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497	https://historysoa.com/items/show/497	Index to The Author, Vol. 15 (1905)	<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index+to+%3Cem%3EThe+Author%3C%2Fem%3E%2C+Vol.+15+%281905%29">Index to <em>The Author</em>, Vol. 15 (1905)</a>											<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Publication">Publication</a>; <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index">Index</a>	1905-The-Author-15-index		<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=78&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Bradbury%2C+Agnew+%26+Co.">Bradbury, Agnew &amp; Co.</a>; <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=78&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=The+Society+of+Authors">The Society of Authors</a>																					<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=89&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=15">15</a>											<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=76&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1905">1905</a>								<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=4&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=London">London</a>				https://historysoa.com/files/original/4/497/1905-The-Author-15-index.pdf	publications, The Author
498	https://historysoa.com/items/show/498	The Author, Vol. 15 Issue 01 (October 1904)	<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=%3Cem%3EThe+Author%3C%2Fem%3E%2C+Vol.+15+Issue+01+%28October+1904%29"><em>The Author</em>, Vol. 15 Issue 01 (October 1904)</a>											<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Publication">Publication</a>	1904-10-01-The-Author-15-1					1–28																		<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=89&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=15">15</a>											<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=76&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1904-10-01">1904-10-01</a>							1			19041001	The HMuthor.<br /> <br /> (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)<br /> <br /> FOUNDED BY SIR WALTER BESANT.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Vou. XV.—No. 1.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> TELEPHONE NUMBER :<br /> 374 VICTORIA.<br /> <br /> TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS :<br /> AUTORIDAD, LONDON.<br /> <br /> —______e—~&lt; &gt; —__&lt;_-<br /> <br /> NOTICES.<br /> <br /> ++<br /> <br /> OR the opinions expressed in papers that are<br /> K signed or initialled the authors alone are<br /> responsible. None of the papers or para-<br /> graphs must be taken as expressing the opinion<br /> of the Committee unless such is especially stated<br /> to be the case.<br /> <br /> Tur Editor begs to inform members of the<br /> Authors’ Society and other readers of 7he Author<br /> that the cases which are from time to time quoted<br /> in The Author are cases that have come before the<br /> notice or to the knowledge of the Secretary of the<br /> Society, and that those members of the Society<br /> who desire to have the names of the publishers<br /> concerned can obtain them on application.<br /> <br /> ++<br /> <br /> List of Members.<br /> <br /> Tus List of Members of the Society of Authors<br /> published October, 1902, at the price of 6d., and<br /> the elections from October, 1902, to July, 1903, as<br /> a supplemental list, at the price of 2d., can now be<br /> obtained at the offices of the Society.<br /> <br /> They will be sold to members or associates of<br /> the Society only.<br /> <br /> ———+—<br /> <br /> The Pension Fund of the Society.<br /> <br /> Tue Trustees of the Pension Fund met at the<br /> Society’s Offices on the 19th of February, and<br /> having gone carefully into the accounts of the<br /> fund, decided to purchase £250 London and North<br /> Western 3% Debenture Stock. Accordingly, the<br /> investments of the Pension. Fund at present<br /> <br /> VOL. XV.<br /> <br /> OcTroBER 1sT, 1904.<br /> <br /> [Prick SIXPENCE.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ‘to over 140.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> standing in the names of the Trustees are as<br /> follows.<br /> <br /> This is a statement of the actual stock ; the<br /> money value can be easily worked out at the current<br /> price of the market :—<br /> <br /> Consols 24 %....-.c2cecesceececeereceeeers £1000 0 0<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Wucal Osns 6.6.62 500 0 0<br /> Victorian Government 3 % Consoli-<br /> dated Inscribed Stock ............+-- 291 19 11<br /> War loan 3) 201 9 38<br /> London and North Western 3 % Deben-<br /> ture Stock 245502 ce 250 0 0<br /> Motel’: 21.02... £2,243 9 2<br /> Subscriptions from April, 1904.<br /> £ s. a.<br /> April18, Dixon, W. Scarth . 0-6 0<br /> April18, Bashford, Harry H. 010 6<br /> April19, Bosanquet, Eustace F. 010 6<br /> April 23, Friswell, Miss Laura Hain 0 5 0<br /> May 6,Shepherd,G.H. . : / 0 db 0<br /> June 24, Rumbold, Sir Horace, Bart.,<br /> G.C.B. : 7 be ©}<br /> July 27, Barnett, P. A. 010 0<br /> <br /> Donations from April, 1904.<br /> <br /> May 16, Wynne, C. Whitworth<br /> June 23, Kirmse, R. . &lt;<br /> June 23, Kirmse, Mrs. R.<br /> <br /> occu<br /> one<br /> coo<br /> <br /> July 21, The Blackmore Memorial<br /> Committee : ; 720 0 0<br /> Aug. 5, Walker, William S. : - 2 0 0<br /> <br /> —_—_____+—»—+ —____<br /> <br /> FROM THE COMMITTEE.<br /> <br /> ———— + —<br /> <br /> HE last meeting of the Committee before the<br /> Vacation was held.on Monday, July 11th,<br /> at 89, Old Queen Street.<br /> <br /> Thirteen new members and associates were<br /> elected, carrying the elections for the current year<br /> This number, for the first seven<br /> months of the year, is largely in excess of the<br />  <br /> <br /> 2<br /> <br /> number for the same period during the last five or<br /> six years. There is every sign, therefore, that the<br /> Authors’ Society is still continuing to carry on the<br /> good work for which it was founded by Sir Walter<br /> Besant. The Committee, however, desire to<br /> point out—according to the saying that has now<br /> become proverbial, that “every man 18 a debtor to<br /> his profession ”—that, although some authors may<br /> not need the assistance of the Society directly,<br /> because they are men of business themselves, or<br /> because they employ men of business or literary<br /> agents to carry on their work, yet they gain<br /> an indirect benefit from the Society’s action, and<br /> ought therefore to be members.<br /> <br /> The Committee elected Viscount Wolseley and<br /> Sir William Anson to be members of the Council.<br /> It is hardly necessary to mention their qualifica-<br /> tions for membership to this body, Lord Wolseley<br /> as a distinguished writer on military subjects, and<br /> Sir William Anson as one of the most distinguished<br /> educational leaders in England.<br /> <br /> The final form of the address to the Spanish<br /> Academy was settled. Those members of the<br /> Committee present signed the address, which will<br /> be circulated to all the members of the Council of<br /> the Society.<br /> <br /> The Committee of the Blackmore Memorial<br /> Fund, through their Hon. Secretary and Treasurer,<br /> Mr. R. B. Marston, offered in a letter laid before<br /> the Committee to apply the balance of that fund to<br /> the pension scheme of the Society of Authors.<br /> The Committee of the Society expressed their<br /> thanks for the step taken, and the Chairman wrote<br /> a letter to the Committee of the Blackmore<br /> Memorial Fund stating how glad the Society would<br /> be to accept the amount.<br /> <br /> The question of Colonial postage was again<br /> brought forward. Owing to the articles that<br /> have appeared in 7&#039;he Author two members of<br /> Parliament had made enquiries of the Postmaster-<br /> General as to whether it would not be possible to<br /> take some steps in the matter. The answers, the<br /> Committee regret to state, were unsatisfactory.<br /> The Committee, however, instructed the secretary<br /> to enquire whether there would be any possibility<br /> of bringing the question before the next Postal<br /> Congress, and further to write to the Canadian<br /> Authors’ Society in the hope that that body might<br /> be able to bring some pressure to bear.<br /> <br /> There were three cases before the Committee.<br /> After careful consideration the Committee advised<br /> a definite course of action to the members con-<br /> -cerned, and considered that they would be in a<br /> position to give further assistance if the action<br /> suggested did not prove successful.<br /> <br /> Some discussion took place with regard to the<br /> selection and appointment of a United States<br /> agent of the Society.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR:<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Cases.<br /> <br /> Since the beginning of the vacation there have<br /> been twenty-nine cases before the Secretary for<br /> settlement. ‘The largest number of these refers<br /> to demands for money. Out of fourteen, eight<br /> terminated satisfactorily. The Secretary obtained<br /> the amounts due to the authors, and the matters<br /> were settled. In three of the remaining cases no<br /> settlement has been made owing to the fact that<br /> in two, the publisher or editor lives in the United<br /> States, and in one the member of the Society is<br /> absent from England: but negotiations are still in<br /> progress. The other cases have only just come to<br /> hand with a renewal of the autumn business, and<br /> there has been no time to obtain a result. The<br /> detention of MSS. has produced eight disputes, in<br /> six cases the MSS. have been sent to the office and<br /> returned to the authors, but one of the remaining<br /> two cannot be taken further owing to the fact<br /> that the magazine has closed its offices, and the<br /> present address of the proprietors or the responsible<br /> parties cannot be discovered. There were four<br /> disputes which dealt with the interpretation of<br /> contracts, all of which have been satisfactorily<br /> settled. Of two questions of account one has<br /> ended satisfactorily, and the other is in the<br /> course of completion. There was one case of<br /> infringement of copyright which only came to the<br /> office a few days ago. It is impossible to state, at<br /> present, what the final result will be.<br /> <br /> ——<br /> <br /> July Elections.<br /> <br /> Collins, J. Churton 57, Norfolk Square, W.<br /> <br /> Fraser, W. M. New Killcot Yeal Co.,<br /> Chulsa.<br /> <br /> Stafford Villa, Paignton.<br /> <br /> Sandbach, Cheshire.<br /> <br /> Giles, Miss Edith . :<br /> Hampden-Cook, H., M.A.<br /> <br /> Mills, Miss Rebe . 22, Lancaster Road,<br /> Brighton.<br /> Keeton, A. E. Lyceum Club, 128,<br /> <br /> Piccadilly, W.<br /> Cambridge Lodge, Wat-<br /> ford, Herts.<br /> 29, Spruce Hill Road,<br /> Walthamstow, N.E.<br /> <br /> Ray, Rex<br /> Ross, Paul<br /> <br /> Stawell, Mrs. Rodolph . St. Mary’s Court,<br /> Shrewsbury.<br /> Thorp, Walter Limerick.<br /> <br /> Wallis, H. M.<br /> <br /> Ashton Lodge, Reading.<br /> Weddell, George<br /> <br /> The North Cottage,<br /> St. George’s, New-<br /> castle-on-Tyne.<br /> <br /> One member alone desires neither his name no<br /> his address printed. :<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> i<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 3<br /> <br /> BOOKS PUBLISHED BY MEMBERS OF<br /> THE SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> — +<br /> <br /> (In the following list we do not propose to give more<br /> than the titles, prices, publishers, etc., of the books<br /> enumerated, with, in special cases, such particulars as may<br /> serve to explain the scope and purpose of the work.<br /> Members are requested to forward information which will<br /> enable the Editor to supply such particulars.)<br /> <br /> ARCHAOLOGY.<br /> <br /> SanD BURIED RuINS OF KHoTAN. By M. A. STEIN.<br /> 8% xX 53. 503 pp. Hurst &amp; Blackett.<br /> <br /> ART.<br /> <br /> GREAT Masters. With Descriptive Text. By SrrR MARTIN<br /> Conway. Parts XX., XXII, XXII. Heinemann.<br /> 5s, each.<br /> <br /> In OrHyeR PEOPLE’s SHOES. Thirty Humorous Car-<br /> toons. By Tom Browne. 8} X 114. Weekly Yelegraph.<br /> is. ni.<br /> <br /> BIOGRAPHY.<br /> Harry Furniss At Home. Written and Illustrated by<br /> Himself. 93 x 6,271 pp. Unwin. 16s, n.<br /> <br /> BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG.<br /> <br /> THE PRINCE HEREDITARY. A Romance for Boys. By M.<br /> <br /> BRAMSTON. 74 X 5,251 pp. Simpkin. 2s.<br /> ScHOoLBOYS THREE. By W.P. KELLY. 73% X 5, 320 pp.<br /> outledge. 3s. 6d.<br /> <br /> DRAMA.<br /> <br /> Lost ANGEL OF A RUINED PARADISE. A Drama of<br /> Modern Life. By the VERY Kev. P. A. SHEEHAN, D.D.<br /> 8 X 54,168 pp. Longmans, 3s. 6d.<br /> <br /> EDUCATIONAL.<br /> <br /> WASHINGTON IRVING&#039;S COMPANIONS OF COLUMBUS.<br /> DEFOERE’s JOURNAL OF THE PLAGUE. RICHARD<br /> HAWKINS’ VOYAGE INTO THE SouTH SEAS. (Blackie’s<br /> English School Texts.) Edited by W. H. D. Rous,<br /> Lirt.D. 64 x 44,128 4+ 1124 128 pp. Blackie. 8d.<br /> each.<br /> <br /> FICTION.<br /> <br /> Tom Dawson. By FLORENCE WARDEN. 388pp. Chatto&amp;<br /> Windus. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE LIFE WE Live. By Geko. R. SIMS.<br /> 239 pp. Chatto &amp; Windus. 1s.<br /> <br /> A BACHELOR IN ARCADY. By HALLIWELL SUTCLIFFE.<br /> 7% x 6,310 pp. Unwin. 6s.<br /> HADRIAN THE SEVENTH. By FR. ROLFE.<br /> 412 pp. Chatto &amp; Windus. 6s.<br /> Tommy &amp; Co. By JEROME K.<br /> 302 pp. Hutchinson. 6s.<br /> Lovers AT FAULT. By F. WHISHAW. 7} X 54, 312 pp.<br /> White. 6s.<br /> LINDLEY KAys.<br /> Methuen. 6s.<br /> THE EXTRAORDINARY CONFESSIONS OF DIANA PLEASE.<br /> By BERNARD CAPES. 7} X 5.301 pp. Methuen. 6s.<br /> IDYLLS OF THE SEA. By F. T. BULLEN. (Cheap Edition.)<br /> 74 Xx 49, 266 pp. Grant Richards. 1s. n.<br /> <br /> THE CHALLONERS. By E. F, Benson. 7% X 5, 306 pp.<br /> Heinemann. 6s,<br /> <br /> THe MAKING oF A Man. By E. H. LAcon WATSON.<br /> 7% Xx 54,293 pp. Brown, Langham, 6s.<br /> <br /> 64 X 3%,<br /> <br /> 7% x 44,<br /> JEROME. 7} X 44.<br /> <br /> By Barry PAIN. 7# X 3, 405 pp.<br /> <br /> A FooL WITH WOMEN.<br /> 295 pp.<br /> <br /> ACCUSED AND<br /> 72 X 5, 328 pp.<br /> <br /> THE HERBS OF<br /> <br /> By FRED WHISHAW.<br /> John Long. 6s. .<br /> ACOUSER. 3y ADELINE SERGEANT.<br /> Methuen. 6s.<br /> MEDEA. By<br /> <br /> TEX 5<br /> <br /> THEOPHILA NORTH<br /> <br /> (DoroTHEA HOLLINS). 7 X 43, 121 pp. Elkin<br /> Mathews. 2s. 6d. n.<br /> A WEAVER OF WEBS. By JOHN OXENHAM, 7} X 5}.<br /> <br /> 31l pp. Methuen. 6s.<br /> THE HONOURABLE BILL.<br /> 394 pp. Arrowsmith. 6s.<br /> Tue REVEREND JACK. By<br /> 72 x 54,455 pp. Drane. 6s.<br /> Jupy’s Lovers. By KATHERINE TYNAN.<br /> 298 pp. White. 6s.<br /> THE PASSING OF ARTHUR.<br /> 72 x 54,220 pp. Nash. 3s. 6d.<br /> DouBLE HARNESS. By ANTHONY<br /> 390 pp. Hutchinson. 6s.<br /> <br /> A LADDER OF Sworps. By SIR GILBERT PARKER, M.P.<br /> 74 X 5,286 pp. Heinemann. 6s,<br /> <br /> Marcus AND Faustina. By F. Carrer. 72 x 5.<br /> 331 pp. J. Long. 6s.<br /> <br /> THrey TWAIN. By Mrs. AUBREY RICHARDSON,<br /> 312 pp. Unwin. 6s.<br /> <br /> 3y Fox RUSSELL. 7% X 5,<br /> NAUNTON COVERTSIDE.<br /> 2 xX OE,<br /> By CosMo HAMILTON.<br /> <br /> Hope. 72% xX 5,<br /> <br /> 7% X 5,<br /> <br /> THE SCARLET CLUE. By Si1LAsS HockING. 8 X 54,<br /> 434 pp. EF. Warne. 3s. 6d.<br /> THE MARK OF CAIN, By ANDREW LANG. 84 X 54,<br /> <br /> 122 pp. Arrowsmith. 6d.<br /> <br /> Nyrra. By Mrs. CAMPBELL PrAgD. T. Fisher Unwin.<br /> 6s.<br /> <br /> Fate&#039;s Hanpicap. By Emity PEARSON FINNEMORE,<br /> 74 X 5. 320 pp. Digby Long &amp; Co. 6s.<br /> <br /> A Game of Love. By GERTRUDE WARDEN. Digby<br /> Long &amp; Co. 6s.<br /> <br /> THe YELLOW Hanp. By ALLEN UpwaArp. Digby<br /> <br /> Long &amp; Co. 6s.<br /> <br /> Rep Cap TALES. By S. R. CROCKETT.<br /> <br /> Harts IN EXILE. By JOHN OXENHAM.<br /> Stoughton. 6s.<br /> <br /> GENEVRA, By C. MARRIOTT. 73 X 5.<br /> 68.<br /> <br /> THE GREEN EYE OF GOONA.<br /> 73 x 5,310 pp. Nash. 6s.<br /> <br /> A. &amp; C. Black. 6s.<br /> Hodder &amp;<br /> <br /> 312 pp. Methuen.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> By ARTHUR MORRISON.<br /> <br /> THe HAppy VALLEY. By B. M. Croker. 7} X 5,<br /> 312 pp. Methuen. 6s.<br /> <br /> Tue Evin THAT MEN Do. By M. P. SHIBL. 7} X 5,<br /> 367 pp. Ward Lock. 6s.<br /> <br /> MEADOWSWEET AND Rug. By Sizas K. Hockine,<br /> <br /> Chapman &amp; Hall. 6s.<br /> By Marie CoreLii. Methuen. 6s.<br /> By W.E. Norris. 7} X 5,305 pp.<br /> <br /> 72 X 5, 310 pp.<br /> Gop&#039;s Goop MAN.<br /> NIGEL’S VOCATION.<br /> <br /> Methuen. 6s.<br /> THE FLORENTINE CHAIR.<br /> <br /> Lueas. 74 X 5, 224 pp. Appleton. 3s. 6d.<br /> <br /> AN LImpossinLe HusBaAnp. By FLORENCE WARDEN.<br /> <br /> 73 x 5,320 pp. J. Long. 6s.<br /> OnE PRETTY MAID AND OTHERS.<br /> <br /> 73 x 5,314 pp. J. Long. 6s.<br /> Mrs. BeLFort’s STRATAGEM. By THOMAS CoBB. 7% X 5,<br /> <br /> 320 pp. Nash. 65.<br /> <br /> THe QuUEEN’s ADVOCATE. By A. W.<br /> <br /> 72 X 5,422 pp. Ward Lock. 6s.<br /> Secret History or To-DAy. By ALLEN UPWARD.<br /> <br /> 74 xX 5, 310 pp. Chapman &amp; Hall. 6s.<br /> <br /> Tus Jumprnac Frog. By Mark Twain.<br /> 66 pp. Harper. 28, n.<br /> <br /> A Comic Idyll. By St. John<br /> <br /> By MAy CROMMELIN,<br /> <br /> MARCHMONT.<br /> <br /> 8} X 54,<br /> <br /> HISTORY.<br /> <br /> Adventures and Perils<br /> By Henry CHARLES MOORE.<br /> Religious Tract Society. 2s.<br /> <br /> TrrouGH FLroop AND FLAME.<br /> of Protestant Heroes.<br /> 8 x 54, 319 pp.<br />  <br /> <br /> LITERARY.<br /> <br /> THE MASTERS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. By STEPHEN<br /> GWYNN. 7 X 43,424 pp. Macmillan. 3s. 6d.<br /> <br /> THE DEVELOPMENT OF MAURICE MABTERLINCK, and<br /> Other Sketches of Foreign Writers. By W. L. COURTNEY.<br /> 7 x 44,174 pp. Grant Richards. 3s. 6d. n. a<br /> <br /> ALFRED TENNYSON. By ANDREW LANG (Cheap Edition).<br /> <br /> 84 X 5%, 233 pp. Blackwood. 6d. n.<br /> MEDICAL,<br /> Goop DiGEsTION. 160 pp. SOME OF MY RECIPES, WITH<br /> <br /> PRICES AND REASONS. 112 pp. By EUSTACE MILES.<br /> <br /> 74 x 49. (The Fitness Series.) Routledge. 1s. each.<br /> NATURAL HISTORY.<br /> BRITISH SALT Water FisHes. By F. G, AFLALO.<br /> 10} x 72, 328 pp. Hutchinson. 12s. 6d.<br /> PHILOSOPHY.<br /> Tue ScIENcE of Lire. By Mrs. CRatcin. 7 X 44;<br /> 60 pp. Burns &amp; Oates. 2s. n.<br /> POLITICAL.<br /> <br /> Arrica’s NATIONAL REGENERATION. By E. I’, CHIDELL.<br /> Thomas Burleigh. 78 pp. ls.<br /> <br /> THE CANADIAN ANNUAL REVIEW OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS,<br /> 1903. By J. CASTELL HopxKins. 595 pp. Toronto : The<br /> Annual Review Publishing Company.<br /> <br /> SCIENCE.<br /> <br /> HypromEcHANIcs: Part I., Hyprosratics. By W. H.<br /> BESANT, Sc.D., F.R.S., Fellow and late Lecturer of<br /> St. John’s College, Cambridge ; and A. S. RamsEy, M.A.,<br /> Fellow cf Magdalen College, Cambridge. G. Bell &amp; Sons.<br /> 6s.<br /> <br /> SPORT.<br /> <br /> A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. By T. A. Cook, F.S.A,<br /> 3 Vols. 123 x 10,741 pp. Virtue. 32. 3s.<br /> <br /> TECHNICAL.<br /> <br /> CoAL CUTTING BY MACHINERY IN AMERICA. By A.S. E.<br /> ACKERMANN, A.C.G.S., A.M.L.C.E. 9% x 74, 182 pp.<br /> 68 Illustrations. The Colliery Guardian Co., Ltd.<br /> 12s, n.<br /> <br /> HYDRAULICS. With Working Tables. By E. 8. BELLASIS.<br /> Demy 8vo. 160 Diagrams. Rivington. 16s.<br /> <br /> THEOLOGY.<br /> <br /> SERMONS ON SOCIAL SUBJECTS.<br /> <br /> Compiled by the REV.<br /> W. H. Hunt. 7% X 5, 252 pp.<br /> <br /> Skeffington. 5s.<br /> <br /> TRAVEL.<br /> <br /> A Tramp’s Nore Boor. By<br /> 73 x 5,312 pp. White. 6s.<br /> FurtTHER INDIA. By HUGH CLIFFORD, C.M.G. Edited<br /> by J.Scotr KETIE, LL.D. 9 x 6,378 pp. Lawrence &amp;<br /> <br /> Bullen. 7s, 6d.<br /> <br /> MorLEY ROBERTS.<br /> <br /> oe ie<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> LITERARY, DRAMATIC, AND MUSICAL<br /> NOTES.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> MONG the autumn books is a story for boys<br /> and girls entitled “ Father M.P.,” by Miss<br /> Theodora Wilson Wilson. Messrs. Nelson &amp;<br /> <br /> Son are the publishers.<br /> <br /> “The King’s Coming” is the title of an_his-<br /> torical novel by Florence Wynne. The book relates<br /> to the State entry of their Majesties, the King and<br /> Queen, into Ireland, in 1903, and gives some<br /> historical account of the places visited by their<br /> Majesties and of the present condition of the<br /> country. Skeffington &amp; Co.<br /> <br /> “Rita” is doing a special series of articles<br /> for London Opinion, which are to appear simul-<br /> taneously in the New York Herald. The series—<br /> twelve in all—are entitled ‘“‘ Confidences of a<br /> Beauty Doctor.”<br /> <br /> ‘« Rita’s” new novel, “‘ The Silent Woman,” is a<br /> romance of the Peak district of Derbyshire. It<br /> is a story developed somewhat on the lines of<br /> “The Sinner,” one of this author’s most popular<br /> books.<br /> <br /> C. Gasquoine Hartley (Mrs. Walter M. Gallichan)<br /> is publishing two books upon art during the autumn<br /> season. One of the works is “ A Record of Spanish<br /> Painting,” with illustrations, which will be pub-<br /> lished by the Walter Scott Publishing Co. ; and<br /> the other, which will contain reproductions of<br /> pictures, will be issued by Seeley &amp; Co., and is<br /> entitled ‘‘ Pictures in the Tate Gallery.’’ A novel by<br /> the same author, with the title of “ The Weaver&#039;s<br /> Shuttle,” will appear shortly. Messrs. Greening &amp;<br /> Co. are the publishers.<br /> <br /> Walter M. Gallichan has been engaged for some<br /> time upon a novel of Welsh character. The scene<br /> of the story is on the south side of the Berwyn<br /> Mountains. “ Fishing and Travelling in Spain,”<br /> by this writer, was published lately by Robinson &amp;<br /> Co., and has been well received by reviewers.<br /> Mr. Gallichan is contributing a monograph upon<br /> “Cheshire ” to Messrs. Methuen’s “ Little Guides”<br /> series.<br /> <br /> Health and Beauty is the title of a magazine<br /> edited by the Rev. J. P. Sandlands. The price of<br /> this work —No. 8 of which appears this month—<br /> is one penny. The August issue contains a<br /> number of articles and paragraphs which cannot<br /> fail to interest all those who are concerned in the<br /> preservation of health, and the destruction of<br /> disease.<br /> <br /> Miss Mary Rowsell has published a new edition<br /> of her work, “ Hymns and Narrative Verses for<br /> Children.” Brown, Langham &amp; Co. (47, Great<br /> Russell Street, W.C.) are the publishers.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 5<br /> <br /> Madame Albanesi’s next novel will run as a<br /> serial in the Queen during January, February and<br /> March of 1905, and will afterwards be published<br /> in book form by Messrs. Methuen &amp; Co. The<br /> American serial rights of the same authoress’s novel<br /> “ Capricious Caroline ”»—which was published in<br /> book form by Messrs. Methuen &amp; Co. in the middle<br /> of September—have been purchased by Ainslie’s<br /> Magazine.<br /> <br /> Mrs. Alfred Baldwin will shortly publish a<br /> volume of stories, “The Pedlar’s Pack,” illustrated<br /> by Mr. Charles Pears, Messrs. R. and C. Chambers<br /> being the publishers. ‘The same authoress will also<br /> publish, through Mr. Elkin Mathews, ‘‘ A Chaplet<br /> of Verse for Children,” illustrated by Mr. John D.<br /> Batten.<br /> <br /> Mr. Michael MacDonagh, who recently wrote<br /> a “Life of Daniel O’Connell,” has written another<br /> Irish historic work entitled ‘‘ The Viceroy’s Post-<br /> bag,” which Mr. John Murray will publish in<br /> October. The work consists of two books, one<br /> dealing with the Union between Treland and Great<br /> Britain, and the other with the insurrection<br /> organised by Robert Emmet, in 1803.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Chapman and Hall are the publishers of<br /> Miss Violet Hunt’s latest novel, “Sooner or Later.”<br /> The book, which is a study of a primitive society<br /> woman and a morbid Bohemian one, is dedicated<br /> to Mr. Henry James.<br /> <br /> “At the Moorings” is the title of a new work<br /> by Miss Rosa Nouchette Carey, which Messrs.<br /> Macmillan &amp; Co. have published in England, and<br /> Messrs. Lippincotts in America.<br /> <br /> Miss Arabella Kenealy’s new novel, “ The<br /> Marriage Yoke,” will be published by Messrs.<br /> Hurst and Blackett, on October 10th.<br /> <br /> Mr. Cutcliffe Hyne is at present engaged on a<br /> series of tales on the Buonaparte period, which will<br /> appear in Pearson’s Magazine here, and in the<br /> States.<br /> <br /> The same author’s new book, “ Atoms of<br /> Empire,” will be published in the United Kingdom<br /> by Messrs. Macmillan, and in New York by the<br /> Macmillan Co. ‘Translations of this work will<br /> appear in France, Germany, and Denmark.<br /> <br /> “The Chronicles of Baba,” with the sub-title as<br /> a “Canine Teetotum,” is a new work edited by<br /> Miss M. Montgomery-Campbell, which Messrs.<br /> Jarrold &amp; Sons are publishing in October. The<br /> price is 3s. 6d. The book will commend itself to<br /> all who desire to encourage kindness to animals.<br /> <br /> The same firm is also publishing, at the price of<br /> 1s. 6d., a volume by the same author, entitled<br /> “My very, very Own.” Each chapter in the work<br /> <br /> consists of a ‘straight talk,” in which homely<br /> every-day things are used as parables.<br /> <br /> We understand that Mr. M. H. Speilmann has<br /> been appointed to write the authorised biography<br /> of the late Mr. G. F. Watts. Mr. Spielmann’s<br /> long connection with art and the literature of art<br /> renders him peculiarly fitted for the task.<br /> <br /> Mr. Rider Haggard’s novel, “The Brethren,”<br /> which has been running serially through Cassell’s<br /> Magazine, was published on September 30th by<br /> Messrs. Cassell &amp; Co.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Cassell &amp; Co., we understand, are pro-<br /> ducing a re-issue of “Sports of the World.”<br /> There will be no alteration in the text of the<br /> work from the former issue, which was edited by<br /> Mr. F. G. Aflalo.<br /> <br /> Early in October Messrs. Bell will publish a<br /> poetical drama, entitled “Queen Elizabeth,” by Mr.<br /> W. G. Hole, the author of “Procris,” and of a<br /> volume of “ Poems, Lyrical and Dramatic.” The<br /> play is being published by arrangement with Mrs.<br /> Brown Potter, who has acquired the acting rights.<br /> <br /> Mr. A. Pavitt (“Saxo-Norman’’) has published,<br /> with Stevens &amp; Haynes, of Bell Yard, E.C., a<br /> volume of 402 pages—“ Droit Anglais Usuel, 1904”<br /> —dedicated to the Right Hon. Sir F. H. Jeune,<br /> G.C.B. It sums up, in the French language, the<br /> history and present state of the General Law of<br /> England. The author is assisted by Simon J uquin,<br /> of the Paris Bar. An eminent Judge—M. Le<br /> Poittevin—has written a preface, containing an<br /> eulogy of the Bench of England and our law-abiding<br /> people. Both preface and contents will interest<br /> those of our readers who seek for a simple arrange-<br /> ment of a complicated subject. Price 6s. 6d.<br /> <br /> Raymond Jacberns’ new books for children and<br /> girls this season are “A School Champion”<br /> (Chalmers), “ ‘The Girls of Cromer Hall” (Nelson),<br /> ‘A Family Grievance ” (Gardner, Darton), “ Home<br /> Fetters” (S.P.C.K.). A long school story, ‘ The<br /> First Term,” will run serially in Swnshine<br /> Magazine during 1905.<br /> <br /> Mr. T. Werner Laurie is publishing a new novel<br /> entitled, “Playing the nave,” by Florence<br /> Warden, author of “The House on the Marsh.”<br /> The scene is laid in an old English country house<br /> and the adjoining chapel, and the motor car plays<br /> a prominent part.<br /> <br /> “ Fruit and Flowers for the Home’’ is the title<br /> of a work by Mrs. Richmond, which will be<br /> published by Mr. George A. Morton, of Edin-<br /> burgh, in October. The price of the publication<br /> which has been compiled from papers appearing<br /> in “The Queen ”’—is 5s.<br /> <br /> Mr. J. Eveleigh Nash in England, and Messrs.<br /> Page &amp; Co. in the United States, will publish<br /> early in February “ Jezebel’s Husband,” by Mark<br /> Ashton, author of “She Stands Alone,” ‘“ The<br /> Nana’s Talisman,” &amp;c. The book is a Biblical<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 6<br /> <br /> yomance, having Judea for a background, the<br /> infamous Jezebel for its central figure, and her<br /> intrigues and ambitions for its motive.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Kegan Paul &amp; Co. announce for October<br /> a new issue (the 15th) of “The Collected Works<br /> of Sir Lewis Morris,” in one volume. The great<br /> success during the past year of their “ Miniature<br /> Edition of the Epic of Hades,” and of the “Selec-<br /> tions” from the writer’s works, published by<br /> Messrs. Routledge, has led to the exhaustion of the<br /> last edition, which has been out of print since July.<br /> In addition to eight new poems of importance, the<br /> new issue will, we believe, contain the writer’s<br /> unpublished drama, “ The Life and Death of the<br /> Emperor Leo, the Arminian,” derived, like his<br /> “Gycia,” from Byzantine history, neither of which<br /> has so far secured representation on the stage. The<br /> issue will include a new portrait by Mr. Henry Giles,<br /> of Carmarthen, the first taken since 1894.<br /> <br /> “ Chance, the Juggler,” by E. C. Heath Hosken<br /> and Coralie Stanton, has just been published by<br /> Messrs. Hutchinson &amp; Co.<br /> <br /> Mr. John Lane has published a new historical<br /> novel of Cornwall, by Canon Thynne. The hero of<br /> it is Sir Bevill Granville, grandson of the famous<br /> Sir Richard.<br /> <br /> Mr. Stanley J. Weyman will produce a book with<br /> the same firm entitled “The Abbess of Vlaye,”<br /> and Mr. Wilfrid Ward is producing a memoir of<br /> Mr. Aubrey de Vere, who was for long a member of<br /> the Society. The memoir is based on. unpublished<br /> diaries and correspondence.<br /> <br /> On August 27th, Mr. Henry Arthur Jones’s<br /> new play “The Chevalier,’ was produced at the<br /> Garrick Theatre, Mr. Arthur Bourchier taking the<br /> réle of “ The Chevalier Mounteagle.” The play<br /> is styled “A New and Original Comedy,” and<br /> Mr. Bourchier, in an admirable character part,<br /> carried out the comedy to perfection.<br /> <br /> Described as a farce in three acts, “ Beauty and<br /> the Barge,” by Mr. W. W. Jacobs and Mr. Louis N.<br /> Parker, was produced at the New Theatre, on<br /> August 30th. The favourable reception which the<br /> play received seems to point to the fact that<br /> Mr. Jacob’s humour, always to the fore in his<br /> books, in skilful hands is just as suited to the<br /> stage.<br /> <br /> There is, no doubt, a long and successful run in<br /> store for the play. The piece was preceded by<br /> a curtain-raiser, entitled “ That Brate Simmons,”<br /> the result of a collaboration between Mr. Arthur<br /> Morrison and Mr. H. C. Sargent.<br /> <br /> At the St. James’s Theatre, on Saturday,<br /> September 3rd, Mr. Alexander produced a play,<br /> entitled “The Garden of Lies,” adapted by Mr.<br /> Sydney Grundy from Mr. Justice Miles Forman’s<br /> story. The: adaptation gives Mr. Alexander an<br /> opportunity of acting on lines always acceptable<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> to the audience of the St. James’ Theatre. Miss<br /> Lilian Braithwaite could not have played a difficult<br /> part with moré characteristic grace.<br /> <br /> We have to note the production of another play<br /> by a member of the Society. Mr. Zangwill’s<br /> “Merely Mary Ann” was produced, with success,<br /> at the Duke of York’s Theatre, on September 8th.<br /> No doubt everyone who has read Zanewill’s story<br /> will be glad to see the manner in which it has<br /> been adapted for a play. Its simple pathos will<br /> surely make it attractive to the London public.<br /> <br /> The number of new plays produced this autumn<br /> speaks well for the condition of the London<br /> theatres. No small contribution comes from the<br /> pens of members of the Society.<br /> <br /> —_—+—&lt;—e_______<br /> <br /> PARIS NOTES.