
out where it owght to occur, and hence that horror,
the “ Cockney rhyme ”—“ palm—harm,” and “ Oh
Mamma, See the star!”
It is pleasant to find the Chronicle entering the
lists as a purist. A few days ago it called atten-
tion to “a common error,” and cited examples
culled from its own pages :—“‘ Mr. A. B. Walkeley
writes to Mr. Bourchier: “I could not go to a
theatre from which I had been excluded without
that exclusion being publicly apologised for 47
“Pardon me saying” and “ Forgive me coming y
are simpler forms of the same.
“ Fyom May to December, inclusive,” or ‘‘ From
G. to N., inclusive,” is universal ; but is it sense ?
“To and from Regent Street and City, 37.” meets the
eye of many literary people on their way befween
fashion and Grub Street : does it vex their souls ?
As to “Bespoke Bootmaker” and “ Practical
Chimneysweep,” they are beneath notice.
Once we enter the realms of pure pedantry, there
is much to engage our attention. The dainty
disused subjunctive meets us reproachfully. The
rival claims of the pronouns that and which wait,
as they have waited since the Elizabethan age, to
136
be settled. The doubtful grammar of “these
kind” and “those sort” has to be seriously con-
sidered. The poor word demean demands a
knight-errant to rescue her from the clutches of
mean, to whom she owes no allegiance, and
restore her to her proper relation demeanour.
And in the train of demean come many mis-
used words—mutual and aggravate, replace and
appreciate, the debased awful, fallen from her
high estate, and all the rest. There is also the
phrase “and which ”—a phrase that, it is alleged,
a certain weekly in its palmy days used to keep a
special proof-reader to delete. There is “fine
day” when the day is only fair; and there is
“infinitely less,” when the comparison is between
things necessarily finite. ‘A sentence should
never have a preposition to end up with” was the
remark of someone who taught better by precept
than by example. But purists go further, and, not
content with objecting to “quite perfect” and
“quite better,” even question the propriety of
“more true.” But this last contention seems to
step beyond the realms of literary criticism alto-
gether, and to land one in the hazy atmosphere of
philosophy.
The errors that have been enumerated are only
a few of the most common, but will help to recall
many others to the mind, and may perhaps
persuade some readers to own that, though the
pedant be a fractious and annoying member of
any society—most of all of the Society of Authors
—he is not altogether without his uses, nor yet
altogether without his excuses.
ROSALINE Masson.
Oa
THE ARTIST AS CRITIC.*
+
HE Editor’s note to this, the twelfth,
volume of Messrs. Macmillan’s edition of
Thackeray’s Works explains that for the
first time the “Critical Papers in Literature ” are
brought together in one volume and arranged in
chronological order instead of being scattered
throughout the various volumes of the editions.
The advantages of such a plan are obvious, but it
does not appear from this preface what was the
compelling cause to make any exceptions; the
exceptions, however, are carefully noted, and
reference is given to the other volumes in which the
papers severally appear. Thus the first review
known to have been written by Thackeray, on
* “Critical Papers in Literature,’ by William Makepeace
Thackeray. London: Macmillan & Co., Limited, 1904.
Crown 8yo., 3s. 6d,
THE AUTHOR.
Robert Montgomery’s poem, ‘ Woman : The Angel
of Life,” was published in 7'e National Standard
dated the 15th of June, 1833, and is now reprinted
in vol. ix. of this edition; in the same volume
appears his review of Victor Hugo’s “ Etude sur
Mirabeau ” ; other literary papers entitled respec-
tively, “Madame Sand and the New Apocalypse,”
“Qn some French Fashionable Novels: With a
Plea for Romances in General,” and “ French
Dramas and Melodramas” are reprinted in vol.
vii. of this edition; finally a note of importance
will be found in vol. xi., covering the question of
other reviews supposed to have been contributed by
Thackeray to Fraser’s Magazine, some of which
have been positively identified and are reprinted in
that volume.
Of the twenty-nine papers included in the present
volume, six are reprinted for the first time, four are
reprinted for the first time in England, and twenty-
one are for the first time included in an edition of
Thackeray’s Works. The most important “find ”’
from the bibliographer’s point of view is an invoice
sent by Thackeray to 7%e Times for contributions
during November, 1838; this “ find” was made by
Mr. Moberly Bell, who sent a copy of the letter
and invoice to Messrs. Macmillan; reference to a
file of The Times disclosed articles entitled “The
Annuals,” Tyler’s “Life of Henry V.,” Fraser’s
“Winter Journey to Persia,’ Count Valerian
Krasinski’s “History of the Reformation in Poland,”
all of which are now reprinted for the first time,
and a couple of paragraphs entitled “ Steam Navi-
gation in the Pacific,’ which are omitted as not
coming within the scope of the volume. The two
other articles now first reprinted are a review of
the “Memoirs of Joseph Holt, General of the Irish
Rebels in 1798,” which appeared in Zhe Times for
the 31st of January, 1838, and Thackeray’s sole
contribution to The Edinburgh Review, which was
published in October, 1845, ridiculing N, P. F.
Willis’s “ Dashes at Life with a Free Pencil.”
Of the other fifteen papers now first included in
an edition of Thackeray’s Works the most interest-
ing, regarded as Critical Papers, are the ‘ Duchess
of Marlborough’s Private Correspondence,” “ Eros
and Anteros, or ‘Love’,” “A Diary Relative to
George IV. and Queen Caroline,” “The Poetical
Works of Dr. Southey,” “ Fielding’s Works,” “ Mr.
Macaulay’s Essays,” and “Coningsby, or the New
Generation.” These, with the more familiar papers
on Carlyle’s “French Revolution,” “Grant in
Paris,” ‘Dickens in France,” and ‘Jerome
Paturot,” enable one to arrive at a definite opinion
of Thackeray’s claim to consideration as judge of
other people’s work, and to assess the worth of the
artist in his other réle of critic.
His own opinion of the function of the critic is
recorded in this volume. An eminent artist had
as
THE AUTHOR.
suggested that it was the writer's duty only to speak
of pictures particularly when one could speak in
terms of praise ; not, of course, to praise unjustly,
but to be discreetly silent when there was no
opportunity. “Itis a fine maxim,” says Thackeray
in his genial way, ‘“‘and should be universally
adopted—across a table. Why should not Medi-
ocrity be content, and fancy itself Genius? Why
should not Vanity go home, and be a little more
vain? If you tell the truth, ten to one that
Dulness only grows angry, and is not a whit
less dull than before—such being itsnature. But
when I becomes we—sitting in judgment, and
delivering solemn opinions—ie must tell the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth ;
for then there is a third party concerned—the
public—between whom andthe writer, or painter, the
critic has to arbitrate, and he is bound to show no
favour. What is kindness to the one, is injustice to
the other, who looks for an honest judgment, and
is by far the most important party of the three ;
the two others being, the one the public’s servant,
the other the public’s appraiser, sworn to value, to
the best of his power, the article that is for sale.
The critic does not value rightly, it is true, once in
a thousand times ; but if he do not deal honestly,
wo be to him! The hulks are too pleasant for
him, transportation too light. For ourselves, our
honesty is known ; every man of the band of critics
(that awful, unknown Vehmgericht, that sits in
judgment in the halls of ReGrna) is gentle, though
miserable, loving, though stern, just above all. As
fathers, we have for our dutiful children the most
tender yearning and love; but we are, everyone of
us, Brutuses, and at the sad intelligence of our
children’s treason we weep—the father will ; dwt
we chop their heads off.”
Indeed they do. And where decapitation of the
culprit seems to be the proper end, Thackeray sees
to it that the capital penalty is preceded by
scourging more or less severe. Sometimes his
whip has but a single thong. In “ Eros and
Anteros, or ‘Love,’” for instance, he deprecates
any claim to being regarded as omniscient with a
parenthesis that disarms hostility. Lady Charlotte
Bury wrote a novel in which all the figures are
exclusives, fashionables, or lords; the silly things
they severally do are best left in the oblivion to
which they have sunk, but the critic challenges
the accuracy of the picture. “Thank Heaven,”
he says, “the world (unless in the most exclusive
circles) does not do this.” In that admission of
the possibility of his own ignorance there is brine
in which the thong is soaked. Sometimes his
whip has double thongs: Lady Charlotte Bury
felt it, owing to her responsibility for the “ Diary
Relative to George LV. and Queen Caroline.” “ We
never met with a book more pernicious or mean.”
137
Phrase after phrase of bitterly scornful denuncia-
tion falls from the curling lip of the judge to
culminate in an almost savage peroration. ‘There
is no need now to be loyal to your prince or tender
to his memory. Take his bounty while living,
share his purse and his table, gain his confidence,
and learn his secrets, flatter him, cringe to him,
vow to him an unbounded fidelity—and when he
is dead, write a diary and betray him!”
Jules Janin felt it, too, and it is noteworthy
that it was on behalf of Dickens that Thackeray
seized his double thonged whip and laid about the
shoulders of the French critic. ‘“ Dickens in
France” the article is called, and it will repay
study as an example of culminative scorn: as an
example, too, of the justice on which he prided
himself, for it is by textual quotation of the
culprit’s own words and of passages from his own
paper that he establishes his case.
Naturally, several of the longer essays are
expository rather than critical, but they are admir-
ably written: the article on Tyler’s “ Life of
Henry V.” is Thackeray’s own precis of the story
as told by the old chroniclers; that on Count
Valerian Krasinski’s “ History of the Reformation
in Poland” is little more than one long quotation
from the book itself; those on Holt’s “ Memoirs,”
Fraser’s “ Winter Journey to Persia,” and Willis’s
« Dashes at Life” are little more than summaries
enlivened by comment characteristic of Thackeray,
and, especially in the case of the last book, relieved
by not unkindly banter. Willis, indeed, seems to
have been treated too leniently.
It is in the estimates formed of Carlyle’s “ History
of the French Revolution,” of Macaulay’s * Essays,”
of “Coningsby,” of Fielding’s Works and of
Southey’s collected poems that Thackeray’s right to
be deemed a sound critic may most fairly be tested,
and for our own part we think it has been estab-
lished by general consent. Carlyle’s opinion of
Thackeray’s opinion of him is recorded in the
preface : “ His article is rather like him, and, I
suppose; calculated to do the book good’’: rather
grudging perhaps, but surely the best possible
tribute to the quality of the criticism, which ought
to be as much the expression of the critic’s indi-
vidual self as the book should be of the author’s.
It is pleasant to recognise the man’s alacrity to
recognise merit in his contemporaries ;_ the
courteous, almost deferential, respect he has for
Macaulay’s attainments, the singular aptness of
the epithets he applies to Disraeli’s ‘« Coningsby,”
and the acumen and sanity of his judgment of
Southey’s Poems. The whole-hearted, generous
enthusiasm he cherishes for Fielding, communi-
cates a glow, and we welcome an edition of
Thackeray containing this essay. Altogether, this
book has given us a great deal of pleasure already,
138
and we are glad to record, in addition to our love
for Thackeray the artist, our respect for Thackeray
the critic. V. E. M.
_—-—_»
CORRESPONDENCE.
—1~>—-
/ SHOULD WELL-KNOWN WRITERS
“FARM-OUT” FICTION ?
AN,
Sir,—In your December number appears a
contribution from “ Proxy,” entitled, ‘Should well-
known writers ‘farm-out’ fiction ?” in which he
attempts to justify popular authors in palming off,
as their own original work, novels and tales written
by “ghosts” in their employ. - “ Proxy ” supports
his theory that such an act is perfectly justifiable
by the argument “ whether Blank himself actually
writes the books or whether he employs someone
to write them for him is really of no great con-
sequence as far as the reader is concerned.”
To the grocer who takes half-a-crown across
the counter, it is of no great consequence whether
the coin has been stolen or honestly earned, but
pocket- picking is a felony nevertheless.
By the way, I find in this article an allusion to
“poor Gilbert’s inimitable humour.” J am much
obliged to the writer for his sympathetic reference
to me, but why “poor?” If he means that I am
in embarrassed circumstances, I have much pleasure
in assuring him that I still contrive to keep my
head above water. If he is under the impression
that I am a helpless invalid, it gratifies me to
inform him that I am in robust health. If he
supposes me to be disembodied, I am pleased to
say that I am not even an author’s ghost.
Yours faithfully,
W.S. GILBERT. -
ah ae ae a
Il.
Srr,—After reading the article with the above
title, signed ‘“‘ Proxy,” in the December issue of
The Author, one has to ask oneself whether it is
intended to be taken seriously or as a joke. It
seems hardly possible to believe that it is serious,
or else the writer must be one who can see no
wrong in defrauding nor in being defrauded.
It makes no difference to the case whether the
author is well-known or not, although, of course,
the circumstances could not apply to an obscure
one. The writer of this article compares an author
who employs a proxy with a person carrying on
THER AUTHOR.
the business of a manufacturer or storekeeper
under some other name than his or her own, and
seems to think that there is no difference. In
buying at a certain store, whether a piece of
furniture, a gun, a watch, a garment or any other
thing, no one supposes that the head of the firm
makes every article sold there, neither does he put
them forward as his individual handicraft ; it is
work made or sold under his auspices and for
which he takes the responsibility. It is the
publisher who should be compared with such a
person, not the writer of a work. The publisher isa
dealer in books (which he may get written or pro-
duced to order), and each work is put before the
public as his publication, but not as his composition.
One does not buy a book for the sake of the
publisher, but for the sake of the matter or of the
writer ; the composition is set forth as being by
such and such a person, as being that person’s
original work, for which reason that person takes
the name of author ; and, if the supposed author’s
name is on the title-page and the work is not his or
her composition, then is fraud being committed.
If an “author” employs a proxy, then it should be
stated that the work is produced for or under the
auspices of that “well-known writer,” otherwise
the publisher is put in the same position as a
picture-dealer who sells the work of one artist as
that of another.
This practice in favour of which “ Proxy ”
writes is causing money to be obtained under faise —
pretences, and is deliberate fraud by the supposed
author and the proxy on the publisher and the
public, and also by the proxy on him or herself.
Doubtless some member of the Society of
Authors is acquainted with a work written by a
proxy or “ ghost ’? and put forward as that of some
well-known writer ; if so, I should very much like
to see the Society instigate, on behalf of a member
purchasing a copy of such a work, a prosecution for
fraud of the supposed author whore name appears
on the title-page, or else see a publisher undertake
the prosecution of such a supposed author.
HvuBert HAEs.
<>
III.
Sir,—A writer calling himself “ Proxy” has
detailed to us, in the December number of The
Author, the sophistries with which he, and, of
course, his principal before him, have succeeded in
drugging conscience. He offers those arguments
to us as an excellent prescription, as if we too
must be anxious to get rid of that tiresome voice
which urges probity !
‘To begin with, his claim to authority on the
THE AUTHOR.
subject of “ ghosting,” as being himself a “ ghost,”
is hardly valid. It could not logically be allowed
without conceding the same high standpoint to all
who profit by malpractices, wherever found. The
law of the land, judge and jury, would then count
for nothing. We should appeal to the receiver of
stolen goods for an anonymous verdict.
But why does “ Proxy” stand forth at all?
We have no personal quarrel with him or his tribe.
What we wish to see stopped is the practice, said
to be widespread, of flourishing authors choking
the market, filling space valuable to others, with
work not their own. ‘The selfishness is only made
possible by a downright, fraudulent lie ; for, I take
it, most authors regard their name or pseudonym
appended to work as nearer to an affidavit than “a
sort of trade-mark.” “Proxy” may be simply an
honest man in reduced circumstances. “ Blank,”
his employer, is, frankly, a scoundrel.
The reference to modern business methods as
the standard of honesty is downright funny.
Indeed, ‘“ Proxy’s” whole article has the ring of
fine satire, making one scent a hoax.
“T may say, to begin with, that the writers for
whom I act as proxy know me sufficiently well to
be aware that I am not likely ever to blackmail
them, and in selecting a proxy this is of course an
extremely important consideration.”
Shade of Mistress Quickly! ... Is not this
pure satire? Or can “ Proxy,” after writing that,
still really wonder at members of the Authors’
Society agreeing “ that the practice is reprehensible
in the extreme”?
Just one more quotation. This is one of the dire
alternatives presented to “the writer of popular
fiction”? who receives applications for work in
excess of his output:— He must decline to
undertake to get through more than a compara-
tively small amount of work, and thus, in the
language of the box-office, ‘turn good money
away.’” In other words, he must decline to get
money by dishonest means, degrading to himself,
defrauding to others, and unfair even to the
“ghost” who is robbed of personality. Isn’t it
hard on the poor devil ?
That there are among “ghosts” men keenly
alive to a debasement into which real want has
fcrced them, we are fain to believe. Mr. Leonard
Merrick’s “ Cynthia” contains a convincing picture
of such an one. [If all were as cynically content in
their background as “ Proxy ” pretends to be, pity
would be wasted on them. But contempt is by
no means wasted on their employers. Like other
cheats they deserve nothing but the cold shoulder,
and will get it, sure enough, when discovered.
But the job is to catch them.
MARMADUKE PICKTHALL.
139
IV.
Str,—You have now published in The Author
three letters and one article dealing with the inte-
resting process which the writers thereof describe,
according to their differing opinions upon the
subject, either by the airy name of “ ghosting,”
or the more solid and uncompromising term,
“ fraud.”
One has heard before, generally in fiction, of the
literary vampire who sucks the brains of the un-
fortunate hack; and I do not think that one has
felt much inclined to believe in his existence out-
side the pages of romance. The recent corres-
pondence in Zhe Author, however, seems to prove
that the vampire is a very actual personage indeed
—on the testimony of no less a person than the
hack himself, who certainly ought to know, and
who appears quite willing to take us into his
(strictly anonymous) confidence, in spite of the
vows of silence and secrecy which he has sworn to
the vampire whom he serves.
Of course, if the hack chooses, or is forced by
circumstances, to earn his living by writing for the
vampire, that is nobody’s business but his own.
Of the two parties concerned in a dirty business,
the hack should have the clearer conscience. But
it certainly has struck me as singular that three
out of the four communications published have
unblushingly tried to whitewash this ghosting
affair. Indeed, *‘ Proxy,” in his article, reaches a
point beyond even the whitewash pot. He boldly
sets himself to prove that the ghosting system is
perfectly fair and honest, and tells us that he looks
upon the vampire as “a Heaven-sent being, and
not, as some appear (!) to consider him, a species
of imposter.” “ Proxy’s” idea of a “ Heaven-sent
being” seems rather dangerously original, to say the
least of it—but let that pass. He goes on to make
a statement which one cannot let pass so easily.
“ Whether Blank himself actually writes the books,
or whether he employs someone to write them for
him,” he declares, “is really of no great conse-
quence so far as the general reader is concerned.
The general reader looks upon Blank’s name as @
sort of trade mark—nothing more.”
Now, in the name of the general reader, I protest
against this statement of * Proxy’s.” I, for one,
do not look upon Blank’s name upon the novel
which he offers to the public as his own as “a sort
of trade mark.” When I order a book purporting
to be written by Blauk, I do not expect to geb a
novel which “Proxy ” has written for Blank to sign
—-andsell. I want Blank, I order Blank, I expect to
get Blank ; and if [ get “ Proxy ” instead of Blank
I maintain that I have as good a right to consider
myself cheated as though I had asked for—and
paid for—butter, and received margarine. I am
140
not depreciating ‘‘ Proxy’s”’ work—it may be as good
as, or even better than Blank’s; but that argument
has nothing to do with the case.
I cannot help thinking that this is the view the
general reader will take, in spite of ‘‘ Proxy’s” com-
fortable conscience—salving sophistries to the con-
trary. The public undoubtedly buys Blank’s book,
and orders it at the libraries, on the strength of
the position Blank has already achieved in fiction ;
if it finds out that such a system as “ Proxy” reveals,
and upholds, is in vogue, it is not difficult to foresee
that, however unsatisfactory the sale of novels
may be at present, it will soon become infinitely
worse.
We have heard a good deal about the iniquities
of the publisher, but if the state of things described
by “Proxy” and others really exists, then it seems to
me that the virtuous, long-suffering author stands
in a glass house in which he will find it exceed-
ingly difficult to throw stones at his natural enemy.
Meanwhile, as a consequence of these interesting
revelations by “ Proxy” & Co., the literary profes-
sion stands practically under the imputation of com-
mitting a wholesale and comprehensive fraud upon
an unsuspecting public. Three successive numbers
of your periodical have reiterated the accusation ;
and so far not one novelist of prominence has come
forward to deny, in his own name at least, this
shameful charge. “ Proxy” and his fellows have
flung down the gauntlet—is there no writer who
dare lift it, for the honour of the art he serves ?
Or is it indeed true that we are all a set of dis-
honest hucksters, cheating the public and lying
amongst ourselves, thinking only of our price per
thousand, and not caring by what fraudulent methods
it is obtained ?
CHALLENGER.
P.S.—Since the above was written, the Com-
mittee has issued a note in The Author, very
properly recording its opinion of the practice
which “ Proxy” defends as “a gross fraud both
on the publisher and the public.” So far, so
good ; but is it not possible to go a little further
—to take steps to discover and publish the names
of the culprits? In Mr. Ascher’s letter on the
subject in the October number he speaks of
instances of “ ghosting” which have fallen under
his own notice. Surely if he or any member of
the Society possesses proof of a case of this kind,
he owes it to the whole literary profession to make
it public. It may be very difficult, for many
reasons, to stop “ghosting” altogether; but
exposure seems to me to be the first and most
powerful weapon against it. No condemnation
of the system, as a system, will effect much good
unless the actual individual concerned can be
shown up. It is almost impossible to believe that
THE AUTHOR.
popular and well-paid writers can carry on this
fraud for any great length of time with impunity,
and one can only hope that the first proven case of
the kind which comes to the knowledge of the
Society will mect with the public disgrace which it
so richly deserves.
ig
V.
DEAR Srr,—The defence in your December
number of farming out literary work, whether
real or fictitious, certainly shows that for a poor
“ohost”” half a loaf is better than no bread, and
it also illustrates the increasing difficulty of getting
good work accepted on its merits. A great many
modern magazine editors and publishers are quite
incapable of judging for themselves as to the
quality of work submitted to them. Tell a story is
by some well-known writer, and at once they read
merit into it. This is what gives the farmer his
chance. He depends upon their lack of critical
faculty, and power of distinguishing between one
man’s style and another’s. They want names, and
names only. Very often, too, in the lower walks
of fiction the difference between the work of one
man’s and another's is that between Tweedledum
and Tweedledee, but the fact that one of the two
has succeeded by a fluke gives him a certain market
value. Farming out work and taking pay from
publishers at rates that would not be given if the
publishers knew the truth, is simply a form of
swindling, and the authors who do such things
may justly fear blackmail, and wish to be quite
sure of their partner. For the poor accomplice,
unknown to fame, despairing of ever attaining it,
and driven by necessity, one can have little save
pity. At any rate he honestly does the work for
which he takes pay, and if he does not object
to letting another get the credit, no third party
need revile him; but what are we to say of the
man who employs him? An instance has recently
come to my knowledge of a poor gentleman, fallen
on evil days, a scholar and a linguist, who for about
£30 did the translation of a long and highly
technical work that bears on its cover the name of
a popular author as the translator. ‘The “ ghost”
did not complain. It was not from him, or with
his knowledge, I heard of this flagrant case. I
believe he had hopes the popular author would
recommend him to publishers to undertake other
translations. How likely! When I read the
favourable comments of the Press on the book in
question, of the skill shown by Mr. So-and-so in
turning it into English, it “makes me tired,” if
you will pardon the Americanism.
Yours faithfully,
INCOGNITO.
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The Author, Vol. 14 Issue 05 (February 1904)
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<em>The Author</em>, Vol. 14 Issue 05 (February 1904)
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Che Hutbor.
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors.
FOUNDED BY SIR
Monthly.)
WALTER BESANT.
Vou. XIV.—No. 4.
TELEPHONE NUMBER :
374 VICTORIA.
TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS :
AUTORIDAD, LONDON.
1
NOTICES.
—_ >
OR the opinions expressed in papers that are
signed or initialled the authors alone are
responsible. None of the papers or para-
graphs must be taken as expressing the opinion
of the Committee unless such is especially stated
to be the case.
Tuer Editor begs to inform members of the
Authors’ Society and other readers of 7he Author
that the cases which are from time to time quoted
in The Author are cases that have come before the
notice or to the knowledge of the Secretary of the
Society, and that those members of the Society
who desire to have the names of the publishers
concerned can obtain them on application.
+
List of Members.
Tue List of Members of the Society of Authors
published October, 1902, at the price of 6d., and
the elections from October, 1902, to July, 1903, as
a supplemental list, at the price of 2d., can now be
obtained at the offices of the Society.
They will be sold to members or associates of
the Society only.
a
The Pension Fund of the Society.
THE investments of the Pension Fund at
present standing in the names of the Trustees are
as follows.
This is a statement of the actual stock; the
VoL, XIV.
JANUARY Ist, 1904.
[Price SIXPENCE.
money value can be easily worked out at the current
price of the market :—
Be £1000 0 0
Wiocal Uioans 26s 500 0 0
Victorian Government 8 % Consoli-
dated Inscribed Stock ............... oot 19 18
OY Eo oes nss pete 201 9 8
Mota. ...0.2...3. £1,993 9 2
Subscriptions from October, 1903.
£ s. a.
Noy. 13, Longe, Miss Julia. : - 0 5.0
Dec. 16, Trevor, Capt. Philip 0 5 0
Donations from October, 1908.
4
Oct. 27, Sturgis, Julian é ; oo
Nov. 2, Stanton, V.H. .
Nov. 18, Benecke, Miss Ida.
Nov. 28, Harraden, Miss Beatrice
Dec. Minniken, Miss
The following members have also made subscrip-
tions or donations :—
Meredith, George, President of the Society.
Thompson, Sir Henry, Bart., F.R.C.S.
Rashdall, The Rev. H.
Guthrie, Anstey.
Robertson, C. B.
Dowsett, C. F.
There are in addition other subscribers who do
not desire that either their names or the amount
they are subscribing should be printed.
ourFaAe
nooo So
ooo oo
<> 6
FROM THE COMMITTEE.
—
Ar the meeting of the Committee held on
Monday, December 7th, twenty members and asso-
ciates were elected, bringing the total number of
elections for the current year to just over 200.
Among the subjects discussed and dealt with
were financial matters, the unveiling of the
memorial to Sir Walter Besant (which took place
86
on the 11th of December), cheap postage on maga-
zines to the Colonies, and finally the article signed
“ Proxy” in the December number of Ze Author.
The Committee decided that a paragraph should
be inserted in the next number of Ze Author
condemning the practice described by “ Proxy.”
Sir Gilbert Parker sept in his resignation as
a member of the Committee, owing to the heavy
pressure of his Parliamentary and other work. In
doing so, he wished the Society all prosperity.
ot
Cases.
Srxcz the publication of the last number of The
Author seventeen cases—an unusually large num-
ber—have been taken in hand by the Secretary on
behalf of members, and, in addition, two County
Court cases have been authorised by the Chairman
of the Society.
The seventeen cases may be divided as follows :—
Hight cases for money or for money and accounts,
three cases for accounts only, five cases for the
return of MSS., and one case for the proper settle-
ment of a contract. So far, only one case has
been settled. The MS. has been received by the
Secretary and returned to the author. ‘There is no
reason to believe that the other cases will not
terminate satisfactorily, but at this time of the year
it is difficult to get money out of those people who
desire to withhold it. In a future issue no doubt
satisfactory conclusions will be chronicled.
Of the cases referred to in previous numbers
there are five still incomplete.
‘As two of the matters in contention have to do
with the United States it is possible that they may
be still further delayed. The length of time that
a letter takes to reach the United States is not the
only cause of delay. It is often, unfortunately, the
fact that distance appears to make the offender
callous to his obligations.
Two of the cases will have to be abandoned
owing to technical and other reasons which prevent
the enforcing of the author’s just rights. The
fifth case is still in negotiation, and is proceeding
satisfactorily.
—— +
December Elections.
17, Newburgh Road,
Acton.
Braintree House, Cob-
ham, Surrey.
Ashe, Leslie
Cartwright, Miss A. M. .
Corkran, Miss Alice
Laurence, Lionel
Maudsley, Athol
Twyford, Winchester.
Needham, R. W. Bradshaw
Land Tax, Somerset
House, W.C.
THE AUTHOR.
Orr, Mrs. Mount Eagle Lodge
Brosna, Co. Kerry
Treland.
19, Chesham Place,
5.W.
21, Inglewood Road,
West Hampstead,
N.W.
Care of Messrs. Power,
Drury & Co., Madeira
16, Dorset Square,
N.W.
Colinton, Midlothian.
Pauncefote, The Hon.
Maud : ‘
Pierson, C. Harvard
Ramsey, Miss Lilian
Sheringham, H. T.
Skae, Miss Hilda
“‘ Stephen Walthair ”
Syrett, Miss Netta . 3, Morpeth Terrace,
Ashley Place, 8.W.
Saltwood, Hythe, Kent.
Ladies’ Army and Navy
Club, Burlington
Gardens, W.
Stigand, Mrs.
“Tiger Rose ”
Urwick, Edward
Vaughan, Capt. A. O. Aberdovey, N. Wales.
_One member does not desire the publication
either of his name or address.
1
Pension FunpD.
In order to give members of the Society, should
they desire to appoint a fresh member to the
Pension Fund Committee, full time to act, it has
been thought advisable to place in 7he Author a
full statement of the method of election under the
scheme for administration of the Pension Fund.
Under that scheme the Committee is composed of
three members elected by the Committee of the
Society, three members elected by the Society at
the General Meeting, and the chairman of the
Society for the time being, ex officio. The three
members elected ‘at the general meeting when the
fund was started were Mr. Morley Roberts, Mr.
M. H. Spielmann, and Mrs. Alec Tweedie.
According to the rules it is the turn of Mr.
M. H. Spielmann to resign his position on the Com-
mittee. In tendering his resignation he submits
his name for re-election.
The members have power to put forward other
names under Clause 9, which runs as follows :—
“ Any candidate for election to the Pension Fund Com-
mittee by the members of the Society (not being a retiring
member of such Committee) shall be nominated in writing
to the secretary, at least three weeks prior to the general
meeting at which such candidate is to be proposed, and
the nomination of each such candidate shall be subscribed
by, at least, three members of the Society. A list of the
candidates so nominated shall be sent to the members of
the Society with the annual report of the Managing Com-
mittee, and those candidates obtaining the most votes at
the general meeting shall be elected to serve on the Pension
Fund Committee.” :
THE AUTHOR. 87
In case any member should desire to refer to
the list of members, a copy complete, with the
exception of those members referred to in the note
at the beginning, can be obtained at the Society’s
office.
It would be as well, therefore, should any of the
members desire to put forward candidates, to take
the matter within their immediate consideration.
The general meeting of the Society has usually
been held towards the end of February or the
beginning of March. It is essential that all
nominations should be in the hands of the
secretary before the 31st of January, 1904.
— se 7
SERIAL ISSUE—AUTHORS AND
PUBLISHERS OR EDITORS.
ee
Afialo and Cook v. Lawrence and Bullen.
OW that the case of Aflalo and Cook v.
Lawrence and Bullen has been finally
settled by the judgment of the House of
Lords, it is necessary to consider its bearing on
authors’ property and the methods employed for
the sale of that property.
There is no need to set forth at length the
18th Section. Members can refer to the last
number of The Author.
But it is necessary to remember three points.
Firstly, employment.
Secondly, that the work shall have been com-
posed in such employment on the terms that the
Copyright shall belong to the proprietor.
Thirdly, payment for such work.
Where. these three points are proved the copy-
right will belong absolutely to the proprietor, etc.,
of the Encyclopzedia and will belong to the pro-
prietor, etc., of the review, magazine, or other
periodical work, subject to the provisoes at the
end of the section.
It has been decided that the second of the three
points set out above may be inferred, and need not
be actually set forth in an express contract.
The question, however, according to the judges
in the House of Lords is one of fact and each case
must be decided on its own evidence.
In order that it may be possible to ascertain what
deductions are likely to be made from the evidence,
it will be necessary to look, firstly, into each decided
ease and to notice the inference drawn ; secondly,
whether such inference is growing wider in scope
or more restricted ; thirdly, whether more in favour
of the proprietor or the original owner of the
property, the author.
The Lord Chancellor stated “‘ The case is covered
by authority,” and that he thought it impossible,
after the decision arrived at about half a century
ago and confirmed by the decision of the Court of
Appeal, to give any judgment except one in favour
of the appellants.
The recent case is thus stated to be covered by
authority. }
Firstly then, it is necéssary to consider the
authorities and the inferences drawn from them,
before considering this special case and the further
inferences that may be drawn from it.
The authorities which to the Four Law Lords
and Lord Justice Vaughan Williams appeared to
decide the case in one way, and which to Mr.
Justice Joyce, Lord Justice Stirling, and Lord
Justice Romer seemed to suggest the opposite
decision, were Sweet v. Benning and Lamb v.
vans.
In Sweet v. Benning various members of the Bar
furnished reports of cases to the plaintiffs, the pro-
prietors of the Jurist. They were reports merely.
The barristers employed selected the cases they
thought fit to report and composed the head notes
and short summaries. They were paid for their
work. The arrangements were oral and nothing
was said about copyright. The property in dispute
on this occasion could hardly be called original,
except so far as the head notes and the abridge-
ment of the product of other people’s brains may
show originality. The case was decided in the
Court of Common Pleas, and the inference was
drawn that the copyright belonged to the proprietors
of the Jurist.
In Lamb vy. Evans the plaintiff employed and
paid for persons to canvass for advertisements
and arrange them under appropriate headings in a
trade directory. Here again the work in question
could hardly be called literary work of a high and
original order.
Lord Justice Lindley, in giving judgment, stated
that the burden of proof that the copyright belonged
to the plaintiff was on the plaintiff, and the statute
did not say the kind of evidence which had to be
adduced for the purpose of proving this. If there
is no express agreement the question is, ‘ What is
the inference to be drawn?’ and the inference
was drawn that the copyright belonged to the
plaintiff.
It is worth noticing that in both these cases the
ersons claiming the copyright were suing pirates
and the defendants’ objections were technical only.
And farther that the head notes in question could
only have been published by the authors in a form
which would compete with the publication for
which they had been written. In both cases it
would have been unbusinesslike to assume that
the authors intended to reserve a copyright which
could only be useful for a rival publication.
88
These were two cases that may be classed under
Encyclopedias.
The facts of Aflalo and Cook v. Lawrence and
Bullen were fully set forth in last month’s Author,
and the inference drawn from these facts was that
the copyright belonged to the proprietor of the
Encyclopedia.
Does this judgment extend the former judgments,
as to the inferences that may be drawn from the
facts, and is such extension in favour of the
publisher or author? On the whole it must be
held to extend them considerably, and in favour
of the publisher or proprietor.
It would have been thought, that it is the
publisher’s business to know the law and make
his bargains accordingly.
Authors, especially young authors, are often quite
inexperienced in the legal aspect of the case, and
much more likely than a publisher to enter into
bargains the full nature and consequences of which
they do not understand. It would have been no
hardship to the publisher to secure the copyright
by express provision in his contract.
The decision is revolutionary and must compel
some of the well-known writers on copyright to
alter their deduction from Sweet v. Benning and
The Bishop of Hereford v. Griffin in the next edition
of their works.
The evidence of employment was complete.
that point there was no need for argument. There
On
was evidence of payment. Of that there can be
no dispute. But one essential point must be con-
sidered—how far that payment could be reckoned
substantial for the copyright of the literary pro-
perty in question, when compared with the ordinary
literary prices of an expert writer on any given
subject.
Would Mr. Aflalo, for instance, for a sum of
£500, sell the idea of the Encyclopedia, give up
two years work and devote himself to the editor-
ship of it, writing without further fee, 7,000 words
and contributing all the unsigned articles that
might be required ? This would be poor pay for
the employment of the technical knowledge that
Mr. Aflalo possesses, and it is hardly likely that for
so small a fee he would care to sell the copyright
of his work. Again, Mr. Cook contracted to do a
certain amount of work at £2 per thousand words.
Anyone with Mr. Cook’s reputation as a fisherman,
and with his great technical knowledge, would not
be likely to sell his work to any magazine or
periodical, for a fee so small if he was not to hold
some subsequent rights; but the Court inferred
that Mr. Cook did so, and it is impossible not to
consider that the inference drawn in this present
case widens enormously the field of inference as
compared with the former cases. In this case you
get highly technical knowledge, the result of years
THER AUTHOR.
of work and study of particular kinds of sport.
You get that knowledge set out in original form
and paid for at a peculiarly low price. Is it possible
that in the next case which may be brought before
the Courts under the 18th section from less con-
clusive facts, a still wider inference may be drawn
—more salutary to the publisher, more disastrous
to the author ?
Their Lordships did not seem to consider that
the position of literary property nowadays is vastly
different from what it was fifty years ago, and that
therefore as the circumstances have changed, it is
impossible to make the same deductions.
It is clear that in the future authors should be
exceedingly careful of the circumstances in which
they contribute to Encyclopeedias,reviews,magazines
or periodical works, and some further points must
be put forward.
In this judgment very little was said of the
question of employment, as the employment was
clear and undisputed, but it is quite possible that
this question may be raised at some future date
and that the author’s position may be further
endangered. Mr. MacGillivray in his able work
on Copyright is inclined to think, from the cases
which have been already heard, that the employ-
ment must be antecedent, and so far, this deduction
appears to be satisfactory. There is no decision
on the subject, and the point does not appear to
have been actually argued. It is to be hoped,
however, that it may never be held that the
publication of a work submitted unsolicited to a
magazine proprietor and published by him without
any definite contract, will be sufficient to show
employment by the proprietor, of the contributor.
But this point has never been decided, and authors
should be exceedingly careful that they do not
allow themselves to depend on the broken reed
of the 18th section.
If such publication can amount to employment
the second deduction that the copyright should
belong to the proprietor would be the merest step
farther, and the author would find himself in
difficulties, even though, possibly, he had received
an entirely inadequate price for such sacrifice.
Evidence, unfortunately, is constantly coming
forward that the Bench and English juries have
very little appreciation of the real value of literary
productions.
That the danger is a serious one may be seen
from the fact that a great deal was made in the —
present case of the amount of money the proprietors
were sinking in the venture, but this is an obviously
unfair argument, unless, at the same time, the
return the publishers hoped for or actually realised
had also been stated. No one would object to
spend £50,000 to-day if he obtained £100,000 at
the end of six months, or thought he could.
THE AUTHOR. 89
It seems certain that if only the amount
ventured by the publisher in the production of a
magazine, review, or encyclopedia is large enough,
it must follow as a matter of course, according to
these lines of argument, that the employment will
be on the terms that the copyright shall belong to
the proprietor. No thought appears to have been
given to the opposite view that the publisher is a
man of business, and, as such, quite capable of
protecting himself from any danger of being
deprived of the full benefit of the literary wares
which he desired to buy, and that the price paid
to the author may be entirely inadequate to cover
the sale of copyright. The idea which seems to
have influenced the Law Lords was that if the
copyright in the articles had not passed to the
publishers, the authors might all have joined
together and republished their articles as a rival
encyclopedia, but surely the law of England would
be strong enough to stop such an unfair act of
derogating from their own grant, and in any event
the idea is a far fetched one. A much more
pertinent consideration would be that under the
present decision publishers might commission and
pay for articles for an encyclopedia over which they
announced their intention of spending large sums,
and then bring out the articles as cheap popular
books at large profit to themselves, or publish in
other remunerative manner before they finally
collected them into the encyclopedia,
That this idea is not imaginary may be shown
by the case of some publishers who purchase a
work with a view to book production, and then try
to sell the serial rights in a magazine, to the great
annoyance of the author, who may, through his
carelessness or ignorance, have left himself
defenceless.
Lord Shand, in his remarks, constantly mentioned
the word “magazine” in addition to “encyclo-
pedia.” There seems no doubt, therefore, that in
his mind, the same inference might be drawn in the
case of a magazine proprietor, as in the case of the
proprietor of an encyclopedia. He also referred to
the publisher as conceiving the creation of the
magazine which he publishes as his undertaking
for his profit. In this case, however, the concep-
tion of the work was the Plaintiff’s, Mr. Aflalo’s.
There is no need to consider at length the
judgments of those learned Judges of the Court of
First Instance and the Court of Appeal, when
verdicts were given in favour of the plaintiffs, but
in considering the present verdict an endeavour has
been made to show the increasing dangers that
surround authors ; and the members of the society
should be warned when, in future, they contribute
to an encyclopedia, review, or magazine, whether
they have been employed by the proprietor, or
whether they send in their work on their own
initiation, to be careful to state in a covering letter
the terms on which they are willing to dispose of
it. They should also be careful to keep a copy of
that letter, so that in any action it will lie with
the publishers to prove that the terms of the letter
have been subsequently varied.
The terms which the letter should contain must,
of course, depend upon the magazine for which the
author is writing and his position as a writer. It
is dangerous to sell serial rights without any
limitation.
Members will, no doubt, recollect the article that
appeared in The Author, where the serial rights in
an essay were sold to an American magazine, and
the author was astonished to find that his work
was being reprinted in a periodical in England.
There has been no decision in the Law Courts
to determine the exact definition of serial rights,
but the custom of the trade has been sufficiently
established to show that a conveyance of these
rights does not in any way convey the copyright,
but merely conveys the right to produce articles in
serial form—that is, in a review, magazine, or
other paper of periodical issue.
In further explanation it must be remembered
that the Courts have decided that an annual is a
periodical issue, and that some magazines print
long stories in one issue. When an author, there-
fore, sells his serial rights, either to a magazine
which undertakes to print his work in one issue,
or to an annual, he should be careful that he gets
an adequate price, as a single serial issue may have
some effect in spoiling the circulation of the story
in book form. This remark, however, does not
apply to short stories.
Dealing then, with the ordinary sale of a work
in serial form, the price per thousand words that
the author is willing to accept should be distinctly
stated, and the exact limitation of the serial rights
he is willing to sell, z.e, if possible, they should be
limited to one issue of a given magazine or
periodical. The author must remember that it
may be possible for him to obtain second serial
rights from other papers or to sell the further serial
use in other countries.
A fact incidental to this matter must not be
omitted. It is the custom of many of the popular
magazines of the day, when no contract has been
made in the first instance, to forward cheques to
their contributors, with notices stamped on the
back that the endorsement of the cheque is an
acknowledgment of the transfer of the copyright.
This custom is a distinct danger to authors, for
although the endorsement of such a cheque will
not in any way vary any eapress contract that
may have been entered into before publication,
yet it might be evidence of an implied term in a con-
tract if the cheque was endorsed without dispute.
90
Since the decision which has been given in the
case of Aflalo and Cook vy. Lawrence and Bullen,
it is especially dangerous, as the slightest evidence
may afford a chance of drawing a deduction
disadvantageous to the author.
If a publisher desires to obtain special terms or
the copyright, he has merely to say so beforehand,
and the author will know his exact position. It
is not fair that the purchaser should endeavour to
incorporate into a contract terms which never
existed in the mind of the author when the contract
was made.
Finally, by way of repetition, it cannot be too
strongly impressed on the minds of all members,
(1) that a letter should be sent with the “ copy’;
(2) that if no letter be sent with the “ copy ” an
express agreement should be made before publica-
tion; and (8) that in no circumstances, whether
a letter has been sent with the “copy,” whether
an express contract has been made before publica-
tion, or whether no contract has been made at all,
should an author sign a cheque that is issued to
him on the lines stated above.
Clearness and finality in contract is essential
to a good understanding between authors and
publishers or editors. If the two latter, instead of
abusing the methods of the Society, endeavoured
to work on more businesslike lines the wheels
would run much smoother for all parties. In
book production a clear understanding is now
nearly always the rule—a doubtful contract the
exception.
The time, perhaps, may come when the same
remark may be applied to the contract for serial
rights.
G. H.T-
——>—_¢ —____—--
OUR BOOK AND PLAY TALK.
—
E are glad to say that our Vice-Chairman’s
latest book, “The & Becketts of Punch,”
has scored a success. These “ Memories
of Father and Sons,” within the compass of one
volume, make interesting reading. We should
like to quote at length from its pages, but lack
of space allows of one extract only. Referring
(page 236) to the Dramatic Authors’ Society,
Mr. d Beckett says the circuit system of Mr.
Crummles was the order of the day when it was
organised.
“Every theatre in the country belonged to it, and was
assisted according to its means of payment. It was the
duty of each subscriber to pay so much a night, and then
send up the bill of the evening’s performance to the Sec-
retary of the Dramatic Authors’ Society, who entered the
amount to the credit of the member. Thus, say Smith had
written a one-act farce, Snooks a two-act comedy, and
THE AUTHOR.
Larkins a one-act burlesque, the amount would be divided
into fourths, of which Snooks would take one half, to the
quarters apportioned to Smith and Larkins. . .. This
system worked very well while the remuneration of the
dramatist remained at £100 an act, which was the regu-
lation sum in the mid-Victorian era. But all this was
changed when Dion Boucicault introduced the system of
percentages. The moment that a dramatist’s remuneration
depended upon the takings of the house his fortune was
made. It was very much the royalty system applied to
plays. . . . There was an immediate revolution. Tom
Robertson, W. 8. Gilbert, and the present editor of Punch
naturally wished to get something better than a few
shillings a night for their newest plays in the provinces,
and a resolution was passed giving them the necessary
powers of reservation. The provincial managers com-
plained that all the newest London pieces were out of the
provincial market, and asked what was the use of being
assessed for old and unattractive plays. So by degrees
the Society disappeared.”
Mr. a Beckett has another book in hand which
will be published early in 1904, dealing with his
career entirely outside Bouverie Street.
Sir F. C. Burnand’s two volumes of ‘“ Records
and Reminiscences,” with numerous illustrations
and facsimile letters (Methuen), is another inte-
resting book recently published. It has been
widely reviewed and much quoted. It has been
read (or will be read), no doubt, by all our members.
The annual annotated volume of “Statutes of
Practical Utility” passed in 1903, which will
shortly appear under the editorship of Mr. J. M.
Lely (Sweet and Maxwell, Stevens and Sons), will
contain, with 17 other Acts selected from the 47
passed, the Motor Car Act, the Poor Prisoners
Defence Act (both of these two being fitted out
with extra notes), the London Education Act, the
Employment of Children Act, the County Courts
Act, the Pistols Act, the Finance Act, and the
Housing of the Working Classes Act. Some
interesting Departmental Regulations, e.g., those
of the Local Government Board under the Motor
Car Act, as well as the Cremation and Midwives
Rules under Acts of 1902, will also be included ;
and in the Preface attention will be called to the
desirability of some Parliamentary action being
taken to prevent, so far as preventible, the recur-
rence of obscurities in legislation. Acts relating
to Scotland or Ireland only are not printed in this
collection.
Sixpenny reprints are, happily, not limited to
fiction. In those issued thus far by Messrs. Watts
and Co. on behalf of the Rationalist Press Associa-
tion, there is included Herbert Spencer’s masterly
treatise on “Education,” of which some 40,000
copies have been sold in that form. Messrs. Watts’
next book in this cheap series will be Edward
Clodd’s “Story of Creation,” published by arrange-
ment with Messrs. Longmans, the first issue to
consist of 30,000 copies.
oA
AY
THE AUTHOR.
Mr. Herbert Bentwich, LL.B., who published
a short time ago a pamphlet entitled “ A Plea for
a General School of Law,” is now taking up
seriously a long projected work on “ International
Copyright.” :
The publication by Messrs. Isbister & Co. of
Mr. G. S. Layard’s novel, at present entitled
“ Dolly’s Governess,” has been postponed until the
spring of next year. Mr. Layard is now engaged
upon “ The Life of Kate Greenaway,” in collabora-
tion with Mr. M. H. Spielmann. Any information
not already furnished concerning the deceased
artist and lover of children should be sent to Mr.
Layard at Bull’s Cliff, Felixstowe.
“Home Life under the Stuarts,” by Elizabeth
Godfrey (Grant Richards), is about to be followed
by a study of social life during the same period,
1603—1649. This will describe art and literature,
amusements, the literary coterie, travelling, friend-
ship, the religious life, and kindred topics. It will
be uniform with the preceding volume, which in
fact it completes, and will be illustrated.
Messrs. H. Sotheran & Co. (37, Piccadilly, W.)
are prepared to supply “ Kilboylan Bank,” by Mrs.
E. M. Lynch. It is an Irish story illustrating the
working of that humble form of finance—Agri-
cultural Co-operative Credit. The book should
prove useful at the present time, when the new
Irish Land Act is turning many peasants into
proprietors.
Captain G. E. W. Hayward, whose two articles
entitled ‘‘ Cosas de Espaia” appeared in the Feb-
ruary and June numbers of Blackwood, is now
completing a one volume novel which he hopes to
see published in the spring.
The Baroness de Bertouch is at work on her
*“ Life of Father Ignatius,” which Messrs. Methuen
have accepted and will publish early in 1904. In
order that the work might be done under the
supervision of Father Ignatius himself, the
authoress has spent nearly a year at Llanthony in
the guest-house of the monastery.
Mr. Leslie Cope Cornford, author of “ Captain
Jacobus,” &c., &c., has just completed a story
dealing with a phase of eighteenth century life.
It is to be published in 1904.
Mr. Bertram Mitford’s new novel, “ The Sirdar’s
Oath,” will be published by Messrs. F. V. White
and Co. some time in January. The scene is laid
on the northern border of India and the action
deals with the tribesmen inhabiting that locality.
The story has been running serially during this
year through several British and Colonial news-
papers under the title of “ Raynier’s Peril.”
Miss Theodora Wilson Wilson’s new novel,
“Ursula Raven,” is now running through the
Daily News as a serial. The scene of the story
4s laid in Westmoreland, and the chief interest
91
lies in the description of a struggle against
monopoly.
Mrs. Finnemore will publish shortly through
Messrs. Hurst and Blackett, a story entitled
“Tally.” It is of domestic interest, the period
being the early years of last century. It is a
shorter story than “A Man’s Mirror”? (Cassell,
October, 1908) and quite different in character.
Mrs. Finnemore is at present busy upon a story
which she hopes to have completed early in 1904.
The setting is the Welsh hills—Mrs. Finnemore’s
own neighbourhood, a solitary and wild bit of
country between the Berwyns and the sea.
“An Oath in Heaven” is the title of a new
novel by Mr. John Ryce. It is published by
Messrs. James Clarke & Co. at 6s.
Mr. Algernon Rose’s handbook for wind-instru-
mentalists entitled “Talks with Bandsmen,” a
thousand copies of which have been sold in this
country, has been pirated for serial purposes by the
Dominant, a musical paper of New York.
The Rt. Hon. Joseph Chamberlain has accepted
a copy of Mr. Algernon Rose’s book “ On Choosing
a Piano” (Scott), one chapter of which deals
with the fiscal question as it regards pianoforte
manufacturers in this country.
We hear that a new and enlarged edition of Mr.
Reynolds-Ball’s Guide to the Winter Resorts of
the Mediterranean will be published very soon.
A new and useful feature will be a supplement
containing articles on the principal Colonial and
other extra European winter resorts, such as the
Canaries, the West Indies, and the Cape High-
lands.
Miss Florence M. King (Jfaud Carew), who has
been prevented by unavoidable causes from writing
anything for some time, is engaged on a new
children’s book.
“Songs of Summer,” by Mr. C. Whitworth
Wynne, has been published by Mr. Grant Richards.
Mrs. Caroline A. White’s book “Sweet Hamp-
stead and its Associations ” is now in asecond and
revised edition. It is dedicated to the Conser-
vators of the Heath and to all who love sweet
Hampstead for its own sake. The volume is
well illustrated. Messrs. Elliot Stock are its
publishers.
For the benefit of those among our readers who
saw the review in the Guardian (December 2nd) of
“A Queen of Nine Days,” by Miss Edith C. Kenyon,
suggesting that she had not written the book
herself, but only supplied a modern rendering, we
give her reply, which appears in the same journal
(December 9th) :—
S1z,—In allusion to your review of “A Queen of Nine
Days” in this week's Guardian, will you kindly allow me
to say that I wrote the whole of the book, and the idea
that it was written by one of Lady Jane’s gentlewomen is
only a part of the story. Moreover, if your reviewer reads
92
history, he will find that Lady Jane was singularly humble
and truth loving, and, like all great souls, in advance of her
eo EpitH C. KENYON.
“High Treason” (The Primrose Press: 64d.
nett) is Mr. Allen Upward’s latest contribution
to the Romance of Politics series. In his preface
Mr. Upward says: “Many of the incidents, I
think, will be fresh in the memory of most news-
paper readers, though the connection here traced
between them may not be perceived. For others,
I can produce my authorities, should the truth of
these pages be challenged. ;
Except for articles in papers and magazines, Mr.
Clive Holland’s chief work during the past year
bas been the writing of two plays. One is a
comedy (founded on his two Japanese novels,
“My Japanese Wife” and ‘‘Musme”), written in
collaboration with an American playwright, Miss
Florence Hopkins ; the other a modern comedy of
French and English life, written by himself. _
The former will probably see the light first in
New York; the latter will, Mr. Holland hopes, be
produced in London.
The Franciscan Friars of the Collegio di San
Bonaventura at Quaracchi, near Florence, who are
their own printers and publishers, have just brought
out the first critical edition ever attempted of the
writings of Saint Francis of Assisi. The rights of
translation into English have been assigned to M.
Carmichael.
We understand that Mr. Sidney Lee will deliver
a lecture (January 26th) on “Shakespeare” to
the members of the British Empire Shakespeare
Society. He will also deliver a lecture early in
the year at the Royal Institution, on “Shakespeare
as Contemporaries knew Him.”
Mr. W. L. Courtney is to deliver two lectures on
“Comedy, Ancient and Modern,” at the Royal
Institution, on the afternoons of February 6th and
13th. Mr. Alfred Austin and Mr, Henry Arthur
Jones are also to lecture at the same famous Institu-
tion in Albemarle Street.
i
AMERICAN NOTES.
re
MONG the six books now most in demand
throughout the States I note that only one,
Sir A. Conan Doyle’s “Adventures of
Gerard,” is a work that is not of American author-
ship. This is significant of the growing nationalisa-
tion of our literature. The best English books
still come to us, and are no doubt read and appre-
ciated ; but they are no longer, as they once were,
our exclusive models, and they take, generally
speaking, but a secondary place in the market.
Yet no great star can be said to have risen above
THE AUTHOR.
our horizon of late ; nor has any American work of
such wide appeal as Mr. Morley’s “ Life of Glad-
stone” been issued on this side. The advance is
rather horizontal than vertical, to say truth.
As if to atone for the loss of Frank Norris’s
promise, Mr. Jack London has sprung up and
attained something like distinction already. But
the merits of his “Call of the Wild” must be too
well known to readers of Zhe Author to require
comment from me at this time of day. He has
no doubt a great future before him. But Mr.
London’s book stands second in the list of “ big
sellers.” At the top is a spirited tale of the
Civil War by Mr. John Fox, junior. The scene
of “The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come”
is the border state of Kentucky, and its most im-
portant character, John Morgan, the raider ;
though Grant is introduced. The book naturally
challenges comparison with Winston Churchill’s
«The Orisis.”
Another civil war story—not so good, though,
as Mr. Fox’s—is Frederick Palmer’s “ The Vaga-
bond,” which contains some well described war
scenes, notably a vivid account of the battle of
Bull Run.
Among the established favourites in historical
fiction Mr. Chambers has added to his record “ The
Maids of Paradise,” who are not houris, but
damsels of a Breton village. The period is that of
the Franco-German War. Brittany is also the
scene of Margaret Horton Potter's ‘‘ Castle of
Twilight”; but in this case it is the old-world
feudal province. Cyrus Townsend Brady has
deserted the historical field and broken new
ground in “A Doctor of Philosophy”; but his
success can scarcely be described as unqualified.
Two notable novels of modern life, each by a
woman, treat of university society. Miss Anna
McClure Sholl, in “The Law of Life,” recounts
the struggle of a Puritan conscience with femi-
nine instinct, and also raises the difficult problem
of the relations of a university towards a meddling
and not too scrupulous benefactor. The author is
generally supposed to have had Cornell in her
mind—not that the circumstances exist there.
“he Millionaire’s Son,” by Mrs. Robeson Brown,
is also concerned with a moral conflict, in this case
between the wish to carry on the paternal business —
and an overpowering scholarly bent inherited from
a grandfather.
James Lane Allen has once more exhibited his.
fine sense for style; but “The Mettle of the —
Pasture,” like “The Reign of Law,” falls far —
below the high standard attained by the book ~
which gave him fame.
The strangely-named “ Silver Poppy” (it is the —
title of the heroine’s first novel) by Arthur
Stringer, is a striking but imperfectly-conceived —
THE AUTHOR.
tale of love and literature in New York. The
latter, represented by the American woman, gets
the better of the former in the person of an Eng-
lish journalist.
Thomas Dixon’s “The One Woman” has
attained popularity rather on account of its subject
—socialism and sex—than its literary merits,
which are of the sensational order.
George Barr McCutcheon has made an ambitious
experiment in “The Sherrods,” which has been
the fictional attraction of the Bookman during the
greater part of the year. Other novelists who have
fully maintained their reputations are Mr. Stewart
White with “The Forest,” Charles Major in
“A Forest Hearth,’ and Mrs. Wharton in ‘“ The
Sanctuary.”
Of the older hands, I remark that Kate Douglas
Wiggin figures among the big sellers with her
“Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.” Mr. Marion
Crawford has written another story of Roman
life ; and Mr. Howells, in “Letters Home,” has
handled with great skill the difficult instrument
of epistolary fiction. é
A slight but well-nigh perfect piece of work is
Miss Alice Brown’s ‘‘ Judgment,” in which justice
and mercy in the person of a husband and wife are
most artistically contrasted; and a word of praise
should be given to Mrs. Tilia W. Peattie’s pretty
collection of tales called ‘“‘ The Edge of Things.”
We pass to more solid literature, after remarking
that Mormonism has found a novelist in the author
of “The Spenders,” who has dealt with the subject
in his “Lions of the Lord”; and the multi-
millionaire his exposer in Mr. David Graham
Phillips, whose “Master Rogue” is to be com-
mended to the perusal of anyone in danger of
becoming one.
In biographical publications this fall has been
rather prolific. The two outstanding books in this
department have been, of course, the posthumous
recollections of Richard Henry Stoddard and the
autobiography of Senator Hoar ; but there are others
scarcely inferior to them in interest. Stoddard,
whose work was finished for him by Mr. Ripley
Hitchcock, and introduced by his life-long friend,
Edmund Clarence Stedman, has something interest-
ing to say of most of his literary contemporaries,
not a few of whom he knew intimately. Lowell,
Bryant, Poe, N. P. Willis, and especially Bayard
Taylor, the translator of “ Faust,” are celebrities
who cross his pages ; but probably the chief interest
of them lies in the account of his own boyhood and
early struggles.
Senator Hoar’s “ Autobiography of Seventy
Years” covers a somewhat similar period in the
political world. The eminent Republican was at
Harvard under Channing, made his first public
speech, in 1850, at Worcester, Mass., as a substitute
93
for Judge Allen, and in 1880 presided over the
party convention at which Garfield was nominated
for the Presidency. A great admirer of Grant, he
gives a pointed description of his unconciliatory
manners. Always a strong partisan, he explains
to his readers that he has never given a vote
against his conscience and justifies his adhesion
to Imperialism.
Searcely less important than the works I have
just glanced at is General John B. Gordon’s
“‘ Reminiscences of the Civil War,” which presents
various aspects of the great struggle from the
Confederate view-point, but in a thoroughly im-
partial spirit and in a most entertaining, simple
style. The writer held important commands at
the first battle of Bull Run, at Antietam, and
Gettysburg ; was largely responsible for the sur-
prise at Cedar Creek; and was with Lee in the
last despairing efforts of the South. The General
thinks that the war strengthened the American
character ; and his geniality pervades a book which
is equally instructive and amusing, abounding, as
it does, in good stories. “My Own Story, with
Recollections of Noted Persons,” by John Townsend
Trowbridge, contains anecdotes of some of the great
New England writers, such as Holmes, Emerson,
Bronson Alcott, and Walt Whitman, and some
curious evidence as to the undoubted influence of
the Concord sage upon the author of ‘“ Leaves of
Grass.”
Not the least remarkable of autobiographic
works is Miss Helen Keller’s story of her wonder-
ful education, partly told in her own words, partly
in those of the gifted teacher whose genius and
patience enabled her, with her imperfect senses, to
stand at least on a level with normally-endowed
mortals. In this connection it may also be men-
tioned that the daughters of Dr. Howe, the famous
teacher of the blind and deaf mutes, have recently
published an account of how he educated Laura
Bridgman.
Another book has been written upon Thomas
Jefferson ; and a personage nearer our own day,
Henry Ward Beecher, has found a biographer in
Dr. Lyman Abbott.
An admirable survey of American literature
appeared early in the fall from the pen of
Professor William P. Trent.
“American Tariff Controversies,” by Edward
Stanwood, is a work which will, no doubt, be
studied by others besides the author’s countrymen.
It merits attention from the thorough and com-
prehensive manner in which the subject is treated.
Consternation must have been experienced in
some quarters after the perusal of a little book
with the seemingly harmless title of “The Home:
its Work and Influence”; for the author, Mrs.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, has dared to belittle
94
the domestic virtues, to maintain that cooking
should not be done at home, and to brand with
the fearful accusation of arrogance the mother
who undertakes the sole training of her own
child.
The veteran author, Thomas Bailey Aldrich,
has given fresh delight to the reading public by
his quaintly - named “Ponkapog Papers”; and
Mark Twain has republished in a revised form
that ancient favourite “The Jumping Frog.”
Mr. Clemens has also been turning his attention
to those tiresome people, the votaries of “ Christian
Science.”
‘A new science, called “ Anthropo-Geography,”
would seem to have arisen, and its first American
exponent is Miss Ellen Semple in her “ American
History and its Geographic Conditions.”
In the purely historical field we have had two
new books on the Civil War, the one by Mr. Birk-
beck Wood and Colonel Edwards, the other by Dr.
Guy Carleton Lee, in addition to E. Benjamin
Andrews’s supplement to his “ History of the last
Quarter Century.”
A highly interesting work, which takes us some
considerable way further back, is Thomas A. Jan-
vier’s “The Dutch Founding of New York.”
Reuben Gold Thwaites has done good service
by his careful editing of a reprint of Father Louis
Hennequin’s “ New Discovery” (1698) ; and he is
now engaged upon an edition of the “ Original
Journals of Lewis and Clark.” He has also pub-
lished a volume of historical essays in western
history. a.
Three new volumes of the extensive work of
Emma Helen Blair and James Alex Robertson
upon the “Philippine Islands” have appeared ;
and Arthur Howard Noll has written more upon
the history of Mexico. Mr. Francis Johnson’s
compilation, “ Famous Assassinations of History,”
ranges from Philip of Macedon to the late King
and Queen of Servia, and is a veritable bath of
international gore. -
Among curious nondescript works I notice the
anonymous “ Wanted—A Wife,” by “ A Bachelor,”
just issued by Daniel V. Wien, of New York.”
It is not surprising to learn that two editions of
this were quickly disposed of.
The Poe revival still continues. The latest
evidence is Mr. Sherwin Cody’s critical edition
executed for A. C. McClurg & Co.
Some unpublished extracts from Emerson’s
private journals are to see the light in the
Atlantic Monthly during next year. They will be
welcome, though one has heard a great deal of the
philosopher-poet of late. But it is really to be
hoped that the last has now been heard of Mistress
Margaret Fuller and her egregious love-letters.
Two meritorious contributions to philosophical
THE AUTHOR.
study have appeared in America during the past
year. Dr. William Turner’s “History of Philo-
sophy” comes from Boston; Mr. Arthur Stone
Dewing’s more popular “ Introduction to the History
of Modern Philosophy ” from Philadelphia. Pro-
fessor J. Laurence Laughlin has issued a first
instalment of the extensive work which he con-
templates upon the “Principles of Money.” He
is a strenuous upholder of the policy of adherence
to a gold standard. He has evolved a new theory-
of credit. Other economical works which may
be of interest to students are Miss Breckridge’s
“Legal Tender” and Professor William A. Scott’s
“Money and Banking.”