<br /> <br /> —-——+<br /> <br /> es E Divorce,” by Paul Bourget, is a novel<br /> <br /> which proves once more the sincerity and<br /> <br /> deep conviction of thisauthor. M. Bourget<br /> evidently considers that the divorce law is a retro-<br /> gression rather than a step in advance: “Loi<br /> criminelle, loi meurtriere de la vie familiale et de<br /> la vie religieuse, loi d’anarchie et de désordre, dont<br /> tant de femmes, tentées dans leurs faiblesses,<br /> esperent la liberté et le bonheur, et ou elles se<br /> trouvent, aprés tant d’autres que servitude et<br /> misere!” Beside the chief plot of the story,<br /> there is a side-study which in itself would serve<br /> as a theme for another novel. It is the case of a<br /> young girl who has been brought up to despise<br /> the idea of legalised marriage. Her theories, her<br /> experiences, and their results would work out as<br /> material for a second book,<br /> <br /> In “ Le Divorce,” as in one or two of the recent<br /> books by Paul Bourget, one feels rather that the<br /> characters are being manipulated to fit the theories<br /> of the author, and the results are therefore not<br /> always convincing,<br /> <br /> The second volume of Madame Adam’s memoirs,<br /> “Mes Premiéres Armes politiques et littéraires,’””<br /> is quite as interesting, thouch in another way than<br /> the first volume. In the ‘‘ Roman de mon Enfance<br /> et de ma Jeunesse” we had the impressions and<br /> the ideas of a young provincial girl, while in this<br /> new volume we have the Parisienne, interesting<br /> herself in all that goes on in the French capital.<br /> In art, music, literature, and politics she gives us<br /> her experiences and impressions, and draws for us<br /> in a few lines faithful portraits of some of the<br /> celebrated people she has met. Among these<br /> portraits we find those of Thiers, Gambetta,<br /> Mérimée, Jules Simon, Jules Ferry, Littré, Floquet,<br /> About, Alphonse Karr, Daniel Stern, Girardin,<br /> Hippolyte Carnot, and many others.<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. .<br /> <br /> “ Expiatrice,” by M. Ernest Daudet, is an inter-<br /> esting story constructed on a theme which has no<br /> great novelty. Guilberte Simmonet is the daughter<br /> of an unscrupulous man, who has amassed wealth<br /> by taking advantage of less “clever” men. He<br /> is ambitious for his daughter, and endeavours to<br /> arrange a marriage for her with a certain marquis<br /> who is in his power. Gilberte does not fall in<br /> with this arrangement, and the novel has the<br /> “happy ending ” so generally approved.<br /> <br /> “T/Inévitable Amour,” by M. Adolphe Aderer,<br /> is a novel with a certain fascination about it,<br /> although the plot on which the story turns is<br /> distinctly unpleasant and improbable. The strong<br /> point of the book is in the exposition of the<br /> triumph of race. Jean Jacques, the central figure<br /> of the novel, is the natural son of a man who hag<br /> held a high position in the world, and of the<br /> Marquise de Valperga. The father commits<br /> suicide, but the child has been placed with some<br /> peasants in Savoy, and is to be educated in every<br /> way as one of the family. In spite of his sur-<br /> roundings and his education, the boy cannot be<br /> converted into a peasant. Later on Jean Jacques<br /> is employed as estate agent by the Marquise de<br /> Valperga. The dénouement is tragic, and the<br /> whole tone of the book is somewhat melancholy,<br /> but it is admirably written, and the descriptions of<br /> Savoy and Italy are most charming.<br /> <br /> “Lia Déchéance,” by Léon Daudet, is a novel<br /> which paints for us the corrupt side of modern<br /> society. Francois Aubryet is a man of weak will,<br /> who simply lets himself go, drifting from folly to<br /> dishonour, and from dishonour to crime. The<br /> author’s own conclusion is: “’Il n’y a plus de<br /> morale humaine puisqu ’il n’y a plus de morale<br /> divine.”<br /> <br /> “Le véritable Guillaume II.,” by Henri de<br /> Naussane is a study of the character and actions<br /> of the German Emperor.<br /> <br /> In answer to his own question: “Qu’y a-t-il<br /> derriére cette facade,” the author tells us, “Il y a<br /> un homme agréable et primesautier, mais faible et<br /> éneryé. . . C’est un littéraire, un sensitif, un<br /> discoureur. II est a sa place dans un salon; il n’y<br /> est pas sur un tréne. Par ses réves décousus, ses<br /> palinodies et ses cavalcades, ce monarque, par<br /> ailleurs séduisant, a haté le redoutable triomphe<br /> des ‘social-démocrates’ et ébranlé la Confédéra-<br /> tion Germanique au point qu’ on entend craquer<br /> Vedifice.” “Etudes de littérature Canadienne<br /> Frangaise,” by Charles ab. der Halden, is a volume<br /> which has taken many years to write. It is,<br /> perhaps, the most complete work that has been<br /> compiled on the subject.<br /> <br /> “La Co-éducation des Sexes,” by F. Meylan, is<br /> a study of co-education and its results in America.<br /> <br /> “La Colonisation pratique et comparée,” by Paul<br /> <br /> Vibert, is one of the most practical and useful of<br /> books for intending emigrants. Hygienic laws,<br /> altitudes, colonial produce, means of transport are<br /> among the subjects treated. The burning question<br /> of native employment takes up some chapters, and<br /> the volume is of special value as the first French<br /> book treating so practically modern colonial<br /> science.<br /> <br /> A most useful book for collectors and autograph<br /> buyers is the new volume by M. Paul Eudel. ‘Le<br /> Truquage ” is the title, and the author gives some<br /> interesting information with regard to the frauds,<br /> alterations and imitations to be avoided when buy-<br /> ing old books, manuscripts, autographs, &amp;c.<br /> <br /> M. Louis Gonse has published an excellent<br /> work entitled “Chefs d’ceuvre des musées de<br /> France.” Inthe museums of Arles, Aix, Besancon,<br /> Lyons, Evreux and Troyes there are many master-<br /> pieces of art, and by means of some four hundred<br /> engravings M. Gonse is rendering great service in<br /> the publication of so important a work. “Les<br /> successeurs de Donatello, by Pierre de Bouchand, is<br /> a study of Italian sculpture in the second half of<br /> the fifteenth century. “L’Art pour tous” is an<br /> excellent work by Louis Sumet.<br /> <br /> Among recent publications are the following :—<br /> “VInutile Révolte,” by Henry Guerlin; ‘“ Une<br /> Page de Vie,” by Claude Reni ; “ L’Ecarteur,” by<br /> M. Delbousquet ; ‘‘ Les Contes del’ Aigue-Marine,”<br /> by J. Adam; “Ame d’argile,’ by Mme. Marie<br /> Anne de Bovet; “ Zarette,” by Jean Rameau ;<br /> ‘“‘ Joie d’aimer,” by the author of Amitic Amou-<br /> reuse ;” “ Le Choix de la Vie,” by Mme Georgette<br /> Leblanc ; “Un Drame en Livonie,” by Jules<br /> Verne ; ‘‘ Pervenche,” by Gyp ; “ Un Vainqueur,”<br /> by Edouard Rod ; “ Dames éphémeres,” by Francois<br /> de Nion ; ‘‘ Le Journal de Sonia.”<br /> <br /> The ‘Académie des Science politiques” has<br /> awarded the Drouyn de Lhuys prize of 3,000<br /> francs for the following works :—“ Politique<br /> Orientale de Napoléon, by M. Edouard Driant ;<br /> “ Histoire des ¢établissements et du commerce<br /> francais dans l&#039;Afrique barbaresque,” by M. Paul<br /> Masson, and “Revue générale de droit Inter-<br /> national.”<br /> <br /> M. A. le Braz has now completed the work on<br /> which he has been engaged for some time, the<br /> “Celtic Theatre.” He has. presented to the<br /> Rennes University twenty-seven Breton manu-<br /> scripts, including ‘‘ Le Mystére de Saint-Laurent,”<br /> “Saint Jean Baptiste,” and other mystery plays.<br /> These manuscripts are of great value, as the only<br /> written literature of Brittany isits theatre. There<br /> are about seventy-three Breton manuscripts in the<br /> “Bibliotheque Nationale,” but they are of much less<br /> value than these which M. Le Braz has handed<br /> over to Rennes.<br /> <br /> A certain sum of the Nobel Prize received by<br /> 8 THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> M Sully Prudhomme was set aside by him for an<br /> annual prize to young poets. It has this year been<br /> awarded to Mlle. Marthe Dupuy, daughter of a<br /> sculptor of Blois.<br /> <br /> Zola’s manuscripts, ninety-one in all, have been<br /> <br /> handed over to the Bibliotheque Nationale, where<br /> they can be seen at any time. :<br /> M. Antoine proposes to give the following pieces<br /> at his theatre during the winter season: “ Cama-<br /> rade,” by Aderer; “ Esclaves,” by Bernstein ;<br /> “Maison de Juges,” by Gaston Leroux ; « Vieil<br /> Heidelberg,” by Meyer-Forster ; “ Asile de Nuit,”<br /> by Mauret; ‘ Charlotte,” by Thorel; ‘“ Race<br /> supérieure,” by Brugiére; “ Le Miracle de St.<br /> Antoine,” by Meterlinck.<br /> <br /> M. Alfred Capus reads his new play, “ Notre<br /> Jeunesse,” on the 1st of October to the artistes of<br /> the Comédie Francaise.<br /> <br /> M. Henri Bataille has read his piece “ Maman<br /> Colibri” to M. Porel. It is to be put on at the<br /> Vaudeville.<br /> <br /> Among the new plays in preparation are “ Poli-<br /> chinelle,” by Edmond Rostand, a comedy in verse,<br /> in five acts, to be played by Réjane and Coquelin ;<br /> “ Armande Béjart,” by Maurice Donnay, a drama<br /> in verse, in four acts; “Le Coup d’Aile,” by<br /> F. de Curel, a comedy in four acts; “ L’Amour<br /> de Wanda,” by G. de Porto Riche, a drama in five<br /> acts in verse ; “ Monsieur Piéson,” by Alfred Capus,<br /> a piece in four acts destined for the Renaissance<br /> Theatre. M. Brieux is also writing a new play.<br /> <br /> Bjérnson’s new drama treats of the struggles<br /> constantly going on between the young genera-<br /> tion and the one preceding it. Carmen Sylva<br /> is at work on the libretto of an opera entitled<br /> ‘Giovanna d’Arco.” Von Reuter is to write the<br /> music. Some of the new works to be produced<br /> this season at the Opéra Comique are “La<br /> Cabrera,” by Gabriel Dupont, who was recently<br /> awarded the Sonzogno prize at Milan, “Les<br /> Chansons de Miarka,” by A. Georges, “ L’Enfant-<br /> <br /> Roi,” by Bruneau, “ Les Armaillé,” by M. Daret.<br /> <br /> Atys HALLARD.<br /> <br /> ———— 9<br /> <br /> SPANISH NOTES.<br /> <br /> — ae<br /> <br /> O judge from such Spanish newspapers as<br /> <br /> El Liberal, El Imparcial, and Espana, in<br /> <br /> Madrid, and Za Vanguardia in Barcelona,<br /> <br /> the Peninsula is daily more open to foreign influence<br /> <br /> in literary and educational matters. “ The Simple<br /> <br /> Life ” of the famous moralist, C. Wagner, has just<br /> <br /> been translated into Spanish by the learned Cuban,<br /> <br /> Dr. Gonzalo Arostegui, with a fine prologue by<br /> Don Rafael Montoro.<br /> <br /> The Press is loud in its appreciation of Archer<br /> M. Huntington, the wealthy Yankee who has<br /> lately come into possession of the valuable library<br /> of the Marquis de Ierez de los Caballeros, for he is<br /> about to publish et his own risk cheap editions of<br /> such Spanish writers as Santillana, Jorge Manrique,<br /> Simoneda, Garcilaso, Ercilla, Camoens, and Lope,<br /> which is rightly said to be a work as beneficial to<br /> Spain as Carnegie’s free library bequest was useful<br /> to England. For as these fruits of the early days<br /> of printing in Spain are only existent in editions<br /> too expensive for the general public, the Peninsula<br /> is generally excluded from the enjoyment of these<br /> fine classical works. A leading article in the<br /> Espaiia draws attention to the truth contained in<br /> the opinions published by the Marquis de Palomares<br /> de Duero in 1899, that a foreign education was the<br /> most efficient equipment for a benefactor of his<br /> country. “The famous Spanish Literature was the<br /> outcome of George Tickner’s studies at the German<br /> Universities,” said the Marquis, and “ education in<br /> Spain at the present day would be still more retro-<br /> grade than it is had not such men as Luis Vives and<br /> Montesino studied the methods of other lands.”<br /> “Moreover,” added the writer, ‘would not a<br /> better acquaintance with the military, scientific,<br /> and industrial life of North America have prevented<br /> the fearful fiasco of the Cuban War of 1898?”<br /> This article evoked a few days later a practical<br /> paper called ‘Necessary Comparisons,” which<br /> seeks to stimulate the Spaniards to profit by the<br /> admirable tuition to be gained in Switzerland and<br /> Germany at the moderate prices quoted.<br /> <br /> Benedetto Colarossi makes an eloquent appeal to<br /> his countrymen in La Vanguardia of August 24th<br /> to do their utmost to dispel the ignorance of their<br /> country in the science and philosophy which elevate<br /> the work of the artizan and inspire the citizen<br /> with a true realisation of his rights. Such know-<br /> ledge should, says the writer, not be the mere pro-<br /> perty of universities, but the heritage of the<br /> people. Spain’s sympathy is quickly aroused in<br /> what is going on in the rest of the world, and<br /> when she seems wanting in this quality, it is mainly<br /> due to the lack of her knowledge on the matter in<br /> question.<br /> <br /> For instance, much regret was expressed at<br /> Berlin at the recent International Congress of<br /> Women, to which nineteen different countries sent<br /> the presidents and delegates of their several<br /> councils, and over 4,000 women took tickets, that<br /> Spain and Portugal were the only unrepresented<br /> countries of Europe. But directly Colonel Fignerola.<br /> Ferretti, the well-known author of such books as<br /> “The Choice of an Education,” “ The Education<br /> of a People,” etc., hears from the Countess of<br /> Aberdeen how his country might join such a<br /> great union of all that is philanthropical and<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ay<br /> <br /> educational, he soon shows the President of the<br /> International Council that she has found an able<br /> ambassador for the cause. For not only has the<br /> illustrious Queen herself been acquainted with the<br /> idea, but the Colonel has had a proclamation pub-<br /> lished to the ladies of Catalonia, explaining the<br /> opportunity which awaits them to join this vast<br /> Union which, to quote the Empress of Germany,<br /> “affords an incomparable means for women of all<br /> lands to learn to know and appreciate each other<br /> better.”<br /> <br /> As Her Majesty Queen Marie Christina is known<br /> to be deeply interested in all matters relating to the<br /> welfare of her land, hope has been expressed that<br /> she will give form to this noble sentiment by<br /> becoming the patron of a Council in Spain, which<br /> could send its representatives to the next Congress.<br /> <br /> The facts published by Colonel Ferretti in a<br /> recent French review are a cheering picture of his<br /> country’s progress, for we read that, thanks to<br /> H.R.H. the Infanta Eulalia setting the noble<br /> example of taking the chair at the first public<br /> meeting on Education, inaugurated by Madame<br /> Concepcion Gimeno de Flaguer, a great impetus<br /> has been given to the Woman Question in Spain, and<br /> the well known Ibero-American Society of Madrid<br /> has inaugurated the constitution of a committee<br /> of ladies well-known in the literary world, who will<br /> do all they can to forward the higher education of<br /> women. Conspicuous among these workers for<br /> their Spanish sisters is Setiora Carmen de Burgos<br /> Segui, well-known as a contributor to the columns<br /> of the Herald and Diario of Madrid, and she is<br /> striving to forward a scheme for the establishment<br /> of an Agricultural School for girls in Spain. She is<br /> also active in her efforts to reform Article 23 F. of<br /> the Civil Code of her country, which deprives<br /> woman of the right of being her children’s guardian<br /> as she is classed with ‘the incompetent.” In<br /> Arragon and Navarre this point has already been<br /> rectified. Sefiora Dofia Alvarez Fiol, in a recent<br /> powerful magazine article, contends against the old<br /> error of supposing that culture can militate against<br /> the proper fulfilment of a woman’s duties in her<br /> home.<br /> <br /> “El Problema Femenista,” a little book by<br /> Sefiora Concepcion de Flaquer, gives a most erudite<br /> recapitulation of the women of all nations who<br /> have materially aided their husbands in their<br /> scientific work by their intelligent co-operation,<br /> and the research and study shown in the work<br /> make it very valuable as a reference book on the<br /> subject of Woman’s Culture. Sefiora Pardo de<br /> <br /> Bazan, Senora Isabel de Solana, and Senora de<br /> Macia are also among the eighteen distinguished<br /> ladies of the committee.<br /> <br /> To judge from arecent article of Madame Josefa<br /> Pujol to one of the papers of Madrid there seems<br /> <br /> AUTHOR. 9<br /> <br /> to be a very real desire among Spanish women to<br /> emancipate themselves from the slavery of a social<br /> life, which excludes them from the exhilarating<br /> atmosphere of simpler intellectual pleasures.<br /> <br /> Don Emiliano Guillen’s new volume of poems,<br /> “ Risas y Lagrimas” (“* Tears and Smiles’) is a<br /> charming exhibition of the taste and sentiment of<br /> a Spanish writer whose command of the language<br /> is seen in every line of every verse. Don Alejo<br /> Garcia Moreno, in the Appendix XV. of the<br /> “ Anuario de Legislacion Universal,” gives a com-<br /> pendious account of the political and judicial<br /> institutions of {North and South America, so<br /> desire to learn from the experiences of other<br /> countries is evidenced in many quarters.<br /> <br /> Madame Rodriguez de Serra is a_ striking<br /> example of the advance made in Spain in woman’s<br /> work, for this lady, the widow of a well-known<br /> publisher in Madrid, continues her husband’s work<br /> with marked success.<br /> <br /> The question of infant mortality, due so largely<br /> to ignorance, has lately induced many medical<br /> works upon the subject, and perhaps the pamphlet<br /> ‘&lt; Modern Herods,” distributed gratuitously among<br /> mothers, may goad women to claim the education<br /> that would obviate the onus of such a title.<br /> <br /> Moreover, the able doctor Tolosa Latour’s book,<br /> called “ La Proteccién de la Infancia en Hspaiia,”<br /> shows that this member of the Royal Academy of<br /> Medicine is anxious for his compatriots to realise<br /> the existence of the laws which have been made for<br /> the protection of this helpless community, and<br /> perhaps the knowledge of these legal obligations<br /> may lead to their enforcement.<br /> <br /> Medical science seems to have made great strides<br /> in Spain, for José Zahonero devotes a whole column<br /> in the Espana to the realistic description of the<br /> great skill exhibited by the prominent surgeon<br /> Cisneros in the successful operation on the throat<br /> of the popular poet Francisco Rodriguez Marin,<br /> whose fortitude and patience during his sufferings<br /> excited the admiration of all present.<br /> <br /> I cannot close these Spanish notes without<br /> referring to the new law which obliges the Sunday<br /> Zest. It was never thought that the order would<br /> be so summarily enforced, but to all objections<br /> Maura returned that no country could advance<br /> unless laws were strictly observed. Of course<br /> this mandate (which militates so forcibly against all<br /> the habits of the Spaniards) which was first brought<br /> into action on 11th September, caused countless<br /> contradictory cases of enforcement and exceptions.<br /> It appears that restaurants are exempt from the<br /> edict, but the barbers, confectioners and other trades<br /> complain bitterly of the restriction, and the Prime<br /> Minister has been besieged with appeals from the<br /> proprietors of the Bull Rings, whose chief day for a<br /> pecuniary harvest has always been the Sunday<br /> 10 THE<br /> Of course, say the Spaniards, it would have been<br /> all right if the law had been made subject to a<br /> regulation, and the regulation modified by particular<br /> circumstances, then there would have been nothing<br /> to complain of, but this easy way of eluding the<br /> Government has not so far been permitted.<br /> RACHEL CHALLICE.<br /> <br /> —_——_—_+—&gt;—<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> LEGAL NOTES.<br /> <br /> ——<br /> What’s in a Name ?<br /> <br /> HAVE already discussed the possibility of a<br /> register of all titles given to literary works<br /> such as would enable, or would aim at<br /> <br /> enabling, an author to see before choosing a name<br /> for his book whether such a name had been used<br /> before, and when. Some, however, of the recom-<br /> mendations which have been made in the pages of<br /> The Author upon this subject have gone beyond the<br /> official compiling of a mere list of publications.<br /> Those who put forward these suggestions seem to<br /> have had in their minds the keeping by a govern-<br /> ment department of a register analogous to that in<br /> which patent rights are recorded, or perhaps it<br /> would be better to say a system resembling that<br /> adopted for the registration of trade marks. I<br /> venture to think that in practice any such system<br /> must necessarily be cumbrous, tiresome, and in-<br /> effective, and that on the whole the present want<br /> of system would be found preferable by a large<br /> majority of authors. The plan proposed would, I<br /> presume, have as its object the recording of a title<br /> as the property of an author, so that its presence<br /> upon the register would be proof of his sole right<br /> to it, and would enable him to sue for any infringe-<br /> ment or imitation of it. No person: who used a<br /> title not on the register would be able to dispute<br /> the right of the author who claimed the same<br /> titleand had duly registered it, and no unregistered<br /> claim to use a title would be recognised at all.<br /> Two similar titles would not be registered, and a<br /> fee would be charged for registration, which it is<br /> suggested need be but a trifling one.<br /> <br /> In considering the possibility of such a scheme<br /> we are almost necessarily driven to remember<br /> that the registration of trade marks is subject to<br /> necessary rules, and to conclude that some rules<br /> at all events would have to be devised to limit the<br /> registrable quality of the various titles, which the<br /> originality, or want of originality, of authors might<br /> lead them to adopt. The registration of trade<br /> marks is not accorded asa matter of course to any-<br /> one who puts forward a sentence or word not<br /> already on the register; devices used as trade<br /> <br /> AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> marks and other matters not akin to the titles of<br /> books I leave out of the discussion. If anyone<br /> who has invented a soap or a pill wishes to protect<br /> his trade, and distinguish his goods by applying to<br /> them a mark consisting of a word or sentence, he<br /> will find that the Patent Office will closely<br /> scrutinise the phrase that he chooses. Some<br /> names he will not be able to register at all, and in<br /> some cases he will have to disclaim any exclusive<br /> right to certain elements in the combination of<br /> words that he desires to make his own. He will<br /> not be able to register, for example, as a trade<br /> mark such names as the ‘“ Putney Pill” or the<br /> “ Superlative Soap,” for names of places and words<br /> denoting quality are not to be used as trade marks<br /> under regulations designed to prevent the setting up<br /> of monopolies in fragments of the English language<br /> that others might naturally wish to use. The<br /> title which the author would desire to register for<br /> his book would in many instances be a word or<br /> phrase in common use, and the sanctioning of a<br /> monopoly of such a phrase as applied to a book<br /> might be a serious matter for all authors. At<br /> present a writer can be prevented from selling his<br /> book under a name which would lead it to be<br /> confused with a book already published by his<br /> brother author to the injury of the latter, but I<br /> have endeavoured to show that no such right of<br /> protection exists when the first book is ‘dead and<br /> buried.” The proposed registration, I suppose,<br /> would give to the registered title a longer life than<br /> this, and would be for the period of copyright or<br /> for some other stated time, otherwise but little<br /> change would be effected. The register would<br /> exist ; persons choosing a title would consult it,<br /> and it would give certain rights as already sug-<br /> gested, but it is hardly imaginable that it could<br /> be kept up-to-date by the constant removal of<br /> books not in circulation. However, all I am con-<br /> cerned in showing for the moment is that the<br /> registration of titles of books and other literary<br /> works could not reasonably be expected without<br /> restrictive regulations. Otherwise the first person<br /> who managed to get inscribed in the register such<br /> names as “ The History of England,” “ The Life<br /> of Queen Victoria” or ‘Hymns for Children,”<br /> would be able to prevent anyone else from using<br /> them. It may be said, however, ‘‘ Yes, but these<br /> are old titles, and the registrable title would be the<br /> original invention of the author, or at all events<br /> the first application of the phrase as the name of a<br /> book.” In such circumstances I should pity the<br /> author. He would register a title, try to prevent<br /> its use by another, and be met by a motion to<br /> remove his own from the register on the ground<br /> that someone fifty years ago had used it for a<br /> similar purpose. It must be remembered that the<br /> grant of letters patent and the registration of a<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Jose<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Eanes<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. : 11<br /> <br /> trade mark are alike in implying no guarantee<br /> that the invention is a proper subject of a patent,<br /> or that the trade mark is registrable. The patent<br /> rights may be revoked, and the trade mark may<br /> be removed from the register at any time if a rival<br /> trader shows that the privileges accorded are not<br /> properly possessed by the person registering. It<br /> therefore almost necessarily follows that were the<br /> legislature to enable the book-titles to be registered<br /> for protection purposes, the registration would be<br /> upon similar lines. That is to say, as long as the<br /> rules were complied with in the opinion of the<br /> appointed officials registration would take place,<br /> but upon the question being raised in a court of<br /> law, the question whether the registration was<br /> proper might be raised and. discussed, and possibly<br /> “taken to the House of Lords.”<br /> <br /> It is, however, more than likely that registration<br /> at all involving the compliance with rather com-<br /> plicated and not very intelligible rules would be<br /> found very irksome by authors desiring to procure<br /> registration for themselves, and that the fees that<br /> would have to be paid would constitute another<br /> drawback. The precise amount of the fees now<br /> payable on the registration of a trade mark |<br /> forget, but they considerably exceed any that have<br /> been suggested in The Author for registering<br /> names of books. Fees are necessary because a<br /> certain number of qualified clerks and officials<br /> would have to be maintained to examine the pro-<br /> posed titles in order to see that they conformed to<br /> the rules, and the legislature is not likely to<br /> institute a register entirely at the public expense.<br /> I have had some little personal experience of the<br /> registration of trade marks, and although in my<br /> own case I managed to comply with the regula-<br /> tions eventually, it was certainly a matter needing<br /> some care and study, and it is one usually entrusted<br /> to a solicitor or other agent who has to be paid for<br /> his trouble. It may be said that the literary agent<br /> or the publisher would see to all this for the author,<br /> but presumably he would not do it for nothing, and<br /> the person who eventually would bear the cost would<br /> be the person who wrote the book. As it is, the<br /> author or the literary agent or the publisher can<br /> to a great extent obtain safety by combining an<br /> effort of memory with the consulting of a<br /> “ Reference Catalogue of Current Literature,” and<br /> I am personally of the opinion that no more is<br /> really necessary in most cases from a legal point<br /> of view. I have ventured to question in a<br /> previous article whether any considerable number<br /> of the attempts to hinder the publication of books<br /> could be sustained in the Courts, and to suggest<br /> that a firm attitude adopted by the writer and<br /> publisher attached would usually result in success<br /> for them. I have endeavoured also to show<br /> that even by a register such as that proposed<br /> <br /> they would not be fully protected. At the<br /> same time, it is, I admit, very inconvenient<br /> on the eve of publishing a literary work to find<br /> that the name is claimed by another. Many<br /> authors have suffered from it, but, on the other<br /> hand, probably many have not, and it is a matter<br /> for consideration that an ingenious title bearing<br /> upon it the stamp of originality, and devised,<br /> perhaps, with a little extra care and inventiveness,<br /> may carry two advantages. It may insure the<br /> author against any claim that it has been used by<br /> another, and may also captivate the ear of the<br /> public. A good title is said to go a long way<br /> towards attracting readers to a book, not only<br /> because they take a fancy to it, but because they<br /> find it easy to remember. Therefore, besides the<br /> precautions which will show an author that his<br /> title is a new one, the exercise of his literary<br /> ability will provide him with further protection.<br /> In much of this I may find others who disagree<br /> with me, and who have a far better right than<br /> myself to pronounce an opinion. I venture, how-<br /> ever, to assert rather emphatically that the institu-<br /> tion of protection for book-titles by means of an<br /> official register would be found a cumbrous and<br /> inconvenient remedy, worse in many ways than the<br /> evil which it would aim at curing, and I feel even<br /> more certain that it would be found difficult also<br /> to get Parliament to pass the Act without which the<br /> official institution of such a register can hardly be<br /> possible. Perhaps, however, some of those who<br /> disagree with me will draft a bill which can be<br /> inserted in 7&#039;he Author, so that members of the<br /> Society can see if it is likely to be practicable and<br /> also useful to them. After that, its introduction<br /> by a private member interested in literature should<br /> not be difficult to obtain.<br /> E. A. ARMSTRONG.<br /> <br /> A LETTER IN ANSWER TO ONE OF<br /> MANY CORRESPONDENTS.<br /> <br /> + —<br /> <br /> Dear Srr,— Your somewhat difficult letter has<br /> just come to hand, and although I feel that I<br /> ought not to spend so much time as a compre-<br /> hensive answer will take me to write, or expect<br /> that you will appreciate what I have to say, still<br /> it will ease my mind, so here goes.<br /> <br /> Oh! first of all, I beg to return your MS. I<br /> am not an editor, and I hope I know better than<br /> to presume upon the friendly relations I have with<br /> several editors to offer them your work in the hope<br /> that they will accept it for my sake. I know that<br /> you say you only want me to read it and comment<br /> upon it; but I am also certain taat you want me<br />  <br /> <br /> 12<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> to place it for you, and I should like you to know<br /> that no one can do that better than you can. As<br /> to criticising your work, well, your request,<br /> assuming as it does that I am fully competent to<br /> do what you ask, is very flattering to me, but I<br /> must respectfully decline. Some years ago I made<br /> two or three rather determined foes by acceding to<br /> their requests in this direction, and I have come<br /> to the conclusion that life is all too short even for<br /> the making of friends. The gratuitous making of<br /> enemies savours of lunacy. Please do not think<br /> me unsympathetic or callous, for I assure you Tam<br /> neither.<br /> <br /> Now, as to your next point, “the impossibility<br /> of any outsider getting any story or article, how-<br /> ever good, placed nowadays, owing to the cliques<br /> and rings which abound.” I feel really grieved<br /> that you should credit this old and often disproved<br /> libel. Just think fora moment. The magazine<br /> and newspaper arena to-day is the scene of a<br /> tremendous struggle to get in front, and no man<br /> who has laboriously climbed into an editorial chair<br /> can afford to print rubbish (unless it is saleable<br /> rubbish), even though written by his nearest and<br /> dearest friends. The reputation of a magazine for<br /> good readable matter, interesting stuff, is much<br /> more ephemeral than the reputation of a tradesman<br /> for vending a good article, and by consequence less<br /> liable to be played tricks with without serious loss.<br /> The editors are ever on the alert to discover in the<br /> midst of the heaps of rubbish shot upon them the<br /> occasional nugget of gold, and when they do<br /> unearth one their elation is, as old 8. P. would<br /> say, pretty to see. Of course well-known names<br /> will and do recur in popular magazines, but surely<br /> you would not take that for a sign of extreme<br /> favouritism at the expense of all newcomers. A<br /> good editor knows. what will sell his magazine,<br /> and his first duty is to his publishers or proprietors.