Photogravure portraits of the Presidents adorn
the new edition which Messrs. Harper are bringing
out of President Woodrow Wilson’s ‘‘ History of
the American People.”
Our obituary list is neither long nor important.
It contains the names of Colonel Richard Henry
Savage, best known as the author of “ My Official
Wife,” who just lived to see in print his last book,
“Monte Christo in Khaki”; of Mrs. Elizabeth
Cherry Waltz, a hard-working journalist who wrote
the humorous “ Pa Gladden” stories; of General
Edward McGrady, the historian of South Carolina ;
and of James Robert Gilmore, founder of the Con-
tinental Monthly, editor of the ‘Cyclopedia of
American Biography,” and author of several novels
of Southern life published under the pseudonym
“ Edmund Kirke.” The last was a personal friend
of Lincoln and Greeley, as well as the intimate of
Longfellow and Holmes.
PARIS NOTES.
1
HE Academy prizes were distributed at the
fe annual meeting at the close of the year. A
prize for his poem on “ Victor Hugo ” was
awarded to M. Depont. The Toirac prize fell to
M. Donnay for his play, “L’Autre Danger.”
Madame Bentzon received the Née prize, and M.
Boissier spoke in the highest terms of her work,
and at the same time indulged in a side-thrust at
certain novels which have recently been published.
“On ge souvient,’’ he said, “ que sa réputation a
commence par des romans qui ont eu ce privilege
rare d’obtenir un grand succés, sans rien cotter a
la dignité de son caractere. . . . Le prix Née, que
nous donnons 2 Mme. Béntzon, nous |’avions
décerné, il y a deux ans, 8 Mme. Arvéde Barine.
L’ Académie a tenu a rapprocher ces deux poms: ils
sont l’honneur des femmes de France. Ils mon-
THE AUTHOR.
trent, une fois de plus, qu en littérature il n’y a
pas de privilége pour un sexe, et qu’une femme,
quia du talent, n’a pas besoin de se mettre en
révolte, de former des ligues et de s’armer en
guerre contre la société pour obtenir la renommée,
quand elle la mérite.”
M. Boissier spoke highly of the novels by Henry
Bordeaux, Claude Ferval, Plessis, Yunga, Moreau,
and de Comminges. He then mentioned the
authors of various works of education, history and
biography, terminating with M. Pierre de Nolhac,
who received the Gobert prize for his admirable
series of works on Versailles and its historical
personages.
France is the country par excellence where art
and literature are appreciated and encouraged.
After the Academy prizes came those awarded
annually by the Société des Gens de Lettres to
talented writers.
Among the names of the authors to whom this
year’s prizes have been given are: MM. Camille
Lemonnier, Georges d’Esparbes, Louis de Robert,
Junka, Dalsem, Champol and Pascal. Women
writers also come in for their share of the awards.
Mme. Brada, Mme. de Peyrebrune, Mlle. Maugeret
and Mme Lafon, have received prizes varying from
£20 to £12.
Some excellent articles have appeared in many
of the French reviews and papers on Herbert
Spencer, who was greatly appreciated in France.
In a book recently published by M. Gabriel
Compayré there are some interesting pages on the
life and works of Spencer.
A French journalist in London, writing to one
of the principal papers here, was struck with the
evident lack of appreciation of the great philosopher
in England. He says that ninety-nine out of
every hundred of Herbert Spencer’s compatriots
ignore not only the works of the great man who
has just passed away, but even his name. He
goes on to say that it is one of the characteristics
of the English people that they are not attracted
by the works of their greatest writers, their greatest
thinkers and their greatest savants.
The first book published by M. René Bazin,
since his election to the Academy, is entitled
“Récits de la Plaine et de la Montagne.” Itis a
most charming description of travels in various
countries, with anecdotes and stories which add
greatly to the interest of the volume. There are
chapters entitled : “Journal de Route au bord du
Rhone” ; “Une Excursion de Chasse en Hol-
lande”; “Histoire de Dindons”; “ Dans la
banlieue de Londres”; “ Le Palefrenier du Prince
de Galles” ; “ Un Village de Savoie” ; “ La Forét
de Méria”; “La Vallée d’Aoste” and “Le
Registre d’un Ouré.”
A book by M. André Fontaine, entitled “ Con-
95
férences inédites de |’ Académie Royale de Pein-
ture et de Sculpture,” is well worth reading. In
the days of Colbert, lectures were given by the
French Academicians on the merits and faults of
celebrated pictures. Discussions were held on
subjects connected with art, for the benefit of the
students of the Ecole des Beaux Arts, the other
Academicians and artists generally.
M. Fontaine has collected some of these lectures
and published a volume of them. The most
interesting are those by de Champaigne and Le
Brun, on the question of the primary importance
of drawing or colour in a picture.
There are others on the merits and faults of
many celebrated pictures by Raphael, Titien,
Poussin and other artists.
“ Mélanges de Littérature et d’Histoire ” is the
title of a most entertaining book by M. A. Gazier,
on various subjects. Among other articles there
is one on Pascal and Mile. de Roannés, another on
the Abbé de Prades, and a letter from Voltaire
giving some interesting details about his sojourn
and his private affairs at Potsdam. There is also
an account, which reads like a novel, of an
extraordinary woman who lived alone for several
years in the mountains of the Pyrenees. She
belonged to a noble family, but at the age of
fifteen, to avoid marrying, escaped from her own
people and lived as a servant.
There are other interesting studies in the volume
on the subject of Moliére, and the probability that
the Prince de Conti served as the model for
“Tartuffe.”
Among the new books are “ Le Second Rang
du Collier,’ by Mme. Judith Gautier; “ Caglios-
tro,” by M. d’Alméras ; “ Propos Littéraires,” by
M. Faguet ; “ L’Empire du Milieu,” by Elisée et
Onésime Reclus, and among the illustrated books
specially intended for New Year’s gifts are
“T’Epopée Biblique,” with fifty engravings from
Gustave Doré’s works; “ La Lune Rousse,” by
Champol ; “ L’Année frangaise: Un héros par
jour,” by Ponsonailhe ; “ Aux pays de la Priére,”
by Henri Guerlin, and “La vieille France qui
s’en va,” by Charles Géniaux.
A book which should be specially interesting to
the English has just been written by M. Henry
d’Allemagne. ‘The title is “Sports et Jeux
d’adresse,” and all games and sports are traced to
their origin, with a series of coloured illustrations
to show the modifications our present games have
undergone.
The question is once more being raised whether
actors shall be admitted as Academicians to the
Institute of France.
M. Mounet Sully, by presenting himself for
election, opens a debate which will be followed
everywhere with the keenest interest.
96
“Le Retour de Jérusalem” is one of the finest
pieces that M. Maurice Donnay has written. The
idea upon which the play appears to be based is
that there exists between the Jewish and the
Aryan races a gulf which cannot be bridged over,
and that any attempt to unite them must prove a
failure. oe
In this play Michel Aubier is a Christian, and
Judith de Chouzay a Jewess, who has adopted the
Catholic religion in order to marry the Viscount
de Chouzay. Michel, too, is married, but imagin-
ing that they are in love with each other, he and
Judith leave their respective homes in order to
unite their destinies. They discover, when too
late, their mistake. Their ideas, their principles
and their habits are so totally different that in the
end they decide to separate. Such in brief is the
piece, which as a psychological study is most
fascinating. The dialogue is brilliant, as in all
M. Donnay’s plays, and the character of Michel an
excellent portrait of the modern Frenchman.
Mme. Le Bargy, M. Dumény, and Mlle. Mégard
interpret their réles to perfection.
The first night of M. Sardou’s new play “La
Sorciére,’ has been one of the great theatrical
events of the month. At the close of the dress
rehearsal, Madame Sarah Bernhardt received an
ovation, and many of the principal artistes and
dramatic authors came forward to offer their
congratulations.
It is with the greatest pleasure that everyone
sees M. Bour at last in a suitable theatre. The
piece he is now giving, “Cadet Roussel,” by
M. Jacques Richepin, is, thanks to his excellent
interpretation, so great a success that M. Bour has
been compelled to move to the Porte St. Martin.
Some two years ago, in the famous play
“ Alleluia,” M. Bour made his mark, and with a
small company of artistes started the International
Thédtre for the production of plays from all
languages.
In every piece M. Bour had great success, and
his removal to a larger theatre, on the Boulevards,
will probably make him a formidable rival for M.
Antoine.
La Renaissance Latine has some very interesting
articles in the December number. Among others:
“« Les Idées littéraires de Nietzsche,” by M. Emile
Faguet ; some letters to the “Bon Ange,” from
Mirabeau; “ L’Esprit romain et l’Art francais,” by
M. Mauclair, and “La Crise méridionale en
Italie.”
Anys HALLARD.
THE AUTHOR.
THE CONTRACT OF BAILMENT. ©
—
TYNHE point which “ G. H. T.” has raised, under
the above heading, in the December number
of The Author, is of great practical interest
to authors, editors, and publishers; and it is
eminently desirable that it should be settled.
“G. H.T.” has put the author’s view. Leaving
the publisher to speak for himself, I propose to say
a word on behalf of the editor, merely premising
that, being myself, in a humble way, also a writer,
I have no bias against the author’s just claims.
“q. H. T.’s” arguments are cautiously worded,
as becomes one in his responsible position. But I
think it fair to assume, that he regards an editor to
whom unsolicited MSS. are sent, in the course of
post or by mere messenger, as responsible for
the safety, perhaps even for the return, of the MSS. ;
and this, whether or not the editor has given
public notice disclaiming such responsibility. In
the nature of things, such notice must be indirect ;
it is clearly impossible for an editor to serve per-
sonal notice on every inhabitant of the British
Isles, nor would it, I think, be contended, by any
serious advocate, that he is bound to spend money
in advertising his intentions in the Press.
It seems to me that “G. H. T.’s” argument is,
to begin with, seriously damaged by the very title
with which he heads his article. As he justly
asserts, bailment is, or at least implies, a contract.
Now a contract, in every system of law with which
I am acquainted —certainly in English law—
requires the co-operation of at least two persons.
One person cannot make a contract ; there must
be the mutual consent of two minds. If I throw
a book in at a man’s window, my act may be
a trespass ; it certainly cannot, of itself, constitute
a contract—of bailment or anything else. The
most favourable interpretation that can be put
upon it is, that it is an offer to sell or lend the
book, which the person into whose house it is
thrown may or may not accept, at his option.
This construction has been put by Courts of Justice,
over and over again, on the act of leaving unsolicited
goods at a house ; and scathing remarks have been
made by judges upon those enterprising persons
who have tried to found a legal claim on such
proceedings.
“GQ, H. T.” seems, therefore, to me, to miss a
vital point when he says that the question is: “Is
an MS. sent in for the benefit of both parties or
not?” It is not sufficient that the MS. should be
sent for the benefit of both parties; it must also be
accepted for the benefit of both parties.
And I think that “G@. H. T.” would not care to
argue, that the mere fact of opening an envelope
containing an MS. is an acceptance. How can the
person to whom a sealed envelope is addressed
THE AUTHOR.
possibly tell the nature of its contents, until he
opens it? It may contain an article which he has
commissioned, and is anxiously expecting. The
difference between mere receipt and acceptance is
well known to all lawyers, certainly to “G. H. ie
himself.
But I gather that “G. H. T.” proposes to get
over this difficulty by the bold argument, that the
mere founding of a periodical constitutes, in law,
an offer to accept for consideration any article
which any one may choose to send in. Some
editors do, undoubtedly, make this offer, in express
terms, qualified, however, as a rule, by a disavowal
of liability. Whether such a disavowal would be
deemed legally inconsistent with the general offer,
is a point which I do not care to argue. My point
is, that when no such offer is made by an editor,
& fortiori, when an_ editor expressly warns con-
tributors against sending him their MSS. without
previous communication, no such offer can be
implied from the mere founding of the periodical.
An impresario who opens a theatre does not, surely,
undertake to give every actor who offers his services
a trial ; the proprietor of a private picture gallery
does not offer to admit, or even to examine, the
work of every artist who chooses to send in a
picture. If the theatre or the gallery were public
property, maintained by the State or by public
subscription, the case might be different.
Ifthe claim of contract be untenable, “G. HLT s?
argument comes to this : that there is a duty upon
an editor, simply as such, or, as the jurist would
say, a duty m rem, to accept for consideration
every MS. sent to him. This is also a startling
argument. Duties in rem are familiar to our law ;
but it is a well-known principle, that such duties
are of a negative character only—v.e., they are
duties to abstain from doing acts which may result
in harm or damage to the public or one’s neigh-
pours. Duties in rem of a positive character—
ie., to do some act at the request of all and sundry,
or at peril of responsibility, arise only from the
express provisions of statute law; and I do not
recollect any Act of Parliament which imposes upon
editors the duty of reading and returning, or of
safeguarding, unsolicited MSS.
The only exception to this rule which is known
to me, is the duty cast upon a man who harbours
dangerous substances, or embarks upon an under-
* taking peculiarly likely to cause harm, to take all
precautions against the happening of such harm.
But I do not think that “G. H. T.” would be
cynic enough to urge that the founding of a
periodical was an undertaking of such a nature,
To descend from purely legal argument to the
argument from common sense. Ts it unreasonable
to expect that an author, or his literary agent,
should make himself personally acquainted. with
97
the contents of a periodical to which he proposes
to contribute? If he neglects to do so, how can
he possibly tell whether his proposed contribution
is likely to be at all suitable in matter, style, or
length ? Is not an editor entitled to resent such
neglect as savouring of contempt, or, at least, of
laziness, and indifference to the claims upon his
time? Is he bound to pay a clerk for the express
purpose of returning MSS. which are utterly unsuit-
able for his pages? What would be thought of
the man who wrote to the curator of a library:
“ Herewith I send you a highly intelligent monkey.
If he is not suitable for your shelves, kindly give
him a carefully selected meal, and despatch him by
the 9.55 to Norwich, carriage paid” ? Would
not the librarian be entitled to regard the sender
of the monkey as a troublesome lunatic? If the
author, and, still more, the literary agent—who is
supposed to be a man of business—does not take
the trouble to acquaint himself with the conditions
on which alone the editor has expressed himself as
willing to treat, he has but himself to thank if the
busy editor regards him as a nuisance.
In conclusion, I may venture to doubt whether
the periodical which is fed entirely, or almost
entirely, by commissioned articles, is not already
more common than “G. H. T.” is inclined to
allow, and whether it is not likely to be still more
common in the future. An organ founded for a
definite purpose, (widely announced in the Press),
drawing its financial support from people interested
in that purpose, and relying on an organised staff,
can hardly win success by any other means. Nor
am I prepared to admit, that such an organ is any
less worthy a product of the Republic of Letters
than the miscellany which aims merely at the
amusement of the leisure hour,
An EDITOR.
———__+ +
LITERARY, DRAMATIC, AND MUSICAL
PROPERTY.
+
English “Serials” in the American Market.
CORRESPONDENT tells us that “serials”
which have appeared in England, and are
copyright both in England and the United
States, even in the journals generally conceded to
buy the best class of serial fiction, do not command
good prices in the United States market. £50 is
a very outside price, and £30 is considered a price
above the average, the general price being £15 to
£20 for the serial use of from 80,000 to 100,000
words, The truth is that the market is severely
limited, owing to the fact that most of the United
States publishers, who go in for this kind of work,
98
prefer to furbish up and bring up to date, with the
aid of cheap literary hacks, serials which appeared
years ago, and present them, thus “ modernised,” as
new stories to their readers. If this processshould
continue, in the year 2000 the curious may be able
to discover in United States fiction ‘“ Ivanhoe,”
“Vanity Fair,” or “Oliver Twist,” in distorted
form, altered and arranged to suit the decadent
palate of the future American. Comment on this
sort of action is superfluous.
a So oe.
MAGAZINE CONTENTS.
——+~<— —
BLACKWOOD’s MAGAZINE.
John Chilcote, M.P. By Katherine Cecil Thurston.
A Nation at Play: The Peril of Games.
Silk o’ the Kine: A Tale of the Isles. By Alfred Noyes.
The Trader of Last Notch. By Perceval Gibbon.
To. the “Whole Hog”: An Allegorical Ode. By
Dum-Dum.
Some Big Lost Norway Salmon. By Gilfrid W. Hartley.
“Sally”: A Study. By Hugh Clifford, C.M.G.
Heraldry.
The Appearances at the Black Knoll.
Herbert Spencer : A Portrait.
A Turkish Farm.
The Military Book-shelf.
Richard Cobden.
Musings without Method.
The Earl of Stair.
THE CORNHILL MAGAZINE.
The Sea-Born Man. By Mrs. Woods.
The Truants (Chapters i.—iii.). By A. E. W. Mason.
Charles Dickens and the Guild of Literature and Art.
By the late Sir John R. Robinson.
Colonial Memories: Old New Zealand, Il. By Lady
Broome.
No. 10 Downing Street. By the Right Hon. Sir
Algernon West, G.C.B.
Blackstick Papers, No, 8. By Mrs, Richmond Ritchie.
Alms for Oblivion. By Richard Garnett, C.B., LL.D.
Theodore Hook. By Viscount St. Cyres.
In a Viceregal City. By Mrs, Archibald Little,
Historical Mysteries (1.). The Mystery of Kaspar
Hauser, the Child of Europe. By Andrew Lang.
A Nineteenth Century Philosopher. By F. J. H.
Darton.
The Young Fisher. By Stephen Gwynn.
The Ingenuity of Mr. Clinton Bathurst. By T. Baron
Russell.
LONGMAN’S MAGAZINE,
Nature’s Comedian :(Chapters xiii., xiv.). By W. E.
Norris.
Marine Steam Turbines. By Robert Cromie.
The King’s Nose. By Margaret Armour.
Some Scouts—but not Scouting. By Captain A. 0,
‘Vaughan.
Lament for Fionavar. By Eva Gore-Booth.
Humours of Eastern Travel. By Louisa Jebb.
The Brown Puppy. By Ellen Ada Smith.
Rahel Varnhagen : The German Sibyl of the Nineteenth
Century. By Mary Hargrave.
At the Sign of the Ship. By Andrew Lang.
THE AUTHOR.
PALL MALL MAGAZINE,
The Children of the Potteries. By the Duchess of
Sutherland.
The Sensations and Emotions of Aerial Navigation. By
A. Santos Dumont.
The Guest of the Admiral: The Mediterranean Fleet at
Home. By Arnold White.
An Episode in a Country House: A Story. By
Frances Harrod (Frances Forbes Robertson).
A Song. By Lady Lily Greene.
On the Trail of the Opal. By P. F. 8. Spence (Alex-
ander Macdonald).
The Lady and the Property: A Story. ByMarie van Vorst.
Literary Geography : The Bronté Country. By William
Sharp.
A Matter of Honour: A Story. By R. Neish.
The Queen’s Quair: Book II., Chapters V., VI. By
Maurice Hewlett.
Master Workers : X. Sir Oliver Lodge. With portraits.
By Harold Begbie.
Captives: A Poem. By V. V.
The Wilderness: A Story. By H. B. Marriott-Watson.
The Vineyard: Chapters XVIII, XIX. By John
Oliver Hobbes (Mrs. Craigie).
Benjamin’s Mess: A Story. By Eden Phillpotts.
Sunrise: A Poem. By E, Nesbit.
The Round Table :—A Famous Doctor and his Friends.
By Ernest Rhys. Nursery Pictures: ‘Little Jack
Horner.” By S. H. Sime. A Critic Criticised: Mr,
Sidney Lee and the Baconians. By G. Stronach.
The Month in Caricature. By G. R. H.
THE WORLD’S WorRK.
The March of Events: An Illustrated Editorial Record
and Comment.
The Old Year.
The Fiscal Battlefield,
A Step in Civilisation.
Another Little War ? ;
Radium and the Beginnings of Matter.
The Fiscal Issue Joined. By J. St. Loe Strachey (Editor
of the Spectator).
Motorists under the New Act. By Henry Norman, M.P.
A British Industry Really Ruined. By Edwin Sharpe
Grew.
Producing a Pantomime. (Illustrated.)
A Modern London, Office Building. (illustrated.)
Milking Cows by Electricity. (Illustrated.)
The Steam Turbine. (Illustrated.) By Robert Cromie
and Frederick E. Rebbeck,
The. Pressing Question of our Canals. By Edwin
Clements.
The Working of a London Bank. By J. E. Woolacott.
The Lady Chef.
The Wonders of Modern Surgery. (illustrated.) By
C. W. Saleeby, M.B., Ch. B.
Three New Schools. (Illustrated.) By Eustace Miles, M.A.
Scientific Pheasant Farming. (lllustrated.) By W.
Bovill.
The Work of a Japanese Craftsman, (lllustrated.) By .
Herbert G. Ponting.
Municipal Loans for Small Investors. (Illustrated.). By
Edouard Charles.
British Trade with France.
The Derwent Valley Waterworks.
The Making of an American Newspaper.
The World of Women’s Work.
_ Fresh Eggs and Poultry. illustrated.) “Home
Counties.”
The Work of the Book World.
Among the World’s Workers : A Record of Industry.
THE AUTHOR.
WARNINGS TO THE PRODUCERS
OF BOOKS.
—— +
ERE are a few standing rules to be observed in an
agreement. There are four methods of dealing
with literary property :—
I. Selling it Outright.
This is sometimes satisfactory, if a proper price can be
oltained. But the transaction should be managed by a
competent agent, or with the advice of the Secretary of
the Society.
II. A Profit-Sharing Agreement (a bad form of
agreement).
In this case the following rules should be attended to:
C1.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro-
duction forms a part without the strictest investigation.
(2.) Not to give the publisher the power of putting the
profits into his own pocket by charging for advertisements
in his own organs, or by charging exchange advertise-
ments. Therefore keep control of the advertisements.
(3.) Not to allow a special charge for “office expenses,”
unless the same allowance is made to the author.
(4.) Not to give up American, Colonial, or Continental
rights.
(5.) Not to give up serial or translation rights.
(6.) Not to bind yourself for future work to any publisher.
As well bind yourself for the future to any one solicitor or
doctor !
Ill. The Royalty System.
This is perhaps, with certain limitations, the best form
of agreement. It is above all things necessary to know
what the proposed royalty means to both sides. It isnow
possible for an author to ascertain approximately the
truth. From time to time very important figures connected
with royalties are published in Zhe Author.
IY. A Commission Agreement.
The main points are :—
(1.) Be careful to obtain a fair cost of production.
(2.) Keep control of the advertisements.
(3.) Keep control of the sale price of the book.
General.
All other forms of agreement are combinations of the four
above mentioned.
Such combinations are generally disastrous to the author,
Never sign any agreement without competent advice from
‘the Secretary of the Society.
Stamp all agreements with the Inland Revenue stamp.
Avoid agreements by letter if possible.
The main points which the Society has always demanded
from the outset are :—
(1.) That both sides shall know what an agreement
means.
(2.) The inspection of those account books which belong
fo the author. We are advised that this is a right. in the
nature of a common law right, which cannot be denied or
withheld.
(3.) Always avoid a transfer of copyright.
————_+—~>»
WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS.
———9
“AT EVER sign an agreement without submitting it to the
Secretary of the Society of Authors or some com-
petent legal authority,
2. {t is well to be extremely careful in negotiating for
the production of a play with anyone except an established
manager,
99
3. There are three forms of dramatic contract for plays
in three or more acts :—
(a.) Sale outright of the performing right. This
is unsatisfactory. An author who enters into
such a contract should stipulate in the contract
for production of the piece by a certain date
and for proper publicatioa of his name on the
play-bills.
(4.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to
perform on the basis of percentages on
gross receipts. Percentages vary between 5
and 15 per cent. An author should obtain a
percentage on the sliding scale of gross receipts
in preference to the American system. Should
obtain a sum in advance of percentages. A fixed
date on or before which the play should be
performed.
(c.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to
perform on the basis of royalties (i.c., fixed
nightly fees). This method should be always
avoided except in cases where the fees are
likely to be small or difficult to collect. The
other safeguards set out under heading (0.) apply
also in this case,
4. Plays in one act are often sold outright, but it is
better to obtain a small nightly fee if possible, and a sum
paid in advance of such fees in any event. It is extremely
important that the amateur rights of one-act plays should
be reserved.
5. Authors should remember that performing rights can
be limited, and are usually limited, by town, country, and
time. This is most important.
6. Authors should not assign performing rights, but
should grant a licence to perform. The legal distinction is
of great importance.
7, Authors should remember that performing rights in a
play are distinct from literary copyright. A manager
holding the performing right or licence to perform cannot
print the book of the words.
8. Never forget that United States rights may be exceed-
ingly valuable. ‘hey should never be included in English
agreements without the author obtaining a substantial
consideration.
9. Agreements for collaboration should be carefully
drawn and executed before collaboration is commenced.
10. An author should remember that production of a play
is highly speculative: that he runs a very great risk of
delay and a breakdown in the fulfilment of his contract.
He should therefore guard himself all the more carefully in
the beginning.
11. An author must remember that the dramatic market
is exceedingly limited, and that for a novice the first object
is to obtain adequate publication.
As these warnings must necessarily be incomplete, on
account of the wide range of the subject of dramatic con-
tracts, those authors desirous of further information
are referred to the Secretary of the Society.
oe
WARNINGS TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.
to
ITTLE can be added to the warnings given for the
assistance of producers of books and dramatic
authors. It must, however, be pointed out that, as
a rule, the musical publisher demands from the musical
composer a transfer of fuller rights and less liberal finan-
cial terms than those obtained for literary and dramatic
property. The musical composer has very often the two
rights to deal with—performing right and copyright. He
100
should be especially careful therefore when entering into
an agreement, and should take into particular consideration
the warnings stated above.
— ee
HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.
+
a. VERY member has a right to ask for and to receive
advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-
lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his
business or the administration of his property. The
Secretary of the Society is a solicitor, but if there is any
special reason the Secretary will refer the case to the
Solicitors of the Society. Further, the Committee, if they
deem it desirable, will obtain counsel’s opinion. All this
without any cost to the member.
2. Remember that questions connected with copyright
and publishers’ agreements do not fall within the experi-
ence of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use
the Society.
3. Send to the Office copies of past agreements and past
accounts, with a copy of the book represented. The
Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new
or old, for inspection and note. The information thus
obtained may prove invaluable.
4, Before signing any agreement whatever, send
the document to the Society for examination.
5, Remember always that in belonging to the Society
you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you
are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are
advancing the best interests of your calling in promoting
the independence of the writer, the dramatist, the composer.
6. The Committee have now arranged for the reception
of members’ agreements and their preservation in a fire-
proof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as
confidential documents to be read only by the Secretary,
who will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers :
—(1) To read and advise upon agreements and to give
advice concerning publishers. (2) To stamp agreements
in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep
agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to
agreements. Fuller particulars of the Society’s work
can be obtained in the Prospectus.
7. No contract should be entered into with a literary
agent without the advice of the Secretary of the Society.
Members are strongly advised not to accept without careful
consideration the contracts with publishers submitted to
them by literary agents, and are recommended to submit
them for interpretation and explanation to the Secretary
of the Society.
8. Many agents neglect to stamp agreements This
must be done within fourteen days of first execution. The
Secretary will undertake it on behalf of members.
9. Some agents endeavour to prevent authors from
referring matters to the Secretary of the Society; so
do some publishers. Members can make their own
deductions and act accordingly.
10. The subscription to the Society is £1 1s. per
annum, or £10 10s. for life membership.
THE AUTHOR.
THE READING BRANCH.
— ++
EMBERS will greatly assist the Society in this
branch of its work by informing young writers
of its existence. Their MSS. can be read and
treated as a composition is treated by a coach, The term
MSS. includes not only works of fiction, but poetry
and dramatic works, and when it is possible, under
special arrangement, technical and scientific works. The
Readers are writers of competence and experience. The
fee is one guinea.
+ 2 ——_—_
NOTICES.
—
HE Editor of The Author begs to remind members of
the Society that, although the paper is sent to them
free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a
very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great
many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest
5s. 6d. subscription for the year.
Communications for Zhe Author should be addressed to
the Offices of the Society, 39, Old Queen Street, Storey’s
Gate, §.W., and should reach the Editor not later than
the 21st of each month.
All persons engaged in_ literary work of any kind,
whether members of the Society or mot, are invited to
communicate to the Editor any points connected with their
work which it would be advisable in the general interest to
publish.
————_+ + —_
Communications and letters are invited by the
Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on
no other subjects whatever. Every effort will be made to
return articles which cannot be accepted.
—
The Secretary of the Society begs to give notice
that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post,
and he requests members who do not receive an
answer to important communications within two days to
write to him without delay. All remittances should be —
crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery Lane, or be sent ©
by registered letter only.
———__+—_+—__—_
THE LEGAL AND GENERAL LIFE
ASSURANCE SOCIETY.
ot
N offer has been made of a special scheme of.
Endowment and Whole Life Assurance,
admitting of a material reduction off the
ordinary premiums to members of the Society
Full information can be obtained from J. P. Blake,
5
158, Leadenhall Street, E.C.
Leval and General Insurance Society (City Branch), —
ae a
ne
THE AUTHOR.
AUTHORITIES.
—————
WE see in an extract from the Westminsier
Gazette that the Société des Gens de Lettres has
recently inherited two legacies, one of them
valued at 35,000 francs, and the other, consisting
of real property, estimated to produce 18,000 francs
when realised. Both these legacies will go to sup-
port the Pension Fund of the Société.
The Société des Gens de Lettres is a wealthy
society owing to the fact that it has certain rights
over the works of members who belong to it, and
can obtain financial support from the sale of these -
rights.
An arrangement of this kind would, of course, be
impossible under the constitution of our Society,
but no doubt, as time goes on, the capital at the
back of the Society will be increased by grateful
members either during their lifetime by donations
or after their death by legacies, till the time
will at length come when neither the Society
nor the Society’s Pension Fund will need further
assistance.
The Société des Gens de Lettres, it is stated,
has at the present time 145 pensioners, but the
value of the pensions are only £12 a year, and are
awarded as a matter of right to the members of
the Société in order of seniority whenever funds
permit. Many of the more wealthy authors who
are members waive their rights to the pensions to
which they are entitled.
Mr. J. R. Kewry, of “ The London Directory,”
has been interviewed by a correspondent of a daily
paper. He made one point referring to copyright
which was amusing as well as instructive.
Infringement of copyright in a directory is
often exceedingly hard to prove, as the facts con-
tained in its pages are, as a rule, open to all
parties ; and as long as anyone acting bond fide
goes to the original source for information so long
may he make use of that information in any way
that seems fit to him.
We do not refer to the question of the peculiar
form in which the information may be conveyed to
the public, this is another and difficult branch of
copyright ; for instance, in the case of the “A. B. C.
Railway Guide,” there is a certain copyright, not
in the matter, but in the form.
Mr. Kelly tells how on one occasion a certain
merchant came to his office and said he had been
asked to advertise in a new directory that was
guaranteed a circulation of 15,000 copies. Mr.
Kelly was naturally interested, and looked at the
Copy which the merchant brought with him.
101
He referred to one name in the directory, and
seeing the manner in which it had been spelt he
was at once aware that the contents had been
stolen from his own book, as he had himself in-
vented the name and inserted it. Mr. Kelly’s
firm started a prosecution and won the day, and
all copies of the pirated book were ordered to be
destroyed.
We quote Mr. Kelly’s own words.
“TI shall never forget the ferocious question put
to me in cross-examination by the defendant’s
counsel. ‘ What,’ he cried, ‘do you stand there,
Mr. Kelly, and confess that you, a gentleman of
honour and position, were actually laying a trap ?’
‘You have to lay traps to catch vermin,’ I took
the liberty of replying.”
The counsel, no doubt, felt the rebuke.
This calls to mind another story of copyright
infringement, where the result was equally satis-
factory to the real owner. We believe it occurred
to Mr. Gambier Boulton, the well-known photo-
grapher of wild animals, but cannot at the moment
verify the statement. The hero of the story,
whoever he was, had, with considerable difficulty,
after watching for many days, photographed one
of the lions at the Zoological Gardens in the act of
yawning. On this photograph great time and
trouble had been expended, and he was, in conse-
quence, very proud of the result. Not long after-
wards he found the photograph reproduced in a
magazine, and brought an action for infringement.
The magazine contributor defended the case, and
stated that the photograph was original and was
not a copy. The reply from the plaintiff was
conclusive.
“It is a curious point,” he said, “that both
lions we have photographed should have had a
cancer on their tongues.”
The Court gave a verdict for the plaintiff.
THE Nobel Prize for literature has this year
been assigned to the great Norwegian author,
Bjornstjerne Bjornson.
There was a report current that this would be
- the case, and we think the Stockholm Committee
amply justified in their selection. Mr. Bjornson
was born on the 8th of December, 1832, and is,
therefore, now in his seventy-second year.
Though a constant traveller, he spends most of
his summer on a little farm which he has purchased
in the heart of Norway.
His works are well known in this and all
English-speaking countries, and many of them
have been translated. He is not only a novelist,
but a dramatist and a poet.
2,
102
«Tye Amalgamated Press,” Limited, according
to the papers which have given reports of the
annual meeting, is in a flourishing condition.
Mr. Alfred C. Harmsworth stated that the
company, after writing off £25,000 for depreciation,
had £266,000 to divide as dividends, and further
if this is not aslip of the pen) had made a nett
profit of £180,000 out of “With the Flag to
Pretoria.”
These figures are exceedingly interesting to all
members of the profession of authorship.
If the publishers have made these enormous
profits, no doubt the authors employed have
received their fair and just remuneration at the
same time. We have much pleasure, therefore, in
congratulating the author of “ With the Flag to
Pretoria”? on the small fortune which he must
have acquired.
—————
On December 10th, in the Guildhall Library,
the bust of Geoffrey Chaucer was unveiled. It
was presented by Sir Recinald Hanson, and was
the work of Mr. George Frampton, R.A.
Many distinguished men were present, either
writers or those who take an interest in literature.
The ceremony of unveiling was undertaken by
Dr. Furnivall, the Chaucer scholar and founder of
the Chaucer Society.
Mr. Alfred Austin, the Poet Laureate, seconded
a resolution thanking Sir Reginald Hanson for the
gift.
That the work should have been placed in the
Guildhall Library has a point of interest beyond
the literary. Chaucer was not only a poet, but a
commercial man and a diplomatist. He was
despatched to Genoa in 1372 as the representative
of England in order to bring about a commercial
treaty with that city. The members of the Corpora-
tion have therefore every reason to look upon him
as one of themselves.
We have much pleasure in printing on another
page a_ short article referring to the sale of
the MS. of “Paradise Lost,” and Mr. Sidney
Lee’s letter which appeared in The Times of
December 14th.
‘A matter so important to all lovers of literature
cannot be too often placed before the public. It is
hoped, with the help of Mr. Lee and many others
who prize English literature and its connections,
that it will be possible to save the MS. from being
taken out of England.
We feel sure that any National movement for
its purchase will obtain the ready support of all
Members of the Society.
THE AUTHOR.
SHOULD WELL-KNOWN WRITERS
“FARM OUT” FICTION ?
———
From THE COMMITTEE.
L the first of the notices which are regularly
inserted on the first page of Zhe Author it is
announced that “ For the opinions expressed
in the papers that are signed or initialled the
authors alone are responsible. None of the papers
or paragraphs must be taken as expressing the
opinion of the Committee, unless such is especially
stated to be the case.”
The Committee had considered, and their atten-
tion has now been called by more than one
member of the Society to, an article on pages
80 and 81 of the December number, signed
“Proxy,” and entitled, “Should Well-known
Writers ‘Farm-out’ Fiction ?”
The correspondents appear to assume, Or to
imagine that others might assume, that the pub-
lication of this article may, in the absence of
editorial comment, be taken to imply that the
Committee think the view put forward in it is
worthy to be taken seriously.
By many readers of Zhe Author the article
was regarded as an ironical jew @esprit, but it
has been accepted by others as a bond fide de-
fence of an existing practice, and it is undoubtedly
open to this interpretation.
The Committee, therefore, to avoid possible
misunderstanding, feel it their duty to say that,
in their opinion, such practices as are described
and defended by “Proxy” are gravely discredit-
able to those concerned, and constitute a gross
fraud both on the publisher and the public.
In thus expressing their opinion on the points
raised in “ Proxy’s” article, the Committee, it may
be well to add, must not be understood to condemn
such forms of co-operation as are frequently
resorted to in works involving extensive research,
or where, in other branches of literature, the
co-operation is acknowledged in such a manner
that no purchaser can reasonably complain of
having been misled.
Tur Editor has received from Members of the
Society a number of letters which would more
than fill the space reserved for correspondence in
the present number, commenting on “ Proxy’s”
article. Having before their receipt been in-
structed to insert the note from the Committee
printed above, which meets most of the points
raised by his correspondents, he has, with the
Commitiee’s approval, refrained from publishing
any selection from these letters in the current
number.
aeuneey
THE AUTHOR.
HERBERT SPENCER, 1820—1903.
an ep
. HE suns go swiftly out, and I see no suns to
follow; nothing but a universal twilight
of the semi-divinities.” So wrote Robert
Louis Stevenson, apropos of the deaths of Renan,
Browning, and Tennyson, and his plaint has echo
among those who have sat at the feet of departed
masters in scienceand philosophy—Darwin, Huxley,
Spencer. For thoughts of a vanished day rather
than of a coming dawn are uppermost ; thoughts
restrained only by the knowledge that the influence
of these teachers, men of lofty aims and unsullied
life, is a part of our imperishable heritage, and
that, consciously or not, we are swayed by it to
further, as at our poor best we may, their high
emprise.
The obituary notices of Herbert Spencer have
familiarised us with the outlines of his career. No
eventful one, such as comes to men of action, yet
full of incident in struggle bordering on the heroic,
in unflinching purpose and large accomplishment.
Son of a Derby schoolmaster, he was educated
partly at home, partly by an uncle; then came
nine years of civil engineering, with little heart in
the work, and, ultimately, escape into journalism.
In 1850, while sub-editing the Hconomist, Spencer
published “ Social Statics,” wherein ‘“ the conditions
essential to human happiness are specified, and the
relation of them to a general law of development
indicated.” In this last phrase the keynote of his
life-work is struck. One chapter of the book
contains hints of the great doctrine with which
Spencer’s name is associated for all time, while
throughout the book there is present the feeling
that, in the words of Hume, “all sciences have a
relation, greater or less, to man.”
Neither in the moral nor the material sphere is
their special creation. All that has been achieved,
whether in discovery, invention, or speculation
which research has confirmed, is the fruitage of the
unhasting, unresting past. And the conception
of the universe, as in some way the product of
mechanical processes, is not modern. Ages before
Spencer made clear to us the unity of the cosmos,
there had been approaches to that supremely
ennobling conception. But, save through a voice
crying here and there as in a wilderness, the spirit
of enquiry, born in Ionia five centuries before
Christ, was stifled for two thousand years by creeds
that would brook no rival and permit no ques-
tioning. As late as the middle of the eighteenth
century, Buffon, covertly hinting at a possible
common ancestor of the horse and ass, and of the
ape and man, adds, with an eye on the Sorbonne,
that since scripture teaches the contrary, the thing
cannot be. But the timid suggestion bore fruit in
103
the bravely enounced theories of Lamarck and
Darwin’s distinguished grandfather, the poetical
Lichfield doctor. A succession of workers in the
fields of geology, palzeontology and biology brought
a body of evidence in support of those theories
which ultimately demolished the tenacious belief
in the fixity of species. Among these there can in
this brief paper be reference only to Von Baer, the
formulator of the “ Law of Development ” manifest
in the fundamental likenesses between the embryos
of the higher animals and man, because Spencer
tells us that, becoming acquainted with this ‘ Law ”
in 1852, he at once saw its bearing on the theory
adumbrated in “Social Statics.’ So far as organic
evolution was concerned, the master-key to the
causes of the origin of the millions of species of
plants and animals was lacking, but this was to be
supplied six years later by Darwin and Wallace.
Thus were all things being made ready for the
advent of a man with the penetrating insight of
genius, and with the saving and indispensable
sense of relation, who should, by his skill in syn-
thesis, demonstrate the interaction, unity and con-
tinuity of all phenomena, and their subservience
to one process which, if it operates anywhere,
operates everywhere—the process known as Evolu-
tion. In the fulness of time he came. He had
bad health ; he was poor ; he was almost unknown,
therefore little heeded. In January, 1858, six
months before the meeting of the Linnean Society
at which Darwin and Wallace’s memorable paper
“On the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by
Natural Selection” was read, Spencer wrote out
his scheme of the ‘Synthetic Philosophy ” which,
it is interesting to note, was submitted to his father
for comment. In 1860 the prospectus of the pro-
posed series of volumes was issued, and secured a
sufficient response from friends to warrant a venture
whose risks Spencer could not afford to run unaided.
Not till he was forty did he sce the inception
of a plan which he had nurtured when writing
in his twenty-second year a series of letters on
“The Proper Sphere of Government’”’ in the
Nonconformist.
The Synthetic Philosophy comprehended all
phenomena in this formula: ‘ Evolution is an
integration of matter and concomitant dissipation
of motion during which the matter passes from an
indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a definite,
coherent heterogeneity, and during which the
retained motion undergoes a parallel transforma-
tion.” The method followed is the inductive, the
established premise being the “persistence of
force ” involving endless cycles of ceaseless change,
resulting in redistribution of matter and motion,
whereby adyance is made from the like to the
unlike, from the simple to the complex; for
example, the vapours and unstable stuff of the
104
universe slowly condensing into sun and solar
systems, life emerging on our planet (of which
alone we have knowledge) along physical and
psychical stages till the transcendent genius of
man appears. Postulating the inscrutableness of
the Power which underlies all phenomena, and
ever quickening the sense of wonder begotten by
the stupendous spectacle of evolution and dissolu-
tion, Spencer advanced along the lines of his great
argument, from statements of the general in
«First Principles” to application of the special
in the “ Principles of Biology,” with its details of
development of plants and animals ; in the
“Principles of Psychology,” wherein the story
passes from life to mind in the development of
gelf-consciousness from blurred, undetermined feel-
ing in the lowest responsive organism ; and finally,
in the “ Principles of Sociology,” wherein is traced
the evolution of family, tribal and allied relations,
of religion and its ceremonies, of politics and
institutions—in brief, of all the apparatus of
human life, individual and collective, with large
insistence on the basis of ethics as not supernatural,
but social. So we have, first, the imorgantc, or
evolution of the not-living ; second, the organic,
or evolution of the living ; (Spencer sees in mind
and matter only “two phases of one cosmical pro-
cess”); and third, the superorganic, or evolution
into social groups, with their institutions, beliefs,
and customs. No break in the series is recognised ;
the keynotes of evolution are unity and continuity.
Science knows no finality ; but, recognising that
revisions here and there will be needed as know-
ledge advances, it is difficult to believe that the
main structure raised by the genius of Spencer
will not abide. It was his rare privilege to see in
old age the fulfilment of the plan of his early
manhood, and whatever of impermanence may
attach to his work, his place as one of the greatest
of the world’s master-builders in the intellectual
and spiritual domain is secure. A concluding word
or two about Spencer’s style and personality. The
one has been called cumbersome, lacking in ease
and grace ; but massive thought demands dignified,
masculine diction, and the careful reader will
quickly find that in clearness and definiteness the
style is perfectly adapted to the subject-matter.
In some of the minor works, notably those on
“Education” and the delightful “Study of
Sociology,” we find abundance of felicitous and
familiar illustration. As for the man, his carefully-
guarded health led to some degree of fussiness and
fidgetiness, while a certain aloofness kept company
with a frigid manner under which, nevertheless,
there beat a kindly heart, ever moved by the needs
and troubles of his friends.
Tt was in 1894 that our Society had the dis-
tinction of adding to its member-roll the name of
THE AUTHOR.
a man to whom all titular dignities were repellent,
and whose adhesion to any movement was never
given without deliberation.
EDWARD CLODD.
<> —______
THE MS. OF MILTON’S “ PARADISE LOST.”
——>——
R. SIDNEY LEE sent to The Times a
letter on this subject which appeared on
Dec. 14. We reprint his communication
with some slight changes and omissions which we
have his authority for making.
Mr. Lee wrote :—“ It is to be hoped that every
one who has the reputation of this country at heart
and is in a position to bring influence to bear on
its rulers will take note of Mr. Churton Collins’
warning and spare no endeavour to prevent the
passing into ownership beyond the seas of the
original MS. press copy of the First Book of
Milton’s ‘ Paradise Lost.’ The peril is very real.
Unless strenuous efforts be made, the chances
against the keeping of the document at home are
overwhelming. If no public pressure be exerted,
there is an obvious likelihood that this literary
treasure will follow the recent fortunes of the only
known copies of the original edition of Malory’s
‘Le Morte d’Arthur’ and of many another of our
early literary masterpieces, and henceforth adorn
the private library of some American citizen of
wealth and enterprise.”
“The occasion demands exceptional exertion. The
nation’s prestige owes an immense debt to its
literary achievements, and to no literary achieve-
ment (save to Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies) does
it owe more than to Milton’s ‘ Paradise Lost.’
No autograph MS. of the poem has ever existed,
for Milton in his blindness was not able to write,
but the copy which he sent to the licenser for the
press with his own characteristic corrections of the
spelling is the nearest possible approach to his
original MS. This MS. of a portion of Milton’s
epic is, in effect, one of the nation’s title-deeds to
poetic and intellectual renown. Is it unreasonable
to expect that the Government will recognise its
obligation, now that the opportunity presents itself,
to convert this national title-deed to fame into a
national heirloom, and secure it in perpetuity for
the British Museum ?”
“ Experience does not admit of doubt as to the
answer that, were similar circumstances to arise in
foreign countries, this question would receive from
foreign Governments. It is difficult to believe
that, with so potent an incentive to action as is
offered by the forthcoming sale, the Treasury will
hesitate to provide the necessary increase of grant
THE AUTHOR.
whereby the national library may become the final
home of Milton’s MS.”
“The sale is announced to take place ‘early in
the spring.’ Apparently, no precise day has yet
been fixed. The Trustees of the British Museum
and other public bodies will thus have time
wherein to approach the Government, and learn
their intentions. Probably, to meet all eventu-
alities, it would be safest at once to form privately
a guarantee fund, whose members would undertake,
in the case of the failure of an application to the
Government, to defray the cost of securing the MS.
for the British Museum. Disclosure of details as
to the amount likely to be required would defeat
the purpose of the fund.”
The owner of the MS. has just announced
through the auctioneers that he will dispose of it
to the highest bidder at public auction on January
25th.
A scholarly account of the textual interest
attaching to the MS. appeared in The Times
Literary Supplement of Dec. 18th. Some news-
paper correspondents may have attached an unduly
high value to the MS., but the opposing statement
made by Dr. Furnivall in The Times of Dec.
19th, that it is a valueless scrivener’s copy, is
incorrect. No extravagant sum ought to be
offered for the document, because it is not an
author’s autograph MS. But it is eminently
desirable that every attempt should be made to
secure it for the national collection. We should be
glad to hear from any who would co-operate in
efforts in that direction.
——————
A NEW BOOK ON COPYRIGHT.
—_—
E have read with interest a little book just
V published by A. H. Bullen, entitled
“ Copyright Law,” by Henry A. Hinkson.
The book is a very small one to deal with so
large and difficult a subject. In this point lies its
main fault, It is written clearly and plainly with-
out any unnecessary legal argument, and is mainly
a statement of the facts and the results of the
working of the law.
So far the book is admirable. The faults are
very few and far between and the blunders slight.
It is a matter of some doubt whether a little
knowledge is not in the case of copyright a
dangerous thing, and whether a text book for the
young author and young writer is not more likely
to lead him into difficulties than to improve his
knowledge of how to deal with his property.
We must, however, thank Mr. Hinkson for his
well-endeavoured effort and congratulate him on
the result.
105
Without desiring to be hypercritical, it is
necessary to draw attention to one or two small
errors.
For instance, on page 49, when dealing with
the 18th Section—that most difficult of all Sections
—the author states that after twenty-eight years
the copyright reverts to the author. This state-
ment is, of course, incorrect, the words of the Act
being “the right of publishing in separate form
shall revert to the author.” Now the right of
publication and the copyright are two distinct
things, and the legal distinction cannot be too
accurately maintained or too frequently insisted
upon.
When dealing with International Copyright he
includes Montenegro among the Signatories to the
Berne Convention. Though Montenegro was origin-
ally a Signatory, she has since withdrawn.
With regard to Artistic Copyright he again falls
into error. He states: “‘ Before publication the pro-
prietor has a common law right in his picture
engraving or drawing,” and seems to draw the
deduction that copyright runs from the publica-
tion of the “picture engraving or drawing.”
If he studies the Act more closely and the
books which have been written endeavouring to
explain that Act, he will see that the copyright
in a “picture engraving or drawing” begins on
the making thereof and not from the publication.
This is one of the difficult points in the Artistic
as distinct from the Literary Copyright Law.
However, the book is accurately and carefully
written, and so far as it is possible for any legal
copyright amateur to gain satisfaction from a small
work, so far will he be able to derive assistance
from Mr. Hinkson’s “Copyright Law.”
A NOVELIST ON HIS ART.*
—_
T is always a melancholy task to criticise the
i work of a man of great talent who has died
before the full fruition of his gift, and the
melancholy is deepened when the work in question
is not of such a kind as to deserve unrestricted
praise. No one, I think, even of those to whom
his peculiar powers make the least appeal, will deny
that in “ The Octopus ” and “ McTeague ” the late
Mr. Frank Norris manifested extraordinary promise
and discovered fresh territory ; no one, again, of
his most fervent worshippers could honestly affirm
that his work is faultless. A rough and careless
* «The Responsibilities of the Novelist,’ by Frank
Norris. (Grant Richards.)
106
style, sometimes effective, often wounding, is the least
delightful characteristic of “The Responsibilities
of the Novelist.” Its author allowed the force of his
convictions to express itself in noise ; he was so
certain of the truth of his theories that he forgot
what a traitor to truth didacticism may prove
unless it is allied with subtle restraint. He has
none of the fine shades of persuasion.
Yet if the style is marred by such redundant
expressions as “I tell you ” and such elementary
errors as “Macbeth and Tamerlane réswmé the
whole spirit of the Elizabethan age,” and “ Violet le
Due’s ‘ Dictionaire du Mobilier,’” there are, at any
rate, many fine and honest, if not hugely original,
judgments on the art of the novelist. Mr. Norris
realised that the artistic temperament is not a
thing that one can put on and take off, like a hat
or an air of virtue, but that it is the very spring
and essence of life.
“You must be something more than a novelist if you
ean, something more than just a writer. There must be
that nameless sixth sense in you... . the thing that
does not enter into the work, but that is back of it; the
thing that would make of you a good man as well as a
good novelist.”
Something of this kind has been said before, but
Mr. Norris was an independent thinker, and that
he should have come to the same conclusion as his
predecessors is a great tribute to their common
theory. Sincerity is the watchword of his essays
which deal most intimately with the novelist’s art;
he denounces the vulgar trick of cramming the
public with garbage that has neither life nor
beauty, and reiterates the importance of studying
the ordinary aspects of existence, aspects as full of
romantic possibility as any age when men loved
and fought in doublet and hose. This truth he
illustrates from American history. But here, too,
he rushes wildly where a more careful thinker
would pause. He is wonderfully optimistic con-
cerning the public taste, and believes that in the
end the plain people, the burgesses, the grocers,
will prefer “Walter Scott to G. P. R. James,
Shakespeare to Marlowe, Flaubert to Goncourt.”
Why, in the name of logic, Shakespeare to Marlowe?
A damning comparison of the “ Aigina Marbles”
with the frieze of Pheidias would be about as
pertinent. Did Mr. Norris really imagine that
Marlowe was the G. P. R. James of the Elizabethan
era, just as a recent writer on Sicily termed one of
the three greatest Attic dramatists the Henry
Arthur Jones of Greece? Faults of taste of this
kind mar the excellence of his book, which will
nevertheless have a value as containing the sincere
if hasty conclusions of one whose premature
death is mourned by all who care for honesty in
literature.
Sr. J. Le
THE AUTHOR.
G. P. v. SPECIALIST.
a
HAVE noticed recently a recrudescence of the
old discussion as to whether specialists or
general practitioners should be called in to
express opinions on the corpus vile of fiction,
whether experts or ordinary readers are the proper
persons to review books in the Press ; and, on the
principle, perhaps, that fools may hit when wiser
men may miss, I venture to shoot my bolt with my
betters, protesting in advance that common sense
has before now been known to be covered by the
cap and bells, and that responsibility is more
frequently an obstacle to the utterance of truth
than irresponsibility.
I wish that in these conversational debates the
disputants would take the preliminary trouble to
define their terms ; even if they did, there would
be small likelihood of their bringing their argu-
ments to aconclusion, but without such preliminary
labour there is no possibility of their doing so.
What is an expert? Let it be observed that I do
not ask who is an expert: to do so would be to
represent myself as unfamiliar with “ Who’s who ?”
at this instant reflecting my blushes, due to my not
being mentioned therein ; but what do these leaders
of light and learning mean by experts, and reviews,
and half-a-hundred other things which they
discuss so frequently and at such length? What
distinction do they make between a criticism and a
review, and for whose benefit do they contend that
books are reviewed in the Press at all? The
looseness with which they employ the terms is
surely the reason of half the pother.
Literature is an art, not a profession, and the
author has discharged his primary function when
he has brought his work to perfection and knows
that he can do no more with it: that, so far as he
can make it so, it is a finished thing. But from
another point of view that is only the end of the
beginning. In due course the book is made public,
and then it is the publisher who is immediately
concerned, and trade considerations properly come
into the matter. He advertises the fact that he
has a book to sell; if he is clever he advertises it
in a variety of ways, but generally, of course, by
the simple expedient of inserting notices of it
in newspapers, in consequence of seeing which
people may be induced to buy. The publisher's
primary business is to make money for himself,
and he would not be a business man if on the one
hand he did not spend money with the object
of making more, and if on the other he did not
seek to get some advertisement of his wares for
next to nothing. In the former case he spends
upon advertising as much as he thinks the book
will bear, and to the latter end he sends out
ile
THE AUTHOR. 107
“review copies,” asking for the favour of an
editorial notice, a notice, or a review, and for a
copy of the issue of the paper containing any such
notice. I never remember having seen the word
‘criticism ” used by any publisher on any such
occasion; at the present moment twenty-seven
volumes await attention from me, and the word
“criticism” does not occur in one of the accom-
panying printed slips from the publishers; it is
notice, not criticism, they desire.
The editor again does not desire to procure it as
a general rule. Times are such that he consults
the wishes of his readers by giving them reviews
instead of criticism, and for that purpose he
employs reviewers and not critics, general prac-
titioners not specialists ; and this not only because
they are less expensive and more easily come by,
but because they are the better men for the job. In
all this part of the matter, art is not even being
considered : it is business pure and simple between
the publisher, the editor, and the public. The first
wants the cheap advertisement ; the second wants
copy dealing with one of the myriad subjects
interesting some of his regular readers and wants
cheap copy—let those who deny that reviewing is
poorly paid work quote figures ; the third want—
what ?—notice or criticism ?
So far as fiction is concerned I am convinced
they do not want criticism. They want to know
what a book is about, and only one thing more—
whether it is interesting. One may prate about
art until the ceiling falls. That a book is interest-
ing is the first, the middle, and the last point of
importance to the great public: it is the one thing
the publisher’s reader watches for, the editor
watches for, the publisher watches for. A novelist
may write a story the plot of which is moth eaten,
the characters in which are conventional almost to
the point of absurdity, the style of which is faulty
and, from the point of view of art, deplorable ; if
it is interesting the publisher’s reader would forfeit
his appointment by declining it, the editor would
be confronted with a similar possibility by commit-
ting a similar blunder, and the publisher would
rage furiously at losing a good thing. Immortality
is an abstraction, but temporal supremacy is practi-
cal politics ; but the mind that is set upon things
above is commonly indifferent, if not actually
blind, to things below. The analogy has point.
Criticism has been defined as the exercise of
judgment in the province of art and literature, and
the critic as a person who is possessed of the
knowledge necessary to enable him to pronounce
right judgments upon the merit or worth of such
works as come within this province. Matter,
manner, and the quality of giving pleasure, or in
other words: the power of appealing to the imagina-
tion, are the three characteristic qualities of
literature—the principles; construction of plot,
metre, diction, and such other lesser elements as
are governed by canons, are the rules ; and criticism
tends in an increasing degree to disregard rules
and concentrate its attention upon principles.
The expert critic cannot, however, be expected to
do other than act as a resistant force to this
tendency ; it is his function to maintain a high
standard of merit in performance, and to insist
upon the importance of the rules: he is the champion
of art, and the artist’s well-greaved friend ; but the
training and scholarship which make him what he
is are obstacles in the way of his being a practically
useful reviewer of fiction for the daily, or even
weekly, Press. A dissertation upon principles and
rules in the “literary column” of a daily paper,
with a considered judgment upon the merits of a
novel as tested thereby, is not wanted by anybody
except the author. The expert critic’s knowledge
and reverence for principles and rules make him
intolerant of any work where they are not observed
and incapable of finding anything interesting in it :
his place is the quarterly reviews : the daily papers
have no use for him.
Is that a matter for regret to authors? Only
in part, it seems to me. At that stage in his
development what he needs is notice, as wide as
possible, in order that his books may sell ; utili-
tarian considerations legitimately affect him too.
Moreover, if what he has produced be art, in
the true sense of the word, he must know that
everything is very well as it is. No interesting
book has ever yet been written that has failed
to find its way to the world: that is one truth ;
another is that fame has never yet been withheld
when it has been deserved. With the author who
cannot comfort himself with the belief that if he
deserves fame he will win it, and who finds a griev-
ance in the thought that it may be posthumous, it
is not easy to be patient. If he is of such
comparative importance that he is made the subject
of considered criticism as distinct from mere
review, he must still remember that contemporary
criticism can only be provisional: appeal to
posterity, by whom the judgment may be reversed,
is not only permissible, but inevitable. It is with
posterity only that the final judgment lics. What
matters most to the author in the present is
review.
It is of fiction that I have spoken because it
is in connection with fiction that the old discussion
has been revived; and so far as fiction is con-
cerned, let me record my vote by plumping in
favour of the general practitioner. Consideration
of the question in connection with other depart-
ments of literature may be left to another time
and to another mind.
V. E. M.
108
THE UNVEILING OF THE MEMORIAL TO
SIR WALTER BESANT.
oo
HE memorial to our late chairman and
founder, Sir Walter Besant, was unveiled
in the crypt of St. Paul’s Cathedral by
Lord Monkswell on December 11th. It will be
remembered by many members of the Society that
the memorial, arelief in bronze, admirably executed
by George Frampton, R.A., was commissioned and
mainly subscribed for by the members of the
Society, and that it was hung in the sculpture-
room at Burlington House last May. The position
of the memorial is now in the crypt of St. Paul’s,
on the wall, between that to the memory of Charles
Reade and the brass of John M. Smith. On the
tablet, beneath the portrait, is this inscription :
NovEListT,
HisToRIAN OF LoNnpDoN,
SECRETARY OF THE PALESTINE Exploration FUND
ORIGINATOR OF THE PEOPLE’S PALACE,
AND
FouUNDER OF THE SOCIETY OF AUTHORS.
Tuts MoNUMENT IS ERECTED
BY
His GRATEFUL BRETHREN IN LITERATURE.
Born 14th August, 1836; Died 9th June, 1901.
The ceremony of unveiling was short. Mr.
Douglas Freshfield, the Chairman of the Com-
mittee of the Society, regretted that Mr. George
Meredith, our President, was too ill to appear.
Hence it fell upon him to call upon Lord Monks-
well to unveil the memorial. Many Members had
already seen the memorial in the Academy, and
approved it. To them the act of unveiling was
but a formality. No better man could have been
asked to unveil the memorial than Lord Monks-
well, the Chairman of the London County Council ;
and, perhaps, here, in the quiet corner of the
crypt beneath the Cathedral of London, and
London’s roar, was the best place for a lasting
monument to one who had given the best years of
his life to London and to London’s good. He did
his best to enlighten the darkness of the lives of the
masses, entered keenly into a thorough investiga-
tion of the sweating system, and gave the people
new sources of intellectual or, at any rate,
intelligent recreation.
Dean Gregory and Canon Newbolt read a short
dedication service, and Lord Monkswell unveiled
the memorial. Certainly, it looks infinitely better
in its present position than it did in Burlington
THE AUTHOR.
House. The sombre light, the grey walls, the
impressive silence of the great crypt, seeming to
stretch away in an endless vista of arched halls
and chambers and echoing passages, are in quiet
harmony with the soft-toned bronze of the relief.
Lord Monkswell, unveiling the memorial, spoke
of Sir Walter Besant as one who, though a
foreigner to London by birth, and largely by
education, yet knew London and loved it, as no
one else in the world knew London. Its streets
and its lanes, its docks and its river were to him
an open book. He was a social reformer, a man
of ideas, sound feasible ideas, and no mere
dreamer. With this side of him, the County
Council thoroughly sympathised. Like Dickens,
Besant preached social reform. But Dickens was
a destructive element. His giant pen seized upon
the demons of wickedness and thrust their names
and their fames into the mouths of all. Besant
sought the same demons, but his craft was to do
more than to show them up. It was to destroy
them and replace them by other organisations in
which the demoniac spirit was absent. And in
part he was successful. From his ideas—romantic
ideas in “All Sorts and Conditions of Men,” an
impossible story—Besant’s own criticism—sprung
the People’s Palace, situate in the heart of White-
chapel, the centre of the working life of thousands
and tens of thousands of Londoners.
Besant was not a vain man. He was not a
jealous man. But his admiration was for all that
was good, that was healthy. His sympathies were
thorough-going and cosmopolitan. One of his
last acts was to join himself to the Atlantic Union,
a union to entertain Americans and Canadians
and Colonials who visited England. He was a
good man if ever there was a good man; a lovable
man if ever there was one.
The greater part of the organic work of this
Atlantic Union is, by the way, now in the hands
of Miss Celia Besant.
Among those present at the ceremony were
Lady Besant, her two daughters, Misses Celia and
Ailie Besant, her second son—her eldest son,
Captain Eustace Besant, is still serving in South
Africa—Mr. Douglas Freshfield, Chairman of the
Managing Committee of the Society, Mr. Edgar
Besant, Sir Walter’s youngest brother, to whom,
by the way, we owe the origin of “The Golden
Butterfly,” Prof. Bonney, Mr. Hall Caine, Sir
Martin Conway, Mr. George Frampton, R.A., Mr.
A. H. Hawkins, Colonel Lamb, of the Salvation
Army, in which Sir Walter Besant was greatly
interested, and many others.
SaaS AE_cith Se
®
THE AUTHOR. 109
. THE SAMUEL PEPYS CLUB.
ee a
HIS new Literary Club was founded on May
26th, 1903, in commemoration of the two-
hundredth anniversary of the death of its
patron—saint or sinner, shall we say, or merely style
him the father-confessor of our frail humanity, and
the elub’s pater benignus, Samuel Pepys ?
The founders were Mr. Henry B. Wheatley, Sir
Frederick Bridge, Mr. D’Arcy Power, and Mr. George
Whale, who, on the aforesaid anniversary, after the
manner of Englishmen with a great project in hand,
did solemnly dine together, and initiate the club.
A general meeting was duly held on July 8th, when
the number of members was fixed at seventy. This
number came rapidly together by a kind of rare
chemical affinity, and there are already many can-
didate atoms that feel the potent attraction, and
only await a vacant place in the new body cor-
porate. The objects of the club, besides that of
doing honour to the author of the most human of
human documents, are: First, to dine together,
with or without guests, three times a year, on or
about the anniversaries of certain important events
in the life of Samuel Pepys ; and, secondly, to read
and discuss papers concerning Pepys and his time,
with power to add to such objects as occasion may
arise.
The inaugural dinner was held on Tuesday,
December 3rd, 1903, in the Hall of the Cloth-
workers’ Company, of which Pepys was Master in
1677, Mr. Henry B. Wheatley, editor of the most
complete edition of the Diary, and the club’s first
President, occupying the chair, with the Master of
the Clothworkers, Mr. Snow, on his right hand;
while behind them shone the historic plate of the
Company. Among the valuable pieces there dis-
played the most interesting to the club and its
guests were the cup and cover of silver gilt, and
the gilt ewer and basin, or rose-water dish, pre-
sented to the Company by Pepys during his Master-
ship. ‘The members of the club assembled in force
on this occasion, and brought many distinguished
guests.