<br /> He may, and often does, reject matter that he is<br /> greatly taken with, but he knows it is utterly<br /> unsuited to his public. Sometimes he can and<br /> does insert an article or a story quite unusual for<br /> his magazine in the hope of thereby educating his<br /> readers, but the experiment is a very risky one.<br /> What he does often do and rarely receives any<br /> recognition for is to write long and helpful letters<br /> to rejected contributors, full of matured advice<br /> and most valuable hints. Sometimes these are<br /> received as they should be, and the editor gets<br /> praised for being so kind, but N.B., it is usually<br /> after he is dead.<br /> <br /> So far I have only dealt with the articles you<br /> have been good enough to send me; I must now<br /> come to the book. And my first remark must be,<br /> that you yourself have handicapped your work by<br /> bad writing and spelling. Had it been typed or<br /> well written it would have had 50 per cent. more<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> chances of being read, but the spelling (please<br /> forgive me for plain speaking) destroys any chance<br /> it might have had of being either read or considered.<br /> IT hold that an educated man ought to be ashamed<br /> to write badly, but I cannot realise the possibility<br /> of any literary aspirant being unable to spell.<br /> But I will suppose that your MS. was neat, legible,<br /> well spelt ; without some advice it would have been<br /> a miracle if you had gone to the right publisher<br /> with it. You would have needed such expert<br /> advice as the Author’s Society are willing to give,<br /> or which is given for a small fee in some of our<br /> monthly journals. Otherwise you might easily<br /> have fallen into the hands of a certain type of<br /> publisher who will publish anything so long as he<br /> can see a certain profit out of the author. And<br /> had you done so, and your book become a success,<br /> you would have had the bitterness of knowing that<br /> your publisher had taken all the profits, leaving<br /> you hungrily, but unsatisfactorily, following after<br /> fame. Whereas, had you gone to a reputable<br /> firm, they would doubtless have driven a hard<br /> bargain with you, but they would at least have<br /> dealt honestly by you. And if your book had<br /> proved a success they would have given you good<br /> terms for another.<br /> <br /> But you say, with more force than courtesy,<br /> “ Publishers’ readers are such asses, must be, or<br /> they never could pass the stuff they do for publi-<br /> cation.” Excuse me, your remark is absurd upon<br /> the face of it. I must refer you to what I said<br /> about the magazine editor, Not what he likes,<br /> but what will sell is the motive spring of the<br /> reader’s action. He, if any man does, realises that<br /> a publishing business is not a philanthropic insti-<br /> tution, and that he has no right, whatever his<br /> personal proclivities may be, to advise his employer<br /> to print books that will not sell. He may and<br /> often does advise that gentleman to print rubbish<br /> from which his very soul revolts, but his experience<br /> tells him that it will sell by tens of thousands<br /> where his pet book would not reach one. You<br /> will doubtless retort that this is a sordid view to<br /> take of the matter. I shrug my shoulders and say<br /> that is no concern of mine. I merely state facts.<br /> If you do not need money and have a message<br /> for the world you feel you must deliver, you can<br /> always do so: it is merely a matter of cost: to you.<br /> <br /> In conclusion, pray do not be longer misled by<br /> the notion that there is a conspiracy to bar you<br /> out from literary circles. Don’t believe that all<br /> the authors, whose names recurring in magazines<br /> and newspapers give you so much pain, are rolling<br /> in wealth and are determined to keep you from a<br /> share of it. And do please in future communica-<br /> tions enclose stamps for reply and return of MSS.<br /> <br /> Yours most sincerely, _<br /> Frank T, BULLEN,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> INTERNATIONAL PRESS CON-<br /> GRESS AT YIENNA.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> NINTH<br /> <br /> HE International movement of the Press has<br /> made great strides since the idea of a<br /> Central Bureau was brought forward at the<br /> <br /> Conference of the Institution of Journalists in<br /> London in 1894 by M. Heinzmann Savino, of Ant-<br /> werp. Then, the idea of uniting pressmen, excitable<br /> Latins, calm Scandinavians, stolid Germans, and<br /> Britons, under one head seemed quixotic, but a<br /> president was found at the first International<br /> Congress in Antwerp in 1895, Herr Wilhelm<br /> Singer, of Vienna, and this ninth Congress under<br /> his diplomatic, suave, yet firm rule, has proved<br /> how journalists of fourteen nationalities can work<br /> together and enunciate and frame codes and pro-<br /> positions for the elevation of journalistic work<br /> throughout the world. Some hundred journalists<br /> assembled in Vienna, and the debates were well<br /> attended. The English delegation was elected<br /> from members of the British Association of<br /> International Journalists, Mr. D. A. Sims being the<br /> representative on the Central Bureau, Mr. Arthur<br /> Spurgeon acting as chairman of the delegation,<br /> and the writer as hon. secretary. The Congress<br /> was opened by an expressive and valuable paper<br /> by Herr Singer on “The Dignity of the Press,”<br /> dealing with the suggestion to create professional<br /> tribunals to deal with Press offences: as one of<br /> the speakers neatly put it, “ Punish ourselves and<br /> the State will not punish us.” English journalists<br /> think they have no restrictions, but are not<br /> restrictions being placed more and more on<br /> correspondents because of such incidents as those<br /> that occurred at the Queen’s funeral, and in the<br /> matter of censorship in war, largely because a<br /> certain type of journalist ignores all rules of<br /> decency of behaviour. The press tribunals will con-<br /> sist of Local and National Courts and an Inter-<br /> national Court. The International Court would<br /> deal with such cases as have arisen in war, when<br /> nations have been libelled, or when Sovereigns<br /> have been vilified, or when the Yellow Press of<br /> one country abuses the press of another country.<br /> The National and Local Courts would deal with<br /> cases such as the Institute of Journalists already<br /> deals with in Great Britain. The twenty-nine<br /> articles of the statutes of the tribunal were<br /> accepted by the Congress, and the Central Bureau<br /> now has to establish the courts. As M. Singer so<br /> “ably concluded his paper, “To have interna-<br /> tionalised the honour of our profession is nu small<br /> affair.” In speaking upon the subject Mr.<br /> Arthur Spurgeon accepted the idea, although he<br /> could not say if the English journalist would<br /> establish courts ; but he was sure that all English-<br /> <br /> 13<br /> <br /> men would heartily accept any action to raise<br /> the standing of journalists and to create a<br /> better feeling between those of various nations.<br /> The subject of the “carte d’indentie,” ze.,<br /> literally a press passport, whereby a journalist<br /> in foreign lands on duty will receive assistance<br /> from the pressmen of those lands, M. Taunay<br /> introduced, and M. Caponi spoke vigorously<br /> against it; but M. Taunay stated many of these<br /> cards were already used by members, and had<br /> proved of great value. Mr. Burlumi, of the<br /> Foreign Press Association, London, proved how<br /> helpful the card had been to him when he had lost<br /> his passport in Turkey, and in conclusion moved a<br /> resolution, ‘ That the foreign correspondents in all<br /> lands should receive the same facilities as home<br /> correspondents,” whieh was adopted. The ques-<br /> tion of reduction of telegraphs and postal tariffs<br /> was discussed, and the concessions given by<br /> various countries announced, and a point was<br /> gained on this day in that the British and<br /> Northern groups carried a resolution that reports<br /> already printed should not be read at the Congress,<br /> only the summing up.<br /> <br /> At the sitting on Wednesday Mr. Spurgeon pre-<br /> sided, and during the debates Mr. Burlumi brought<br /> forward the proposition ‘that attacks on persons<br /> whose position forbade a reply (7.e., monarchs, etc.),<br /> or against the whole press of a country constituted<br /> a professional crime,” and it was recognised as neces-<br /> sary that this should be embodied in the statutes of<br /> the Press Courts. The subject of literary and artistic<br /> copyright was reported upon by Dr. Osterrieth, of<br /> Berlin, and during an interesting debate the<br /> English secretary argued for copyright for literary<br /> style in news paragraphs or articles, as he had done<br /> in London, Antwerp, and Bordeaux. One of the<br /> most exciting and polyglotic debates was on Herr<br /> Rothlisberger’s report on the conditions of copy-<br /> right. He argued that the deposition of copies<br /> and other formalities should be abolished. This<br /> the English delegates warmly opposed, and they<br /> were supported by the German and American and<br /> Northern nations, who held that deposition of copies<br /> of publications was necessary for proof of copy-<br /> right. M. Lucas, of Portugal, eventually proposed<br /> two amendments modifying Herr Rothlisberger’s<br /> propositions. His suggestion that simply giving<br /> the name of printer or publisher should suffice for<br /> a claim of copyright was negatived, but the principle<br /> that the copyright belonged to the author accepted.<br /> Of course, the question of deposition of copies for<br /> censorship, etc., did not affect the English delegates.<br /> An amusing incident in this‘ debate proved how<br /> easily a wrong vote might arise in so polyglotic an<br /> assembly. The English secretary pointed out that<br /> M. Lucas’s two amendments were being put in<br /> reverse order, No. 1 as No. 2, No. 2 as No. 1, the<br />  <br /> <br /> 14<br /> <br /> chairman, Herr Christophersoen, of Christiania,<br /> corrected the error amidst laughter. At Thurs-<br /> day’s meeting Mr. A. Spurgeon read his paper on<br /> «The Personal Note in Journalism,” and, with M.<br /> Heinzman Savino in the chair, had a good hearing.<br /> His urging that paid-for matter should be kept out<br /> of editorial columns was said to hit some foreign<br /> journals hard, and the English members knew of<br /> cases in England of advertisements appearing as<br /> news. The Congress then considered the next<br /> place of meeting, invitations coming from Venice<br /> and from Liege by M. Heinzmann Savino, but as<br /> it would be the tenth year of the Congress<br /> initiated by M. Savino the Congress voted for<br /> Liege, the Venice invitation being deferred to<br /> 1906, New York also inviting the Congress for<br /> that year. At the close of the meeting an inter-<br /> esting ceremony took place, the presentation to<br /> M. Singer of a silver jardiniére filled with choice<br /> flowers. The President’s reception was so over-<br /> whelming and the speeches so full of cordiality that<br /> he was quite overcome, and the three ringing cheers<br /> given by the English and Americans overcame all<br /> other applause and secured absolute silence at<br /> their finish, but M. Singer was unable for tears to<br /> say a word in reply. The English section after-<br /> wards presented to the Vienna Press, through Dr.<br /> Horrowitz, their Syndicws, a handsome silver<br /> writing and smoking set, and especially thanked<br /> Dr. Pistor, of the Vienna Chamber of Commerce,<br /> for his kindly aid.<br /> <br /> I have said nought of the really astounding series<br /> of receptions and entertainments in Vienna, brilliant<br /> receptions by the Prime Minister and the Foreign<br /> Minister, and a welcomein the imposing town hall by<br /> Burgermeister Lueger, that the Glasgow delegate,<br /> Mr. Walter MacLean, declared beat Glasgow ! The<br /> Emperor, who had expressed all good wishes for the<br /> Congress, commanded a gala reception at the Opera,<br /> and the theatres also gave special performances. At<br /> the end came three days of absolutely “ living in<br /> opera,” first at the Semmering Hotel, amidst the<br /> Alps ; then at Ischl, where the peasants danced and<br /> sang and held a wedding in national costume ;<br /> lastly, when in the dim twilight two shiploads of<br /> Congressites sailed across the lake to Gmunden,<br /> between fires on the banks and salvoes of rockets.<br /> In the middle of the lake they were met by a small<br /> launch lit by lanterns, and in absolute silence the<br /> Chief of the Province, there on the still waters,<br /> under the shadow of the great Alps, welcomed the<br /> journalists from, all lands. Gmunden was a blaze<br /> of decorations, and from there in early morning<br /> we sailed across the lovely lake, and on to St.<br /> Wolfgang, ascending the precipitous Schafberg,<br /> some 6,000 feet amidst the snow, to revel in the<br /> panorama of lakes and mountains. Then on to<br /> Salzburg for a final banquet, although there had<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> been banquets and bouquets everywhere and at all<br /> times. At Salzburg the Internationalites said<br /> adieu in all tongues, but always with an auf<br /> wiedersehen. Surely many corners had been rubbed<br /> off and much good done by the meeting.<br /> <br /> James Baker, F.R.G.S.<br /> <br /> —_—————_+——+—__—__<br /> <br /> MAGAZINE CONTENTS.<br /> <br /> —— +<br /> (Literary, Dramatic, AND MUSICAL.)<br /> SEPTEMBER, 1904.<br /> <br /> THE BOOKMAN.<br /> Coleridge. By Thomas Seccombe and Canon Rawnsley.<br /> <br /> THE CONTEMPORARY REVIEW.<br /> Theodor Herzl. By Sidney Whitman.<br /> The Nature of Literature. By Vernon Lee.<br /> Some Recent Books. By “ A Reader.”’<br /> <br /> THE FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW.<br /> A Note on Mysticism. By Prof. Oliver Elton.<br /> Thomas Campbell. By Arthur Symons.<br /> Geo. Frederick Watts. By Wm. Knight.<br /> Honoré De Balzac. By Mary F. Sandars.<br /> Translation from the Fioretti of St. Francis d’ Assisi.<br /> By James Rhoades.<br /> <br /> THE INDEPENDENT REVIEW<br /> “From High Mountains” (from Nietzsche).<br /> by H. O. Meredith.<br /> The Author of Erewhon.<br /> Italian Novels of To-day.<br /> <br /> Translated<br /> <br /> By D. MacCarthy.<br /> By Laura Gropallo.<br /> <br /> LONGMAN’S MAGAZINE.<br /> Is the Orator Born or Made? By Michael MacDonagh.<br /> <br /> THE MONTH.<br /> The Veil of the Temple. By the Rev. Sydney F. Smith.<br /> <br /> THE MonTHLY REVIEW.<br /> Capt. Marryat as a Novelist. By the Earl of Iddesleigh.<br /> The Popular Poetry of Spain. By Pepita de San Carlos.<br /> Thackeray at Cambridge. By the late Rev. Whitwell<br /> Elwin.<br /> THE NATIONAL REVIEW.<br /> Is Humour Declining? By Miss Ella Macmahon.<br /> <br /> [THE PALL MALL MAGAZINE,<br /> Literary Geography: ‘The Country of Carlyle.” By<br /> William Sharp.<br /> TEMPLE BAR.<br /> <br /> Mrs. Thrale. By Mrs. M. L. Croft.<br /> <br /> THE WORLD&#039;S WORK.<br /> The Work of the Book World.<br /> <br /> XIX. CENTURY AND AFTER.<br /> Colly Cibbers’ “ Apology” By H. B, Irving.<br /> There are no articles dealing with Literary, Dramatic, or<br /> Musical subjects in Cornhill (Macmillan’s).<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 15<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO THE PRODUCERS<br /> OF BOOKS.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> ERE are a few standing rules to be observed in an<br /> agreement. There are four methods of dealing<br /> with literary property :—<br /> <br /> I. Selling it Outright.<br /> <br /> This is sometimes satisfactory, if @ proper price can be<br /> obtained, But the transaction should be managed by a<br /> competent agent, or with the advice of the Secretary of<br /> the Society.<br /> <br /> Il. A Profit-Sharing Agreement (a bad form of<br /> agreement).<br /> <br /> In this case the following rules should be attended to:<br /> <br /> (1.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro-<br /> duction forms a part without the strictest investigation.<br /> <br /> (2.) Not to give the publisher the power of putting the<br /> profits into his own pocket by charging for advertisements<br /> in his own organs, or by charging exchange advertise-<br /> ments. Therefore keep control of the advertisements.<br /> <br /> (3.) Not to allow a special charge for “ office expenses,”<br /> unless the same allowance is made to the author.<br /> <br /> (4.) Not to give up American, Colonial, or Continental<br /> rights.<br /> <br /> (5.) Not to give up serial or translation rights.<br /> <br /> (6.) Not to bind yourself for future work to any publisher.<br /> As well bind yourself for the future to any one solicitor or<br /> doctor !<br /> <br /> III. The Royalty System.<br /> <br /> This is perhaps, with certain limitations, the best form<br /> of agreement. It is above all things necessary to know<br /> what the proposed royalty means to both sides. It isnow<br /> possible for an author to ascertain approximately the<br /> truth. From time to time very important-figures connected<br /> with royalties are published in Zhe Author.<br /> <br /> IV. A Commission Agreement.<br /> <br /> The main points are :—<br /> <br /> (1.) Be careful to obtain a fair cost of production.<br /> (2.) Keep control of the advertisements.<br /> <br /> (3.) Keep control of the sale price of the book.<br /> <br /> General.<br /> <br /> All other forms of agreement are combinations of the four<br /> above mentioned.<br /> <br /> Such combinations are generally disastrous to the author.<br /> <br /> Never sign any agreement without competent advice from<br /> the Secretary of the Society.<br /> <br /> Stamp all agreements with the Inland Revenue stamp.<br /> <br /> Avoid agreements by letter if possible.<br /> <br /> The main points which the Society has always demanded<br /> from the outset are :-—<br /> <br /> (1.) That both sides shall know what an agreement<br /> means.<br /> <br /> (2.) The inspection of those account books which belong<br /> tothe author. We are advised that this is a right, in the<br /> nature of a common law right, which cannot be denied or<br /> withheld.<br /> <br /> (3.) Always avoid a transfer of copyright.<br /> <br /> a<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS.<br /> <br /> ———— 9 —<br /> <br /> EVER sign an agreement without submitting it to the<br /> Secretary of the Society of Authors or some com-<br /> petent legal authority.<br /> <br /> 2, It is well to be extremely careful in negotiating for<br /> the production of a play with anyone except an established<br /> manager.<br /> <br /> 3. There are three forms of dramatic contract for plays<br /> <br /> in three or more acts :—<br /> <br /> (a.) Sale outright of the performing right. This<br /> is unsatisfactory. An author who enters into<br /> such a contract should stipulate in the contract<br /> for production of the piece by a certain date<br /> and for proper publication of his name on the<br /> play-bills.<br /> <br /> (b.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to<br /> perform on the basis of percentages on<br /> eross receipts. Percentages vary between 5<br /> and 15 per cent. An author should obtain a<br /> percentage on the sliding scale of gross receipts<br /> in preference to the American system. Should<br /> obtain a sum inadyance of percentages. A fixed<br /> date on or before which the play should be<br /> performed.<br /> <br /> (c.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to<br /> perform on the basis of royalties (/.c.. fixed<br /> nightly fees). This method should be always<br /> avoided except in cases where the fees are<br /> likely to be small or difficult to collect. The<br /> other safeguards set out under heading (2.) apply<br /> also in this case.<br /> <br /> 4. Plays in one act are often sold outright, but it is<br /> better to obtain a small nightly fee if possible, and a sum<br /> paid in advance of such fees in any event. It is extremely<br /> important that the amateur rights of one-act plays should<br /> be reserved.<br /> <br /> 5. Authors should remember that performing rights can<br /> be limited, and are usually limited, by town, country, and<br /> time. This is most important.<br /> <br /> 6. Authors should. not assign performing rights, but<br /> should grant a licence to perform. The legal distinction is<br /> of great importance.<br /> <br /> 7. Authors should remember that performing rights in a<br /> play are distinct from literary copyright. A manager<br /> holding the performing right or licence to perform cannot<br /> print the book of the words.<br /> <br /> 8. Never forget that United States rights may be exceed-<br /> ingly valuable. ‘hey should never be included in English<br /> agreements without the author obtaining a substantial<br /> consideration. :<br /> <br /> 9. Agreements for collaboration should be carefully<br /> drawn and executed before collaboration is commenced,<br /> <br /> 10. An author should remember that production of a play<br /> is highly speculative : that he runs a very great risk of<br /> delay and a breakdown in the fulfilment of his contract.<br /> He should therefore guard himself all the more carefully in<br /> the beginning.<br /> <br /> 11. An author must remember that the dramatic market<br /> is exceedingly limited, and that for a novice the first object<br /> is to obtain adequate publication.<br /> <br /> As these warnings must necessarily be incomplete, on<br /> account of the wide range of the subject of dramatic con-<br /> tracts, those authors desirous of further information<br /> are referred to the Secretary of the Society.<br /> <br /> Oo<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.<br /> me<br /> <br /> ITTLE can be added to the warnings given for the<br /> assistance of producers of books and dramatic<br /> authors. It must, however, be pointed out that, as<br /> <br /> a rule, the musical publisher demands from the musical<br /> composer a transfer of fuller rights and less liberal finan-<br /> cial terms than those obtained for literary and dramatic<br /> property. The musical composer has very often the two<br /> rights to deal with—performing right and copyright. He<br /> 16<br /> <br /> should be especially careful therefore when entering into<br /> an agreement, and should take into part. cular consideration<br /> the warnings stated above.<br /> <br /> 6h 0<br /> <br /> HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> 1. VERY member has a right toask for and to receive<br /> advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-<br /> lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his<br /> <br /> business or the administration of his property. The<br /> <br /> Secretary of the Society is a solicitor, but if there is any<br /> <br /> special reason the Secretary will refer the case to the<br /> <br /> Solicitors of the Society. Further, the Committee, if they<br /> <br /> deem it desirable, will obtain counsel’s opinion, All this<br /> <br /> without any cost to the member.<br /> <br /> 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright<br /> and publishers’ agreements do not fall within the experi-<br /> ence of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use<br /> the Society.<br /> <br /> 3. Send to the Office copies of past agreements and past<br /> accounts, with a copy of the book represented. The<br /> Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new<br /> or old, for inspection and note. The information thus<br /> obtained may prove invaluable.<br /> <br /> 4, Before signing any agreement whatever, send<br /> the document to the Society for examination.<br /> <br /> 5. Remember always that in belonging to the Society<br /> you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you<br /> are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are<br /> advancing the best interests of your calling in promoting<br /> the independence of the writer, the dramatist, the composer.<br /> <br /> 6. The Committee have now arranged for the reception<br /> of members’ agreements and their preservation in a fire-<br /> proof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as<br /> confidential documents to be read only by the Secretary,<br /> who will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers:<br /> —(1) To read and advise upon agreements and to give<br /> advice concerning publishers. (2) To stamp agreements<br /> in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep<br /> agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to<br /> agreements.. Fuller particulars of the Society’s work<br /> can be obtained in the Prospectus.<br /> <br /> 7. No contract should be entered into with a literary<br /> agent without the advice of the Secretary of the Society.<br /> Members are strongly advised not to accept without careful<br /> consideration the contracts with publishers submitted to<br /> them by literary agents, and are recommended to submit<br /> them for interpretation and explanation to the Secretary<br /> of the Society.<br /> <br /> 8. Many agents neglect to stamp agreements. This<br /> must be done within fourteen days of first execution. The<br /> Secretary will undertake it on behalf of members.<br /> <br /> 9. Some agents endeavour to prevent authors from<br /> referring matters to the Secretary of the Society ; so<br /> do some publishers. Members can make their own<br /> deductions and act accordingly.<br /> <br /> 10. The subscription to the Society is £4 4s. per<br /> annum, or £10 10s for life membership.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> THE READING BRANCH.<br /> <br /> ——— + —<br /> <br /> EMBERS will greatly assist the Society in this<br /> branch of its work by informing young writers<br /> of its existence. Their MSS. can be read and<br /> <br /> treated as a composition is treated by a coach. The term<br /> MSS. includes not only works of fiction, but poetry<br /> and dramatic works, and when it is possible, under<br /> special arrangement, technical ‘and scientific works. The<br /> Readers are writers of competence and experience. The<br /> fee is one guinea,<br /> <br /> a Ban ee ae<br /> <br /> NOTICES.<br /> <br /> 4<br /> <br /> HE Editor of Zhe Author begs to remind members of<br /> <br /> the Society that, although the paper is sent to them<br /> <br /> free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a<br /> <br /> very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great<br /> <br /> many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest<br /> 5s. 6d. subscription for the year.<br /> <br /> Communications for Zhe Author should be addressed to<br /> the Offices of the Society, 39, Old Queen Street, Storey’s<br /> Gate, 8.W., and should reach the Editor not later than<br /> the 21st of each month.<br /> <br /> All persons engaged in literary work of any kind,<br /> whether members of the Society or not, are invited to<br /> communicate to the Editor any points connected with their<br /> work which it would be advisable in the general interest to<br /> publish.<br /> <br /> i<br /> <br /> Communications and letters are invited by the<br /> Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on<br /> no other subjects whatever. Every effort will be made to<br /> return articles which cannot be accepted.<br /> <br /> —+—<br /> <br /> The Secretary of the Society begs to give notice<br /> that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post,<br /> and he requests members who do not receive an<br /> answer to important communications within two days to<br /> write to him without delay. All remittances should be<br /> crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery Lane, or be sent<br /> by registered letter only. :<br /> <br /> LEGAL AND GENERAL LIFE ASSURANCE<br /> SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> ENSIONS to commence at any selected age,<br /> either with or without Life Assurance, can<br /> be obtained from this society.<br /> <br /> Full particulars can be obtained from the City<br /> Branch Manager, Legal and General Life Assurance<br /> Society, 158, Leadenhall Street, London, H.C.<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> RR<br /> <br /> Seen<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. Li<br /> <br /> AUTHORITIES.<br /> <br /> —_—+.-—<br /> <br /> T is with much pleasure that we have to<br /> <br /> chronicle a donation of £20 to the Pension<br /> <br /> Fund of the Society from the R. D. Blackmore<br /> <br /> Memorial Committee, the amount being the sur-<br /> <br /> plus in the hands of that Committee after paying<br /> <br /> all the expenses of the memorial in Exeter<br /> Cathedral.<br /> <br /> We feel sure that no object would be more likely<br /> to commend itself to him whose memory the Com-<br /> mittee desired to perpetuate than the one selected.<br /> Mr. Blackmore was for many years a member of<br /> the Society.<br /> <br /> We are requested also by the Secretary of the<br /> fund to state that the alteration of the word “ with”<br /> into “and” in the first line of the inscription on<br /> the memorial tablet in Exeter Cathedral has been<br /> completed by the sculptor in such a way that the<br /> memorial has not been in the least disfigured.<br /> Members of the Society will call to mind that<br /> “Exeter English” was discussed in some corre-<br /> spondence in 7&#039;ke Author before the Vacation. We<br /> are glad to hear that this has been set right.<br /> <br /> Tue Library of Congress in the United States<br /> has forwarded to the offices of the Society of<br /> Authors a short circular, giving particulars of the<br /> work done by the Copyright Office during the past<br /> year ending with June 30th.<br /> <br /> It appears that the amount of fees received in<br /> the offices has steadily increased since 1897, and<br /> has now reached the large total of 72,629 dollars.<br /> These figures show the enormous increase in<br /> literary work which is going on in the United<br /> States, as well as the large use which other countries<br /> are making of the United States Copyright Act.<br /> The largest number of entries received at the office<br /> on one day was on January 2nd, 1904, when 4,031<br /> titles were registered. Under Class A, Sub-sec-<br /> tion (A), which refers to books (volumes) and<br /> pamphlets, 12,000 have been deposited during the<br /> past year. The office now seems to be in excellent<br /> working order. The business is kept well up to<br /> date, though some days, owing to extensive regis-<br /> tration, acknowledgments have to be delayed a<br /> little. The mail-matter dealt with in the office<br /> reaches the following extraordinary figures: the<br /> number of letters and parcels received totals 80,000,<br /> and the number of parcels and letters dispatched,<br /> 129,000.<br /> <br /> We must congratulate the Librarian of Congress,<br /> Mr. Herbert Putnam, and the Registrar of Copy-<br /> rights, Mr. Thorvald Solberg, on the manner in<br /> <br /> which they have dealt with their enormous<br /> business.<br /> <br /> In addition to the work of the office, Mr. Put-<br /> nam and Mr. Solberg have issued useful pamphlets<br /> on the United States Copyright Act.<br /> <br /> In the September number of Zhe Book Monthly<br /> there is a very interesting interview with Mr.<br /> A. M.S. Methuen. The subject is headed, “ On<br /> being Publisher.”<br /> <br /> Mr. Methuen does not seem to have any serious<br /> objection to the author’s agent. He seems to<br /> consider that it is often easier and safer to deal<br /> with a business man who knows the actual value<br /> of a book, and the conditions of publishing, than<br /> with an author who may be ignorant of both. He<br /> says: “In five minutes it is possible to settle a<br /> matter with an agent, while five hours, or five days,<br /> or even five weeks, may not suffice to settle it with<br /> the author himself.” Mr. Methuen also takes an<br /> optimistic view of the bookselling trade of to-day,<br /> and thinks that nett books give the bookseller a<br /> fair profit. He is not so optimistic about his own<br /> trade.<br /> <br /> The fact that Messrs. Methuen have risen in<br /> fifteen years to be one of the foremost publishing<br /> houses in England would seem to argue that there<br /> is still money to be made in publishing, or that the<br /> partners of Messrs. Methuen &amp; Co, are gentlemen<br /> of exceptional skill, tact, and business capacity. We<br /> think, from our experience, that there has been a<br /> healthy combination of the two.<br /> <br /> We have been reading with much pleasure the<br /> second report of the Committee of Management of<br /> The Advanced Historical Teaching Fund.<br /> <br /> We see among the members of the Committee<br /> three members of the Society of Authors—the<br /> Right Honourable James Bryce, Mr. G. W.