The toasts proposed from the chair, after the
usual ones of ‘The King” and “ The Queen and
Royal Family,” were “The Immortal Memory of
Samuel Pepys” and “The Clothworkers’ Company,”
the latter responded to by the Master.
The toast of “Our Visitors” was proposed by
Mr. George Whale, and responded to by Sir
William Collins.
“The Club” was proposed by Viscount Dillon,
and responded to by Mr. Edmund Gosse.
Sir Alexander Binnie afterwards, in a most
interesting speech, directed the attention of the
club to some localities in London either mentioned
by Pepys or suggesting memories of him. Indeed,
the speeches, taken all round, were singularly
interesting in substance, and well - delivered.
Perhaps the note most frequently sounded was
that of homage to Pepys’s many-sided humanity,
his immense aptitude for work, and happy energy
in both work and play. This was but a just
tribute to the man, whose sterling qualities are
even now scarcely appreciated as they deserve by
the general public. Anyone who is in a position
to estimate the actual work he did as Clerk of the
Acts, and Secretary to the Admiralty, can hardly
fail to give him a place among the great English-
men of his day. He brought his common-sense,
love of mastering details, and loyal fidelity to the
duties of his office to bear upon many abuses ; and
he left the Navy, his chief care, in a much more
efficient condition than that in which he found it.
Any sympathetic student of his Diary, moreover,
must feel the charm of his personality: his child-like
delight in life ; his easy-going love of his wife and
friends, and of those rough-notes of contemporary
history that we call gossip and scandal, but which
add a spice to the historic plum-pudding ; his
eager curiosity about everything that came in his
way, and divine lust after precise information on all
possible subjects ; and withal his genuine religion.
For Pepys, in spite of his sensuous temperament,
and the not uncommon weaknesses, follies, and
unchastened appetites, he has so frankly chronicled,
was a religious man in that irreligious age; living
his particoloured life with a feeling that the eye of
God was upon him. It is no doubt true that the
God he worshipped was not the stern and wrathful
Deity of the Puritans, but more akin to that good-
natured Creator of all flesh of whom Beranger
sings :
“Le verre en main, gaiement je me confie
Au Dieu des bonnes gens !”
But Pepys’s faith was not only more grave and
decorous than that of Béranger seems to have been,
but deeper and more abiding.
After dinner there was a pleasant ‘ Concert of
Musick,” under the direction of Sir Frederick
Bridge. Pepys’s own favourite song, “ Beauty,
Retire,” composed by himself, was the first vocal
piece given, and it was followed by other songs,
and a duet for a male and a female voice, by com-
posers of the period; some of the songs either
having been sung by Pepys or mentioned in his
Diary. Of one of them, “The Larke,” he says:
«Thence to Change, where Wife did a little busi-
ness, while Mercer and I staid in the Coach ; and
in a quarter of an hour I taught her the whole
Larke’s Song perfectly.” This was creditable to
both master and pupil, as the song, by Milton’s
friend, Henry Lawes, is a difficult one.
110
Besides the vocal music, the Rev. Mr. Galpin,
a clever amateur musician who collects old instru-
ments, gave the company a sample of that “ wind
musique ” which so ravished Pepys’s soul that it
“made him sick,” and, as he characteristically
adds, “ makes me resolve to practise wind-musique,
and to make my wife do the like.” This was
represented by a couple of airs on the flageolet,
one, I think, composed by Pepys; both of which
the little pipe was made to warble very daintily.
There were also two pieces for that “ Recorder ”
mentioned by Hamlet—a long and stfaight wood-
instrument, with a certain resemblance to a large
bassoon, but blown from a mouthpiece at the
upper end. It must be difficult to “govern the
stops” perfectly, as it seems to have a trick of
suddenly jumping from a lower octave to a higher
in a rather whimsical manner ; yet the notes are
mellov. A third instrument, the “Trumpet
Marine,” which Pepys heard played by a French-
man, and was, as usual, “ mightily pleased with,”
is not a wind-instrument, as the name might
suggest, but a kind of emaciated viol, with a pigmy
body and enormously long neck for the key-board.
It has what Pepys calls an “ echo,” produced, as
he suspected, by concealed sympathetic strings,
which respond to the notes played by the bow.
Altogether the evening was a pleasant one, and
the Samuel Pepys’Club may claim the right to
take its place as a going concern.
JoHN TODHUNTER.
Or —_—
THE FIRE DESCENDS!
———
LEAVES FROM THE DIARY OF A CERTAIN SORT
OF FOOL IN PARADISE.
T has come straight down, from Heaven or
nowhere, an original and glorious Idea!
There is nothing in that. Ideas strike me
very often, and they are always original and
glorious—at first. They are all, too, equally un-
expected and startling, hitting me between the
eyes, hard as a cricket ball at point, and knocking
all the common-sense out of me. Sometimes they
seem to arise out of facts, a paragraph in a news-
paper, a look of secret history on a face, a phrase
in a letter; but frequently they spring from no
source more definite than the churning of unrelated
thoughts when I pretend to compose myself for
sleep at night.
This, my last Idea, has, however, come to me
under somewhat unusual conditions. It seems to
be connected with a forgotten dream, having no
conscious antecedent, but taking possession of me
as I awoke, at the time when we are least given to
THE AUTHOR.
fantasy, most under sway of the senses. I have
had to rise, to dress, to eat my breakfast with the
others, to avoid showing any glimmer of inward
fire. When addressed I have had to answer in a
matter-of-fact and off-hand manner, as if I knew,
or cared to know, anything about the weather, or
the household, or the dull doings of men in Parlia-
ment. These things smote upon my ears like the
distant sound of drums, tuneless and void. They
were unreal compared with my Idea.
At last I was able to sneak away by myself, out
of the house and into the garden, which has ever
been my dearest friend and confidant. All my life
I have wandered in waking dreams about its
winding paths: as a little child, when I told myself
stories of fairies and goblins; in my Scott days,
when I revelled in knights and fair ladies ; and,
later on, in throes of modern sentiment—chewing,
as I went along, the fragrant buds of fruit bushes, or
“bread and cheese” from the hedges. To-day I
slipped first to the greenhouse, where no eye from
the windows might see me, for I wanted to be out
of sight with my Idea, to blend it with the scent of
flowers, to exult over it, and shape it prayerfully,
lest it turn into a thing without wings. An Idea,
like a sunset, cannot be painted in a few strokes of
the brush by a careless hand. Its beauty lies in
its vague possibilities and suggestions of imeffable
glories beyond; in the mystery that it makes
about us. And to express this, even faintly, needs
all the concentrated power of heart and brain, art
and will. One must be prepared for weary travail
and heart-breaking doubts; because these ever
attend an act of creation—if we may dare to call
our reproduction and imitations “creation.” So,
before my Idea can be valued at all, it must be
taken into the solitudes of thought and every in-
fluence of what I call my soul must be brought to
bear upon it.
How am I to give it form? Rhymeand rhythm
cramp me; in writing an essay I am always
tempted to become didactic, if not garrulous.
There seems to be only one way open—the way of
the prose idyll ; in which a filmy veil of fiction is
thrown over a dimly seen figure. For to have the
nude shape of my Idea too definitely visible would
be fatal to its suggestiveness and charm.
I gathered in the greenhouse a spray of oak-
leafed geranium and a long stalk bearing three
little cups of the freesia, splashed with gold and
filled with orange and honey, to keep a hold on my
Idea in the rush of everyday things. Then I was
summoned in from the garden, and all the hateful,
stifling tangibilities of life fell upon me. There is
always this to be finished, that to be looked
through, while letters demanding acknowledgment
gape at me, a herd of time-devourers. The
morning flew away on bluebottle wings—nothing
t
ia
&
THE AUTHOR.
faster into the world—and all the while my giorious
Idea burned like a rosy flame before my dazzled
eyes.
* Visitors swallowed the afternoon with vapid talk
of personalities ; and, when they had gone, I was
more exhausted than if I had been studying
logarithms for twelve hours! If there be any-
thing more paralysing to the brain than the
animated conversation of the average person on
matters of local or general interest I have yet to
discover it! Dead tired, I had to fasten upon a
sleepy old gardening book and read the fog out of
my mind.
Then to bed; and at last I am alone with my
glorious Idea! 1 grow warm, and thrill deliciously
as I proceed to fashion it into a shape of my
liking. This is worth living—worth dying for!
‘And it is mine, all mine, this exquisite thing, this
flower of fire from the high heavens. No one can
tuke it from me; no one even knows of its exist-
ence. Yet it does exist, and it shall do so, not
only in me but in the material world. It shall not
be still-born. To-morrow I will give it form and
life—to-morrow—I am falling asleep.
Tuesday.—\ have not written a word to-day.
There was a meet of the Woodland Pytchley this
morning, and I could not resist the temptation to
go. Then I was tired out with the exercise and
fresh air. Have done nothing but yawn ever
since. My Idea has haunted me through the
music of horns and baying of hounds, the thud of
hoofs on the spongy turf and all the shouting.
The sprig of rosemary I wore in my buttonhole
seemed to make the atmosphere about me aromatic
and flip me with suggestions. There is certainly a
relationship between rosemary and hunting; no
morbid thought can exist with them. Night finds
me, as usual, full of vague aspirations and creative
optimism ; but I am too weary to write. J must
sleep.
Wednesday.—Having neglected everything to
follow the hounds yesterday, I found a great deal
to do this morning. ‘The end of it was a worried
headache, such as women are wont to bring upon
themselves by trying to do several things at once.
I spent the afternoon in nursing it. The day is
wet, warm and muggy. My mind is sluggish. I
have physicked it with an exciting novel and have
sat up late to finish it. My Idea has faded a little
during the day; but now, at night, it revives to
keep me awake.
_ Lhursday.—How one dreads the first plunge
into expression! I have gazed for hours at the
white paper which seems to stare back at me
fatuously. Even my pen, usually so sympathetic,
gives no help. I feel as if I were engaged in an
imbecile attempt to catch the sunshine and colour
of a summer day in a butterfly net ! How did the
iti
monstrous Arabian genie get into the vase? And
shall I ever be able to pour my luminous Idea into
the mould of words? It seems impossible. It
always does—when one begins. There is a shirk-
ing, a skimming round, a coy shrinking from the
brazen display and indelicacy of language. Then
—the time has gone—no more to day.
A week later.—At last the moment has arrived
when I can attack my Idea and shape it out on
paper ! There is a bright sunshine to help me, and
the song of birds. The air is of such intoxicating
clearness that I feel light of limb, and heart, and
brain. How cold the paper looks before me ! How
tame and utterly inept the words I put upon it ! If
something does not happen, all the rapturous
glory of my Idea will be quenched into mere
prose, it will be like a soap bubble that has
collapsed into suds! But something is happening.
I feel a glow stealing through me. ‘The fire is
here again, in the cold veins ; the thing starts to
live. It is not so beautiful as it was—oh, of
course not—but it may gain yet, it has the power
to grow into a work of art. I have been sitting
three hours over it now; I shall be with it again
this afternoon, and at night. It holds me firmly
and will not let me go. No more shirking, shrink-
ing, dreaming, but work—work—work !
‘Next day.—I have re-written my Idea twice.
It is half the length it was at first. I finish in an
ecstasy! It is a wonderful, lovely thing. My feet
do not touch the ground. Everybody remarks
how curiously amiable I am to-day. I feel in love
with all my fellow-creatures, including the worms
and weeds! The very air is rose-colour! I laugh
idiotically at nothing, and go to bed so excited
that I do not expect to sleep till the first thrush
cries, “I come to see you—I come to see you,”
outside my window in the morning.
Next day.—I have just re-written my Idea again
and sent it to be typed.
Three days later.—My manuscript has come back
from the typist. I began to read it with despair,
but ended in a mild, only a mild, very mild
triumph. It is not the marvel I thought it, but L
love it and am thankfal. After receiving the final
touches, it will pass, I think, among those who can
have no notion of its first inspired glory.
A month later—I sent my Idea forth into the
world, and the world, represented by one discern-
ing editor, has welcomed it graciously. I ought
to be happy. Many of my precious brain children
have had to become wandering outcasts, turned
from door to door, to die in the dust ; but this one
is taken by the hand and kindly treated. Oh,
yes, I ought to feel relieved, gratified, even
delighted.
But alas! alas! Is it my own fault, or the
world’s fault, or the fault of that great horrible
112
Irony that seems to govern our life, that my beau-
tiful, chaste, dainty Idea has grown suddenly
vulgar and unworthy? It is no longer exquisite,
no longer holy. Earthly fingers have smudged it ;
the fragrance of orange-flower, and lemon geranium,
and rosemary, have ceased to cling about it. Now
it smells only of the mould—not the garden mould
that is sweetened by summer rain, but the dust of
ashes. Someone has come to me and said:
‘“‘ What a pretty little story you have in the Output
this week”? and I have not yet left off inwardly
writhing. My Idea, my glorious conception, kindled
by a flame from heaven—“a pretty little story ”—
ye gods, pity me ! :
What did [ expect ? Ah, that’s the point. One
does not expect ; one feels, and loves, and works,
and hopes—all in a phrensy, without a definite
desire. But passion seems destined to end this way,
in art as in—other things.
Well, in years to come, perhaps, I shall take
out my poor shrivelled Idyll, look at it fondly,
swell with mother pride again, and thank the
Powers that be there is nobody by to tell me it is
“a pretty little story!” No rapture then; only
the tenderness of the creator will be left. With
all its glamour gone, its faults laid bare to my
critical eyes, its delicious colours faded, it will still
be my own, my dearly-loved. And the old,
sweet fragrance of orange and lemon, of freesia
and oak-leafed geranium, will steal upward to me
from its yellow pages, a faint incense of memory
from the altar of a once adored Idea.
By tHe AuTuHor or “Musk oF Rosss.”
ee oe
CORRESPONDENCE.
Bee
PUBLISHERS’ RIGHTS.
Sr1r,—If a man with no legal training may claim
some lenience in an honest endeavour to understand
the copyright decision lately arrived at by the
Lord Chancellor and his learned brothers, may
J thus venture to interpret their generous apprecia-
tion of the rights of publishers of encyclopedic
literature ? The publisher may, having got out of
them all the use he wants, sell the articles, indi-
vidually or collectively, to newspaper syndicates.
This would have two results. In the first place,
the specialist, who may have spent years and money
in acquiring his expert knowledge, would have the
mortification of reading articles signed by himself in
inferior provincial news-sheets to which he would
never dream of contributing direct. In the second,
his pocket would be hit as well as his vanity, for
there can be no doubt that this cheapening of his
name in country papers would prejudice his chances
of placing new work in more respectable quarters.
THE AUTHOR.
If this is really what Lord Halsbury—am I wrong
in thinking that he occupies the post of President
of the Royal Society of Literature ?—desires to see
authors reduced to, then there is nothing more to
be said, and the only remedy is to alter the law,
and, pending that, for authors to defend themselves
individually by special clauses setting this prece-
dent aside. If, however, he is rather of opinion
that such a position is as unreasonable in respect
of encyclopsedic literature as in the case of articles
contributed to periodicals, then, sir, I submit with
respect that it is a pity he did not make this clear.
I have not hypothecated such a case merely as a
frivolous reductio ad absurdum, but in a wholly
correct spirit of curiosity. May I take this oppor-
tunity of stating that I never claimed any right to
make separate use of the article in question. My
contention was merely that, as it had been com-
missioned for one work, of which I was both the
originator and part-editor, the publishers had no
right, without my permission, to use it in another
work in which I had no direct or indirect interest.
Lord Halsbury and his learned colleagues have
thought otherwise, but I hope, given a reasonable
term, to live to see the law, for which I have a
great respect, brought in line with common sense,
for which I have a reverence.
Your obedient servant,
F, G. AFLALO.
Teignmouth, Devon.
a
Tue REMUNERATION OF TRANSLATIONS AND
ORIGINAL WORK COMPARED.
Dear Srr,—In a note that appeared in The
Author, with reference to the remuneration received
by translators for Messrs. Methuen’s Dumas series,
you mention that the average remuneration per
1,000 words for translation of French work into
English may be reckoned at about 7s. 6d.
If I may venture to differ from you I should
say that, at all events for fiction, few English
publishers pay more than 5s. per 1,000.
But in connection with Messrs. Methuen’s rates
it is instructive to note that not long ago this firm
offered an author for the writing of one of their
well-known series of topographical monographs a
sum which worked out at a little less than seven
shillings a thousand words, and this was for original,
not translation, work! Not only this, but the
offer was made to an author who is a well-known
authority on the special subject he was asked to
write upon. Further, this princely offer was
handicapped by the work having to be written on
approval.
Yours faithfully,
Ursus Magor. =j
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A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&collection=&type=&tags=&exhibit=&date_search_term=&submit_search=Search+For+Items&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022.
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1890–1914
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The-Author-Issues
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1903-12-01
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14
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57–84
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19031201
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Che Huthor.
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors.
Monthly.)
FOUNDED BY SIR WALTER BESANT.
Vou. XTV.—No. 3.
DECEMBER 1sT, 1903.
[Prick SIXPENCE.
TELEPHONE NUMBER :
374 VICTORIA.
TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS:
AUTORIDAD, LONDON.
a
THE
UNVEILING OF THE MEMORIAL
TO SIR WALTER BESANT.
—— 9
ORD MONKSWELL, the Chairman
of the London County Council, has
kindly undertaken the duty of unveiling
the Memorial to Sir Walter Besant. The
ceremony will take place in the Crypt of
St. Paul’s Cathedral on the afternoon of
Friday, December 11th, at 3 o’clock.
It is hoped that those members of the
Society who care for the memory of Sir
Walter Besant, and are grateful for his
unselfish and earnest labours on behalf of
his fellow writers, will make every effort
to be present.
es
NOTICES.
OR the opinions expressed in papers that are
signed or initialled the authors alone are
responsible. None of the papers or para-
graphs must be taken as expressing the opinion
of the Committee unless such is especially stated
to be the case.
Tue Editor begs to inform members of the
Authors’ Society and other readers of The Author
VoL, XIV.
that the cases which are from time to time quoted
in The Author are cases that have come before the
notice or to the knowledge of the Secretary of the
Society, and that those members of the Society
who desire to have the names of the publishers
concerned can obtain them on application.
a
List of Members.
TuE List of Members of the Society of Authors
published October, 1902, at the price of 6d., and
the elections from October, 1902, to July, 1903, as
a supplemental list, at the price of 2d., can now be
obtained at the offices of the Society.
They will be sold to members or associates of
the Society only.
od
The Pension Fund of the Society.
THE investments of the Pension Fund at
present standing in the names of the Trustees are
as follows.
This is a statement of the actual stock; the
money value can be easily worked out at the current
price of the market :—
ORO FE oor es £1000 0 0
Wocal Wioans 20... 500 0 0
Victorian Government 8 % Consoli-
dated Inscribed Stock ............... 291 19 11
War Oa 2630090. ee 20r 9 8
oval... 6. oe £1,993 9 2
Subscriptions.
1908. £ 8s. d.
Jan. 1, Pickthall, Marmaduke 010 &
» Deane, Rey. A.C. . 010 O
Jan. 4, Anonymous : 0 5 0
» Heath, Miss Helena : ~ 0 5 0
>» Russell, G. H. : : 11.0
58 THE AUTHOR.
Jan. 16, White, Mrs. Caroline
», Bedford, Miss Jessie
Jan. 19, Shiers-Mason, Mrs.
Jan. 20, Cobbett, Miss Alice :
Jan. 30, Minniken, Miss Bertha M. M.
Jan. 31, Whishaw, Fred. : -
Feb. 3, Reynolds, Mrs. Fred
Feb. 11, Lincoln, C. .
Feb. 16, Hardy, J. Herbert .
» Haggard, Major Arthur .
Feb. 23, Finnemore, John .
Mar. 2, Moor, Mrs. St. C.
Mar. 5, Dutton, Mrs. Carrie
Apl. 10, Bird, CO. P..
Apl. 10, Campbell, Miss Montgomery .
May Lees, R. J...
Wright, J. Fondi .
Nov. 138, Longe, "Miss Julia .
Donations.
Jan. 8, Wheelright, Miss H. :
», Middlemass, Miss Jean . :
Jan. 6, Avebury, The Right Hon.
The Lord .
» Gribble, Francis
Jan. 13, Boddington, Miss Helen .
Jan. 17, White, Mrs. Wollaston .
» Miller, Miss E. T. .
Jan. 19, Kemp, Miss Geraldine
Jan. 20, Sheldon, Mrs. French
Jan. 29, Roe, Mrs. Harcourt
Feb. 9, Sher wood, Mrs. .
Feb. 16, Hocking, The Rey. Silas
Feb. 18, Boulding, J. W. .
5, Ord, Hubert H.
Feb. 20, Price, Miss Eleanor
» Carlile, Rev. J. C..
Feb. 24, Dixon, Mrs.
Feb. 26, Speakman, Mrs...
Mar. 5, Parker, Mrs. Nella
Mar. 16, Hallward, N.L. .
Mar. 20, Henry, Miss Alice .
», Mathieson, Miss Annie .
» Browne, T, A. (“ Rolfe Boldre-
wood”’) ‘
Mar. 23, Ward, Mrs. Humphry
Apl. 2, Hutton, The Rev. W. H
Apl. 14, Tournier, Theodore
May King, Paul H. :
S Wynne, Charles Whitw orth
», 21, Orred J. Randal :
June 12, Colles, W. Morris .
» Bateman, Stringer .
* = Aton. 3.
» Mallett, Reddie
Oct. 27, Sturgis, Julian
=
rt
OOH OO OHS OHOL ON OHA ONO SO OL OUT OT
cCorocoroocoooorSSOSC’®
He
eoooamoccoeosoooooo™
SCeorocounooeocorooocoroeon oo
e on} I
_
_
eouncoorocouncocorH
ecoaoecoecoocoo ccoocoooceocoononoonoonaoeo on
eooocoocorocooconNnNorFH
or
Nov. 2, Stanton, V. H. ;
Nov. 18, Benecke, Miss Ida. ;
Nov. 23, Harraden, Miss Beatrice
The following members have also made subserip-
tions or donations :—
Meredith, George, President of the Society.
1 hompson, Sir poy Bart., F.R.C.S.
Rashdall, The Rey. H
Guthrie, "Anstey.
Robertson, C. B.
Dowsett, C. F.
There are in addition other subscribers who do
not desire that either their names or the amount
they are subscribing should be printed.
—___
FROM THE COMMITTEE.
A
At the meeting of the Committee held on the
2nd of November, 18 members and associates were
elected, bringing the total for the curftent yeaup
to 182.
The date for the unveiling of the Besant
Memorial was discussed and the necessary details
considered. The full statement of the arrange-
ments is set forth on another page. There were
one or two other matters on “ the agenda,” but no
contentious business. One case, which was laid
before the Committee, they did not see their
way to take up, and it was hoped that another case,
dealing with accounts, would be satisfactorily
settled between the secretary and the publisher,
without any need of further action.
Se
Cases.
Since the last statement was issued twelve cases
have been in the Secretary’s hands for settlement.
Four of these refer to the return of MSS., three to
the rendering of accounts, four to the payment or
rather the non-payment of money, and the last to
false representation. MSS., accounts and money
are the most frequent causes for the Secretary’s
interference, as will be seen by those members who
read the monthly statement of the Society’s work.
Of the twelve cases four have been concluded and
eight are still unsettled. Of the former, in the one
dealing with MS., the MS. has been returned and
forwarded to the author; in the one dealing with
accounts, the necessary documents have been
supplied; and in the two demands for the payment
of money the amount due has been forwarded to
the office.
Out of the cases reported in former issues there
_~ Prothero, G. W.
THE AUTHOR. 59
‘are only three still open. One of these, it is
possible, will have to be abandoned owing to the
fact that the member resides abroad ; the other two,
although the authors are unwilling to follow up their
‘demands by an action in Court, will probably be
satisfactorily settled.
—_—
November Elections.
81, Congoumbruto,
Leghorn, Italy.
6, Sidney Terrace,
New Road, Ports-
mouth, Hants.
Wiscombe Park, Coly-
ton, Devon.
Carmichael Montgomery .
Eagleman, E. J. (Colin
Conway)
Edmonds, Miss
Eldridge, Robey F. . Daylesford, Newport,
Isle of Wight.
Fevez, Miss Coralie Westdale, Streatham,
S.W.
Firth, C. H. 2, Northmoor Road,
Oxford.
Madeira Hotel, Shank-
lin, Isle of Wight.
Spixworth Park, Nor-
wich.
St. Ives, Cornwall.
The Hut, Fairlie, N.B.
24, Bedford Square,
Howell, Miss Constance .
Longe, Miss Julia G.
Marriott, Charles
Morgan, Mrs. .
WC.
Smedley, Miss Constance. 119, Ashley Gardens,
BWo
Shore, Miss Emily K. 29, Norfolk Mansions,
Battersea Park, 8S. W.
Sparrow, A. G. Daisy Mere House,
Near Buxton.
Stirling, Mrs. (Percival 30, Sussex Villas, W.
Pickering)
Wyatt, DaviesErnest R.J. 7, Bridge Street, Cam-
bridge.
20, Kew Gardens Road,
Kew.
Yosall, J. H., M.P.,
PENSION FunD.
THE Pension Fund Committee held a meeting
on Monday, November 2nd, at the offices of the
Society, 39, Old Queen Street, Storey’s Gate, in
order to deal with the moneys which the trustees
had intimated were at their disposal for the
allotment of a fresh pension.
The Committee granted a pension of £25 a
year to Miss Helen M. Burnside, whose work as a
writer of verse and whose books for children are
well known.
Among those who supported her application may
be mentioned the following :—
Mr. Mackenzie Bell, Miss Rosa Nouchette Carey,
Sir A. C. Mackenzie, Miss M. Montresor, Mr.
Algernon Swinburne, Mrs. Humphry Ward, Mr.
Watts-Dunton, Mr. Arthur Waugh, Mr. W. H.
Wilkins, and others.
In order to give members of the Society, should
they desire to appoint a fresh member to the
Pension Fund Committee, full time to act, it has
been thought advisable to place in Zhe Author a
full statement of the method of election under the
scheme for administration of the Pension Fund.
Under that scheme the Committee is composed of
three members elected by the Committee of the
Society, three members elected by the Society at
the General Meeting, and the chairman of the
Society for the time being, ew officio. The three
members elected at the general meeting when the
fund was started were Mr. Morley Roberts, Mr.
M. H. Spielmann, and Mrs. Alec Tweedie.
According to the rules it is the turn of Mr.
M. H. Spielmann to resign his position on the Com-
mittee. In tendering his resignation he submits
his name for re-election.
The members have power to put forward other
names under Clause 9, which runs as follows :—
“ Any candidate for election to the Pension Fund Com-
mittee by the members of the Society (not being a retiring
member of such Committee) shall be nominated in writing
to the seeretary, at least three weeks prior to the general
meeting at which such candidate is to be proposed, and
the nomination of each such candidate shall be subscribed
by, at least, three members of the Society. A list of the
candidates so nominated shall be sent to the members of
the Society with the annual report of the Managing Com-
mittee, and those candidates obtaining the most votes at
the general meeting shall be elected to serve on the Pension
Fund Committee.”
In case any member should desire to refer to
the list of members, a copy complete, with the
exception of those members referred to in the note
at the beginning, can be obtained at the Society’s
office.
It would be as well, therefore, should any of the
members desire to put forward candidates, to take
the matter within their immediate consideration.
The general meeting of the Society has usually
been held towards the end of February or the
beginning of March. ‘This notice will be repeated
in the January number of The Author. It is
essential that all nominations should be in the
hands of the secretary before the 31st of January,
1904.
o—~<> «-
60
AFLALO AND COOK vy. LAWRENCE AND
BULLEN.
—1——+ —
HIS case came before the House of Lords on
November 13th, the defendant company
having appealed from the judgments given
in the Court of First Instance and in the Court of
Appeal to the House of Lords. The facts of the
case may be briefly set forth as follows :—
The plaintiff, Aflalo, conceived a scheme for the
publication of a work to be called “The Encyclo-
peedia of Sport.” The defendants determined to
adopt the scheme making the plaintiff, Aflalo,
editor under an agreement, the chief terms of
which were as follows :—
That for his editorial services the plaintiff
should be paid £500, and a further sum to cover
expenses of postage, etc. :
That the plaintiff should write, without further
fee, 7,000 words as special articles, and contribute
all the unsigned articles that might be required.
That the plaintiff should be entitled to pursue
his literary work so far as it did not interfere with
the performance of his editorial duties.
That the defendants might determine the agree-
ment under certain conditions.
Under this agreement the work was produced,
and the plaintiff Aflalo contributed an article,
entitled “Sea Fishing.” Prior to the commence-
ment of the action he was registered as the holder
of the copyright. The plaintiff Aflalo, as editor,
further arranged with the co-plaintiff Cook, for
the latter to contribute certain articles at certain
prices on terms contained in a letter dated June 2nd,
1896. The following, omitting the formal parts,
is a copy :—
“IT am now requested by Messrs. Lawrence and Bullen
to definitely ask you to undertake for their forthcoming
“Encyclopedia of Sports and Pastimes” the following
work. Of the angling article 5,000 words and separate
articles of 5,000 each on trout and pike.
“The former (angling) we should want in by the middle
of July, the two latter will do later. The remuneration
will be at the rate of £2 per thousand, payable ordinarily
when the work is passed for press, but if you prefer letting
us have all the trout and pike articles in by August I
understand the publishers will make no difficulty about
paying for the whole by October. Will you also see Senior
about your share in the angling article, and also let us know
if these terms are satisfactory.”
These articles were written and appeared in the
“Encyclopedia.” Prior to the commencement of
the action the plaintiff Cook was registered as the
proprietor of the copyright in his articles. In
neither of the agreements with the plaintiffs (i.e.,
the above-mentioned agreement and letter) was
there any express stipulation as to the proprietor-
ship of or copyright in any of the articles so
contributed by them.
THE AUTHOR.
In 1900 the defendants published a book, entitled
“The Young Sportsman,” containing copies of each
of the said articles or substantial portions of them.
The plaintiffs alleged that such reproduction in-
fringed their copyright, and further that it was a
publication of the said articles separately or singly
within the meaning of section 18 of the Copyright
Act. The plaintiffs claimed injunction and
damages.
The defendants put in issue the allegations of the
plaintiffs. They denied that the plaintiffs were
the holders of the copyright in the articles, and
claimed that an implied term of the agreement
between them and the plaintiff Aflalo was that the
copyright should belong to the defendants as pro-
prietors of the “ Encyclopedia,” or that alternately,
the plaintiff became their servant for the purpose
contemplated in the agreement, and all the work
he did was their absolute property.
That the plaintiff Cook was employed by them
upon the terms contained in the letter of June
quoted above. That the said articles were paid for
by the defendants upon the terms contained in
the said letter, and that it was an implied term
of the plaintiff Cook’s said employment that the
copyright in the said articles should belong to the
defendants as proprietors of the “‘ Encyclopedia.”
They admitted publishing “The Young Sports-
man,” and that as they were entitled to do they
reprinted therein the said articles or portions
thereof. And by way of counter-claim the defen-
dants claimed a deévlaration that they were the
proprietors of the copyrights in the said articles,
and an order expunging from the book of registry
the entries whereby the plaintiffs had wrongfully
registered themselves as such proprietors and
damages and costs.
In order to assist further those interested in the
judgment we print the portion of the second section
of the Copyright Act referred to herein, and the
eighteenth section in full :—
Section 2. “In the construction of this Act the word.
“Book” shall be construed to mean and include every
volume, part or division, of a volume, pamphlet, sheet of
letter-press, sheet of music, map, chart, or plan separately
published.”
Section 18. “ When any publisher or other person shall,
before or at the time of the passing of this Act, have pro-
jected, conducted and carried on, or shall hereafter project,
conduct, and carry on, or be the proprietor of any encyclo-
pedia, review, magazine, periodical work, or work published
in a series of books or parts, or any book whatsoever, and’
shall have employed or shall employ any persons to compose
the same, or any volumes, parts, essays, articles or portions.
thereof, for publication in or as part of the same, and such
work, volumes, parts, essays, articles or portions shall have
been or shall hereafter be composed wrder such employ-
ment on the terms that the copyright therein shall belong
to such proprietor, projector, publisher, or conductor, and
paid for by such proprietor, projector, publisher, or con-
ductor, the copyright in every such encyclopedia, review,
magazine, periodical work, and work published in a series:
THE AUTHOR. 61
of books or parts, and in every volume, part, essay, article,
and portion so composed and paid for, shall be the property
of such proprietor, projector, publisher, or other conductor,
who shall enjoy the same rights as if he were the actual
author thereof, and shall have such term of copyright
therein as is given to the authors of books by this Act;
except only that in the case of essays, articles, or portions
forming part of and first published in reviews, magazines,
or other periodical works of a like nature, after the term of
twenty-eight years from the first publication thereof respec-
tively the right of publishing the same in a separate form
shall revert to the author for the remainder of the term
given by this Act : Provided always, that during the term
of twenty-eight years the said proprietor, projector, pub-
lisher, or conductor shall not publish any such essay,
article, or portion separately or singly without the consent
previously obtained of the author thereof, or his assigns :
Provided also, that nothing herein contained shall alter or
affect the right of any person who shall have been or shall
be so employed as aforesaid to publish any such his com-
position in a separate form, who by any contract, express
or implied, may have reserved or may hereafter reserve to
himself such right; but every author reserving, retaining,
or having such right shall be entitled to the copyright in
such composition, when published in a separate form,
according to this Act, without prejudice to the right of
such proprietor, projector, publisher, or conductor as
aforesaid.”
The case in the Court of First Instance was
heard on July 81st, 1901, before the Hon. Mr.
Justice Joyce, and judgment was given in favour
of the plaintiffs on the same date. His lordship’s
judgment is reported in the Law Reports, 1902,
1 Ch., p. 264.
From this judgment the defendants appealed to
His Majesty’s Court of Appeal, and the appeal was
heard before the said Court, consisting of Lords
Justices Vaughan Williams, Romer, and Stirling
upon June 30th and July Ist, 1902, when their
lordships took time to consider their judgments.
Upon August 11th, 1902, their lordships inti-
mated that they desired to hear further arguments
-upon the point whether under the circumstances
and having regard to the definition of a “ book”
in section 2 of the Act and to section 3, the plain-
tiffs had any such right as entitled them to main-
tain their action—copyright or any other right.
And the said appeal was further heard and argued
efore the said Court upon December 6th, 1902,
when their lordships again took further time to
consider their judgments ; and on December 18th,
1902, they delivered judgments differing in opinion,
Lord Justice Vaughan Williams delivering judg-
ment in favour of the defendants the appellants,
whilst Lords Justices Romer and Stirling delivered
judgment in favour of the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs
accordingly obtained a second decision in their
favour. Their lordships’ judgments are reported
in the Law Reports, 1903, 1 Ch., p. 318.
From this judgment the defendants again ap-
pealed to the House of Lords. The appeal was
heard on November 13th. Their lordships gave
their judgments as follows :—
Tue Lorp CHANcELLOR.—My lords, if I had
not come to the conclusion that the case is covered
by authority I should have desired further time to
consider the mode in which I should express the
views I entertain.
I think it is absolutely impossible, after the
decision arrived at just about half a century ago
upon this very point, and confirmed as it is by a
decision of the Court of Appeal, to render it
doubtful what the decision on this appeal ought to
be. Ido not deny that there may be—there pro-
bably is—a distinction between the inference of
fact that would be drawn from the fact that a
person had employed another to create something
for him if it was a mere material subject and the
rule which would apply to literary composition.
Although there is a distinction in that respect
which ought to be insisted upon, on the other
hand, literary compositions are subjects of barter
and sale. When a person is employed to create
some literary composition, and that involves some-
body else spending money for its publication, and
incurring the responsibilities and great risk that
may attend the publication, it is impossible not to
recognise the fact that some of the inferences at
all events could have been drawn from those facts
of employment and payment which would naturally
attach to the payment for something for which
another person was employed. It is not a question
of law ; it is a question of fact to be derived from
all the circumstances of the case what is the nature
of the contract entered into between the parties.
My lords, I must say I thought that we had
arrived at some sort of concurrence by the
learned counsel themselves in the course of the
argument, that in the construction of the eighteenth
section, at all events, there were two propositions
that could not be disputed. The first was that the
bargain between the parties involving this question
of copyright need not be in writing. Secondly,
that no express words were necessary in order to
constitute the contract, such as it is, contemplated
by the statute. I must say I can entertain no
doubt that this is one of those inferences which
you are entitled to draw, but for which you can lay
down no abstract rule. That which may be im-
plied in a contract must depend very much on
what the contract is—the nature of the contract—
and whether or not the written contract displaces
every other term whatsoever ; because, in the infi-
nite variety of dealings among mankind, there are
some things which none would think of expressing
in terms, although undoubtedly they would form
part of any contract made on such a subject.
Now, my lords, as I have said, this case, I
think, is concluded by authority, and, therefore, I
do not want to re-argue the matter; but I rather
concur with what fell from my noble and learned
62
friend Lord Davey, that if this question had not
been raised and decided half a century ago, it would
have been open to consideration whether or not
the eighteenth section did not imply some express
contract, at all events, one way or the other ; but
where a state of law has been recognised now for
half a century and confirmed by the Court of
Appeal, it would be, I think, a startling novelty for
your lordships to treat that as res integra, which
we should determine for ourselves without reference
to previous decisions. .
My lords, I confess I should feel great hesi-
tation in disagreeing with any proposition that
had been laid down by such a Court presided over
by such Judges as those who decided the case
in the Common Pleas, which has been referred to,
I think, after the very careful review of
those cases that have been brought before your
lordships by the learned counsel who very ably
and candidly argued this question on the part of
the plaintiffs, it is unnecessary to go through the
whole of these authorities beyond this: if one
looks at that case in the Common Pleas, one
sees it was decided upon a special case, and
the learned Judges were unanimous in their
decision that you could infer a transfer of the
copyright from the facts, and then when you look
and see what the facts are to which they refer
as being those from which a reasonable man would
infer it, it is manifest that the question which
is raised here, about the possibility of competition,
formed no factor in the problem which the learned
Judges decided. It is said: “Here is a person
who is for the purpose of profit selling to a person
who is to adventure and risk his money in the
concern, and unless you come to the conclusion
as a matter of reasonable inference that the copy-
right in the thing so purchased was to belong to
him, the result would be that he would get nothing
for his money.”
My lords, that is a general observation which
I think may very properly be made in the abstract.
People do not spend money except upon the hypo-
thesis that they get something for it, and unless
you give to the bargain the effect which the
language itself seems to import, that the person
who is the projector, the publisher, and who is
called “the proprietor,” is to stand in the shoes
of the actual author, and if you are to treat it
as it has been treated at the Bar here, the truth
is the projector, the publisher, and so forth would
get nothing for his money, because the whole
object of his publication might be defeated the
very next day either by the same person to whom
he had paid the money, or by any stranger who
might obtain the result of if. It seems to me,
therefore, that it would be a very unreasonable
inference to draw from such a transaction as this,
THE AUTHOR.
that the person who paid the money was not to
have the right which would, as a matter of business
in the case of a publisher where he is buying
literary compositions, naturally be the thing for
which he pays. He is the publisher, not the
author ; he goes to the author and buys from him
what the author composes. Under these circum-
stances, my lords, it seems to me it would be a
most unreasonable inference for one to draw from
the facts, in proof in this case, if I were not to
suppose that the person who paid that money and
incurred that risk was not to have the complete
right such as the original author would have had if
it were not published in this way, to publish it
himself.
Therefore, my lords, I think the appeal ought
to be allowed and the judgment ought to be
reversed. ;
As I have already intimated, another question
has been raised (I mean the words “ separately
published”) upon which I propose to give no opinion
at all. I therefore propose to leave that question,
because it is not necessary to decide it for the pur-
poses of the present case.
Lorp S#HAND.—My lords, as your lordships
have resolved that there shall be no decision given
on the question which has been raised under
section 2 of the Statute as to the effect of the
words “separately published,” there used in regard
to the publication of the different articles, with
others in an encyclopedia or magazine, I shall say
no more than that I am certainly not prepared,
from the arguments we have heard, to agree with
Lord Justice Vaughan Williams in what he alone
has said on that subject.
With reference to the case otherwise, I entirely
agree with what has fallen from my noble and
learned friend on the Woolsack. The question
really here to be decided is whether the copyrights
have been transferred by the publication from the
authors to the publisher.
The case is one in which the publisher’s right
depends on its being shown that the articles were
contributed “on the terms” that the copyright in
them should belong to him. Upon that question
I think we have important facts to consider. In
dealing with it, it has not been disputed, that
although the agreement is contained in writing, it
is not necessary that the terms as to copyright
shall be expressly stated, and where as here there
are not express terms, it is enough to create a
transfer of the right, if that right be implied from
the nature and whole circumstances of the publica-
tion, and the arrangement and transaction between
the parties. As bearing upon that matter I think
in the first place a very important point is that the
publisher conceives the creation of the magazine
which he publishes as his undertaking for his
THE AUTHOR.
profit ; that it is for the purpose of his magazine
that the articles are contributed. Again, the
articles as so contributed for the purpose of being
used in his magazine are given on his employment,
and on his payment undertaken and made.
Regarding those circumstances together, it appears
to me that the articles are contributed on the
footing that on payment under such employment
they shall become his property.
The Statute declares that if transferred on terms
having this effect they shall be the property of the
proprietor or publisher, who shall enjoy the same
rights as if he were the “ actual author thereof.”
It appears to me that it would be inconsistent
with the notion that they were to become his
property as if he were the author and with all the
full rights of the author, that there should be still
left in the author after payment made to him a
property which would enable him to use the same
articles in other magazines. This would clearly
follow if the appellants’ contention were sound.
It would give the publisher little if any benefit for
the payment he had made, and I think that
circumstance so inconsistent with the result of the
payment made in the circumstances as of itself
sufficient to show that the practical result of what
happened between the parties, having regard also
to the clause in the Statute, is that the terms to be
inferred are that the copyright should belong to the
proprietor or publisher ; and that is to my think-
ing, therefore, the inference to be drawn from the
contract between the parties.
On these grounds, my lords, and concurring with
all that his lordship has said upon the authority
of the cases in the past, I am of opinion that
the decision of the Court of Appeal should be
reversed.
Lorp Davey.—My lords, I am of the same
opinion. If this matter could be regarded ag res
integra I think that there would be a great deal to
be said for a construction of the eighteenth section
such as that which was contended for by the
learned counsel in the case which was referred to
of Lamb v. Evans, viz., that it was for the publisher
or proprietor to prove an agreement that the com-
poser or author was employed upon the terms that
the copyright should belong to the publisher. But,
my lords, any such proposition as that would be
inconsistent with the law as laid down in the cases
to which my noble and learned friend has referred,
of Sweet v. Benning, and the more recent case of
Lamb v. Evans.
My lords, the law which I understand to be laid
down in Sweet v. Benning is that it is not necessary,
according to the true constructionof the eighteenth
section of the Copyright Act, that you should find
an actual agreement that the copyright should
belong to the proprietor; nor indeed is it even
63
necessary to find special circumstances which lead
to that conclusion. I say so because I find that in
the case of Sweet v. Benning the special case upon
which the opinion of the Common Pleas was
delivered contained a statement that nothing was
said between the parties affecting copyright. I
can find no special circumstances stated in the
special case, and the decision seems to me to have
been founded only upon the nature of the employ-
ment, the nature of the publication and the
relation of the parties,
My lords, Mr. Justice Joyce tells us in his
judgment: “I decide this case upon the short
ground that I see no special circumstance either
in the nature of the work or in the terms or in the
nature of the employment, from which I can infer,
or must infer, that which is not expressed, namely,
that the copyright is to belong to the proprietor.”
That being so, he says in another passage that the
consequence would not be different from what it
would be in an ordinary case. Now, my lords, [I
do not think that that decision was consistent with
Sweet v. Benning or Lamb v. Evans. I think that
what the Court has to do is to look at all the
circumstances of the case and to say as a jury,
what is the inference which you would draw ? or as
Lord Justice Bowen puts it in his judgment in
Lamb v. Evans, what is the way in which business
men would look at the question ?
My lords, of course what the inference should be
isa matter of fact, and for my own guidance [
adopt the rule laid down by Lord Justice Kay in
Lamb v. Evans, as correctly stating what I under-
stand to be the law, and therefore I ask myself
what is the inference which I am to draw from
these circumstances ? The circumstances are that
the publisher is minded for his own profit to
publish an “ Encyclopedia of Sport” ; he is prepared
to spend, and he does spend, a very large sum of
money, amounting to some thousands of pounds,
upon the enterprise in which he is engaged ; he
employs a gentleman to act as editor and also to
write some of the articles at a given salary, and
through the editor he employs another gentleman
named Mr. Cook to write articles for a given
remuneration. Those are all the material facts of
the case ; and I have to ask myself what is the
inference that I draw from those facts. That, I
repeat, is a matter of fact and not a matter of law.
No doubt one may gain some assistance from the
way in which a similar set of facts have been
regarded in other cases ; but after all, where it is
a question of fact each case must stand upon its
own merits.
My lords, if I were to express my opinion as a
juryman upon the facts I have mentioned, I should
say that it was one of the terms on which these
gentlemen were employed to write articles for the
64
« Encyclopedia,” that the copyright should belong
to the proprietor, and I say so for this reason, ‘The
‘* Encyclopeedia ” was to be his property, it was to be
his book, he was to derive the benefit and profit to
be derived from its publication ; and therefore I
should assume that in buying the articles written
by these gentlemen the inference 18 that both
parties intended that the proprietor should have
the right that was necessary for him to protect the
property which he had purchased, and adequately
to protect the enterprise for the purpose of which
these articles were intended to be used. In my
judgment he could not adequately protect the
articles which he had purchased, or his property,
in the book for the purpose of which the articles
were written and purchased, without having the
right to prevent an invasion—I hardly like to say
of the copyright, but I must say of the copyright
in those articles. ‘Therefore the inference I should
draw would be the same as was drawn in the cases
of Sweet v. Benning and Lamb v. Evans ; and for
my part 1 am perfectly prepared to adopt every
word of the judgment of Lord Justice Bowen, and
that of Lord Justice Kay, as well as the judgments
in the earlier cases. If I might choose one passage
which I think expresses my meaning in better
terms than I could use myself, I ask leave to read
this passage from the judgment of Lord Justice
Kay : “ What is the fair inference from the facts
of the case? Surely the inference is that the
man who is to go to the expense of printing and
publishing this book will, as between him and the
agents he may have employed to assist him in
the compilation of it, have in himself whatever
property the law will give him in that book.
That is the inference I should certainly draw ;
and, I think, in this case it is sufficiently clear, in
the absence of evidence to the contrary, that the
terms of employment of those several agents
involved this, that the copyright in the portions
of this book which they composed should belong
to the owner of the book.”
Lorp Rogertson.—My lords, in my opinion
this case ought to have been decided on the
authority of Sweet v. Benning and Lamd v. Evans,
as furnishing a rule of inference applicable to the
facts of the present case.
I do not think that the conclusion which I sup-
port is accurately described as inferring one of three
statutory requirements from the existence of two.
Whether that inference be legitimate or not must
depend on the nature and on the other conditions
of the employment ; and the cases to which I refer
do nothing to take the question out of the region
of fact. Butit is obvious that the facts of employ-
ment and of payment stand in a different category
from the terms on which employment and payment
take place, those terms being necessarily an element
THE AUTHOR.
or ingredient in the employment, and not a separate
or independent fact.
Accordingly the view of the two Lords Justices
about the three conditions all requiring, by the
structure of the section, to be proved, really means
that an express agreement about copyright must be
proved, or the writer retains the copyright. Unable
as I am to accept this view, which is opposed to the
decision in Sweet v. Benning, and indeed was not
supported by Mr. Scrutton, I am free to consider
what is prima facie the proper inference ; and I
prefer, on its merits and also from its authority,
the inference of Sweet v. Benning.
The result has been that the judgments of the
two Courts below have been reversed and dis-
charged and final judgment given that the action
be dismissed with costs,
aa ee
OUR BOOK AND PLAY TALK.
oe
ROFESSOR J. E. GORE, F.R.A.S., M.R.LA.,
who published recently a book entitled “‘ The
Stellar Heavens: An Introduction to the
Study of the Stars and Nebule” (Chatto and
Windus), has in hand a work on the constella-
tions, with special reference to the Persian astro-
nomer, Al-Sufi’s, “‘ Description of the Fixed Stars,”
written in the tenth century. This will probably
be published early next year. Professor Gore has
also nearly ready for the press a collection of popular
articles on astronomical and other scientific sub-
jects.
Mr. de V. Payen-Payne, Hon. Treasurer of the
Modern Language Association, Principal of Ken-
sington Coaching College, &c., &c., is compiling a
“ Scientific French Reader” for Messrs. Blackie; be
is also editing a series of ‘‘Short French Readers’’
for Mr. Nutt, and is correcting Cassell’s “ French
Dictionary.” Then the Cambridge University Press
will shortly publish an abridgment of Gautier’s
“Voyage en Italie,” annotated by Mr, de VY.
Payen-Payne.
Mr. A. C. Benson has a study of Tennyson
(Methuen’s “ Little Biographies”) coming out
very soon; also a small selection of “ Whittier,”
which is to be published by Messrs. Jack, of Hdin-
burgh; while his “ Rossetti’? (Macmillan’s ‘* Men
of Letters” series) is in the press. At the end of
this year Mr. Benson resigns his mastership at
Eton, which he has held for nineteen years, and
he will take up, with Viscount Esher, the task of
editing ‘Queen Victoria’s Correspondence from
1837—1861.”
Major Greenwood, M.D., L.L.B., has a novel in
hand. His book, The Law Relating to the Poor
THE AUTHOR.
Law Medical Service,” is now being advertised by
the medical press. Messrs. Bailli¢re, Tindall and
Cox are the publishers of it. :
Mr. James Baker, F.R.G.S., F.R.Hist.Soc., is
now travelling in the East, and will be making a
tour in the Holy Land. Before leaving Clifton he
was engaged on a series of topographical articles,
and he has completed a novel on Oxford life. He
has been writing a great deal on technical educa-
tion and technical agricultural education for the
Leeds Agricultural College.
Mr. Baker is also preparing several lectures for
the early part of 1904 on Egypt, Russia, &c. He
has lately written, too, an article on the life of
Macaulay, using for it some of Macaulay’s hitherto
unpublished letters.
Mr. Wynford Dewhurst, R.B.A., will publish
immediately through Messrs. Newnes & Co. his
book, ‘‘ Impressionist Painting.’ Its price is 25s.,
and it will contain some 50,000 words and about
100 illustrations in monochrome and colours.
There will be photographs and short biographies of
leading impressionist artists. The whole is the out-
come of many years ofart study, of friendships with
the impressionist painters, and of strong conviction.
Mr. G. B. Buckton, F.R.S., has recently published,
through Messrs. Lovell, Reeve & Co., a “ Mono-
graph of the Membracide.” The family of insects
it treats of is only barely represented in this
country. A review of the extraordinary develop-
ment of the five hundred insects Mr. Buckton
draws and colours is highly suggestive. Professor
E. B. Poulton, of Oxford, adds a valuable chapter
to illustrate the effects of protective mimicry,
which he assigns as the principal cause of these
highly specialised forms.
This monograph professes to be only pioneering
work in an almost unexplored region of entomology
—yet the spread of these curious insects is almost
world-wide. Their chiefly known homes are the
two continents of America, though the Old World
is also well represented,
We note three important books by members
of the Society. There are Lord Wolseley’s two
volumes of “ Memoirs,’ just out; there is Sir
Gilbert Parker’s “ Old Quebec,” written in col-
laboration with Mr. Claude G. Bryan; and there
is Mr. EK. K. Chambers’ ‘‘ The Medieval Stage,” in
two volumes.
Lord Wolseley is an active member of our Society.
He wrote an account of the China War in 1860.
He is, besides, the author of “The Soldier’s Pocket
Book,” which went through several editions ; he
has written books on Napoleon, and has contributed
numerous articles to the leading magazines of
England and America. Then last, but far from
least, there are his two volumes on the great Duke
of Marlborough,
65
The demand for the eighth edition of Lieut.-
Colonel E. Gunter’s “ Officer’s Field Note and
Sketch Book and Reconnaissance Aide-Mémoire,”
published by Messrs. Wm. Clowes & Son, 23,
Cockspur Street, Charing Cross, in August, hag
been such that the edition is nearly exhausted.
Mr. H. Rider Haggard’s novel, “ Stella Frege-
lins,” appears at the beginning of next year. It
is a mystical story of modern life. His romance,
“The Brethren,” a tale of the Crusades, begins in
Cassell’s Magazine next month. Mr. Hagvard is
now engaged upon a sequel to “She,” and it will
be published in the Windsor Magazine in due
course.
Sydney C. Grier is at present finishing a his-
torical novel, which Messrs. Blackwood hope to
publish in the spring. It is called “The Great
Proconsul,” and deals with the Indian career of
Warren Hastings, from his marriage in 1777
to his return to England in 1785. The story is
told in the first person by an inmate of his
household, and aims at bringing out the lighter
and more domestic side of his character, which is
necessarily almost overlooked in the formal bio-
graphies, while preserving the historical background
intact.
It is ten or twelve years since Sydney C. Grier
began to collect the materials for this book, and
for the past two years she has devoted herself to
it exclusively, studying as little as possible the
modern books written about Hastings, and as much
as possible the immense mass of contemporary
material still extant.
Madame Albanesi is engaged on a novel, which,
after serial production here, and in the United
States, will be published in book form by Messrs.
Methuen & Co. in England, and Messrs. McClure,
Phillips & Co. in America.
Madame Albanesi is also just finishing a series
of stories for Zhe Onlooker, which are now running.
Further, she is at work on a play—the dramatisa-
tion of one of her own books—and she has certain
serials to finish, which appear either anonymously
or under a pen-name.
The title of Miss Jean Middlemass’s novel “ Till
Death Us Do Part” has been altered to “ Ruth
Anstey,” owing to the fact that the former title has
already been used,
Mrs. Edith E. Cuthell’s new story for children
will run as a serial in Cassell’s Little Folks in the
last half of next year. Mrs, Cuthell, as in her
early work “ Only a Guardroom Dog,” now in its
second edition, tells of the life of an officer’s
children and their pet. But the scene is now laid
in India, and in the more remote and thrilling days
of the Mutiny. The adventures are exciting, but
all ends happily.
Mr. F, Anstey has written a story for children
66
called “ Only Toys.” It contains numerous illus-
trations by Mr. H. R. Millar, and tells how Santa
Claus gave the gift of speech and movement to the
toys belonging to a little boy and girl who con-
sidered themselves too big and far too clever to play
with them. Mr. Grant Richards is the publisher
of “Only Toys.”
. yes. Bright,” by Miss Montgomery-Campbell
(Jarrolds, 1s. 6d.), a book of heroic deeds for lads,
dedicated to the Church Lads’ Brigade, has just
been published, and has received favourable notices
from the provincial press. ‘The second edition of
“Qld Days in Diplomacy,” which Miss Montgomery-
Campbell was instrumental in bringing before the
public, and for which she wrote a preface, is being
widely read, and has been warmly praised by
diplomatists. :
Mrs. E. M. Davy’s new book of stories, “ Seven
of Them,” was published the other day. All the
tales contained in the volume have appeared in
good English and American serials.
Two of Miss R. N. Carey’s recent books, “ Rue,
With a Difference,” and “Heart of Grace,” have
been published in cheap standard editions. “A
Passage Perilous” is being issued in Baron Tauch-
nitz’s Continental series. a ov
Norley Chester’s new book, “ Cristina,” is just
out. It is published by Messrs. Swan Sonnen-
schein.
Messrs. Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner & Co.
have ready a new and cheaper edition of Mr.
Austin Dobson’s ‘The Ballad of Beau Brocade,
and Other Poems of the XVIIIth Century,”
with fifty-five illustrations by Hugh Thomson,
price 2s. 6d. net, and 3s. 6d. net. There is a
special edition, limited to 250 copies, with all
the illustrations coloured by hand, at 12s. net.
In his “ Fanny Burney” (Messrs. Macmillan’s
“ English Men of Letters ” series), Mr. Dobson has
given us a study of the surroundings in which
that famous novelist was brought up ; there is a
detailed account of Evelina and Cecilia; and a
condensed account of George III.’s Court as Miss
Burney saw it, including a touching picture of the
king’s madness.
Owing to the success of Mr. Powis Bale’s work,
“A Handbook for Steam Users,” Messrs. Crosby
Lockwood & Son will publish immediately a com-
panion volume entitled “Gas and Oil Engine
Management.”
Mr. A. B. C. Merriman Labor, of the Colonial
Secretary’s Office, is issuing this month the second
edition of his handbook on Sierra Leone for 1904
and 1905. It is a treasury of information relating
to the Colonial and municipal governments, trade,
religion, education, army and navy, and every con-
ceivable matter of interest connected with the
Colony and its Protectorate. Its price is 3s. net,
THE AUTHOR.
and the publisher is Mr. John Heywood, of Man-
chester.
The American Register, published weekly in
Paris and London (13, Rue Tronchet, and 20, Hay-
market, W.), has decided to include each week a
Supplement of Sports, without extra charge. Its
rice is 1d.
Mr. Haldane Macfall spent some three years
over his novel, “The Masterfolk,”” published a
short while ago by Mr. Heinemann. Curiously
enough both Mr. Wells and Mr. Bernard Shaw
touch close on the heels of the idea embodied in
“The Masterfolk.” It is in the (psychic) air, no
doubt. Oddly enough, Mr. Macfall’s first title, “ A
Strenuous Life,” was filched, all unwitting, by the
President of the United States; and the second
one, “ Youth,” was taken in all ignorance by Mr.
Conrad.
The main scheme of the book is that of a youth
and maiden of to-day awaking into the modern
idea and the modern thought: old ideas lie crumb-
ling, new ideals are all untried, and the two move
forward with all the splendid insolence of youth to
try them. To quote his own words :—
“T look upon the novel as the great literary means of
artistic expression to-day ; not as a mere tale, or a cold,
polished marble unity, but as a splendid artistic instrument
in which the prose of each chapter should leap to the mood
of the idea expressed, moving in slow cadence of prose to
the solemn mood, and skipping light-footedly to the jigging,
lyrical emotions. . . . Well, in some hundred movements,
or chapters if you will, I have tried to give emotionally
the lives of this pair of humans, with the secondary
harmonies of others, moving to the goal in which they
would find the meaning of life.”
Mr. Macfall is now at work on a comedy “ of
the rollicking high-comedy complexion.”
“‘My Lady’s Favour” is the title of a (one-act)
Little Comedy in black and white, by Mary C.
Rowsell and E Gilbert Howell. It is published by
Samuel French, Limited, 26, Southampton Street,
Strand. Miss Rowsell has also published two
musical fairy-extravaganzas for private perform-
ance, and “ Richard’s Play.” This last was written
with Mr. Joseph J. Dilley.
Mr. George Alexander will return to the St.
James’s Theatre on January 28th, and will start
with “ Old Heidelberg.”
It stands at present that Mr. Tree will produce
the Japanese play, “The Darling of the Gods,”
on the 28th inst. Miss Lena Ashwell will take
the part of Yo-San.
Mr. Arthur Bourchier will produce Mr. J. L.
Toole’s version of “‘The Cricket on the Hearth,”
at the Garrick for a Christmas run. The music is
by Mr. Edward Rickett.
Mr. Seymour Hicks’ new musical play “The
Cherry Girl” is to be produced at the Vaudeville
on or about the 10th inst.; and Messrs. Seymour
THE AUTHOR. 67
icks and Ivan Caryll’s new musical play “The
Ouy Gil” is to be plied at the Adelphi on
7th inst.
ae date Mr. E. 8. Willard will revive
“The Professor’s Love Story” at the St. James’s
re.
Tye Sideraand that Captain Basil Hood’s new
comedy, “ Love in a Cottage,” will be produced at
Terry’s Theatre early in 1904.
When Miss Lena Ashwell was the guest of the
New Vagabonds’ Club last month, Mr. A. E. W.
Mason presided ; and amongst those present were
Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Hope, Mrs. Arthur Stannard,
Mrs. Heron-Maxwell, and Lady Colin Campbell.
Mr. Haddon Chambers is in New York super-
intending the rehearsal of his new play “The By-
Path,” which is to be produced by Miss Annie
Russell.
—_—_ +o o-_
PARIS NOTES.
+--+
HE literary season has begun in good earnest,
and it is very evident that French authors
have not all been holiday-making, as every
week brings us a long list of new books, and the
announcement of many new plays. Among the
most interesting of the novels which have appeared
during the last month is “Guilleri Guilloré,” by
M. Charles Foley. The author has succeeded, as
usual, in getting the atmosphere of the times
about which he writes into his book. It is a novel
which, though not precisely historical, treats of
historical personages. The scene is laid in La
Vendée, that heroic province of France, the history
of which M. Foley has studied so thoroughly that
he is now considered one of the greatest authorities
on the subject.
The plot of this new novel is based on an episode
connected with the last of the Legitimist con-
spiracies of 1832. ‘The famous Duchess of Berry
has returned from exile and landed on the French
coast, hoping to excite a movemeni i favour of
her son. She finds friends in ua Vendée who are
willing to risk their fortunes and even their lives
in the cause of the young prince. The exploits of
the courageous and fascinating young duchess,
her wanderings in disguise, and her hairbreadth
escapes are graphically described by M. Foley.
Guilloré is a young aristocrat who, thanks to his
fallen fortunes, political opinions, and the troubled
times in which he lives, is separated from his
fiancée. He, too, in his wanderings through La
Vendée, takes his life in his hands, for, although he
is not in the conspiracy, he runs the same risk ag
the duchess, whom he meets disguised as a young
man. He recognises her, but is too chivalrous to
let her know this until he has escorted her in
safety to her destination.
The whole story of the political intrigue and
the treachery of the man who betrays her is
woven into M. Foley’s novel.
From the first page to the last the book is
captivating, with its melancholy Vendean atmo-
sphere and its well-defined types of aristocrat,
bourgeois and peasant. Most dramatic, too, are
many of the incidents, and intensely so the scene
in the street, when the duchess has been captured
and is being led on foot through a dense crowd of
spectators. Guilloré and his fiancée are there, too,
watching with deep pity and dreading lest any
word of insult should be uttered by the people.
When the duchess reaches him, Guilloré, alone in
all that vast assembly, takes off his hat and stands
bareheaded as she passes by. The effect of his
action is instantaneous, and all the men with one
accord “in dead silence follow his example, moved
with a feeling of respect and pity for the vanquished
heroine.”’
“T’Hau souterraine,” by MM. Paul and Victor
Margueritte, can scarcely be called a novel. It is
a most charming psychological study woven into
a romance. Aicha is the daughter of an Arab
chief who has been compelled to submit to French
rule. On seeing that further rebellion is in vain,
he not only bows to the inevitable but he deter-
mines to make the best of it. He is soon on
friendly terms with his conquerors, who find him
most useful in his native country, so that as time
goes on he is able to take a high official post under
the new dispensation.
In order to flatter the French he educates his
little girl in the European way, with the result
that she marries one of the French officers. The
great interest of the book lies in the conflict waged
in the Arab soul between the great force of
atavism and the new interests which come into the
girl’s life. With her native intelligence and tact
she is able to take her position as an officer’s wife
in French society, and, through her deep affection
for her husband, she becomes as it were a French-
woman at heart. But when through a terrible
catastrophe she is suddenly left a widow, the bond is
snapped which has held her to her adopted country,
and she returns to her native land to finish her
days as an Arab woman. It is the dme invisible
which is the “Eau souterraine,” as the author
explains most poetically at the close of the book.
“Une source vive jaillit de la terre... Elle
orne la montagne et vivifiela plaine . . . Soudain,
source, ruisseau, riviére, l’eau qu’on voyait a dis-
paru . . . Mais tout & coup, a quelques kilometres
ou & quelques lieues, l’eau qu’on croyait perdue,
de nouveau surgit Ame invisible, eau
souterraine.”