<br /> Prothero, and Mr. Sidney Webb. ‘The other mem-<br /> bers are Mr. W. A. S. Hewins, Dr. A. W. Ward,<br /> and Mr. H. R. Tedder.<br /> <br /> This Committee is sufficient to confirm in the<br /> public mind the importance of the subject with<br /> which it has been endeavouring to deal, the en-<br /> couragement of the scientific training of historical<br /> students. &#039;The Committee hopes not only to place<br /> on a permanent basis the classes already in exis-<br /> tence, but gradually to create an Advanced School<br /> of History of the most complete kind. It states<br /> in its report “that it is a post-graduate school<br /> that it desires to found—a school for students<br /> who have mastered the elements : such a school as<br />  <br /> <br /> 18<br /> <br /> does not at present exist at any University in<br /> Great Britain, and the want of which is a blot on<br /> our academic system.”<br /> <br /> Tun French Société des Gens de Lettres have<br /> elected a new committee, which has chosen M.<br /> Marcel Prevost as president. M. Prevost has<br /> given a most interesting lecture on the lapse of<br /> copyright a certain number of years after the<br /> death of the author. In the course of his lecture<br /> M. Prevost pointed out shrewdly that literature is<br /> the only property which the authorities in power<br /> in all countries permit to be confiscated sooner<br /> or later, whilst all other forms of property are<br /> respected.<br /> <br /> a a<br /> <br /> AN ORIENTALIST.<br /> <br /> —1~&lt;—+<br /> <br /> IS desk in the British Museum Library was<br /> | | always piled with innumerable books, and<br /> in a chasm or cation between were papers<br /> dreadfully mingled, so that none would dare to<br /> touch them lest a worse fate should befall. He<br /> came to work in the morning and left late at night.<br /> But in the intervals of his toil he walked about<br /> briskly, either chatting with the officials or with<br /> his friends. Occasionally he went into the open,<br /> and when beyond the gates lighted his pipe and<br /> took a contemplative walk. But he was cheerful<br /> and of a social disposition, disliking loneliness.<br /> The companionship of the Hastern languages had<br /> not reduced him to apathy; he seemed to suck a<br /> lively life even out of Sanskrit. And nothing in<br /> the way of labour appalled him.<br /> <br /> He dressed in an ancient but tight-fitting frock<br /> coat. His hat was of the high species, and he wore<br /> it with an air of assertion, as one who knew his<br /> own value. In the gleam of his eye was know-<br /> ledge : he almost reeked of a particular wisdom.<br /> Yet he had by no means the air of one who<br /> despises the present or even the future, and only<br /> in his more metaphysical moods did he appear to<br /> regard Time as a mere category of the under-<br /> standing. For he ate and drank as a live man, not<br /> as a ghost. His favourite drink was Scotch<br /> whiskey. He smoked strong tobacco.<br /> <br /> Though his work was in the past and among<br /> books, he had the air of an explorer who commands<br /> workmen. He had assistants in the library who<br /> dug according to his directions. Each day it<br /> seemed as if he would at last unearth some buried<br /> city. At times excitement touched him visibly :<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> his chest swelled, his hat was worn a little on the<br /> side. But next day the city was perhaps only a<br /> solitary tomb ; he had to be content with fragments.<br /> Yet he never lost hope.<br /> <br /> His antipathy was for those who knew nothing<br /> deeply : for those who were content with an encyclo-<br /> peedia. He would rather expose the writers of<br /> stupendous monographs. Any pretence or assump-<br /> tion touched his nerves with a needle. He could<br /> not understand how any should be content with<br /> less than all. If he had been asked to write a<br /> story of the East, he would have answered grimly<br /> that he did not yet know enough. In time, in<br /> time perhaps. And he would have smoked many<br /> pipes on this reminder of the gaps in his know-<br /> ledge. He went for full certainty.<br /> <br /> What was a fact to him ? Something proved in<br /> all ways. He was not content that a thing was or<br /> seemed to be. He must deduce it @ priori as well.<br /> But deduction without verification made him snort<br /> with a logical contempt ; and mere invention in a<br /> wild romance pleased him better than a super-<br /> structure on an unwise foundation.<br /> <br /> To take liberties with the Truth, as he conceived<br /> it, was immoral. He bit his pipe angrily when he<br /> spoke of some men’s books. But it was more than<br /> immoral. To him the pursuit of absolute know-<br /> ledge was a religion. He grew bitter at times<br /> when he relaxed his severer mind and let the con-<br /> sideration of certain Western writers anger him.<br /> When he dined in a little eating-house not far<br /> from the Museum he talked with his friends and<br /> spoke freely. I heard him utter this sentence with<br /> a strange incredible vehemence: “Sir, sir! Rider<br /> Haggard is an impious man. He trifles with<br /> knowledge in the abstract !”<br /> <br /> And in his mind he executed the writer whom<br /> he denounced. He bisected him in the shape of a<br /> potato, and consumed the divided portions as<br /> though the man was done for. In the act and his<br /> mental attitude were all the elements of the magic<br /> that destroys from afar off. I perceived him in<br /> imagination melting a wax romancist at a terrible<br /> fire, or planting pins in the effigy of a careless<br /> commentator. :<br /> <br /> He rose and went back to his work in silence.<br /> But as I followed I saw that the aspect of the<br /> great museum mollified him ; the lines of his face<br /> softened ; he walked soberly through the pigeons<br /> in the path, And when the glass doors swung<br /> behind us he was himself again. He cocked his<br /> hat on one side and went briskly towards the<br /> <br /> East.<br /> M. R.<br /> <br /> &lt;&gt; 6<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 19<br /> <br /> INTELLECTUAL RIGHTS.*<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> HE nineteenth century will be regarded by<br /> posterity as an epoch of the highest impor-<br /> tance in the advance of civilisation. That<br /> <br /> century represents a splendid epic of ‘human genius,<br /> evidenced in the revelation of the truths of science,<br /> in the translation of the eternal esthetic ideal into<br /> perceptible forms of marble, colour, sound, and<br /> speech, in the elaboration in legal shape of the<br /> institutions of the modern state, and in the impulse<br /> towards those principles of liberty and justice that<br /> bind nations together in a conception of moral and<br /> economical solidarity. The great workers of that<br /> century, its marvellous industries, its commercial<br /> enterprises that have united different peoples with<br /> one another, its scientific inventions, its master-<br /> pieces of art, and its mechanical appliances will<br /> inspire future history with an idea of that immense<br /> capital of thought, of sensation, and of production<br /> which satisfies human aspirations, from the most<br /> exalted desires of the intellect to the most refined<br /> appetites of sense, from the grandest, impulse to<br /> the most playful caprice. This entirely modern<br /> efflorescence of intellectual and indastrial civilisa-<br /> tion finds its historical expression, more than<br /> anywhere else, in the efficacious protection and<br /> repressive lines of action which modern law alone<br /> has elaborated and cast into form to guarantee, to<br /> safeguard, and to discipline in social shape the<br /> rights of the author and inventor. That protection<br /> of what is called artistic and industrial property<br /> may be justly regarded as a conquest made by the<br /> civil enactments of this latter age, and is destined<br /> to advance with the development of a wider<br /> universal consciousness of legal rights, to yet<br /> farther and more complete guarantees, and to<br /> extend to the broad horizon of a systematic inter-<br /> national evolution of all rights of this description.<br /> <br /> It is only by the certainty that legal protection<br /> will be afforded to the fruits of his intellectual<br /> labours, or of his economic productions (within<br /> the limits imposed by the rights of society) that<br /> author or inventor is stimulated to produce his<br /> works, the results of long meditated, laborious and<br /> often expensive studies, investigations, and experi-<br /> ences, which shall ultimately (in consequence of<br /> the security of the recompense) augment also the<br /> collective patrimony both of universal cultivation<br /> and of national glory.<br /> <br /> The evident trath of this fact will justify the<br /> omission of lengthy historical proofs of the above<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> * This translation of a monograph, ‘‘ Le Legge per la<br /> tutela dells Proprieta artistica ed industriale”’ (‘The Laws<br /> for the Protection of Artistic and Industrial Property aN<br /> which appeared in our valuable contemporary, “T Diritti<br /> @’ Autore,” is here published by the kind consent of the<br /> author, Signor Alfredo Andreotti.<br /> <br /> statement, and will render sufficient a simply<br /> general mention of the actual evolution of intel-<br /> lectual property. The real rights of authors, as<br /> they are at present understood, had, strictly speak-<br /> ing, no protection before the French Revolution.<br /> Previous historical indications of them can be<br /> adduced only as evidences of an intuition of the<br /> possibility of legal enactments on this head, but<br /> not as proofs of their having had any distant<br /> historical origin.<br /> <br /> At first the debasement of labour, the system ot<br /> slavery that flourished in antiquity, the want of the<br /> printing press, and the predominance of a military<br /> spirit with its thirst for conquest, and afterwards.<br /> the medieval iron regime of corporations of arts<br /> and trades (against which a struggle had to be<br /> maintained for ages) were such that they rendered<br /> impossible not alone legislation, but even develop-<br /> ment of any social intuition and consciousness<br /> of intellectual property such as could ultimately<br /> be defined by any real or lucid legal expression, or<br /> could attain to the sanction of positive enactments.<br /> And it is in consequence of the absence of any pro-<br /> tection of this kind that we meet with the historical<br /> phenomenon of the “ patron,” an invention which,<br /> though exposed to the peril of favouritism, aimed<br /> at a moral and economical recognitton of intellectual<br /> activity.<br /> <br /> Even when the great reform prepared by Colbert<br /> and Turgot in France was able to destroy the<br /> monopolies and privileges of the corporations of<br /> arts and crafts, the Constitutional Assembly, under<br /> the influence of a reaction, proclaimed a principle<br /> that was too absolute, and not actually true, under<br /> the name of “intellectual property,” a property<br /> that was the most sacred of all, and claimed rights,<br /> trodden under foot for ages, affirmed by the<br /> formula “the creating personality.”<br /> <br /> Let it be said therefore again that it is the<br /> boast of our age alone that it has perceived the legal<br /> status of the right which belongs to the individual<br /> who produces something by the efforts of his own<br /> intelligence. At last, first principles of a concept<br /> capable of being continually and perpetually per-<br /> fected have been defined. From these first prin-<br /> ciples, beginning from the recognition of the<br /> material advantages to be derived from a man’s<br /> intellectual work (the most tangible aspect of the<br /> rights of the author and inventor), we advance<br /> onwards through further legal elaborations, until<br /> we reach a claim for penal enactments to protect<br /> the author’s moral rights, that is, reach a regard<br /> for the integrity of what the creative intelligence<br /> has produced and individualised. ‘These are all<br /> modern developments, and completely overshadow<br /> any such historical prototypes as might be adduced<br /> in the shape of privileges and patents of the kind<br /> granted, for example, in England by the sovereign.<br />  <br /> <br /> 20<br /> <br /> They mark an acknowledgment of the author’s<br /> rights as rights belonging to the man, a human<br /> right of a universal character extending beyond<br /> the boundaries of individual states, and binding<br /> them together in a brotherhood of international<br /> protection of an intellectual patrimony. _ These<br /> provisions in fact aim at harmonising the legitimate<br /> expectations of the author or inventor with the<br /> just claims of society’s rights in all such works as<br /> either by their origin or their destination belong<br /> to the universal social patrimony of thought and<br /> civilisation.<br /> <br /> Before proceeding to a judicial examination of<br /> such ‘civil property,” to use the language of<br /> Lucchini,* I think that it will be best to explain<br /> briefly the general aspect of the matter in its<br /> relation to the rights of society. This is an enquiry<br /> that is necessary to justify the existing legal system<br /> as administered by the penal magistrate ; and that<br /> is the aim of the present monograph.<br /> <br /> The creative activity of human thought (whether<br /> occupied in scientific discovery of the laws of<br /> nature or those of society, or employed in<br /> giving reality and actual form to some esthetic<br /> conception, or engaged in some invention or<br /> observation that, by perfecting an industrial art,<br /> may increase its applicability to human needs) in<br /> every case operates through the instrumentality of<br /> the intellect whose exceptional and most intense<br /> form is human genius.<br /> <br /> Geniuses are the privileged children of nature.<br /> She provides them with perfect organs and a<br /> nervous sensibility capable of affording them<br /> sensations so exquisite and so precise that they can<br /> be afterwards transformed into intellectual master-<br /> pieces, or into scientific discoveries and industrial<br /> inventions.<br /> <br /> But if geniuses are few, there are happily many<br /> men of abilities who possess observant minds and<br /> a great impressionability. The former quality is<br /> fitted for scientific discovery, and the latter for<br /> artistic creation. It is by the constant and un-<br /> wearied activity of observation and impression-<br /> ability that advance is effected, constantly rising to<br /> new victories of invention, of intelligence, and of<br /> industry, by means of which human society pursues<br /> its way towards truth and social happiness. These<br /> new creations when set forth in the midst of the<br /> collective life (by a book, a machine, a picture, a<br /> piece of sculpture, or a poem) produce new customs,<br /> new ideas, and new social relations, again contain-<br /> ing within themselves fresh opportunities of<br /> expansion, of intercommunication, of suggestion,<br /> and of assimilation. Thus is formed, in the<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> * “Commento alla legge 19 Settembre, 1882, sui diritti<br /> spettanti agli autori.” Riy. pen,, vol. 1, sez 1, “ Legislazione<br /> speciale Italiana,” p. 3.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> course of the successive generations, an intellectual<br /> patrimony, at once the boast of nations and their<br /> care; a treasure the more jealously guarded the<br /> more the need of cultivation is felt, and the more<br /> deeply the sense and respect of civilisation is<br /> rooted.<br /> <br /> But if creation is the act of an individual, it<br /> must not be forgotten that it is also a collective and<br /> social act. The phenomena of sensibility and of<br /> the penetrative attitude are wholly subjective.<br /> But the matter of the conception is outside the<br /> ego. We perceive it in consequence of the environ-<br /> ment in which we live, in which our psychological<br /> activity is developed ; and we feel it through the<br /> influence of the environment.<br /> <br /> Creative thought resembles the prism. The<br /> prism refracts things external to its facets,<br /> Thought through the energies of an internal<br /> psychological process elaborates and transforms a<br /> reality ; but it creates only the form, the vesture in<br /> which something, that exists in the concrete reality<br /> of nature, or of the world of human society, is<br /> presented by the poet in verse, by the painter in a<br /> balance of colour, by the sculptor in a harmony of<br /> lines, by the musician in a combination of sounds,<br /> But all these only lend a form to something,<br /> involved in them, that exists outside the creator’s<br /> ego, and is perceived by him with a more or<br /> less sensitive response of personal impressionability<br /> and in consequence of more or less intellectual<br /> study. But every author in the process of his<br /> creative act reproduces the things that experience,<br /> psychic force, and collective culture have accumu-<br /> lated in the course of ages. Hven the most<br /> speculative mental act or formula, if subjected to<br /> rigorous analytic criticism, will be found to be an<br /> association of ideas already forming a part of the<br /> social intellectual patrimony. And hence intellec-<br /> tual production has a special character of its own,<br /> that distinguishes it clearly from a thing that is<br /> the product of ordinary industrial activity ; but it<br /> is still the foundation of proprietary rights in<br /> intellectual creations. The individual and social<br /> factors interpenetrate each other in a continuous<br /> action and reaction in such a manner as to differen-<br /> tiate widely (even from the legislative point of view)<br /> common proprietorship from that which authors<br /> and inventors have in the products of their<br /> intelligence.<br /> <br /> In consequence the expression “ literary, artistic,<br /> and industrial property” is accepted by the<br /> jurist only out of respect to an historical tradi-<br /> tion, or, as Manzoni said, in a figurative sense,<br /> not in one that corresponds to an exact scientific<br /> concept. All writers on the subject are agreed on<br /> this point. True jus domini demands as an<br /> essential condition an absolute and exclusive sub-<br /> jection of the thing to the will of the human being,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> whilst, as Klostermann has observed,* “ The intel-<br /> ligent products do not exist in space, and conse-<br /> quently are not susceptible of being exclusively<br /> possessed by appropriation.” Or, as Vidari writes,t<br /> with exact logical rigour, “ This expression either<br /> refers to the right of publication (or of reproduction),<br /> and that only and solely because it is not a right<br /> of proprietorship, but a patrimonial right of a par-<br /> ticular sort, or refers to the thing by means of which<br /> thought is expressed, and then, though the right is<br /> here certain and indisputable, that has nothing to<br /> do with the present discussion ; or else it refers to<br /> thought, and nothing is more false than the assertion<br /> that thought is susceptible of proprietorship.” }<br /> Hence the productions of the intelligence form a<br /> part of the patrimony of their authors by a special<br /> right which presents analogies with, but is not<br /> identical with, and must not be confounded with,<br /> the right of proprietorship. This is the more<br /> true because this sum total of the rights of the<br /> author and of the inventor (in consequence of<br /> their origin and of their special destination in a<br /> social state of existence) ought to be protected by<br /> civil and penal sanctions that correspond with the<br /> actual necessities of those rights of society, which<br /> overshadow, if they do not absorb, the personality<br /> of the producer. For it is the social right that<br /> invests, interpenetrates, and integrates the genesis<br /> and finality of the productions of human intelli-<br /> gence, in which the whole human species (in con-<br /> sequence of its collective collaboration) has, so to<br /> say, a right of participation, of enjoyment, and of<br /> usufruct. And this effective influence of the whole<br /> race (which amounts to a limitation of the individual<br /> rights of the author) increases directly with that<br /> progress and civilisation which define by legal<br /> processes the protection of what is improperly<br /> called literary, artistic, and industrial property.<br /> In these enactments legislators are bound to recon-<br /> cile the just claims of the human personality (when<br /> this is individualised in the productive activity<br /> that wins new conquests for science, art, and in-<br /> vention) with the just counterclaims of the social<br /> element that always co-operates more or less evi-<br /> dently or forcibly in the production of every intel-<br /> lectual work, affording it the support of the multi-<br /> plex co-efficients of environment, of culture, of<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> * Schonberg, ‘‘ Manual of Political Economy ;” Kloster-<br /> mann, “Protection of the Rights of Authors,’ part iii., xx.,<br /> p. 460. Turin, 1887.<br /> <br /> + ‘Corso di Diritto Commerciale,’ 4th ed., Milan, 1895,<br /> Vol. III., p. 158,<br /> <br /> { Manzoni, in his letter addressed to Professor Boceardo,<br /> « Intorno ad una questione di cosi detta proprieta litteraria,”<br /> (respecting a question of so-called literary property),<br /> acutely observed, “This metaphor, like all metaphors,<br /> becomes a sophism when it is used as an argument; a<br /> sophism that consists in concluding a perfect identity from<br /> a partial resemblance,”<br /> <br /> 21<br /> <br /> public opinion, and of social mental attitude. For<br /> it may, in fact, be truly said that on arriving at a<br /> final analysis, everything that human intelligence<br /> produces proves to be rather a collective than an<br /> individual product.<br /> <br /> Thought and sentiment have their existence from<br /> social life. Every genius is nourished by this<br /> social life, and without its fertilising influence<br /> either becomes sterile or, transgressing the bounds<br /> of healthy and normal sensation, loses itself and<br /> perishes in unwholesome abstractions. And if the<br /> mould, the matrix, of this immense material which<br /> the human intelligence elaborates and transforms<br /> into the shape of a book, a work of art, an industrial<br /> invention or a scientific application, is, and ought<br /> always to remain individual and inalienable from<br /> the author of the work, and, as so being, should be<br /> protected by efficacious and even repressive enact-<br /> ments against any violation; nevertheless, the<br /> destination and the collaboration of the work are,<br /> and should be inalienable from the social patrimony,<br /> and as so being should have legal representation<br /> in positive enactments.<br /> <br /> As the renovation of the blood in the individual<br /> organism secures the constant continuation of the<br /> physical functions, so in civil life, and in its con-<br /> tinuous progress towards a higher evolution of<br /> civilisation, the continuous interchange of ideas,<br /> of artistic impressions, and of industrial inven-<br /> tions, is the fulcrum on which the dynamic force of<br /> social activity reposes. This is what supplies the<br /> author with the original material which is to be<br /> elaborated by his intelligent thought through a long<br /> series of speculations, intuitions, and suggestive<br /> experiences, until it is finally transformed into an<br /> intellectual work, and comes in turn to take its<br /> place and to be absorbed, and to expand in the<br /> evolutions of the collective life, there again to<br /> encounter new modifications and to play new parts.<br /> In consequence of this the creative idea, quickened<br /> by the continuous social interplay, generates a<br /> stimulant to further inventions and productions,<br /> never exhausting itself, inasmuch as this is the<br /> natural law that governs social development and<br /> human progress.<br /> <br /> The new century, which has inherited from its<br /> predecessor the most difficult legal and social<br /> problems, will assuredly bring its contributions to<br /> the solution of this great problem, which Picard<br /> has happily expressed in the words ‘intellectual<br /> rights.” The claims of the rights of intelligence<br /> stand side by side with the just claims of the rights<br /> of labour. Socially they are equally important,<br /> and equally entitled to legislative protection, The<br /> “ working man” himself should regard with confi-<br /> dence and sympathy the struggle of the human<br /> intellect to attain the full recognition of its moral<br /> and legislative importance. Intellectual activity<br /> 22<br /> <br /> by inspiring the community acts as a creative force,<br /> and the indispensable collaborator of the man of<br /> science and of the artist is the labourer, who<br /> assists in a mechanical manner to give the<br /> intellectual work a concrete and marketable form.<br /> In this wedding together of the creative intelligence<br /> and of the labouring hand that (in the book,<br /> sculpture or building) renders the idea effectual,<br /> there is a perennial symbol of the natural harmony<br /> between thought and matter, between ideal and<br /> physical energies. The destiny of communal<br /> civilisation lies in the sovereign alliance of these<br /> forces. Rights of both kinds, trodden under foot<br /> for ages, are now pressing for legislative support,<br /> and with an awakened social consciousness move<br /> _ confidently towards the victory of the future.<br /> Rights of both kinds, in their supreme appeal,<br /> transcend national bounds. They make their<br /> voices heard throughout the universe in an appeal<br /> to the workers of all nations; the voice of the<br /> artist that cries, “I have created!” and the voice<br /> of the labourer that responds, “I have toiled !”<br /> Society, in the highest expression of its collective<br /> voice, should reply firmly and solemnly, “And I<br /> by law guarantee you the fruits of your labours.”<br /> The noblest duty of the jurist will be ever that<br /> of giving expression to the conscience that is<br /> moved by the most sacred of rights, the rights of<br /> labour and thought.<br /> ALFREDO ANDREOTTI.<br /> <br /> —___—_.<br /> <br /> OCCURRENCES.<br /> <br /> ———+—_<br /> <br /> I.<br /> arene like poetry, must occur; to make<br /> it maliciously is highly offensive. It is a<br /> pun upon the idea; it is the garlic of<br /> literature, and a very little of it goes a long way.<br /> Il.<br /> That which yesterday we called “ personality,”<br /> we now perceive to be “stupidity.” The theo-<br /> logians used to call it “ original sin.”<br /> <br /> III.<br /> <br /> Success—V&#039;ailure : what do these words mean ?<br /> Probably nothing. The success of a man who is<br /> doing his own things, if he deigns to use the word<br /> at all, consists in getting his things done. There<br /> his success begins and ends. The reception of his<br /> deed or work is no concern of his: that is the<br /> world’s failure or success.<br /> <br /> IV.<br /> <br /> Browning, sitting down daily after breakfast to<br /> write so many lines, believing that he was bound<br /> to do so, and that it was worth doing! That is a<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> pitiful spectacle : what a grotesque illusion duty<br /> can become! Browning is a proper target for<br /> criticism, for the wickedest criticism: he was not<br /> writing for a livelihood. Think of it! He had<br /> an independent income, and yet he wrote, wrote,<br /> wrote—what ? “Sordello,” “ Fifine at the Fair,”<br /> ‘Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau.” And he hypno-<br /> tised a portion of the British public into the idea<br /> that there was something in it, until in despair<br /> they formed a society with apparatus for cracking<br /> these nuts—to find them all empty.<br /> <br /> Vy.<br /> <br /> “ How can I become intelligent ?”<br /> ‘“‘Tdon’t know. I think you have to be reduced<br /> to pu p, to protoplasm.”<br /> <br /> VI.<br /> <br /> Poetry should be “simple, sensuous,” &amp;c.—<br /> Milton’s phraseology. I forget the third term,<br /> nor does it matter. These epithets describe super-<br /> ficial qualities. Poetry should be intelligent,<br /> material, profound.<br /> <br /> VII.<br /> <br /> The great drama in English history is tragic<br /> and twofold, namely, the failure of Henry VIII.’s<br /> ambition to be Emperor, and the failure of<br /> Wolsey’s ambition to be Pope. There is a might-<br /> have-been worth considering! What a Europe<br /> they would have made of it, the two most inde-<br /> pendent minds, the two most absolute people in<br /> the world! The only tragic drama comparable to<br /> it—not so great, but yet a great one—is the failure<br /> of Cesar Borgia to make the Popedom hereditary.<br /> <br /> VIII.<br /> The secret of dissimulation is never to blame<br /> what you really dislike ; because what we really<br /> dislike is always that of which we are most guilty.<br /> <br /> IX.<br /> <br /> It is the gross mental libertine who is seduced<br /> by all manner of theories and ideas ; a chaste mind<br /> marries and becomes—paterfamilias! Is that the<br /> alternative in intellectual matters : a debauchee, or<br /> a domestic animal ?<br /> <br /> XxX.<br /> <br /> Is it true that success is rooted in meanness ?<br /> Is it true that one must be very mean and hateful<br /> in one’s private relations if one is to succeed<br /> publicly ? Carlyle, Dickens, Byron, Shakespeare,<br /> all hateful as husbands. How sweet and beautiful<br /> and strong Walter Scott was! Was he? Glad-<br /> stone thought him a hard-hearted fellow.<br /> <br /> XI.<br /> <br /> Intelligence and goodwill would soon bring<br /> the world to an end. Great are stupidity ‘and<br /> malignity.<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> XE.<br /> <br /> Movements are hateful things. Whenever two<br /> or more people make common cause they become<br /> rabble, entirely automatic, at the mercy of any<br /> passer who drops a penny in the slot. I have<br /> observed at close quarters a religious revival, and<br /> a Midlothian campaign, and know how hateful<br /> movements are.<br /> <br /> XII.<br /> <br /> How often it is the eunuch who writes frenzied<br /> hymns of love, the rachitic neuropath who addresses<br /> a pean to energy, the anemic dwarf who brags of<br /> his divinity.<br /> <br /> XIV.<br /> <br /> Most men begin as impersonality, but they are<br /> generally too feeble for it, the sea is so deep, the<br /> tempest so enduring: they buoy themselves up<br /> with life-belts, acquire personality by identifying<br /> themselves with some set of opinions, some creed,<br /> or social prejudice.<br /> <br /> XV.<br /> <br /> There is a profound antithesis between Literature<br /> and Religion : it closes behind ; but is continually<br /> opening up in front. They wanted to burn Mar-<br /> lowe ; now they have his bust in Canterbury. The<br /> literature of the past is Bible, the literature of<br /> to-day is Blasphemy—blasphemy that will become<br /> in its turn Bible. Literature is beyond the scope<br /> of schoolmen and clerics, and its criticism should<br /> lie in the hands of men who realise that the<br /> Anglican Church is only a minor branch of Chris-<br /> tianity, and that Christianity is only one among<br /> other religions.<br /> <br /> XVI.<br /> <br /> I have noticed that the moment one states a<br /> fact, the ink is promptly slung, “‘ Satirist ! cynic!”<br /> I have no objections: satire is pure fact ; cynicism<br /> is pure fact.<br /> <br /> JoHN DAVIDSON.<br /> <br /> ——__—__+—_&gt;_+__———__-<br /> <br /> TEMPERAMENT.<br /> <br /> —_—+—<br /> <br /> ROBABLY to a greater extent than anyone<br /> imagines is the world governed by tempera-<br /> ment. The religion which a nation embraces<br /> <br /> is due to the temperam:nt of that nation. Every<br /> man is dyed through and through by his tempera-<br /> ment. It imprints itself upon all his actions,<br /> determines them, shapes them, to the same extent<br /> that the form of a mould governs the metal which<br /> is run into it.<br /> <br /> There can be no kudos gained by the man of<br /> philosophical temperament in the mere fact that he<br /> is philosophical. It is no cumulative part of<br /> righteousness on the part of the woman possessed<br /> <br /> 23<br /> <br /> of an unselfish temperament that all her actions<br /> are unselfish. Certain temperaments are a sie<br /> qua non, they mean success and are success for the<br /> fortunate possessors thereof.<br /> <br /> A soldier requires a certain temperament in<br /> order that he may become a successful leader of<br /> men. It is then born in him. He may develop<br /> into a French or into a Hunter. Quite another<br /> temperament is necessary for a parish priest.