68
“T’Enfant 2 la Balustrade,” by M. René Boy-
lesve, is another delightful story without any
strong plot. It treats of provincial life and is
supposed to be told by a boy. We can only say
that, considering his age, the boy was marvellously
observant and philosophical. It is the history of
a certain M. Nadaud, a notary, in one of those
country towns where everyone attends to his neigh-
bour’s affairs. M. Nadaud is unfortunate enough
to offend the great man of the town by purchasing
a house which the said great man had intended to
buy. This apparently simple incident is the great
theme of the book. The notary has to endure all
kinds of tribulations and humiliations, and we are
introduced to nearly all the inhabitants of the
town, for the silent quarrel between the wealthy
man who keeps open house, and Monsieur Nadaud
is a great and momentous event in which every
person for miles round is concerned. _
M. Boylesve excels in these provincial sketches,
and succeeds admirably in taking his reader away
from the rush and turmoil of city life to little, out-
of-the-world places, where the inhabitants are
entirely taken up with their own small interests
and rarely give a thought to what is happening
beyond the boundary of their own town.
Madame Gautier has published the new volume
of her Memoirs as the “ Second Rang du Collier.”
This second volume is, perhaps, even more interest-
ing than the first one. Another book of souvenirs
which will be read with pleasure is “ La Cour et la
Société du Second Empire,” the second series of
which M. James de Chambrier has just published.
There are in all about forty chapters, containing
anecdotes and impressions, collected by the author,
about the various literary men, artists and histori-
cal personages of that epoch. There is a chapter
on “ Thiers et Jules Simon,” another on “ Duruy
et Napoléon III.,” some interesting notes about
Gambetta Pasteur, Caro et l’Impératrice, the
“Salons of Mme. Aubernon and Mme. Adamand,”
various anecdotes in connection with the Embassies.
Among the persons of interest who figure in this
book are also Gounod, Sardou, Sarcey, Octave
Fenillet, Mérimée, Augier, Rosa Bonheir, Sainte-
Beuve, Renan, Lamartine, Coppée, Dumas, Georges
Sand, Maupassant, Balzac, Rachel, Madame Patti,
Alphonse Daudet, and many others.
“Monsieur de Migurac, ou Le Marquis Philo-
sophe,” by M. André Lichtenberger, is the story of
the life and adventures of a “ gentilhomme péri-
gourdin,” born in the year 1741, and is curious as
a study of habits and customs.
“Ernest Renan en Bretagne” is a new bio-
graphy compiled by M. René d’Ys.
M. Anatole France has also published, in pam-
phlet form, an excellent résumé of the work of
Ernest Renan. It is in reality the “Discours”
THE AUTHOR.
pronounced by M. France on the occasion of the
inauguration of Renan’s statue at Tréguier, and
gives an admirable idea of the great savant, both
as a man and as a conscientious thinker and
writer.
“Forces Perdues ” is the title of the new volume
by Pierre Baudin.
“ Petites Confessions,” by M. Paul Acker, will
appeal to amateurs of what is generally known as
“literary gossip.” The volume consists of a series
of articles entitled “ Visites” and “ Portraits
Littéraires,” which have appeared in one of the
Parisian dailies.
Among the most interesting articles in the
French Reviews are the following :—
In the Revue des Deux Mondes—“ La Facheuse
Equivoque,” a criticism by M. Brunetiére of “La
Religion d’autorité et la Religion de I’ esprit.”
The “ Correspondance inédite de Sainte-Beuve ”
is also being continued in this review, and the
serial story by Mrs. Humphry Ward, “ La Fille de
Lady Rose.”
Another serial translated from the English is
“ Anticipations,” by H. G. Wells, in La Grande
Revue.
In this review there is an excellent article by
M. C. Bouglé, ‘Contre le Darwinisme social ”
(Les Conditions humaines de la lutte pour la vie).
In La Renaissance Latine there ig an article
by M. Loiseau on “La Russie et les réformes
intérieures,”
- In La Revue, M. d’Estournelles de Constant
writes on “Le Mouvement pacifique,” and speaks
in the highest terms of M. Roosevelt.
There is also an article with some telling
statistics, by M. Lefévre, entitled, “ Comment
reconquerir la beauté, la force et la santé.”
“Les Anglais dans le roman francais moderne”
is the title of an article by M. Leblond in the same
review.
The Weekly Critical has opened an enquiry on
“Le Roman contemporain,’ and publishes the
letters of Madame Daudet, M. de Régnier, M.
Boylesve, Rachilde, and M. Albert Cim on the
subject.
The great theatrical events of the month have
been the production of the two plays, “L’Adver-
saire,” by MM. Capus and E. Aréne, and “ Jeanne
Vedekind,” by M. Philippi. In the latter piece
Mme. Sarah Bernhardt plays the part of a mére
tragique to perfection, proving once more that a
true artiste can adapt herself to any réle.
“L’Adversaire” is an immense success, both
from a literary and dramatic point of view, and
M. Guitry scores another triumph.
M. Antoine has been playing “La Guerre au
Village,” by M. Trarieux, which is more or less a
political piece.
en
M. Bour has been fortunate in securing the play
by M. Jacques Richepin, “ Cadet Roussel,” as it
seems likely to have a long run, and M. Richepin
is also fortunate in having his piece interpreted by
an artiste of M. Bour’s talent and ability.
The result of the differences between M. Porel
and Mme. Réjane will probably be to change the
Vaudeville programme considerably, and it is
rumoured that Mme. Réjane will take a theatre
of her own.
As regards the success of a play, judged by a
long run, we have an example in M. Pierre
Decourcelle’s “ Deux Gosses,” (“ Two Little Vaga-
bonds.”)
A short time ago the author feted the thousandth
representation of this piece, and since then it has
been given a hundred times more. Reckoning the
representations in countries for which it has not
been sold outright, the piece has been played more
than ten thousand times.
Mile. Héléne Réyé, who created the réle of
Clandinet, and played it 750 consecutive nights,
is taking the same part now that it has been put
on again. She has since then created Gavroche,
in “Les Misérables,” and is certainly inimitable
as the Parisian street arab.
There are several important plays now being
rehearsed, among‘others “ Le Retour de J érusalem ”
and “ L’ Absent.”
Auys HaLLArD.
—____——_+—>—_-_
“C.K. 8.” AND THE SOCIETY.
—
EMBERS of the Society will recollect that
in the November number of Zhe Author
a case was reported, in which Mr. John
Long was the defendant, relating to a lost MS.,
and a reply was made to some comments there-
on printed in The Sphere by the writer signing
himself “C. K. 8.”
In the number of The Sphere for the 14th of
November “CO. K. 8.” returned to the action of
the Society in the case, in a statement of consider-
able length, which occupied a column and a half,
and contained over 1,100 words, comprising a
number of inaccuracies and incorrect inferences
both in fact and in law.
Consequently, on November 20th the Secretary
of the Society addressed to the Editor of a letter
correcting some of the more material errors into
which “C, K. 8.” had fallen.
For brevity’s sake, minor matters, such as the
statement that “C. K. S.,” who had no personal
acquaintance with the publisher, happened to be
in Court, whereas the case was heard in Chambers—
THE AUTHOR.
69
where only those engaged in the suit or friends of
the parties could be present—were not noticed.
The letter was in the following terms :—
S1r,—It is needless for me to discuss the article over the
signature of “ C, K. 8.” in the issue of The Sphere of Novem-
ber 14th point by point, as the statement of the case already
put forward in the November number of The Author answers
sufficiently the major parts of the arguments, There are
some points, however, which must be corrected.
1. On the question touching the value of the plaintiff's
literary productions ; she received £50 and not £30 as
stated in your paper for her MS. There was ample evidence
besides of acceptances and payments and of the value of
her work.
2. The MS. was handed in at Mr. Long’s office to a
gentleman whom the author was told was Mr. Long, and
accepted for consideration without conditions. The alleged
condition which you have printed in full cannot affect the
arrangement, as the letter containing it was sent to the
author subsequently.
3. I regret to state that you are entirely misrepresenting
the facts when you say that I have made an incorrect
statement of the evidence. The facts were obtained from
the learned counsel who acted on behalf of the Society, and
if anything the statement does not put the matter suffi-
ciently in our favour. It is true that the Manager of the
London Parcel’s Delivery Company stated that he did not
sign for every parcel received, his reason being that people
did not necessarily demand a receipt, but he produced his
day sheet on which the name and address of every parcel
coming into the office is entered. The date and the name
of the receiving office had already been furnished by the
publisher himself, and on the day sheet of the office on the
date mentioned no parcel addressed to the plaintiff was
entered. It is the essence of the case that the evidence
produced by Mr. Long entirely failed to satisfy the learned
master that the parcel was despatched, indeed his own
counsel admitted this.
The object of the Society is not, as you suggest, to spend.
its money on the petty persecution of publishers, but one
of its objects is to have the legal relations between authors
and editors or publishers definitely settled in as many
points as possible.
I remain,
Yours faithfully,
(Signed) G. HERBERT THRING.
Readers will gather from the Secretary’s letter
the nature of the main statements he thought
it expedient to notice, while any members of
the Society who wish to refer to the number of
The Sphere containing them can do so at the
Society’s office.
The Editor of Zhe Sphere has not thought fit
to publish this letter, as he had, on the 24th of
November, undertaken, in writing, to do. The
ground he alleges is that “it is too long for publi-
cation,’’ to say nothing of being rather “truculent.”
He has preferred to give a partial paraphrase of
it so as to suit his own argument.
Of the truculence of the letter readers can judge
for themselves. As to its length, it contains 388
words: is therefore a third of the length of the
article to which it was a reply.
In his final note, published in Zhe Sphere of
the 28th of November—in which the Secretary’s
letter was not published—“C. K. 8.” sets out his
70
indictment against the Society in the following
erms :—
“T urge that the Society has no business what-
ever to persecute publishers over the question of
the return or non-return of MSS., and, further,
that the Society itself has a rule which com-
pletely stultifies its action to the effect that it
does not hold itself responsible for the safe return
of manuscripts sent to it.”
We can one suppose that in “CO. K. 8.’s” dic-
tionary “persecute” is defined as equivalent to
“enforce legal responsibilities,’ while his reference
to the rule of the Society seems to prove that he
still fails to understand the legal position and the
bearing of the facts on this position. To insert
into a contract conditions made subsequently at
the will of either party is neither legally nor
morally justifiable. :
“C. K.8.” further illustrates the confusion of
his mind on legal matters by referring to the case
of Aflalo ». Lawrence and Bullen, as an action
that has the appearance of a “legal vendetta ”—
to say the least, a fantastic description of a case
in which three judges decided on one side against
five on the other, and which owed its carriage
through three Courts to the action, not of the
Plaintiff, but of the Defendants.
We are convinced that the majority of the mem-
bers of the Society will not grudge the expenditure
which has led to a final decision on a point of
law so obscure and so important to every British
Author.
————_ +
THE CONTRACT OF BAILMENT.
——+-—<—
HE question of the responsibility of editors
8 and publishers for MSS. left or sent to their
offices is one that is constantly recurring,
An interesting case against Mr. John Long
which bears on this subject has been published,
but it may be of profit to consider the matter from
@ more general point of view.
We have before us a letter from one editor who
distinctly states that he is not responsible—we do
not know on what facts he bases his deductions—
and another editor referring to the case above
quoted made the following statement: “It is
extraordinary that an author may plant MSS, un-
invited upon an editor or a publisher, actually
leaving them at his offive, and that the editor or
publisher should be in any way responsible for
their safe return,” and goes on to say, on the
authority of some lawyer (name not mentioned),
“that if the publisher had not invited the delivery
of the MS. he does not believe he would be legally
responsible for its safe return.”
THE AUTHOR.
This last statement is, of course, begging the
question, the real point being whether the pub-
lisher or editor invites MSS. from authors or not—
either expressly or impliedly. What is the general
rule ?
Is it possible to maintain that a publisher or an
editor with an advertised address does not set
himself up as a mark at which authors should
aim their MSS.; can it be maintained that an
editor or a publisher is merely a gratuitous bailee,
and that he does not receive and deal with MSS.
for his own benefit, though put forward unsolicited ?
Would not any editor be greatly hurt if he did not
receive the opportunity of considering, with a view
to publication, the MSS. of his best friend—some
popular author—if the author put forward the
reason that the editor shunned responsibility ?
Let us reverse the argument. Is there any
publisher who lives by publishing books that come
to him as the result of his written orders only, or
is there any editor who issues his magazine com-
posed of nothing but ordered articles? In the
case of the publisher the answer must be absolutely
in the negative. In the case of the editor of a
magazine or newspaper it may be that one, or
perhaps two, out of many hundreds never print
any but solicited articles. If, then, this is the case,
if MSS. are sent in for the benefit of the publisher
or editor as well as the author, then the publisher
or editor must be more than a mere gratuitous
bailee. The bailment must be considered for the
benefit of both parties.
Some editors and publishers try to rid them-
selves of their responsibility, legal or moral, by a
process of bluff, others by placing notices some-
where in their papers—in some cases in fairly
conspicuous positions, in others mixed up amongst
the advertisements, where an author would hardly
see them.
The Society has taken counsel’s opinion with
regard to this custom of inserting notices and the
responsibilities of the editors under these notices.
Counsel is of opinion that if the author knew of
the notice the MS. would be considered to be sent
up subject to the terms contained in that notice,
but it would lie with the publisher or editor to
prove that the author was cognisant of the terms.
If the author was not cognisant of the notice,
then the question would arise under the facts
already put forward. Is a MS. sent in for the
benefit of both parties or not ? Under the present
custom the question is beyond doubt that the MS.,
though unsolicited in express terms, is clearly sent
in for the benefit of both parties. Under these
circumstances the publisher or editor is more than
a mere gratuitous bailee, and would be responsible
accordingly.
GQ. BT.
WARNINGS TO THE PRODUCERS
OF BOOKS.
ERE are a few standing rules to be observed in an
agreement. There are four methods of dealing
with literary property :—
I. Selling it Outright.
This is sometimes satisfactory, if a proper price can be
obtained. But the transaction should be managed by a
competent agent, or with the advice of the Secretary of
the Society.
Il. A Profit-Sharing Agreement (a bad form of
agreement).
In this case the following rules should be attended to:
Ci.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro-
duction forms a part without the strictest investigation.
(2.) Not to give the publisher the power of putting the
profits into his own pocket by charging for advertisements
in his own organs, or by charging exchange advertise-
ments. Therefore keep control of the advertisements.
3.) Not to allow a special charge for ‘office expenses,”
unless the same allowance is made to the author.
(4.) Not to give up American, Colonial, or Continental
rights.
(5.) Not to give up serial or translation rights.
(6.) Not to bind yourself for future work to any publisher.
As well bind yourself for the future to any one solicitor or
doctor !
IiI. The Royalty System.
This is perhaps, with certain limitations, the best form
of agreement. It is above all things necessary to know
what the proposed royalty means to both sides. It isnow
possible for an author to ascertain approximately the
truth. From time to time very important figures connected
with royalties are published in Zhe Author.
IY. A Commission Agreement.
The main points are :—
(1.) Be careful to obtain a fair cost of production.
(2.) Keep control of the advertisements.
(3.) Keep control of the sale price of the book.
General.
All other forms of agreement are combinations of the four
above mentioned.
Such combinations are generally disastrous to the author.
Never sign any agreement without competent advice from
the Secretary of the Society.
Stamp all agreements with the Inland Revenue stamp.
Avoid agreements by letter if possible.
The main points which the Society has always demanded
from the outset are :—
(.) That both sides shall know what an agreement
means.
(2.) The inspection of those account books which belong
tothe author. We are advised that this is a right, in the
nature of a common law right, which cannot be denied or
withheld.
(3.) Always avoid a transfer of copyright.
——————_ +
WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS.
ee
EVER sign an agreement without submitting it to the
Secretary of the Society of Authors or some com-
petent legal authority.
2. [t is well to be extremely careful in negotiating for
the production of a play with anyone except an established
manager.
THER AUTHOR. 71
3. There are three forms of dramatic contract for plays
in three or more acts :—
(a.) Sale outright of the performing right. This
is unsatisfactory. An author who enters into
such a contract should stipulate in the contract
for production of the piece by a certain date
and for proper publication of his name on the
play-bills.
(b.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to
perform on the basis of percentages on
gross receipts. Percentages vary between 5
and 15 per cent. An author should obtain a
percentage on the sliding scale of gross receipts
in preference to the American system. Should
obtain a sum inadvance of percentages. A fixed
date on or before which the play should be
performed.
(¢e.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to
perform on the basis of royalties (i.c., fixed
nightly fees). This method should be always
avoided except in cases where the fees are
likely to be small or difficult to collect. The
other safeguards set out under heading (0.) apply
also in this case.
4. Plays in one act are often sold outright, but it is
better to obtain a small nightly fee if possible, and a sum
paid in advance of such fees in any event. It is extremely
important that the amateur rights of one-act plays should
be reserved.
5. Authors should remember that performing rights can
be limited, and are usually limited, by town, country, and
time. This is most important.
6. Authors should not assign performing rights, but
should grant a licence to perform. The legal distinction is
of great importance.
7. Authors should remember that performing rights in a
play are distinct from literary copyright. A manager
holding the performing right or licence to perform cannot
print the book of the words.
8. Never forget that United States rights may be exceed-
ingly valuable. ‘'hey should never be included in English
agreements without the author obtaining a substantial
consideration.
9. Agreements for collaboration should be carefully
drawn and executed before collaboration is commenced.
10, An author should remember that production of a play
is highly speculative: that he runs a very great risk of
delay and a breakdown in the fulfilment of his contract.
He should therefore guard himself all the more carefully in
the beginning.
11. An author must remember that the dramatic market
is exceedingly limited, and that for a novice the first object
is to obtain adequate publication.
As these warnings must necessarily be incomplete, on
account of the wide range of the subject of dramatic con-
tracts, those authors desirous of further information
are referred to the Secretary of the Society.
He
WARNINGS TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS,
—_1—~@—+ —.
ITTLE can be added to the warnings given for the
assistance of producers of books and dramatic
authors. It must, however, be pointed out that, as
a rule, the musical publisher demands from the musical
composer a transfer of fuller rights and less liberal finan-
cial terms than those obtained for literary and dramatic
property. The musical composer has very often the two
rights to deal with—performing right and copyright, He
72
should be especially careful therefore when entering into
an agreement, and should take into particular consideration
the warnings stated above.
———— oo
HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.
—
i VERY member has a right to ask for and to receive
K advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-
lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his
business or the administration of his property. | The
Secretary of the Society is a solicitor, but if there is any
special reason the Secretary will refer the case to the
Solicitors of the Society. Further, the Committee, if they
deem it desirable, will obtain counsel's opinion. All this
without any cost to the member.
2. Remember that questions connected with copyright
and publishers’ agreements do not fall within the experi-
ence of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use
the Society.
3. Send to the Office copies of past agreements and past
accounts, with a copy of the baok represented. The
Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new
or old, for inspection and note. The information thus
obtained may prove invaluable.
4. Before signing any agreement whatever, send
the document to the Society for examination,
5. Remember always that in belonging to the Society
you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you
are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are
advancing the best interests of your calling in promoting
the independence of the writer, the dramatist, the composer.
6. The Committee have now arranged for the reception
of members’ agreements and their preservation in a fire-
proof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as
confidential documents to be read only by the Secretary,
who will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers :
—(1) To read and advise upon agreements and to give
advice concerning publishers. (2) To stamp agreements
in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep
agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to
agreements. Fuller particulars of the Society's work
can be obtained in the Prospectus.
7. No contract should be entered into with a literary
agent without the advice of the Secretary of the Society.
Members are strongly advised not to accept without careful
consideration the contracts with publishers submitted to
them by literary agents, and are recommended to submit
them for interpretation and explanation to the Secretary
of the Society.
8. Many agents neglect to stamp agreements. This
must be done within fourteen days of first execution. The
Secretary will undertake it on behalf of members. :
9. Some agents endeavour to prevent authors from
referring matters to the Secretary of the Society ; so
do some publishers. Members can make their own
deductions and act accordingly.
10. The subscription to the Society is £1 41s. per
annum., or £10 10s. for life membership.
THE AUTHOR.
THE READING BRANCH. .
—_——
EMBERS will greatly assist the Society in this
VI branch of its work by informing young writers
of its existence. Their MSS. can be read and
treated as a composition is treated by a coach. The term
MSS. includes not only works of fiction, but poetry
and dramatic works, and when it is possible, under
special arrangement, technical and scientific works. The
Readers are writers of competence and experience. The
fee is one guinea.
a 0
NOTICES.
+
HE Editor of The Author begs to remind members of
the Society that, although the paper is sent to them
free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a
very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great
many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest
5s. 6d. subscription for the year.
Communications for Zhe Author should be addressed to
the Offices of the Society, 39, Old Queen Street, Storey’s
Gate, 8.W., and should reach the Editor not later than
the 21st of each month. :
All persons engaged in literary work of any kind,
whether members of the Society or not, are invited to
communicate to the Editor any points connected with their
work which it would be advisable in the general interest to
publish.
——_+——_—____—__
Communications and letters are invited by the
Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on
no other subjects whatever. Every effort will be made to
return articles which cannot be accepted.
——> + —
The Secretary of the Society begs to give notice
that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post,
and he requests members who do not receive an
answer to important communications within two days to
write to him without delay. All remittances should be
crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery Lane, or be sent
by registered letter only.
a
THE LEGAL AND GENERAL LIFE
ASSURANCE SOCIETY.
——
N offer has been made of a special scheme of
Endowment and Whole Life Assurance,
admitting of a material reduction off the
ordinary premiums to members of the Society.
Full information can be obtained from J. P. Blake,
Legal and General Insurance Society (City Branch),
158, Leadenhall Street, B.C.
of
“
4
THE AUTHOR. 73
AUTHORITIES.
Se En ie seh a
Tue case of Aflalo and Cook v. Lawrence and
Bullen has now been finally decided. Judgment
was given in the House of Lords on November
13th, and is fully reported in another part of The
Author.
We feel sure that members of the Society will
be glad that a point of Copyright Law of genuine
interest to all writers has been decided. The
Committee took up the question when it first came
before them—after full consideration and on the
advice of Counsel—as a matter of principle, the
amount of money involved being small. In the
Court of First Instance the plaintiffs were successful.
If the case had gone against the Society it is an
open question whether the Committee would have
considered it sufficiently important to carry to a
higher Court, but in the circumstances there was
no choice, as the defendants, against whom the
judgment stood, took the matter to the Court of
Appeal. Here, the plaintiffs, Messrs. Aflalo and
Cook, again obtained a judgment in their favour
by the opinions of two judges against one. Lord
Justice Romer and Lord Justice Stirling decided
against the appellants, Lord Justice Vaughan
Williams dissenting. The appellants were not
satisfied, and determined to take the verdict of the
last appeal—the House of Lords. Again the Com-
mittee had no choice: they were bound to go on
with the case. In the House of Lords the judges
were unanimously in favour of the appellants, and
the Society therefore became responsible for the
costs. Apart from this incident, which is of
course unfortunate, the Committee see no reason
to regret their action, which will, they feel confi-
dent, receive the support of the members. The
ease has resulted in the elucidation of an important
and difficult point of copyright law : how difficult
may be judged by the fact that the matter was decided
by the smallest majority possible out of eight judges
before whom the case was argued, that is by five
against three. This alone proves the need there
was for a definite deeision, and justifies the action
of those who were of opinion that it was a proper
case to fight in the first instance.
It may be well to add that of the many cases
which have received the support of the Committee
this is the first in the Superior Courts in which
judgment has been given adverse to the Society.
We hope in a subsequent number of The Author
to give in detail the alterations that it will be
necessary for members of the Society to make,
owing to the decision, in their methods of marketing
their literary wares.
Mempers of the Society will no doubt remember
that some months ago the Committee made, through
a letter signed by Mr. George Meredith, their
President, and the Chairman, an appeal to the
public for a sum sufficient to enable them to hand
over a replica of the Besant Memorial about to be
unveiled in the crypt of St. Paul’s, to the London,
County Council, in order that it might, under their
auspices, be erected in some suitable site on the
Thames Embankment.
The appeal thus made has produced substantial
results, but a further sum of about £40 is required
to enable the proposal adequately to be carried out.
There are, it is believed, many members of the
Society who would be glad to see such a public
recognition of an important side of Sir Walter
Besant’s active life, his love of London and efforts
for its improvement.
A Memorial in St. Paul’s can at best be seen but
rarely and by comparatively few, and this considera-
tion has had weight not only with the Committee,
but also with the sculptor, Mr. Frampton, who is
ready to provide the duplicate at what is practically
cost price.
Remittances should be made payable to The
Secretary, the Society of Authors, 39, Old Queen
Street, Storey’s Gate, S.W.
A list of subscribers will be published in a
subsequent issue.
WE have before us a circular sent out by the
Authors’ Association, of which the Central Offices
are at Darlington, and Mr. Galloway Kyle is the
Secretary, inviting authors or intending authors
to become members.
This is the association to which reference was
made in our number for April (1903). Its title
easily lends itself to confusion with our Society.
We therefore think it well to warn our readers
against any possible mistake. '
The fact that a well known publisher is a Vice-
President of the Authors’ Association is perhaps
sufficient evidence of the distinction of aims between
the two bodies.
WE are glad to see that the corporation of
Portsmouth have acquired the birthplace of Charles
Dickens with the intention of retaining it as a
permanent museum of “ the relics, manuscripts, and
writings of the great author.” This is an interest-
ing fact, and speaks well for the increasing popu-
larity of one whose reputation as a writer was stated
by common report to be fading. Though we applaud
74.
the action of the corporation in the case of Charles
Dickens, we think the purchase of houses of
celebrities in order to turn them into museums
may in some cases lead to absurd results, and on the
whole should be checked rather than encouraged.
We have heard of many ingenious ways of
advertising books in order to increase the sale: in
fact not so many months ago there was considerable
stir in the papers over a publisher's methods in
dealing with a MS. that had come into his possession.
We have heard of publishers advertising “The
Third Edition,” when only twenty-seven copies
have been sold, and we have heard of advertise-
ments of enormous sales which the author found
manifestly incorrect on receipt of the accounts, but
none of the stories have touched the following,
which we have taken the liberty of reprinting
from the St. James’ Gazette :
A Parisian author had fought for many years against
poverty and ill-health, but nevertheless had produced
several novels which were considered by those who had
read them to be works of genius, but they had been total
failures as saleable commodities. On his last work he had
concentrated all his hopes of recognition and even of
existence, but on publication the book showed every sign
of going into the same limbo as its predecessors. The
author, however, hit upon a unique way of advertising it.
Acting upon the dictum that the best way to get a novel
tread is to have it publicly described as unfit to read, he
wrote from Marseilles a letter signed “An Indignant
Republican” to the authorities in Paris violently censuring
a certain work as dangerous to public morality and demand-
ing the imprisonment of its author. When inquiries were
made the writer and the author were found to be one and
the same person, but the writer’s object was accomplished.
A recent number of our valuable contemporary,
Le Droit d@ Auteur, contains some interesting notes
on the earliest examples of authors’ successful
claims to pecuniary remuneration for their work.
The first author who appears to have succeeded in
getting paid for his rights was a Canon of Mans,
who in 1452, having composed a “ Mystery of the
Nativity, the Passion, and the Resurrection,” ceded
it to the shrievalty of Paris for ten écus of gold, a
little more than five guineas. In the sixteenth
century French dramatic authors received three
écus for each comedy. Herdy wrote seven hundred.
Later Quinault received one-ninth of the money
taken at the doors of the theatre, and thus set the
first example of royalties.
_ Oo
THE AUTHOR.
W. E. H. LECKY.
Y the death of Mr. Lecky, the Society of
Authors has lost one of its most distin-
guished members, and Great Britain a
man of letters who was also a man of reading.
He was for more than thirty years an interesting
and considerable figure in cultivated London
society. Though a shy man he loved company,
and such society as is “quiet, wise and good.”
So rudimentary and simple were his notions of
enjoyment, that he was fond of dining-out. He
loved the movement and the stir of life none the
less, perhaps all the more, because he was personally
ill-adapted for the race. His interest in his
fellow-men was inexhaustible. He always wanted
to know how the other half of the world lived.
Although himself cast in an unfamiliar type, he had
a very human heart and longed to be at one with his
brother man. Hiscurious, unequal, but not wholly
uninteresting book called ‘ The Map of Life,” bears
witness to his desire to be treated, not as a mere
spectator or critic, but as an actual combatant in
the battle-fields of existence. Men of the world, as
they call themselves, smiled good-humouredly and
said, “ What on earth can Lecky know of life?”
But ‘men of the world” are too apt to give them-
selves airs in such matters. Life about town, or
on the race-course, or in barracks, or in law courts,
are but phases of the great Phantasmagoria, and
Mr. Lecky with his anxious eyes, his brooding
mind, his wide reading, his experience (gained both
at home and abroad), and, above all, his sad sincerity
and freedom from idol-worship, knew a great deal
about life, though not enough, it may be, to draw
maps.
Few men will be more missed in their accustomed
haunts than Mr. Lecky. He was one of those
friendly men who are always liked. He was a
sympathetic listener as well as an agreeable
talker. He belonged to many clubs and coteries.
He was welcome at all of them. You liked to see
his “willowy” figure steal furtively into the
room. To sit next him at dinner was always a
mild, but real pleasure. Like all good and sensible
men he was fond of the society of clever women,
and preferred meeting them é¢e-a-téte to any other
way. As an afternoon caller he had great merits.
His information was varied and extensive, and he
knew about many things besides history and books.
He was an excellent judge of pictures, particularly
Spanish and Dutch. He could handle china
knowingly, and criticise furniture with severity.
A deprecatory glance of his eye, an uneasy
contortion of his sensitive frame, was more damning
than an explosion of abuse from noisier connois-
seurs.
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THE AUTHOR.
Of books he had a great knowledge, and for
| them he had true feeling. In talking with most
men you are often amazed to discover the books
_ they have not read, but Mr. Lecky’s catholicity
was hard to impugn. I am speaking of English
1% books.
by I well remember the first appearance of his
i, “Rise and Influence of Rationalism.” Eloquence
| is a great quality in literature, and the book was
»; aneloquent one. It was also eminently readable
| throughout; and what is more, it breathed the
| spirit of the hour. Young men, and maidens of a
«| Speculative turn of mind, read it with eagerness,
| and discussed it at the tea-table with animation,
~ whilst their elders looked on and listened with
4 mingled alarm for the future and pride in the
4 talents of their offspring. The main note of the
book was the beneficence of scepticism, the good
» done to the world by the men who first had the
% courage to say “J don’t believe you.’ The atmo-
~ Sphere is different to-day, and our young people
. have begun once again struggling to believe in
something or another, if it be only in ghosts.
__ Of Mr. Lecky’s “ History ” this is not the place to
speak. It has throughout one rare characteristic,
» | @genuine dispassionate love of truth.
In the House of Commons, Lecky was a per-
.| sonality. As a learned Irishman he shared with
-{ another learned Irishman, Sir Richard Jebb, an
;- unassailable position. He was always listened to
| with the utmost attention, and was in my humble
judgment a really admirable speaker. His
_ character, of course, stood high, whilst his amiability
‘ and love of his fellow creatures were daily mani-
fested by his aspect and bearing.
The caricaturist made free with his figure. He
would survey these productions with a melancholy
smile in which there was no bitterness. “I seem
to lend myself to caricature,” he once said to me.
In a sense he did—but only in a restricted sense.
In the nobler elements of character and indivi-
duality, Mr. Lecky showed himself both to his
friends and to his readers as the true man he was.
The Society of Authors may well mourn his loss.
AUGUSTINE BIRRELL.
——__———+—_2-—_____—_
PROFESSOR THEODOR MOMMSEN.
+
; N the beginning of the year we were congratu-
lating Professor Theodor Mommsen on having
received the prize for literature granted by
@ the Swedish Academy acting under the will of the
‘4 late Mr. Nobel. Now we have, with sorrow, to
©@ announce his death.
: Professor Mommsen was born on the 30th of
4) November, 1817, and was, therefore, at the date
15
of his death, nearly eighty-six. Although born a
Dane he always considered himself a German. He
was, without doubt, in the varied fields in which
he studied, a living force. He carried light into
many of the dark places of history, and was one of
the greatest names in literature that Germany has
ever produced. His education commenced in the
gymnasium at Altona, and ended by his graduating
at the University of Kiel. It is a curious fact that
although the studies and works which made him
famous were in such dry subjects as philology,
history, and jurisprudence, yet he began his author-
ship by publishing a book of poems, with his brother,
in 1839. A few years after this date he obtained
a grant from the Government and spent a great deal
of his time in Italy and France. This, no doubt,
was the turning point in his career. From that.
moment he began his wonderful study of Roman
history, and of the subjects connected with the
Roman national life. His painstaking research
was assisted by a wonderful memory, and both
these by a brilliant insight and a fine judgment.
There is no doubt that on his work as a Roman
historian his reputation will stand in England,
To the schoolboy and the undergraduate his history
was always a bugbear. It is probable, therefore,
they may consider his fame and brilliancy over-
rated, but it is lucky for most geniuses that their
reputation does not rest on the eternal criticism of
generations of schoolboys and undergraduates.
Although his history of Rome is undoubtedly a
wonderful production on account of the grasp of
the life of the period and the character of the
nation, yet those who applaud his methods do not
necessarily approve his deductions. Some of them
were so startling that although they struck astonish-
ment in the first instance, yet after consideration
could not alwaysstand the light of maturer criticism.
Special reference should be made to his description
of Cicero, who, with all his faults, with all his
weaknesses, and with all his cowardice, was no
doubt, judging from the correspondence that
remains to us, the most important man of letters
of his time, and judging from other historical relics
one of the greatest advocates. To him Professor
Mommsen will grant no good qualities. He
calls him “journalist in the worst sense of the
word,” “dabbler,” “short-sighted egotist,” and
“statesman without insight.” Asa set off against
Cicero he lauds Cesar to the skies. Every historian
must have his faults. No sound critic, however,
could fail to recognise his power. For this reason,
during the latter years of his life, although he
lived in a simple manner at his home in Charlotten-
burg, he has been looked upon by the younger
generation of Germany as a model to look up to
and admire, and has, received constant recognition
of his brilliant accomplishments.
THE AUTHOR.
76
D
ENGLISH AUTHORS AND THE UNITE
STATES RIGHTS.
—St
P to the end of his historical survey of
iti 5 on
American conditions, cA CO, B. ea
safe cround ; but hardly anyone converse
5
: nos Wi inclined to
with international ine He ee are, ad
follow him further. That Hngls av bli
: lass, losing place with the United States pu ~
ha the points now : ee pear es
: thing to remedy that ste
ee ae ae lines we should oe
a : » ici t it is no
_ «A, OG, B.” says explicitly that
oe for the British author to write oe
stuff? All he has apparently to do is to “ wake
up.”” In other words, he is, on the literary and
artistic side, safe enough; it is only as what the
Americans call a “drummer ” that he fails. Now
I believe this attitude to be not only undignified
but wholly wrong. Setting aside the great names
in American letters, who were, i the most gel
historians, essayists and poets, American author-
ship is acalling of the past few years. a oe C. B.”
oints out, it dates from the passing of the American
a capsaht Act. It has only required a very short
time for the American writer to capture and hold
the attention of his fellow countrymen, and, in the
nature of the case, his success has been won largely
at the expense of the English author. Not of
course, that the English author has suffered much
pecuniarily by the passing of the American Copy-
right Act; the cheques for literary work that
travelled either way across the ocean in the old
days were very few. Yet the broad fact remains
that, where the American used to read English
fiction, he now reads the work of men and women
of his own nationality. The man who has been
hurt by the new conditions ig certainly not
the writer of the first rank—have we any such
men now producing actively ?—not even the writer
ofthe second rank; but, beyond doubt, the writer
of the third and even lower classes. These men
were worth reprinting in the United States when
their eo ae nothing but paper and print ; they
are not worth reprinting when they have to compete
for popularity with work of equal and greater bent
iat 1s written by Americans, deals with American
as and is in harmony with the habit of mind of
: ae and women who read it.
: 18 convenient to divide authors into Classes
ee arbitrary fashion that I have just ventured
hi eee but it is rarely that any writer finds al]
des ooks in the same class. He may ascend or
pene | some of his books will be better than
others. When I gay, I fear rather discourteous]
third-class authors,” I mean the writers cha
products die with each publishing season, and have
‘large one, and it comprises writers whose various
i im to longer existence.
in fact, no claim to long
the American publisher does not want; and he
t want them for the reason that he cannot 0
coe? To talk of “waking up” in offering Bi
sell them. UCT in one
such manuscripts, or “ persisting and insisting ”
with American publishers, is to be wholly wide of
the mark, Occasionally a book of this class is
placed in the United States market ; but there is
nearly always some special reason for its appear-
ing internationally. The American may buy it
because he hopes for another and better work from
the same pen ; he may have a contra-account with
an English publisher which he is anxious to settle
—in fine, he may have a hundred different reaSons
for his acceptance. But, on its merits, he does not
want the book. The author may “wake him up”
by every mail; he may “ persist ’’ with cablegrams ;
he may “insist” in season and out of season. The
facts are not altered.
T’o come now to the authors of the second class,
who may, not unfairly, be said to represent the
best of which we are now capable. Have such
authors any substantial grievance? I hardly think
so. The class of which I am now speaking is a
degrees of popularity differ markedly from one
another, But for any work that shows, I will not
say genius, but even a definite talent, either in the
direction of sustained interest of narration, real
psychological insight, or careful character study,
there is a distinct American demand. And if that
demand is not supplied from this side of the
Atlantic, the fault lies with the authors them-
selves, Many men who are read here widely have
but a small American following ; not infrequently
the converse may be said to be nearer the truth.
Yet, whatever may be the hold of any individual
writer on the American public,
books as I have now in mind are worth reprinting
and copyrighting in the States, and it is, almost
without exception, possible to make the necessary
arrangements. In this connection, “names” are of
smaller importance than is often supposed. United
States publishers are more open minded than their
English brethren ; many of them are attracted
by the notion of a gamble in an unknown writer’s
work. But the work, with all respect to “ A.C, B.,”
must be good, the publisher must haye a run for
his money. With the man who has an established
following, the question is what terms he can make ;
with the unknown writer who has his reputation
still to gain, it is whether he can make an entry
at all into another circle of readers.
good work and efficient handling—I do not pretend
to disregard what may be called the commercial
traveller aspect of the question—the result should
he satisfacto
Of authors of the first class, it is hardly neces-
Such books
nearly all such ~ i
“ig sary to write. As “A.C, B.” says, “ Many kinds of
~4)§ literature appeal to the whole world.”
Ҥ Granting the truth of the considerations I have
“lg already set down, it follows that it is only books
of the second class with which we have to concern
ourselves. “‘ A.C, B.,” while impliedly admitting
that an author may do wisely to make his English
uf arrangements through an agent’s intermediary, is of
@@ opinion that he will do better himself to attend to
eid his over-sea negotiations. In this particular, I fear
§ experience is against him. Certainly, the course
he proposes is not one that has recommended itself
to those English authors who have the largest fol-
lowing in theStates. In fact, one may say that it is
jo@ not an infrequent experience with agents to have
j proposals for the handling of work for America, while
@ the author intends to control personally his English
f business. Numerous as are the dangers and diffi-
3 culties attendant upon the sale of literary property
of in this country, the possibilities of loss in inter-
© national arrangements are far greater. I do not
y wish to cast any reflection on the integrity of
4 American firms, although the agreements that are
“18 offered from the other side are often and in many
| respects not such as would commend themselves to
any writer familiar with the practice of the best
tf London houses. But the opportunity of error is,
f in the nature of the case, much more frequent when
_ two firms, instead of only one, have to be con-
| sidered. There is the question of international
copyright ; of the synchronising of dates of appear-
ance, when, it may be, a book is serialised on one
side of the water and not on the other; of the
Canadian market, which is very often a bone of
9 contention between the English and the American
‘oq publisher. In short, it is only possible to sur-
‘a mount the difficulties inherent in the conditions
Jo obtaining by unremitting care, coupled with a
marked degree of expert knowledge. However
cool the business head” of authors may be, there
78 are, it is safe to say, not many of them who have
4 the equipment necessary, if the task involved is to
*d be grappled with successfully.
A It is possible to deal with one agent here and
another in the United States. But the course has
little to recommend it. In the first place, neither
‘8 agent can feel the interest in his client’s affairs
dé” which he would do were they entirely in his hands,
_ And, in the second, the two sets of negotiations are
02 so closely interwoven, that in practice, 1b will not
od be found possible entirely to separate them. For
9 example, the American agent may want instruc-
ii tions or information, the purport of which will
_ depend on what is being arranged with the English
_ publisher ; the man who can solve the difficulty at
once is the English agent, yet, were the course now
under discussion to be followed, the matter would
val have first of all to be referred to the author, who
THE AUTHOR.
17
on : his turn, have to consult his London
ae : 18 Just conceivable that a man of some
elicacy of feeling might hesitate before troubling
—possibly to a considerable extent—his agent with
work in which he had no pecuniary interest, But
leaving that point on one side, it can easily be
realised how many are the chances of confusion
and loss, Further, the London agent who is in
constant touch with one or more agents in New
York can command a degree of attention for his.
work as a whole which the individual author who
only occasionally sends MSS. across the Atlantic
cannot reasonably expect. The London agent
represents, for the American agent, a combination
of authors ; and, naturally, the affairs of a com-
bination are of more consequence than those of
any one person, unless, indeed, he be of consider-
able eminence. And, I take it, we are not now
concerned with the work of such men. Further,
the London agent is by no means confined to dealing
through an Americanagent ; with many American
houses he is probably in close personal touch, as
the result of his acquaintance with the members
of the different firms. An American publisher
when he is in London will certainly visit the chief
London agents, while—again leaving the man of
great reputation apart—it would hardly be worth
his while to call upon a number of individual
authors, whose work he nevertheless is probably
quite ready to consider.
As I understand his paper, “A.C. B.” is of opinion
that agents do not, as a class, deal efficiently with
the United States rights of books that are placed in
their hands. Without specific instances—which I
admit it would be difficult, and perhaps improper,
to give—of the neglect he complains of, discussion
of the point is difficult. But it may safely be said
that no agent who understands his business ever
loses sight of transatlantic possibilities. The notion:
that he would be tempted by a peculiarly beneficial
English contract to take no trouble to market 8
book in America is, with all courtesy, absurd, For
the better the contract that is possible here, the:
better, broadly speaking, will the American ainnde
ment be. The contention is interesting, ewer
as it is the first time that I have heard _
accused of indifference to the commercial - eo
their activities ; but Tam convinced that it . _
other value. To touch on a minor, point, a
frequently impolitic to begin negotiations
America before a contract is signed here ; with 4
ar to the American publisher,
me that is famili wublish
the course advised may be followed 5 but, p =
case of newer men, the best introduction to the
American publisher is the statement that a well
i ‘ the book.
nglish firm has taken up ol -
ee “most authors are alive to the inadvisa
bility of allowing their English publishers to act
THE AUTHOR.
78
agents. From every | point of
not in the author’s interests.
oks which are never copy-
righted in the United States, oye FED ogee
bat chance is to sell an edition in sheets. -
eae can and often does sell sheets of such publica-
eae and I have known cases Neate ae ae -
a to allow the Lon
he advantage of the author
paulieher to do the work. The question of the
division, as betwe
en author and publisher, of profits,
on such ‘transactions is very
often a cause of hard
feeling between the two,
and it is emphatically
one of the points where the advice of an expert 1s
most valuable.
as their American
view, the practice 18
But there are certain bo
C. F. CAZENOVE.
—_———__ + __
THE INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENT ON
MEN OF LETTERS.
—-—<+—
“« O you observe any traces of ‘ Faust,,”
asks Shelley of a friend, “in the poem
I send you? Poets—the best of them—
are a very chameleonic race ; they take the colour,
not only of what they feed on, but of the very
leaves under which they pass.”
Shelley was thinking chiefly of the influence of
an author’s favourite books on his own productions,
but the remark is applicable to other descriptions
of leaves than book leaves, to any kind of influence
with which the poet, and in a less degree the prose-
writer, if a susceptible person, is habitually in con-
tact. From this point of view authors may be
divided into two classes—to both of which they
may belong at different periods of their lives—
those who can and those who cannot choose their
environment. When we can be sure that a writer
belongs to the former class, the environment, as an
index to his inclinations, in its turn reflects light
upon the characteristics of his own mind while
Sometimes it raises a problem. It is easy to see
why Louis Stevenson should have preferred to liv
in the South Sea Islands, and apart from the
qualities of the books composed th h ey
fact afford insight i i ae ere
8 an insight into his nature which could
eos ee are Be if his works had been peanad
ane. Dut Stevenson also shows that a b
may be entirely indepe oo
writing hig Tae and Se b
ally Scotch fiction, * Weir of Hermi cpiees
(as ’ ermiston,”’ amon
. a ibe of Samoa. This, in the i
é sensiti thle
demonstrate that, while ‘the ee Fe tO
ment cannot be denied, wit fmch ee
Beach of Teles hess such tales as “The
presence of an overmastering iinpula es
quarter.“ Weir of Bien pulse from another
» Judging from his
ence, would seem to be of all his bookg
the one which had taken the most complete
possession of him, hence its superior merit,
« And his own mind did like a tempest strong
Come to him thus, and drive the weary wight along.”
If we can easily follow Stevenson to the South
Seas, there are other writers able, like him, to choose
their own environment whose motives are for the
present inscrutable, and consequently fail to afford
light to their characters and writings. Why should
Mr. Henry James, the most subtle analyst of com-
plicated modern society, spend his life by preference
in a little Cinque Port? When we know what
secret bond attaches Mr. James to Rye, we shall
know more of him than we do, and if he does not
tell us himself, it will be a matter for his biographers
to investigate.
One of the strongest witnesses to the influence
of environment is Shakespeare, when he deplores
the evil influence of the profession of actor upon
him, and complains that his nature is
“ Subdued
To what it works in, like the dyer’s hand.”
(fe Observe this image,” comments Shelley, “how
simple it is, and yet how animated with the most
intense poetry and passion.”) There is great
reason to think that Shakespeare renounced the
profession of actor long before he ceased writing
for the stage ; it is certain that as soon as he was
able he acquired property at his native place, which
he must have visited as frequently as his profes-
sional engagements would allow. It is interesting
to inquire how far an influence from this change is
atl) in his Writings, and it may be traced
with certainty. The precise date of the sonnet
seas above ic doubtful, but it certainly did
not long precede his acquisition of property at
Stratford. Within a year or two of this oven we
find him producing the most sylvan of his dramas,
As You Like It,” more thoroughly pervaded with
the spirit of country life than anything he had
Nidan before, if we except the description of the
orse in “‘ Venus and Adonis,” beginning
“But lo, from forth a copse that neighbours by,”
and of coursing a hare in the Same poem, beginning
pote when thou hast on foot the purblind hare,”
€ latter, especially, ig ; :
oe ) lly, a marvel of accurate
a showing that Shakespeare must have
2b’ Many a coursing match. “Ve d
Adonis,” being descri be hans a
, us, Delng described by him ag “ the first hei
of my invention,” was i oe
1 » Was probably written not ]
after his departure from Stratford, when the tan
Tess i : :
p sion of country life would be strong with him
evived by his acquisit 1
quisition of a house there and
hi : a
'8 occasional visits, they come out in full force
correspond
after he has it his princi ;
whe pe it his principal residence there
rs, culminating in the pastoral
S
THE AUTHOR.
~sescenes in “A Winter’s Tale” (1611), where
‘fp villagers and village pastimes are painted to the
‘life. Here seems a clear instance of the effect of
ym@environment. It is an interesting question whether
od the total neglect of the country by the artificial
soe poets of a later day, such as Dryden and Pope, is
eto be attributed to their metropolitan environ-
‘om ment or to the pervading atmosphere of the period.
sd] Their opportunities for contemplating the face of
ie¥ Nature were indeed few, but they showed no dis-
‘aoe position to profit by those which they had. How
il different from Keats! who had scarcely been
vec beyond Edmonton when he produced his first
0¢ poems, which nevertheless contain couplets so
jaa instinct with the spirit of the country as this :
‘When a tale is beautifully staid,
We feel the safety of a hawthorn glade.”
Scott is a most signal instance of the power of
va environment. It would hardly be fair to appeal to
4 Byron as another, for he travelled with the deliberate
i intention of making poetical capital out of every-
4 thing that came in his way. He nevertheless forms
sae one of a remarkable group of English poets who
-ef have been deeply influenced by Italian environ-
om ment. The list includes Landor, Shelley, Keats,
‘ae and both the Brownings. Of these Robert Brown-
ui ing seems the most deeply influenced, doubtless
sod because as a dramatist he touched Italian life at
om more points than the rest. He is a magnificent
2a] instance of what improvement can be effected even
ai in a great poet by transplantation, provided that
ii the process is not continued so long as to pervert
“{ the original bent of his genius. The greatest
vil literary gift, however, that Italy ever made to
1@ England was not poetry, but Gibbon’s “ Decline
vg and Fall,” conceived as, sitting by the Coliseum
‘6 on a moonlight night, he heard the barefooted
‘d friars sing vespers in the Temple of Jupiter. The
af influence, however, though permanent in its effects,
-@ was too transient in its application to be reckoned
“8 among instances of environment ; but Gibbon has
told us of amore prosaic inspiration which certainly
5 deserved the name, the benefit which the historian
# who was ‘to write so fully on military matters
9% received from a spell of service in the militia.
_ It sometimes happens that a great writer spends
s a long life in an environment devoid of striking
features, and which we nevertheless feel to have
d been the best he could possibly have had. Such a
3 case was Goethe’s : he could not have been better
"4 suited than at Weimar, and yet Weimar can hardly
4 be thought to have supplied much aliment to the
4 genius of which he had given ample proofs 7
9 coming there. Its effect was to provide him her
4 the quiet, honourable, stable environment, wit -
which his calm, polished genius could work free 2
and happily, “ without haste and without rest, as
79
he said himself. He might have found it diff l
to observe this commendable maxim if his ci seg
stances had been less easy, and his s her : tae
more perturbed. : OU as
On the whole we can but concl ib i
possible to attribute both too oe little
to environment, that it always exerts some influence
but rarely makes the author an entirely different
oon - . Baa have been under other
te » an at this influence usually
in proportion to the susceptibility of his
perament. Men of the highest genius are
consequently in one point of view the most liable
to be affected by it, but from another the least, as
the force of their minds enables them to triumph
over circumstances which would crush feebler
natures. Milton affords a memorable instance,
composing his immortal poem under a total priva-
tion of sight, and under the most adverse personal
and domestic circumstances. Here the environment
was absolutely hostile, but his past studies and his
present meditations enabled him to create for him-
self another far different one, within which his life
was in reality spent. “ Paradise Lost” could not
have been greater if his circumstances had been of
the happiest, but this is mainly owing to the ideal
and spiritual character of the poem. The vast
majority of writers who deal with more sublunary
matters will do well to adapt, as far as may be,
their environment to themselves; and, when this
is not practicable, themselves to their environment.
Too much, however, must not be expected from
even the most favourable external situation; if a
man cannot do something where he is, he is not
‘kely to do much anywhere.
> ee : R. GARNETT.
——_—__- > >—_—_
OF LETTERS.
++
Christmas, and the big
hop was packed with
hurried customers, busily choosing their ate
Christmas gifts. Cards were being Lege!
ae ae ae a fe and
-osged much attention ;
tay Anite of all sorts sold i. eee
: a MO tek whe had stolen in unobserved
SF ck wie a hanging ealendar, half hidden
and s
oe ea It wasa child
ots of chattering women. Oe
. ae ag ee years old, clad in ee sent
abire with a battered red oh oe i
ae : ye-capped W ae,
worn heavy boots, toe-e PE a number of little
hair done in
Ft ial, tied up with cotton. She stood
. 2
A PATRON
T was two days before
country stationers §
80
till and quite alone, almost under the
sane her eed was half a foot below it, _
she could have seen nothing but the skirts tha
rustled about her. After watching her for some
minutes I asked her what she wanted.
«4 hook,” she whispered, showing a halfpenny
clutched tightly in her warm little dirty fist.
‘A book! She had come to buy a book—she
alone out of the crowd! Her answer gave mea
thrill of joyous optimism. She represented the
new generation, the coming woman, and she
wanted to buy a book. :
In three minutes she was out of the shop again,
blissfully hugging two cheap toy books, and, of
course, perfectly unconscious that they had cost
more than her own cheerfully given coin. I
slipped out, too, and furtively followed her. At
the first corner she stopped to examine her trea-
sures, and in a few seconds was so absorbed in
the contents of one that she wandered on without
seeming to know where she went. The dirty
street had doubtless become a paradise ; she was
deaf and blind to everything but the wonderful
world of pictures under her gloating eyes, and did
not even notice that she had strayed from the
pavement to the road. Still watching her as she
dragged her heavily-shod feet by the gutter, I was
suddenly roused to action by the approach of a big
dray that came lumbering down upon the child,
and there was only just time to drag her out of
danger. She looked up at me with eyes full of
dream, but spoke no word, though I walked beside
= till she turned into a grimy alley to find her
home.
There I lost sight of her, but I shall not readily
forget the tiny thing in the red cap and thick
boots who brought her precious ha’penny to the
bookshop instead of the sweetstuff stall. Ag a
struggling writer of books in an age of free
hbraries and cheap newspapers, I am not ungrate-
ful to this small patron of letters for her practical
encouragement, for the thrill of hope set vibrating
when, 1n answer to my enquiry as to her wants she
piped up, shyly but firmly : “A book.”
Bless her!” With h ly
to buy a book, er only copper she wanted
MAL, P.
oo eo
SHOULD WELL-KNOWN WRITERS
“FARM OUT” FICTION?
N
N a recent issue of The Author a correst
I alluded Incidentally to the Tia event
: well-known writers of fiction are said to have
adopted of late years of « farming out,” as it ig
called, a proportion of the work they are commis-
sioned to do, and he appeared to take it for granted
THB AUTHOR.
that all readers of Ze Author and all members of 6 2
the Authors’ Society must, as a matter of course, 921
agree with him that the practice is reprehensible iid;
in the extreme.
Now it would be interesting to know the exact |9s:
reason that leads this correspondent, and presum- ann
ably a section of the writing community, to look fo.
upon the practice of “ ghosting” for a well-known a
: : Se ul
writer, or of “ ghosting,” for that matter, for any ©
writer able and willing to pay a competent proxy,
asa contemptible and iniquitous practice. Ask any ¥
popular writer of fiction, or writer of popular fiction
—to be quite accurate—and he will tell you that a.
every year the applications he receives for long §
stories as well as for short stories increased, until f
now it has come to this :—(1) He must decline to
undertake to get through more than a comparatively &
small amount of work, and thus, in the language &
of the box-oflice, he must “turn good money
away” ; (2) he must “scamp” a portion of the
work he has agreed to do, and thus, in the long
run, ruin his well-earned reputation for producing
interesting stories ; (3) he must call in the aid of
a proxy, in other words, “ farm out” the surplus.
As the author of two stories that have appeared
serially and in book form as the original work of a
well-known writer, and as the writer also of a
number of short stories that have appeared in
magazines and elsewhere, and purport to be the
original work of a certain well-known writer, I
think that I may claim to speak with, at any rate,
a small amount of authority on this rather interest-
ing subject, and be allowed to draw attention to
some of the advantages the system of “ farming
fiction ” may be said to possess where the interests
of the unknown writer—the ghost—the hack—the
proxy—call him what you will—are at stake.
i may say, to begin with, that the writers for
whom I act as proxy know me sufficiently well to
be aware that | am not likely ever to blackmail
them, and in selecting a proxy this is of course an-
extremely important consideration. They also
know quite well that I am able to keep my own —
counsel. Now, with regard to the advantages of —
the system, it is in the matter of remuneration
that the proxy, so to speak, “romps in” so far
ahead of the individual who writes under his own
name only. For the first long story I “ ghosted ”
I received £2 15s. a thousand words all the way
through, one-third of the total amount being paid
to me before I had written a line ; one-third when
I had completed about one-half of the story ; one- —
third on the day I delivered the MS. complete.
Now, supposing that I had written that story on
the chance of its being accepted by some news-
paper, some syndicate, or some publisher, what
would have happened? In the first place I should
have worked hard for four whole months without
THE AUTHOR,
“ae receiving a single shilling, and all the time I
| should have been worried by the thought that
f perhaps I should, after all, be unable to “place”
‘ed the book, in which case those four months’ hard
» work would of course have been so much time
eu) absolutely wasted. At the end of the four months
ite! T should have set to work to send the story either
to a literary agent or to a publisher. The pub-
i) lisher would have kept it for a month or six weeks
at the very least, and then probably have returned
/ it to me with a polite but unsatisfactory note to
«1 the effect that the book would not suit his house,
but that it possessed merit and might be accepted
«| by some other publisher. I should then have sent
i it elsewhere, and when several months at least had
elapsed I should—if fortune had favoured me—
| have succeeded in “ placing” it. But how much
‘4 should I then have received for it? A guinea a
(| thousand words, perhaps. Very likely not so
Ҥ much. And when would the cheque have been
{ paid to me? Then and there, possibly. Much
more likely many months later. Should I have
“4 received any kudos 2? None to speak of—certainly
=) not enough to compensate me for so serious a pecu-
| niary loss. Personally, therefore, I look upon the
well-known writer who “ farms out” his work as a
sort of Heaven-sent being, and not, as some appear
to consider him, a species of impostor. He satis-
| fies himself; he satisfies the proxy he employs ;
| he satisfies his publisher; and he satisfies the
| public—for by this time the public has come to
know quite well that stories and books alleged to
be the work of Blank are certain to be readable.
| Whether Blank himself actually writes the books,
) or whether he employs someone to write them for
‘{ him, is really of no great consequence so far as the
4 general reader is concerned. ‘The general reader
looks upon Blank’s name as a sort of trade mark
—nothing more. The same kind of thing goes on
‘f in trades and professions, and nobody thinks of
' grumbling. Not very many years ago, to give a
#4 single instance, the business of one of the best
vl known West End gunmakers was acquired by the
4 son of an equally famous coach-builder. The
coach-builder adopted the name of the gunmaker
for business purposes, and to this day probably
two-thirds of this gunmaker’s customers are under
_97 the impression that Blank’s guns are built by the
son of the eminent gunmaker who actually worked
up the business and established its world-renowned
reputation. :
The same remarks apply to the proxy writer of
' short stories. I am commissioned by ‘ that
| popular and clever writer, Blank So-and-So,” to
| write a magazine story of, say, 3,000 words, .
/ appear under his or her signature. Blank tells
me the sort of story that is wanted—the sort that
he or she knows I happen to be capable of pro-
81
ducing—and we arrange terms. Blank agrees to
pay me at the rate of, say, three guineas, or perhaps
four guineas, a thousand words. I allow myself
perhaps a whole week, even ten days, in which to
map out, write and re-write this commissioned
story. I know that I shall be paid for it on the
day it is delivered, so I now have no need to
worry, or to wonder whether the story will ever be
published, and if so, when; and how long I shall be
kept waiting for my cheque. Now, had this story
been written on the chance of its being accepted on
its merits, I should in all probability have been
obliged to send it round to five or six magazines,
one after another, and perhaps at the end of a year
it would still be travelling about and trying to
place itself. Even if it had been accepted at once
I should not have been paid more than fourteen or
fifteen guineas for it. Very likely I should have
been compelled to accept ten, or even less, and the
cheque might still be owing, ‘the rules of this
office being not to pay until the contribution has
appeared.”
Therefore J maintain that for the free lance not
overburdened with wealth this ‘‘ ghosting” work
is by far the more profitable, by far the more
satisfactory in more ways than one provided, he
can get the right man to commission the stories,
and provided also that he is capable of turning out
the sort of stuff required—I employ the word
“stuff” in no derogatory sense—possibly provided
also that the sight of his own production appearing
under another writer’s signature will not cause him
either mortification or annoyance.
The life of the free lance addicted to “ ghost-
ing” is, | may add, by no means devoid of humour.
He is able to obtain upon all sides candid opinions
of his own work, opinions which often enable him
to realise his shortcomings and rectify his faults.
On one occasion, I remember, one of the books
I had “proxied” was sent to me for review,
accompanied by a note from the editor of the news-
paper—the editor is now dead—to the effect that
I might as well, for. reasons which he ae
“pepper this story of Blank’s a bit. I did the
best 1 could to “pepper” my own work, but i
admit that the task rather stuck in my throat.
When I told Blank, afterwards, what I had been
doing, he was immensely tickled. He said ib
reminded him of “poor Gilbert’s inimitable
a8
humour. Panry.
———_—__1———__o___—
«A Baronet in Corduroy” is ce Hee ot
of riod recently pub-
romance of the Queen Anne period recen)
lished (Grant Richards) by Mr. Albert Lee, author
of “The Frown of Majesty.”
82
INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT.
—+-—>—
The following cutting came to us from the
correspondence column of a well-known ladies’
newspaper :—
Nixa.—According to the law of International Copy-
right, no book can be translated into any other language
without the author’s permission until ten years after the
date of publication. After that lapse of time, anyone may
translate the book; but within the period the author's
permission is usually obtained without much difficulty by
applying to him—or her—through the publisher of the
book, if the author’s private address is unknown.
It shows how dangerous a little knowledge
may be.
From the first sentence it would appear that
International Copyright was universal, and that to
translate a book appearing in any country on any
subject within the period of ten years would be
illegal without the author’s sanction. This of
course is not the case. The Berne Convention
of 1886 and the Additional Act of Paris, 1896,
have not been signed by all the European countries,
and the United States has always stood outside.
On a former occasion the names of those coun-
tries who were signatories have been printed in
these columns. While the statements contained
in the paragraph are abroad it would appear
advisable to print the list again.
Germany, Belgium, Spain, France, Haiti, Italy,
Switzerland, Tunis, Monaco, Luxembourg, and
Japan have signed both the Berne Convention
and the Additional Act of Paris. Norway is a
signatory to the Berne Convention, and Denmark
signed both in July of this year. In addition, Great
Britain has a separate Convention with Austria-
Hungary. The Imperial Government signed the
Berne Convention on behalf of Great Britain and
all its Colonies, and the Additional Act of Paris
on behalf of Great Britain and the majority of its
Colonies.
In the countries enumerated —and in those
countries only—is it possible to retain translation
rights.
The paragraph quoted above goes on to say that
after the lapse of ten years anyone may translate
the book. ‘This was to a certain extent true under
the Berne Convention, but is entirely wrong under
the Additional Act of Paris. The Clause referring
to this runs as follows :—
“ Authors belonging to any one of the countries of the
Union, or their lawful representatives, shall enjoy in the
other countries the exclusive right of making or authorising
the translation of their works during the entire period of
their right over the original work. Nevertheless, the
exclusive right of translation shall cease to exist if the
author shall not have availed himself of it, during the
period of ten years from the date of the first publication
of the original work, by publishing, or causing to be pub-
ished in one of the countries of the Union, a translation in
he language for which protection is to be claimed.”
THE AUTHOR.
Accordingly, in those countries, if publication .
is made within ten years, the author has copyright
during the entire period of his right over the
original work.
It must be clearly stated, however, that none of
these extensions of property covered by the Berne
Convention refer to the United States. A law
based on an entirely different principle carries
copyright in that country.
It is a mistake, therefore, to talk in this loose od
It may lead [ime
way of International Copyright.
writers into difficulties.
MAGAZINE CONTENTS.
—-—<—+—
BLACKWOOD’S MAGAZINE.
A Sketch of the Life and Adventures of the Duke De
Ripperda, the Eighteenth Century Dutchman and Rene-
gade. By Walter B. Harris.
The Avatar of Bishwas Dass.
the pen of Mr. T. Hart Davies.
Voltaire. ‘
Oxford Revisited.
Sir William Wilcocks’ Scheme for the Irrigation of
Mesopotamia by means of the River Tigris.
Leopardi’s “ Village Saturday Eve.” Translated by Sir
Theodore Martin.
Babes of the Highway. By Oliver Locker Lampson.
Outside Pets.
Scolopaxiana.
Musings Without Method.
Sally: A Study. By Mr. Hugh Clifford,
An amusing story from
THE CORNHILL MAGAZINE,
The Fond Adventure. Part I]. By Maurice Hewlett.
Colonial Memories: Old New Zealand, I., By Lady
Broome. :
Whistler the Purist. By Mortimer Menpes.
Mr. Whibley’s “ Thackeray.” By Andrew Lang.
Lines Written in Depression. By A. D. Godley.
Samuel Rawson Gardiner. By the Rev. W. H. Hutton,
B.D.
Though the Windows be Darkened. By John Oxenham.
The Grouse and the Gun-room. By Alexander Innes
Shand.
Ferments and Fermentations.
F.R.S.
“In Loco Parentis.”
By W. A. Shenstone,
By Powell Millington.
LONGMAN’S MAGAZINE.
Nature’s Comedian (Chapters xi., xii). By W. E. Norris.
A Turkish Redif. By Frances MacNab.
The Suspicions of Turkentine. By Chas.
Marsh.
Parliament in the Making. By William Auld.
An Unrecorded Incident. By “ Rimpie.”
Restaurant-keeping in Paris, By M. Betham-Edwards.
Billy. By May Kendall. :
Taurus Intervenes. By W. H. Rainsford.
Fielding
At the Sign of the Ship. By Andrew Lang.
Be
alt
THE AUTHOR.
THE PALL MALL MAGAZINE.
Six Weeks in North-Western Rhodesia. By Lady Sarah
Wilson.
Blue Roses: A Fairy Tale for Impossible Women. By
Netta Syrett.
Simple Simon: A Story. By Caroline Marriage.
Once, Always: A Poem. By Laurence Housman.
The Christmas Tree: A Poem. By Rosamund Marriott
‘Watson.
The Rebuilding of London: The Site of the Great
Fire.
The Best Man:
Hilliers.
The Song of Dagonet. By Ernest Rhys.
Lansdowne House. By Ernest M. Jessop.
No Trumps or Spades: A Complete Story. By Horace
Annesley Vachell.
Master Workers :
By Harold Begbie.
Child Awake. By Elsie Higginbotham.
The Play Angel. By Maude Egerton King.
Haggards of the Rock. By H. B. Marriott Watson.
The New Pope: An Anecdotal Narrative. By Rev.
Alex. Robertson, D.D.
The Queen’s Quair: Book II. (Chapters iii., iv.) By
Maurice Hewlett.
Heart's Harbour: A Poem. By Mary van Vorst.
The Girl Who Wasn’t Prim. By G. B. Burgin.
The Vineyard. (Chapters xvi., xvii.) By “John Oliver
Hobbes” (Mrs. Craigie).
What makes you Sit and Sigh? A Poem.
nald Lucas, M.P.
The Surprise. By H. Fielding Hall.
A Visit to the Island of St. Vincent and the Souffritre.
By Lady Ernestine Edgcumbe.
The Round Table: The Tidal Wave. By W. L. Alden.
The Month in Caricature. By G. R. H.
A Complete Story. By Ashton
The Rt. Hon. John Morley, 0.M., M.P.
By Regi-
THE WorLD’s Work (BIRTHDAY NUMBER).
Practical Points in the Fiscal Controversy. By J. A+
Spender.
Motor Cars and Men.
A Record Christmas for Fruits. By Sampson Morgan.
Mr. Sargent’s Famous Portraits. By Mrs. Meynell.
Trusts and Labour in New York: Amazing Revelations.
By Ray Stannard Baker.
Mr. John Burns, M.P., on Labour, Life and Hope. By
George Turnbull.
The Revolution among Women who Work. By Lady
Jeune.
The First Garden City.
Breeding Horses and Cattle.
Volunteer Cyclists: A Scheme for Home Defence. By
Guy Speir.
The Day’s Work of an Engine Driver.
A Farmers’ Trust. By H. 8. Wood.
The Problem of the Incorrigible Offender.
Hopkins.
Irish Toys for Christmas.
The Mystery of Radium. By J. A. Harker, D.Sc.
The Books of the Month. (With Portraits).
Among the World’s Workers : A Record of Industry.
By the Editor.
By Tighe
83
CORRESPONDENCE.
“THE ‘TIMES’ ENCYCLOPADIA.”
ASSOCIATED BOOKSELLERS OF GREAT BRITAIN
AND IRELAND.
Secretarial Office,
1, Bathurst Street, Hyde Park,
London, W.
Sir,—In an advertisement of “The ‘Times’
Encyclopedia” that appeared on October Ist, it
is stated that after December 19th, 1903, the work
will be sold
“as it was before the Zimes took it in hand,
by booksellers only, in the ordinary course of
trade. The lowest price will then be £57
(net) for the cloth binding—more than double
the present price.”
Again, on October 4th, it is stated that
‘now the normal price, the net catalogue
price, is about to replace the temporary half
price, and the normal method of sale through
the agency of booksellers is about to replace
the exceptional system of sale direct to the
public at half price and for small monthly
payments.”
The natural inference from these statements is
that the public would have suffered materially had
the “ Encyclopedia Britannica” with its Suapple-
ment remained in the hands of the publishers and
been supplied through the booksellers. As such an
inference is injurious to the interests of the book-
sellers, we, as representing the booksellers, think
it right to place the following facts before the
public :
(1) The “ Encyclopedia Britannica” was sup-
plied to the public through the booksellers at
£18 for years before the Times reprint
appeared.
(2) If the Supplement had been published by
Messrs. A. & C. Black at the same price per
volume as the “Encyclopedia” itself, the
published price of the Supplement would have
been, in cloth £16 10s. for the eleven
volumes. The Supplement would have been
supplied by many booksellers for cash for
about £12 7s. 6d. The total price of the
“Encyclopedia” and the Supplement would
therefore have been about £30 7s. 6d., very
much the same price as that at which the
Times has sold the work.
(3) The work as supplied by the 7'imes on the
instalment system remained the property of the
Times until the last instalment was paid: the
work as supplied by the booksellers on credit
84
at a very little higher rate than the Times
rate would have become the property of the
purchaser from the moment it was delivered.
(4) The Times intimates that after December
19th, 1903 until 1919 the booksellers will not
be allowed to sell the work at less than
£57 (net) in cloth. This is nearly twice the
“normal price” at which the booksellers
would have sold it now had it been published
by Messrs. Black, and much more than twice
the price at which they would have sold it
ten or fifteen years hence. It is not customary
to sell an Encyclopaedia at a fancy price when
much of it must of necessity be hopelessly
out of date.
(5) Judging from the excellence of the articles
in the “Encyclopedia Britannica,” there is
no reason to think that the excellence of the
Supplement would have been less than it is
had it been published by Messrs. Black ; and
any unprejudiced person will admit that the
production, so far as printing and binding is
concerned, was better in the edition published
by Messrs. Black than in the 7%imes reprint.
(6) It is claimed for “The ‘Times’ Encyclo-
peedia” that it “ will settle the simpler queries
that present themselves in daily life.” We
fail to see how this will be possible in 1919,
when the last volume will be sixteen, and the
first volume about forty years out of date.
Yours faithfully,
(Signed) Hznry W. Knay,
President of the Associated
Booksellers of Great Britain
and Ireland.
R. Bows,
Chairman of Eastern Branch.
T. Watson,
Chairman of Northern
Branch.
J. PATTERSON,
Chairman of North-Eastern
Branch.
C. J. PARKER,
Chairman of Oxford Branch.
A. WHEATON,
Chairman of Western Branch.
RospeRT MACLEHOSE,
Chairman of Scottish Branch.
ALEXANDER Dickson,
Chairman of Belfast Branch.
Witiram M‘Grr,
Chairman of Dublin Branch.
November 5th, 1908.
Oe
THE AUTHOR.
A Book Lover’s LAMENT.
Sir,—Can you, or any member of the Society,
tell me the author and publisher of a book called
‘“‘ John Lackland,” which appeared, I think, about
a year ago.
Ever since then I have been trying to get it
from one of the libraries in my country town, but
in vain. The librarians have written up to Mudie,
or some other London purveyor of literature, over
and over again without being able to procure the
book, and I do not see it on any list now. As it
was well reviewed as a work of note, I cannot
understand why it should be so difficult to obtain
from a library, and the fact raises a question : Are
not we poor book-lovers in the provinces utterly at
the mercy of the great distributors? They can
send us just what they choose and withhold the
books we should like to read. It is only by almost
superhuman efforts that I can get anything I want,
and I have been agitating nearly all this year for
« John Lackland.” Is it any wonder that good
books die without even being read by any but
reviewers, or that we readers in the country forget
their names when we never see them, or hear of
them after the first month ?
Surely the great question to-day is of the dis-
tribution of books. Publishers must often be in
despair, to say nothing of authors who have,
perhaps, spent years in writing that which nobody
can get at!
A Boox Lover at Bay.
Tur PuBLISHER’S READER
Str,—May I be permitted to supplement the
experience (as a Publisher’s Reader) of your corre-
spondent “H. B.” with my own? TI read MSS.
for a very prominent young publisher indeed,
giving my employer, on printed form supplied, an
outline of each story, a general criticism of style
and treatment, advice as to commercial possibilities
of the books, at a remuneration of 2s. a MS.
But, with the Daily Mail article signed “ Stan-
hope Sprigg,” I fear that one ought not to place :
undue importance on the statements made. We
must remember that every man of every degree,
nowadays, be he peer or publisher, or even a literary
agent who is (or has been) on the staff of a famous.
journal, must most strenuously exert himself in
order to get an honest living.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
F. W. R.
Dublin Core
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The Author, Vol. 14 Issue 03 (December 1903)
Subject
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<em>The Author</em>, Vol. 14 Issue 03 (December 1903)
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1903-12-01-The-Author-14-3
publications
The Author
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https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/487/1903-11-02-The-Author-14-2.pdf
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Text
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Dublin Core
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Title
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The Author
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<em>The Author</em>
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An account of the resource
A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&collection=&type=&tags=&exhibit=&date_search_term=&submit_search=Search+For+Items&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022.
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1890–1914
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1903-11-02
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14
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2
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19031102
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Che Hutbor.
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors.
FOUNDED BY SIR
Monthly.)
WALTER BESANT.
Vou. XIV.—No. 2
NOVEMBER 2ND, 1903.
[PRICE SIXPENCE.
TELEPHONE NUMBER :
374 VICTORIA.
TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS :
AUTORIDAD, LONDON.
SN at a
NOTICES.
——— +9
OR the opinions expressed in papers that are
KF signed or initialled the authors alone are
responsible. None of the papers or para-
graphs must be taken as expressing the opinion
of the Committee unless such is especially stated
to be the case.
Tue Editor begs to inform members of the
Authors’ Society and other readers of 7he Author
that the cases which are from time to time quoted
in The Author are cases that have come before the
notice or to the knowledge of the Secretary of the
Society, and that those members of the Society
who desire to have the names of the publishers
concerned can obtain them on application.
—
List of Members.
Tue List of Members of the Society of Authors,
published October, 1902, at the price of 6d., and
the elections from October, 1902 to July, 1903, as
a supplemental list, at the price of 2d. can now be
obtained at the offices of the Society.
They will be sold to members or associates of
the Society only.
Ss
The Pension Fund of the Society.
THE investments of the Pension Fund at
present standing in the names of the Trustees are
as follows.
This is a statement of the actual stock ;
VoL. XIV.
the
money value can be easily worked out at the current
price of the market :—
Cope Soe hs £1000 0 0
Tic@al Moats: 2.0... iii 500 0 0
Victorian Government 3 % Consoli-
dated Inscribed Stock ............... 291 19 11
War Doan. 201 9 3
Total 3... ou, 993 Se?
Subscriptions.
1903. £ sd.
Jan. 1, Pickthall, Marmaduke 010 6
» Deane, Rey. A. C. 010 0
Jan. 4, Anonymous 0 5 0
» Heath, Miss Helena 0 5 0
5 Russell, G. H. ts 1 50
Jan. 16, White, “Mrs. Caroline 0 5 0
» Bedford, Miss Jessie 0 5 90
Jan. 19, Shiers-Mason, Mrs. 0 5.0
Jan. 20, Cobbett, Miss Alice ; 0p 0
Jan. 30, Minniken, Miss Bertha M.M. 1 0 0
Jan. 31, Whishaw, Fred. . 0. 10 0
Feb. 3, Reynolds, Mrs. Fred 0 5 O
Feb. 11, Lincoln, C. . 0 5 0
Feb. 16, Hardy, J. Herbert . 0 5 O
» Haggard, Major Arthur . 0 5 0
Feb. 23, Finnemore, John 0 5 0
Mar. 2, Moor, Mrs. St. C. . 1 0. 0
Mar. 5, Dutton, Mrs. Carrie 015 6
Apl. 10, Bird, Cp. - 0.10 6
Apl. 10, Campbell, Miss Montgomery . 0 8 0
May Lees, R. J. : Sd 20
5 Wright, J. Fondi : 0 5 0
Donations.
Jan. 3, Wheelright, Miss E. 0 10.6
» Middlemass, MissJean . ~ 0-100
Jan. 6, Avebury, The Right Hon.
The Lord . : as)
» Gribble, Francis 010 0
Jan. 13, Boddington, Miss Helen . 010 6
30 THE AUTHOR.
£ 2. d.
Jan. 17, White, Mrs. Wollaston 110
» Miller, Miss E. T. . 0 5 O
Jan. 19, Kemp, Miss Geraldine 010 6
Jan. 20, Sheldon, Mrs. French 0 5 0
Jan. 29, Roe, Mrs. Harcourt i 010 O
Feb. 9, Sherwood, Mrs. , : 010 6
Feb. 16, Hocking, The Rev. Silas 1170
Feb. 18, Boulding, J. W. . 010 6
s, Ord, Hubert H. 010 O
Feb. 20, Price, Miss Eleanor 010 0
» Carlile, Rev. J.C. . 010 0
Feb. 24, Dixon, Mrs. . 5 0 0
Feb. 26, Speakman, Mrs... 010 0
Mar. 5, Parker, Mrs. Nella 010 0
Mar. 16, Hallward,N.L. . 110
Mar. 20, Henry, Miss Alice . - 0-6 0
» Mathieson, Miss Annie . - 010 0
» Browne, T. A. (“ Rolfe Boldre-
wood”) ; : _ 1 tb 0
Mar. 23, Ward, Mrs. Humphry . -10 0 0
Apl. 2, Hutton, The Rev. W. H. 2 0 0
Apl. 14, Tournier, Theodore ; 0 5 0
May King, Paul H. . : - 010 0
es Wynne, Charles Whitworth .10 0 0
» 21, Orred J. Randal : Jl 20
June 12, Colles, W. Morris . .10 0 0
» Bateman, Stringer . . 010 6
> Anon . i 0 5 0
» Mallett, Reddie 0 5 0
Oct. 27, Sturgis, Julian . 50 0 0
The following members have also made subscrip-
tions or donations :—
Meredith, George, President of the Society.
Thompson, Sir Henry, Bart., F.R.C.S.
Rashdall, The Rey. H.
Guthrie, Anstey.
Robertson, C. B.
Dowsett, C. F.
There are in addition other subscribers who do
not desire that either their names or the amount
they are subscribing should be printed.
Se oe es
FROM THE COMMITTEE.
—_-—~>—+—_
AT the first meeting of the Committee held after
the vacation, at 39, Old Queen Street, fifty-two
new members and associates were elected. This
election the Committee consider most satisfactory.
The total number of elections for the current year
amount now to 164. The full list of the month’s
elections is printed below.
A good many small matters that had been col-
lecting during the vacation came up for considera-
tion, but no very contentious business. The
settlement of the date for the unveiling of the
memorial to Sir Walter Besant was postponed
until after the return of Mr. Frampton, the
sculptor, from abroad. Due notice will be given
to all members when the details are fixed. It was
decided to invest a further sum of £90 of the Life
Membership Account in the purchase of War Loan.
This raises the Society’s investments to consider-
ably over £800. Should no unforeseen claim be
made on the Society’s resources owing either to
the loss of some action or expenditure on behalf
of some other matter in which the Committee feel
bound to uphold the principles of the Society, the
Reserve Fund ought before the end of next year to
amount to close upon £1,000,
The Committee decided to undertake the stamp-
ing of songs at the ordinary charge for such work
on behalf of those musical composers who are
members of the Society. This action will no
doubt be of considerable convenience to sony
writers. There were one or two small cases
before the Committee. It is, however, inexpedient
at the present time to declare the action of the
Committee.
—-——+
Cases.
SINCE the last month’s issue of the cases placed
in the hands of the Secretary sixteen further disputes
taken up on behalf of members have to be recorded.
Hight referred to the return of MSS.; of these five
have been successful; the MSS. having been sent to
the office and returned to the author. The editors
in all cases have shown themselves anxious to assist
the Society’s efforts. In one of the other three
cases diligent search has been made, but no
evidence that the MS. reached the office exists, so
although the editor has done what he could the
author has no legal claim. In one of the other two
a letter written by the Secretary has been returned
through the dead letter office, and it has been found
impossible to trace the person to whom the MSS.
were sent. he final case has only been taken up
during the last few days, and no answer has as yet
been received.
In two instances the copyright of members has
been infringed.
An author’s song was republished, together
with music, by Messrs. Chappell & Co., who received
the song with the music from the composer, and
published it in ignorance of the fact that there was
any copyright existing. As soon as their attention
was drawn to the matter, without demur they paid
the sum required by the author, and agreed to
publish his name on all future copies.
The second case dealt with the infringement of
i
THE AUTHOR. 31
the copyright in a dramatic piece by the publica-
tion of the same in story form, incident for incident,
with nearly all the minor details complete. The
story was issued by a well-known publishing house
as a penny novelette. It would be impolitic to
make any further comment on this case at present,
but we hope to insert a statement in 7’e Author at
a later date.
On four occasions the Secretary had to ask for
accounts which had not been rendered in accordance
with the clause inthe agreement. These have been
forwarded in due course and satisfactorily settled.
One matter was for money and accounts. This
has been completed by the rendering of the accounts
and the payment of the amount. Another claim of
money for articles published has now been amicably
arranged. Lastly, a case has arisen where an
author paid a sum for work to be finished by a
certain date. The work has not been done in
accordance with the contract, and the Secretary
has the matter in hand to see that the contract is
properly carried out. It is hoped that it will not
be necessary to take legal proceedings.
Of the cases mentioned in the last issue only
three are still unfinished. One refers to a demand
of a member against a paper in India. Owing to
the difficulties of correspondence, and the length
of time that must elapse between each letter, the
matter is still left open, but the Editor of the paper
in question has replied to the Secretary’s demand,
and no doubt a reasonable settlement will be come to.
Another case is against the firm of Messrs.
Romeike and Curtice, the well-known press cutting
agents.
A member of the Society, who lives abroad,
wrote to these agents asking that an album of
cuttings referring to a book he had lately pub-
lished should be forwarded to him, at the same
time enclosing their fee.
Not having received the album our member
communicated with the Secretary, who wrote to
the firm on his behalf on May 27th Jast, and on
the 8th of June received an answer as follows :—
“ DEAR S1Rx,—In reply to your letter of the 27th ult.,
re the albums of Mr.L.W. We have ascertained that they
were completed and in error sent to Zanzibar.
‘We. are extremely sorry for this, and have communi-
cated with Mr. W. We will at any expense procure
duplicate cuttings, mount them, and despatch next week.
“ Yours faithfully,
“ ROMEIKE and CURTICE.”
No explanation was given as to why the album
was sent to Zanzibar when the member resides in
Spain. Nor, in spite of this statement and of
several subsequent letters written to the firm, has
the album as yet been forwarded. As late as
October 21st the Secretary received a letter from
our member saying that it had not come to hand.
_ The third case is for money due for articles pub-
lished in a well-known weekly ladies’ paper. Here
owing to the fact that the member of the Society
lived abroad, there was some difficulty ; but the
Secretary obtained from the editor, ‘after some
little correspondence, a cheque on account and
a promise that the matter would be finally arranged
when the member returned to England and was
able to send in a formal account.
os
October Elections.
“ Airam ” : ; :
Armstrong, T. P. . - 126.
S. W.
Baden - Powell, Major- 32, Princes Gate, SW.
General R. 8S. S., O.B.
Barker, H. Granville
Barrett, Frank
Queen’s Gate,
Thwaite Rectory, Han-
worth, Norwich.
Beldam, George William. Boston Lodge, Brent-
ford.
Bell, R. S. Warren . 12, Burleigh Street,
Strand, W.C.
Bishop, John . “ Avington,” Hunger-
ford.
Blake, J. P. Bass ‘“‘Danesdale,” York
Road, Southend,
Essex,
Boulton, Miss Helen M. . Seend, Melksham,
Wilts.
Briscoe, John Potter - 38, Addison Street,
Nottingham.
Burrows, Prof. Montagu. 9, Norham Gardens,
; Oxford.
Carnegie, Mrs. Lindsay Kimblethmont, Ar-
(Chameleon) broath, N.B.
Clark, Arthur S. 109, Park Side, Wood-
ford Green.
109, Park Side, Wood-
ford Green.
Cock, Mrs. Alfred(#. Cock) 2, Tregunter Road,
The Boltons, S.W.
Keningale Ardat, Southall.
Clark, Mrs. Janet .
Cook, Mrs.
(Mabel Collins)
Curry, Commander E. Naval and Military
Hamilton Club, Piccadilly, W.
Dale, T. F. New Club, 4, Grafton
Street, W.
Daly, Charles . 31, Drayton Park, N.
“ Paul Danby ”
Dutton, T. D. Springhall, Sawbridge-
worth, Herts.
Escott, T. H.S. . . 33, Sackville Road,
Hove, Brighton.
Francis, Miss Rose (Ruby Burnham, Norton,
Lynn) King’s Lynn.
32
Godard, John George
Graves, Charles L. .
Harrison, Frederic .
Hartley, Miss Elizabeth .
Hawkins-Ambler, G. A. .
Hodgkin, Thomas .
Jennings, J. G.
oJ. MY . : :
Kendal, John (Dum Dum)
Laverack, The Rev. F. J.
Legge, W. Heneage
—tLuceas, FE. V. .
Mallett, Reddie
Mark, H. Thiselton
Parsons, E. B.
Pierpoint, A. E.
Romanes, Miss Ethel
“Prior Salford” . ;
Smith-Dampier, Miss N.
Stanton, Vincent Henry .
Stephens, Lucy H. G.
Symons, Arthur
Taylor, Harold
Turner, Samuel
Wharton, Leonard Cyril
(Ignoramus)
Wilson, Andrew
THE AUTHOR.
7, Radleigh Gardens,
Brixton Hill, S.W.
Athenzeum Club, S.W.
Elm Hill, Hawkhurst,
Kent.
16, Adair House, Oak-
ley Street, Chelsea,
S.W.
30, Rodney Street,
Liverpool.
Barmoor Castle, Beal,
Northumberland.
The Wardenry, War-
minster, Wilts.
2, Eliot Place, Black-
heath, S.E.
211, New King’s Road,
Parson’s Green, S.W,
Raymer, near Lewes,
Sussex.
Harlyn Bay, near Pad-
stow, N. Cornwall.
Owens College, Man-
chester.
41, Guildford Street,
Russell Square, W.C.
La Martiniere College,
Lucknow, India.
Pitcalyean, Wigg, Ross-
shire.
Twyford House, near
Winchester.
Trinity College, Cam-
bridge.
Trawsmawr Newydd,
Carmarthen.
134, Lauderdale Man-
sions, Maida Vale,
N.W.
Hampden House,
King’s Cross, N.W.
Haslemere, Orleans
Road, Upper Nor-
wood, 8.E.
Brunswick House,
Gayton Road, Har-
row.
110, Gilmore
Edinburgh.
Place,
_Two members alone do not desire publication
either of their name or address.
LITERARY, DRAMATIC, AND MUSICAL
PROPERTY.
ER ee ee
I.—Dumas Translations.
Duar Sir,—We understand that your issue of
October 1st contains some criticisms of the fees
which are paid to the translators of our new edition
of the novels of Alexandre Dumas, and we hope
that you will in justice to us insert the following
statement.
An arrangement was made by us with the editor
of the series, by which he undertook for a certam
fee, suggested by himself, the translation of the set
of novels. He offered to find competent assistants,
and he proposed that we should leave the matter
in his hands. We had no reason to doubt his
competence or his fairness, and an arrangement
was made that he should deliver to us the trans-
lated books and pay his assistants out of the fees
which were received from us. Shortly after the
agreement was made we heard, much to our
surprise, that the editor was paying his colleagues
a sum very much lower than the sum which we
paid him. We at once wrote to him protesting
against the division of the fees, and pointing out
to him that the sum he was paying was far too
low. We insisted upon a higher remuneration,
and in order to make things easier for him and
fairer for his staff, we agreed to pay his contributors
a further sum after the sale of a certain number of
copies of each novel. We hold ourselves personally
responsible and we shall see that such payment is
made when the time comes. The correspondence
is at your disposal.
You will, we are sure, acquit us of any desire to
induce men or women to translate books at unfair
prices. We have always endeavoured to act fairly
to authors, and we are bound to say that we
are surprised that you should by suggestion call
our fairness into question without having made -
inquiries from us concerning the facts on which
you comment.
We are, dear sir,
Yours faithfully,
Mertuvuern & Co.
—+——+
II.—The Case of a Lost MS.
THIS case was heard, by consent, before T.
Willes Chitty, Esq., one of the Masters of the
Supreme Court, in August last.
The plaintiff was an author, the defendant Mr.
John Long, a publisher, and the action was brought
to recover damages for the detention of a manu-
script of a book written by the plaintiff, entitled
“The New Lorelei.”
THE AUTHOR.
It appears from the evidence given before the
Master that the plaintiff had written several books,
mostly on historical subjects, and also some short
stories for magazines.
On the 16th September, 1902, the author called
at the offices of Mr. John Long, taking with her
a typewritten manuscript of a novel which she had
written, consisting of 50,000 words, called ‘The
New Lorelei.” The original manuscript was de-
stroyed after the typewritten copy had been made.
The author offered the manuscript to a gentle-
man whom she believed to be Mr. John Long, who
stated that he would submit it to his reader, and
let her know the result.
On the following morning she received a letter
from the defendant acknowledging the receipt of
the manuscript, and at the foot of the letter were
the following words :—
* Note-—Every care will be taken of works
entrusted to Mr. Long, but he cannot be held
responsible for their loss in transit by fire or
otherwise. Authors should keep copies of their
works.”
Until the receipt of this letter the plaintiff said
she had never heard of the condition mentioned
in the note. Not having received any communi-
cation from Mr. Long, she wrote to him on the
5th December, 1902, asking what decision he had
come to with regard to the manuscript, and on the
6th December received a reply from Mr. Long
saying, “I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your
letter, which shall be duly considered.”
Again on the 26th January, 1903, another letter
was written inquiring as to Mr. Long’s decision
about the manuscript, to which an answer was
received dated the 28th January, saying that the
letter was receiving Mr. Long’s attention.
On February 5th, 1903, Mr. Long wrote the
following letter to the plaintiff :
“THE NEW LORELEI.
“We find this MS. was returned to you on the 6th
November last ‘per London Parcel Delivery Company.
Will you kindly make enquiries your end?”
The manager of the London Parcels Delivery
Company was called at the hearing and stated that
no parcel was ever delivered to the company by
Mr. Long addressed to the plaintiff. Eventually
it was admitted on behalf of the defendant that no
one could be called to prove that the manuscript
had been delivered to the company. Mr. Long’s
reader gave evidence to the effect that the manu-
script had been sent to him by Mr. Long to read ;
and he had returned it to Mr. Long with his
comments upon it.
Mr. W. Oliver Hodges (instructed by Messrs.
Field, Roscoe & Co.) appeared for the plaintiff,
and Mr. Barton (instructed by Messrs. Rivington
& Son) appeared for the defendant.
33
On behalf of the defendant it was contended
that—
(1.) The defendant was a gratuitous and involun-
tary bailee and only liable for gross negligence,
(2.) The onus of proving negligence lay on the
plaintiff, and the mere loss of the manuscript by the
defendant was not evidence of negligence.
(3.) By the terms of the note to the author of
September 16th, 1902, the defendant was absolved
from all liability.
To these points it was replied on behalf of the
plaintiff that—
(1.) The defendant having received the manu-
script for the purpose of submitting it to his reader
with a view to seeing whether he would accept it
for publication took the case out of the category of
gratuitous bailees, because the bailment was for the
benefit of both parties.
(2.) The bailment being for the benefit of both
parties the onus lay on the defendant to show that
the loss occurred without negligence, which he had
failed to do.
(3.) The terms mentioned in the letter of 16th
September were not mentioned when the defendant
received the manuscript, and could not afterwards
be forced upon the plaintiff; and further, if! the
defendant wished to absolve himself from the
negligence of his servants he must do so in clear
and unambiguous terms, which the note did not do.
The Master gave judgment for the plaintiff for
£20 with costs, and observed that he would give
the defendant every facility should he desire to
appeal from the decision.
A writer ina weekly newspaper, Zhe Sphere, has
commented on this case, suggesting that the
decision, if legally sound, on which he throws
doubts, was morally unjust, and criticising the
action of our committee in taking up the matter.
We are confident that our members after reading
the preceding summarised report will consider that
the committee were fully justified in bringing the
case into Court.
A publisher is a man of business—or at any rate
a man engaged in business—and as such is (as it
happily proved) in some cases legally bound and in
all cases morally bound to deal with property
entrusted to him with ordinary business care.
When he has failed to do so he will not improve
his position in the eyes of the public by making an
attempt which he cannot sustain by evidence, to
shift his responsibility on to others.
What would the feelings of the anonymous writer
in Zhe Sphere be, if a watchmaker with whom he
had left his watch for repair after long delay failed
to produce it ? Would his higher morality prevent
him from making any claim in respect of the loss ?
34 THE AUTHOR.
III.—Copyright Infringement in Germany.
The following particulars may be of interest to
English authors :—Miss Henriette Jastrow, a
German lady living in London, wrote a leading
article, published in the Frankfurter Zeitung, under
the heading, “‘ Made in Germany : a word to German
manufacturers.” A little later she received from
the secretary of the Allgemeine Schriftstellerverein
(German Society of Authors) a letter, informing
her that her article had been reprinted in extenso
by the General-Anzeiger fiir LElberfeld und
Bremen, and that, unless she had given express
permission, such re-publication was an infringement
of the law, for which she could demand compensa-
tion. Having taken legal advice, Miss Jastrow
handed a statement of her case to the public prose-
cutor, requesting him to take action.
That official replied that her article, not “being
instructive, nor technical, nor entertaining,” did not
fall under the provisions of the law, of which,
therefore, its reproduction was not an infringement,
Miss Jastrow, on the advice of her solicitor,
appealed to the higher court, submitting that her
article was instructive, technical, and also enter-
taining, and the higher court instructed the public
prosecutor to take proceedings.
On the commencement of the proceedings the
editor of the offending paper wrote to Miss Jastrow,
informing her that he threw himself at her feet,
and offering to pay her for the article if the pro-
ceedings were dropped.
Judgment was given against the editor, who was
ordered to pay a fine to the State of 30 marks,
and a “ Busse,” or damages, to Miss Jastrow of
100 marks (£5).
The Schriftstellerverein has arranged with a
press cutting agency to receive notice of the re-
publication of articles written by members of the
Society, and the names of the republished articles
are printed in the Society’s organ, Die Feder.
Members who observe unauthorised reprints of
their own articles can obtain from the office of
Die Feder a copy of the offending paper, and can
then apply for payment. If this is not obtained
on application, the Society will initiate proceedings.
It is expected that members whose path has been
thus smoothed should pay 10 per cent. of the
money received to the Society, or 50 per cent. if
legal proceedings were taken by the Society.
Observations upon the usefulness of the Society
would be superfluous,
CLEMENTINA BLACK.
1
IV.—Denmark and the Berne Convention.
Tue King of Denmark has issued a decree
notifying the fact that Denmark became one of
the signatories to the Berne Convention of 1886,
to the additional Act of Paris, 1896, and the
Explanatory Declaration, as and from the Ist of
July last.
‘The law authorising this step was passed by the
Rigsdag some time ago, but only came into force
on the date above mentioned.
Ho
OUR BOOK AND PLAY TALK.
——< 1+.
ROFESSOR CHURCH, F.R.S., has just com-
P pleted for the Board of Education the
revision of his South Kensington Hand-
books on ‘“ English Earthenware” and “ English
Porcelain.” ‘hey have been out of print for a
year. The professor has recently published, through
Seeley & Co., a new edition of the “ Portfolio
Monograph on Josiah Wedgwood,” which first
appeared in 1894. The same publishers have also
lately issued a third edition of this author’s
“Chemistry of Paints and Paintings.” A supple-
ment to his “‘ Food Grains of India” has also been
published.
A volume entitled “ Records and Recollections ”
has been printed privately to the extent of forty
copies only for relatives of Professor Church. It
is an autobiography illustrated by photographs of
miniatures of works of art, etc., but it includes a
bibliography and a list of memoirs and papers.
Copies have been presented to the Bodleian Library,
the British Museum, and the Heralds’ College.
Sir Norman Lockyer’s address “ On the Influence
of Brain-power on History,” which was delivered
before the British Association for the Advancement
of Science at Southport, on September 9th, 1903,
is to be published in volume form by Messrs.
Macmillan & Co.
Professor Bertram Windle, M.D., F.R.S., Dean
of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Bir-
mingham, has just finished a book on the “ Pre-
historic Age in England.” It will appear shortly
after Christmas by Messrs. Methuen. One of the
principal features of this book is that it contains
lists of the major objects, such as earthworks,
arranged according to counties, and lists of the
principal museums in which the minor objects can
be seen. At the present time Professor Windle
is engaged with Mr. F. G. Parsons on a work on
the “ Myology of the Mammalia,” which he hopes
to get out some time next year.
A new volume in the Cambridge Historical
Series is “ The Expansion of Russia” from 1815
to 1900, by Francis Henry Skrine, I.C.S. (retired),
author of “The Life of Sir W. W. Hunter,” etc.
THE AUTHOR.
“The Expansion of Russia” has a copious biblio-
graphy and index, and three coloured maps. Its
price is 6s. nett. oe
When Mrs. Craigie delivered her presidential
address to the members of the Ruskin Society of
Birmingham at the Priory Rooms, she took as her
subject “ The Science of Life: Saint Ignatius and
Tolstoi.” After confessing that the science of
life was the most difficult subject in the world,
Mrs. Craigie said, among other interesting things,
that the philosophy of Saint Ignatius, reduced to
its simplest form, was that man was made to serve
God and save his own soul. Tolstoi, who had had
exceptional opportunities for becoming disgusted
with the pleasures of life and the rewards of fame,
entreated men not to argue, not to analyse, but to
dig in the fields. .
Tolstoi found nothing but imperfections in their
social organisations and immorality in their con-
ceptions of life. Money was bad—was too evil
even to be given away ; it must be destroyed, and
work paid for with work. Those were paralysing
ideas. Mrs. Craigie considered that much of the
present discontent came from the artificial and
unwarrantable importance of position. She saw
nothing in enormous schemes of wholesale reform,
but everything in attention to the individual.
“ Miss Marie Corelli is at work on a new novel
which is more than half finished, though it will
not be published till next spring or summer. The
authoress has sacrificed a considerable amount of
time and money, besides giving a great deal of
‘personal hard work, to the business of saving the
, old buildings in Henley Street, Stratford-on-Avon,
on the side of Shakespeare’s birthplace, from
complete demolition,/and considers she has won
a victory over the vandals by the statement. of
facts in her pamphlet, “The Plain Truth of
the Stratford-on-Avon Controversy” (Methuen.
Price 1s.)
She has saved some genuine Shakespearean
property duly authenticated by old leases and
title-deeds, which would have been razed to the
ground in April last but for her protest. The
fight, however, which is not yet ended, has taken
much of her time away from her usual work,
though she has caught up with this considerably
during her two months’ sojourn at Braemar. Here,
_ ina quiet little cottage on “Chapel Brae,” which
commands a magnificent view of the mountains
and moors, she has been writing steadily, giving
all her mornings to work and her afternoons to
open-air exercise, and has so far proceeded with
her new romance that she has commenced a second
book, thus having two on hand at the same time.
This double production, it will be remembered,
she succeeded in when “ The Master Christian” and
“Boy ” were published almost simultaneously.
35
Mr. George Gissing, who is in the South of
France just now, has in hand a piece of historical |
fiction which has cost, and is costing, him much |
more labour than anything he has ever done. fit
all goes well, it may be finished by the end of this
year.
4 Mr. William Le Queux has gone to the villa he
has recently bought in the vineyards on the hill-side
at Lastra, overlooking Florence, and is there hard
at work on a new Italian romance of the cinque-
cento, which piece of fiction he has been contem-
plating for two years../He has lived in Italy many
years, and has devoted all his spare time to research
for the historical romance he is now completing.
Next year Mr. Le Queux will figure largely in
the newspapers and magazines. “The Closed
Book” is the title of his new novel in Chambers’s
Journal. A story called “ Who Giveth this Woman”
is announced by Tillotson’s Syndicate. “Both of
This Parish” will ran through the pages of the
Morning Leader, while he has still commissions to
complete during the forthcoming year for Cassell’s
Magazine, The British Weekly, and Tit-Bits.
Mr. Le Queux isa steady and industrious worker,
who writes every word with his pen, hates the sound
of a typewriter, and finds recreation in the study of
medizval parchments, in the deciphering of which
he is a recognised expert. His book, “ The Ticken-
cote Treasure,” which deals with ancient documents,
is one of the best selling books of last month.
Mr. Stephen Gwynne’s new novel, “John Max-
well’s Marriage,” which has been running through
Macmillan’s Magazine, is to be published imme-
diately by that firm. It treats of Irish life during
the period 1760—80, the scene of action being
Donegal.
Mr. Stephen Gwynne has also written for Messrs.
Macmillan a summary sketch called “ Landmarks
of English Literature,” which is in type. A volume
of fishing sketches, mainly written this summer,
Mr. Gwynne hopes to publish next spring. He has
also arranged to do “ Moore” in the English Men
of Letters Series.
Miss Sarah Doudney is busy with a novel which
she expects to bring out in the spring. The title
is “ One of the Few.” It deals with the inner life
of a single literary woman, divided between her
devotion to her profession and her tenderness for
an old lover.
Miss Doudney, who left Oxford last March, and
is now living in a pleasant sunshiny house on Old
London Road leading to Portsmouth, wishes it to
be understood that she writes alone, and has never
been associated with a co-worker.
Miss Clara Linklater Thomson, whose “ Samuel
Richardson” was published by Horace.Marshalt in
36
1900, and who also contributed a little ‘‘ Life of
George Eliot ” to the Westminster Biographies in
1901, has been devoting herself to the composition
of school books. She has just published Parts I.
and II. of “ A First Book in English Literature,”
and is now engaged on Part V. of a “ First History
of England,” of which four parts have appeared
and are having a good sale. Miss Thomson is now
acting as educational editor to Messrs, Horace
Marshall. : 2
Mrs. M. H. Spielmann’s “ Littledown Castle,” a
volume of tales for young people, finely illustrated
by jeading artists, is just out. 5
Miss Lily Dougall’s new story is to appear first
in serial form in Zemple Bar, beginning next
January, and is entitled ‘The Harthly Purgatory.”
Miss Dougall has left Montreal, and is now living
in South Devon.
Mr. Allan Fea’s new book, “ After Worcester
Fight,” a companion volume to his “The Flight
of the King,” is to be published very soon by Mr.
John Lane. It will contain five contemporary
accounts of Charles II.’s romantic adventures in
1651, a lengthy introduction dealing with the early
editions of Thomas Blount’s “ Boscobel,”’ with relics
associated with the king’s escape, traditions,
petitions, etc., and an appendix, including an
enlarged and revised Carlos pedigree, and Colonel
Carlos’s will, etc.
There are upwards of fifty illustrations in “ After
Worcester Fight,” including many portraits of
Charles and his loyal supporters, and facsimile
reproductions of the quaint illustrations in some
rare editions of Blount’s work, with the author’s
permission.
Messrs. Edwin Davies & Co., publishers, Brecon,
and Messrs. Quaritch, of London, have in the
press a “‘ Life of Richard Fenton, K.C., F.A.S.,”
the historian, by his grandson, Ferrar Fenton,
F.R.AS., M.C.A.A., to precede a new edition
of the “ Historical Tour through Pembrokeshire,’’
with important additions both literary and artistic.
A new children’s book by Mrs. Ernest Ames is
just out (Grant Richards). It is called “Tim and
the Dusty Man.” It is illustrated in colours, there
being one large picture to each page. “The
Tremendous Twins,” by this authoress, has gone
well.
Raymond Jacbern’s new books for children this
season are ‘Three Rascals,’ published by
Messrs. Macmillan, and ‘‘ The Scaramouche Club,”
published by Grant Richards.
Miss Christabel Coleridge did not undertake any
original work while she was engaged on the life of
Miss C, M. Yonge. She is now, however, writing a
novel, which she. hopes may be completed early
next year, and she continues to edit Friendly Leaves,
the organ of the Girls’ Friendly Society.
Miss
THE AUTHOR.
Coleridge also hopes to undertake some literary
studies in the Arthurian romances and legends,
‘A Lady of Misrule” is the title of the Rev.
Henry Cresswell’s new novel. Messrs, Chatto and
Windus are the publishers.
John Bickerdyke has resigned his editorial
appointment on The Field, with the object of
returning to his first love, Fiction. His last and
fifth novel, “The Passing of Prince Rozan,” had
the misfortune to be published three weeks before
war was declared, with the result that it had a
greater success in the States than in its native
country. Many authors suffered from the same
cause.
Austin Clare’s new book, “Court Cards” (F.
Fisher Unwin) is a romance concerning the
“Little Game played between England and
Scotland at the close of Centuary 16.”
Lovers of the occult and mystical will be
interested to hear of a new magazine, devoted to
these subjects, entitled Out of the Silence—now
in its second year—edited by Miss F. Voisin, B.A.
The October number contained the first instalment
of “The Descent,” a poem by an experienced
writer, for many years a member of the Author’s
Society.
Mr. Arrowsmith, of Bristol, is to publish imme-
diately “A Patience Pocketbook Plainly Printed,”
put together by Mrs. Theodore Bent. It is very
small and compact, and is for the use of travellers.
Mr. Arthur H. Holmes, author of “ Gumford,’”
etc., has published through Mr. T. Burleigh, at
‘2s. 6d., a volume of stories under the title of
‘“ Light and Shade.”
We have received a copy of a little publication
which may be useful to some of our members. It
is The Book Monthly, an illustrated record, guide,
and magazine for booksellers, librarians and pub-
lishers, book-buyers, readers and writers. It is.
published: by Messrs. Simpkin Marshall, Hamilton,
Kent & Co., Limited, at 6d. nett. Its list of “ New
Books Nearly Ready,” and the classified catalogue
of the noteworthy books, new editions, and reprints.
of the month, meet a want, and that in a clear and
concise form.
Mr. Kipling’s “ The Five Nations” ranks high
jamong the books recently published by members.
|of our Society.
Besides the popular edition, there
is one on hand-made paper, limited to two hundred
copies. There is also an edition of thirty copies.
on Japanese vellum at five guineas nett.
Mr. John Davidson’s new book (Grant Richards)
entitled “The Rosary” is a miscellany of criticism,
fable and parable, and other utterances in verse
and prose. The Coronation Ode written for the
Daily Chronicle is in it, also “ An Helogue of the
Downs,” which appeared in the Anglo-Saxon.
Review,
THE AUTHOR.
“; We need only mention Mr. H. G. Wells’s
“Mankind in the Making” (Chapman and Hall),
which is attracting so much attention. It is
being largely bought and widely read. We are
sorry we cannot squeeze in even one extract from
it. Chapter X., “ Thought in the Modern State,”
has a particular interest for members of the Society
of Authors.
We note, among other books recently published
by members, Miss Beatrice Harraden’s “‘ Katharine
Frensham,” Mr. Stanley Weyman’s “The Long
Night,” Mr. Fred Whishaw’s “A Splendid
Impostor,” Mr. F. G. Aflalo’s “Fishes of Our
Seas,” Mr. Neil Munro’s “ Children of Tempest,”
the Hon. Maurice Baring’s ‘The Black Prince”
(a volume of plays in blank verse), Mr. Robert
Machray’s “ The Mystery of Lincoln’s Inn,” which
has been running in 7ii-Bits: Miss Iza Duffus
Hardy’s “ A Butterfly,” Major Arthur Griffiths’
“The Silver Spoon,” Mrs. Hugh Fraser’s “The
Stolen Emperor,” E. Phillips Oppenheim’s “The
Yellow Crayon,” and Mr. Sidney Pickering’s “The
Key of Paradise.”
Mr. Max Pemberton is writing a modern society
story for the Queen, rather a novel departure for
him. His play, “The Finishing School,” will, Mr.
Pemberton hopes, be produced by Mr. Frank
Curzon before the New Year.
A dramatic version of Mrs. Croker’s novel,
“Terence,” is being played in the United States
with great success by Chauncey Olcott, the well-
known “star.” The actor and critics are unanimous
in declaring the part of Terence to be the best and
most telling character Mr. Olcott has ever repre-
sented. The play is drawing enormous audiences,
and will be one of the chief attractions in New
York during the winter season. It will probably
be seen in London at a later date.
Mrs. Croker’s Indian novel, “Her Own People,”
which she completed last year, is to be published
immediately by Messrs. Hurst and Blackett.
“Man and Superman: A Comedy and a Philo-
sophy,” by Bernard Shaw (Constable), is another
volume by a prominent member of our Society
which is attracting much attention. “Some like
best the “ Epistle Dedicatory to Arthur Bingham
Walkley.” Some prefer the Comedy ; others have
much enjoyed the “ Revolutionists’ Handbook and
Pocket Companion by John Tanner, M.LR.C.
(Member of the Idle Rich Class).”
“* At Home’ Recitations” has been published
by Miss Ellen Collett, author of “ Play Time
Poems,” “ Flower Fancy,” and other lyrics.
The same author is producing a song cycle, which
‘will be sung by a well known vocalist early in 1904.
Miss Mary Carmichael is the composer.
Miss Jean Middlemass is publishing a novel
with Messrs. Digby, Long & Co., entitled “ Till
oT
Death us do Part,” which will be on the market
in the course of November.
A book by “ Officer,” entitled “Smith of the
Shamrock Guards,” has been published by Messrs.
Greening & Co., at the price of 2s. 6d. The book
is a drama, in a prologue and five acts, and is dedi-
cated by “ Officer” “to all those officers who, like
myself, abhor the disgraceful system of ‘ ragging,’”
Mr. J. C. Dick has published with Mr. Henry
Frowde an interesting book on the songs of Robert
Burns, with the melodies for which they were
written. Those who are lovers of old tunes will
have much to learn from the contents of the work.
/_On Thursday evening, October 8th, Mr. A. W. |
Pinero’s remarkable new drama, in four acts and
an epilogue, entitled “ Letty,” was produced by Mr,
Charles Frohman at the Duke of York’s Theatre.
Tt made a sensation. Miss Irene Vanbrugh ag
Letty Shell scored another great success; so also
did Mr. H. B. Irving in the part of Nevill Letch-
mere. /‘The whole cast is an admirable one.
——_-+—~>—-
PARIS NOTES.
—+—~@—+
NE of the strongest and most interesting of
() this season’s novels is undoubtedly “ Le
Maitre de la Mer,” by M. de Vogiié. The
portrait of the millionaire, Archibald Robinson,
who appears to be governing the whole commercial
world, is admirably drawn. The description of his
office in Paris reveals to us at once the man.
Everything in perfect order, and not a superfluous
piece of furniture or ornament. The most con-
spicuous object in the room is an enormous terres-
trial globe. The only pictures are three portraits
of Gordon, Livingstone, and Cecil Rhodes.
It is only in very rare cases that a French
author succeeds in depicting a typical Englishman
or American. M. de Vogiié has accomplished this
exceptional feat, for his American is a genuine one.
Mme. Fianona, too, a young widow who plays
an important réle in the story, is essentially English.
There are other characters in the book which have
evidently been drawn from life. There is a French
explorer, who, for political reasons, has to return
to his native country just as he has accomplished
the task which ought to have brought him the
highest honours.
Then, too, thereisan Englishman, whoat first seems
very familiar to us. “ Directeur d’un magazine ou
il développe ses idées originales, tantét il endoctrine
et stimule ses compatriotes, tantot il court le monde,
approchant tous les princes, tous les ministres ; il
les interroge, il leur en impose par sa liberté de
langage. II a été l’un des premiers instigateurs de
cet impérialisme qwil voulait pacifique, dont il
38
déplore et finit par absoudre les emportements
belliqueux. ‘Il est trés particulier,’ disent en
souriant les gens de sens rassis ; et leur pretention
est de ne pas compter avec ses idées, avec la petite
clientéle de ses fanatiques. Mais le mysticisme
pratique d’Hiram Jarvis a des prises profondes sur
les coeurs anglais; tel article de lui influence la
Cité, les Communes, la Cour, plus que ne veulent
en convenir ceux qui le suivent en le traitant
d’illuminé.”
The interest of the story is well sustained, and
the characters are all well studied and carefully
delineated, but the great charm of the book lies in
the setting forth in relief, as it were, the great
difference between the Anglo-Saxon and the Latin
race.
“Toute mon education,” says the American,
“m’a appris a tenir compte du fait, a en tirer le
meilleur parti pour me faire une vie plus large.
Toute la mienne,” replies the Frenchman, “m’a
instruit 4 mépriser le fait qui opprime lidée, a
mourier plutét que de forfairé.”” The key-note of
the whole book is in these few lines, and the author
then proceeds to explain the difference between the
two men. “Non,” he says, “ces deux hommes
ne pouvaient pas se comprendre. Sous la sphére
symbolique, objet de leurs ambitions et lieu de
leurs conflits, ils personnifiaient le duel tragique
de deux races, de deux mentalités. Tous deux
brilaient de conquérir ce globe, par des voies et
pour des fins différentes: l’un par son or, pour en
amasser d’avantage; Vautre par son épée, pour y
planter un drapeau et s’exalter aux anciens réves
de grandeur que lui rappelait cet embléme. Ie
Missionnaire poursuivait sa mission. ... Son
patriotisme ombrageux prétendait ignorer l’huma-
nité, la civilisation, et cet idéaliste prodigue ne
travaillait & son insu que pour elles. Le fils des
Vikings n’était pas moins sincere, pas moins
fidele au dur prosélytisme appris dans sa vieille
Bible, lorqu’il couvrait de ces grands mots son
besoin d’aventures fructueuses ; et il disait vrai:
comme le désintéressement de l’autre, son indus-
trieuse rapacité collaborait au perfectionnement de
ce globe, a la mystérieuse éclosion du futur ot tous
deux consumaient leurs énergies contraires.”
“La Vie Simple,” by C. Wagner, is an excellent
book. The author is a great believer in modern
progress, but he deplores the “ confusion de l’acces-
soire avec l’essentiel,” which is so common an error
in everyday life. He maintains that the wealthiest
man may be one of the simplest of individuals,
while beggars, parasites of all kinds, misers, effemi-
nate and ambitious men may be entirely devoid of
‘esprit de simplicité.” “ La livrée n’y fait rien,”
says M. Wagner, “il faut voir le coeur.... Un
homme est simple lorsque sa plus haute préoccupa-
tion consiste 4 vouloir étre ce qu’il doit étre. .
THE AUTHOR.
Aspirer a la vie simple, c’est proprement aspirer
remplir la plus haute destinée humaine. Tous les
mouvements de l’humanité vers plus de justice et.
plus de lumiére ont été en méme temps des mouve-
ments vers une vie plus simple. Jt la simplicité
antique, dans les arts, les mceurs, les idées, ne
garde pour nous son prix incomparable que parce
qu’elle est parvenue a donner un relief puissant &
quelques sentiments essentiels, a quelques vérités
permanentes.”
One of the finest chapters in the volume is
entitled ‘‘ La pensée simple.” The author is an
optimist, as the following lines will prove: ‘La
confiance fondamentale est le ressort mystérieux
qui met en mouvement tout ce qu'il y a de forces
en nous. Elle nous nourrit. C’est par elle que
Vhomme vit, bien plus que par le pain qu’il
mange. .. . L’histoire de l’humanité est celle
de l’invincible espérance. . . .1 Le pessimisme est
inhumain. ... Pour se permettre de trouver
mauvaise cette chose prodigieuse qui se nomme la
vie il faudrait en avoir vu le fond, et presque
avoir faite.”
“La Paix Latine” is the title of the latest book
by M. Gabriel Hanotaux. ‘“ L’Energie Francaise ”’
was the description of a tour through France and her
colonies, and this new volume is the account of a
journey farther afield. The author takes us from
Paris to Venice, and from thence to Barcelona,
Madrid, Cadiz, Oran, Tunis, Carthage, Palerma,
Syracuse, and Rome. M. Hanotaux appears to be
well up in the history, the foreign policy, and the
political economy of the various countries about.
which he writes. He is convinced that there must
be a Latin Renaissance, and, after pointing out the
great influence wielded by Italy, France, and Spain
in the past, he shows all that may be done in the
future by the “ Paix Latine.”
After Pierre Loti’s “ L’Inde ” we have “ Visions
de l’ Inde,” by M. Jules Bois. There is much that
is interesting in this volume, but it is more a series
of impressions than a detailed description of India.
‘“‘L’Année Fatale” is the title of the eighth
volume of M. Ollivier’s “ History of the Second
Empire.” It treats of the events of 1866, and shows
up the huge mistakes which were made, and which
led to the war of 1870. M. Ollivier has consulted
the letters and memoirs published on the subject
in Italy, Germany, and England, and has inter-
viewed many men who were in a position to know
all the political affairs of the times, so that this new
volume throws light on much that has hitherto
appeared mysterious.
La Fayette’s correspondence which contains his
“Lettres de Prison” and “ Lettres de |’Hxile”
(1791—1801) has been published, together with
an excellent biographical study written by M. Jules.
Thomas.
THE AUTHOR. 39
Among the most interesting articles in the recent
reviews are the following :—“ Les Origines du
Roman Balzacien,” by M. André le Breton, in the
Revue de Paris. “ En Pays Bouddhique,” by M.
André Chevrillon, in the Revwe des Deux Mondes.
In this review there is also an excellent transla-
tion of Mrs. Humphry Ward’s novel “ La fille de
Lady Rose.” In the Mercure de France there is
a most interesting article by Arthur Symons on
‘Casanova & Dux.” The Weekly Critical Review
is also publishing a very fine series of articles by
M. Rémy de Gourmont on “ La Littérature Anglaise
en France.” This review publishes, too, every
week an article by Arthur Symons, and French
readers appear to take the greatest interest in the
subjects treated by our celebrated English critic.
At the Francais Blanchette, by M. Brieux, has
been put on again. It is the story of a young
girl educated above her station in life. She finds
herself out of her element in her father’s home, and
goes away to seek her fortuneelsewhere. She finds
out her mistake, returns to her parents, and con-
sents to marry the man she had disdainfully refused
some time before. The play is slight but powerful,
and was as well received as when it was first
produced.
The Gymnase has put on an excellent piece in
five acts by MM. Gugenheim and Le Faure. Itis
entitled L’Epave, and takes us back to the days
which followed Waterloo.
Louis XVIII. reigns, and Napoleon’s faithful
soldiers are in disgrace. The piece opens with a
fete given by M. de Montenoi, one of the aides-de-
camp in great favour with the King. His wife,
Louise, is the daughter of General Faverney, one
of the most devoted of Napoleon’s soldiers. He is
supposed to be dead, as he was among the missing
after the fatal battle.
The Chevalier de Meyrargues, who had served
under General Faverney, asks Mme. de Montenoi
to meet him at a house kept by Fvareste Lemblin
at Reuilly, one of the suburbs of Paris. Lemblin
also has a café at the Palais Royal, which is a famous
meeting-place for the half-pay officers of the Grande
Armée. The police keep guard on this café, fearing
an insurrection against the King. In the second
act Mme. de Montenoi, closely veiled, arrives at
the house indicated by her father’s old friend. There
she learns that the General is not dead, and almost
immediately he appears on the scene and reproaches
his daughter bitterly for having married one of the
King’s minions. He proclaims to her his plan for
bringing about a Revolution, and Louise is tortured
between her love for her husband and her devotion
to her father.
In the third act we are introduced into the bureau
of Baron Chatelard, in the Palace of the Tuileries,
Chatelard is going through the papers belonging
to the detective service, and believes he has a
case against Meyrargues and Mme. de Montenoi.
Faverney, too, is there, and has taken the name of
Lieutenant Landrieux. The whole affair is most
complicated, and the situation extremely dramatic.
Another scene takes place at the Café Lemblin.
The chiefs of the conspiracy find that they have
been betrayed, and Faverney suspects Meyrargues.
The final scene is superb. The General is arrested,
he avenges himself on Chatelard, loses his reason,
and imagines himself on the battlefield just as the
military music announces the arrival of the King.
The piece will no doubt have great success in other
countries, as there is nothing from beginning to
end to which exception could be taken ; the situa-
tions are extremely dramatic, and the interest well
sustained. M. Calmettes and M. Dumeny are
excellent in their réles.
At the Opéra Comique Za Tosca has been
given, arranged as an opera in three acts by MM.
Illica and Giacosa, and translated into French by
M. Ferrier.
Atys HALLARD.
a ee a os
THE HANDICAP OF DISTANCE.
ee ee
HAVE been asked by the Editor to give the
readers of Zhe Author an idea of what are
the special difficulties that prevent writers
at the other side of the world from obtaining a
hearing in England.
All these difficulties can be traced to one
source, the six weeks’ distance that divides them
from the market to which they desire to send their
wares.
Of recent years a great many articles and even
some books have appeared, purporting to teach the
youthful writer how he is to open the editorial
oyster-shell. The advice given is on the whole
sound and excellent, only much of it is quite
inapplicable here. For instance, a favourite maxim
common to all such literary mentors runs some-
thing like this: ‘‘Don’t be disheartened, keep
sending your manuscript to one magazine after
another.” One cheerful writer, speaking from his
own experience, thinks that till an article has been
declined by at least forty editors it would be pre-
mature to throw it aside as wholly unsuitable. He
_ gives instances of articles of his own which had
been finally accepted after as many as twenty-six
and thirty-seven postal journeys. How would
that work out for the colonial writer? A manu-
script cannot possibly make its trip to England and
back under an average of thirteen weeks, that
would make four journeys in a year. It would
take six and a half years to try twenty-six editors,
40
and ten years to reach the limit of forty. How
many magazine articles would retain their fresh-
ness all that time ? how many would be lost in
transit ? and what a Fortunatus’ purse would be
needed for postage! All the ordinary obstacles
that meet the young English writer, little disagree-
ments about payment, the loss of manuscripts, and,
more serious and more common than all, the logs of
photos, are multiplied tenfold by distance. As in
Newton’s law, the personal importance of a con-
tributor to an editor certainly varies inversely as
the square of the distance which separates them.
Then editors are human: they can get so much on
the spot that they think twice before accepting an
article if it has to be returned to Australia for any
trifling alteration or abridgment. They hesitate
still longer before they give an order for work to
be executed so far away. I for one hardly blame
them, though when I see the superficial work,
studded with inaccuracies of fact and quite un-
Australian in spirit, which passes current for
Australian news in the daily press and in magazines,
I feel that English readers as well as Australian
writers suffer from a great deal of mutual misunder-
standing.
If an editor should desire to make enquiry as to
the Lona fides of anew contributor, he very often
does not know how to go about it, and prefers to
take no risks. An instance of this puzzle-headed-
ness of the average English editor was made
public some time ago. When the bubonic plague
first broke out in the Australian ports, a young
man, a journalist, who happened to be going to
England shortly afterwards, wrote a sketch on the
methods pursued to extirpate infected rats, of
which he had been a witness here. The sketch
may have been a poor one, but two at least of the
various London editors who refused it gave definite
reasons of another sort. One said that he had not
heard that plague had seriously attacked Australian
cities, and in any case he did not see that the subject
particularly coneerned readers in London. London!
the greatest port in the world! he last to whom
it was offered before being torn up, remarked that
he no more believed in the bubonic plague rat than
in the delirium tremens snake. An enquiry at the
docks or at the School of Tropical Medicine might
have enlightened him. “Ah! but,” says some
one, “think of De Rougemont.” I do think of
De Rougemont, and would reply to my critic that
in his case it was just because some one did not
know where to enquire or did not trouble to enquire
that his huge canards were let locse on England.
The first task is to get your manuscript inserted.
That accomplished, in matter of payment the
colonial author is at the mercy of his editor to a
degree of which the English resident can have no
conception. An editor or proprietor can pay
THE AUTHOR.
anything he likes, he can pay nothing, and except
to members of the Authors’ Society there is no
practicable remedy. These two difficulties sur-
mounted, there remains the third, the greatest
of all, though it will probably strike some of you
in quite a comical light : To see his own article in
print. With contributions published in newspapers,
the odds are even if he ever does. But what
matter, I hear it suggested, to any one past the
stage of the youthful and trembling aspirant.
This matter, that not only is the difficulty of
obtaining fair remuneration thereby complicated,
but in newspaper work all the practical educative
effect of seeing where the editorial blue pencil may
have been used is lost, of noting what in the
editorial eye—that is, in the last resort, in the
English public eye—are the telling points in his
article or his story. Again, unless he belongs to a
press-cutting agency, and few young writers can
afford that luxury, he misses many opportunities
of seeing letters, literary notices and other criticisms
upon his work or his opinions, Is all this no loss ?
One last pin-prick is inflicted by the Australian
postal system. Not only is the normal rate of
postage to and from England on both letters and
manuscripts heavy, but English correspondents do
not realise this, and the amount of mail matter
that weekly reaches Australia with deficient postage
is incredible. The “more to pay” may be any-
thing from 1d. to 5s. or more. The errors made
are two. Letters are sent at English inland rate,
both as to weight and amount. Manuscripts and
photos are sent closed up, or letters are enclosed in
open manuscripts, the whole perhaps weighing
several ounces, to be surcharged on delivery at
double letter rate, or 5d. per half-ounce.
It is clear then that a writer resident in
Australia cannot carry out the maxim to look after
his own affairs. He must entrust his manuscripts to
another. Someworry their friends, but that can only
be done occasionally. There remains the literary
agent, as to whose ability and disinterestedness
opinions vary. Buta trustworthy agent who would
make a speciality of Australian work and advertise
the fact in Australian newspapers, giving proper
references, would find no lack of clients. There is
one thing the literary agent cannot do for another,
and that is, make the slight but often important
alterations in phrasing, that render an article
attractive in a particular quarter. But if he did
everything short of that the Australian writer
would be in a less disheartening position than he
generally occupies to-day.
If the desirable literary agent with an Australian
connection is going to materialise shortly, he will
be by so much the more useful if he has relations
with New York. The best class of American
editors, with due respect to English editors, pay
THE AUTHOR. 4}
their contributors much higher rates than prevail
in England, and are scrupulously punctual, prompt
and business-like in their dealings.
Atick HENRY.
Melbourne, Australia.
——_—_—_———_+—<—___—
REALISM IN FICTION.
UST as there are preternaturally respectable
self-elected custodians of public morality who
would ruthlessly destroy undraped statues,
and consign to the flames every picture in which
the nude figure appears, so there are other kin-
dred spirits who would have each book faithfully
descriptive of life’s seamy side burnt by the com-
mon hangman and its author branded as an outlaw
withont benefit of sanctuary.
If the world were an earthly Paradise, men and
women angels deprived of wings, no necessity for
thinkers to treat of subjects other than the most
idyllic would arise. But the merest tyro emanci-
pated from paternal tutelage is brought face to
face with problems calculated to induce grave
reflection, though he may not find it expedient
to discuss them in “‘ polite society,” as soon as he
knocks unbefriended at the gloomy portal of life.
Were the least communicative citizen of the
world in Christendom to describe a portion only
of what he has seen with his own eyes and heard
with his own ears, he would be in a position to
publish a volume infinitely more shocking than
any effort in the realms of fiction ; for the wildest
flights of a novelist’s imagination would collapse
before the sombre actualities of human depravity
perpetrated without cessation in countries which it
is our graceful method to label Christian.
It must be remembered that authors do not
‘manufacture their records in order to convince the
irresponsible. The hoyden’s giggle, the hobblede-
hoy’s guffaw, the prude’s snort, and the prig’s
scowl, they, as a rule, completely ignore in their
mental calculations. There are passages in Shake-
speare, nay, in Holy Writ itself, whose repetition
provokes only insensate manifestations from
listeners of such mould.