<br /> Another again for the man of business. So long<br /> as the right man finds himself fitted with the<br /> right cap, he has a chance of success.<br /> <br /> There is one temperament which stands out<br /> from the rest more or less and of which we often<br /> hear ; it is known as the artistic temperament.<br /> People are said to be “cursed”—sometimes to<br /> be “ blessed ’—in the possession of this tempera-<br /> ment. ‘hat is to say, it isa magnificent gift in<br /> the hands of the man who possesses besides it<br /> genius and opportunity, but a stumbling-block in<br /> the path of him whose talents are but mediocre and<br /> who must do battle for the sake of daily bread.<br /> Or again for her, who, without due consideration,<br /> finds herself at the head of a family, rubbed at<br /> every turn by conventionalities and ties which a<br /> narrow circle forces her to respect. It is well<br /> known and yet little understood, this artistic<br /> temperament. Very small are the allowances<br /> which are made for the men and women whose<br /> melancholy and precious heritage it is, by the prac-<br /> tical and strenuous individual of somewhat limited<br /> vision.<br /> <br /> That temperament governs men’s lives is no-<br /> where better illustrated than in the case of the<br /> christian scientist. Hus beliefs are the outcome<br /> of his temperament. The tenets of christian<br /> science happen to be such which meet with his<br /> necessities and provide him with a sanction for his<br /> conduct. But had he been endowed with a<br /> different temperament, it is doubtful, if not<br /> improbable, that he would have become a convert<br /> to a religion with which he has just happened to<br /> be in sympathy.<br /> <br /> That temperament has to account for many of<br /> life’s difficulties, mistakes and failures, lies in the<br /> fact that it seldom fits in with environment. That<br /> is to say for example, that circumstances having<br /> prevented the man who is born with the tempera-<br /> ment which would have assisted him to become a<br /> good soldier from going into the Army, he becomes<br /> a clergyman or a schoolmaster, with his heart in<br /> neither, and the remark is frequently made about<br /> him—“ that man was never intended for the<br /> church ”—*“ he has missed his vocation.”<br /> <br /> Temperaments are manifold: there is the<br /> sanguine temperament and the morbid tempera-<br /> ment, far as the poles apart. That morbid<br /> temperament embitters many a woman’s life, and<br />  <br /> <br /> 24<br /> <br /> from childhood to old age she sees life through an<br /> introspective, melancholy medium which colours<br /> both her thought and action.<br /> <br /> It affects her whole life.<br /> from it.<br /> <br /> Such reflections force the inference that tempera-<br /> ment must have a large share in creating and<br /> destroying individual success and happiness.<br /> <br /> His temperament is generally his handicap to<br /> every starter in the race of life. It would often<br /> scem to give him small chance of success. Take a<br /> man of nervous, excitable temperament, thrust by<br /> money and position into standing for his county<br /> in the next election. With the labourer upon<br /> whose vote his seat depends he is entirely out of<br /> touch. He loses that seat, where a man of a more<br /> practical and solid turn of mind would have won.<br /> Yet had his lines fallen to him in a town and<br /> among an artisan class, instead of a labouring<br /> class, the chances are that his brilliance would<br /> have met with understanding and appreciation, and<br /> gained him a victory.<br /> <br /> There is said to be an eternal conflict between<br /> duty and passion. Equally there may be said to<br /> be an eternal conflict between temperament and<br /> circumstance—so seldom does the square peg find<br /> itself in the square hole, so illogical would the<br /> plans of men’s lives appear to be. Indeed, life<br /> would seem to bristle with polarites and contradic-<br /> tions, extremes which never meet, wants which are<br /> insatiable. Call to mind some individual of<br /> roving disposition, with no cat-like affection for<br /> home, of tireless energy, to whom “roughing it ”<br /> is not an evil but even possesses a certain amount<br /> of fascination, an individual born to influence<br /> masses rather than units, to range far afield and<br /> deal with life not limited by hedges and walls, nor<br /> controlled by county councils, nor hampered with<br /> social conventions—take such a man, a man of<br /> the pioneer temperament, a born pioneer, never<br /> more necessary to national prosperity than to-day<br /> —and how often is he not found obliged to live a<br /> life the exact opposite of the one for which his<br /> temperament fits him? And the worst of it is,<br /> that possessed of such a temperament an irksome<br /> life ends in a failure, and a failure because of his<br /> temperament—he is galled; he is shorn; he is<br /> spoiled.<br /> <br /> What has not temperament to answer for? So<br /> many human failures, so few human successes.<br /> Again and again we blame a man’s bringing-up,<br /> and we blame a man’s circumstances when we<br /> review the grievous mistake which his life would<br /> appear to have been. We even blame what we are<br /> pleased to call “himself ””&quot;—it was his own fault,<br /> we repeat: whereas if instead we laid the onus<br /> upon the temperament with which it had pleased<br /> nature to burden him, it might not be the sole<br /> <br /> She never gets away<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> reason of his pitiful failure, but it would partly<br /> account for his non-success.<br /> <br /> It calls aloud for recognition, in these days of<br /> large demands upon nervous vitality—this question<br /> of temperament, the fact that the history of the<br /> present moment resolves itself again and again<br /> into the temperament of a nation, the temperament<br /> of an individual.<br /> <br /> It is almost a truism to assert that every book<br /> which is written bears the stamp of the tempera-<br /> ment of its author. Copy lies ready to hand on<br /> every side all the world over, and from a vast field<br /> each writer makes his own selection. That selection<br /> depends upon many things, one of which is his<br /> own temperament. And having, according to<br /> the dictates of that temperament, culled certain<br /> material for a plot out of the great garden at hand,<br /> the author proceeds to treat that plot, tincturing<br /> it through and through in the essence, once more,<br /> of his own temperament. It may not come out in<br /> each character, in the hero or the heroine, it is in<br /> the general tone of the book, a little in its con-<br /> ception, a little in its details, that the temperament<br /> of the author is to be found, stalking through<br /> the pages.<br /> <br /> From the welcome given to such books as “ The<br /> Virginian,” of which it was said, You ought to read<br /> that—an absolutely healthy book, much as though<br /> a rara avis had been discovered, it is to be inferred<br /> that the novels of the present day are not always,<br /> so to speak, sanitary. Should there be justice in<br /> such an accusation, temperament must share the<br /> blame.<br /> <br /> IsaBEL SAVORY.<br /> <br /> ee<br /> ON MAGIC MIRRORS—A QUERY.<br /> BLE SE<br /> <br /> WAS diving into an old “ Encyclopedia Brit-<br /> annica” this morning. The. volume I took<br /> down from the library shelf has well turned<br /> <br /> its eighty-first birthday ; its complexion has become<br /> just a little mellow, and it has a fine old-fashioned<br /> manner of speech. It is inclined to be more moral<br /> and didactic than is the fashion now, and it is<br /> pleasantly discursive. It lingers (in the article on<br /> “Dreams ”) to beg the reader to “ guard against<br /> hopes and fears which may detach him from his<br /> proper concerns, and unfit him for the duties of life,”<br /> and to warn him solemnly against the evils atten-<br /> dant on “a disordered body, and a polluted and<br /> disturbed mind.”<br /> <br /> “From recollecting our dreams we may learn to<br /> correct the improprieties of our conduct,” says my<br /> old friend, and the long-tailed S’s seem to lend<br /> added dignity to the Johnsonian decision of his<br /> statement. One dares not be so pert as to<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 25<br /> <br /> contradict. He is fond of referring with gentle<br /> patronage to “the simplicity of the vulgar.” I<br /> cannot believe that he would approve his descen-<br /> dant’s way of bidding for popularity in the columns<br /> of the daily papers ; but in spite, nay rather because,<br /> of his little prejudices he is most excellent and<br /> human (as well as learned) company.<br /> <br /> When I set out to consult this kind and well-<br /> informed guide on one subject he buttonholes me,<br /> so that I find myself caught by the immense amount<br /> he has to say on another. It was not “ Dreams ”<br /> but dioptrics that I had intended to inquire about,<br /> and there is something arresting in the enthusiasm<br /> with which he dilates on “ The Magic Lantern.”<br /> This very remarkable machine ” which is beheld<br /> with “ pleasing admiration ” and astonishment.<br /> <br /> Now the modern magic lantern has sadly lost<br /> its magic; it has become thoroughly instructive.<br /> It has taken to throwing carefully accurate photo-<br /> graphs on a sheet in order to illustrate popular<br /> lectures on astronomy, architecture, botany,<br /> geology and what not. It has become the humble<br /> handmaid of the exact sciences, and no longer<br /> attempts to ‘‘ Produce the appearance of a phantom<br /> on a pedestal in the middle of a table,” nor beau-<br /> tiful coloured figures on a cloud of smoke, which<br /> are “so conspicuous” that the foolish spectator<br /> (who evidently partakes of the simplicity of the<br /> vulgar) “thinks he may grasp them with the<br /> hand.”<br /> <br /> I own to aslight longing to try to produce that<br /> phantom ! (the directions are temptingly explicit),<br /> but I suppose Pepper exploited him once and for<br /> all, and a spectre ceases to be interesting when you<br /> know how he is evolved.<br /> <br /> Yet still the discourse holds me. Long, long<br /> ago people loved “passing pictures.” Britomart<br /> saw her knight in a mirror. The magic mirrors<br /> of the magicians are a distinct feature, not only of<br /> medizeval but of far more ancient lore. Only the<br /> other day I heard of a lucky person who picked up<br /> an old Venetian mirror at a sale in Italy, which<br /> accomplishes a feat the secret of which baffles<br /> modern dioptricians.<br /> <br /> When you walk towards this wonderful old glass,<br /> and stretch out your hand towards it, another hand<br /> seems to come right ont of the frame to meet yours !<br /> I wish I had some acquaintance with the possessor<br /> of that wizard’s trick! I wonder if he is ever<br /> seized with a foolish desire to take his mirror out<br /> of its setting, and see how the thing is done 2<br /> <br /> And this brings me to the question I want to<br /> ask. Could not these reflected effects of light and<br /> colour which we get from magic lanterns, and of<br /> which charlatanism has often made profit, be also<br /> used to help in the reading of poetry or the telling<br /> of tales ?<br /> <br /> Of course, I know that the white sheet with its<br /> <br /> round disk of light plays a part still in children’s<br /> parties. It provides a well loved and delightful<br /> entertainment ; but surely we might do better than<br /> that !<br /> <br /> In my mind’s eye I see, not a sheet with a hard<br /> round disk, on which is thrown more or less inade-<br /> quate representations of the beautiful old fairy<br /> stories, but something far more mysterious and<br /> suggestive. A mirror set in a frame. Pictures<br /> that appear and fade like the pictures in “ Aunt<br /> Margaret’s Mirror,” that fateful mirror into which<br /> Lady Forester and her sister peeped with such<br /> tragic result.<br /> <br /> I should like to see such a mirror in a private<br /> room, where the hostess can read or chant the<br /> poems that she loves to guests who have paid no<br /> pennies! Our entertainments are apt to be a<br /> trifle too impersonal and “shoppy” at present;<br /> that is why I want the pictures to be the accom-<br /> paniments to especially chosen poems. But then<br /> they would have to be especially painted, and I<br /> fear that that might cost a small fortune! But<br /> just imagine what a charming refreshment for<br /> people who love both colour and poetry ! Would<br /> you not, some of you, like to see the reflection of<br /> Neckan singing to his harp of gold? and of the<br /> flowering staff of the hard-hearted priest ? or of<br /> but no! if I once begin to make a list of all the<br /> images I should like to call up, this silly paper will<br /> never be finished.<br /> <br /> As for the smoke pictures, they are to be partially<br /> evolved from an article familiar enough in my<br /> encyclopaedia’s youth, but rarer now! You get<br /> them out of a chafing dish. I should so very much<br /> like to see them tried ona lawn on a hot summet’s<br /> night. You have to provide a curiously-made box,<br /> and put your chafing dish, filled with glowing<br /> coals, inside it. Then you fling incense on the<br /> coals, and you throw your lovely pictures on the<br /> column of smoke which “ rises in a cloud from the<br /> aperture of the box.” My instructor says, “ It is<br /> remarkable in this representation that the motion<br /> of the smoke does not at all change the figures.”<br /> I (who know nothing whatever about dioptrics)<br /> am struck with wonder that such should be the<br /> case, but I am glad it is so !<br /> <br /> The host would have to know the poems by<br /> heart at that gathering, for no disturbing light<br /> can be allowed by which to read. Perhaps each<br /> guest should bring a pinch of imagination, which<br /> would help as much as the handful of incense, but<br /> the dullest can produce imagination on asummer’s<br /> night out of doors ; and what, oh what an ideal<br /> party that might be! If any one is inspired to<br /> attempt it next summer, I will send him all the<br /> directions for making the box, if only he will please<br /> invite me to sit on the grass and see the smoke<br /> pictures rise up.<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 26<br /> <br /> Seriously, however, I fear that that enchanting<br /> bonfire is a little beyond the reach of the amateur’s<br /> accomplishment, though I still feel that my magic<br /> mirror could and should be managed.<br /> <br /> If one had a deep frame surrounding a polished<br /> dark surface, like enamelled wood, for example, or<br /> if one had a tight-stretched transparent surface<br /> within the frame, and if the inside measure were<br /> the exact size of the disk of light thrown by the<br /> lantern, could it be done? And, in the latter<br /> case, could the lantern be behind, not in front of<br /> the frame, so that the pictures showed through ?<br /> It is not for trickery but for beauty that one<br /> would like to press into service these visions writ<br /> in smoke and water and light. It would be so<br /> charming to have a magic mirror that should not<br /> pretend to foretell the mercifully veiled future<br /> nor be the slave of superstition and charlatanism,<br /> but should reflect the white magic of poetry, of<br /> pure fancies and beautiful images.<br /> <br /> I wonder now if any one who reads this has any<br /> knowledge of how one is to set about possessing<br /> such a mirror. Can any one put foundations to<br /> this dream? If so, I hope he will graciously<br /> impart his knowledge, and will write a far more<br /> interesting and useful létter than mine.<br /> <br /> F. F. Montresor.<br /> <br /> i<br /> <br /> FICTION IN THE MAKING.<br /> <br /> os<br /> <br /> [Reprinted from The American Critic, by kind permission<br /> of the Editor. ]<br /> I.<br /> <br /> O farther South-west than Communipaw<br /> Was it ever my fate to go,<br /> Nor Indian nor cowboy I ever saw<br /> Except with a Wild West show ;<br /> But Pll weave you a tale of the boundless plains,<br /> The gulch and the mining camp,<br /> The mountain trail and the burro trains,<br /> And ranges where wild steers stamp.<br /> It is true that I flinch at the sound of a gun—<br /> My nerves are deplorably weak ;<br /> All quarrelsome persons I carefully shun—<br /> My nature is shrinking and meek ;<br /> But the Alkali Alecks and Piute Petes<br /> Through my powder-grimed chapters shall<br /> prance :<br /> They shall shoot up the town as they dash through<br /> the streets, 2<br /> And make the pale tenderfoot dance.<br /> Oh, it’s Whoop for the bronco-buster bold !<br /> And it’s Wow for the fierce bad man !<br /> And there’s always a market for stories told<br /> On the strenuous border plan.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> II.<br /> <br /> I never have sailed on a gallant ship,<br /> And I’ve vowed that I never will,<br /> For it only requires a ferry-boat trip<br /> To make me unpleasantly ill ;<br /> But I’ll spin you a yarn of the salt, salt sea,<br /> And the storm-lashed Atlantic’s surge,<br /> Of masts by the board, and of surf a-lee<br /> That moaneth the sailorman’s dirge.<br /> I am not quite sure if the mizzen truck<br /> Is a rope or a species of sail,<br /> If the flying jib-boom with glue is stuck,<br /> Or merely held fast with a nail ;<br /> But I’ll prate you of main topgallant stay,<br /> Of capstan and crossjack lift,<br /> As I tell of a voyage to Far Cathay<br /> Or where Arctic icebergs drift.<br /> Then it’s Yo-heave-ho! and Avast below !<br /> And Shiver the binnacle light !<br /> For why ever to sea need a landsman go<br /> A nautical novel to write ?<br /> <br /> III.<br /> <br /> Tn history I was my teacher’s despair<br /> At school, and I’ve learned little since ;<br /> I forget whether Louis the Debonair<br /> Was a German or English prince ;<br /> But I&#039;ll write a romance of the Georges’ court,<br /> Of Virginia under King James,<br /> With gallants of the Philip Sidney sort,<br /> And powdered Colonial dames.<br /> Old fashions in dress I have only seen<br /> At an Arion fancy ball ;<br /> Nor royalty, saving perhaps a queen<br /> Of song in a concert hall ;<br /> But my lady shall wear a patch by her nose<br /> And a Queen Elizabeth ruff,<br /> And my lord shall swagger in peach-coloured hose,<br /> With a yard of lace on his cuff.<br /> So it’s Marry, come up; and it’s Varlet,<br /> what ho !<br /> By my halidom, sire! and Gadzooks !<br /> For of history little we need to know<br /> When making historical books.<br /> <br /> TV.<br /> <br /> I never have seen a football game,<br /> And, judging by common report,<br /> <br /> I would much rather not, for I hold it a shame<br /> To permit such a brutal sport ;<br /> <br /> But my pen shall depict the chalk-lined field<br /> Where straining young giants meet :<br /> <br /> The stone-wall centre that will not yield,<br /> And the quarter-back’s flying feet.<br /> <br /> My college career was confined to a course<br /> In one of the business kind ;<br /> <br /> For mere exhibitions of physical force,<br /> I never had muscle nor mind: ©<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> ¥<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 27<br /> <br /> But I&#039;ll give you the thunderous cheers for the<br /> Blue,<br /> Or the shouts for the Orange and Black,<br /> When some Chadwick or Poe for a touchdown goes<br /> through<br /> With a dozen men piled on his back.<br /> ‘And it’s Siss—boom—ah—Princeton ! and<br /> Rah—rah—rah—Yale !<br /> And Brace on the five-yard line !<br /> For I’ve seldom known ’varsity football to<br /> fail<br /> In selling a story of mine.<br /> Ross LAWRENCE.<br /> <br /> &lt;_&lt; —__—_—_—_<br /> <br /> CORRESPONDENCE.<br /> <br /> og<br /> “ WHat’s In A NAME?”<br /> <br /> Srr,—Under the heading of “Legal Notes,” in<br /> your issues of June and July, Mr. E. A. Armstrong<br /> deals with the question of the right (or non-right)<br /> of an author to the title of his book.<br /> <br /> His first letter, discussing “the position of a<br /> new book with regard to a title which has been<br /> used before by another writer,” seems, when all<br /> the pros and cons are considered, to leave an im-<br /> pression on the mind that an author’s right to his<br /> book-title has about the value of an arithmetical<br /> round o, when the o stands alone. When this<br /> legal con is deducted from that legal pro, and this<br /> pro from that con, the author’s position appears<br /> to be more indefinite than the happenings of<br /> to-morrow.<br /> <br /> In the second paragraph of his first letter, Mr.<br /> Armstrong asserts :—“ The right to the name ofa<br /> book is not copyright.” Why should it not be ?<br /> The name of a bdok is the introductory sentence of<br /> that book; and why, in reason, should not the<br /> introductory sentence share legal protection with<br /> any other passage in the work? An author<br /> appropriating for his “new book” any portion of<br /> another’s registered book is indictable for infringe-<br /> ment of copyright. Why should not the law,<br /> which holds the literary purloiner liable for incor-<br /> porating in his book any passage from another’s,<br /> make him equally amenable for stealing the intro-<br /> ductory sentence? Every line should be covered<br /> by copyright from title to finis.<br /> <br /> Having asserted, ‘The right to the title of a<br /> book is not copyright,” Mr. Armstrong remarks :—<br /> “At the same time,-there is in a title a right which<br /> is capable of protection” (!). Pray, what is that<br /> right if not copyright ? Copyright is the one right<br /> known to authors as capable of protecting their<br /> works. What would be thought of the man who<br /> <br /> declared he had a right to his own person as<br /> Mr. Penman Dryasdust, but no right whatever to<br /> his christian and surname, Penman Dryasdust,<br /> Esq.? The law will protect his style and title<br /> as well as his person.<br /> <br /> “Tt is in some cases of importance to an author<br /> that it (the title of his book) should be protected.<br /> In others . . . a work which is of no value needs<br /> no protection.” This is the dictum of Mr. Arm-<br /> strong. But, who is to assess finally the value of a<br /> work ? How many books have lain dormant upon<br /> the shelves of publishers for years, before rising to<br /> centuries of fame and millenaries of circulation ?<br /> Take, for instance, Hume’s own words anent his<br /> “History of England,” before its resurrection to a<br /> life of established fame : “The book seemed to sink<br /> into oblivion ; Mr. Millar (Hume’s publisher) told<br /> me that in a twelvemonth he had sold only forty-five<br /> copies of it.”<br /> <br /> A more modern instance is that of “ Lorna<br /> Doone.” The book was quietly settling down for a<br /> long rest on its publisher’s shelves, when a happy<br /> public event aroused it to a deserved popularity.<br /> Every author knows the story of its electric burst<br /> into fame. If a book with a prior claim to the<br /> title of another book in the market, after having<br /> lain dormant for years, is awakened by public<br /> appreciation to fame and circulation, what becomes<br /> of Mr. Armstrong’s theory of cribbing a title<br /> because it was “of no value?” Would “the<br /> question have to be decided whether he (the author)<br /> is to be treated with contempt or humoured,” as<br /> Mr. Armstrong puts it? In a court of law the<br /> prior title would be certain to win a verdict upon<br /> its resurrection-claimed value. Would B.’s conten-<br /> tion that because A.’s book had no circulation<br /> when first issued it was “ of no value” be any plea<br /> for justification ? Certainly not! Take parallel<br /> cases, and judge if Mr. Armstrong’s “no value ”<br /> standard is morally or legally correct. Take<br /> house-property instead of literary property, or take<br /> house utensils. If a certain house-property would<br /> not let or sell, and was therefore supposed “of no<br /> value” to its owner, would any man have a right to<br /> alter it out of all recognition, and then claim the<br /> title-deeds 2? What would be thought by common-<br /> sense people of the morality of such an assumed<br /> right ? Because a house or a book is “of no<br /> value” in the eyes of some does that create a right<br /> for another to levant with the things of no reputed<br /> value? There are many things in one’s house<br /> of no reputed value, and if a burglar stole any one<br /> of them, he would be tried at the Old Bailey<br /> for thefc—proving that justice sets a value upon<br /> all things coming under the title of property.<br /> Since this “no value” theory cannot hold for a<br /> moment with rectitude, then, out on it for a<br /> principle of conduct !<br />  <br /> <br /> 28<br /> <br /> Let me review “the legal position” of Mr.<br /> Armstrong’s A. and B. deductions from the case of<br /> the “ Oxford Bibles.” He writes: ‘‘ This, therefore,<br /> it is submitted, is the legal position: that A. must<br /> not take for his hook the name used by B. so as<br /> to have his (A.’s) book mistaken for B.’s.” What<br /> else can happen except mistaken identity and<br /> confusion when one writer takes another writer’s<br /> book-title? If A.’s title failed to sell his book,<br /> what warrant have we that the same title will<br /> “boom” B.’s work ? Then, in what lies the value<br /> of annexing another’s title? Again, has not B.<br /> a very meagre inventive faculty, when it is not<br /> fertile enough to evolve into blossom an original<br /> title for his own work? Whether is better, to<br /> brain-sweat honestly for one’s own produce, or to<br /> crib another man’s ?<br /> <br /> The inventive faculty is the fiction author’s<br /> prospecting ground, containing the original ore,<br /> which, when refined in the critical crucible of other<br /> mental faculties, presents to the world that valuable<br /> article called a book. Mr. Armstrong would con-<br /> done trespass upon this exclusively-staked prospect-<br /> ing ground or claim; notwithstanding that the<br /> owner pronounces, “ Trespassers will be prosecuted<br /> according to law.” To the lay mind the natural<br /> sequence of B.’s adopting A.’s title would induce<br /> the belief that A. was the more original writer of<br /> the two, and that B. levied for his book the ideas<br /> of A.<br /> <br /> Can Mr. Armstrong giveany instance of one author<br /> having appropriated the title of another author’s<br /> book, and that book having had an extensive sale?<br /> If this question can be answered affirmatively, then<br /> title-appropriation is of value at the expense of the<br /> original inventor, which, to say the least of it, is a<br /> very dubious title to fame or honesty. The experi-<br /> ment, according to his own admission, was<br /> attempted by Mr. Armstrong. He writes: “I<br /> have suffered from the nuisance, as I had to<br /> change the name of a novel, after it had been<br /> announced in advance, because the writer of a<br /> short story having the title I had chosen,” etc., etc.<br /> Does Mr. Armstrong mean by “suffered from the<br /> nuisance” that his book did not sell by consequence<br /> of his not having been allowed to adopt the title of<br /> another author’s work? Or does he suppose that<br /> had he been permitted to take that other’s title his<br /> book would have had a sale? This is certainly<br /> the inference from his words ; for as his work was<br /> prefaced by his own invented title, he declares,<br /> “My book is now as dead as a doornail.”’<br /> <br /> Paragraph seven in the July letter is wisdom<br /> itself, not because it upsets nearly all the pros and<br /> cons in both Mr. Armstrong’s June and July<br /> letters, but on account of its advice to authors to<br /> keep on the safe side of a law court.<br /> <br /> The Society of Authors will not be a complete<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> organisation until such time as it establishes a<br /> “ Titles’ Registration Department.”<br /> CHARLES RIcHARD PanTeR.<br /> Wickhampton.<br /> <br /> —1—&gt; +<br /> <br /> a<br /> AUTHOR AND INCoME Tax.<br /> <br /> Sir,—It would be a matter of great interest to.<br /> your readers if Mr. Thring could advise upon the<br /> author’s income tax. Should an author count<br /> sums received for the sale of copyright and cheques.<br /> in advance of royalties as income? The stamp-<br /> ing of agreements assigning copyrights should<br /> throw a light upon the interpretation of these<br /> things as property.<br /> <br /> Yours sincerely,<br /> <br /> TAXPAYER.<br /> —-—~&gt; +<br /> <br /> THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Sir,—Will you kindly allow me to ask any<br /> other author who has suffered from the overcharge<br /> of the publisher to write to me and give me details.<br /> <br /> I would like to say that I purpose to write a book<br /> under the title of “The Humour of Books and<br /> the Ways of the Publishers,” and shall-be glad to<br /> receive anything and everything that will be<br /> helpful.<br /> <br /> Yours, &amp;c., &amp;c.,<br /> J. P. SANDLANDS.<br /> <br /> —_——<br /> <br /> ELECTIONS AND COPYRIGHT.<br /> <br /> Srr,—I am no politician, but I am from time to.<br /> time made aware that disturbances called elections<br /> are taking place. On such occasions unknown<br /> people who want to talk call at strange hours, and<br /> the letter-box furnishes, in addition to the ordinary<br /> flood of touting advertisements, other applications<br /> apparently equally veracious, and certainly couched<br /> in similar language, informing me that the Empire<br /> will go to the dogs if I do not—or do—vote for<br /> someone of whose real opinions I know nothing.<br /> Amongst this vote-hunting tribe are evidently the<br /> gentlemen whom authors have to thank for<br /> obstructing the passing of enactments advantageous<br /> to the literary profession. Might I suggest that<br /> next time an election comes off Zhe Author should<br /> print—conspicuously and in heavy type—a black<br /> list of the names of these worthies? Votes are<br /> evidently the only things they care about ; and<br /> though authors’ votes may be few, those who labour<br /> to diminish authors’ incomes may just as well go<br /> without them.<br /> <br /> A VoTeR aND AUTHOR.	https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/498/1904-10-01-The-Author-15-1.pdf	publications, The Author