The machinery of the brain once set in motion
cannot be retarded or stopped out of consideration
for the susceptibilities of a class intellectually too
microscopic for the author’s eye to perceive.
Realism in fiction! And why not ? To advocate
evil, to deck it with perfumed garments and price-
less gems, to make it alluring and seductive is one
affair—the affair of the minor poet.
To expose its horrors, to foreshadow retribution
inevitably attendant upon its heels, to strip it naked,
to lay bare its festering sores so that spectators
shudder, inwardly resolving to avoid the delusive
phantasm at all costs—surely this partakes rather
of the nature of a great moral lesson than of a
wanton invitation.
Descending to a rather lower level of argument,
the writer of this slight plea of justification for the
existence of realism in fiction directs attention to
the obvious inconsistency of those who oppose it
on a basis of public morality ; seeing that, while
reporters are permitted to enlarge at their own
discretion (subject to editorial sanction) upon
loathsome criminal and divorce evidence, it is
both unjust and unreasonable to forbid novelists
to exercise their pens upon matter incomparably
less crudely offensive.
Let guardians of universal purity, who would
blush to be caught perusing realistic novels, explain
why, not infrequently, they flock to the Law Courts
during the hearing of cases of particularly obscene
or atrocious sensationalism.
Let them account for the presence of English-
women at these ghastly lecal entertainments, if
the sensibilities of the feminine gender are indeed
and in very truth so ultra-refined that they must
needs be protected from literary moral contagion.
Now a writer never obliges anybody to purchase
his alleged outrages upon public decorum. How-
ever pernicious his wares may be stigmatised by
his enemies, they must be sought by those desiring
to become familiar with their contents. Disap-
proval of them would be, surely, more effectually
expressed by withholding assistance to their sale, a
course of action decidedly simpler than that of an
enactment of bell-men’s vé/e, and a free advertise-
ment for the very works they profess to abhor.
Those wretched raids made by the police from
time to time upon booksellers retailing reprints of
Aristotle and unexpurgated editions of volumes
never intended by their creators to be handled by
any save intelligently appreciative students—under
which head disgusting small boys and sly kitchen
wenches emphatically do not come—strike the
present writer as being egregiously illogical, inas-
much as they tickle curiosity concerning knowledge
it is their presumed motive to suppress.
When the history of current literature arrives at
something approaching elaborated form, two men,
both of them grim, frank, inflexible realists, will
be distinguished as stars of the first intellectual
magnitude amid a whole constellation of dim and
shadowy contemporaries—Zola and Tolstoi. The
first lived to be honoured in the capital—London
—where he had been venomously attacked and his
publisher prosecuted.
Passing phases, either of acclamation or oppro-
brium, leave about as much trace behind as the
wind, of which, indeed, they mainly consist.
42
Authors who conscientiously believe in holding
up the mirror to life may boast the advocacy of
no less stern a moralist than the redoubtable
r. Johnson.
e “ Books,” said he, “ without the knowledge of life
are useless, for what should books teach but the art
of living?”
eatin, pretence, mock-modesty, and hum-
bug, both in literature and life, no doubt prevailed
in his day as they prevail in a far more aggravated
form in our own. :
In confirmation of Dr. Johnson’s dictum, we
observe Schopenhauer declaring in his “ Essay on
Education”: “The most, necessary thing for the
practical man is the attainment of an exact and
thorough knowledge of what is really going on in
the world. .. . In getting such a knowledge of the
world, it is as a novice that the boy and youth
have the first and most difficult lessons to learn ;
but frequently even the matured man has still
much to learn. The study is of considerable diffi-
culty in itself, but is made doubly difficult by
novels, which depict the ways of the world and
of men who do not exist in real life. But these
are accepted with the credulity of youth, and
become incorporated with the mind ; so that now,
in the place of purely negative ignorance, a whole
framework of wrong ideas, which are positively
wrong, crops up, subsequently confusing the school-
ing of experience and representing the lesson it
teaches in a false light. If the youth was pre-
viously in the dark, he will now be led astray by
a will-o’-the-wisp ; and with a girl this is still more
frequently the case.
“ They have been deluded into an absolutely false
view of life by reading novels, and expectations
have been raised that can never be fulfilled. This
generally has the most harmful effect on their
whole lives.”
Let antagonists of realism in fiction swallow the
above excerpt from the conclusions of a man pro-
found in reflection and clear in articulation, and,
as the morsel digests, consider whether, after all,
it is so laudable an undertaking to inculcate in
books, lessons hereafter to be disproved by experi-
ence ; to hoodwink innocence and impose upon
ignorance. ;
In the interests of commonsense, let them medi-
tate upon the absurdity of execrating realism in
fiction so long as newspaper editors and pro-
prietors are free to sell, like hot rolls, editions
detailing infamous cases, and popular fancy rapa-
ciously seizes upon such putrid messes of realism
in life.
In an age when no man’s private affairs are
respected by the skulking spies of an advanced
press, and a gallant soldier may be driven to
death by their hateful interference, it is but
THE AUTHOR.
childish work to assume pious horror at the un-
conventional honesty of certain writers.
Considerations of cant apart, the ruling of a
character so unimpeachable as was that of Dr.
Johnson, ‘Books without the knowledge of life
are useless ; for what should books teach but the
art of living?” must carry weight with open-
minded adjudicators upon the question before us.
Meanwhile the position of those individuals who
would insist on compelling novelists to pen glorified
halfpenny novelettes for the delectation of senti-
mental servant girls ; or preposterous “‘ romances ”
to glut the appetites of mental striplings; or
fatuous “revelations” of a “high life,” to which
their exponents have never by any chance been
admitted, for the special and particular enlighten-
ment of a worthy social substratum professing a
righteous spirit of austerity towards everybody and
everything pertaining to the “ upper ten,” yet per-
versely delighting in nothing better than in feast-
ing upon its imaginary sayings, doings, manners,
and habits—all of which delude their unsophisti-
cated readers into “an absolutely false view of
life ”—is identical with that of the cranky bigots
who scream when they behold a classical or mytho-
logical picture, and avert their eyes at the un-
abashed apparition of a piece of Grecian sculpture.
L. Haruinerorp Norra.
ig
MAGAZINE CONTENTS.
ges
BLACKWOOD’s MAGAZINE.
An article on Russia and Japan.
Reviews—
Mr. Morley’s Life of Gladstone.
Mr. Whibley’s monograph on Thackeray.
Mr. Henry James’ biography of William Wetmore Story,
The War in the West. By Martini.
An article on the Fiscal Question.
The first instalment of a story by Hugh Clifford, ‘ Sally :
A Study.”
Musings without Method.
A Perilous Ride. By Pilgrim.
THE CORNHILL MAGAZINE,
Good Living. By Laurence Housman,
The Fond Adventure. Part I. By Maurice Hewlett.
Blackstick Papers, No. 7. By Mrs. Richmond Ritchie.
In Guipuzeoa, III. By Mrs. Woods.
A Son of Empire. By Hamilton Drummond,
The Queen’s Brooch: A Postscript. By Sarah Sisson.
Chateaubriand and his English Neighbours. By the Rev.
D. Wallace Duthie.
A Rodeo in Southern California.
Vachell.
Mark Macintosh’s Lyrical Monologue.
“Cock.” By F. 8.
Provincial Letters.
By Urbanus Sylvan.
Midnight in Cloudland: An Experiment. By the Rev.
John M. Bacon.
By Horace Annesley
Made at the
XIII.—A House in Hertfordshire.
‘
THE AUTHOR.
The Sorrows of Mrs. Charlotte Smith. By Viscount St.
Cyres. :
The Countess and the Frying-pan. By M. E. Francis.
FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW.
Pinchbeck Protection. By Autonomos.
Mr. Chamberlain : The Protagonist and the Future. By
Calchas,
Economic Prejudice against Fiscal Reform. By L. L.
Price.
The Political Poetry of Mr. William Watson. By G. K.
Chesterton,
The Alfieri Centenary. By Count Rusconi.
Tribe and Family. By Andrew Lang.
The Alaskan Boundary. (Some opinions of those who
cross it.) By Elizabeth Robins.
The Education Act in the New Parliament.
Macnamara, M.P.
An Old-World Governess. By D. W. Rannie.
The Austro-Hungarian Deadlock. By Maurice Geroth-
wohl,
Thackeray as a Reader and Critic of Books.
Melville.
The Question of Korea. By Alfred Stead.
Behind the Scenes of Scottish Politics,
Wallace, LL.D.
The Woman at the Crossways.
Lalla Radha and the Churel.
By T. J.
By Lewis
By William
By Fiona Macleod.
By Laurence Hope.
Theophano: The Crusade of the Tenth Century
(Chapters iii., iv. and v.). By Frederic Harrison.
Correspondence. By Ernest Marriott. (EK. A. Poe and
Dr. Russel Wallace.)
LONGMAN’S MAGAZINE.
Nature’s Comedian (Chapters ix., x.). By W. E. Norris,
The Nemesis of Froude. By A. L.
First o’ May. By Ben Bolt.
Young Russian and Young Englishman.
Clayton.
The Fairy Pipers. By Duncan J. Robertson.
Old-fashioned Accomplishments. By Clementina Black.
The Justice of the Mountains. By Frances MacNab.
Canada in the Sixties—III. By Paul Fountain.
On a Cuban Ingenio. By Naranja Amarga.
The Disenchanted Squirrel. By Netta Syrett.
At the Sign of the Ship. By Andrew Lang.
By N. W.
THE PALL MALL MAGAZINE,
Master Workers——VIII. The Rt. Hon. J oseph Chamber-
lain, M.P. By Harold Begbie.
Joseph Chamberlain: The Orator and Debater. By Spencer
Leigh Hughes.
Autumn near London. By William Hyde.
Porlick’s Theory: A Complete Story. By Mayne Lindsay,
Real Conversations.— VII. With Mr. Sidney Lee.
By William Archer.
The Wish. By Marie Van Vorst.
Sand-Daisy: A Story. By Eden Phillpotts,
Recollections of the Chatsworth Theatricals.
Trevor.
The Wild Dream of Morris Ellison: A Story. By Frederick
Wedmore.
My First Stag—and Some Others.
Karr, M.P.
The Queen’s Quair: Book II. (Chapters i., ii.). By Maurice
Hewlett.
The Rhymer: A Poem. By H. D. Lowry.
In the Cause of Science: A Story. By Gerald Maxwell.
Say, But a Kiss: A Poem, By G. A.J. Cole.
Literary Geography: The English Lakes, II. By William
Sharp.
By Leo
By Sir Henry Seton-
43
Edmund Rostand. By Felicien Pascal.
James Abbott McNeill Whistler, By Wilfrid Meynell.
The Palace of Sleep : A Poem, By Maria 8. Steuart.
The Vineyard (Chapters xiv., xv.). By John Oliver Hobbes
(Mrs. Craigie).
The Round Table: The Stone Age.
Watson.
Over the Sea: A Poem.
By H. B. Marriott-
By Charles Marriott,
THE WORLD’s Work.
The Right Hon. Earl Spencer, K.G. (Special Portrait.)
The March of Events. (With-full page Portraits of the
Right Hon. Alfred Lyttelton, K.C., M.P., and the Right
Hon. H. 0. Arnold-Forster, M.P.)
The Month in Polities, By the Editor.
Peace or War in the Far East ? By the Editor.
The Hope of Temperance Reform, 3y the Editor.
Mr. Chamberlain’s Case and its Answer.
Alaska and its Prospects, By William R. Stewart.
(Ilustrated.)
Railway Motor Cars. By H. G. Archer.
Municipal Milk. By C. Ww. Saleeby, M.B.
The Day’s Work of a Ship’s Captain, (ustrated.)
Preparing an Atlantic Liner for Sea. (illustrated.)
The Worm Disease among Miners. By J. Court, L.R.C.P.
Making a Protective Tariff, By Chalmers Roberts,
Life in the Zoo. By R. I. Pocock. Cillustrated.)
Cold Storage and Ice Making. By R. M. Leonard,
(llustrated.)
The Scottish Granite Industry,
Cillustrated.)
The Art of Memory. By Eustace Miles.
The Work of a Lady Health Lecturer.
took.
A Daily Newspaper for Madame.
Gladstone the Worker.
The New Poultry Movement.
Cillustrated.)
The Story of Irish Lace. 3y E. M. Leahy. Clustrated.)
The Books of the Month. (With Portraits of Mr. Richard
Whiteing, Mrs. Fuller Maitland, Mr. Cutcliffe Hyne, Mr.
H. G. Wells.)
The World of Women’s Work.
Among the World’s Workers,
(Ulustrated.)
(Illustrated.)
By William Diack,
By Clarence
By Alfred Harmsworth.
By Home Counties,
TO —
TRADE NOTES.
ae
The Primrose Press.
“The Primrose Press,” we understand, is the
name of a new publishing house which is being
started under the management of Mr. Allen Upward
and Mr. L. Cranmer Byng.
J. C. Nimmo, Ltd,
The first meeting of the creditors and contribu-
tories under the winding-up order made against
John C. Nimmo, Limited, was held on Oct. 9th
at the offices of the Board of Trade, in Companies
Winding-up, Carey Street, Lincoln’s Inn.—Mr.
Winearls, Assistant Receiver, read his report.—
The Official Receiver was appointed liquidator to
wind up the company.
44
WARNINGS TO THE PRODUCERS
OF BOOKS.
—+——+ —
ERE are a few standing rules to be observed in an
agreement. There are four methods of dealing
with literary property :—
I. Selling it Outright.
This is sometimes satisfactory, if a proper price can be
obtained, But the transaction should be managed by a
competent agent, or with the advice of the Secretary of
the Society.
Il. A Profit-Sharing Agreement (a bad form of
agreement).
In this case the following rules should be attended to:
(1.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro-
duction forms a part without the strictest investigation.
(2.) Not to give the publisher the power of putting the
profits into his own pocket by charging for advertisements
in his own organs, or by charging exchange advertise-
ments. Therefore keep control of the advertisements.
(8.) Not to allow a special charge for ‘office expenses,”
unless the same allowance is made to the author.
(4.) Not to give up American, Colonial, or Continental
rights.
(5.) Not to give up serial or translation rights. :
(6.) Not to bind yourself for future work to any publisher.
As well bind yourself for the future to any one solicitor or
doctor !
III. The Royalty System.
This is perhaps, with certain limitations, the best form
of agreement. It is above all things necessary to know
what the proposed royalty means to both sides. It is now
possible for an author to ascertain approximately the
truth. From time to time very important figures connected
with royalties are published in Zhe Author.
IV. A Commission Agreement.
The main points are :—
(1.) Be careful to obtain a fair cost of production.
(2.) Keep control of the advertisements.
(3.) Keep control of the sale price of the book.
General.
All other forms of agreement are combinations of the four
above mentioned.
Such combinations are generally disastrous to the author,
Never sign any agreement without competent advice from
the Secretary of the Society.
Stamp all agreements with the Inland Revenue stamp.
Avoid agreements by letter if possible.
The main points which the Society has always demanded
from the outset are :—
(1.) That both sides shall know what an agreement
means.
(2.) The inspection of those account books which belong
to the author. We are advised that this is a right, in the
nature of a common law right, which cannot be denied or
withheld.
(3.) Always avoid a transfer of copyright.
0 a 8
WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS.
Seige Sang ee
EVER sign an agreement without submitting it to the
Secretary of the Society of Authors or some com-
petent legal authority.
2. It is well to be extremely careful in negotiating for
the production of a play with anyone except an established
manager.
THE AUTHOR.
8. There are three forms of dramatic contract for plays
in three or more acts :—
(a.) Sale outright of the performing right. This
is unsatisfactory. An author who enters into
such a contract should stipulate in the contract
for production of the piece by a certain date
and for proper publication of his name on the
play-bills,
(b.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to
perform on the basis of percentages on
gross receipts. Percentages vary between 5
and 15 per cent. An author should obtain a
percentage on the sliding scale of gross receipts
in preference to the American system. Should
obtain a sum in advance of percentages. A fixed
date on or before which the play should be
performed.
(c.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to
perform on the basis of royalties (7.¢.. fixed
nightly fees). This method should be always
avoided except in cases where the fees are
likely to be small or difficult to collect. The
other safeguards set out under heading (0.) apply
also in this case.
4, Plays in one act are often sold outright, but it is
better to obtain a small nightly fee if possible, and a sum
paid in advance of such fees in any event. It is extremely
important that the amateur rights of one-act plays should
be reserved.
5. Authors should remember that performing rights can
be limited, and are usually limited, by town, country, and
time. This is most important.
6. Authors should not assign performing rights, but
should grant a licence to perform. The legal distinction is
of great importance.
7. Authors should remember that performing rights in a
play are distinct from literary copyright. A manager
holding the performing right or licence to perform cannot
print the book of the words.
8. Never forget that United States rights may be exceed-
ingly valuable. ‘They should never be included in English
agreements without the author obtaining a substantial
consideration.
9. Agreements for collaboration should be carefully
drawn and executed before collaboration is commenced.
10. An‘ author should remember that production of a play
is highly speculative: that he runs a very great risk of
delay and a breakdown in the fulfilment of his contract.
He should therefore guard himself all the more carefully in
the beginning.
11. An author must remember that the dramatic market
is exceedingly limited, and that for a novice the first object
is to obtain adequate publication.
As these warnings must necessarily be incomplete, on
account of the wide range of the subject of dramatic con-
tracts, those authors desirous of further information
are referred to the Secretary of the Society.
—_—_—+ <> —___—_—__
WARNINGS TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.
—
ITTLE can be added to the warnings given for the
assistance of producers of books and dramatic
authors. It must, however, be pointed out that, as.
a rule, the musical publisher demands from the musical
composer a transfer of fuller rights and less liberal finan-
cial terms than those obtained for literary and dramatic
property. The musical composer has very often the two
rights to deal with—performing right and copyright. He
THE AUTHOR.
should be especially careful therefore when entering into
an agreement, and should take into particular consideration
the warnings stated above.
Oa
HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.
oe
i. VERY member has a right toask for and to receive
K advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-
lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his
business or the administration of his property. The
Secretary of the Society is a solicitor, but if there is any
special reason the Secretary will refer the case to the
Solicitors of the Societv. Further, the Committee, if they
deem it desirable, will obtain counsel’s opinion. All this
without any cost to the member.
2. Remember that questions connected with copyright
and publishers’ agreements do not fall within the experi-
ence of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use
the Society.
3. Send to the Office copies of past agreements and past
accounts, with a copy of the book represented. The
Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new
or old, for inspection and note. The information thus
obtained may prove invaluable.
4. Before signing any agreement whatever, send
the document to the Society for examination.
5. Remember always that in belonging to the Society
you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you
are reaping uo benefit to yourself, and that you are
advancing the best interests of your calling in promoting
the independence of the writer, the dramatist, the composer.
6. The Committee have now arranged for the reception
of members’ agreements and their preservation in a fire-
proof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as
confidential documents to be read only by the Secretary,
who will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers:
—(1) To read and advise upon agreements and to give
advice concerning publishers. (2) To stamp agreements
in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep
agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to
agreements, Fuller particulars of the Society’s work
can be obtained in the Prospectus.
7. No contract should be entered into with a literary
agent without the advice of the Secretary of the Society.
Members are strongly advised not to accept without careful
consideration the contracts with publishers submitted to
them by literary agents, and are recommended to submit
them for interpretation and explanation to the Secretary
of the Society.
8. Many agents neglect to stamp agreements. This
must be done within fourteen days of first execution. The
Secretary will undertake it on behalf of members,
9. Some agents endeavour to prevent authors from
referring matters to the Secretary of the Society ; so
do some publishers. Members can make their own
deductions and act accordingly.
10. The subscription to the Society is £4 1s." per
annum., or £10 10s. for life membership.
45
THE READING BRANCH.
—+—~
EMBERS will greatly assist the Society in this
N branch of its work by informing young writers
of its existence. Their MSS. can be read and
treated as a composition is treated by a coach. ‘The term
MSS. includes not only works of fiction, but poetry
and dramatic works, and when it is possible, under
Special arrangement, technical and scientific works. The
Readers are writers of competence and experience. The
fee is one guinea,
—>— +
NOTICES.
—_1~>+__
HE Editor of Zhe Author begs to remind members of
the Society that, although the paper is sent to them
free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a
very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great
many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest
5s. 6d. subscription for the year.
Communications for Ze Author should be addressed to
the Offices of the Society, 39, Old Queen Street, Storey’s
Gate, S.W., and should reach the Editor not later than
the 21st of each month.
All persons engaged in literary work of any kind,
whether members of the Society or not, are invited to
communicate to the Editor any points connected with their
work which it would be advisable in the general interest to
publish.
Oo
Communications and letters are invited by the
Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on
no other subjects whatever. Every effort will be made to
return articles which cannot be accepted.
—_+~>—+—_.
The Secretary of the Society begs to give notice
that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post,
and he requests members who do not receive an
answer to important communications within two days to
write to him without delay. All remittances should be
crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery Lane, or be sent
by registered letter only.
AUTHORITIES.
oe
We are glad to print under “ Literary, Dramatic,
and Musical Property,” a letter from the firm of
Messrs. Methuen & Co., explaining their position
in the matter of the Dumas Translations.
We have seen the correspondence referred to in
that letter. The firm seem to have dealt with
the question promptly and vigorously. We give
publicity to this letter with the more pleasure as
our opinian of the transactions of this firm and its
bearing towards authors has in the past always
been favourable.
It should, however, be remembered that publishers
must bear the responsibility for arrangements made
46
in their name and under their authority. — It is
their duty to guard their reputation from criticism
by making sufficient stipulations with those whom
hey employ.
We aes tad letters from other authors touching
this same question. The need for farther criticism
is at an end, but it may be interesting to state a
few facts concerning the price that ordinary trans-
lation work will obtain in the market. ;
As a rule, the pay is by no means lavish. In
consequence, many translations are done in a hurried
fashion and in an unsatisfactory manner. The
remuneration given varies between 10s. and 5s. per
thousand words. Sometimes for special technical
work or translations of special difficulty, even a
higher figure is received, but the mean may be
taken at 7s. 6d. A well-known firm always pays
9s. In consequence, its translations are done with
care, and gain a corresponding reputation in the
book market.
We print below an article dealing with the
United States Market. The subject must be
one of great importance to all British authors,
and the experience of members of the Society
would be interesting reading. We shall be much
obliged if those authors who have been in the
habit of obtaining these rights, would forward
some facts for the advantage of the other members
of the profession.
It is with much pleasure that we chronicle at
the same time a marked difference that has
occurred in the forms and terms of agreement
of some of the best known publishing houses
during the last three or four years, in spite of the
draft agreements issued by the Association to which
these firms belong. In one case, for the first time,
we have seen the publisher accept as one of the
terms of the contract a clause undertaking to
“gecure the American Copyright on behalf of the
authors, and further, if the book was finally placed
onthe United States Market through his (the Pub-
lisher’s) agency, agreeing to accept as his share of
the result merely the agency fee, 10 per cent.
This is indeed an advance, as prior to this, the
lowest commission charged was 25 per cent., and
many have asked for half profits for negotiating
the United States Market. Our exultation was
somewhat marred a week later by an agreement
with the same firm asking for 333 per cent.
THosE members of the Society who care to have
a photographic reproduction of the Memorial to Sir
Walter Besant will be able to obtain the same from
the Autotype Company, 74, New Oxford Street, W.,
at the price of 10s. 6d. each.
THE AUTHOR.
OBITUARY NOTICE.
——1—~ + —
T is our sad duty to chronicle the death of one
of the most distinguished members of the
Society and a member of the Council. Pro-
fessor W. E. H. Lecky died on Thursday,
October 22nd. He was a distinguished scholar, a
thoughtful philosopher, but above all a laborious
and impartial historian. His “ History of Euro-
pean Morals” brought him the well deserved praise
of all intelligent and serious students ; and his fame
as a writer was further enhanced by his monu-
mental work on the “Highteenth Century of
English History.” Every subject he took under
his consideration he treated in a broad spirit, from
the standpoint of the upright judge unswept by
party passion and class bias.
As a historian, and litterateur, his death must be
a sad loss to all those members of the Society who
are sincerely interested in the fellowship of the
profession.
But not on his position as an author alone does
his claim to fame rest ; he was a Member of Par-
liament for the University of Dublin, and in 1897
was elected a Privy Councillor.
From his position as Member of the House of
Commons he used his best endeavours to bring
forward a bill for amending and consolidating the
law of copyright.
Finally, he obtained the fullest public recognition
of his work when he was appointed one of the
original members of that most exclusive order—
The Order of Merit.
—_—_—
ENGLISH AUTHORS AND THE UNITED
STATES RIGHTS.
———>+
HE wider the Copyright Protection the larger
a nation’s literature. Before there was any
copyright for British authors in the States
or for United States authors outside their political
combination the works of the former in pirated
form were printed and read everywhere, while
authors—citizens of the United States—save with
afew striking exceptions, did not exist ; and the
United States literature was a tree of stunted
growth.
The United States publishers, owing to an
honourable understanding among themselves that
if one firm reproduced a British author no other
firm should interfere with his profits, found that
piracy paid, and the would-be United States authors
found that the remuneration of literature did not
suffice to purchase the bare necessaries of life. In
fact the almighty dollar was the moving factor
THE AUTHOR.
to the gain of the one side and the loss of the
other. What then was the cause of revolution,
of the change in policy from this restrictive pro-
tection and limitation ?—again the dollar.
Some keener sighted Yankee watching the
market saw his opportunity, and by a process of
underselling disturbed the family party, till pro-
fits were cut down to nothing, and the trade
generally began to realise that piracy at first so
profitable was now a failure. Then came about
that combination of author and publisher which,
backed by the capital of the latter, was able by a
stubborn political contest to bring about that
alteration in the United States Copyright Law
which gave the right of protection under restric-
tions to the work of foreigners.
This commercial transaction was covered with
the beautiful cloak of upright dealing to the
foreigner. But whatever the alleged motive—and
there were many put forward—the publisher could
now again produce the work of the. foreigner at a
profit, and he proceeded to do so.
Owing to previous piracy the author who had
not the unbounded felicity of being a citizen of
the United States had for many years held the
literary market, and to him the United States
tradesman naturally turned in the first instance.
British authors accordingly found that they now
had a double market, from each of which they
could obtain their deserved profit, and the trade
evolved itself along customary lines and under
natural laws.
By degrees, however, the United States authors
found that this alteration from the protective
copyright of former days to the freer trade of a
broader law raised their efforts in the wage
market. They could now obtain a fair return for
their work. They were not undersold by the pirated
brain work of the foreigner, but they were struggling
in equal competition with other nations, and a
good work had an equal chance in the United
States as in the British Empire and among
European nations. Many accordingly began to
write in earnest for a livelihood where formerly a
few had written for love. Gradually, and as a
natural sequence, the publisher awoke to this
fact. He found the United States author was
more easily dealt with than his brother across the
Atlantic—he knew less of the value of literary
property—that the delay in correspondence was
less, and that the United States public had a
natural leaning towards those who described in
feeling terms their own patriotic ideals, or lashed
unfeelingly their own patriotic vices.
Accordingly where one name was known in
literature in a few years there were ten, and the
foreigner appeared to be losing ground. For this
latter fact there was another cause. Hitherto the
47
United States publishers had been looking to the
British author and had been competing for the
purchase of his wares, deeming them the best to
supply the market, now they looked to the United
States. The British author failed to grasp the fact.
It is necessary therefore—to use some oft-
quoted words—that he should “wake up.” He
does not want to write better stuff; it is only
given to the few to be “among the gods.” But
he does want to see that his wares are better
marketed as far as the United States is concerned.
For this purpose it is essential to lay bare a few
faults and suggest a few remedies. Sir Walter
Besant has often pointed out that it is in no way
derogatory to a writer to obtain the best market
for his wares. Nor need this latter point in any
way detract from his artistic effort.
There are two ways in which authors can deal
with the United States market. (1) Direct, (2)
Through an agent.
As the first method is most important it is
necessary to consider the means an author should
employ in order to obtain an opening.
It is feared that some authors have allowed
matters to glide along too smoothly and prefer to:
lose the market by leaving the matter in the hands
of the middleman—the publisher or the literary
agent—rather than bestir themselves. It is
essential that an author should at once grasp the
fact that the United States market is of consider-.
able value, is worth a struggle to obtain, and
when obtained is worth holding ; that the United
States magazines pay for serial use, in many cases.
larger sums than the English magazines ; that the.
United States book market is almost as equally pro-
ductive, from a financial point of view, asthe English..
There are those authors who, cursed with the
artistic temperament, and full of the loathing for:
all business transactions, are unable to carry:
through their®own negotiations _ satisfactorily.
For these an agent is necessary. But for those—
and there are not a few—who are blessed with
cool business heads, the best method of dealing
with these rights is by going direct to the United
States publisher or United States editor. As.
there must be some delay in the correspondence,
even when the publisher or editor has an office in,
London, the author should take care to begin
early in trying to place his work—some time before-
he commences to try and place the book in
England. Instead of leaving these negotiations. .
to the last minute, as is the common practice at.
present—a practice which cannot but end in
failure—he should take time by the forelock. He:
should not be disheartened by refusals, but should
continue with even greater persistence than he
would, did he desire English publication only.
His energy must increase commensurately with his.
48
difficulty. It is almost certain that if his work
has any value he will at last obtain his reward.
There are, no doubt, some books which are suitable
for the English market only, but these are the
exceptions. Many kinds of literature appeal to
the whole world. :
When an offer has been made, then it may be
worth while to put the agreement before the
secretary of the Society of Authors for advice and
counsel. Further, as there must necessarily be
some delay owing to the distance between the
United States and the British Isles, it is advis-
able to deal in the first instance with the best
known publishing houses and the best known
magazines. For although the terms of the agree-
ment may not be altogether satisfactory, and
though it may be impossible to alter them in detail
owing to delay, yet a bad agreement with a trust-
worthy house might be more worthy of acceptance
than a better agreement with a doubtful tradesman.
British authors should not however abandon weakly
an important term in the contract merely on
account of delay. They should endeavour to make
their arrangements so that a little delay will not
invalidate their position. Above all things they
should persist and insist.
In considering the second method, the different
forms of dealing through an agent must be
enumerated and considered. Firstly, it is possible
to deal through the United States literary agent,
who will deal with the United States publisher.
Secondly, to deal with the English agent who
deals with the United States publisher. Thirdly,
with the English agent who deals with the United
States agent who deals with the United States
publisher. Fourthly, with the English agent who
deals with the English publisher who deals with
the United States publisher; and lastly, with the
English publisher who acts as agent and deals
with the United States publisher.
As has been pointed out already, the system of
dealing direct is, on the whole, the soundest,
but if an agent has to be employed, it is best for
the author to obtain a trustworthy agent in the
United States, and request him to attend to the
matter on his behalf. An agent on the other side
can deal direct with the publisher, and loses no
time between the rejection by one publisher and
the transmission of the MS. to another. He
should not, save under exceptional circumstances,
be allowed a free hand to accept any terms without
the author’s sanction. Although agents, no doubt,
have large knowledge of the trade, they are not
always infallible. There are not many literary
agents in the United States, but there are one or
itwo whose work has been thoroughly satisfactory.
An author should avoid if possible an agent who
also acts for English publishers.
THE AUTHOR.
Under the next three headings the question of
the English agent is raised, and there is no doubt
that he cannot work so successfully in obtaining
the United States rights as his fellow-trader in
America. Firstly, if he is dealing with the American
publisher direct, the same difficulties arise which
are bound to arise when the English author deals
with the United States publisher direct ; but there
is this additional difficulty, that as the English
agent is also trading the English rights, hemay some-
times be tempted, if he has obtained a particularly
beneficial English contract, and wants to settle the
matter out of hand, to waive the question of the
United States. He is very often guilty of delay,
commencing the United States negotiations sub-
sequent to or simultaneously with the disposal of
English rights. It was necessary to warn the
author of this fault when dealing direct, but an
agent ought to know the dangers. Heis appointed
for this sole reason to overcome these difficulties,
and make the rough places plain. Whatever means
he may attempt to satisfy the author’s objections,
still his failure is blameworthy. If he is dealing
through a United States agent then comes the ques-
tion of double agency fees ; and if the English agent
charges 10 per cent., there is generally a 5 per
cent. additional charge for the American agent as
well. One middleman is bad enough, but when
negotiations are carried through two middlemen,
the matter is complicated.
For the same reason it is a mistake to allow the
agent to leave the United States rights in the
hands of the English publisher ; but in addition,
firstly, it is the English agent’s duty to try to
obtain the United States rights—he should not
shift that duty on to the back of the publisher.
Secondly, the English publisher generally makes
excessive charges when he acts in this way ; and
thirdly, his financial interests are not in accord
with those of the author, as it often pays him
better to sell an edition in sheets to the United
States, or to sell stereo plates, than to obtain the
copyright in that country. If therefore an English
agent is employed, the author should insist that
he should keep the work in his own hands, and
should not create a second middleman ; that he
should endeavour to place the American rights
before he markets the rights for the British
Empire, and under the Berne Convention ; that he
should persist in his efforts and not weakly give
way with some specious excuse, as agents are some-
times inclined to do, owing to the greater trouble
involved.
Lastly, there is the case of the English publisher
acting as agent and dealing with the United States
publisher. Why this course is unsatisfactory has
to a certain extent been already propounded; yet
there are other reasons. Firstly, the English
THE AUTHOR.
publisher not infrequently asks 50 per cent. of the
profits resulting from his negotiations, work for
which an agent would charge 10 per cent. Secondly,
it often pays him better, as stated above, to sell
sheets or stereo plates to the United States, rather
than to make fan effort to secure the copyright ;
and lastly, the publisher is employed under a
licence from the author to put the book on the
English market, and to use his special knowledge
of the English trade, and ordinary agency busi-
ness does not come within his range, or if it
does, is not the main object of his existence. He
will therefore, apart from other reasons, not give
his full attention to this part of the work, and
will not put that thoroughness into it which is
absolutely essential, should the British author
desire to obtain the full returns that are due to
him for his labours.
Finally, it must be again repeated that if
English authors are failing in their efforts in the
United States market, the fault lies with them
and with them alone. It is not that the United
States literature is on a higher basis than that
produced in England, but it is because the author,
either owing to his artistic temperament, or owing
to the lack of energy in the agent he employs, is
weakly turning away when it is essential that he
should make a specially strenuous effort. It is to
be hoped, therefore, that the English author will
look well to it, and will ‘‘ wake up” to the realities
of the situation.
A, ©. B.
THE TRUTH ABOUT AN AUTHOR.
—-—— +.
I.—The Struggles of an Unpublished Author.
FEW months ago Mr. William Heinemann
published a book entitled “The Journal of
Arthur Stirling.” It purported to be a
record of the struggles of a young American poet
who had written a blank verse tragedy which had
been rejected by some six or seven publishers, At
length in despair of acquiring the fame he sought,
the author tied a weight round his body and
dropped into the depths of the River Hudson.
The following obituary notice appeared in the New
York Times.
STIRLING, ARTHUR—By suicide in the Hudson River,
poet and man of genius, in the twenty-second year of his
age, only son of Richard T, and Grace Stirling, of Chicago.
The publication of the “Journal” in America
caused a sensation. Since its introduction to this
country its authenticity has been called into
49
question. But whether or not the book is what
it claims to be, the actual experiences of one
particular individual of literary proclivities in his
struggles to obtain a hearing, the fact remains that
it makes a most pathetic piece of reading, and if
** Arthur Stirling” was of mere mythical substance,
it is none the less true that his alleged experi-
ences are the record of scores of young writers of
merit, who know what it is to have drunk deep of
the cup that falls to the lot of the persistently
rejected. No less is it true that the book is a
document that will form a text for many an editor
and publisher from which to draw a salutary moral
lesson.
As an over-much rejected novelist, the writer of
the following has tasted all the ignominy which
was the inheritance of “ Arthur Stirling.’ Hopes
raised, fears, weeks and months of weary waiting,
dreams of success ruthlessly dispelled, have been his:
lot again and again. “ Arthur Stirling” gave up
the struggle when his work had been rejected some
half-dozen times ; the present writer’s only novel
has been refused by no less than twenty-seven
publishers ! He still remains to tell the tale.
No doubt the reader will exclaim, “If twenty-
seven publishers have rejected the manuscript it
is highly probable that it is not worth publish-
ing!” Having only read so far, such a comment
is justified. But the writer has no doubt that
before the end of his story is reached he will
be able to prove otherwise on the testimony of
the publishers themselves.
Ten or twelve years ago the writer was a more
or less successful contributor of articles and short
stories to the popular monthly magazines. Evi-
dently his work gave pleasure—(perhaps to none
more than himself)—for he was the recipient of
some scores of letters from strangers, testifying to
the interest that they, as readers, had taken in the
productions of his pen. Among these letters were:
several which strongly urged him to write a novel.
The young author was flattered, but he doubted
his own powers for such an undertaking. At this
critical moment he received a letter from a friend,
a popular novelist, urging him to undertake the-
writing of a book. His ambition was fired, and he
determined to make a longer essay in fiction than
he had hitherto thought of. That well-meaning
letter from his novelist friend has been to the writer
the innocent cause of the misery of years !
The novel decided on, it only remained to evolve
it, place it on paper, and send it to a publisher.
The work was carried out with much burning of
midnight oil during a period covering long months,
until the end of a year saw the completion of what
the author considered a masterpiece, in one hundred
and thirty thousand words, and a young man pale:
and haggard but triumphant.
50
The manuscript had now to be typewritten.
This meant what to its author was a ‘considerable
sum of money. But he had reckoned on this, and
by exercising a certain amount of self-sacrifice he
had saved the necessary six pounds. _
In due time the novel was typewritten, revised
and corrected. A leading London publisher was
selected, the maiden effort carefully and lovingly
packed and sent off with a polite letter. =
‘And now followed some anxious weeks of waiting.
This time had its joys, for in it the novelist built
a hundred castles—not more substantial than those
in Prospero’s dream. Every day his darling book
was with him in thought, every day he made
schemes for future work.
At length, one morning, the postman brought a
letter, bearing on the outside of the envelope the
favoured publisher's address. The author went
white with joy. His trembling hand tore off the
cover, and he read the following :—
“ DEAR SIR,—I am returning your MS. entitled ‘
by parcels post. While thanking you for allowing me to
read it, I regret to say that I do not feel justified in under-
taking its publication.
’
”
“ Yours truly,
The manuscript was duly delivered by parcels
post. The fair sheets of foolscap had become
curled and soiled. “This,” thought the author,
“‘ will probably prejudice my novel in the eyes of
the next pablisher to whom I send it, and who
may thus have reason to think that it has already
been read and rejected.” A hot iron and a piece
of india-rubber made it respectable once more,
the wretched publisher’s label was scratched off
the brown paper wrapping, another was pasted on
in its place, and the parcel was a second time
committed to the post.
The weeks of waiting that followed were more
anxious than the last ; there might be more than
one foolish publisher in the world. Too true.
“Mr. regrets that he is not able to accept Mr.
’s story entitled ‘— . While the novel has
certain points of merit it appears to fail in construction.
It is also much too long. The MS. is returned herewith,
with thanks.”
Here was a blow, but a reason was given.
Youth requires much to daunt it. The author
determined to have an expert opinion on his work.
That excellent institution, the Society of Authors,
gives practical advice on young writers’ manu-
scripts for a moderate fee. The story was posted
to the secretary, and in due course was returned
with the following notes :—
“The Reader of ‘———,’ after careful consideration,
has come to the following conclusions. In the first place
the story is much too long, novels of 80,000 to 100,000 words
are generally the most acceptable length. Secondly, the
weakest point of the story lies/in the lack of artistic con-
struction, But artistic literary construction can be acquired
THE AUTHOR.
—in fact must be acquired if the author wishes to write
successful fiction, The Reader advises Mr. — to study
the novels of Guy de Maupassant, the best of which are
models of literary construction. He has pleasure in adding
that he considers that Mr. ’s story is well-written,
and evinces distinct promise. There are dramatic moments
and scenes of very considerable power. The scenes are
also well handled. Moreover, the novel contains many
passages of considerable value and strength, and the inci-
dents themselves are welltold. The knowledge of ‘ charac-
ter’ displayed is deep and effective (this is particularly so
in the case of the characters X and Z ), and
the Reader must add that the author has distinct power asa
descriptive writer. Where he fails is in the very elements
of successful novel writing ; and the Reader’s advice to Mr.
— is that he should reconstruct, rewrite, and con-
siderably curtail his story. Mr. has the ability,
and his success depends entirely upon himself.” :
Youth was cheered. Apparently only hard work
and proper discernment were in the author’s way
to success. He placed his manuscript aside for six
months and studied Maupassant. The story was
reconstructed, entirely rewritten, and shortened to
about half its original length. The author gave
the nights and holiday afternoons of nearly two
years to the work, but the giant’s task was accom-
plished, and the novel was again despatched to the
Reader of the Society of Authors. His reply came
as follows :— :
“ The Reader congratulates Mr. on his successful
accomplishment of that most difficult enterprise—the
rewriting of a novel. The ending of the story is undeniably
effective, and the whole novel seems to the Reader to move
swiftly and strongly from opening to close.... The
Reader would strongly advise Mr. to devote himself
at once to a new novel, in which he should try to do even
better work.”
Once more joy! Once more hope! To
Publisher Number Two the manuscript was again
despatched. Three weeks later it was returned :
“Mr, ——— has read Mr. ’s rewritten story with
pleasure. It is a more concise and better book than it
was, and it is certainly astory of merit. Mr. thinks
that it would be well spoken of by reviews, but owing to
the unsatisfactory state of the literary market, he doubts
if its sale would be sufficiently great to render it com-
mercially successful. Heis much obliged to Mr. for
allowing him to see the MS, again, which he is returning
by parcel post.”
But was “merit” to be smothered at birth for
the want of a foster-parent? No, it should seek
one elsewhere.
Two months later the novel came back once
more. The author was becoming bold and hard
of heart. He wrote for a reason of the rejection :
“Tt is not our practice to give reasons for the rejection
of MSS. We may say, however, that we do not at present
feel justified in taking up the work of new authors. Our
Readers allagree that the story is very well written, but we
do not feel that it would be likely to be as popular as its
merits deserve. We returned the MS, reluctantly.”
Despair now suggested itself. Yet while there
was a publisher in London who remained untried,
THE AUTHOR. :
there should be no fainting heart. The next
firm written to politely declined to read the novel
as “the supply of fiction was greater than the
demand.” It was therefore offered to a young and
enterprising house. This firm kept it some five or
six months before sending it back :
“ Our Reader informs us that the book has many qualities,
but not qualities that would be likely, in the present
depressed condition of the market for books—and especially
for fiction—to attract to it a sufficient amount of attention
to enable a publisher to sell the thousand or so copies that
are essential.”
And so the heartbreaking work of despatching
the story and receiving it back continued for
years. Sometimes the MS. was returned with a
polite note of refusal, sometimes a few words of
appreciation and commendation were offered, and
thankfully received. In nearly all cases where
reason for refusal was given, the excuse was laid
to the account of the bad state of ‘the literary
market.”
At length the author decided to seek new fields.
He sent his novel to a popular newspaper that
makes a feature of publishing serial stories. Three
months later the now familiar answer came :
“The novel is most carefully written, but we prefer
stories of strictly modern days. Always glad to read any
story you may write.”—Editor
About this time the would-be novelist received
a letter from his friend, who, in the course of it,
remarked, “if you at any time decide to write a
novel, and desire ‘a friend at court,’ send the MS.
on to me and I will forward it to ———” (a
publisher), “who is a friend of mine.”
Here was hope again! ‘The story was des-
patched, with a note of thanks for the offer. Four
months later the novelist wrote :
“ My DEAR , [am sorry—very sorry to tell you that I
have been unsuccessful in placing your novel. I have read
it myself, and think that with a few touches it ought to go
well. But, as you know, there is such a little chance for
new writers nowadays. Everything tends towards keeping
fiction in a narrow and successful ring. Publishers abso-
lutely refuse to risk money over new authors, while with
the favourites all they write sells before it is published—or
at least is ordered by the trade, which is the same thing.
If your story was published bearing the name of a well-
known author it would sell, whereas with your name being
unknown to the trade as that of a novelist, I dare say that
the novel would hardly repay the publisher for the
printing.
“Yet it seems a pity for such a good story to remain in
oblivion !
“ Both and (here is inserted the names
of two publishers) say that they won’t risk a penny on
new authors. Shall I send the MS, back, or what shall I
do with it?
”
“ Yours ever, ———-—
This was the last straw! The author replied
that he did not much care what his friend did with
the MS. : he might make pipe-lights of it, or give
it away.
51
It has come back !
So ends the story of an unpublished author of
“merit,” and so does mere cleverness—wanting
the name of popularity—find no favour with Dame
Fortune. How obtain a hearing? The multitude
will not hear you because they know you not,
neither do they wish to know you. And yet, if
they would but listen ———-! No, they will not
—the twenty-seven publishers have decided. When
no hand is extended to help him the young novelist
must devise other means to gain a hearing, or
perish. He may present his work to some pub-
lisher or editor (if he will have it) for the sake of the
advertisement its publication may give him, or he
may pay a publisher to produce his work. Other-
wise he may sup on leek and remain, like the present
“writer,
Unwept, UNHONOURED AND UNSUNG.
ee ot
II.—The Struggles of a Published Author.
THERE are aspects of the literary life other
than those presented in “The Truth about an
Author.” The pleasant experiences of the writer
of that book belong to the exception, not to the
rule, and certainly they do not square with my
own. My literary career has been an unceasing
struggle, in which every advantage had to be
fought for ; each advance was contested and had to
be won, and the merit of one book in no way
assured a reception for the next. In fact the
reverse happened, for with each success it became
increasingly difficult to place another book.
My grandfather wrote books which were issued
by the leading publisher of his day ; my father
wrote books which were published by a newer
house, but I have not been able to place anything
with either firm. Practically I started without
knowing any publisher or editor, determined simply
to make my way by the quality of my work. [
have written a few novels and six other books ; all
have been well received by the Press; all are
considered successful. One is in the reading room
of the British Museum, another has been trans-
lated into various Huropean languages, and
published in half-a-dozen countries; of another
a pirated edition in the Japanese vernacular has
been issued at Tokyo; some have sold as well
in America as in this country, and one is in its
seventh English edition. I could paper the walls of
my study with different very flattering notices news-
paper critics have wasted upon my work, and I
have perhaps a score of more or less disparaging
reviews. All my books have attracted notice.
Several times I have fancied myself near real
pecuniary success, believing after so much praise
had been lavished upon one book that I should
52
find the search for a publisher easier, be. offered
work by editors, or, at least, get some sort of
salaried post on a periodical. :
My latest book was the first of mine to be issued
simultaneously in distinct editions in England and
America. In both countries it had excellent
publishers who advertised it generously ; it was
noticed on the day of publication and much
praised ; the daily newspapers gave it a column,
and of the literary weeklies some devoted as many
as six columns to the book; extracts from it
appeared in almost every periodical from the
Family Herald to the Quarterly Review, both
included ; the public responded.
With so much fame and the book selling, I
thoucht it a fit moment to approach publishers and
editors for future work. The result was dis-
appointing. ‘Twelve book publishers refused abso-
lutely to consider anything ; fifteen others would
not entertain a work on the subjects I suggested,
one because he had published a book on a cognate
topic, another because he was going to do s0, a
third because he had never done so—any excuse
served to complete the vicious circle. The net
result was that two firms, quite third-rate in the
trade, answered by inviting me to “ submit ”’—an
abominable word—my manuscript. One then
stated that he liked what I offered, but declined
to publish it on any terms ; the other has the work
under consideration still.
The Press Syndicates refused my overtures. Of
the editors of periodicals eight declined to consider
any serial from me; thirty others rejected various
offers I made them of articles, services, etc. ; three
only stated as a reason that my price was too high.
The net result was—one short article accepted,
and four intimations that I might “submit”
MSS. which, if used, would be paid for at scale
rate, which was not specified.
For all practical purposes of making a livelihood
by writing, I am in exactly the same position I
was before my “ great” book was published.
In itself the pecuniary value of literary fame is
nil. It issomething which is worth more to any-
one else than it is to the literary worker.
For instance, my fame has brought me an offer
from a firm of German manufacturers who, if only
I will cease writing and will travel about to get
information for them, will pay all my expenses and
reward me with a high salary. I detest Germans
and I abhor trade, but I do like getting informa-
tion, and I want that salary very badly. If a
British or an American firm offered it I would
close at once, and then anybody who wishes to
possess a first-class reputation might obtain one
ready-made and cheap from a writer who has never
had any use for it.
ARTIFEX,
THE AUTHOR.
AN EDITOR’S LETTER BOX.
1
YE Editor of the “ New York Bookman,” in
his interesting paragraphs “Chronicle and’
Comment,” publishes some letters which show a
pleasing variety in the correspondence that comes
to him as he sits in his editorial chair. He says,
“Tg it not more pitiful than humorous that so
many simple souls come to such an unfeeling con-
fessor in his unadorned confessional and lay bare
their very hearts and reveal their desires and hope-
less aspirations?” and later, “When a busy man
has given a half hour of his valuable time to
dictate a word in season to a youth who will never
be able to write, as even a blind man could dis-
cover, and receives no more thanks for his pains
than this, one cannot wonder that he grows
indifferent :—
“ Dear sir, your crazy ; i ean right, you don’t know what
your talking about. Your a d—— fool and your old paper
aint no good anyhow. i no good potry wen i see it, and
my prose is excellent to, having bin criticised by the best.
Their is those who strive to keep us from getting to the
front where we belong, but it aint no use. So ile take
your old paper and throw it in the fire and ile tell all my
frens to do the same. All editors are fools anyway. Your
a bigger one... .”
Another style of writer sends him the follow-
ing :—
“ Please do not return this story to me if you do not want
it as I do not wish my wife to know that it has been
rejected. She would laugh so at me.”
We fear that writers under this category are not
a few. What again is to be said of the woman
from Kansas who, when told that the Editor’s
payment was ten dollars a thousand, writes to say
that she would rather stick to chicken raising, as
it would take her so long to write a thousand
stories.
The Hditor not infrequently received letters
from would-be suicides :—
“ Unless you except this pome by leven o’clock thursday
morning i will jump into the hudson river.”
There is no doubt that such letters are written.
We have heard of similar cases in the English
Literary Market, but so far, we have never
heard of the suicide. Of another kind of writer
we have also had experience this side of the
water, the half educated, sentimental, romantic
woman who considers herself a genius, and sits
down and fills reams of paper to the distraction of
her family with no benefit to herself. We quote
the Editor of the “ Bookman’s” experience of this
kind of person :—
“Tam most ambitious to appear in the leading magazines
and papers throughout the country, and if you like the
first hundred thousand words of my novel, | will send you
THE AUTHOR.
the rest as soon as it is completed. I am working hard on
it now. My husband idles his days away. He will not
work, but is only too willing to sleep, and I have to do
something to support the family. Iam conscientious about
my literary work, and I feel sure that I was cut out to be
an author. I cannot afford to pay the express charges on
my story, so send it at your expense. If you return it—
and oh, I pray you won’t !—please prepay the package, for
we are very, very poor. I have been writing ever since I
was a child, and I am now forty-three years old, but I have
never had anything published either in a paper or in a
book. But I know I am just as big a genius as , only
I have never had the chances he has. We have had hard
bacon for breakfast so long that I’m tired of it; so please
hurry my check if you accept my story, as I would like a
change of food, and also I would like to surprise my
indolent husband.”
The same date the Editor received a letter from
the irate mother which we have also taken the
liberty of reprinting :—
“Dear sir,—By this mail, I understand that my daughter,
who is married, is sending you a pleading letter—I know
it must be pleading for she has been writing them for
years—and a big manuscript. I beg you to believe that it
will be the greatest kindness if you will pay no sort of
attention to her story or her letter. She is the mother of
three young children, and while her husband does all he
can to support her and them, he cannot earn very much,
owing toa heart weakness. She should take in washing,
as I have had to do, and try to help out by that instead of
by writing fool stories. She has always had an idea that
she was a great author, and we cannot keep the pencil out
of her hand, although we hide it and the paper pads ton,
If she would spend more time in doing honest sensible
work instead of wasting her days in composing novels that
I know are trash, she would be better off. So please don’t
answer her request, and don’t encourage her in any way.
I am her mother, and I know.
“ Yours in all sincerity.”
It certainly is more pitiful than humorous.
We can only hope that the Editor will continue in
his kind and praiseworthy efforts. To many, no
doubt, his communications come as a gleam of
sunshine. Where there is real hard work, where
there is really a painstaking effort, a favourable
comment will go a long way to smooth the toil-
some path. But while human nature is humanly
natural, the other side, which is pitiful, cannot fail
to come to the fore. But let us not despair.
Finally the Editor, after considering so many
letters as the companions of MSS., is inclined to
think that as a rule the letter is a superfluity, and
that Editors generally can do better without them.
———
THE HORSE IN FICTION.
<>
rYN\HE coming of the motor-car seems likely to
displace that noble animal, the horse—in
Enrope at all events—from the high posi-
tion he has held’ for innumerable centuries. Is
this proud, generous, and most useful beast, the
53
friend and ally of warriors and of princes, to be
relegated to obscurity, to fade out of existence? In
all sincerity one may hope not! What a history
has been his! The Bible, in glowing words, has
set forth his renown ; poets and writers in all ages
have sung his prowess ; he has aided in the winning
of great battles, the conquering and overrunning
of vast countries ; his achievements, whether in
peace or war, have been as innumerable as they
have been glorious. Yet, though poets and
novelists have in countless works written in vague
and general praise of the horse, when one begins
to delve into particulars, one realises that the
writer of fiction has, as a rule, been always rather shy
of this subject. The novelist and the poet have
not, one begins to discover, much real acquaintance
with horses and horsemanship, and a survey of the
literature of the last century almost convinces one
that writers, as a class, prefer to leave the achieve-
ments of the noblest of all domesticated animals
rather severely alone. Few creators of romance
have, in fact, cared to particularise on a subject
which, adequately dealt with, offers many
attractions.
Byron, it is true, strikes a stirring note in the
poem of ‘‘ Mazeppa,” that spirited and romantic set-
ting of an old Polish or Cossack tradition. Byron
gathered his materials for‘‘ Mazeppa”’ from Voltaire’s
‘* History of Charles XIT.,” and makes his hero, the
aged Hetman of the Ukraine Cossacks, recount his
terrible ride to Charles on the night following the
disastrous battle of Pultowa. According to Byron,
Mazeppa, a young Polish gentleman, detected in
an intrigue with the wife of a Count of Podolia, is
seized, bound to the back of an unbroken horse
fresh from the wilds of Ukraine, and driven forth
into the forest and the wilderness. The tale is
finely told in Byron’s best manner, yet, when one
begins to inquire closely into the particulars, one
finds that poetical licence has been somewhat
too freely made use of. For two days and nights,
according to Byron, Mazeppa’s steed carries him in
a career so headlong that even the tireless wolves
which pursue them are left behind. Now wolves,
it is well known, will run down the best horse in
the world ; while any one who is acquainted with
horses and their capabilities, will bear out the
writer in his affirmation that no horse ever foaled
could pursue a rapid flight, unchecked, for forty-
eight hours. However, at the end of that time, even
the steed portrayed by Byron begins to flag. He
swims with his burden across a mighty river, and
presently sinks down upon the Ukraine steppe, where
Mazeppa is rescued and unbound by natives of
that wild district. Among these people the hero
makes his home, in years to come rising to the
position of Hetman or Prince of the Ukraine
Cossacks.
54
Sir Walter Scott understood horses probably a
good deal better than did Byron, and in the “ Lady
of the Lake” Fitzjames’s chase of the stag, roused
in Glenartney Forest, is with a first-rate horse
feasible enough. Fitzjames, however, appears to
have been a more enthusiastic hunter than he was
a good horse-master, and having overridden his
good grey from Glenartney to the shores of Loch
Katrine, the generous beast yields up its life, and
“stretched its stiff limbs to rise no more.” Scott,
however, paints an incident that still occasionally
happens, even in fox-hunting, and his knowledge
of the grdund described, and of the limits of a
horse’s endurance, have prevented him from depict-
ing the impossible in his spirited account of the
great run with a Glenartney stag.
Harrison Ainsworth’s well-known description of
Dick Turpin’s ride to York almost rescues “ Rook-
wood” from the region of rather cheap melodrama.
Turpin, of course, never performed the ride in
question, a ride, as Ainsworth describes it, prob-
ably far beyond the limits of any single horse’s
endurance. Nevertheless, so well is the famous
highwayman’s gallop described, and so much pains
has the novelist displayed in the management of
this part of his tale, that good Black Bess and her
immortal course will probably live in fiction to
delight schoolboys for generations yet to come.
Among English novelists, Whyte Melville cer-
tainly knew more about horses and their capa-
bilities than any other. In “ Katerfelto” he has
made the highwayman’s grey nag, of which. John
Garnett becomes possessed, almost as much the
hero of his tale as the man who bestrides it. The
hunt on Exmoor is excellently well done, and
Katerfelto’s leap for freedom, a leap which saves
his master, and is the undoing of Parson Gale and
his black gelding, Cassock, is admirably set forth.
The stallion Katerfelto, according to Whyte Mel-
ville, is never again captured, and becomes the
semi-feral progenitor of much of the moorland
pony-stock of West Somerset and North Devon.
There may be, as Melville hints, some substratum
of truth at the bottom of this romance. ‘‘Sata-
nella” is another of Whyte Melville’s tales, which
mingles the fortunes of a handsome black mare
with the story of a beautiful but ill-starred woman.
Among other famous horsemen and horses of
fiction, Starlight and his good nag, in “ Robbery
Under Arms,” naturally occur to one; while the
great ride of Umslopogaas, so graphically set forth
by Rider Haggard in “ Allan Quatermain,” is an
excellent piece of work, strong, exciting, and not
‘overdone in colouring. Taken as a whole, how-
ever, fiction is somewhat surprisingly poor in a
domain where it might have been expected to
reap many laurels, and horses and their feats have
been but little utilised.
THER AUTHOR.
Turning from the realm of fiction to that of —
hard facts, one recalls three great and marvellous
rides. First, that of the Welsh Knight of the
Shire, who rode up to London, on the spur, from
his own home to record his vote in favour of that
Act of Succession which established the present
dynasty on the throne of Britain. The squire
reached Westminster literally in the very nick of
time, and his casting vote decided the fate of the
Stuarts and the rise of their Hanoverian cousins.
One of the greatest of all historic rides was that of
young Robert Carr from London to Edinburgh, to
carry to James the First the tidings of the death
of Queen Elizabeth. Carr’s ride, accomplished
practically without rest or respite, on relays of
horses, still stands to the present day as one of the
finest of all achievements in endurance and horse-
manship.
Sir Harry Smith’s ride from Cape Town to
Grahamstown, on the outbreak of the Kaffir War,
in 1834, is beyond all doubt one of the most
striking feats in horsemanship ever recorded. He
accomplished the distance—610 miles—in six
days, picking up raw, grass-fed Cape ponies as he
went along, and accomplishing his journey success-
fully during the height of the hot weather season.
Browning’s imaginary gallop with the good news
from Ghent to Aix pales effectually before this
very real and wonderful performance of the fiery
veteran, Sir Harry Smith.
H. A. BRYDEN.
ee
THE ONLY WAY.
— a
HIS book is harmless. It is also colourless.
It is full of platitudes, and appears to be
written by one who has some knowledge but
no sympathy. It is not likely to inspire genius.
It is not likely to spread any literary disease. The
impression it makes is lack of impression —it
inspires no ideals.
That the book is written with some knowledge
is evident from the quotation of current prices and
certain reliable information of the contents of the
better-known magazines. There are some minor
hints on technique which expose the expert.
The facility of the whole work inclines one to
think that though the author has trodden the path
to success, he has not been assailed by the thorns
and brambles that clog the footsteps of the ordinary
literary tramp. He has in consequence become
* “How to Become an Author,’ by Arnold Bennett,
(C. Arthur Pearson, Limited.)
THE AUTHOR.
didactic and narrow. He looks upon his road as
| the only road, and cannot help his fellow wayfarer
4) to overcome his difficulties.
That the author inspires no ideals is clear from
his view of modern journalism, which he asserts
has attained its present perfection in a well-known
halfpenny Daily.
The spirit of this method speaks through the
author as follows: “‘ Let us decide whether our
readers—not as they ought to be, but as they actually
are—will read and be interested in this thing.”
The freelance, he assures us—not in these words
—ought to write down to his public ; and again,
“He must put away all sentimentality about the
art of literature and the moral mission of
“journalism.”
This sort of advice may be successful in turning
out a fair hack, but not a real live author; but
these wise saws are no good if the practical advice
does not help the would-be author further.
Again, his opinions about fiction and other
-methods of becoming an author may or may not
be true—that is neither here nor there. Stories
are not written, books are not composed by rule.
Tot homines, quot sententie, is still a good motto,
but when these wise sayings have been read, is the
teacher convincing, or does the tyro’s mind at the
end of this book appear like Lord Rosebery’s slate
—without a mark upon it, absolutely clean ?
The practical side of the book is unsatisfactory,
and the remarks on the technique of literary work,
the business of placing the book on the market,
the prices paid for modern literature, and the
thousand and one pitfalls to be avoided are sadly
deficient.
‘We must protest also that only one reference
is made to the Authors’ Society, and that in
no liberal spirit. Mr. Bennett does not appear
from the published list to be one of that body.
Though he knows of its existence, he is ignorant
of the work it does and of the information at its
command. In the journalistic portion he men-
tions some books which may be useful to beginners,
but does nct care to refer to the valuable, confi-
dential, and practical help offered by the Society.
In his advice to producers of books he states, “ In
selecting publishers for experiment, the aspirant
should begin with the best and work downwards
in the scale of importance,” but where is the
information to come from? Who are the best
publishers? The writer is evidently not aware
that some firms whose names loom large to the
public are utterly unsatisfactory to the author.
Here again there is no mention of the Authors’
Society.
Only when touching on the question of contracts
for books (he makes no attempt to discuss con-
tracts with editors, perhaps rightly), after some
55
interesting suggestions, he states, “The aspirant
with a legal turn who wishes for further informa-
tion should join the Authors’ Society, which pub-
lishes a highly interesting and intricate literature
on the relations between writers and publishers
and all the dreadful possibilities thereof.”
If the author had dealt with his subject in any
other way than facile superficiality this book might
have sufficed, but his method is so full of omissions
when he writes with the air of finality that from
the business standpoint his view may lead beginners
far astray.
For instance, “The aspirant should not trouble
much about American (he means United States)
copyright. It is exceedingly difficult to obtain
American copyright of a first book. But if by a
happy chance it can be obtained, so much the
better.”
Because it is difficult, therefore the fledgling
need not trouble.
The United States market is in many ways a
bigger financial gain than the British, therefore,
so far from not troubling, the tyro should strain
every nerve for success.
We are glad to see that he has noted one well-
known publisher who settles libel actions at his
own discretion, but at the author’s expense. Who-
ever he may be, our adviser states “that this is
manifestly wicked.”
In conclusion, the work can only be expressed
by a series of negations. It is not a good book ;
it is not practical. It lacks depth. It is a series
of omissions.
Sir Walter Besant’s “‘ Pen and the Book” is still
by far the best work at present on the subject, in
spite of ‘‘ How to Publish,” “‘ How to Write for
Magazines,” and many similar effusions. A second
edition is sadly needed.
If the author is a member of the Society then
there is no apology needed for these strictures.
If not, he should study the work it does, and
remember that authors who personally stand in no
need of direct assistance must yet directly profit
by much of its work, done at the expense of its
members.
BR. ULE
eg
CORRESPONDENCE.
—_—>—-+—
A Lirerary FRAUD.
I.
Srr,—All I can say about Mr. Isidore G. Ascher’s
admirable letter under the above heading in your
56
last issue is that I, for one, would be very glad of
an opportunity of writing books at a living wage
for rich people desirous of literary celebrity.