499	https://historysoa.com/items/show/499	The Author, Vol. 15 Issue 02 (November 1904)	<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=%3Cem%3EThe+Author%3C%2Fem%3E%2C+Vol.+15+Issue+02+%28November+1904%29"><em>The Author</em>, Vol. 15 Issue 02 (November 1904)</a>											<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Publication">Publication</a>	1904-11-01-The-Author-15-2					29–60																		<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=89&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=15">15</a>											<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=76&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1904-11-01">1904-11-01</a>							2			19041101	The Hutbor.<br /> <br /> (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)<br /> <br /> “FOUNDED BY SIR<br /> <br /> WALTER BESANT.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Vou. XV.—No. 2.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> TELEPHONE NUMBER :<br /> 374 VICTORIA.<br /> <br /> TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS :<br /> AUTORIDAD, LONDON.<br /> <br /> —_____—_e—&lt;&gt;—_e_—_—_—_<br /> <br /> NOTICES.<br /> <br /> ——+—~— 4<br /> <br /> OR the opinions expressed in papers that are<br /> signed or initialled the authors alone are<br /> responsible. None of the papers or para-<br /> <br /> graphs must be taken as expressing the opinion<br /> of the Committee unless such is especially stated<br /> to he the case.<br /> <br /> Tus Editor begs to inform members of the<br /> Authors’ Society and other readers of The Author<br /> that the cases which are from time to time quoted<br /> in The Author are cases that have come before the<br /> notice or to the knowledge of the Secretary of the<br /> Society, and that those members of the Society<br /> who desire to have the names of the publishers<br /> concerned can obtain them on application.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> List of Members.<br /> <br /> Tux List of Members of the Society of Authors<br /> published October, 1902, at the price of 6d., and<br /> the elections from October, 1902, to July, 1903, as<br /> a supplemental list, at the price of 2d., can now be<br /> obtained at the offices of the Society.<br /> <br /> They will be sold to members or associates of<br /> <br /> the Society only.<br /> — ++.<br /> <br /> The Pension Fund of the Society.<br /> <br /> Tue Trustees of the Pension Fund met at the<br /> Society’s Offices on the 19th of February, and<br /> having gone carefully into the accounts of the<br /> fund, decided to purchase £250 London and North<br /> Western 3% Debenture Stock. Accordingly, the<br /> investments of the Pension Fund at present<br /> <br /> Vou, XV.<br /> <br /> NovEMBER I1sT, 1904.<br /> <br /> [Prick SIXPENCE.<br /> <br /> See ese er<br /> <br /> standing in the names of the Trustees are as<br /> <br /> follows.<br /> This is a statement of the actual stock ; the<br /> <br /> money value can be easily worked out at the current<br /> price of the market :—<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Oonsols 2h %. 2... cceccscecccnsereseeren es £1000 0 0<br /> Tecal Hoans -.. 6... ssf 500 0 0<br /> Victorian Government 8 % Consoli-<br /> dated Inscribed Stock ............... 291 19 12<br /> War bon 220 2). et. . 201 3 8<br /> London and North Western 3 % Deben-<br /> bare SOCK ie. 250 0 0<br /> Pobal . Gak ce: 62,248 9 2<br /> Subscriptions from April, 1904.<br /> <br /> £ 8. a.<br /> April18, Dixon, W. Scarth . ‘ 1 0 5 8<br /> April18, Bashford, Harry H. E 27010. 6<br /> April19, Bosanquet, Eustace I’. . - O10 6<br /> April23, Friswell, Miss Laura Hain . 0 5 O<br /> May 6, Shepherd,G. H. . : - 0 5 0<br /> <br /> June 24, Rumbold, Sir Horace, Bart.,<br /> Ge.B. . : : tod 0<br /> July 27, Barnett, P. A. : ‘ . 0 10 0<br /> <br /> Donations from April, 1904.<br /> May 16, Wynne, C. Whitworth .. . 5 0 0<br /> June 23, Kirmse, R. . 5 : &lt;0 720 0<br /> June 23, Kirmse, Mrs. R. : ; 5 0<br /> <br /> July 21, The Blackmore Memorial<br /> Committee . : -20 0 6<br /> Aug. 5, Walker, William 8. : - 2.0 6<br /> Oct. 6, Hare, F.W.E., M.D. - 11 1 0<br /> Oct. 6, Hardy, Harold - 0.10 0<br /> Oct. 20, Cameron, Mrs. Lovett 010 0<br /> <br /> ++<br /> FROM THE COMMITTEE.<br /> ee<br /> <br /> HE first meeting of the Committee after the<br /> vacation was held at the Society’s offices on<br /> October 8rd.<br /> <br /> The business of the meeting, as usual, com-<br /> menced with the election of members. The Com-<br /> mittee are pleased to state that during the vacation<br /> Se<br /> <br /> 30 THE AUTHOR. :<br /> <br /> over fifty election forms were sent to the office,<br /> making the number of elections during the first<br /> ten months of the year over 190. The list is<br /> printed below. If the same rate of election con-<br /> tinues to the end of the year, 1904 will stand out<br /> far above the average of the last six or seven years.<br /> The Committce welcome this increase as a sign of<br /> the growing interest that members of the pro-<br /> fession of letters take in the Society, and the real<br /> benefit they derive from its work. :<br /> <br /> Further discussion arose respecting our agent in<br /> the United States, and the Chairman reported that<br /> Mr. James Bryce was making enquiries on the<br /> Society’s behalf in New York.<br /> <br /> The London County Council have officially ex-<br /> pressed their readiness to accept the Society’s offer<br /> to provide a replica of the Besant Memorial which<br /> was unveiled in the crypt of St. Paul’s Cathedral.<br /> The subscriptions that have been promised and are<br /> to hand make tbe total within a few pounds of<br /> amount required. Should any members of the<br /> Society desire to make further contributions,<br /> cheques may be forwarded to the Secretary.<br /> Mr. Frampton, the sculptor, has been instructed<br /> to cast the replica. Due notice will be given in<br /> The Author as soon as the final arrangements have<br /> been made. The County Council have proposed,<br /> with the approval of those specially interested, to<br /> place the bronze on one of the granite pedestals on<br /> the Embankment near Waterloo Bridge.<br /> <br /> A question with regard to the contracts between<br /> sundry members of the Society and a Canadian firm<br /> of publishers, which has been mentioned under<br /> the Committee Notes from time to time, was again<br /> considered by the Committee, and the Secretary<br /> has been instructed to take further action on behalf<br /> of the members involved.<br /> <br /> Another matter under discussion was the position<br /> of Roumania in the matter of International Copy-<br /> right. From information which had been received<br /> by the Secretary from the Bureau at Berne, it<br /> appeared that the present copyright law of Rou-<br /> mania would enable that country to enter into a<br /> treaty with His Majesty’s Government, and the<br /> Secretary was instructed, therefore, to lay this in-<br /> formation before the Secretary of State for Foreign<br /> Affairs, in the hope that a satisfactory copyright<br /> treaty might be negotiated.<br /> <br /> Several members of the Society have, from time<br /> to time, placed before the Secretary questions<br /> arising on the payment of Income Tax on literary<br /> profits. The subject is full of interest to all aathors,<br /> and in view of its importance, a statement will be<br /> drawn up and laid before counsel in order that<br /> some clear understanding may be arrived at.<br /> <br /> An application from Mr. Howard Collins that<br /> the Society should affix its imprimatur on his forth-<br /> coming work, “ Author’s and Printer’s Handbook,”<br /> <br /> was considered. The Committee, while fully<br /> appreciating the merits of Mr. Collins’ work, and<br /> the disinterestedness of his labours in producing it,<br /> decided that a departure from the practice of<br /> declining to give the imprimatur of the Society to<br /> works issued by its members was likely to lead to<br /> difficulties in the future, and therefore inexpedient.<br /> <br /> One or two other matters were dealt with by the<br /> <br /> Committee.<br /> —— +<br /> <br /> Cases.<br /> <br /> Durine the past month eight cases have been<br /> laid before the secretary—four for the return of<br /> MSS., three for payment of money, and one<br /> for accounts. In three cases the MSS. have been<br /> returned, and in the remaining one the Editor has<br /> promised to look up the matter and forward the<br /> MS. when found. ‘Two of the claims for money<br /> have been settled; the third case, taken in hand<br /> a few days ago, is still in course of negotiation.<br /> The accounts have been duly rendered.<br /> <br /> The secretary regrets to state that, of those<br /> cases before him during the long vacation, there<br /> are a considerable number still open, but six<br /> of the total—seven in all—refer to American<br /> publishers and editors. Publishers, who live out-<br /> side Great Britain, are not always so ready to<br /> attend to the requests of the secretary as they<br /> would be if they lived within the British Isles, and<br /> even when ready, letter and answer take some<br /> time to cross the water. Sometimes, however,<br /> publishers in the United States take advantage of<br /> the fact that they live some distance from the<br /> author, and not only disregard the demands of the<br /> Society but their contracts also. It is hoped that,<br /> as soon as the Society has another agent in the<br /> United States, it will be possible to obtain prompt<br /> satisfaction.<br /> <br /> The seventh case refers to a demand for money,<br /> but is a little complicated as it is difficult to ascer-<br /> tain the exact amount until fuller accounts have<br /> been rendered. Negotiations are still proceeding,<br /> and during the month of November it is hoped<br /> that the whole matter will be cleared up.<br /> <br /> —— + —<br /> <br /> October Elections.<br /> <br /> . Broad Park Avenue,<br /> Ilfracombe.<br /> Balfour, The Right Hon. 10, Downing Street,<br /> A. J., M.P- S.W<br /> <br /> Allen, James . .<br /> <br /> Ballin, Ada 8. . . 18, Somerset Street,<br /> &#039; Portman Square,<br /> <br /> W., and 4, Agar<br /> <br /> Street, Strand.<br /> <br /> Barrington, Michael<br /> <br /> <br /> hie<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Bell, Mrs. Hugh<br /> <br /> Bennett, Miss Etta<br /> <br /> Buchanan<br /> <br /> Berrington, the Rev. B. 8.<br /> <br /> Best, Dr. George Payne .<br /> <br /> Booth, Mrs. Annie M.<br /> Bradley, A. C.<br /> <br /> Briggs, Lady .<br /> Buckland, C. E., C.1.E.<br /> Cameron, Mrs. Lovett<br /> Carter, Joseph<br /> <br /> Cook, &amp;. 71.<br /> Coward, T. A.<br /> <br /> de Zuylen de Nyevelt<br /> Baronne §.<br /> <br /> Emanuel, Walter<br /> <br /> Evans, John William<br /> Fletcher, A. Woodroofe<br /> <br /> “A Foreign Resident ”<br /> Fox, J. A.<br /> <br /> Frankau, Mrs. (“ Frank<br /> <br /> Danby ”<br /> Gouldsbury, Charles E.<br /> Hardy, Harold<br /> <br /> Hare, F. W. E., M.D.<br /> Hellyer, Miss M. Maud<br /> <br /> Herbert, the Hon. Auberon<br /> <br /> Holt, W. G.<br /> <br /> Humberstone,<br /> Lloyd<br /> <br /> Kennedy, Bart<br /> <br /> Koch, Mrs. Mary<br /> <br /> Maclaverty, Mrs. A. (‘N.<br /> <br /> Atling ’’)<br /> <br /> Macquoid, Capt. C., D.S.0.<br /> <br /> (XX. Deccan Horse)<br /> <br /> Thomas<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 31<br /> <br /> 95, Sloane Street, S.W.<br /> Park Mount, Albert<br /> Road, Southport.<br /> Marnixstraat, Amster-<br /> <br /> dam.<br /> <br /> 26, Strawberry Hiil<br /> Road, Twickenham.<br /> <br /> 1, Kingstown Square,<br /> Gloucester.<br /> <br /> 9, Edwardes Square,<br /> Kensington, W.<br /> <br /> 5, Charles Street, St.<br /> James’ Square, 8. W.<br /> <br /> 61, Cornwall Gardens,<br /> S. Kensington, S.W.<br /> <br /> Millbrook House,<br /> Shepperton.<br /> <br /> 260, North End Road,<br /> Fulham, 8.W.<br /> <br /> 1, Gordon Place, W.C.<br /> <br /> Brentwood, Bowdon,<br /> Cheshire.<br /> <br /> 69, Parkstraad, The<br /> Hague, Nether-<br /> lands.<br /> <br /> 89, Ladbroke Grove,<br /> W.<br /> <br /> 75, Craven Park, N.W.<br /> <br /> St. Anne’s Passage,<br /> Manchester.<br /> <br /> 38, Conduit Street, W.<br /> <br /> 48, Melrose Avenue,<br /> Willesden Green,<br /> N.W.<br /> <br /> 11, Clarges Street, W.<br /> <br /> Authors’ Club, 3,<br /> Whitehall Court,<br /> S.W.<br /> <br /> 1, Dr. Johnson’s Build-<br /> ings, Temple, E.C.<br /> <br /> New Holme, South<br /> Hill, Bromley,<br /> Kent.<br /> <br /> Old House, Ringwood.<br /> <br /> Coton, Tamworth.<br /> <br /> Toynbee Hall,28,Com-<br /> mercial Street, E.<br /> <br /> Ryemead, Rickmans-<br /> worth,<br /> <br /> 21, Castlenau, Barnes,<br /> S.W.<br /> <br /> Llangattock Manor,<br /> Monmouth.<br /> <br /> c/o Messrs. Thomas<br /> Cook &amp; Son, Lon-<br /> dow and Bombay,<br /> <br /> Mason, Frank H.,R.B.A., Lindisfarne, Trinity<br /> Road, Scarboro’.<br /> Moore, William ; . 84, Fairview Road,<br /> <br /> S. Tottenham.<br /> <br /> 29, Beechcroft Road,<br /> Oxford.<br /> <br /> Market Buildings,<br /> Rockhampton,<br /> Queensland,<br /> Australia,<br /> <br /> 68, Lower Essex Street,<br /> Birmingham.<br /> <br /> 9, Old Square, Lin-<br /> coln’s Inn, W.C.<br /> <br /> Onions, Charles Talbut<br /> <br /> Parker, Thomas<br /> <br /> Plumbe, 8. W.<br /> Pocock, Archibald Henry<br /> <br /> Reinhardt, Charles . 18, Embankment<br /> Gardens, Chelsea,<br /> S.W.<br /> <br /> Ricci, Luigi Park House, Ealing,<br /> Middlesex.<br /> <br /> Sandwith, Mrs. Harold Johannesburg, South<br /> Alfrica,<br /> <br /> Speer, Capt. A. E. . Sandown Lodge, Esher,<br /> Surrey.<br /> <br /> Speight, E. E., F.R.G.S.<br /> <br /> Tomlinson, Miss Ella<br /> (* Brown Linnet’’) ter, Sussex.<br /> <br /> Tracy, Louis . : . c/o Messrs. Sprigg,<br /> Pedrick &amp; Co., Ltd.,<br /> 110, St. Martin’s<br /> Lane, W.C.<br /> <br /> Horsted Keynes, Sus-<br /> SeX.<br /> <br /> 3, Clifton Villas, St.<br /> John’s Wood, N.W.<br /> <br /> 22, Carson Road, West<br /> Dulwich, 8.E.<br /> Three Members do not desire either their names<br /> <br /> or addresses to be printed.<br /> <br /> Shaldon, Teignmouth.<br /> Fishbourne, Chiches-<br /> <br /> Trevor, John .<br /> Vredenburg, Hdric .<br /> <br /> Watson, Aaron<br /> <br /> &lt;&gt; —__<br /> <br /> BOOKS PUBLISHED BY MEMBERS OF<br /> THE SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> —_-——+—<br /> <br /> (In the following list we do not propose to give more<br /> than the titles, prices, publishers, etc., of the books<br /> enumerated, with, in special cases, such particulars as may<br /> serve to explain the scope and purpose of the work.<br /> Members are requested to forward information which will<br /> enable the Editor to supply such particulars.)<br /> <br /> BIOGRAPHY.<br /> <br /> THE STORY OF AN IRISHMAN. By JusTIN McCARTHY.<br /> 9 x 6,411 pp. Chatto and Windus, 12s.<br /> <br /> CoLerRIDGE. By DR, RICHARD GARNETT, Gh xX. 4<br /> lll pp. Ball. 1s.<br /> <br /> Lerrers or WILLIAM STUBBS, Bishop of Oxford, 1825—<br /> 1901, Edited by the Rev, W. H. Hurron, 9 xX 53,<br /> 428 pp. Constable, 17s. 6d, n.<br /> i<br /> ii<br /> <br /> 4<br /> <br /> 4<br /> i<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 32<br /> <br /> By WILFRID WARD. 9} X 6,<br /> 14s, n.<br /> <br /> AUBREY DE VERE.<br /> 428 pp. Longmans.<br /> <br /> BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG.<br /> LITTLE PETERKIN AND His BroTHER. By EH. M. GREEN.<br /> ik xX 6,157 pp. S8.P.C. K. Is. 6d.<br /> ENDERLEY PARK. By F. BAYFORD-HARRISON.<br /> 160 pp. S. P.C. K. 1s. 6d.<br /> THE NEw WoRrLD Farry Book.<br /> 8 x 6, 354 pp. Dent. 4s. 6d. n.<br /> THE BROowN Farry Book. Edited by ANDREW LANG.<br /> 74 X 5,350 pp. Longman’s. 6s.<br /> Mystery Isuanp. A Tale of the Pacific. : By FRED.<br /> WnisHaw. 8} X 54, 316 pp. Shaw. 35s. 6d.<br /> For TRIUMPH ORTRUTH. By SYDNEY C. GRIER. 8} X 58,<br /> <br /> 7k Xx 5,<br /> <br /> By H, A, KENNEDY.<br /> <br /> 310 pp. Shaw. 3s, 6d.<br /> THE PHANTOM Spy. By Fox Russenn. 7} X 54,<br /> 288 pp. Nelson. 2s. 6d.<br /> <br /> By ERNEST THOMPSON SETON,<br /> 6s. 1.<br /> <br /> Two LITTLE SAVAGES.<br /> <br /> 8} x 53,552 pp. Grant Richards.<br /> <br /> “THE DRAMA.”<br /> <br /> WHICH Is THE LUNATIC (a farce in oneact). By HENRY<br /> <br /> Francts. Published by Zhe Pioneer, Allahabad<br /> Price one rupee.<br /> EDUCATIONAL.<br /> ITALIAN GRAMMAR FOR ENGLISH STUDENTS. By LUIGI<br /> <br /> Riccr. 74 xX 5, 129 pp. Walter Scott Publishing<br /> Co. 2s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> New ScHooL ARITHMETIC. Part Il. By C. PENDLEBURY,<br /> 7h x 5, pp. 207—468.. Bell. 2s. 6d. ‘<br /> <br /> EXAMPLES IN ARITHMETIC. By C. PENDLEBURY,<br /> <br /> assisted by F, E. Ropinson. 74 X 5, 223 pp. Bell. 2s.<br /> <br /> FICTION.<br /> <br /> Tue EDGE OF CIRCUMSTANCE (a story of the sea). By<br /> EDWARD NoBLE. William Blackwood &amp; Sons.<br /> <br /> A VoICE FROM THE VOID. By HELEN BODDINGTON.<br /> 73 x 54,306 pp. Hurst and Blackett. 6s,<br /> <br /> TRAFFICS AND DISCOVERIES. By RUDYARD KIPLING.<br /> 8 x 54, 393 pp. Macmillan. 6s.<br /> <br /> THEOPHANO. By FREDERIC HARRISON.<br /> 343 pp. Chapman and Hall. 10s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> THe Farm oF THE DaGcG@ER. By EDEN PHILLPOTTS.<br /> 74 x 5, 812 pp. Newnes. 3s. 6d.<br /> <br /> THp ABBESS OF VLAYE. By STANLEY J.<br /> 7% x 53, 391 pp. Longmans. 6s.<br /> SEA PurITANS. By F. T. BULLEN.<br /> <br /> Hodder and Stoughton. 6s.<br /> <br /> Masor Weir. By K. L. MONTGOMERY.<br /> Unwin. 6s.<br /> <br /> Mary Lovisa QUAYNE (or a BELATED LOVE AFFAIR).<br /> By EmILy PEARSON FINNEMORE. 73 X 5, 252 pp.<br /> 8. P.C. K. 2s. 6d.<br /> <br /> SCENES OF JEWISH LIFE. By Mrs. ALFRED SIDGWICK.<br /> 73% X BZ, 302 pp. Arnold, 6s.<br /> <br /> THE GAME OF LOVE. By GERTRUDEWARDEN. 73 X 5,<br /> <br /> 7% X 5, 299 pp.<br /> <br /> a 68;<br /> <br /> WEYMAN,<br /> 7k X 5, 365 pp.<br /> 7% X 5, 398 pp.<br /> <br /> 320 pp. Digby Long. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE SILENT WomMAN. By “RITA.”<br /> Hurst and Blackett. 6s.<br /> <br /> SomE LOVES AND A Lirr. By Mrs. CAMPBELL PRAED,<br /> 72 x 54,309 pp. White. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE PROGRESS OF RACHEL. By ADELINE SERGEANT.<br /> 7% xX 5,229 pp. Methuen. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE BRIDGE OF LiFrs (a novel without a purpose). By<br /> DoroTHEA GERARD. 7} X 5},309-pp. Methuen. 6s.<br /> <br /> Captain AMYAS (being the career of D&#039;Arcy Amyas,<br /> <br /> R.N. R., late Master of the R. M. 8. Princess). By<br /> <br /> Doty WYLLARDE. 7? X 54,264pp. Heinemann, 6s,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE CHRONICLES OF Don: Q, By K. and HESKETH<br /> PRICHARD. 7} X 5,307 pp. Chapman and Hall. 6s.<br /> <br /> Tue Kin@’s CoMING. By FLORENCR WYNNE. 7% X 5,<br /> 489 pp. Skeffington. 6s,<br /> <br /> THE Foop OF THE GoDS AND How IT CAME TO EARTH.<br /> By H. G. WeLis. 7% X 54, 317 pp. Macmillan. 6s.<br /> <br /> Kate oF KATE Hau. By ELLEN THORNEYCROFT<br /> Fowuer and A.L. FeLKIN. 7% x 5. Hutchinson. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE BRETHREN. By H. RIDER HAGGARD. 7% x 5,<br /> 342 pp. Cassell. 6s.<br /> <br /> In DEWISLAND. By S. BARING GOULD.<br /> Methune. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE DIVINE FirE, By MAY SINCLAIR.<br /> Constable. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE Lovers OF MIss ANNE,<br /> 8 x 5}, 408 pp. Clarke. 6s.<br /> <br /> MERELY Mary ANN. By I. ZANGWILL (New Edition).<br /> <br /> _ 74 x 43,160 pp. Heinemann. 1s. n.<br /> <br /> A BRIDE FROM THE BusH. By E.<br /> 8$ x 59,122 pp. Newnes. 6s.<br /> <br /> HEARTS IN EXILE. By JOHN OXENHAM. 73<br /> 300 pp. Hodder and Stoughton. 6s.<br /> <br /> CAPRICIOUS CAROLINE. By MARIA ALBANESI. 7} X 5,<br /> 327 pp. Methuen. 6s.<br /> THE MERRY-GO-ROUND. By WILLIAM<br /> MAUGHAM. 73 X 54. Heinemann. 6s.<br /> For HEART 0’ GOLD. By CONSTANCE SMEDLEY. 73 X 5.<br /> 303 pp. Harpers. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE BETRAYAL. By E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM. 73 X 5,<br /> 316 pp. Ward, Lock. 6s.<br /> <br /> At THE Moorines. By Rosa<br /> 7% x 5,451 pp. Macmillan. 6s.<br /> <br /> SOONER OR LATER, By VioLEr Hunt. 7} X 5}, £35 pp.<br /> Chapman and Hall. 6s.<br /> <br /> 7% x 5, 306 pp.<br /> 72 x 5, 667 pp.<br /> <br /> By 8. R. CROCKETT.<br /> <br /> W. HORNUNG.<br /> <br /> x 5,<br /> <br /> SOMERSET<br /> <br /> NoUCHETTE CAREY.<br /> <br /> A Great PATIENCE. By L. G. Moperny. 8. W.<br /> Partridge. 2s.<br /> Tur DREAM OF Peace. By FRANCIS GRIBBLE. 73} X 5,<br /> <br /> 305 pp. Chapman and Hall. 6s.<br /> <br /> THe MarriaGe Yoke, By ARABELLA KENEALY.<br /> 72 x 54,348 pp. Hurst and Blackett. 6s.<br /> <br /> Smatinou. By J. H. Yoxaut, M.P. 7} x 5, 307 pp.<br /> Hutchinson. 6s.<br /> <br /> HELMSLEY’s PRINCESS. By J.B. ForD. 7 X 4%, 133 pp.<br /> Simpkin Marshall. 1s. n.<br /> <br /> THE HEART OF PENELOPE. By Mrs, BELLoc LOWNDES.<br /> 72 x 5. 336 pp. Heinemann. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE CELESTIAL Sur@eon. By F. F. MONTRESOR.<br /> 72 xX 5}, 375 pp. Arnold, 6s.<br /> <br /> THE RED DERELICT. By BERTRAM MITFORD. 7] X 54,<br /> 303 pp. Methuen. 6s.<br /> <br /> JoHN Riegpon. By C, P. PLANT,<br /> Sonnenschien. 6s.<br /> <br /> Sir RocEr’s Herr. By F, FraNKForT Moore. 7} X 5,<br /> 352 pp. Hodder and Stoughton. 6s.<br /> <br /> 74 xX 5, 372 pp.<br /> <br /> HISTORY.<br /> A History OF SCOTLAND, FROM THE ROMAN. OCCUPA-<br /> <br /> TIoN. By ANDREW LANG. Vol. III, (1625—1689).<br /> 9 x 53,424 pp. Blackwood. 15s. n.<br /> LAW.<br /> <br /> Tae LAw or Torts, By Sir F. Pouuock, Bart., LL.D.<br /> Seventh edition. 8% x 53,679 pp. Stevens and Sons.<br /> <br /> 25s,<br /> LITERARY,<br /> THE Port’s DIARY, Edited by Lamia, 8} X 54, 255 pp.<br /> Macmillan. 7s. 6d.<br /> <br /> By JoHN ‘OLIVER<br /> <br /> LETTERS FROM A SILENT STUDY.<br /> 3s 6d. n.<br /> <br /> Hoppes. 72 X %#, 235 pp. Appleton.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> AN IMPRESSIONIST IN ENGLAND.<br /> <br /> THER AUTHOR. 33<br /> <br /> LETTERS ON LIFE. By CLAupIUS CLEAR (Dr. Robertson<br /> Nicoll). 8% x 53,95 pp. Hodder and Stoughton. 6d.<br /> <br /> A Nore Book oF FRENCH LITERATURE. By P. C.<br /> YorKE. Vol. IL., Vineteenth Century. 8 x 54, 490 pp.<br /> Blackie. 4s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> NATURAL HISTORY.<br /> <br /> CREATURES OF THE SEA (being the life stories of some<br /> sea birds, beists, and fishes) By F. T. BULLEN,<br /> F. R.G.S. 82 x 52,430 pp. R.T.S. 7s. 6d.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> PAMPHLETS.<br /> <br /> ‘REFLECTIONS SUGGESTED BY THE NEW THEORY OF<br /> <br /> MATTER (being the Presidential Address before the<br /> British Association for the Advancement of Science).<br /> Cambridge, August 17th, 1904. By THE RicHT Hon.<br /> A, J. BALFouR, M.P. Longman’s. ls. n.<br /> <br /> POETRY.<br /> <br /> THE TESTAMENT OF A PRIME MINISTER. By JOHN<br /> Davipson. 72 X 53,103 pp. 3s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> Lost MASTERPIECES AND OTHER VERSES. By St. JOHN<br /> HANKIN. 7 x 43,73 pp. Constable. 3s 6d. n.<br /> <br /> BEAUTIFUL Days. By ADELAIDE L. J. GOSSET.<br /> Third edition. Partridge &amp; Co. 1s.<br /> <br /> QUAINT CHARMS, KNOTS AND VERSES.<br /> thousand. Walker. Is.n.<br /> <br /> BRIGHT EVENING THOUGHTS FOR LITTLE CHILDREN.<br /> By ADELAIDE L. J. GossET. 32 pp. 382 illustrations.<br /> George Allen. 2s. n.<br /> <br /> “HEAVEN&#039;S WaAY.”—QUAINT CorDs, CoILs, AND LOVE-<br /> Twists. By ADELAIDE L. J. GosseT. Elkin Mathews<br /> ls. n.<br /> <br /> A Harvest oF CHAFF. By OWEN SEAMAN.<br /> 147 pp. Constable. 3s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> 32 pp.<br /> 44 pp. Fifth<br /> <br /> i x 44,<br /> <br /> POLITICAL.<br /> Russia: WHAT SHE WAS AND WHAT SHE Is. By<br /> <br /> JAAKOFF PRELOOKER. 7 X 5,148 pp. Simpkin, Mar-<br /> shall. 2s. 6d.<br /> SCIENCE.<br /> Srupies IN Astronomy. By J. ELLaRD_ GORE,<br /> F.R. ALS. 73° 5, 336 pp. Chatto and Windus. 6s.<br /> <br /> SCIENTIFIC.<br /> Sick Nursinc at Home. By L. G. Moperty, Scientific<br /> Press. 1s.<br /> <br /> ELecTROCHEMISTRY. By Proressor R. A. LEHFELDT,<br /> Voll. 268 pp. Longmans. 5s,<br /> <br /> THEOLOGY.<br /> <br /> SEVEN Year’s Harp. By RicHArD FREE. 8}. x 54<br /> <br /> 268 pp. Heinemann, 5s. n.<br /> <br /> TOPOGRAPHY.<br /> Living Lonpon. ‘Edited by Gro. R. Sims. Part I.<br /> ‘114 x 84, 32 pp. Cassell. 7d. n.<br /> <br /> TRAVEL.<br /> <br /> By F. H. Rose.<br /> 72 x 54, 305 pp. Dent. 4s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> SUNSHINE AND SENTIMENT IN PorRTUGAL. By GILBERT<br /> Warson. 9 x 6,295 pp. Arnold, 12s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> LITERARY, DRAMATIC, AND MUSICAL<br /> NOTES.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> € HE Poet’s Diary, edited by Lamia,” is the<br /> title of a new prose work, written by the<br /> Poet Laureate, and published by Messrs.<br /> Macmillan &amp; Co.<br /> <br /> The same firm has issued a new and chearer<br /> edition of Lord Avebury’s work on “ The Scenery<br /> of England.” The edition contains all the original<br /> illustrations.<br /> <br /> The English Text Society has issued Part 1 of the<br /> “ English Fifteenth Century Translation of Etienne<br /> de Besancon’s Collection of Tales for Sermons,” by<br /> Mrs. M. M. Banks. Part 2 of the same work will<br /> appear shortly.<br /> <br /> Laura Hain Friswell is at present engaged upon<br /> her reminiscences, which will contain anecdotes of<br /> Dickens, Swinburne, Louis Blanc, Cruikshank,<br /> Tennyson, Toole, Irving, and many others. The<br /> work will be a girl’s impression of literary people<br /> and literary and journalistic society in the last<br /> century.<br /> <br /> The same authoress wrote a serial which ran<br /> through the Daily Chronicle at the beginning of<br /> last month, under the title of “ His Uncle’s Wife.”<br /> <br /> Mr. John Davidson’s, “The Testament of a<br /> Prime Minister,’ published on October 5th, is the<br /> fourth of a series of poems in which Mr. Davidson<br /> “ states fact in terms of poetry.”<br /> <br /> Edith ©. Kenyon’s tale for young people, en-<br /> titled, “A Girl‘in a Thousand,” has just been<br /> published, with beautiful illustrations by Messrs.<br /> S. W. Partridge &amp; Co. It is an up-to-date version<br /> of the Cinderella story.<br /> <br /> Mr. Kipling’s new volume of stories, “ Traffics<br /> and Discoveries,” published by Messrs. Macmillan<br /> &amp; Co., derives inspiration from many sources.<br /> “The Captive” reflects the view of an American<br /> inventor, unwillingly drawn into the fighting line,<br /> on the British methods of conducting the Boer<br /> War. “A Sahib’s War” presents the point of<br /> view of a Sikh soldier on the same operations ;<br /> while a third story, with a South African setting,<br /> shows Tommy Atkin’s attitude towards the accusa-<br /> tion of “barbarous methods.” Standing out from<br /> all the rest of the volume in great contrast both in<br /> matter of subject and in treatment is a story of<br /> dream children, entitled “ They.”<br /> <br /> In addition to Mr. Kipling’s volume, Messrs.<br /> Macmillan announce the publication of the follow-<br /> ing six-shilling novels: “ Whosoever shall Offend,”<br /> by E. Marion Crawford ; “The Food of the Gods,<br /> and How it came to Earth,” by H. G. Wells;<br /> and “Atoms of Empire,” by ©. J. Cutcliffe Hyne.<br /> <br /> The same publishers are also issuing a new series<br /> of English Men of Letters. Among the volumes<br /> SS ay<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 34<br /> <br /> contained in the series may be mentioned “Thomas<br /> Moore,” by Stephen Gwynn ; “ Andrew Marvell,”<br /> by Augustine Birrell; “ Edward FitzGerald,” by<br /> A. C. Benson; and “Sir Thomas Browne,” by<br /> Edmund Gosse. :<br /> <br /> Messrs. Seeley &amp; Co. will issue shortly a new<br /> work for young children, entitled “ The Crusaders,”<br /> by Professor Church.<br /> <br /> “The Church Universal, Brief Histories of her<br /> Continuous Life,” is the title of a new series, in<br /> eight volumes, edited by the Rev. W. H. Hutton,<br /> which Messrs. Rivingtons are publishing ; and to<br /> which, besides the editor, the Rev. Leighton<br /> Pullan, Mr. D. J. Medley, Mr. Herbert Bruce, and<br /> the Rev. J. P. Whitney contribute.<br /> <br /> Mrs. Alec Tweedie, whose book, “ Behind the<br /> Footlights,” lately ran into a second edition, has<br /> another volume in the press. This time she has<br /> returned to her old love of travel. The book,<br /> which will appear in the autumn in England and<br /> America, is entitled, “ Sunny Sicily, its Rustics and<br /> its Ruins.” Hutchinson is the English publisher.<br /> <br /> Mr. Lewis Melville is publishing this month<br /> through Messrs. A. &amp; C. Black a volume on<br /> “The Thackeray Country.” The book deals with<br /> those localities which are of primary interest to<br /> those who are acquainted with the life and writing<br /> of the novelist. It treats of Thackeray’s London<br /> homes, and the salient features and associations of<br /> <br /> -their neighbourhood, as well as of Thackeray in<br /> <br /> Paris and in America. Special attention is given<br /> to those places that are made the back ground of<br /> well-known scenes in the novels.<br /> <br /> “By Nile and Euphrates: a Record of Dis-<br /> covery and Adventure,” post octavo, price 8s. 6d.,<br /> has been published by Messrs. T. &amp; T. Clark, of<br /> Edinburgh. The author is Mr. Valentine Geere,<br /> who served on the American Excavations at<br /> Nippur, and: assisted Prof. Petrie and Dr. Gren-<br /> fell and Dr. Hunt in their work in Egypt. His<br /> volume gives an account of his experiences at the<br /> mounds and in his journeys in out-of-the-way<br /> places. It is amply illustrated by original photo-<br /> graphs and plans.<br /> <br /> John Oliver Hobbes (Mrs. Craigie) will shortly<br /> publish, through Mr. T. Werner Laurie, “The<br /> Artist’s Life, and other Essays.” In the volume,<br /> which is illustrated, are included her lectures<br /> before the Dante Society, the Ruskin Society, and<br /> the Philosophical Institution of Edinburgh.<br /> <br /> A new work by Mrs. Fred Reynolds, entitled<br /> “The Book of Angelus Drayton,” is published<br /> this month by Mr. John Long. The scene is laid<br /> in Yorkshire.<br /> <br /> We have received the fifth edition of Mr. E. A.<br /> Reynolds-Ball’s “‘ Mediterranean Winter Resorts,”<br /> published by Messrs. Hazell, Watson and Viney,<br /> at 8s. 6d. each, in two parts, or combined volume<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> on Indian paper, 6s. It is a complete and practical<br /> guide to all the health and pleasure resorts on the<br /> shores of the Mediterranean, as, indeed, its title<br /> suggests. It contains other interesting matter,<br /> and special articles on the principal invalid stations<br /> by resident English physicians.<br /> <br /> The calendars for 1905 are already being<br /> issued. Two neat memorandum forms arranged<br /> by “Autolycus” have been received at the Society’s<br /> office. The price is 1s. net each, and copies can<br /> be obtained either from Miss Rossi, of 202,<br /> Adelaide Road, Hampstead, N.W., or Mr. G. J.<br /> Glaisher, bookseller, 58, High Street, Notting Hill<br /> Gate, W. A peculiar feature of the calendar lies<br /> in the fact that at the beginning of every week ~<br /> there is a quotation from some well known<br /> author.<br /> <br /> We have received Messrs. George Newnes, Ltd.,<br /> trade circular for the current month. There are<br /> several interesting notes concerning books by<br /> members of the Society, which will shortly be<br /> before the public. .<br /> <br /> Mr. W. W. Jacobs’s story, ‘ Dialstone Lane,”<br /> which has been running through The Strand, is<br /> about to be produced in crown octavo at the price<br /> of 6s. The illustrations are by Mr. Will Owen.<br /> Mr. Jacobs’s method of dealing with the<br /> characteristics of coastwise sailormen is well<br /> known to all readers of The Strand Magazine. A<br /> fresh book from his pen will be welcome.<br /> <br /> Mr. Eden Phillpotts, who has for many years<br /> written such strong fiction with the west country<br /> as background, will publish through the same firm<br /> a book entitled “The Farm of the Dagger,” crown<br /> octavo, 3s. 6d. The story deals with the adven-<br /> tures of an American prisoner in England during<br /> the War of Independence (18121815), and is full<br /> of incident.<br /> <br /> Astory from Miss Marie Corelli will be published<br /> as a companion to The Strand Magazine Christmas<br /> Number. Ii will be issued separately from The<br /> Strand, at the price of 1s., and will be illustrated<br /> by Mr. H. R. Millar.<br /> <br /> Mr. R. S. Warren Bell is publishing a work<br /> through the same firm, entitled “Jim Mortimer,<br /> Surgeon.” The story deals with the Hooligan-<br /> infested district of Blackfriars. :<br /> <br /> E. Nesbit’s pleasant fairy tale, “The Phoenix<br /> and the Carpet,” will also appear as a Christmas<br /> book. The authoress’s delightful fancy is further<br /> exemplified in this new effort of her pen.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Macmillan &amp; Co. are issuing new and<br /> revised editions of Mr. Vincent T. Murche’s<br /> manuals of object lessons in elementary science.<br /> In these new issues several improvements have been<br /> <br /> ‘made with a view to rendering them even more<br /> <br /> useful to teachers. :<br /> A selection has been made by Canon Beeching<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> from the sermons of the late Master of the Temple.<br /> ‘They will be issued in a volume by Messrs.<br /> Macmillan, under the title of ‘The Gospel and<br /> ‘Human Life.” Broadly speaking, the editor has<br /> omitted from his selection of twenty-four sermons<br /> all those dealing especially with the dogmas of the<br /> Church. The proof of the suitability of religion<br /> to human needs as they are revealed by experience<br /> of life is the aspect which is most prominently set<br /> forth in this posthumous work, with the result,<br /> Canon Beeching hopes, that it will be regarded as<br /> thoroughly characteristic of the individual preacher.<br /> <br /> The November number of Zhe Lady&#039;s Realm<br /> will contain the opening chapters of a new story<br /> entitled “ Starve Crow Farm,” by Stanley Weyman.<br /> The scene is laid in the North Country in the<br /> year 1819, when the working classes, impoverished<br /> by the long struggle against Napoleon, were<br /> seething with discontent and latent rebellion.<br /> <br /> « With a View to Matrimony” is the title of a<br /> book of short stories by Mr. James Blyth, author<br /> of “Juicy Joe” and ‘“ Celibate Sarah,” which Mr.<br /> Grant Richards published towards the end of<br /> October. Readers will have the opportunity of<br /> renewing their acquaintance with several of the<br /> places and people figuring in those two novels.<br /> The humorous side of village life predominates.<br /> <br /> Mr. Grant Richards has also published a new<br /> edition of “A Book of Verses for Children,” com-<br /> piled by Mr. E. V. Lucas.<br /> <br /> A military novel entitled “ The Queen’s Scarlet,”<br /> was published last month by Messrs. S. C. Brown,<br /> Langham &amp; Co., of New Bond Street. The book<br /> is from the pen of Mr. Horace Wyndham, and deals<br /> in an intimate manner with life in the ranks, at<br /> home and abroad, in barracks and camp, in peace<br /> and war. The action commences at an Army<br /> crammer’s, in South Kensington, and concludes in<br /> South Africa. Mr. Wyndham is the author of two<br /> other books on military matters, ‘The Queen’s<br /> Service,” and “Soldiers of the Queen.”<br /> <br /> Messrs. Cassell &amp; Co. have just brought out a<br /> book by the author of “The Rejuvenation of Miss<br /> Semaphore.” The title, ‘‘ Aliens of the West,” was<br /> suggested by a line in one of Sliabh Cuillin’s<br /> poems, “Ourselves Alone.” The volume deals<br /> with certain sides of Irish life, which are practically<br /> new in fiction, and which will have interest, not<br /> only for the Irish, but for the general reader. It<br /> differs widely from the usual Irish novel, both in<br /> theme and in treatment.<br /> <br /> Mr. Norman Alliston wishes to give notice that<br /> towards the middle of this month he will issue a<br /> small “Edition d’héte” of his new work, “The<br /> Rationale of Art.”<br /> <br /> Owing to what he considers the exorbitance and<br /> apathy of publishers in dealing with commissioned<br /> business, Mr. Alliston is publishing the book for<br /> <br /> 35<br /> <br /> himself at Kamesburgh, Beckenham, and managing<br /> all arrangements—down to shopping the single<br /> copies. Mr. Alliston will ask “A crown for his<br /> thoughts ”—five shillings net, post free.<br /> <br /> In the 14th Edition of Chitty on Contracts, by<br /> Mr. J. M. Lely (Sweet &amp; Maxwell, 30s.), the editor<br /> has, “with reluctance made an exception to the<br /> rule that judgments of the House of Lords should<br /> be merely recorded and not criticised,” and sub-<br /> mitted six reasons why that judgment though right<br /> upon authority is wrong in its construction of the<br /> 18th Section of the Copyright Act. Attention is<br /> called in the preface to various points “ which seem<br /> to require remedial legislation,” such as the too<br /> little known rules of law, that money at a bank not<br /> drawn upon for six years becomes the property of<br /> the banker, that the executors of a lessee may be<br /> personally liable on his covenants for repair, that if<br /> A. undisputedly owes B. £100, and B. agrees to<br /> take £90 in full satisfaction, B. can, nevertheless,<br /> sue A. for the remaining £10, that the barely<br /> intelligible 18th Section of the Copyright Act<br /> requires recasting, and that a master is under no<br /> obligation in England or Scotland (as he is in<br /> Ireland), to give a servant a character, however<br /> long and faithful the service may have been.<br /> <br /> In the Quiver of the current month<br /> commences the opening chapters of Mr. John<br /> Bloundelle-Burton’s new romance, “ The Sword of<br /> Gideon.” The story, which centres round that<br /> portion of the War of Succession in Spain which<br /> took place in Flanders, will be the serial for the<br /> year.<br /> <br /> In the same month a new romance of Mr.<br /> Bloundelle-Burton’s, entitled “The Land of Bond-<br /> age,” will be published by F. V. White &amp; Co., Ltd.<br /> The scene is laid principally in Virginia, and deals<br /> with the kidnapping of redemptioners, and the<br /> tragedies that, in many cases, resulted therefrom.<br /> Most of the descriptions are taken from MS.<br /> papers and letters written by the planters and<br /> colonists of the actual period, that of George IL.,<br /> which were handed to Mr. Bloundelle-Burton by<br /> the last survivor of an old Virginian family.<br /> <br /> “The Temple of Art: A Plea for the Higher<br /> Realisation of the Artistic Vocation,” is published<br /> by Messrs. Longmans, Green &amp; Co., at the price of<br /> 3s. 6d. The author—Mr. Ermest Newlandsmith—<br /> takes the view that at the present time the greater<br /> number of so-ealled works of art are only exhibitions<br /> of technical display, failing to infect those who come<br /> under their influence with any true or definite<br /> emotion.<br /> <br /> A revised and enlarged edition of “ Printing,”<br /> by Chas. T. Jacobi, published by Messrs. George<br /> Bell and Sons in their Technological Series, is now<br /> in the press and will be ready in November. This<br /> is a recognised text-book for the student and useful<br /> <br /> <br /> SS al<br /> <br /> See ST<br /> <br /> a<br /> <br /> ‘86<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> for all interested in the art of printing. This<br /> third edition will possess some new features.<br /> <br /> Early last month Miss Theodora Wilson Wilson<br /> published a novel, entitled ‘Father, M.P.,” with<br /> Messrs. Thos. Nelson &amp; Sons.<br /> <br /> he same author has also made arrangements<br /> with Messrs. Harper Bros. for the production of a<br /> work next year. The title is “ Langbarrow Hall,”<br /> and the novel deals with the North Country, in a<br /> district of sand and peat, moss and scaur.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Blackie and Sons have just issued Vol. 2<br /> of Mr. Philip C. Yorke’s work, “A Note Book of<br /> French Literature.” This volume, which deals<br /> with authors of the nineteenth century, is worked<br /> out on the same plan as that adopted by the author<br /> in Vol. 1, and consists of biography, bibliography,<br /> critical note, and illustrative extract to each<br /> author. The work is preceded by an introductory<br /> chapter.<br /> <br /> Mr. Pinero’s new play was produced on the stage<br /> of Sir Charles Wyndham’s Theatre, on the night<br /> of October 12th. The title, which gives the key<br /> to the piece, is “A Wife without a Smile—a<br /> Comedy in Disguise.” It is full of cynical<br /> humour, and the characters were excellently played<br /> throughout.<br /> <br /> A new play by Mr. Bernard Shaw, “John<br /> Bull’s Other Island,” written for the Irish Literary<br /> Society, will be produced in England at the Court<br /> Theatre for six matinées, on the Ist, 3rd, 4th,<br /> 8th, 10th, 11th of November. The date of the<br /> Irish performance has not, as yet, been fixed.<br /> There will be some further performances of<br /> Mr. Shaw’s well known play, “Candida,” in<br /> December. Another play by the same author,<br /> “ How He Lied to Her Husband,” has been pro-<br /> duced under the management of Mr. Arnold Daly,<br /> with considerable success, in New York. It has<br /> been described as a travesty of Candida ; but this<br /> isa mistake. It deals with the adventures of a<br /> young poet and a fashionable lady who catch the<br /> Candida craze, and try to imagine themselves<br /> Candida and Eugene in real life, with ridiculous<br /> consequences.<br /> <br /> Mr. Shaw’s play, “ Cesar and Cleopatra,” which<br /> was to have been produced at the Berlin Deutscher<br /> Theater last spring, will be produced there next<br /> year.<br /> <br /> ————1-&gt;o—__—_<br /> <br /> PARIS NOTES.<br /> <br /> Oe<br /> <br /> 6“ OUVENIRS des vertes Saisons,” by André<br /> Theuriet, is a charming sketch of the child-<br /> <br /> hood, early manhood, and career of this<br /> author. He tells us of his early writings and of<br /> his first publication in the Revwe des Deua-<br /> Slondes. He speaks, too, of his contemporaries,<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Daudet, Flaubert, the de Goncourts, &amp;c. ; and there<br /> is a touching account of the poet André Lemoyne,<br /> and of the way in which he wrote his verses.<br /> <br /> “Te Double Jardin,” by Maurice Meeterlinck,<br /> proves that the author is by no means a pessimist.<br /> “Nous sommes,” he writes, “au moment ou nais-<br /> sent autour de nous mille raisons nouvelles de<br /> prendre confiance dans les destinées de notre<br /> espéce.”<br /> <br /> “Le Sillon,” by Resclauze de Bermon, is a story<br /> of self-sacrifice. It is both romantic and pathetic,<br /> and altogether a novel well worth reading.<br /> <br /> In “Les Sirénes,” by Jean Reibrach, the chief<br /> interest is also the self-sacrifice of the man who, at<br /> an advanced age, has fallen in love with the orphan<br /> daughter of a fellow officer. She is engaged to<br /> him, but before the marriage takes place he dis-<br /> covers that he has a rival in the girl’s affections,<br /> and not only does he stand aside himself but he<br /> facilitates things for the lovers. There are some<br /> exquisite passages in the book, and the picture of —<br /> provincial life is well drawn. The characters, too, ~<br /> all live and stand out in excellent contrast.<br /> <br /> “Félicien, souvenir d’un étudiant de 48,” by<br /> Charles-Louis Chassin, is an excellent book for<br /> giving a picture of the times about which the ~<br /> author writes. ‘There is the proclamation of the<br /> Republic, the eventful 13th of June, the manifesta-<br /> tion of the students against the closing of Michelet’s —<br /> lectures, and an account of the author’s life when<br /> in the Mazas Prison. Jules Vallés and Leconte<br /> de Lisle are to be found in this story figuring ~<br /> under other names.<br /> <br /> “Madame de Ferneuse,” by Daniel Lesueur, is<br /> the sequel to the ‘“ Marquis de Valcor.” The —<br /> interest of the story is well sustained, the characters ~<br /> all live, and the book itself is written admirably.<br /> <br /> “ Légendes de mort et d’amour,” by M. Gaston-<br /> Routier, is a volume of legends and impressions<br /> written after a voyage in Spain. The author has<br /> written a number of historical and geographical<br /> works, and is considered an authority on subjects<br /> connected with the early history and literature of<br /> Spain.<br /> <br /> Among other new books are: ‘Le Fils de la<br /> Mer,” by Nelly Hager; “La Macédoine et: les<br /> puissances,” by M. Gaston-Routier ; “ Le peuple<br /> chinois,” by Fernand Farjenel ; “ La Bosnie popu-<br /> laire,” by Albert Bordeaux ; ‘‘ Les Giuvres des<br /> autres,” by Madame Jeanne France.<br /> <br /> There is an attempt now being made by French<br /> authors to protect their works in Canada. It<br /> appears that plays, short stories, and novels are —<br /> constantly reproduced in the papers or published<br /> in book form without the consent of the writers.<br /> <br /> The Society of Canadian-French journalists has<br /> taken the matter up, and in reply to a question<br /> addressed to the Government there, the Honourable<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> 1M. Scott has replied that he believes the Canadian<br /> <br /> o&#039;Government adheres to the Convention of Berne.<br /> <br /> ‘Should this be so French writers have it in their<br /> <br /> wvown hands to protect their works. One of the<br /> <br /> ‘most important publishing houses of Canada,<br /> <br /> Messrs. Beauchemin, is always loyal in dealing<br /> <br /> ‘-with French anthors ; and M. Heurion, the manager<br /> <br /> ‘of the ThéAtre des Nouveautés, of Montreal, has<br /> <br /> been over to Paris and made arrangements about<br /> <br /> slplaying the “ Retour de Jérusalem”’ and “ La plus<br /> i-faible,” but various newspapers and publishing<br /> <br /> ‘houses are at the present time using works by<br /> <br /> iesome of the best known French authors with no<br /> <br /> ssregard whatever to the question of literary property.<br /> The matter is now being taken up seriously in<br /> <br /> France.<br /> <br /> ‘| Inthe Mercure de France there is an excellent<br /> - szarticle on “ Les Racines de l’Idéalisme,” by Remy<br /> » ade Gourmont, and a curious study by M. Bélugou,<br /> | jgentitled “Le Pouvoir de Imagination chez les<br /> / Enfants.” There is also an interesting criticism of<br /> &#039; odthe “ Peintres de la terre belge” by M. Marius-Ary<br /> ‘a. Leblond.<br /> <br /> | In La Revue of October 15th there is an article<br /> “yby M. Charles Pagot, “Comment reformer l’enseigne-<br /> wment classique,” and another one by M. Georges<br /> *Pellissier on “ La Littérature a thése.” The writer<br /> simaintains that in the roman a these the personages<br /> : @do not live: they are so many puppets whose<br /> ‘strings are pulled by the author. When they<br /> ‘jspeak we recognise the author’s voice prompting<br /> “oitheir role, and all their acting is in support of the<br /> ‘theory he wishes to prove.<br /> <br /> | In a recent article in the Nouvelle Revue M.<br /> +o Morel asks what is to be done with all the books<br /> ‘which have to be deposited at the Bibliotheque<br /> Nationale. He believes that with the present<br /> system the catalogue itself cannot be completed<br /> until the year 1930, and that it will consist of 136<br /> volumes.<br /> <br /> In the Quinzaine M. Giraud writes on Chateau-<br /> briand and his critics.<br /> <br /> In the Revue des Deur-Mondes M. Fouillée<br /> discusses the moral and social consequences of<br /> “{ Darwinism. In the same review Madame Arvede<br /> @ Barine gives details with regard to the romance<br /> &#039; Lof “La Grande Mademoiselle,” and M. Edouard<br /> 9) Rod writes on Ada Negri’s new book.<br /> ty In the Revue de Paris there is an interesting<br /> °9¢ account of Count Valentin Esterhazy, and M. Paul<br /> “oe Stapfer writes of his acquaintance with Victor<br /> 4) Hugo when the poet was at Guernsey.<br /> ef At the Comédie Francaise “Les Affaires sont<br /> les Affaires” has been put on again.<br /> <br /> The Odéon is now giving the new play by<br /> M. Brieux, “ La Déserteuse.”<br /> <br /> _ Parle Fer et par le Feu,” the piece now running<br /> at the Théatre Sarah Bernhardt, is taken from the<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 37<br /> <br /> celebrated novel by Sienkiewicz. Madame Bern-<br /> hardt read the book when on tour in America, and<br /> suggested to her son, M. Maurice Bernhardt, the<br /> idea of adapting it for the stage. For the last two<br /> years he has been at work on it, and in September<br /> it. was read to the artistes. While Madame Bern-<br /> hardt is away on her tour the new play is being<br /> given at her theatre.<br /> <br /> M. Antoine is still faithful to his bill of short<br /> plays, and is at present giving four instead of<br /> three: ‘ Petite Femme,” “La Main de Singe,”<br /> “Discipline,” and “ Asile de Nuit.”<br /> <br /> At the Vaudeville “‘ Les Trois Anabaptistes”’<br /> is to be followed by M. Henry Bataille’s new play,<br /> “Madame Colibri.”<br /> <br /> Atys HALLARD.<br /> <br /> ——_———__+—~&lt;&gt;_ + —_____-<br /> <br /> SPAIN AND BOOK PRODUCTION.<br /> <br /> — ++<br /> <br /> HE following correspondence has been re-<br /> ceived by the Secretary at the Society’s<br /> Office :—<br /> <br /> The Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs<br /> presents his compliments to the Secretary to the<br /> Society of Authors, and is directed by the Secretary<br /> of State for Foreign Affairs to transmit to him to<br /> be laid before the Society the accompanying paper<br /> respecting the exemption from duty of books<br /> imported from certain countries into Spain :—<br /> <br /> SPANISH EMBASSY,<br /> July 12th, 1904.<br /> <br /> My Lorp,—I have the honour to inform your<br /> Excellency that the Government of the King, my<br /> august Sovereign, animated by the desire to<br /> strengthen the bonds of union between Spain and<br /> other nations her friends or allies, bonds which are<br /> certainly stronger in proportion as the communica-<br /> tion of ideas between the different countries is<br /> rendered more easy, presented to the Cortes a Bill<br /> amending the regulations respecting the present<br /> Customs tariff as regards the importation of books,<br /> and that this Bill, having been passed by the<br /> Chambers and sanctioned by His Majesty, has been<br /> promulgated as a law of the kingdom, dated March<br /> 4th last.<br /> <br /> Great Britain being, in view of the fact that her<br /> tariffs grant the exemption from duty, included in<br /> the terms of Article 2 of this law, Iam instructed by<br /> my Government to communicate it to His Majesty’s<br /> Government, in order that advantage may be taken<br /> of it by any British subjects who may desire to<br /> introduce books into Spain, and who shall have<br /> complied with the other conditions mentioned in<br /> the law.<br /> <br /> I transmit herewith to your Excellency a copy of<br />  <br /> <br /> ‘36<br /> for all interested in the art of printing. This<br /> third edition will possess some new features.<br /> <br /> Early last month Miss Theodora Wilson Wilson<br /> published a novel, entitled “Father, M.P.,”’ with<br /> Messrs. Thos. Nelson &amp; Sons.<br /> <br /> he same author has also made arrangements<br /> with Messrs. Harper Bros. for the production of a<br /> work next year. The title is « Langbarrow Hall,<br /> and the novel deals with the North Country, in a<br /> district of sand and peat, moss and scaur.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Blackie and Sons have just issued Vol. 2<br /> of Mr. Philip ©. Yorke’s work, “A Note Book of<br /> French Literature.” This volume, which deals<br /> with authors of the nineteenth century, is worked<br /> out on the same plan as that adopted by the author<br /> in Vol. 1, and consists of biography, bibliography,<br /> critical note, and illustrative extract to each<br /> author. The work is preceded by an introductory<br /> chapter.<br /> <br /> Mr. Pinero’s new play was produced on the stage<br /> of Sir Charles Wyndham’s Theatre, on the night<br /> of October 12th. The title, which gives the key<br /> to the piece, is “A Wife without a Smile—a<br /> Comedy in Disguise.” It is full of cynical<br /> humour, and the characters were excellently played<br /> throughout.<br /> <br /> A new play by Mr. Bernard Shaw, “John<br /> Bull’s Other Island,” written for the Irish Literary<br /> Society, will be produced in England at the Court<br /> Theatre for six matinées, on the Ist, 3rd, 4th,<br /> 8th, 10th, 11th of November. The date of the<br /> Irish performance has not, as yet, been fixed.<br /> There will be some further performances of<br /> Mr. Shaw’s well known play, “Candida,” in<br /> December. Another play by the same author,<br /> “ How He Lied to Her Husband,” has been_pro-<br /> duced under the management of Mr. Arnold Daly,<br /> with considerable success, in New York. It has<br /> been described asa travesty of Candida ; but this<br /> isa mistake. It deals with the adventures of a<br /> young poet and a fashionable lady who catch the<br /> Candida craze, and try to imagine themselves<br /> Candida and Eugene in real life, with ridiculous<br /> consequences.<br /> <br /> Mr. Shaw’s play, “ Caesar and Cleopatra,” which<br /> was to have been produced at the Berlin Deutscher<br /> Theater last spring, will be produced there next<br /> year.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> —__——_—_—_+—&gt;—_o—_____—_<br /> <br /> PARIS NOTES.<br /> <br /> —1-~—<br /> <br /> ‘ OUVENIRS des vertes Saisons,” by André<br /> Theuriet, is a charming sketch of the child-<br /> hood, early manhood, and career of this<br /> <br /> author. He tells us of his early writings and of<br /> <br /> his first publication in the Revwe des Deuz-<br /> He speaks, too, of his contemporaries,<br /> <br /> Mondes.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Daudet, Flaubert, the de Goncourts, &amp;c. ; and there<br /> is a touching account of the poet André Lemoyne,<br /> and of the way in which he wrote his verses.<br /> <br /> “Te Double Jardin,” by Maurice Meeterlinck,<br /> proves that the author is by no means a pessimist.<br /> “Nous sommes,” he writes, “au moment ou nais-<br /> sent autour de nous mille raisons nouvelles de<br /> prendre confiance dans les destinées de notre<br /> espéce.”<br /> <br /> “Le Sillon,” by Resclauze de Bermon, is a story<br /> of self-sacrifice. It is both romantic and pathetic,<br /> and altogether a novel well worth reading.<br /> <br /> In “Les Sirénes,” by Jean Reibrach, the chief<br /> interest is also the self-sacrifice of the man who, at<br /> an advanced age, has fallen in love with the orphan<br /> daughter of a fellow officer. She is engaged to<br /> him, but before the marriage takes place he dis-<br /> covers that he has a rival in the girl’s affections,<br /> and not only does he stand aside himself but he<br /> facilitates things for the lovers. There are some<br /> exquisite passages in the book, and the picture of<br /> provincial life is well drawn. The characters, too,<br /> all live and stand out in excellent contrast.<br /> <br /> “Félicien, souvenir d’un étudiant de 48,” by<br /> Charles-Louis Chassin, is an excellent book for<br /> giving a picture of the times about which the<br /> author writes. There is the proclamation of the<br /> Republic, the eventful 13th of June, the manifesta-<br /> tion of the students against the closing of Michelet’s<br /> lectures, and an account of the author&#039;s life when<br /> in the Mazas Prison. Jules Vallés and Leconte<br /> de Lisle are to be found in this story figuring<br /> under other names.<br /> <br /> “Madame de Ferneuse,” by Daniel Lesueur, is<br /> the sequel to the ‘“ Marquis de Valcor.” The<br /> interest of the story is well sustained, the characters<br /> all live, and the book itself is written admirably.<br /> <br /> “Légendes de mort et d’amour,” by M. Gaston-<br /> Routier, is a volume of legends and impressions<br /> written after a voyage in Spain. The author has<br /> written a number of historical and geographical<br /> works, and is considered an authority on subjects<br /> connected with the early history and literature of<br /> <br /> ain.<br /> ies other new books are: “Le Fils de la<br /> Mer,” by Nelly Hager; “La Macédoine et les<br /> puissances,” by M. Gaston-Routier ; “ Le peuple<br /> chinois,” by Fernand Farjenel ; “ La Bosnie popu-<br /> laire,” by Albert Bordeaux; ‘‘ Les Giuvres des<br /> autres,” by Madame Jeanne France.<br /> <br /> There is an attempt now being made by French<br /> authors to protect their works in Canada. It<br /> appears that plays, short stories, and novels are<br /> constantly reproduced in the papers or published<br /> in book form without the consent of the writers.<br /> <br /> The Society of Canadian-French journalists has<br /> taken the matter up, and in reply to a question<br /> addressed to the Government there, the Honourable<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 37<br /> <br /> M. Scott has replied that he believes the Canadian<br /> Government adheres to the Convention of Berne.<br /> Should this be so French writers have it in their<br /> own hands to protect their works. One of the<br /> most important publishing houses of Canada,<br /> Messrs. Beauchemin, is always loyal in dealing<br /> with French authors ; and M. Heurion, the manager<br /> of the Thédtre des Nouveautés, of Montreal, has<br /> been over to Paris and made arrangements about<br /> playing the “ Retour de Jérusalem”’ and “ La plus<br /> faible,” but various newspapers and publishing<br /> houses are at the present time using works by<br /> some of the best known French authors with no<br /> regard whatever to the question of literary property.<br /> <br /> The matter is now being taken up seriously in<br /> France.<br /> <br /> In the J/ercure de France there is an excellent<br /> article on “ Les Racines de l’Idéalisme,” by Remy<br /> <br /> _ de Gourmont, and a curious study by M. Bélugou,<br /> &#039; entitled “Le Pouvoir de l’Imagination chez les<br /> &#039; Enfants.”<br /> <br /> There is also an interesting criticism of<br /> the “ Peintres de la terre belge” by M. Marius-Ary<br /> <br /> 1, Leblond.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> | strings are pulled by the author.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> In La Revue of October 15th there is an article<br /> by M. Charles Pagot, “Comment reformer l’enseigne-<br /> <br /> | ment classique,” and another one by M. Georges<br /> <br /> Pellissier on “ La Littératurea these.” The writer<br /> maintains that in the roman d these the personages<br /> do not live: they are so many puppets whose<br /> When they<br /> speak we recognise the author’s voice prompting<br /> their réle, and all their acting is in support of the<br /> theory he wishes to prove.<br /> <br /> In a recent article in the Nowvelle Revue M.<br /> Morel asks what is to be done with all the books<br /> which have to be deposited at the Bibliotheque<br /> Nationale. He believes that with the present<br /> system the catalogue itself cannot be completed<br /> until the year 1930, and that it will consist of 136<br /> volumes.<br /> <br /> In the Quinzaine M. Giraud writes on Chateau-<br /> briand and his critics.<br /> <br /> In the Revwe des Dewr-Mondes M. Fouillée<br /> discusses the moral and social consequences of<br /> Darwinism. In the same review Madame Arvede<br /> Barine gives details with regard to the romance<br /> of “La Grande Mademoiselle,” and M. Edouard<br /> Rod writes on Ada Negri’s new book.<br /> <br /> In the Revue de Paris there is an interesting<br /> account of Count Valentin Esterhazy, and M. Paul<br /> Stapfer writes of his acquaintance with Victor<br /> Hugo when the poet was at Guernsey.<br /> <br /> At the Comédie Francaise “Les Affaires sont<br /> les Affaires” has been put on again.<br /> <br /> The Odéon is now giving the new play by<br /> M. Brieux, “ La Déserteuse.”<br /> <br /> “ Par le Fer et par le Feu,” the piece now running<br /> at the Thédtre Sarah Bernhardt, is taken from the<br /> <br /> celebrated novel by Sienkiewicz. Madame Bern-<br /> hardt read the book when on tour in America, and<br /> suggested to her son, M. Maurice Bernhardt, the<br /> idea of adapting it for the stage. For the last two<br /> years he has been at work on it, and in September<br /> it was read to the artistes. While Madame Bern-<br /> hardt is away on her tour the new play is being<br /> given at her theatre. |<br /> M. Antoine is still faithful to his bill of short<br /> plays, and is at present giving four instead of<br /> three: “Petite Femme,” “La Main de Singe,”<br /> “Discipline,” and “ Asile de Nuit.” :<br /> _ At the Vaudeville “Les Trois Anabaptistes”<br /> is to be followed by M. Henry Bataille’s new play,<br /> ‘“‘ Madame Colibri.”<br /> <br /> Auys HALLARD.<br /> <br /> et<br /> <br /> SPAIN AND BOOK PRODUCTION.<br /> <br /> ——+—~—+<br /> <br /> HE following correspondence has been re-<br /> ceived by the Secretary at the Society’s<br /> Office :— :<br /> <br /> The Under-Secretary of State for Foreign A ffairs<br /> presents his compliments to the Secretary to the<br /> Society of Authors, and is directed by the Secretary<br /> of State for Foreign Affairs to transmit to him to<br /> be laid before the Society the accompanying paper<br /> respecting the exemption from duty of books<br /> imported from certain countries into Spain :—<br /> <br /> SPANISH EMBASSY,<br /> July 12th, 1904.<br /> <br /> My Lorp,—I have the honour to inform your<br /> Excellency that the Government of the King, my<br /> august Sovereign, animated by the desire to<br /> strengthen the bonds of union between Spain and<br /> other nations her friends or allies, bonds which are<br /> certainly stronger in proportion as the communica-<br /> tion of ideas between the different countries is<br /> rendered more easy, presented to the Cortes a Bill<br /> amending the regulations respecting the present<br /> Customs tariff as regards the importation of books,<br /> and that this Bill, having been passed by the<br /> Chambers and sanctioned by His Majesty, has been<br /> promulgated as a law of the kingdom, dated March<br /> 4th last.<br /> <br /> Great Britain being, in view of the fact that her<br /> tariffs grant the exemption from duty, included in<br /> the terms of Article 2 of thislaw, Iam instructed by<br /> my Government to communicate it to His Majesty’s<br /> Government, in order that advantage may be taken<br /> of it by any British subjects who may desire to<br /> introduce books into Spain, and who shall have<br /> complied with the other conditions mentioned in<br /> the law.<br /> <br /> I transmit herewith to your Excellency a copy of<br />  <br /> <br /> 38<br /> <br /> the law and a copy of the Royal Order respecting<br /> the effects and the forms of its application.<br /> T have, &amp;c.,<br /> (Signed) Manpas.<br /> <br /> Don Alfonso XIII., by the grace of God, &amp;e., &amp;c.<br /> <br /> ‘Article 1.—Are exempted from custom duties,<br /> from the date of the promulgation of this law, all<br /> classes of books imported into Spain provided that<br /> they fulfil the following requirements —<br /> <br /> (1) That they are written in the language of the<br /> country whence they come directly or with a<br /> direct invoice, and that they are published and<br /> printed in the same country ; an -<br /> <br /> (2) That they are the original works of a citizen<br /> of the said country, who has acquired the right of<br /> literary property in them. :<br /> <br /> ‘Article 2.—The exemption referred to in the<br /> preceding article shall only apply to nations which<br /> have treaties in regard to literary property, and<br /> which grant the same exemption to books printed<br /> in Spain, as a measure of reciprocity.<br /> <br /> Article 8.—The Ministry of Finance shall give<br /> the necessary orders for the execution of this law.<br /> <br /> Therefore we give order, &amp;c., &amp;c,<br /> <br /> Given at the Palace, March 14th, 1904.<br /> <br /> (Signed) THE Kine.<br /> (Signed) Tum MINISTER OF FINANCE,<br /> GuILLERMO J. DE OSMA.<br /> <br /> MINISTRY OF FINANCE.<br /> RoyaL ORDER.<br /> <br /> Srr,—For the due application of the law of the<br /> 14th March last, published in the Madrid Gazette<br /> of the 15th idem, providing for the exemption from<br /> customs duties of books imported from abroad and<br /> printed in the language of the country of origin,<br /> the King, in view of the information supplied by<br /> the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and by your office,<br /> has been pleased to order—<br /> <br /> (1) That the following’ countries, which have<br /> <br /> treaties with Spain respecting intellectual property,<br /> <br /> and whose respective tariffs also grant exemption<br /> from duties to Spanish books, are henceforth to be<br /> considered as included under Article 2 of the<br /> above-mentioned law as regards the exemption<br /> referred to: Germany, England, Belgium, France,<br /> Italy, Japan, Siberia, Luxemburg, Monaco, Tunis,<br /> Columbia, Guatemala, Ecuador, Mexico, Norway,<br /> Paraguay, Argentine Republic, and Salvador ;<br /> <br /> (2) That until further notice the same treatment<br /> ghall be extended to Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the<br /> Philippines, in virtue of their having, in the Treaty<br /> of Paris, acknowledged the right of intellectual<br /> property, and of the fact that Spanish scientific and<br /> literary works imported into these countries now<br /> enjoy exemption from duties ;<br /> <br /> (3) That the fulfilment of the requirement of<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Article 1 of the same law, for the application of<br /> the exemption, to the effect that the works must be<br /> the original production of a citizen of the country<br /> of origin, who must also have acquired the right of<br /> literary property in them, must be proved by docu-<br /> ments issued by the office which has charge of the<br /> registration of intellectual property in the respective<br /> countries, certified by the Spanish Consul ;<br /> <br /> (4) The exemption which applies to books does<br /> not extend to their bindings, which in consequence<br /> must continue to pay the duties of their class, as<br /> determined by Note 49 of the present tariff ; and<br /> <br /> (5) That consignments of books brought before<br /> the Customs without the above-mentioned proof, or<br /> which do not comply with the other requirements<br /> of Article 1 of the law, or proceed from any other<br /> territory than those mentioned, shall pay the duties<br /> laid down in the same tariff.<br /> <br /> (Signed) Osa,<br /> Director-General of Customs.<br /> Maprip, June 15th, 1904.<br /> <br /> ————__+—&gt;—_<br /> <br /> COPYRIGHT IN GERMANY.<br /> <br /> ——<br /> <br /> HE evolution of copyright property in<br /> Germany follows in many points the evolu-<br /> tion of copyright property in other countries.<br /> <br /> Shortly after the invention of printing, privileges<br /> were conferred on printers to protect them against<br /> piracy ; this fact showed that it was the movement<br /> of the trade that first secured any defence for<br /> literary property. But the German evolution<br /> differs to this extent from the evolution of other<br /> countries, in that, for a long period, the author’s<br /> rights were not looked upon as existing, but only<br /> the rights of reproduction when transferred to the<br /> printer or publisher. To such an extent has this been<br /> carried that even at the present time a law has been<br /> passed dealing with publishers’ rights in addition<br /> to the copyright law. A German author, writing<br /> on this subject, states as follows :—<br /> <br /> “ As, shortly after the invention of printing, or at any<br /> rate in the earliest times, the privileges conferred for pro-<br /> tection against piracy were only granted to the publishers,<br /> and to them even were often granted for all works in<br /> <br /> common which appeared in their establishments ; so under<br /> these circumstances the question : In what relation the<br /> <br /> publisher stood to the author, if he received the sanction of<br /> the latter to the reproduction of the work concerned or —<br /> <br /> not, never came to the fore at all; the idea that the right<br /> <br /> of protection for his productions originates in the personof 70<br /> the author, that this might first have been made over by —<br /> <br /> the author to another in order to be operative, does not yet :<br /> <br /> appear in the light of day.’’