Naturally, I detest the notion of permitting other
persons to batten on my brains : but I detest still
more the notion of becoming useless and idle in
the workhouse. ae
You see, now (when every Gajo, Titio, and
Sempronio writes), it is quite impossible for every-
one to get published. ‘Then debt, duns, the dead
whiteness of a gardenia replacing ruddy health on
one’s child’s face, the awful aspect of friends whose
eyes say, “I hope to God you're not going to ask
me to do anything for you,” harass and benumb
and acidulate the boycotted writer, who naturally
catches at any straw in the current which is sweep-
ing him to perdition. It is not fame, it is not
justice which he wants now, but a roof and daily
bread.
No; I do not think one ought to denounce as
guilty of fraud the hacks who sell their brains.
They do it, not for pleasure, but from necessity.
Their motive is the honourable one :of Indepen-
dence. Blame the crow who wears the peacock’s
tail, as “a disgrace to literature,” etc., if you will,
but do be merciful to the poor peacock.
Yours truly,
A. Hack.
— +
II.
Srr,—I cannot quite understand Mr. Ascher’s
indignation against the “ ghost” system. What
does it matter whether the twaddle given to the
world under a popular name has been written by
a money-grubbing celebrity himself, or by some
talented unknown person who is thus enabled to
get the living he could not, perhaps, otherwise
obtain ?
No decent author would ever allow his, or her,
name to appear over another person’s work, and
those who are sufficiently degraded to allow it
must be punished by the knowledge that their
“ghosts” are as competent as themselves. If
they have any amour propre at all this should
gall them; and if the public cannot detect any
difference between the work of its idols and that
of industrious employees, then the public certainly
deserves to be taken in. Finally, if the poor
“ghost” can only get his work in print this way,
why grudge him the joys of authorship beneath
what is, practically, a pseudonym? As things go,
with a huge mass of readers devoid of literary
taste and craving only “names,” the employment
of journeymen seems to me rather a good arrange-
ment. The true man of letters knows that his
THE AUTHOR.
work can be done by himself alone, and why
should he care if the charlatan makes a fortune,
through which some needy quill-driver benefits ?
Yours truly,
M. L. P.
——~—+—
THINGS THAT MATTER.
Srr,—I notice in your last issue a list of the so .
contents of various magazines, and I think this <i;
would be a useful feature of The Author, providing =<"
it appears regularly and includes all the articles =...
in the periodicals mentioned. It is impossible to «!“'
subscribe to every magazine, and writers who ~
travel, as well as your readers residing in the -
country and abroad, will welcome such a list as =>
you give, since it contains information not elsewhere
readily obtainable. 5
It occurs to me that your “Trade Notes” would — °
be more valuable if you made a point of mention-
ing well in advance of publication the issue of new >
periodicals—of which doubtless you receive, or can = «
get, the earliest trustworthy information. What —
writers wish to know is the scope of a pro- —
jected magazine, and who will edit and who ~
publish it. Subsequently there might be published —
in The Author the ‘ Notice to Contributors,”
as supplementary to the list you have issued
separately.
Mention might be made also of new firms of — ™
publishers and of new publishing companies
Several firms of book publishers have commenced
business recently, but of them there has not been ~
a word in Zhe Author. Of new publishing com
panies there are many more, and a list of these —
might be given, with such particulars as will
enable writers to form an adequate idea of the ©
scope of the enterprise projected. In September,
for instance, the following were registered at
Somerset House :—African Publications; British —
Sports ; English Illustrated Magazine ; Enterprise —
Publishing Co.; Folkestone Chronicle; Index ©
Advertising Co. ; Press Picture Agency; Smart
Set ; Sphere and Tatler ; Studio Press; World of —
Billiards ; all with limited liability, and with a ~
nominal capital of from £500 to £200,000 each.
Some, doubtless, are of no possible use to any ©
member of the Society, but of them such particulars —
might be given as will enable each reader to judge -
whether or not they are, or may be, of service. ;
I have no doubt the secretaries of all newly
formed companies will be ready to furnish readers
of The Author with information of interest to
writers and readers.
Yours faithfully,
Broap-NIs.
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The Author, Vol. 14 Issue 02 (November 1903)
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<em>The Author</em>, Vol. 14 Issue 02 (November 1903)
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A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&collection=&type=&tags=&exhibit=&date_search_term=&submit_search=Search+For+Items&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022.
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The Huthor.
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)
FOUNDED BY SIR WALTER BESANT.
Vou. XTV.—No. 1.
THE TELEPHONE.
+
THE Telephone connection has now been estab-
lished, and the Society’s number is—
374 VICTORIA.
—————_+—>—+_____
NOTICES.
+
OR the opinions expressed in papers that are
K signed or initialled the authors alone are
responsible. None of the papers or para-
graphs must be taken as expressing the opinion
of the Committee unless such is especially stated
to be the case.
THE Editor begs to inform members of the
Authors’ Society and other readers of The Author
that the cases which are from time to time quoted
in The Author are cases that have come before the
notice or to the knowledge of the Secretary of the
Society, and that those members of the Society
who desire to have the names of the publishers
- concerned can obtain them on application.
—_*+——+—_
List of Members.
THE List of Members of the Society of Authors,
published October, 1902, at the price of 6d., and
the elections from October, 1902 to J uly, 1903, as
a supplemental list, at the price of 2d. can now be
obtained at the offices of the Society.
It will be sold to members or associates of the
Society only.
—_t——+—__
The Pension Fund of the Society.
THE investments of the Pension Fund at
present standing in the names of the Trustees are
as follows. :
This is a statement of the actual stock ; the
Vou, XIV.
OcTOBER Ist, 1903.
[PRIcE SIXPENCE.
money value can be easily worked out at the current
price of the market :—
DOMME oie services £1000 0 0
iiocal Loans 3... 500 0 0
Victorian Government 3 % Consoli-
dated Inscribed Stock ............... 291 19 11
War lvan 2.3 201-953
Total, 2 36 £15993. 9. 2
Subscriptions.
1903.
Jan. 1, Pickthall, Marmaduke
» Deane, Rev. A.C. .
Jan. 4, Anonymous :
+ Heath, Miss Helena
» Russell, G. H. ;
Jan. 16, White, Mrs. Caroline
» Bedford, Miss Jessie
Jan. 19, Shiers-Mason, Mrs.
Jan. 20, Cobbett, Miss Alice :
Jan. 30, Minniken, Miss Bertha M. M.
Jan. 31, Whishaw, Fred : :
PRS eeHrocesoosorseoogonoocse
od hh
SOOWMMAH OOOO
PEFFRSOSCSOSOSSSSSSOSCSCOSCCSCS
Feb. 3, Reynolds, Mrs. Fred 5
Feb. 1iy7lincoln, ©, ‘ 5
Feb. 16, Hardy, J. Herbert . : 5
» Haggard, Major Arthur . 5
Feb. 23, Finnemore, John . 5
Mar. 2, Moor, Mrs. St. C. . 0
Mar. 5, Dutton, Mrs. Carrie 15:
Api. 10, Bird, CP... : : ‘ 10
Apl. 10, Campbell, Miss Montgomery . 5
May Lees, R. J... : : : 1
S Wright, J. Fondi 5
Donations.
Jan. 3, Wheelright, Miss E. 010 6
3 Middlemass. Miss Jean » 010 0
Jan. 6, Avebury, The Right Hon.
The Lord . : : 37) 0-0
» Gribble, Francis : 010 0
Jan. 13, Boddington, Miss Helen . 010 6
Jan. 17, White, Mrs. Wollaston Let 0
» Miller, Miss E. T. . 0 5.0
Jan. 19, Kemp, Miss Geraldine 010 6
£ s. a.
Jan. 20, Sheldon, Mrs. French 0 5 0
Jan. 29, Roe, Mrs. Harcourt 010 0
Feb. 9, Sherwood, Mrs. : 010 6
Feb. 16, Hocking, The Rey. Silas 11.0
Feb. 18, Boulding, J. W. 010 6
5, Ord, Hubert H. - 010 9
Feb. 20, Price, Miss Eleanor 010 0
» Carlile, Rev. aC. 010 O
Feb. 24, Dixon, Mrs. 5 0 0
Feb. 26, Speakman, Mrs. - 010 0
Mar. 5, Parker, Mrs. N ella 010 0
Mar. 16, Hallward, N.L. . J 1.0
Mar. 20, Henry, Miss Alice . 0 5 0
» Mathieson, Miss Annie . . 010 0
;, Browne, 'T. A. (“ Rolfe Boldre-
wood”) . : : _ tL 20
Mar. 23, Ward, Mrs. Humphry _. 10 0 0
Apl. 2, Hutton, The Rev. W. H. 2 0 0
Apl. 14, Tournier, Theodore 0 5 0
May King, Paul H. : : 2 010 0
Wynne, Charles Whitworth .10 0 0
» 21, Orred J. Randal 148
June 12, Colles, W. Morris . -10 0 0
» Bateman, Stringer . . 010 6
» Anon 0 5 0
The following members have also made subscrip-
tions or donations :—
Meredith, George, President of the Society.
Thompson, Sir Henry, Bart., F.R.C.S,
Rashdall, The Rev. H.
Guthrie, Anstey.
Robertson, C. B.
Dowsett, C. F.
There are in addition other subscribers who do
not desire that, either their names or the amount
they are subscribing should be printed.
—_—_—_+——_+______
FROM THE COMMITTEE.
—_——_—_—_ ++
HE last meeting of the Committee before
the vacation was held at 39, Old Queen
Street, Storey’s Gate, 8.W., on Wednesday,
July 8th. Twelve members and associates were
elected, Their names and addresses are set forth
below.
Other matters connected with the business of
the Society during the vacation, and with the
Besant Memorial were settled.
Tn addition it was decided to take up a case on
behalf of one of the members against a prominent
publisher who had failed to meet his account.
This case has since been settled—the publisher
has paid up in full.
THE AUTHOR.
Cases.
Tye last issue of the cases taken up by the
Society on behalf of its members was published
in the June number. That took the list for the
present year down to the middle of May. The
present record therefore covers the four months,
June, July, August, and September. Thirty cases
have been taken up. Of these, thirteen have been
for the return of MSS. ; nine for the payment of
money due; two for money and accounts ; four
for accounts only; and the remaining two for
matters connected with literary property and
copyright.
Tn ten cases, owing to the prompt attention of
the editors to the secretary's request, the MSS.
were at once returned and forwarded to the
authors. In the other three cases the editors were
unable to find the MSS. As there was no evidence
forthcoming of neglect, or in fact that the MSS.
had actually reached the office, the cases could not
be taken further. Of the cases for money, five
have been successful. The remaining four are
still open, but there is every prospect that they
will terminate satisfactorily. In one case however,
it is probable that the editor will become bankrupt.
Of the claims for account two have been terminated,
the accounts having been rendered ; and two are
still open. The two cases of money and accounts,
owing to the fact that no satisfactory answer could
be obtained, were placed in the hands of the
Society’s solicitors. One case is still pending in
the Courts. In the other case (against a well
known publisher), the amount was paid with costs.
The other two cases referred to as dealing with
literary property have terminated satisfactorily.
—
July Elections.
Ady, Mrs. Henry (Julta Ockham, Ripley, Surrey.
Cartwright
Corby, Miss E. Esker, Killucan, West-
meath.
Freed, Thomas, A. H. . Box 76, Nelson, New
Zealand.
Hodgson, Mrs. Wil- By-the-Sea, Exmouth.
loughby
Keene, Mrs. . Quetta, Balmenstan,
India.
25, St. Thomas Street,
Grosvenor Square, W.
Grosvenor House, Gros-
yenor Square, South-
ampton.
Ardblair Castle, Blair-
gowrie, N.B.
Korbay, Francis -
Mocatta, Mrs. Mary A.
Oliphant, Capt. P. L. K.
Blair (Philip Laurence
Oliphant)
ee ee
THE AUTHOR. 3
Rogers, Mrs. Fanny . Cape Town, South
Africa.
Russell, Fox : oo Garden Court,
Temple, E.C.
Shepheard-Walwyn, Dalwhinnie, Kenley,
H. W., F.Z.8., F.E.S, Surrey.
Vacaresco, Madame . 17, Rue de P Arcade,
Paris ; Vacaresis,
Roumania.
Oo?
OUR BOOK AND PLAY TALK.
+
POPULAR edition of Sir Lewis Morris’s
“Epic of Hades,” at 1s. 6d. nett, is
announced by Messrs. Kegan Paul & Co,
for October 1st. Though twenty-seven years have
elapsed since the publication of this poem, which
has gone, we believe, through forty-five editions,
this is the first edition to appeal to the masses, who
it is hoped will appreciate the great reduction in
price now made.
Sir Lewis Morris has decided to include the
story of “ Niobe,” which has hitherto been published
separately, in the present issue, the entire text of
which he has finally corrected. The poem in
question has a new introduction in verse specially
written by the poet.
A new and augmented edition of Dr. Richard
Garnett’s, ‘The Twilight of the Gods,” has been
issued by Mr. John Lane. The dedication reads :
‘To Horace Howard Furness and George Brandes.
Dabo duobus testibus meis.? The first edition of
these tales was published in 1888. It contained
sixteen stories, to which twelve are added in the
present impression.
This volume is the most personally illuminating,
the most characteristic Dr. Garnett has given us .
and that is to say it is well worth reading, and
worth buying for our “ best books” collection.
The Syndicate of the Cambridge University
Press propose to publish in the course of the
autumn a comprehensive work on the “ History of
Classical Scholarship,” which has been prepared by
the Public Orator, Dr. Sandys. It extends from
about 600 B.c. to the end of the Middle Ages, and
Consists of more than thirty chapters distributed
over six books, dealing with the «“ History of
Scholarship in the Athenian and the Alexandrian
ages ; ”“ The Roman age of Latin and Greek Litera-
ture” ; “ The Byzantine Age” ; and “ The Middle
Ages in the West of Europe.” The text, which fills
six hundred and fifty crown octavo pages (exclusive
of the index), will be accompanied by chronological
tables, facsimiles from Greek and Latin manuscripts
and other illustrations,
Colonel Haggard’s new book, “ Sidelights on the
Court of France,” will be issned immediately by
Messrs. Hutchinson, the period treated of being
that from the reign of Francis I. to the death of
Louis XIII., and of course including Henry of
Navarre. Prominence ig given to such characters
as Diana of Poitiers, Marguerite de Valois,
Richelieu and Mazarin. The book is very fully
illustrated.
Professor Skeat has this year re-issued his text
of “ Havelock the Dane” ; it was formerly printed
for the Early English Text Society, and ‘has ever
since been the standard edition. ‘It is now issued
by the Clarendon Press in a revised and augmented,
but cheaper form, with a preface that contains all
the important criticisms of the poem up to the
present date.
Professor Skeat is also greatly interested in
looking over the sheets of the « English Dialect
Dictionary ” and making a few suggestions by way
of addition. This important work, edited by Pro-
fessor Wright, of Oxford, is making satisfactory
progress. It is now in type nearly to the end of
the letter Y. Professor Skeat takes special interest
in it, as he was the founder, first secretary, and
finally the director of the English Dialect Society,
which in the course of twenty-four years (1873—
1896) collected and printed some eighty volumes,
thus providing sufficient material to make a founda-
tion for Professor Wright’s further labours,
A good deal of Professor Skeat’s time is taken
up with attempts to discover or verify the etymolo-
gies of difficult English words, with the view of
rendering some small assistance to the editor of
the “ New English Dictionary.” A few of the latest
results have lately been printed for the Philological
Society of London, but have not yet been issued,
Dr. Alexander Rattray’s new work, “Divine
Hygiene, or the Sanitary Science of the Sacred
Scriptures” (Nisbet & Co., two vols.) is well
through the printer’s hands, and may be expected
soon. Besides the main theme, the object is the
advocacy of the Holy Bible as the great educational
handbook for humanity ; our pioneer informant in
many subjects ; sole teacher in others ; and its
science and philosophy, though humanly speaking
ancient, not antiquated as often represented, but
advanced. Though professionally treated it is
popularly written, strictly Evangelical, practically
exhaustive, and a vindication of Christianity.
Mr. Ferrar Fenton, F.R.A.S., is about to issue
a translation of the “ Psalms, Solomon, and
Sacred Writers,” in the original metres, but in
modern English ; and also his “Complete Bible”
4
in modern English. The publishers are Messrs.
S. W. Partridge & Co., of Paternoster Row,
London, E.C. Their Majesties, King Edward
and the German Emperor have intimated that they
will be pleased to accept presentation copies.
Mr, Justice Condé Williams, of the Supreme
Court of Mauritius, who read _a paper some time
ago at the Royal Colonial Institute on “ The
Future of our Sugar Producing Colonies,” is about
to publish an autobiography under the title of
“From Journalist to Judge.”
Judge Williams was editor of the Birmingham
Daily Gazette in succession to Dr. Sebastian Evans,
and was for a short period a member of the staff
of the Zimes in Paris. His judicial experiences
extend to South Africa, the West Indies and
Mauritius.
From Journalist to Judge” will be published
by Mr. G. A. Morton, of 42, George Street, Edin-
burgh.
“Romantic Tales from the Punjab” (Con-
stable), is the second and final instalment of a
body of Indian stories collected by the Rev.
Charles Swynnerton, on the North-West frontier of
India, of which “Indian Night’s Entertainment ”
(Stock), published ten years ago, was the first.
Tt consists of the more important legends, and is
adorned with over one hundred illustrations by
native hands.
The longest and most important legend is that
of Raja Rasalu, consisting of twelve separate
stories, each complete in itself, as spoken and
sung by one or other of the three Punjabi bards,
Sharaf and Jama of the Rawal Pindi District, and
Sher of the Hazara District—with the exception of
the first and last stories of the twelve, which,
though mainly attributable to Sharaf, contain a
few details from other story-tellers.
The rest of the legends in the book, as “ Hir and
Ranjha,” are also of great importance and most
interesting ; while as well there are several short
stories, a careful introduction, and an appendix
containing many notes, and a selection of Punjabi
verses in original from “ Hir and Ranjha,” with
literal translations, and notes philological and
explanatory.
Professor G. F. Savage-Armstrong, author of
“Stories of Wicklow” and “Ballads of Down,”
is completing a novel which deals with Irish life
in the nineteenth century. He is also writing
miscellaneous poems for publication in volume
form.
Miss Rosa Nouchette Carey’s new novel “A
Passage Perilous” (Macmillan) has made an
excellent start, the sales of the first edition before
publication being most satisfactory.
THE AUTHOR.
Miss Evelyn Sharp’s latest story, to be pub-
lished immediately by Messrs. Macmillan, is called
“The Children Who Ran Away.” It is meant to
appeal to children about the same age as those who
liked “The Youngest Girl in the School.” This
latter popular story, by the way, is probably going
to be translated into Italian. Miss Sharp’s “ ‘Three
Story Readers,” published last spring, are doing
well. They consist of very easy stories (original,
of course), for children who only just know how to
read, and the stories are just stories, and not
directly instructive in any way: nothing about
them suggests the lesson book.
Hope Rea, author of “Tuscan Artists,” “* Dona-
tello,” etc., has just completed for Messrs. George
Bell & Son, the “ Rembrandt” for their miniature
series of the Painters. Hope Rea has arranged to
spend the coming winter in Italy for the purpose
of farther study and research connected with
Italian art, and to supplement the material already
acquired for a larger work on medieval and early
Renaissance Art, which this writer has had on
hand for some time.
The Clarendon Press is publishing “ Selected
Drawings from old Masters in the University
Galleries, and in the Library at Christ Church,
Oxford.” Part I. contains twenty drawings
exactly reproduced in collotype. They are chosen
and described by Mr. Sidney Colvin, Keeper of
Prints and Drawings in the British Museum.
Messrs. Macmillan & Co. have decided to make
their edition of “Thackeray’s Works” absolutely
exhaustive. They have secured the services of the
well-known Thackeray expert, Mr. Lewis Melville,
author of the “Life of William Makepeace
Thackeray,” etc. With his assistance they pro-
pose to include in this edition a great number of
scattered pieces from Thackeray’s pen, and illus-
trations from his pencil, which have not hitherto
been contained in any collected edition, and many
of which have never been reprinted.
Mr. Melville is also collating the volumes with
the original editions, and providing bibliographical
introductions and occasional footnotes.
Mrs. Stepney Rawson’s new noyel will be pub-
lished by Messrs. Hutchinson. It is a romance of
the Romney Marsh and of Rye Town. The action
takes place about 1820, and deals with the warfare
of the landowners and the harbour folk of the
Marsh at Rye, and also with the shipbuilding
industry there, which has since dwindled. There
is a strong love interest, and the story principally
hangs on the personality of a young designer of
boats and ships, who is apprenticed to the chief
shipbuilder of the town.
THE AUTHOR. 5
Mrs. Rawson, who is peculiarly sensitive to the
atmosphere of Place, has devoted herself to this
little corner of Sussex which she finds packed with
delightful traditions. She has written a number of
stories of new and old Rye; these she hopes to
publish in volume form later on.
Mr. Hume Nisbet has been travelling for the past
two years, and has been collecting material for
future work. His next romance “The Trust
Trappers ” will be published by Mr. J ohn Long in
the spring of 1904. It deals with millionaires and
corner syndicates. Besides being engaged upon an
Australian romance, Mr. Nisbet is writing his auto-
biography as author, artist and traveller. The
author of “ A Colonial Tramp” has gone through
many adventures by land and sea. This auto-
biography will be profusely illustrated by himself.
A new edition of “ The Care of Infants” by Dr.
Sophia Jex-Blake will be published immediately by
Mr. George Morton, of Edinburgh, as the first
edition of 5,000 copies has been out of print for
some little time.
Mr. Bram Stoker’s new novel “The Jewel of
Seven Stars” will be published this month by Mr.
Heinemann. It is something in the vein of
“ Dracula,” and part of it deals with the mysteries
of ancient Egypt.
Mr. Arthur A. Sykes’s collection of humorous
and satirical pieces from Punch will be published
this month by Messrs. Bradbury and Agnew, under
the title of “Mr. Punch’s Museum, and Other
Matters.” Mr. Sykes has previously brought out
two volumes of reprints from the same source—
“A Book of Words,” and “ Without Permission.”
The book will also contain “ Life’s Little Pro-
blems,” a semi-burlesque series which appeared in
Pearson's Magazine a short while ago.
Miss Edith ©. Kenyon is publishing a book
through the Religious Tract Society entitled “A
Queen of Nine Days, by her Gentlewoman Margaret
Brown.” The central figure is Lady Jane Grey,
and the story is told by a young lady who enters
her service and remains faithful to her.
Rita’s next novel “The Jesters,” will appear in
the early autumn. Messrs. Hutchinson & Oo. will
publish it. Rita purposes spending the winter in
South Cornwall to complete further work on which
she is engaged.
Miss O’Conor Eccles has recently published
through Falion & Co., of Dublin, a “ Reading Book
on Domestic Economy for the Use of Irish Schools,”
which is to be adopted by the Board of Education.
It takes the form of a little story, and contains
such simple, practical instructions as a good
mother of the working-class would give her young
daughter. :
The Department of Agriculture has presented a
copy to every village library in Ireland. The
Technical Schools of France and Belgium have
long had delightful illustrated primers dealing with
Household Management, Hygiene, Gardening,
Dairy Work, and rural life generally, treated on
similar lines ; but, so far as we know, the volume
referred to is the first of the kind introduced into
schools in the United Kingdom.
Mr. J. Beattie-Crozier’s “Civilisation and Pro-
gress’ has been translated into Japanese by a
Member of Parliament of Japan.
We understand from Mr. Leonard Williams that
he has been elected a corresponding member of the
Royal Spanish Academy.
‘Fishing in Wales,” by Walter M. Gallichan
(Geoffrey Mortimer) which was published a
few months ago, is to be re-issued in a new edition,
with a map and index. This author is writing a
handbook on “ Angling” for Messrs. Pearson’s
Popular Series; and he is publishing a volume on
“Seville” in the Medieval Towns Series during
the autumn.
Early this month Mr. G. A. Morton will publish
a book by Mr. Robert Aitken entitled “ Windfalls,”
the contents being “Some Stray Leaves Gathered
by a Rolling Stone.”
Mr. Frankfort Moore’s new novel, “ Shipmates
in Sunshine” (Hutchinson), is an open-air story,
the action taking place on board ship and in the
West Indies.
Mr. Cutcliffe Hyne’s “‘McTodd” is a volume
of stories published the other day by Messrs.
Macmillan. McTodd is a ship’s engineer, Scotch,
drunken, pugnacious, uncertificated, but a good
mechanician. He relates his various adventures
in the far north, on whaling trips, on shipboard,
or in towns that reek of fish-curing. Need we
say that McTodd has a conscience—of a kind !
Miss Jetta S. Wolff has just published “Les
Francais d’Autrefois,” Vol. I.—a short history of
France, intended for learners of the language
(Edwin Arnold). Miss Wolff has also lately
written a series of object lessons in practical
French, with a companion yolume containing
translations and notes, ‘intended as a hand-book
for teachers (Blackie & Son). These, and a new
collection of her little stories from the “ Lives
of Saiuts and Mariyrs” (Mowbray), will appear
shortly.
Madame Mijatovich has been busy with the
preparation of a second edition of her work, “The
History of Modern Servia,” which was published a
good aany years ago. She has now brought the
history up to the accession of King Peter.
Madame Mijatovitch is translating the Servian
6
popular ballads on “ Kralyevitch Marko” (the
King’s son Marko), who is the national hero of the
Servians.
«The Padre,” by Rose Harrison, author of
“Esther Alington,” honorary secretary of the
Children’s Protection League, will be ready in
October. This is a story “ dedicated to all who
live and work and love the Brotherhood.” _ Price
35. 6d. Itis being published by Richard J. James,
3 & 4, London House Yard, E.C.
It is authoritatively announced that six years ago
the late Pope Leo XIII. charged Count Soderini
with the task of writing a history of his pontificate.
While leaving the Count entire freedom of judg-
ment, the Pope placed numberless documents
hitherto wholly secret at the writer’s disposal, and
also dictated much material in explanation of his
acts. Mr. F. Marion Crawford is acting in col-
Jaboration with Count Soderini in the preparation
of the Anglo-American edition, which will be
published in London and New York by Messrs.
Macmillan & Co. The work will appear in all
countries in 1904.
Mrs. Humphry Ward has signed a contract
with Messrs. Harper for her new story, which will
begin to appear in Harper’s Magazine in June
next, The original play written by Mrs. Ward,
in collaboration with Mr. Louis Parker, is to be
produced during the winter season in New York,
with Miss Eleanor Robson in the leading part.
“ Bleanor” is also to be produced in New York
during November, and Mrs. Ward is now revising
the play.
Anthony Hope has finished a story, which will
be published by Messrs. Hutchinson next year,
entitled “ Double Harness.” Anthony Hope’s new
comedy, “ Captain Dieppe,” founded on a story of
his, and written in collaboration with Mr. Harrison
G. Rhodes, is to be produced in America this
autumn.
Mr. Cosmo Hamilton has just published, through
Messrs. Hurst and Blackett, a book called “‘ Cupid in
Many Moods.” Isbister & Co. is bringing out, at
an early date, a novelised version of the play
produced last September at the Comedy Theatre,
“The Wisdom of Folly”; and a serious effort of
Mr. Hamilton’s, “We of Adam’s Clay,” occupies a
large portion of this month’s Smart Set, afterwards
to make its appearance in book form simultaneously
here and in America.
Mr. Cosmo Hamilton’s dramatic version of
Kipling’s “Story of the Gadsby’s” is the next
production at the Haymarket. At present this
busy author is hard at work on some commissions
for plays. In two plays Mr. Hamilton is col-
laborating with his wife, Miss Beryl Faber, the
actress.
THE AUTHOR.
Mr. H. V. Esmond’s new comedy, “ Billy’s
Little Love Affair,” is going well at The Criterion
Theatre. It is preceded by Miss Rosina Filippi’s
charming playlet, “The Mirror.”
On Thursday evening, September 10th, 1903,
Mr. Beerbohm Tree produced at His Majesty’s
Theatre Shakespeare’s historical play,“ Richard IT.”
It is a brilliant revival in every sense of the word.
Mr. Tree has specially acknowledged his indebted-
ness to Mr. Percy Anderson, who has designed and
supervised the costumes; and to Mr. G. Ambrose
Lee, of the Heralds’ College, who has directed the
heraldry and ceremonial.
We understand that some pupils of the Brussels,
Antwerp and Bruges high schools are coming over
to see this revival of “ Richard II.” The play has
been selected as a subject for examination this
year by the Belgian educational authorities.
a
PARIS NOTES.
ee
bee winter season seems likely to be one of
great activity in the literary world, while
the length of the theatrical programmes is
alarming. So many new plays are announced that
dramatic critics will certainly not have much rest.
The recent death of M. Gustave Larroumet is
a great loss to the world of letters. For some
years M. Larroumet lectured on French literature
at the Sorbonne. He wrote in the Revue Bleue,,
the Revue des Deux-Mondes, the Revue de Paris,
and the Temps. His work on the life and theatre
of Moliére is a most complete criticism, but the
book which was perhaps his greatest success was
the one he consecrated to Marivaux.
The death of another literary critic is just
announced, a man whose name is perhaps nob
widely known, but who was one of the interesting
personalities of the Sainte-Beuve literary circle.
M. Jules Levallois, who has just passed away, was
Sainte-Beuve’s secretary. He worked, not only at
the ‘‘ Lundis,” but also at the invaluable book on
Port-Royal. In his day, M. Levallois was a great.
authority on current literature. In the paper
founded by Adolphe Guéroult he wrote the
“ Variétés littéraires,” and his book reviews were
considered as highly as Sarcey’s dramatic criti-
cisms, Jules Levallois had almost outlived the
group of literary friends he knew in the days of
Sainte-Beuve, the de Goncourt brothers, Barbey
d’Aurévilly, Alphonse Daudet, Hector Malot,
Flaubert, About, and others. He retained his keen
intelligence to the last, and_was as bright and
active as a young man. He was a voracious
reader, and only a few months ago he expressed
THE AUTHOR. 7
his thankfulness that his eyesight was so good,
He was then collecting a provision of books in the
library of a mutual friend, and regretting that in
our times people had given up reading, He
belonged essentially to the old school, to the days
when men had time to meet together and “ talk
literature,” and his conversation was worth listen-
ing to. One felt in his presence something of the
atmosphere of the men of intellect with whom he
had associated, for his memories and reminiscences
were a part of himself, and gave a great charm to
all that he said.
A most interesting book has recently been pub-
lished entitled “ Idées Sociales et Faits Sociaux.”
It contains several lectures which were given last
winter at the house of the Baroness Piérard.
“ Le Socialisme et son Evolution” is the title
of the lecture by M. Souchon, who tells us that the
idea of socialism is as old as humanity. He traces
it back to the Grecians and Romans, and shows
the various stages through which it has passed.
“ L’Organisation Professionnelle” is the practical
side of the question, and this is a very thoughtful
article. The most interesting chapter in the book
is the one by M. Riviere, “Vingt Ans de Vie
Sociale.” This is not so much an exposition of
theories as a statement of experiences. M. Riviére
is a practical man, who for the last twenty years
has been watching the results of his own experi-
ments, and who has discovered for the wheels of
his machinery an excellent receipt for oil;
“ Beaucoup de patience, non moins de fermeté, pas
mal de respect pour la liberté de louvrier, avec
addition de justice généreuse, affectueuse méme.”
A volume of short stories and sketches by
M. Georges Clemenceau, entitled “Aux Embus-
cades de la Vie,” is well worth reading.
There are in all some fifty stories arranged in
three divisions: “Dans la Foi,” “Dans l’Ordre
Etabli,” and “Dans l’Amour.”
The subjects are all delicately handled, the
stories themselves light, but there is much to read
between the lines. In “Le Fétiche de Mokou-
bamba,” we have a poor negro who is converted
and reconverted times without number to the
various beliefs and religions of the people who
take an interest in him.
Then there is a story of a German pastor who
is unfortunate enough to wake up to the idea that
there is no devil. His wife is horrified and thinks
it her duty to leave him, and the members of his
congregation decide that he must be an atheist.
There is a most amusing story, too, of a poacher,
which serves to show up the absurdity of certain
laws. Another excellent study is “Justin
Cagnard,” a type of the man who works mechanic-
ally. He is described as a “ produit de l’accu-
mulation quotidienne du labeur ancestral obstiné
dans le méme sillon. Il était le rouage d’une
machine dont l’impulsion venait uniquement de la
Vitesse acquise des anciens. II n’était ni intelligent,
puisqu’il ne concevait rien au deli de son métier,
ni béte puisque’il suivait avec suects la routine
des affaires... .” The whole volume is full of
the thoughts and reflections of a keen observer of
human nature,
“Chez les Rois” is another book of short
stories by Adolphe Aderer. The first of thege
stories is, however, not fiction. It is entitled
“ Meyerling,” and is supposed to be a true account
of the celebrated tragedy of the Archduke Rudolf,
The other sketches in the book are more or less
improbable. ‘
In “Sébastien Trume,” the new novel by M.
Sauvage, we are introduced to a number of indivi-
duals who are all in search of Utopia. Among
them we havea man devoted to the occult sciences,
a priest, a professor who is also a philosopher, an
anarchist and a young man who listens to the
theories and ideas of all the others, and can come
to no conclusion about life and_ its meaning.
When he is in despair, he is fortunate enough to
fall in love with a young girl, who proves to him
that in spite of all worries and difficulties life is
well worth living.
“Les Gens de Tiest,” by George Vires, is a book
without any strong plot, and is only interesting
as a study of life and customs in a quaint little
Belgian town.
“ Les Oiseaux s’envolent et les Fleurs tombent ”
is the poetical title of the novel recently published
by M. Elémir Bourges, one of the members of the
Goncourt Academy, We are told that M. Bourges
Spends about ten years in writing a book, and
certainly these five hundred pages must have
required a great amount of time. The scene is
laid in Russia about the year 1845, and the whole
story is full of action. It is distinctly melo-
dramatic, treating of jealousy, the abduction of a
child, and of a boy who is a Grand Duke, but grows
up to manhood, believing himself to be a very ordi-
nary individual. He is discovered asa Communist
after the war of 1870, and destined by his parents
to marry a princess, who proves to be the very
girl with whom he has already fallen in love. The
whole book is full of startling incidents, inter-
spersed with a certain amount of philosophy.
M. de Réenier’s novel « Mariage de Minuit,” is
disappointing. One expects, perhaps, too much
from a poet, and the tone of this book is distinctly
common-place. It is just the story of a young
orphan girl left without any means of support.
A coasin takes compassion on her and offers her
a home. This cousin is a widow and a woman
of the world, Her reputation is not spotless,
and the young girl’s,position is therefore extremely
8
difficult. The characters are well drawn, but most
of them are 80 uninteresting and vulgar that one
regrets making their acquaintance. On the whole,
there does not seem to be any raison d’ étre for a
book of this kind.
M. André Hallays has recently published a
book entitled “A travers la France.” It is com-
posed of notes taken during a ramble through
Normandy, Touraine, Burgundy, and Provence.
It is full of historical anecdotes and legends
belonging to the places visited, so that it is an
invaluable guide to anyone making a study of
provincial France. :
“Une Vie d’ambassadrice au siecle dernier,” by
M. Ernest Davdet, is the biography of the Princess
de Lieven, the celebrated woman who was so well
known in French, Russian and English political
circles from 1825 to 1857. The book is as
interesting aS any novel, giving as it does so
many anecdotes about the men and women of that
epoch.
Seyeral new writers are coming to the front, and
among them M. Charles Recolin. “ Le Chemin
du Roi,” by this author is a decided success. It
is a story in which all the characters live. ‘Fhe
theme is by no means new but it is worked out
well. Andrette Jouanollou comes of a family
which for more than four hundred years has lived
in the Pyrenees. Her father is an artist whose
two great interests in life are his daughter and his
pottery. Andrette has been educated well, and
has great talent as a poetess. A young farmer iS
in love with her, but she ig romantic and dreads
the thought of a prosaic existence. Just at this
critical time a Parisian comes to the little village.
He edits a review, and is in search of information
concerning certain legends. The schoolmaster
introduces him to Andrette, and the sequel is that
the village girl, with her fresh, romantic ideas,
marries the blasé Parisian. The story reminds
one of the “ Princess. of Thule,” but the French
story is more subtle and the analysis of character
more delicately treated.
Among other new novels recently published are
“Te Rival de Don Juan,” by M. Louis Bertrand ;
“Tes Paradis,” by Auguste Germain ; “La Com-
tesse Panier,’” by M. de Comminges 5 “ Marilisse,”
by M. Marcelin ; ‘Mademoiselle de Fougeres,”
by Ernest Daudet ; “ Un Menage dernier eri,” by
Gyp 3 * Flamen,” by Mme. Caro.
Mile. Hélene Vacaresco has ]
yolume of poems entitled “ Lueurs et
among which are some gems.
In the action brought by M. Léon de Rosny,
the Orientalist, against MM. Boex, to restrain
them from using the name of J. H. Rosny in
signing their literary work, the plaintiff was non-
suited, The Court held that as the brothers
ust published a
Flammes,”
THE AUTHOR.
Rosny had used that pen-name for seventeen years
without any protest from M. Léon de Rosny, and
that as their publications were of an entirely
different nature from his, there could be no con-
fusion caused by the brothers Rosny continuing
to sign the name they had adopted.
A literary convention has been concluded
between France and Montenegro for a period of
ten years. The two governments undertake to
prevent any illicit reproduction of artistic and
literary works on their respective territories.
M. ‘Liebler has made arrangements with M.
Henry Bataille for the production of this author’s
new five-act play, “ Mademoiselle de la Valliere,” in
se York. he piece is to be put on in London
also.
The principal play at the Sarah
Theatre this winter will be “ La Sorciére,” by
M. Sardou. The scene is laid in Toledo during
the troubled times of the struggles with the
Moors. The first night is announced for the end
of November.
M. Bour, who ran the International Theatre in
Paris last year, has now taken over the Trianon
Theatre and made arrangements for producing
some extremely interesting new plays. He opens
with one by M. Paul Loyson, the son of Pere
Hyacinthe.
M. Porel has a very long programme for us this
season, and Madame Réjane has some important
creations. Among the new pieces are “ Antoinette
Sabrier,” by Romain Coolus ; “La Meilleure Part,”
by MM. Pierre de Coulevain and Pierre Decourcelle ;
“Tes Menottes,” by MM. Simon and Xanrof.
‘he Odeon Theatre opens with “ Resurrection,”
and is soon to produce the French version of
«The Second Mrs. Tanqueray,” and later on
«“ Plorise Bonheur,” by M. Brisson.
Auys HaLLarD.
Bernhardt
—__—__-—> +
LITERARY, DRAMATIC, AND MUSICAL
PROPERTY.
——
Dumas Translations.
N announcement has appeared in many of the
literary papers that Messrs. Methuen & Co.
have commenced the publication of a new
English translation of the novels of Dumas, under
the editorship of Mr. A. R. Allinson. The notice
states that Mr. Allinson’s competence is un-
questioned and that he is assisted by a group of
able scholars, and ends with these words, “It is a
bold scheme, and we hope Messrs. Methuen will
have an immense success with it.”
aeons
“matter: out of the 18th section
THE AUTHOR. 9
We should hope so too, did not a letter lie before
us, written by the editor, inviting the co-operation
of one not unknown as a writer and translator, on
the following terms—a remuneration of 2s. per
thousand words, printer’s estimate of length to
be taken as final, and the translation to be issued
in the name of the editor (Mr. Allinson) as being
generally responsible for the whole series,
If we work out the sum more completely, we
find that a novel of 200,000 words would bring
the translator £20.
We do not know whether this “bold” offer
emanates from the firm of Messrs. Methuen or
from Mr. Allinson. But will it be accepted ? We
trust not.
For if the “able scholar” is writing for a liveli-
hood, he will hardly attain it at this price. If
for pleasure, it is not fair that he should undersell
his fellow members of the profession of letters in
the labour market.
It is to be observed that the translator will not
even gain the merit of his work which Mr.
Allinson proposes to appropriate.
———+—_
The Serial Use,
Tux following point merits the attention of
members of the Society :—An author wrote an
article for an American magazine called Outing, a
periodical holding a strong position in the United
States, and copyrighted on both sides of the
Atlantic. The member, so far as he was concerned,
had no intention whatever of transferring to the
magazine a larger portion of his property than the
right to produce in serial form in that paper. The
article was published in due course. Imagine his
astonishment, however, when, at a later date, it re-
appeared in an English magazine. He put his
objection before the Editor of Outing and com-
plained of the use thut had been made of his MS.
The Editor pointed out to him that although
perhaps he had not intended to convey the whole
serial use, yet he had altered the receipt that
had been forwarded to him in his own hand-
writing from “ All rights to your MS.” to “The
right of serial use, of your MS.” without in any
way limiting the serial use. The member then
referred the matter to the Secretary of the Society
in order to obtain a decision as to his exact legal
position, and was informed that, under the circum-
stances of the case, the Editor of Outing was acting
entirely within his rights.
The point to which the attention of members
must be called is (1) to be careful when they
enter into contracts with editors of magazines
as to the rights which they sell ; (2) to take the
of the Act by
making an express contract ; and (3) to limit the
express contract to serial use in one issue of the
magazine.
Tt was not long ago that Mr. Longman, at the
meeting of the Publishers’ Association, complained
of this sale without limitation of serial rights, and
the serious loss that might result to a publisher
who purchased the copyright without knowledge
of this contract. The point was dealt with in
detail in The Author.
ot
Nethersole +. Bell.
Ty the above-named case, an action was brought
by Miss Olea Nethersole for infringement of her
rights ina play called Sapho,” which was written
by Clyde Fitch, the well known American
dramatist, and taken from Monsieur Daudet’s
novel. The defendants also produced a play called
“Sapho,” and put forward in their defence that
their play was written in Australia in 1899, before
the date of Mr. Fitch’s play, and was an adaptation
from an English translation of the novel.
The first point to be decided in this, as indeed in
every question of infringement of copyright, is how
far one play corresponds with or appears to have been
taken from the other. This point must be settled
on general principles, and for this reason the
matter was referred to a theatrical expert, Mr.
Seymour Hicks. The second question to be
decided is whether the evidence shows that both
plays were taken from an original source, or
whether one play or, at any rate, great parts of it
were taken from the other. Mr. Seymour Hicks’
report has not been set forth in any of the papers,
but it would appear that he had no doubt in his
mind that the play of the defendants contained
great portions of the action of Mr, Fitch’s play.
The second question then had to be determined.
Whether it was possible that the defendants could
have written their play from a common origin, or
whether there was any deliberate adaptation from
the other work. Mr. Justice Farwell, in summing
up, came to the conclusion that he was unable to
accept the explanation of the defendants that
nothing was taken from Mr. Fitch’s play. He
found it impossible to think that so many similari-
ties were merely coincidences, and he gave jude-
ment for the plaintiff with costs,
Every verdict in a case of this kind adds some
fresh argument, and some further evidence as to
the manner and method by which a case of infringe-
ment should be determined. Therefore the judgment
should be studied, As, however, an infringement
of copyright is not essentially a matter of law, but
of fact, the ultimate verdict must in most cases be
doubtful.
10
Springfield *. Thame.
THs was a case of infringement of copyright of
a different kind from that set forth in Nethersole v.
Bell. The plaintiff wrote an article on a piece of
news, describing an escape from drowning of Dr.
MacHardy, Professor of Ophthalmology at King’s
College Hospital.
The article was produced, subject to considerable
editorial alteration, in the Daily Mail, and also
appeared in the W estminster Gazette and in the
Daily Chronicle. The Evening Standard reprinted
the article with very slight alteration from the
Daily Mail version, and the plaintiff demanded
full payment, but was refused on the ground that
the article had not come direct from him. The
defendants, however, offered the sum of 2s. 6d.,
which was not accepted.
It is an exceedingly difficult matter to give a
fair exposition of a case of this kind, unless it is
possible to quote the original paragraph as written
by the plaintiff, the paragraph in the Daily Mail,
and the paragraph that appeared in the Avening
Standard, but the Judge, Mr. Justice Joyce,
evidently came to the conclusion that the editor of
the Daily Mail had so altered the paragraph that
although he had taken the piece of news from the
plaintiff he had virtually made the paragraph his
own by the alteration. But the plaintiff had been
paid for the use the editor of the Daily Mail had
made of his work. The cutting from the Evening
Standard was merely a statement of a piece of
news, though his Lordship seemed to think that if
the Daily Mail had inserted the plaintiff's “copy”
verbatim et literatim, and the Evening Standard had
then printed the paragraph, they would have been
liable. The Judge therefore came to the conclusion
that the plaintiff’s action must fail.
The Referee, the following week, making fun of
the eccentricities of Copyright Law, wrote as
follows :—
“Now that an English Judge has decided that a sub-
editor altering a word or two in a paragraph becomes the
author, the Incorporated Society of Authors is going to get
rid of its committee of original writers and fill up the
vacancies with sub-editors.
“THE NEw CoPYRIGHT.
“The greatest author on the earth
Sent in a par. of passing worth,
J, changing ‘sailor’ into ‘tar,’
Became the author of the par.”
———————__+——_+_____
CIVIL LIST PENSIONS.
—
HE following is the list of pensions for 1902
to March, 1908. This statement always
draws the attention of members of the
literary profession, as one of the first objects of
the Act is to reward those who, “ by their useful
THE AUTHOR.
discoveries in science and attainments in literature
and the arts have merited the gracious considera-
tion of their sovereign and the gratitude of their
country.”
It is instructive to follow the extent to which
these purposes have been fulfilled :—
1902.— May 8.
Miss Rhoda Broughton, in consideration of her merits £
as a writer of fiction ... me a wae ae 18
Mrs. Adelaide Fanny Eyre, in consideration of the
services of her late husband, Mr. Edward John Eyre,
the Australian Explorer and Governor of Jamaica 100
William Raymond Fitzgerald, George Francis Fitz-
gerald, and John Jellett Fitzgerald ... ane ... 100
During the minority of any one of them, and in
recognition of the services rendered to Science
and Education by their late father, Professor
George Francis Fitzgerald, F.R.S.: in trust to
their mother, Mrs. Harriet Fitzgerald.
Mr. Worthington George Smith, in consideration of
his services to Archeology and Botanical illustra-
tion, and of his inadequate means of support
ore
September 12.
Mrs. Zaré Elizabeth Blacker, in recognition of the
services of her late husband, Dr. A. Barry Blacker,
M.D., who lost his life through his devotion to
medical research ae oe ae ees 120
October 21.
Mr. Justin McCarthy, in recognition of his services
to literature... or ae Be x -- 250
Mrs. Margaret Duncan Adamson, in consideration of
the services rendered to Philosophy by her late
husband, Professor Robert Adamson, and of her
straitened circumstances ges ee ee ie
Miss Florence Buchanan, in consideration of her
scientific researches and consequent failure of
sight, and of her inadequate means of support .. 50
December 20
Miss Beatrice Hatch... aa si ae 23
Miss Ethel Hatch ves ees cae ae se e:
Miss Evelyn Hatch ee cae aoe a cus
In consideration of the services of their father, the
late Rev. Edwin Hatch, in connection with
Ecclesiastical History, and of their straitened
circumstances, such pensious to be additional
to their existing pensions.
1903.—March 25.
Mr. James Sully, in recognition of his services to
Psychology --- es ee oon Sos oe
Mr. Alexander Carmichael and Mrs. Mary Frances
Carmichael, jointly and to the survivor of them,
in recognition of Mr. Carmichael’s services to the
study of Gaelic Folk Lore and Literature ... io oe
Miss Mary Elizabeth Maxwell Simpson, in considera-
tion of the eminence as a chemist of her late father,
Professor Maxwell Simpson, and of her straitened
circumstances ... Oe ves a8 ove ee
Miss Bertha Meriton Gardiner, in consideration of the
eminence of her late husband, Mr. 8. R. Gardiner,
asa historian .. ets see i ase on
Mrs. Jane Earle, in consideration of the services of
her late husband, Professor John Earle, to English
Literature and Philology AS aes sk DO.
105
40
78
Tol «ee ee
THE AUTHOR. 11
A MUSIC PUBLISHERS’ PROFITS.
te
WRITER in The Vocalist, a paper whose
opinion no doubt thrills the musical world,
has thought fit to criticise an article that
appeared in the January, 1903, number of The
Author.
This article to which readers are particularly
referred was entitled “ A Musical Agreement,” and
set forth one ef those antediluvian documents
which the musical publisher is still in the habit of
imposing on the author of music. The comments
accompanying were drastic, but well deserved.
The end of the article set out a few figures of the
cost of musical publication and of the musical
publisher’s profits.
The writer in The Vocalist, like a skilful advo-
cate, ignores the terms of the agreement and the
caustic remarks—perhaps he catches a scintillation
of truth—and proceeds to expose to his own satis-
faction the falsity of the figures. In his trite
criticism he sneers at the writer—‘a little know-
ledge may prove a dangerous thing.” He then
proceeds to show not only how impossible it is for
a music publisher to make a fortune, but how for
an absolute certainty he is bound to become bank-
rupt. The retort is obvious, “if a little knowledge
is a dangerous thing,” “too much learning hath
made him mad.”
Please note his figures, the following is an
extract from his luminous statement—
“When a song is published, the first thing to be done is
to place it on the market, which may be done in three
different ways, according to the intention of the publisher,
whose common experience is that although the first is a
sine quad non, the two others are essential to commercial
success.
“(1) By empowering a traveller to tour the country with
a copy of the song in question amongst his samples,
soliciting orders for ‘the latest novelties,” from the retail
trade, i.e., the music seller.
(2) By engaging popular singers to warble the strains
of ‘the latest novelty’ at their public engagements, before
their highly expectant audiences.
** (3) By advertising this latter fact in the columns of a
daily newspaper, which is usually done on the front page
of The Duily Telegraph.
“Now these three things are usually made to work
together,
“We must therefore calculate, although somewhat
toughly, the cost of carrying out these operations.
“Cost of No. 1.—A traveller's expenses cannot work out
at much less than £6 per week; his remuneration is
probably from £1 to £3 a week fixed wages, plus a 10 per
cent. commission ; but whatever his system of remuneration,
it must surely amount to not less than £4 a week, judging
by the superior class of man that must necessarily be
engaged in this work. This works out at £10 a week, or
allowing for a period during which the weekly expenditure
is withheld while on holiday, £400 a year cost to the
publisher, Now, assuming that the traveller has ten
novelties constantly going, and calculating that one half
of his usefulness is to push novelties, it means £200 is
spent in ‘pushing’ say twenty novelties a year ; in other
words the proportionate share of each song towards this
expense is £10 a year,
“Obviously this is but a rough calculation, but it is
based on the facts as known by practical experience,
“The cost under heading No. 2 is by no means easy to
apportion, for although a publisher knows quite well that
a good hearing is absolutely necessary to secure orders from
his customers, the singers also know quite as well that their
services have such a distinct market value that they are
able to command high prices ‘for taking up ’ new songs,
It is quite true that some singers sing songs simply because
they suit the voice, or because the songs are artistic and
appeal to their better feelings, but such cases are compara-
tively rare, and the majority of singers still sing royalty
songs for royalties’ sake. Far be it from me to say that if
a singer has assisted to earn money for the publisher and
the royalty owner, he or she is not fairly entitled to some
of the spoil. But the risk to the publisher under existing
_ conditions is, nevertheless, considerable, for it is well known
how useless it is to try any one or two singers for one or
two dozens (this has become the trade term for professional
assistance)—if it be done at all it should be done thoroughly,
and a gross of programmes is perhaps the very fewest that
can be of any material service, Now, supposing the price
per programme be taken at an average of seven shillings,
this means casting about £50 as bread upon the waters,
hoping to find it after very many days of patient watchine
and waiting. .
“So far the cost of making each song known to the
public is £60.
“ Cost under heading No. 3.—We now come to what may
at first sight seem to be the least necessary, and the least
profitable expense in connection with farming songs, ie.,
advertising the fact of its being sung by a certain singer at
a certain place on a certain day in a certain paper. Whether
this be profitable or no, I am not prepared to express my
candid opinion ; it is sufficient that custom has made it
almost absolutely necessary. Now, the cost of advertising
In Lhe Daily Telegraph (the recognised medium) is about
5s. for the insertion of each song ; six insertions a week,
therefore, amount to £1 10s. (no reduction on taking a
quantity), or for—say three months, £18.
“It will thus be seen that in addition to the initial cost
of printing 2,000 copies of a song (which, bear in mind, the
writer of the article in The Author generously puts at £15)
other expenses amounted to £78, It is not for one moment
suggested that a publisher expends as much on exploiting
each of all the songs he publishes, but on an average it may
be taken as a reasonable estimate of the expense he incurs
in the case of songs that he reasonably hopes to sell.”
It will be seen this man of knowledge takes £78
as a not unreasonable figure for advertising one
song. His words are “on an average,” ete,
The case must not be overstated, say then
£60.
He accepts the cost of production, quoted in
The Author of January—£15 for 2,000 copies—
with a sneer. “ Many publishers,” he says in the
early part of this article, “ would be only too pleased
to publish a song on these terms.”
We will accept the same figure,
So far, then, in our efforts to save the publisher
from bankruptcy, let the cost of production be
limited to £75: £15 printing, etc., for 2,000
copies, £60 for advertising and marketing.
12
He then continues :
** “We leave for the present the question of rent, salaries,
And other incidental expenses of maintaining the up-keep
of an office, which are part and parcel of the machinery of
publishing a song, for each song clearly has to bear its share
of these expenses, which, it is needless to say, are heavy.
So far we have dealt only with the expense of what is known
as “placing a song on the market,” and it can easily be seen
that the mere printing of copies is but a trifle compared
with the greater expense of dealing with the copies when
printed. Now let us turn to the more important question
of selling them. Happy, indeed, is the man who positively
knows that he will certainly sell 1,500 of the 2,000 copies
he has made, even if two, or, if you will, ten years are
allowed for doing it. Why, the actual experience of pub-
lishers is, that on an average, taking large houses (which
can always command some gort of sale) with the small, only
one song in twenty ever exceeds a sale of 1,000 copies, and
songs which reach a sale of 5,000 in a year are quite excep-
tional, and it is safe to say that out of every fifty songs
published in London, at least forty never see a second
edition, and of the other ten only one or two go into a fifth
edition. So much, then, for the numbers. But what of
prices? The contributor to Zhe Author calculates that the
net return is ls. 2d. per copy.
This ignorance is tantalizing to the publisher, and provokes
exasperation. Why, the novelty rate is never higher than
one-sixth of the marked price (4s.) which, of course, is only
Sd. each, and very many novelties are sold in the present
days of keen competition at one-eighth, which is only 6d.
each. We will not mention lower rates, although they are
known to most music publishers. This rate, obviously, is
not permanent ; if it were, the publisher could not continue
his business for six months, unless he carried it on as a
hobby, or were actuated by philanthropic motives. No! as
soon as a song shows vitality, and * is asked for” over the
music-seller’s counter, then a ray of hope does indeed enter
the counting-house, for he is able to raise his prices, and
when the music-seller orders what he requires, he has to pay
in the early days of success 10d. per copy ;_ but if the song
has reached a certain height of prosperity, he pays an even
shilling, provided he can order a quantity at a time ; if,
however, he requires only a few, then the contributor to
The Author is actually correct, the publisher really and
truly receives ls. 2d. entire.
Tn the above I have, perhaps, exposed certain trade
secrets; but there are few people who are nowadays not
more or less acquainted with them. I may be pardoned,
therefore, if I have exposed one of the most fallacious
statements ever uttered in a respectable paper of any status
or standing.
But I have not exhausted the subject by any means, and,
although I must not presume on the space allotted to me, I
must breathe a sigh over bad debts and long credits which,
in the music trade, are without parallel elsewhere. These
have to be provided for, however, and, even in the case of
most cautious publishers they are a very serious item.”
He is tantalised and provoked to exasperation.
To ease his mind he blurts out strange trade secrets,
that seemingly pervert all the politico-economical
doctrines of supply and demand. For in this
remarkable trade a large demand with infinite
capacity for supply—reproduction is simple and
expansive-—makes the product dearer, not cheaper.
But his figures are no doubt correct.
Again, to give his figures every advantage, in
order if possible to save him from the ruin, which,
according to the statement, must be the unenviable
THE AUTHOR.
end of “all those rash enough to produce songs,
let it be supposed that the average price of each
song is 10d., and that 1,500 out of the 2,000 are
sold (an absurd estimate, according to his
figures). He would then realise 15,000 pence,
or 1,250 shillings, or £62 10s. On each song,
therefore, he loses £75 — £62 10s. = £12 10s.
Therefore, on the 40 songs out of the 50 he loses
40 x 124= 40 % 25 = LOO" = £500.
It is evident that the bankruptcy court must
claim its victim. For if the publisher’s actual
figures are taken, his loss must at the lowest
computation be half as large again.
It cannot be that, to save himself from this pre-
ordained destruction, he sucks the blood of the
composer.
Perhaps other members of this generous class
of philanthropic tradesmen who, so it is rumoured,
make their contracts by word of mouth across their
dining tables over the nuts and wine, may repudiate
with indignation such a statement.
But what does the musical composer say ?
i
MAGAZINE CONTENTS.
ear
BLACKWOOD’S MAGAZINE
ONTAINS a graphic description by Mr. Reginald
C Wyon of what he has seen in Macedonia, and other
articles in the number are :
The Homes and Haunts of Edward Fitzgerald. By his
grand-niece, Mary Bleanor Fitzgerald Kerrich.
‘An Irish Salmon River. By Sir Herbert Maxwell.
The Man Who Knew. A short story by Perceval
Gibbon.
Personalia : Political, Social, and Various. By Sigma.
Translations from Leopardi. By Sir Theodore Martin,
K.C.B.
Scolopaxiana : How to Walk for and Shoot Snipe.
Marco Polo. By Charles Whibley.
Lord Salisbury ; Humiliation ; Musings Without Method.
‘A Malay Deer Drive. By George Maxwell.
The Fiscal Crisis.
Tur CORNHILL MAGAZINE.
Barlasch of the Guard (Chapters xxviiii—xxx.). By
Henry Seton Merriman (concluded).
In Guipuzcoa, II, By Mrs. Woods.
The Old Colonial System and Preferential Trade. By
Sidney Low, L.C.C.
“Rachel.” By Hugh Clifford, C.M.G.
Some Recent Speculations on the Constitution of Matter.
By W. A. Shenstone, F.R.S.
The Pleasures of Fishing. By Stephen Gwynn.
“ Sportie.” By Miss Constance B. Maud.
‘A Visit to “ Le Procts Humbert.”
Doggerel Ditties. By Dogberry.
BRON AISI
Sos
THE AUTHOR. 13
A Pastoral.
Poetic Justice.
The Lapse of the Professor.
By the Rev. H. G. D. Latham.
By W. Basil Worsfold.
By Arthur H. Henderson.
FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW.
Mr. Balfour’s Economic Creed.
Lord Salisbury. By Sidney Low.
The Evolution of French Contemporary Literature. By
Octave Uzanne.
The Fiscal Problem—
() Article by Professor W. T. Hewins.
(2) Sir Robert Peel and Mr. Chamberlain.
Spender.
(3) Will a Preference Tariff oppress the Poor ? By
David Christie Murray
War Commission Report. By Major Arthur Griffiths,
The Macedonian Question. By H. N. Brailsford.
Legend and Marie Bashkirtseff, By Prince Kara-
georgvich.
French Friendship and Naval Economy. By Archibald
8. Hurd.
Children’s Prayers and Prayer Manuals.
H. Cooper.
What Ireland Really Needs. By Sampson Morgan.
A Maker of Empire. S. F. Bullock.
The Questioners. By Herbert Trench.
Theophano: The Crusade of the Tenth
Frederic Harrison.
Correspondence—
(1) The Coming Ireland.
(2) Mankind in the Making,
By Harold
By Edward
Century.
By Lady Bathurst.
By Sir Wm. Bennett,
LONGMAN’S MAGAZINE,
Nature’s Comedian (Chapters vii., viii), By W. 5
Norris,
Wagers. By D. H. Wilson.
Last Year. By A.C. S.
A Michaelmas Move. By Chas. Fielding Marsh.
Loafing-time. By Fred. Whishaw.
Jellyby’s Plot.
Egyptian Irrigation Works,
A.M. Inst.C.E,
Scholarship Howlers. By G. Stanley Ellis,
At the Sign of the Ship. By Andrew Lang.
By Lawrence Gibbs,
MACMILLAN’S MAGAZINE,
John Maxwell’s Marriage (Chapters xxix.—xxxii,), By
Stephen Gwynn.
Wreckage of Empire. By Hugh Clifford, C.M.G.
The Sayings of Sir Oracle.
Borough Councils and Rising Rates,
Emmel, Ph.D.
Hope.
The Amusements of the People.
Some Opinions of a Pedagogue.
A Toiler’s Romance.
The Irregulars of the N avy. By W. J. Fletcher,
By Aloys N,
By J. G. Leigh.
By 8. T, Irwin.
THE PALL MALL MAGAZINE,
Phil May ; the Manand the Artist (with his last sketches
in pen and pencil and coloured plates).
The Brighton Road and the Motor Car. By C. G. Harper,
(Illustrated by the Author.)
The Discoverers of Radium. (With Portraits.)
Hotels and Hotel Life in New York. (Ilustrated.)
Literary Geography : the Lake Country. By William
Sharp.
Stories by Maurice Hewlett, John Oliver Hobbes, Sir
F. C. Burnand, U, L. Sil berrad, and other well-known
writers.
.
THE WorwD’s Work.
Gladstone in his Last Days. Unpublished Sketch by A,
S. Forrest. (Coloured frontispiece.)
The March of Events: An Editorial Comment. (With
full-page portraits of Mr. Gladstone (never before pub-
lished), Mr. John Morley, M.P., Mr. Herbert Gladstone,
M.P. (from special sittings), and the Hon. Whe Dp,
Smith, M.P.),
Mr. Balfour's Economics.
German Agriculture under
Dawson.
Mr. Morley’s Life of Gladstone.
C
By Alfred Emmott, M.P.
Protection, 3y W. H.
By Augustine Birrell,
K
Why the Navy Costs so Much,
The Day’s Work at W. H. Smith & Son’s,
Sculpture by Machinery. (Illustrated.)
The Poor Man’s Cow. By Home Counties, (Illustrated.)
The Trade Union Congress.
A Teetotal Island. By Charles T. Bateman,
What Theatres Cost. By Fitzroy Gardner.
Russia in Manchuria. By Alfred Stead. (Illustrated.)
The Art of Swimming. By Montague A. Holbein,
Cllustrated.)
The Social Life of the Soldier,
(IUustrated.)
The Royal Commission and the War Office.
Ocean Sanatoria. By Eustace Miles.
The National Physical Laboratory.
Carpenter, Ph.D.
Gymnastics for Girls. Clustrated.)
The Coming of the Motor Cab. (Illustrated.)
The Books of the Month, (With portraits of Mr. James
Lane Allen, Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler (Mas. Felkin), Dr,
William Barry, Mr. Bernard Shaw.)
The World of Women’s Work.
Among the World’s Workers,
By Archibald 8. Hurd,
(ustrated.)
3y Horace Wyndham.
By W. C. H.
QUARTERLY REVIEW.
The forthcoming number will contain the following
articles among others :—
Sophocles and the Greek Genius,
The Religion of Napoleon I. By J. Holland Rose.
The Novels of Mr, Henry James.
Our Orchards and Fruit-Gardens, By W. E. Bear.
The Time-Spirit in German Literature. By Walter
Sichel.
Leo XIII. and his Successor.
Richard Bagot.
Impressions of South Africa, 1901 and 1903.
The Journal of Montaigne.
Macedonia and the Powers.
The War Commission and Army Reform,
Wilkinson.
Lord Salisbury.
Protective Retaliation,
Mr. Morley’s Life of Mr, Gladstone,
——1—~@—-
TRADE NOTES.
eee
Land and Water (1902), Ltd.
N | OTICE has been given that a petition for the
winding up of the above company was
on the 7th ult. presented to the Court by
Spalding and Hodge, Ltd., of Drury Lane, London,
creditors of the company, and that the said peti-
tion will be heard betore Mr, Justice Buckley, at
the Royal Courts of Justice, on the 27th inst.
(Second Article.) By
By Spencer
14 THE AUTHOR.
WARNINGS TO THE PRODUCERS
OF BOOKS.
—— + —
ERE are a few standing rules to be observed in an
agreement. There are four methods of dealing
with literary property :—
I. Selling it Outright.
This is sometimes satisfactory, if a proper price can be
obtained, But the transaction should be managed by a
competent agent, or with the advice of the Secretary of
the Society.
Il. A Profit-Sharing Agreement (a bad form of
agreement).
Tn this case the following rules should be attended to :
(1.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro-
duction forms a part without the strictest investigation,
(2.) Not to give the publisher the power of putting the
profits into his own pocket by charging for advertisements
in his own organs, or by charging exchange advertise-
ments. Therefore keep control of the advertisements.
(3.) Not to allow a special charge for ‘office expenses,”
unless the same allowance is made to the author.
(4.) Not to give up American, Colonial, or Continental
rights.
“(.) Not to give up serial or translation rights.
(6.) Not to bind yourself for future work to any publisher.
As well bind yourself for the future to any one solicitor or
doctor !
Ill. The Royalty System.
This is perhaps, with certain limitations, the best form
of agreement. It is above all things necessary to know
what the proposed royalty means to both sides. It is now
possible for an author to ascertain approximately the
truth. From time to time very important figures connected
with royalties are published in Zhe Author.
IY. A Commission Agreement.
The main points are :—
(1.) Be careful to obtain a fair cost of production,
(2.) Keep control of the advertisements.
(3.) Keep control of the sale price of the book.
General.
All other forms of agreement are combinations of the four
above mentioned.
Such combinations are generally disastrous to the author.
Never sign any agreement without competent advice from
the Secretary of the Society.
Stamp all agreements with the Inland Revenue stamp.
Avoid agreements by letter if possible.
The main points which the Society has always demanded
from the outset are :—
1.) That both sides shall know what an agreement
means.
(2.) The inspection of those account books which belong
to the author. We are advised that this is a right, in the
nature of a common law right, which cannot be denied or
withheld.
(3.) Always avoid a transfer of copyright.
——__+—>_+__"__
WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS.
Saar
EVER sign an agreement without submitting it to the
Secretary of the Society of Authors or some com-
_ petent legal authority.
2. It is well to be extremely careful in negotiating for
the production of a play with anyone except an established
manager.
8. There are three forms of dramatic contract for plays
in three or more acts :—
(a.) Sale outright of the performing right. This
is unsatisfactory. An author who enters into
such a contract should stipulate in the contract
for production of the piece by a certain date
and for proper publication of his name on the
play-bills,
(b.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to
perform on the basis of percentages on
gross receipts. Percentages vary between 5
and 15 per cent. An author should obtain a
percentage on the sliding scale of gross receipts
in preference to the American system, Should
obtain a sum in advance of percentages. A fixed
date on or before which the play should be
performed.
(c.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to
perform on the basis of royalties (‘.¢., fixed
nightly fees). This method should be always
avoided except in cases where the fees are
likely to be small or difficult to collect. The
other safeguards set out under heading (0.) apply
also in this case.
4, Plays in one act are often sold outright, but it is
better to obtain a small nightly fee if possible, and a sum
paid in advance of such fees in any event. It is extremely
important that the amateur rights of one-act plays should
be reserved.
5. Authors should remember that performing rights-can
be limited, and are usually limited, by town, country, and
time. This is most important.
6. Authors should not assign performing rights, but
should grant a licence to perform. The legal distinction is
of great importance.
7. Authors should remember that performing rights in a
play are distinct from literary copyright. A manager
holding the performing right or licence to perform cannot
print the book of the words.
8. Never forget that United States rights may be exceed-
ingly valuable. ‘hey should never be included in English
agreements without the author obtaining a substantial
consideration.
9. Agreements for collaboration should be carefully
drawn and executed before collaboration is commenced.
10. An author should remember that production of a play
is highly speculative: that he runs a very great risk of
delay and a breakdown in the fulfilment of his contract.
He should therefore guard himself all the more carefully in
the beginning.
11. An author must remember that the dramatic market
is exceedingly limited, and that for a novice the first object
is to obtain adequate publication.
As these warnings must necessarily be incomplete, on
account of the wide range of the subject of dramatic con-
tracts, those authors desirous of further information
are referred to the Secretary of the Society.
——+——_—__—_
WARNINGS TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.
—-—~> + —
ITTLE can be added to the warnings given for the
assistance of producers of books and dramatic
authors. It must, however, be pointed out that, as
a rule, the musical publisher demands from the musical
composer a transfer of fuller rights and less liberal finan-
cial terms than those obtained for literary and dramatic
property. The musical composer has very often the two
rights to deal with—performing right and copyright. He
THE AUTHOR.
should be especially careful therefore when entering into
an agreement, and should take into particular consideration
the warnings stated above.
a
HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.
—_— +
1 VERY member has a right toask for and to receive
: advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-
lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his
business or the administration of his property. — The
Secretary of the Society is a solicitor, but if there is any
special reason the Secretary will refer the case to the
Solicitors of the Society. Further, the Committee, if they
deem it desirable, will obtain counsel’s opinion, All this
without any cost to the member.
2. Remember that questions connected with copyright
and publishers’ agreements do not fall within the experi-
ence of ordinarysolicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use
the Society.
3. Send to the Office copies of past agreements and past
accounts, with a copy of the book represented. The
Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new
or old, for inspection and note. The information thus
obtained may prove invaluable.
4, Before signing any agreement whatever, send
the document to the Society for examination.
5. Remember always that in belonging to the Society
you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you
are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are
advancing the best interests of your calling in promoting
the independence of the writer, the dramatist, the composer.
6. The Committee have now arranged for the reception
of members’ agreements and their preservation in a fire-
proof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as
confidential documents.to be read only by the Secretary,
who will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers:
—(1) To read and advise upon agreements and to give
advice concerning publishers. (2) To stamp agreements
in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep
agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to
agreements. Fuller particulars of the Society’s work
can be obtained in the Prospectus.
7. No contract should be entered into with a literary
agent without the advice of the Secretary of the Society.
Members are strongly advised not to accept without careful
consideration the contracts with publishers submitted to
them by literary agents, and are recommended to submit
them for interpretation and explanation to the Secretary
of the Society.
This
8. Many agents neglect to stamp agreements.
The
must be done within fourteen days of first execution,
Secretary will undertake it on behalf of members.
9. Some agents endeavour to prevent authors from
referring matters to the Secretary of the Society ; sO
do some publishers. Members can make their own
deductions and act accordingly.
10. The subscription to the Society is £1 4s. per
annum., or £10 10s. for life membership.
15
THE READING BRANCH.
——>—»
EMBERS will greatly assist the Society in this
N branch of its work by informing young writers
of its existence. Their MSS. can be read and
treated as a composition is treated by a coach. The term
MSS. includes not only works of fiction, but poetry
and dramatic works, and when it is possible, under
special arrangement, technical and scientific works. The
Readers are writers of competence and experience. The
fee is one guinea,
—————__+—~—
NOTICES.
—+—~>—+—_
HE Editor of The Author begs to remind members of
the Society that, although the paper is sent to them
free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a
very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great
many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest
5s. 6d. subscription for the year.
Communications for Zhe Author should be addressed to
the Offices of the Society, 39, Old Queen Street, Storey’s
Gate, S.W., and should reach the Editor not later than
the 21st of each month.
All persons engaged in literary work of any kind,
whether members of the Society or not, are invited to
communicate to the Editor any points connected with their
work which it would be advisable in the general interest to
publish,
i
Communications and letters are invited by the
Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on
no other subjects whatever. Every effort will be made to
return articles which cannot be accepted.
—1—~ +.
The Secretary of the Society begs to give notice
that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post,
and he requests members who do not receive an
answer to important communications within two days to
write to him without delay. All remittances should be
crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery Lane, or be sent
by registered letter only.
AUTHORITIES,
—+—~>—+
HERE has been some mention in the papers
, since the last issue of The Author of Russian
copyright, and it has been suggested that
it is possible to obtain protection in that country.
Inquiries we have made do not confirm this state-
ment. Even the Russian author himself cannot
always obtain security, as different laws with regard
to copyright hold in different portions of Russia.
To begin with, the author who publishes in
Russia, in order to obtain any protection must
be a Russian. This is a sine gud non. Even then
he does not always obtain what he wants.
We understand, however, that Russia is taking
16
steps (this understanding, like the proposal for
copyright legislation in the Empire, has been
prominent for many years) to consolidate all the
local laws with a view to subsequent amendment.
It is to be hoped that this development will be
realised at no distant date.
An article will be found in another column
dealing with the commercial aspects of authorship,
and refuting the contention of those who find that
it suits their interests to deny the right of literature
to have a commercial side. It was largely for the
benefit of authors in their endeavour to understand
the commercial possibilities of their work, and to
secure the benefits from it which business-like
methods afford, that the Society of Authors was
founded, and has carried on its work ever since.
Its members include men and women belonging to -
all the three classes of writers into which the
article in question divides authors, and the work
which it carries on for individuals benefits authors
as a whole, whether they be its members or not.
From this point of view we would urge all writers
to consider whether they are justified in accepting
the advantages which the Society has gained for
them without seeking to extend and increase those
advantages for themselves and for others by joining
the Society.
-. We must record, if somewhat behind time, the
marriage of Mr. Anthony Hope Hawkins, our late
chairman, to Miss Elizabeth Sheldon, on the Ist
of July. A number of present and former members
of our committee combined with the President of
the Society in presenting Mr. Anthony Hope
Hawkins on the happy occasion with a silver punch-
bowl and ladle as some token of their friendship
and good wishes and appreciation of the services he
has rendered the Society. The Society of Authors
has never had a chairman who has been more devoted
to its work, or has, by his unfailing courtesy,
tact, and sound judgment, done more to promote
its efficiency and success. All connected with it
will, we are sure, unite in congratulations to Mr.
Hawkins, coupled with the selfish hope that he
may long be able to spare time to assist in its
mavagement, and thus lighten the labour of his
suCcCeSSOrs.
Mempers of the Society have no doubt seen the
letter which appeared in the papers towards the
end of July, signed by the President and Chairman
of the Committee, referring to the proposed public
memorial to Sir Walter Besant.
We are glad to have the opportunity to correct a
THE AUTHOR.
slight mistake which occurred in that letter. It
stated that the sum of £340 was raised from among
members of the Society only. This is not exactly
true, as on looking through the list, we find two
of the subscribers were not members of the Society.
Messrs. A. P. Watt & Son, of which firm Mr. A.
P. Watt, for many years Sir Walter Besant’s
literary agent and finally his literary executor, is
senior partner, made a subscription of twenty-five
guineas. This amount is included in the sum of
£340.
Aw offer was made, by a firm whose only excuse
can be that they do not hold the highest position in
the rank of publishers, of £10 for an original novel
of 60,000 words from the pen of a writer not
altogether unknown for his ability, but unfortu-
nately notorious for his chronic impecuniosity.
The offer was, we are glad to say, rejected, If
the work was worth printing at all, it was worth
more than the amount stated.
THE list of elections from October, 1902, to
July 1903, will be published during the course of
the month, as a supplement to the list of the
Society already published.
The cost of the Supplementary list will be two-
pence.
1
OBITUARY.
——
R. WILLIAM WESTALL, the Novelist,
died on Wednesday, the 9th of September,
at the age of sixty-nine.
He had been a supporter of the Society almost
since its foundation. He joined in 1888.
He was a writer of many novels, and although
none of them ever became a great popular success,
yet he was a sound craftsman and a careful worker,
and knew well how to write an interesting book of
incident and adventure. It is sad to have to
chronicle the death of the older members.
WE regret to announce also the death of the
Rev. Prebendary Godfrey Thring, who had been a
member of the society for nearly ten years. As a
hymn writer he was exceedingly well known, some
of his verses being the most popular in Hymns
Ancient and Modern.
His Church of England Hymn Book is now in
the third edition.
THE AUTHOR.
THE PERIL OF SHAKESPEAREAN
RESEARCH.
—_1—@—+—_
OR some years past scarcely a month passes
without receipt of a communication from a
confiding stranger, to the effect that he has
discovered some piece of information concerning
Shakespeare which has hitherto eluded research.
Very often has a correspondent put himself to the
trouble of forwarding a photograph of the title-
page of a late 16th or early 17th century book, on
which has been scrawled in old-fashioned script
the familiar name of William Shakespeare. At
intervals, which seem to recur with mathematical
regularity, I receive intelligence that a portrait of
the poet, of which nothing is hitherto known, has
come to light in some recondite corner of the
country, and it is usually added that a contem-
porary inscription settles all doubt of authenticity.
I wish to speak with respect and gratitude of
these confidences. I welcome them, and have no
wish to repress them. But truth does not permit
me to affirm that such as have yet reached me have
done more than enlarge my conception of the scope
of human credulity. I look forward to the day
when the postman shall, through the generosity of
some appreciative reader of my biography of Shake-
speare, deliver at my door an autograph of the
dramatist of which nothing has been heard before,
or a genuine portrait of contemporary date, the
existence of which has never been suspected. But
up to the moment of writing, despite the good
intentions of my correspondents, no experience of
the kind has befallen me.
There is something pathetic in the frequency
with which correspondents, obviously of un-
blemished character and most generous instinct,
send me almost tearful expressions of regret that I
should have hitherto ignored one particular docu-
ment, which throws (in their eyes) a curious gleam
on the dramatist’s private life. At least six times
a year am I reminded how it is recorded in more
than one obscure 18th century periodical that the
dramatist, George Peele, wrote to his friend Marle
or Marlowe, in an extant letter, of a merry meeting
at a place called the “Globe” (which some take
tobe a tavern). At that surprising assembly there
were present, I am trustfully assured, not merely
Edward Alleyn, the actor, not merely Ben Jonson,
but Shakespeare himself, and together these cele-
brated men are said to have discussed a passage in
the new play of “ Hamlet.” The reported talk is
at the best tame prattle. Yet here, if anywhere, I
am often told, is Shakespeare revealed in uncon-
stramed intercourse with professional associates.
Are such revelations numerous enough, I am asked,
to exeuse a biographer for overlooking this one ?
17
Unfortunately for my informants’ argument, the
letter in question is an 18th century fabrication of
no intrinsic brilliance or wit. It bears on its
dull face’ marks of criminality which could only
escape the notice of the uninformed. It is not
likely to mislead the critical. Nevertheless it has
deceived many of my uncritical correspondents, and
largely for this reason it has constantly found its
way into print without meeting serious confutation.
It may therefore be worth while setting its true
origin and subsequent history on record. Nothing
that I can do is likely in all the circumstances of
the case to prevent an occasional resurrection of
the bodiless and spiritless creation, but at present
the meagre spectre appears to walk in various
quarters unimpeded, and an endeavour to lay it
here may not be without its uses.
Through the first half of 1763 there was published
a monthly magazine called the Theatrical Review,
or Annals of the Drama, an anonymous miscellany
of dramatic biography and criticism. It ceased
at the end of six months, and the six instalments
were re-issued as “ Volume I.” at the end of June,
1763; that volume had no successor.* The
Theatrical Review, a colourless contribution to
the journalism of the day, lacked powers of
endurance. All that is worth noting of it now
is that among its contributors was at least one
interesting personality. He was a young man of
good education and independent means, who had
chambers in the Temple, and was enthusiastically
applying himself to a study of Shakespeare and
Elizabethan dramatic literature. His name, George
Steevens, acquired in later years world-wide fame
as that of the most learned of Shakespearean com-
mentators. Of the real value of Steevens’s scholar-
ship no question is admissible, and his reputation
justly grew with his years. Yet Steevens’s temper
was singularly perverse and mischievous. His con-
fidence in his own powers led him to contemn the
powers of other people. He enjoyed nothing so
much as mystifying those who were engaged in the
same pursuits as himself, and his favourite method
of mystification was to announce anonymously
the discovery of documents which owed all their
existence to his own ingenuity. This, he admitted,
was his notion of “fun.” Whenever the whim
seized him, he would in gravest manner reveal to
the Press, or even contrive to bring to the notice of a
learned society, some alleged relic in manuscript or
in stone which he had deliberately manufactured.
His sole aim was to recreate himself with laughter
at the perplexity that such unholy pranks invariably
* Other independent publications of similar character
appeared under the identical title in 1758 and 1772. The
latter collected the ephemeral dramatic criticisms of John
Potter, a well-known writer for the stage,
18
aroused. It is one of these Puck-like tricks that
has spread confusion among my correspondents.
The Theatrical Review, in its second number,
offered an anonymous biography of the great
actor and theatrical manager of Shakespeare’s
day, Edward Alleyn. This biography was clearly
one of Steevens’s earliest efforts. It is for the most
part an innocent compilation. But it contains
one passage in its author’s characteristic vein of
mischief, which requires close attention in this place.
Midway in the essay the reader was solemnly assured
that a brand-new contemporary reference to Alleyn’s
eminent associate Shakespeare was at his disposal.
The new story “ carries with it ” (he was told) “ all
the air of probability and truth, and has never been
in print before.” “A gentleman of honour and
veracity,” ran the next sentences, which artfully
put the unwary student off his guard, “ in the com-
mission of the peace for Middlesex, has shown us a
letter dated in the year 1600, which he assures us has
been in the possession of his family, by the mother’s
side, for a long series of years, and which bears all
the marks of antiquity.” The superscription was
interpreted to run, “For Master Henrie Marle
livynge at the sygne of the rose by the palace.”
There followed at full length the paper of which
the family of the honourable and veracious gentle-
man “in the commission of the peace for Middlesex ”
had become possessed “ by the mother’s side.” The
words were these :—
“ FRIENDE MARLE,
“1 must desyre that my syster hyr watche, and
the cookerie booke you promysed, may be sent by the man.
I never longed for thy company more than last night ; we
were all very merrye at the Globe, when Ned Alleyn did
not scruple to affyrme pleasantely to thy friend Will, that
he had stolen his speech about the qualityes of an actor’s
excellencye, in Hamlet hys tragedye, from conversations
manyfold which had passed between them, and opinyons
given by Allen touchinge the subject. Shakespeare did
not take this talke in good sorte; but Jonson put an end
to the stryfe with wittielie saying, ‘“ This affaire needeth
no contentione; you stole it from Ned, no doubt ; do not
marvel ; have you not seen him act tymes out of number”?
“Believe me most syncerelie,
“ Harrie
“ Thyne
“G, PEEL.”
The text of this strangely-spelt, strangely-
worded epistle, with its puny efforts at a jest, was
succeeded by a suggestion that “G. Peel,’ the
alleged signatory, could be none other than George
Peele, the dramatist, who achieved reputation in
Shakespeare’s early days.
Thus the freakish Steevens baited his hook.
The sport which followed must have exceeded the
impish angler’s expectations. Any one familiar
with the bare outline of Elizabethan literary history
should have perceived that a trap had been set.
The letter was assigned to the year 1600. Shake-
speare’s play of “ Hamlet,” to the performance of
THE AUTHOR.
which it unconcernedly refers, was not produced
before 1602 ; at that date George Peele had lain
full four years in his grave. Peele could never
have passed the portals of the theatre called the
“ Globe’; for it was not built until 1599. No
tavern of the name is known. The surname of
the peisoas to whom the letter was pretended to
have been addressed, is suspicious. ‘ Marle” was
one way of spelling “ Marlowe” at a period when
forms of surnames varied with the caprice of the
writer. The great dramatist, Christopher Marle,
or Marloe, or Marlowe, had died in 1593; but
“Henrie Marle” is counterfeit coinage of no
doubtful stamp. The language and the style of
the letter are obviously undeserving of serious
examination. They are of a far later period than
the Elizabethan age. Safely might the heaviest
odds be laid that in no year of the reign of Queen
Elizabeth ‘did friende Marle promyse G. Peel his
syster that he would send hyr watche and the
cookerie booke by the man,” or that “ Ned Alleyn
made pleasante affirmation to G. Peel of friend Will’s
theft of the speech in ‘Hamlet’ concerning an
actor’s excellencye.”’ From top to toe the imposture
stands confessed. But the general reader of the
eighteenth century was confiding, unsuspicious,
greedy of novel information. The description of
the source of the document seemed to him precise
enough to silence doubt. The Theatrical Review
of 1763 succeeded in launching the fraud on a
quite triumphal progress.
Again and again, as the century advanced, was
G. Peel’s declaration to “friend Marle” paraded,
without hint of its falsity, to the gaze of purblind
snappers-up of Shakespearean trifles. Seven years
after its first publication, the epistle found admis-
sion in a somewhat altered setting into so reputable
a periodical as the “Annual Register.” Burke
was still connected with that useful publication,
and whatever information the “ Register” shielded,
was reckoned to be of veracity. ‘‘G,. Peel” and
“friende Marle” were there suffered to play their
pranks in the best society in the year 1770.
In 1777 there appeared an ambitious work of
reference, entitled “‘ Biographia Literaria; or a
Biographical History of Literature,” which gave its
author, John Berkenhout,a free-thinking physician,
his chief claim to remembrance. Steevens was a
friend of his, and helped him in the preparation of
the book. Into his account of Shakespeare, the
credulous Berkenhout introduced quite honestly
the fourteen-year old forgery. The reputed date
of 1600, which the supposititious justice of the peace
had given it in the Theatrical Review, was now
suppressed. Berkenhout confined comment to the
halting reminiscence, ‘‘ Whence I copied this letter
T do not recollect, but I remember that at the time of
transcribing it I had no doubt of its authenticity.”
THE AUTHOR.
Thrice had the trick been worked effectively in
conspicuous places before Steevens died in 1800.
But the evil that he did lived after him, and within
a year of his death the old banner of imposture was
waved by a living hand more vigorously than before.
A correspondent, who concealed his identity under
the signature of “Grenovicus,” sent Peel’s letter to
the Gentleman’s Magazine in 1801, and it was duly
reprinted in the number for June. ‘“Grenovicus”
had the assurance to claim the letter as his own
discovery. ‘‘To my knowledge,” he wrote, “ it has
never yet appeared in print.” He refrained from
indicating how he had gained access to it, but
congratulated himself and the readers of the
Gentleman’s Magazine on the valiant feast he
provided for them. His act was apparently taken
by the readers of the Gentleman's Magazine at his
own valuation.
Not that the discerning critic elsewhere remained
altogether passive. Isaac D’Israeli denounced the
fraud in his “ Curiosities of Literature,” but he and
others did their protesting gently. The fraud
looked to them too shamefaced to merit a vigorous
onslaught. They imagined the misbegotten epistle
must die of its own inanity. In this they mis-
calculated the credulity of the general reader.
“Grenovicus” of the Gentleman's Magazine had
numerous disciples. Many a time during the
past century has his exploit been repeated, and
“@, Peel” has emerged from the shades of a long-
forgotten book or periodical to disfigure the page
of a modern popular magazine. I have met him
in all his impudence in at least one collection
of Shakespeareana published during the present
century. His occasional re-interment in the future
from the time-honoured jungle of the ‘‘ Annual
Register ” the Gentleman’s Magazine may safely be
prophesied. In those dusky retreats the forged
letter lurks unchallenged, and there will always be
some explorers, who, being strangers to exact know-
ledge, will from time to time suddenly run the
unhallowed thing to earth and bring it forth asa
new and unsuspected truth.
Perhaps forgery is too big a word to apply to
Steevens’s insolent concoction. Others worked at
later periods on lines similar to his ; but, unlike his
disciples, he did not seek from his misdirected
ingenuity pecuniary gain or even notoriety; for he
never set his name to this invention of “Peel” and
“Marle,” and their insipid chatter about “ Hamlet ”
at the “Globe.” It is difficult to detect humour
in Steevens’s endeavour to delude the unwary.
But the perversity of the human intellect has no
limits. This ungainly example of it is only worth
attention because it has sailed under its false colours
without serious molestation for one hundred and
forty years.
Sripney Lug.
19
THE COMMERCIAL ASPECTS OF
AUTHORSHIP.
—_+———_
UTHORS may be classified in various ways,
according to the point of view from which
they are regarded. For the purposes of
this paper they may be divided roughly into three
classes : (1) Those who live by tlieir work. (2)
Those who supplement by their work incomes
derived from other sources sufficient to enable
them to live without writing. (3) Those who.
write without relying on the profits of their work
to any appreciable extent. There are also men
and women not yet ranking as authors who aspire
to belong to one of these classes. Hach of the
three classes defined above may again be divided
into two sections, the one consisting of those who
pay to their business relations with business men
publishing their writings as close attention as they
can, and the other of those who do not. The object
of an autbor in paying attention to business is
usually to make the full profit which is his due.
This, however, need not be his only motive, for in
some cases a writer is chiefly concerned with
gaining access to the largest possible number of
the public in order to make his opinions known,
or for other reasons, and then the methods by
which his work is circulated, and the considera-
tion and supervision of details connected with this
may be of importance to him. The largest pro-
portion of those who from indifference to pecuniary
considerations or other causes do not make as
large a profit as they are fairly entitled to do,
naturally belong to the third of the classes sug-
gested. There are, however, many of them to be
found in the second, and a smaller proportion in
the first. On the other hand, there are some who
obtain full value for their literary wares, who
might by their position be supposed to be in-
different in the matter. The eminent statesman
who writes on “Fiscal Fatuity” in a heavy
magazine, and the lady of title who publishes an
article in a lighter periodical on “Ought Girls to
Chaperon their Mothers ?” may be looked on by
some of their fellow-contributors as essentially
amateurs, but they are as a rule not only desirous,
but thoroughly able to obtain very good prices.
Their competition may be regarded by some writers
as not quite fair, but it is at least as honourable as
that of those who endeavour to obtain publication
by underselling others to whom payment is a more
necessary consideration than to themselves. It is
to writers who neglect, and possibly despise, the
business side of the author’s calling that this
paper is primarily directed, and particularly to
any who may not avail themselves of the assistance
in such matters which the Society of Authors
20
supplies. They are principally to be found outside
its ranks; but the circulation of Zhe Author is
not confined to members, nor has the society in
establishing and strengthening the commercial
position of authorship benefited its members
only.
That authorship should have a commercial
position, or a commercial aspect at all, is treated
by some as undesirable. This view is put forward
both by those who wish to make as much money
as possible by exploiting the author’s work, and
by others who claim that art should be pursued
“for art’s sake,” and see something degrading in
an author bargaining for the best price obtain-
able, as if he were a mere capitalist or artizan, or
any other person seeking a livelihood. ‘ Art for
art’s sake” is an attractive ideal programme con-
densed into proverbial form, but like many charming
ideas it is more frequently recommended to others
than carried into practice by those who preach it.
Even they who claim to pursue “art for art’s
sake? and gain the reputation of actually doing
so, may to some extent be deceiving themselves
and others. “ Art for amusement’s sake” is quite
a different thing, and so is “art for notoriety’s
sake.” Either can be quite harmless to those
immediately concerned, but may to some extent
affect fellow artists injuriously.
At the last dinner of the Incorporated Society
of Authors, Mr. Rider Haggard made a
speech in which incidentally he proclaimed his
opinion that Milton, when he accepted £10 for
“Paradise Lost,” did so for no other reason
than because it was the best price he could get.
Turning to our own times and mentally reviewing
the names of those held eminent in the artistic
professions, we should find it difficult to discover
many who pursue a different policy. We might,
indeed, among the ablest writers, painters, sculptors
and actors of to-day light upon some who are not
keen men or women of business, and who conse-
quently do not get for their work the bes! price
possible. We should find both among those out-
wardly most successful and those less so, many
doing their best work without regard for the question
whether their best work in an artistic sense would
be most popular or most lucrative, but we should
not find or expect to find them giving away
their productions for less than the market value
vis they had succeeded in establishing for
them.
It would, therefore, be impossible to say with
truth that in the professions selected above as
entitled to be termed artistic, the best workers
were indifferent to pecuniary *value or would
repudiate the existence of a business side to art.
They would not obtrude it nor should anyone else.
The Author, however, is the organ of a society
THE AUTHOR.
which concerns itself principally with the business
aspects of authorship, and these aspects are
necessarily conspicuous in its pages.
If, however, it is conceded that authorship has its
commercial side, which is not altogether undeserving
of consideration, it may be worth while to ask
whether authors who are indifferent in business
matters can in any case justify their attitude.
They are not to be found in great numbers, per-
haps, in the class of professional writers, but all
must recognise the fact that loose business methods
may substantially diminish the circulation of the
author’s work if it is his ambition to increase the
number of his readers, and that from a pecuniary
point of view they can increase the profits of no
one except the publisher. It has, however, been
pointed out that there are authors to whom their
literary work as such is not essential to their liveli-
hood. A considerable bulk of literature is put upon
the market by these, while some of it is of high
value, both from a pecuniary point of view and
otherwise. Many scientific writers, compilers of
educational books, travellers and biographers, for
example, are to be found among authors who do
not live by their pens, as well as among producers
of fiction, poetry, and lighter literary work. It is
among these that the business possibilities of
authorship are most frequently neglected, and if
they are reminded of them, they have many reasons
to give for their indifference.
In the first place they may say that the matter
is their concern, and the concern of no one else.
In this they are only partly right. To object
to one person under-selling another savours of
trades unionism and of protective policies, regarded
by some as leading to objectionable interference
with the freedom of contract. There is, however,
an undeniable hardship inflicted upon all in a
weak position (7.e., those who have to work to live
and who are struggling to do so), when others in
a stronger position (i.e., those subject to no such
necessity) under-sell them, or by acquiescing in
lax business ways, make it difficult for any to
insist upon stricter methods. These are the
principal results of easy going ways, where the
relations between the author and the publisher or
editor are concerned. ‘Those, however, who are
under discussion may say on the other hand:
“We pursue a course which suits our objects.
We desire to obtain public notice, for perfectly
honest reasons. We write upon topics which we
seek to make widely known, and we can best make
them known by giving the terms asked by those
who can secure a large circulation for us.” To
such as these it may be pointed out that stricter
methods will enable them to secure what they
desire with greater certainty. Price is not the only
important point which is stipulated for‘in a literary
THE AUTHOR. 21
contract. The conditions under which the work
will be placed upon the market, the manner in
which it will be advertised, and other details also
of importance have to be provided for, and the
contract to publish will not be carried out with
less energy, because the author understands and
expects to be informed of the steps which are taken
to secure the desired result. Even those, there-
fore, to whom the possible money value of literary
work is of no interest cannot afford to neglect the
business side of literature, if they are in earnest
in writing at all. Those who are not in earnest
are recommended to become so, or to leave litera-
ture alone.
In any case the commercial aspects of author-
ship are worthy of the study of all writers. It has
already been said that such matters need not
be made obtrusive, but it may also be observed
that the more carefully they are attended to, the
less likely they are to be forced into prominence.
It is the author who is loose in his business
arrangements in their early stages who finds
himself later on obliged to make them public in a
court of law, or to forego advantages to which his
indifference is less absolute than he supposed.
H, A. A.
$$
GOLLANCZ vy. J. M. DENT & CO.
————1—
OME of our readers may have noticed in the
daily papers some months ago the report of
a law case of interest to authors under the
above title. It has not previously been mentioned
in The Author because the case decided in the
Courts covered only part of the area of controversy
between the parties. All matters in dispute were
ultimately satisfactorily settled with the assistance
of the Society, and the points of interest to authors
may now be referred to.
The essential facts are as follows: Mr. Gollancz
was the editor of “The Temple Shakespeare,”
published by Messrs. J. M. Dent & Co.; he also
occupied till 1901 the position of general literary
adviser to that firm, and was editor of the “ Temple
Classics,” etc. The documents embodying the
terms under which the parties were working
together were informal, and the recent actions
arose out of the obscurity of some provisions of
these documents. The moral of the case is the old
caution which can never be urged too strongly on
authors: that their business arrangements should
be clearly and accurately defined, however close,
as in the present instance, may be their relations
with their publishers. When Mr. Gollancz sought
and obtained the help of the Committee in 1901
his relations with his publishers had become very
strained, and, shortly afterwards, Messrs, Dent
gave him notice to put an end to his engagement as
their literary adviser, and Mr. Gollancz felt obliged
to take action against them. The questions that
arose in this action will be dealt with presently,
In the following spring (1902) Messrs. Dent
announced the production of a “Temple Shakes-
peare for Schools,” edited, not by Mr. Gollancz, but
by Mr. Oliphant Smeaton and other writers.
Mr. Gollancz deeming this to be an infringement
of his rights, protested, and, failing to obtain
redress, commenced an action for an injunction
and damages in the Chancery Division. By
one of the clauses of the agreement as to “The
Temple Shakespeare,” it had been agreed that, in
the event of a cheaper or other form of edition of
any or either of the plays of Shakespeare being
thought desirable by Messrs. Dent, it should form the
subject of a new agreement with Mr. Gollancz on
proratd terms. A School Edition had been long in
contemplation in pursuance of this agreement, and
before the breach between the parties a definite
arrangement had been come to as to the amount
of royalty to be paid to Mr. Gollancz.
As Messrs. Dent persisted in bringing out “The
Temple Shakespeare for Schools,” the Chancery
action was proceeded with, and came on for hearing
before Mr. Justice Swinfen-Eady on March 26th
and 27th, 1903. The defence raised by the
publishers was that the clause quoted above only
referred to a cheaper or dearer edition of “The
Temple Shakespeare,” but the judge overruled this
contention, and, adopting Mr. Gollancz’s view of
the meaning of the agreement and of his arrange-
ments with Messrs. Dent, gave judgment in his
favour for damages and costs.
Mr. Justice Swinfen-Eady in his judgment
remarked that the School Edition, as ultimately
brought out by Messrs. Dent, although not an
infringement of the copyright of “The Temple
Shakespeare” (which, in fact, is vested in the pub-
lishers) was intended to have the benefit of the
reputation of that work. In fact, it was necessary
for Mr. Gollancz (as this remark of the judge
shows) to establish that he had no connection with
the School Edition which bore the name of “The
Temple Shakespeare.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Gollancz’s action for wrongful
dismissal was awaiting hearing in the King’s
Bench Division (where work is more in arrear
than in the Chancery Division). The main points
in this action, which are of general interest, were
two: first, whether Messrs. Dent had any right
to put an end to Mr. Gollancz’s engagement as
their literary adviser which, on the wording of the
letters that had passed, appeared to be (what Mr.
Gollancz had always understood it to be) a life
contract ; and, secondly, whether “The Temple
Cyclopedic Primers,” a series planned by Mr.
22
Gollanez and published by Messrs. Dent, were
to continue to be treated as “School Books” pro-
cured by Mr. Gollancz for the publishers, so as
to entitle him to a stipulated royalty thereon. In
the result, satisfactory terms of settlement of all
disputes between the parties were arrived at with-
out this case coming on in Court, so that the deci-
sion of the Court was not obtained on these points,
one of which would have been of much general
interest—i.e., the meaning and extent of the
expression “School Books.” By the terms of
settlement, however, the justification of Mr.
Gollancz’s action was fully recognised by the
publishers paying, in addition to all costs, a sub-
stantial sum as compensation, and agreeing to
continue the payment of royalty on the Primers,
as arranged for by Mr. Gollancz.
SPECIAL INSURANCE SCHEME.
oo
i HE Directors of the Legal and General Life
Assurance Society are prepared to grant to
members of the Society of Authors the
following reduction from the tariff rates of endow-
ment and whole-life assurance, viz. :
10 % (ten per cent.) off the first premium paid.
5 % (five per cent.) off each subsequent premium,
The distinctive features of the Society are :
(a) Perfected maximum policies by which life
insurance is provided at the lowest possible cost.
For example:
Age 30, £1 16s. 0d. per £100 insured.
Age 40, £2 10s. Od. per £100 insured.
Age 50, £3 14s. 4d. per £100 insured.
(0) With-profit endowment assurance, payable
‘at any age, or previous death, to which the Society
allots the largest bonus of any Insurance Company,
viz., 88s. per cent. compound.
Thereby a £100 policy increases as follows :
Duration 10years. 20 years. 30 years. 40 years.
Amount £120 £144 £172 £206
Special quotations for old-age pensions may be
had on application to the City office, 158, Leaden-
hall Street, E.C., where any further information
may be obtained.
The directors will be glad to afford every
facility for the working of the scheme, which
they think will be of advantage to the members
-of the Society of Authors.
J. P. B. BLAKE,
City Branch.
158, Leadenhall Street, E.C.
THE AUTHOR.
A GOOD BOOK.
—— +
V E are glad to welcome a new—the fifth—
impression of Professor Raleigh’s manual,
“The English Novel.”* Modestly
described by its author as a little book on a
great subject, it gives in its two hundred and
eighty pages a singularly effective sketch of the
history of this branch of literature from Malory to
Scott, with critical studies of the chief English
novelists before the appearance of the author of
“‘ Waverley,” these two purposes being “connected
by certain general lines of reasoning and specula-
tion on the nature and development of the novel.”
The historical sketch is adequate, the criticism
generally penetrating and just, but it is in the
connecting lines that we have found most pleasure.
No book dealing with literary principles can fail
to contain something of interest to authors, and
the great expectations with which we approach any
contribution to the subject by so eminent an
authority as Professor Raleigh are fully realised.
in so brief a note as this it is impossible to
attempt to criticise this little manual ; we prefer
to praise it in general terms and recommend it to
the attention of literary men. Most books of the
kind lose sight of the historical purpose and tend
to become only critical studies ; Professor Raleigh
contrives in the space at his disposal to keep both
his objects prominently before him. His style is
admirably simple and direct, and one lays aside
the book with a clear knowledge of the steps by
which the novel has risen to what it is, and also
with the memory of many illuminating phrases
emanating from a finely critical mind, and delicately
and humorously couched.
The pedigree of the English novel, as set forth
here, derives from the novella of the Italians and
the romance of chivalry ; the successive stages are
represented by the “ Gesta Romanorum,” Malory’s
“Morte Darthur,” Lyly’s “ Euphues” (strictly
speaking, the first original prose novel written in
English), the novellet or love pamphlet of Greene
and Nash, “‘ The Character ”’ ; the realistic accounts
of adventure represented by Defoe; the picaresque,
the autobiographic, the Schools of Terror, repre-
sented by Mrs. Radcliffe and Maturin, and of
Theory represented by Godwin, the story of
domestic satire, and lastly the union of the novel
proper with the romance which was effected by
Sir Walter Scott.
Professor Raleigh avoids the confusion which is
a frequent demerit in genealogies of this kind, and
he chronicles vividly the conflict that was waged
*«“The English Novel,’ by Walter Raleigh; fifth
impression, popular edition : London, John Murray, 1903,
3s. 6d.
THE AUTHOR.
between prose fiction and the drama, ultimately
won for the novel in the eighteenth century, and
the later conflict between verse and prose for “ the
prerogative possession of romantic themes,” when
prose was again the victor.
We wish we had space to quote some of the
many remarks that have arrested our attention
and appealed to our reason during our perusal of
this book. It is Professor Raleigh’s merit that
they are propounded unostentatiously, and as a
matter of course, but from some points of view
perhaps this merit may be regretted, for many
more popular reputations have been upreared on
less sound foundations. With the last one in the
volume we may conclude, confident that its truth
is sufficient apology for its triteness : “‘ Quod semper
et ubique et ab omnibus is the saving creed of a
novelist.”
2
TWO KINDS OF AUTHOR.
—_—t—— +
“PYFNHE Truth about an Author’’* is an anony-
mous satire on the profession of letters,
so skilfully accomplished that it would
not be hard to take it seriously and to be vastly
annoyed that it should have been written, in spite
ofitsgenuine humour. It narrates the career of one
who, starting in the Inferno of provincial journalism,
attains at length to a kind of suburban purgatory,
and emerges at last into a peculiar paradise of
poultry, Dalmatian dogs, and little grey mares in
phaetons. Itis, in short, a criticism of the literary
life elaborated from the pages of a ledger, but
unless our critical sense is sadly at fault, it is
written by one who, however greatly he may have
regarded literature merely as a trade, had the wit
to see the irony of his own attitude and that of his
admirers. Heischarmingly candid : ‘“ Ofcourse,”
he says, “when I am working on my own initia-
tive, for the sole advancement of my artistic
reputation, I ignore finance and think of glory
alone. It cannot, however, be too clearly under-
stood, that the professional author . . . is eternally
compromising between glory and something more
edible and warmer at nights....I am _ not
speaking of geniuses with a mania for posterity.”
It is obvious, indeed, that he is not. He is, or
pretends to be, one of that admirable and daily
increasing class which frankly, with no esthetic
pretensions to the contrary, provides sustenance
for the melodramatic appetite of the English
general reader. He admits that he was never
urged to write except by impulses not usually
esteemed artistic. But he sits down to write his
first novel under the ‘“ sweet influences (sic) of the
* “The Truth About an Author” : Constable, 1908.
23
Goncourts, Turgenev, Flaubert, and Maupassant.”
Such a galaxy of names would certainly arouse the
suspicions of the class to which he claims to
belong, yet, after all, it is said that our most
notorious female fictionist battens in secret on
Shakespeare, Milton, and the Bible. For ourselves,
we regard “The Truth about an Author” as an
admirable piece of invective, but those who con-
template literature, as the wise contemplate matri-
mony, simply as a profitable if unpleasant meétier,
will be able to find some valuable information in
the author’s remarks about journalism. At any
rate, the book is a relief after the silly and serious
guides that profess to teach the literary art, and
only succeed in exposing the dreariness of an
existence that the lack or decline of artistic
enthusiasm has reduced to a meticulous drudgery.
A very different kind of personality is exhibited
in an article called ‘“‘ Letters to a Young Writer,”
published in Cornhill for July, 1903. The author
of the article, at the outset of his literary career,
had the good fortune to meet a mature craftsman,
who lavished the wealth of his experience on
his pupil with a most breezy and unpedantic
generosity. The extracts from his letters are all
too few—some day, we hope, the recipient, in the
interests of youth and literature, may be induced
to give us a larger tale—but they are all admirable,
enthusiastic, great-hearted, and full of a golden
common-sense, a charming and spontaneous humour,
that might well have been dated from Vailima.
He was always ready to read and criticise the work
of his young friend, and his criticisms are invari-
ably delightful and of solid value. Here is one:
‘* But how about that ball? There is a long description
of a ball, and in the long description there is nothing new
except when she asks him to dance with her. But by God
you are not justified in describing the band.”
And another, after some advice about the
financial side of letters :
‘J do not care whether you are or are not angry with me
for putting this matter plainly. I do care that you
should not be discouraged by what I have said. You must
not lose your head either in success or disappointment.
Every art requires a long apprenticeship. If youallowthe
commercial attitude of your art to press too heavily upon
you, the art will be injured.”
And again :
“ Don’t lay yourself out to be smart.
any demi-god or set.
Don’t write to vex or to please any mere mortals.
just to make yourself cry and laugh and swear.”
One is tempted to continue re-quoting the
quotations of his disciple, despite the fear of the
Procrustean surgery of editors. ‘The words of this
critic, “‘as keen as he was gentle,” were, to follow
the disciple’s phrase, as humbling as they were
bracing. “What can be said of a man who
Don’t write against
Don’t write for any demi-god or set.
Write
24
believed in one before one was a man_ oneself,
before anybody else dreamt of doing so? Nothing ;
for he is dead and gone and cannot hear, nor ever
know. But I like to think of him on those
enchanted seas of his, overhauled by an argosy
laden with his own letters, dashed off and forgotten
when he was here; for he will be the first to appre-
ciate them, spontaneously and impersonally as
of old, and I can almost hear him laugh.” That
is how the disciple’s tribute to his master’s
memory ends, and the words are no mean proof
that all the cheering counsel he received of old was
effective in developing a writer of English, and of
winning a fast and unforgetful friend. Someone,
—is it Nietzche ? has said that it is impossible. to
think of a fine personality without experiencing a
sense of liberation, a certainty that humanity can
never become wholly and rigidly sordid. One
feels, as one reads the extracts from the haphazard
letters of this nameless writer, that he was one of
those who possessed that total lack of bitterness
which is the true wisdom, that frank, unpatronising
kindliness which alone can, in the real sense of the
word, educate ; and that even though the literary
fruit of his life’s work be unenduring, yet his
memorial has not perished with him.
Sr. Joun Lucas.
oo —__-
CONCAVE AND CONYEX.
eas
T fell to my lot a few days ago to read a novel
for a publisher. As is his practice when
submitting books to my opinion the publisher
had carefully removed from the copy the name and
address of the author and anything which might
furnish me with a clue to his identity, thus leaving
it to me to pass judgment solely upon the merit of
the work and reserving to himself the power to
take into consideration such other points as
“name” and “public” and the rest. The book
was light comedy ; it had no startling originality
of plot, but such as it possessed was ingeniously
planned and dexterously handled. I gave my
employer an outline of. the story, a general criticism
of its style and treatment, my advice—in this case
to accept the book—and my estimate of the com-
mercial possibilities of the work ; and I concluded
my letter by suggesting that it would be kind to
advise the author to secure his dramatic rights in
the story, and offering to furnish any information
desired about the formalities to be observed in
that connection.
I have assisted at these formalities on more than
one occasion ; they are extravagantly farcical, and
need not be detailed here ; but however farcical
the author has, upon their completion, secured his
play right in the manner prescribed by law, and
THE AUTHOR.
there is an end of the matter, and in all probability
the play is never heard of again.
It is a common-place that a good novel does not
make a good play, and the reason is obvious ; there
is as great a difference between the literary and
the dramatic presentation of an idea as there is
between the concave and the convex surfaces of an
egg shell ; a novel is one thing, a play something
else ; both are composed of the same material but
they are intended to be regarded from opposite
points of view. That there are authors who write
and communicate to the public both plays and
novels, I am, of course, aware, and J am disposed
to think that the writer whose anonymous manu-
script has suggested these reflections to me, is one
of the most prominent among them. Still, the
ability to treat a subject twice, from the inside
point of view which is the novelist’s business, and
from the outside point of view as the audience see
it which is the dramatist’s business, is not common.
Such authors will, however, support my contention
that the play and the book are two substantive pieces
of work, bearing no closer relationship than that they
deal in their respective fashions with the same
theme, and owing no obligation the one to the other.
My anonymous acquaintance has written an
amusing story, the material of which might be
used to make a successful trifling comedy, and I,
being a conscientious man, have suggested that he
shall take advantage of the ridiculous methods per-
mitted by our legislature and secure his dramatic
rights. Yet all the time I have a conviction that
his chances of success as a dramatist are in inverse
proportion to his chances of success as a novelist,
and that if the law of probabilities holds good I
am recommending him to commit a sort of suicide.
The lessee of one hall in London told me that the
number of plays produced for copyright purposes
on his stage was more than three hundred a year,
and that he could not recall the name of one which
had been reproduced elsewhere ; at any rate my
friend will join a numerous company.
But I shall be told that there is always the
possibility of huge profits, and that the author
will be foolish if he does not protect his dramatic
rights by the prescribed method, inasmuch as he
will then be doubly safe when some intelligent
person sees the dramatic potentialities of the novel ;
he will be the owner of the play in which he has
statutory play right, and also able to invoke the
more doubtful assistance of an injunction against
infringement of copyright on the precedent of the
decision in the case of Warne v. Seebohm.
Quite so; but it seems to me that the whole
thing rests upon an unsound foundation. Rights
in property presuppose the existence of property ;
in the case in point the existence of any is doubtful.
The plays knocked up for purposes of technical
THE AUTHOR.
representation have not, and are not even intended
to have, any commercial value ; they are blown
together with the object of meeting certain legal
requirements, and so of anticipating any attempt
by a bond fide dramatist to use for his advantage
any of the produce of the novelist’s brains. If
this safe-guarding of property, created in a manner
not specifically defined, but at all events created
incidentally and not by first intention, is the object
of the law, then I think it might be achieved in
some less contemptible and clumsy fashion; the
English law might be altered to conform with
that obtaining in the United States, by which
p: tential dramatic rights are protected by the pub-
lication of the novel; our present system isunworthy,
and if devised only in the interests of the novelist,
it is also needlessly expensive and troublesome.
If, moreover, the subject were to be dealt with
logically and consistently, all novelists should be
warned to protect their interests and produce
dramatic versions of all their novels “ for copyright
purposes” ; doubtless some enterprising person
would then appear and devote his attention
exclusively to this business: he need never be
out of work in these days. Until such an agency
is actually opened, things will probably remain in
their present absurd condition, and the validity of
the protection which novelists flatter themselves
they have secured by their technical performances
will not be too closely examined.
Is it, again, to the best interest that it should be
secured at all? I know it is a heresy, but speaking
as one who aspires to be a novelist and who has
not taken to writing for his health, I confess I can
see another side to the matter. An interesting
volume might be compiled, with some such title
as ‘The Foundations of Fiction,” tracing the
common origin of all novels. It would be a
difficult matter for any novelist to establish a
claim to be the originator of any idea, or even
situation ; and if a dramatist utilised the theme
of my excellent novel and manufactured therewith
his excellent play, I am prepared to hear his counsel
argue that as the producer of a substantive work of
art of commercial value his client is entitled to all
the fruits of his labour. More, if the play were a
great one I can conceive its being a public misfortune
that its communication to the world should be pre-
vented by the existence of my own dramatic version
of the theme concocted “tor copyright purposes,”
and produced in the perfunctory manner which
apparently satisfies the law.
That the dramatist would make handsome pro-
posals to me for a division of the profits accruing
from his play, and that I should deal handsomely
with him, of course goes without saying. Iam the
most sweetly reasonable member of a sweetly reason-
able fraternity, but the amiability and indifference
25
to sordid considerations which characterise British
novelists is not the subject of this somewhat
heretical note. It is written with the object
of advising novelists to consider seriously the
validity of the protection they fancy they secnre
by this formal dramatisation of their novels, and
of eliciting some expression of opinion as to whether
it is really in their own interests and—what is
perhaps of more importance—in the interests of
the community at large, that it should be done
at all.
V. BE. M.
0 —— © —
THE WOMEN WRITERS’ CLUB,
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA.
——~<—+——
“VT J\ARLY in the year 1902 a movement was set
S Hy on foot to start a society of women writers
and journalists in Melbourne. The informal
preliminary meetings were held at the rooms of
Miss C. H. Thomson, The Rialto, Collins Street.
The idea gradually took shape, and on May Ist
the new club came into existence. Admission to
membership is confined to women who are or who
have been actively engaged in literary work of
any description. The Society began with every
encouragement from editors, brother journalists,
black and white artists, and the reading public.
Mr. Donald Macdonald, the well-known South
African war correspondent, came forward with an
offer of a lecture on “ War and Peace.” Thanks
to the lecturer and to the assistance given by Miss
M. G. Bruce as honorary secretary, this brought
in a comfortable sum with which to furnish the
club rooms. The membership for the first year
was 45. The Society has its abode in Flinders
Buildings, Flinders Street. Meetings, social and
literary, have been held during the year, the most
noteworthy being when, last June, the club had the
honour of entertaining and admitting as its first
visiting member Miss Catherine H. Spence, of
South Australia, who was a veteran literary woman
long before her name became associated with pro-
portional representation. Besides serving as a
bond of social union the club hopes to be able to
extend a friendly hand to visiting writers, whether
from the neighbouring states or from other lands.
There is a plentiful supply of magazines and the
nucleus of a small library of such works of reference
as will be found useful to professional writers.
The first committee elected included Mrs. Cross
(Ada Cambridge), Mrs. Donald Macdonald, Mrs.
I. Aronson, Mrs. Baverstock, Miss Ethel Castilla,
Miss F. F. Elmes, Mrs. Sadleir Forster, Miss
Henrietta McGowan, Miss C. H. Thomson, Mrs.
Evelyn Gough (hon. treasurer), and Miss Alice
Henry (hon. secretary).
26
A CAPE LETTER.
—+——+ —
EGISLATION for the protection of works of
art has at last been introduced into the
Parliament of this Colony. At the present
time, no artistic copyright whatever is in existence
here, though literary and musical works have been
protected by two Acts, dated respectively 1873 and
1888. For some years past, the Copyright Section
of the Cape Town Photographic Society —number-
ing among its members several prominent painters
—has been endeavouring to secure the termina-
tion of this discouraging state of affairs; and,
after the war had temporarily paralysed all such
legislation, an effort was made to obtain the
introduction of a bill during last Session. Parlia-
ment, however, was at that time too busy wrangling
over racial questions, and the Bill has had to
stand over until the evening of the present
Session. 1t has now passed its second reading
in the Lower House, and its promoters have
every hope that it will complete its course before
Parliament rises.
The Bill, as printed, defines a work of art as
“ painting or drawing and the design thereof, or
a photograph and the negative thereof, or an
engraving,” and secures the copyright of such
works for fifty years from date of publication
or of registration, whichever of these events may
first occur. Registration is made essential to
obtaining copyright, but works which have been
registered in the United Kingdom are, without
further legislation, protected for the period speci-
fied in the Imperial Act concerned. The latter
provision, which is of course of great importance
to English proprietors, may, at the Governor’s
discretion, be extended to the other British
Colonies, and to foreign countries similarly favoured
in the Kingdom. Some minor clauses of the Bill
deal with fraudulent signature or disposal, and
with alteration, of artistic products ; and another
prohibits the exhibition of any portrait executed on
commission, if its subject, or the artist’s client,
shall object thereto.
Mr. G. Crosland Robinson, who is one of the
gentlemen connected with the above matter, has
been elected President of the South African Society
of Artists, in succession to Mr. J. 8. Morland, who
has left the Colony.
The first annual session of the South African
Association for the Advancement of Science was
held this year, in Cape Town. Many instructive
papers were read, and several interesting excur-
sions organised during the proceedings, a full
report of which is now in the Press. The Colonial
Government has made a grant of money to cover
the costs of this publication.
THE AUTHOR.
“Cape Colony for the Settler,” by A. R. E,
Burton, F.R.G.S., issued by the Government,
through Messrs. P, 8. King & Co., London, and
J. CG. Juta & Co., Cape Town, is a handbook of
the physical and industrial conditions of the
Colony, each electoral division of which is
separately treated. This volume, which contains
a number of plates, including eight maps, is
intended for the special purpose indicated in its
title, and does not supersede the late John Noble’s
“ Official Handbook” of the Colony, although,
within its scope, more completely up-to-date.
“Basutoland: Its Legends and Customs”
(London: Nichois & Co.), is the title of a little
volume by Mrs. Minnie Martin, the wife of a
Government Official in the territory named. The
book contains much interesting information con-
cerning the history and mode of life of the Basuto
people, together with a brief description of the
physical features of their beautiful country, whilst
the final chapters consist of native folk-tales
brimful of quaint superstition.
“The Union-Castle Atlas of South Africa”
(London, The Union-Castle Mail Steamship Co.,
Ltd. ; Cape Town, J. C. Juta & Co.), is a large
octavo containing twenty-one double-page map-
plates, excellently printed in colours ; in addition
to which there are forty-two pages of letterpress
relating to the geography, climate, resources and
history of the country.
English publishers have recently issued two
novels by South African writers on South African
subjects. These are “A Burgher Quixote,” by
Mr. Douglas Blackburn, and “ The Story of Eden,”
by Mr. Dolf Wyllarde.
Little that is worthy of note has been produced
by local publishers since the date of my last letter.
To meet a need caused by the all-affecting war,
Messrs. Juta have published a small treatise by
Mr. W. A. Burn, entitled “Claims against the
Military. The Law as to Requisitioning, and the
Hague Convention on Laws and Customs of
War.” In this, the terms of the Hague Conven-
tion are printed both in the original French, and
in English.
One of the local productions connected with Mr.
Chamberlain’s visit to South Africa was the first
part of “The Commission and ‘Travels of H.M.S.
Good Hope,” a brochure written by R. Moore, a
member of the warship’s crew. The author’s action,
however, proved to be out of harmony with the Navy
Regulations, and his literary career was suspended
by a sentence of imprisonment. An illustrated
guide-book of the Cape Peninsula and environs,
entitled “Cape Pleasure Resorts,” a few educa-
tional works, and a few volumes of Law Reports
and Parliamentary Debates, complete the list of
book publications. New magazines continue to
THER AUTHOR.
appear in comparatively large numbers. Among
these are the following monthlies:—The South
African Medical Record, Catholic South Africa,
Civil Service Review, the Twentieth Century,—A
Magazine of Commerce, and De Goede Hoop—a non-
political illustrated paper, in the Dutch language.
From Durban, we hear of a new weekly paperentitled
Indian Opinion, published in the English, Gujarati,
‘Tamil and Hindi languages, in the interests of the
British Indians of Natal.
The MS. of a “ Life”? of Sir Richard Southey has
just been completed by the Hon. Alexander Wilmot,
author of a number of historical and general works
on South African subjects. The late Sir Richard
Southey was for many years a prominent Colonial
statesman and volunteer officer, seeing much
service in the Kaffir Wars, and holding various
diplomatic posts. His later appointments included
those of Colonial Secretary, and of Governor of
Griqualand West. The book will be published by
Mr. T. M. Miller, of Cape Town.
A prize of 10/., offered by the Guild of Loyal
Women of South Africa, for a South Africa Patriotic
Poem, has been awarded to Miss Ethel M. Hewitt,
who dates from London. The competitors num-
bered about seventy, and the judging was under-
taken by Lady Gill, wife of the Astronomer Royal,
and Mr. Rudyard Kipling, who was at the time on
one of his visits to the Cape.
After prolonged negotiations between the parties
concerned, the case of Sass v. Wheeler has been
settled out of Court, the defendants agreeing to pay
over the sum of £75. This case was recorded in
The Author many months ago. Messrs. Wheeler
represented Mr. McKee Rankin and Miss Nance
O'Neill, whose right to perform “Magda” in
South Africa was challenged by Mr. Sass.
The death has occurred of Mrs. Sarah Heckford,
author of “A Lady Trader in the Transvaal”
(London, 1882), and well-known in the late
Republic by her energy as an educational reformer,
as well as by her literary work. Another lady
associated with literature has lately passed away
in the person of Mrs. Alexander Scott, one of the
historic “settlers of 1820,” and a sister of Thomas
Pringle, the South African poet, for whose verse
she is said to have maintained a great affection to
the end of a long life.
SypNEY YORKE Forp.
Cape Town,
August 19, 1903.
27
DR. JOHNSON AND BOOKSELLERS’
PROFITS.
—————+ —
HE following extract from a letter of Dr.
Johnson to the Rev. Dr. Wetherell, dated
March 12th, 1776, may be of interest to
readers. It runs as follows :
“Tt is, perhaps, not considered through how
many hands a book often passes, before it comes
into those of the reader; or what part of profit
each hand must retain, as a motive for transmitting
it to the next.
“We will call our primary agent in London,
Mr. Cadell, who receives our books from us, gives
them room in his warehouse, and issues them on
demand; by him they are sold to Mr. Dilly, a
wholesale bookseller, who sends them into the
country; and the last seller is the country seller.
Here are three profits to be paid between the
printer and the reader, or in the style of commerce,
between the manufacturer and the consumer; and
if any of these profits is too penuriously distributed,
the process of commerce is interrupted.
“We are now come to the practical question,
what is to be done? You will tell me, with
reason, that I have said nothing, till I declare how
much, according to my opinion, of the ultimate
price ought to be distributed through the whole
succession of sale.
“The deduction, I am afraid, will appear very
great : but let it be considered before it is refused.
We must allow, for profit, between thirty and
thirty-five per cent., between six and seven shillings
in the pound; that is, for every book which costs
the last buyer twenty shillings, we must charge
Mr. Cadell with something less than fourteen.
We must set the copies at fourteen shillings each,
and superadd what is called the quarterly book, or
for every hundred books so charged we must
deliver an hundred and four.
‘“‘ The profits will then stand thus :
“Mr. Cadell, who runs no hazard, and gives no
credit, will be paid for warehouse room and attend-
ance by a shilling profit on each book, and his
chance of the quarterly book.
“Mr. Dilly, who buys the book for fifteen
shillings, and who will expect the quarterly book
if he takes five and twenty, will send it to his
country customer at sixteen and sixpence, by
which, at the hazard of loss, and the certainty of
long credit, he gains the regular profit of ten per
cent., which is expected in the wholesale trade.
“The country bookseller, buying at sixteen and
sixpence, and commonly trusting a considerable
time, gains but three and sixpence, and if he trusts
a year, not much more than two and sixpence ;
otherwise than as he may, perhaps, take as long
credit as he gives.
28 THE AUTHOR.
“With less profit than this, and more you see
he cannot have, the country bookseller cannot
live; for his receipts are small, and his debts
sometimes bad. oO
“Thus, dear sir, I have been incited by Dr.
’s letter to give you a detail of the circulation
of books, which, perhaps, every man has not had
opportunity of knowing ; and which those who
know it, do not, perhaps, always distinctly con-
sider,
“Tam, &e.,
Sam. JOHNSON.”
SS
CORRESPONDENCE.
——
To the Editor of THE AUTHOR.
Srr,—An article appeared in the Daily Mail
for September 15th, signed “ Stanhope Sprigg,”
giving some particulars touching _ publishers’
readers.
As a publisher’s reader myself, I should like to
point out that the statements contained are
incorrect. I say nothing of the objectionable task
that a publisher’s reader may have of sitting in
judgment on fellow craftsmen, but I should like to
point out that the remuneration is not, as stated,
£1 1s. per MS. The writer in the Daily Mail
seems to consider that £1 1s.a MS. is low. Ihave
much pleasure in informing him, from bitter experi-
ence, that many of the publishers do not pay more
than 10s. 6d. a MS., and some as low a 6s. 8d.
or three for £1.
Thinking this information may be of interest to
some of your readers,
I beg to remain, yours faithfully,
isle
+
BOOK PURCHASERS AND BOOKSELLERS.
(Reprinted from the Zimes of Sept. 18th.)
Sir,—The following actual experience may
perhaps help to explain the difficulty in obtaining
the books they want which is a constant experience
in the lives of a large number of readers through-
out the British Empire. A well-known London
firm of booksellers who supply books to the
Colonies seriously protested against our annoying
practice of adding a complete list of our Colonial
Library to our lists of new and forthcoming
volumes which we issue from time to time. The
serious objection to this practice—at least the
objection seriously urged—was that the firm in
question constantly received orders for the volumes
in our Colonial Library, and, “of course,” they did
not have them in stéck. If we could not vouch
for this as an actual fact, surely such an attitude
would be incredible. The ostensible business of
the firm in question is bookselling.
Yours faithfully,
ARCHIBALD ConstTaBLE & Co. (LIMITED).
2, Whitehall Gardens, S.W., September 16.
—
A LITERARY FRAUD.
Str,—The following paragraph appeared in a well-
known, influential weekly paper. Its authenticity
does not admit of a doubt, and the high position
of the periodical isan assurance that the information
is bond fide.
‘“T could give you the names of several men, and
women too, who are féted and flattered and made
lions of on the strength of books not a line of which
they have written, or could write if they would. I
myself have just completed a novel of 120,000
words, which will swell the reputation of a certain
popular lady writer.”’
Other instances, which I need not particularize,
of similar malpractices have fallen under my own
notice. Of course, the perpetrators of these frauds
are pledged to silence and secrecy. The person
who is writing for a livelihood naturally will not
divulge names ; the celebrity who is fattening on
the hack’s brains laughs in his sleeve at the
uncritical, gullible public, and enjoys ill-gotten
gains. It is altogether a disgraceful and debasing
business ; a detestable crime so difficult to prove
and punish.
Of course, the rage for names, stimulated by
papers devoted to personalities; the craving to
read something by an author who has perhaps
startled the public with daring revelations of gush
or indiscretion, may account for these spurious
imitations. May be, a series of judicious personal
paragraphs, unveracious interviews, or audacious
logrolling may have lifted a commonplace romancer
into dazzling eminence, so that an extraordinary
demand has sprang up for the gifted writer’s books,
and as time and opportunity have limits, the pro-
ductions must be continued by the hacks engaged
for the purpose. I have quoted the actual words
of one in this article, but there must be hundreds
of others ; unknown scribes, who, unable to launch
their own ventures, are at this moment encouraging
the greed of known authors and publishers.
Is it not possible for this fraud to be stopped or
checked ? If not, it will continue to flourish and
increase, till the time may come when all lucky
authors who have made hits may live in leisured
ease on immense incomes solely derived by this
specious fraud. Is it not of sufficient importance
to engage the attention of the Society of Authors ?
Is it not a disgrace to literature, a stigma on the
profession, and a trial to all honest, literary effort ?
IstporE G. ASCHER.
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The Author