<br /> Gradually,<br /> <br /> recognised by statute, and at the end of the o9@<br /> <br /> however, the publisher’s rights (it<br /> ought to have been the author’s rights) began to be -<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> aN<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 39<br /> <br /> eighteenth century—the period which is full of<br /> copyright legislation in all countries—legislation<br /> was carried on in the German Confederacy. The<br /> most important statute, however, was not passed<br /> till well into the nineteenth century. This was,<br /> without doubt, the Prussian law of 1837. It<br /> formed the basis of most of the subsequent legis-<br /> lation. Under it copyright protection was granted<br /> for life and thirty vears, and the exclusive right of<br /> representation for life and ten years.<br /> <br /> The fact that a large number of small States,<br /> although they might collectively agree to certain<br /> broad principles, each legislated for its own benefit,<br /> necessarily stood in the way of uniformity. In<br /> consequence, the desire for codification became<br /> urgent. The German Booksellers’—really Pub-<br /> lishers——Guild (Borsen-Verein) was the principal<br /> mover in the matter. A committee was appointed,<br /> and a comprehensive code partly based on the<br /> Prussian law was drawn up. After consideration<br /> this was laid before the Diet on May 19th, 1864:<br /> but with the dissolution of the German Con-<br /> federacy and the creation of the North-German<br /> Federacy and the German-Empire, the subject<br /> entered on a new stage. Article 4 of the Con-<br /> stitution of the North-German Federacy (1867) at<br /> once made the protection of intellectual property<br /> a matter of Confederate Legislation, and a law was<br /> passed in May, 1870, which came into force in 1871.<br /> Although this law was to a certain extent satis-<br /> factory, in the course of time deficiencies became<br /> apparent, and attempts were made, among those<br /> interested, to obtain a series of essential alterations.<br /> <br /> The Imperial offices of justice yielding to ex-<br /> ternal pressure, made preparations for the draft<br /> of a new law. Introductory consultations with<br /> experts—publishers, authors, and musicians—were<br /> instituted, and the result was put forward for public<br /> discussion in 1899. ‘Ihe draft, as finally settled,<br /> was approved by the Imperial Government. In<br /> January, 1901, the law was referred to a com-<br /> mission of twenty-one members, was passed on<br /> May 2nd, 1901, and came into active force on<br /> January ist, 1902. One of the great alterations<br /> from the former law of 1870 was that the new law<br /> was drafted as far as possible to facilitate inter-<br /> national legal intercourse.<br /> <br /> So far the outline of domestic copyright alone<br /> has been dealt with. It is necessary to look back<br /> some years and notice the evolution of inter-<br /> national relations. No doubt the fact that the law<br /> of 1901 was drafted along lines which might facili-<br /> tate international arrangements was due to the<br /> wider protection that was given to authors under<br /> the Berne Convention, and to the wider views<br /> universally adopted of author&#039;s property. The<br /> Berne Convention, as all English authors know,<br /> was an arrangement between the various countries<br /> <br /> who were signatories to protect the property of<br /> their authors, dramatists, artists, &amp;c. It became<br /> binding on those countries that adhered to it in<br /> 1886. The idea of an international agreement<br /> arose when experts saw the difficulties that were<br /> bound to follow in any endeavour to carry out<br /> the many divergent treaties existing between the<br /> nations. To get simplicity therefore out of the<br /> chaos it was essential that these arrangements,<br /> often very similar in their clauses and details,<br /> should be codified into one Convention. Those<br /> willing to adopt this course met together and<br /> finally came to the agreement cited above.<br /> Germany was among those who signed. She also<br /> signed the subsequent Act of Paris in 1896, an<br /> amplification of the former Convention. With the<br /> United States Germany has a special treaty. The<br /> mere proclamation of the President was found to<br /> be insufficient, according to the German law, to<br /> make the half-hearted reciprocity allowed by the<br /> States binding. The treaty gives copyright<br /> between the two countries on exactly the same<br /> basis as the copyright existing between Great<br /> Britain and the United States. The essential<br /> difference in its working arises from the fact that<br /> the two languages are not the same ; this has been<br /> found to be an enormous handicap to German<br /> authors. A discussion of this difference does not<br /> come into this paper. It has been mentioned in<br /> previous numbers of Zhe Author.<br /> <br /> Finally, Germany entered into a treaty with<br /> Austria-Hungary, and the exchange of ratifications<br /> took place in Berlin in May, 1901. Now, there-<br /> fore, domestic and international copyright legisla-<br /> tion in the empire of Germany is as widely ex-<br /> tended as in any other country.<br /> <br /> Before we consider the German law at present<br /> in force, it will be interesting to look into the<br /> philosophical and ethical view adopted by the<br /> Teuton mind.<br /> <br /> The German philosopher has turned on the<br /> moral rights of authors as he has on many other<br /> different subjects, his inquisitorial methods.<br /> <br /> It is true that the first copyright legislation in<br /> England was brought about by the publishers with<br /> a view to protecting the economic use of their<br /> property; in taking this action they recognised<br /> that it was the awthor’s property in the first<br /> instance ; but this point of view did not hold in<br /> Germany, or rather in the German States. The<br /> legislature in Prussia did not deem that there<br /> was any property in the author, merely because he<br /> had been the originator and evolver of the book,<br /> but there was property in the economic use ot<br /> what the author had originated and evolved,<br /> and, in consequence, a resultant monopoly for<br /> the author.<br /> <br /> Therefore, in the first instance the law aimed<br />  <br /> <br /> 40. THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> only at the protection of the economic use of intel-<br /> lectual activity, but when the rights of the author<br /> became more fully recognised and established in<br /> other countries, Germany and her philosophers had<br /> to shift their position somewhat in order to come<br /> into line, though even at this day two laws have<br /> been passed, one dealing with authors’ rights<br /> (copyright as understood in other countries) and<br /> one with publishers’ contracts (the original basis<br /> of copyright property as understood by the German<br /> philosopher). :<br /> <br /> Tt is understood now that an author’s copyright<br /> embraces considerably more than the mere right<br /> of reproduction of copies. Though this is the<br /> definition of copyright given under the English<br /> Statute of 1842, yet case law shows the ethical<br /> and moral right of an author embraces much<br /> more. It embraces the personal interest. The<br /> author may desire to keep his mental work<br /> from becoming public. He has, therefore, beyond<br /> the exclusive right of publishing, the right of<br /> withholding from publication or the right of<br /> publication to a limited number of individuals<br /> or for a limited number of years, or in a fixed<br /> form ; but according to the German philosopher<br /> this right of withholding from publication is not<br /> a proprietary right. The proprietary right is the<br /> right of obtaining money out of the reproduction<br /> of copies.<br /> <br /> But although this was the original view of copy-<br /> right the present legislature looks at the matter<br /> from a different standpoint, for either the concep-<br /> tion of proprietary rights has been extended in<br /> order to comprise within it author’s rights, or<br /> personal rights have been recognised together with<br /> proprietary rights as being contained within the<br /> author’s rights, or, finally, both have been placed<br /> on an entirely new basis, that of moral personal<br /> rights.<br /> <br /> When this important point had been decided,<br /> there arose the question of the rights after the<br /> death of the author.<br /> <br /> Authors’ rights, so far as they were personal<br /> rights, were considered to perish with the death of<br /> the author, and to be inheritable only on account<br /> of their proprietary nature, as they always con-<br /> tained within them the germ of their economic use.<br /> This deduction followed that the exclusive right<br /> to make alterations in the work belonged to the<br /> heirs as formerly to the author, and that the<br /> author’s rights in unpublished works could not<br /> become the object of compulsory execution without<br /> the consent of the heirs.<br /> <br /> In order to explain the limitation of the copy-<br /> right, Z.e., the lapsing of the proprietary rights after<br /> a certain time, the old argument of the claims of the<br /> public was brought forward—that an intellectual<br /> work may be the possession of the nation—indeed,<br /> <br /> of the whole world. ‘The most probable argument,<br /> however, for the limitation of copyright—which limi-<br /> tationis gradually lessening under recent legislation,<br /> __ig that in olden times, when the economic value<br /> of the production of a man’s brains for many<br /> reasons, but chiefly for the reason that printing<br /> had not been?invented, was unremunerative, the<br /> public deemed it had secured a right which perhaps<br /> might be comparable to a right of way. When the<br /> economic value suddenly became of importance,<br /> the public tried to argue that this right of way in<br /> reality existed, and so strong was this inherited<br /> feeling that it was many years before authors could<br /> obtain any recognition of their property. This,<br /> however, they finalty secured for a limited period.<br /> In most countries this period grew with the<br /> development of the economic value. So much for<br /> the German view of the author’s rights—that is the<br /> moral rights inherent in the author as against the<br /> proprietary rights resulting from the economic use<br /> of his property. But as from the German stand-<br /> point the two rights have always been separated,<br /> so they are still separated, and two laws have been<br /> <br /> passed, the one dealing with the Copyright Law,<br /> <br /> the other with the Law of Publishers’ Contracts.<br /> <br /> Law oF CopyRicHT.<br /> <br /> The Law of Copyright was passed in June,<br /> 1901, and came into force in January, 1902. It<br /> is divided into five parts :—1. Those who obtain<br /> protection. 2. The limitations of the privileges<br /> secured by those who obtain protection. 3. The<br /> time limitation of those privileges. 4. How and<br /> to what extent those privileges can be infringed.<br /> 5. Final decrees : points not included in the other<br /> divisions.<br /> <br /> Those who obtain protection include the authors<br /> of writings, lectures, speeches, musical works, and<br /> the whole list of producers and their assigns ex-<br /> haustively defined. In the second division follow<br /> the definitions of the author’s privileges—that is,<br /> the rights an author has with regard to his own<br /> property, such as translation rights, dramatic<br /> rights, musical rights, &amp;e. ; and in the same divi-<br /> sion is set forth those classes of property which,<br /> generally included in this law, are for special<br /> reasons of public policy not subject to protection,<br /> for instance, the reprinting of laws, &amp;e., &amp;e. OF<br /> these exceptions there appears to be a long list.<br /> <br /> ‘hen follows, in the third division, the duration<br /> of the protection accorded, practically the life of<br /> the author and thirty years.<br /> clauses under this heading which deal with joint<br /> works, works published after death, and other<br /> matters connected with the duration of the term.<br /> <br /> The fourth division deals with the infringement<br /> of the rights, which have already been fully defined<br /> under the second division; the methods of the<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> There are various.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 4}<br /> <br /> proceedings to be taken by those mentioned ‘in<br /> the first division whose rights are infringed in<br /> order to protect their property ; and what actions<br /> amount to infringement, together with the penal-<br /> ties accruing. All these matters are dealt with in<br /> considerable detail, in fact the law seems to be<br /> crowded up with detail, and somewhat diificult of<br /> interpretation in consequence.<br /> <br /> The final division deals with registration and<br /> other matters connected with the property not<br /> included under any of the previous headings.<br /> <br /> Law RESPECTING PUBLISHERS’ CONTRACTS.<br /> <br /> Finally comes the law that deals with publishers’<br /> rights, or, as we term them in England, rights<br /> existing under a licence to publish. This law is a<br /> most curious example of meticulous legislation.<br /> It deals with the form of contract between author<br /> and publisher, a matter generally left to be settled<br /> by the parties themselves; it may be a careful<br /> exposition of the case law embodied in_ the<br /> form of a statute. It is most interesting reading,<br /> as it practically sets out in detail what, in the<br /> <br /> absence of special arrangement, the German legis- .<br /> <br /> lature would consider a reasonable contract, and<br /> unfortunately, as so often happens, the party with the<br /> money has obtained the advantage over the party<br /> with the intellect. This was likely to be the case<br /> in a country where the publishing and bookselling<br /> combination has been so strong as almost to<br /> strangle the free development of literary talent.<br /> It is impossible to go through the Act section by<br /> section, though in some subsequent issue it may be<br /> published in full. It will suffice at the present to<br /> deal generally with the tendency of the law, and<br /> in particular with individual sections.<br /> <br /> It would appear (section 1) that where an author<br /> transfers his rights, without limitation, to the pub-<br /> lisher, publication is an inherent part of the con-<br /> tract. This point is settled by law. In England<br /> there has been no statutory enactment or case law<br /> on the subject. It would be interesting to see<br /> what line would be taken if the English Courts<br /> were asked to decide the question where the pub-<br /> lisker who had purchased the copyright refused to<br /> produce. Owing to the unreasonable delay of one<br /> or two publishers the Society has on occasions<br /> threatened to take action, but has never been<br /> actually forced into doing so owing, under pressure,<br /> to she final production of the books. The author<br /> (section 2) is forbidden during the continuation of<br /> the contract to reproduce in Germany, but still<br /> holds a great many of his original rights, such as<br /> translation, dramatic rights, elaboration of musical<br /> work, and, curiously enough, to reproduce in a<br /> collective edition if twenty years have elapsed<br /> since the first year in which the work was pub-<br /> lished. The publisher (section 5) is restrained in<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> his right of publication of the work in various<br /> editions during the term of copyright, and is only<br /> entitled to produce one edition of one thousand<br /> copies. If, however, he has the right of producing<br /> other editions, then they are supposed to be pro-<br /> duced under the same agreement that holds good<br /> for the first edition. Section 10 is an example of<br /> the minute legislation dealing with the subject, as<br /> the author is bound to deliver the copy fit for<br /> publication. He is bound (section 11), if the work<br /> is not already written, to write it within a certain<br /> time ; he is allowed (section 12) to make ordinary<br /> corrections, but if his corrections exceed the ordi-<br /> nary usage he is bound to defray the expense. The<br /> publisher is bound to publish as soon as possible<br /> <br /> ‘(section 18) after he has received the completed<br /> <br /> work, and is bound to produce the number of<br /> copies that he is entitled to. The publisher (sec-<br /> tion 20) is bound to provide proofs tor correction.<br /> (Section 21.) He is allowed to fix the price of the<br /> work, and may lower the price as long as the just<br /> interests of the author are not injured. If there is<br /> no arrangement as to terms (section 22) it is tacitly<br /> implied that the publisher pays a fair remuneration.<br /> (Section 23.) The remuneration must be made on<br /> the delivery of the work. When it depends upon<br /> the sale (section 24) the publisher must render<br /> annual accounts, and his books are to be open<br /> to investigation if necessary. (Section 27.) The<br /> publisher is bound to restore the MS. to the author.<br /> Under section 28 the publisher’s rights are trans-<br /> ferable. This is contrary to the case law on the<br /> same subject in England. If the publisher&#039;s<br /> agreement (section 29) is confined to a definite<br /> number of editions or copies, the contract ceases<br /> when the edition or copies areexhausted. It iscurious<br /> that such a point as this should have demanded<br /> legislation. ‘The publisher may repudiate the con-<br /> tract (section 30) under certain conditions, owing<br /> to delay on the author’s part, and the same<br /> arrangement for the repudiation of a contract or<br /> for a claim for damages is applicable in favour of<br /> the author.<br /> <br /> Then follows (sections 36, 37, 38) reference to the<br /> bankruptcy of publishers and the rights of the<br /> author, and the right of cancellation under certain<br /> circumstances,<br /> <br /> Section 45 gives the author a right, if his work<br /> has not been published within a year from the<br /> delivery to the Editor, to cancel the contract,<br /> but his right to remuneration remains intact.<br /> This is a most useful regulation, as the delay of<br /> editors of some English reviews has become<br /> proverbial.<br /> <br /> The law is complete in 50 sections, and as<br /> already stated is a most entertaining example of<br /> minute legis!ation on points most of which could<br /> easily, and without difficulty, be settled by private<br />  <br /> <br /> 42,<br /> <br /> contract, and the rest by judicial interpretation of<br /> doubtful contracts. Most of the sections are com-<br /> mon-sense interpretations of possible contracting<br /> difficulties ; some are more in favour of the<br /> publisher than the author, but on the whole the<br /> author has not much to grumble at, and is always<br /> able to contract out, should he so desire,<br /> <br /> It remains to be seen whether this attention to<br /> minutiz in the law may not render disputes more<br /> difficult of settlement. It will be interesting to<br /> follow its working during the years which will<br /> elapse before another statute on the same subject<br /> is passed.<br /> <br /> Whether the two laws are all that could be<br /> desired is doubtful; the Germans, however, must<br /> be congratulated on taking the subject of copy-<br /> right in hand and dealing with it exhaustively,<br /> <br /> The authors of Great Britain have not been so<br /> fortunate in the matter of legislation.<br /> <br /> GH, 1.<br /> <br /> —————_+—<br /> <br /> A PUBLISHER’S PRACTICE.<br /> <br /> ———<br /> STATEMENT.<br /> <br /> TATEMENT of a publisher’s practice in<br /> making up accounts to authors for works<br /> of which the profits are divided between<br /> <br /> author and publisher.<br /> <br /> A. The publisher bears the entire cost and risk<br /> of printing and publication.<br /> <br /> Except only in the event of the cost of correc-<br /> tions in proofs exceeding 25 per cent. of the cost<br /> of composition, when such excess is borne by the<br /> author.<br /> <br /> The entire proceeds of sales are in the first<br /> instance devoted to the repayment of the cost of<br /> production ; if after meeting this liability they<br /> yield a surplus, all such surplus is treated as profit<br /> and is divided between author and publisher in<br /> the proportion agreed upon. In cases where the<br /> cost is never covered by the yield, the publisher<br /> bears the loss.<br /> <br /> B. The cost is reckoned at the invoiced cost—<br /> which is almost invariably 5 per cent. more than<br /> net cost. It includes only direct expenditure—no<br /> charge is made for office expenses, rent, bad debts,<br /> insurance, travellers’ expenses, or for the work of<br /> any employé of the publisher.<br /> <br /> C. The proceeds of sales are accounted for as<br /> nearly as possible at the actual sums received by<br /> the publisher from the bookseller, after making all<br /> trade discounts and allowances—this is to say<br /> copies are reckoned at two thirds of the published<br /> price (thirteen copies as twelve if the published<br /> price be 10s. 6d. or less, or twenty-five as twenty-<br /> four if more than 10s. 62.) less 10 per cent.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> The yield from books published at a net price is<br /> reckoned in the same way as the above, except<br /> that instead of two-thirds of the published price,<br /> five-sixths is reckoned.<br /> <br /> The yield for educational books proper is also<br /> reckoned in the same way (on the net or non-net<br /> basis respectively, as may be the case), except that<br /> only 74 per cent. is deducted instead of 10 per cent.<br /> <br /> The above terms do not apply to special sales<br /> (ie. special quotations made for large numbers in<br /> special cases), or to ‘remainder,’ Colonial or<br /> American sales, or to sales of plates or rights,<br /> These are not averaged, but are all made a<br /> particular note of and accounted for at exactly<br /> what each yields,<br /> <br /> D. Twelve free copies are presented to the<br /> author, and he may purchase further copies at<br /> two-thirds of the published price, or five-sixths in<br /> the case of net books.<br /> <br /> BE. Accounts are made up to Midsummer, and<br /> vouchers for all payments and receipts can be seen<br /> on request.<br /> <br /> F. The copyright of the work remains the<br /> <br /> - property of the author, but the rights of publica-<br /> <br /> tion are vested in the publisher so long as he<br /> faithfully acts up to this understanding.<br /> <br /> CoMMENT.<br /> <br /> The agreement or method of making up accounts<br /> that we have printed was submitted by one of the<br /> London publishing houses to an author, and puts<br /> forward proposals for publishing on the basis of<br /> profit-sharing. The agreement, as is usual, deals<br /> with the subject from the publisher’s view. This<br /> article will put forward the author’s standpoint.<br /> In clause A., it will be noted that the publisher<br /> bears the entire cost of printing and publication,<br /> and the entire proceeds of the sales are in the first<br /> instance devoted to the repayment of the cost of<br /> production. To the uninitiated, the word “entire”<br /> would lead one to suppose that the exact price of<br /> printing and publication was charged neither more<br /> nor less, and the exact proceeds of the sales credited<br /> neither more nor less. In clause B., however, it<br /> is shown that the “entire” cost does not agree<br /> with this definition, “the invoiced cost, which is<br /> almost invariably 5 per cent. more than the net<br /> cost,” is charged. This is certainly an open state-<br /> ment on the part of the publisher, but by no<br /> means, satisfactory. It is almost invariably—so<br /> the publisher states—5 per cent. more than the net<br /> cost, but there is nothing in this method of render-<br /> ing accounts to prevent it being 10 per cent. more<br /> than the net cost, or even a higher figure still. It<br /> is not for a moment hinted that such a charge<br /> would be made if the author was dealing with one<br /> of the first class publishing houses, but still it is<br /> necessary to draw the author&#039;s attention to a point<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> which is indeterminate, and therefore faulty. If<br /> exactly 5 per cent. more is to be charged then this<br /> should be stated, but the figure should not be left<br /> indefinite. Finality is essential not only to enable<br /> the author to calculate his liabilities but in order that<br /> he should not subsequently have a cause for dissatis-<br /> faction, but whether the percentage is 74 5, or 3, it<br /> is certainly an advantage to have the plain state-<br /> ment that some percentage is taken. But is there<br /> any justice in making this charge ? Surely not. It<br /> is always as well that the exact cost of production<br /> should be settled before the agreement is entered<br /> into—that is, the exact price per sheet for composi-<br /> tion, print, and paper, and per 100 copies for<br /> binding. Then the author has definite figures and<br /> can reckon, if he has studied arithmetic at school,<br /> his probable return. The publisher must be con-<br /> gratulated on the fact that no charge is made for<br /> office expenses, etc. This is a great advance.<br /> Generally a fixed percentage on the cost of produc-<br /> tion is calculated, and so far only that it is fixed<br /> is satisfactory, but the real question is whether<br /> any charge at all should be made. This item is<br /> covered by the publisher’s share of the profit, other-<br /> wise the author ought to have a similar allowance.<br /> We next come to clause C. Here again it is<br /> evident that the word “entire” in clause A. will<br /> not bear the construction that it suggests, as the<br /> books are to be charged in the account at a certain<br /> fixed rate. Now all who know anything of the<br /> book trade know very well that there is no fixed<br /> trade price. Many books are sold at one figure,<br /> and many at another, and some across the pub-<br /> lisher’s counter at the full price. It is sometimes<br /> more convenient for both author and publisher to<br /> charge a fixed price, then the author should see<br /> that the price is a fair average and not the lowest<br /> price charged to the trade.<br /> <br /> It is unfair to take as the average the price after<br /> deducting “all trade discounts and allowances,”<br /> and the words “as nearly as possible at the actual<br /> sums received, etc.,” are misleading. But the end<br /> of the clause puts the matter in its proper light,<br /> and gives a definite though unsatisfactory state-<br /> ment as to the calculation that will appear in the<br /> accounts. The results of this calculation will be<br /> instructive to those who want to see their possible<br /> returns, and are as follows :—<br /> <br /> Price of Discount Book at 12s. 6d.<br /> <br /> 1. For a book costing more than 10s. 6d., and<br /> published subject to the usual discounts, author<br /> receives—<br /> <br /> oe 7? |. . :<br /> -3*%55~%19 7 i957 2&#039;° of the published price.<br /> <br /> If the published price is 12s. 6d.=150d.,<br /> ‘576 x 150=86&#039;4. A little more than 7s. 24d.<br /> <br /> 43<br /> Price of Discount Book at 6s.<br /> <br /> 2. For a book costing less than 10s. 6d., and<br /> <br /> published subject to the usual discounts, the author<br /> receives—<br /> <br /> = 2 ey of the published pri<br /> 3% 13% i065 published price.<br /> If the published price is 6s. =72d.,<br /> <br /> ‘554 x 72=39°88. A little more than 8s. 33d.<br /> <br /> Price of Nett Book at 12s. 6d.<br /> <br /> 8. For the “nett” book costing more than<br /> 10s. 6d., author receives—<br /> <br /> 524, 9 18<br /> <br /> 6 20710 254<br /> <br /> If the published price is 12s. 6d.=150d.,<br /> ‘72 x 150 =108 = 9s.<br /> <br /> ‘72 of the published price.<br /> <br /> Price of Nett Book at 6s.<br /> <br /> 4, For the “nett” book costing less than<br /> 10s. 6d., author receives—<br /> <br /> oo ‘692 of the published price<br /> <br /> G18 10 ls S i<br /> If the published price is 6s.=72d.,<br /> <br /> 692 x 72 =49°824. A little more than 4s. 12d.<br /> <br /> Price of Educational Books.<br /> <br /> The educational book may be “ non-nett” or<br /> “nett,” and cost either more or less than 10s. 6d.<br /> Four cases are consequently possible, in all of<br /> which 7°5 per cent. is deducted instead of 10 per<br /> cent.<br /> <br /> For the four cases the author receives the following<br /> proportions of the published price :—<br /> <br /> (a) “ Non-nett ” over 10s. 6d. :<br /> <br /> 2 24 92.5<br /> 3 * 25&quot; 100<br /> (0) “ Non-nett”’ under 10s. 6d. :<br /> 2 17 825<br /> 3 x 13 x = — ‘569,<br /> (c) “ Nett” over 10s. 6d. :<br /> 52h 92°5<br /> 6 25. 100.<br /> (d) “Nett” under 10s. 6d. :<br /> 5.12 9:25<br /> a 19 100 aa 711,<br /> (a) If the price be 12s. 6d.= 150d.,<br /> -592°x 150 =88&#039;8. A little more than 7s. 43d.<br /> <br /> = 002;<br /> <br /> ‘74,<br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> 44 THE<br /> <br /> (b) If the price be 6s.= 72d.,<br /> <br /> -569 x 72 =40°968. Very nearly 3s. 5d.<br /> <br /> (c) If the price be 12s. 6d. = 1504d.,<br /> <br /> -74x150=111. Exactly 9s. 3d.<br /> <br /> (d) If the price be 6s.= 72d.,<br /> <br /> ‘711 x72=51&#039;192, A little more than 4s. 3d.<br /> <br /> It seems interesting to note how rapidly<br /> quantities are diminished when multiplied by<br /> fractions whose denominators but slightly exceed<br /> their numerators.<br /> <br /> Thus the thirteenth copy, which gives the author<br /> only twelve-thirteenths of his two-thirds, and the<br /> 10 per cent. discount, which gives him only nine-<br /> tenths of that, reduces his two-thirds to but little<br /> more than half.<br /> <br /> 2 260 , 36<br /> <br /> : : 916 1.195<br /> 2” which author receives = :.=<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 3 390° 65 390. 2 390°<br /> That is to say, that against each £100, the<br /> author does not receive £61 13s. 4d., but<br /> <br /> £55 7s. 8d.<br /> <br /> With these figures before him the author can<br /> reckon out his gross takings on what he may think<br /> a fair sale.<br /> <br /> Clause D is the usual clause.<br /> need be raised.<br /> <br /> Annual accounts (clause E) are not satisfactory.<br /> It is always better to have semi-annual accounts,<br /> and the amount due on the accounts should be<br /> paid within a month of their rendering ; but the<br /> readiness of the Publisher to produce vouchers<br /> is to be highly commended. Clause F, again,<br /> is much too indefinite. If the rights of publi-<br /> cation are to be vested in the publisher, they<br /> should be limited to a certain form and a certain<br /> price. As the agreement is at present worded the<br /> publisher would have serial rights as well as book<br /> rights, and might produce in any form and in any<br /> country he thought fit. There should be an arrange-<br /> ment by which, when the sale of the book has<br /> ended, the agreement should be cancelled and the<br /> right of republication should revert to the author.<br /> <br /> We do not desire to draw attention to the other<br /> omissions, which are many, as the document does<br /> not purport to’ be a formal agreement, although<br /> there is no doubt that the acceptance by an author<br /> of this form would constitute a legal and binding<br /> contract. As it is printed it is not sufficiently<br /> definite and therefore unsatisfactory. If it is<br /> <br /> To it no objection<br /> <br /> meant to be a definite agreement then it is bad<br /> in substance, on account of the errors of com-<br /> mission explained and the errors of ommission left<br /> unexplained.<br /> <br /> If it is not meant to be a definite agreement<br /> then the publisher should state that a proper<br /> contract would be submitted.<br /> <br /> G. H. T.<br /> <br /> AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> MAGAZINE CONTENTS.<br /> <br /> oe<br /> <br /> (LireraRy, DRAMATIC, AND MUSICAL.)<br /> OCTOBER, 1904.<br /> BLACKWOOD&#039;S MAGAZINE,<br /> An Ambassador of the Republic of Letters.<br /> Gregory Smith.<br /> Crities and Criticism.<br /> THE BOOKMAN.<br /> The Bronté Fascination. By Angus M. Mackay.<br /> THE CONTEMPORARY REVIEW.<br /> By E. Wake Cook,<br /> By W. E. Keeton.<br /> THE CORNHILL MAGAZINE.<br /> Historical Mysteries :—The Case of Captain Green. By<br /> <br /> Andrew Lang.<br /> THe EDINBURGH REVIEW.<br /> <br /> Some Recent French and English Plays.<br /> <br /> The Intellectual Condition of Roman Catholics in<br /> Germany.<br /> <br /> Prosper Merimee.<br /> <br /> By 8.<br /> <br /> Progress or Decadence in Art.<br /> Tshaikovski as a Ballet Composer.<br /> <br /> THE FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW.<br /> Three Sketches by Stijn Streuvels, By Alexander de<br /> Teixeira Mattos.<br /> The Origins of the Alphabet.<br /> French Life and The French Stage.<br /> donald.<br /> Graszia Deledda and ‘‘ Cenere.”<br /> <br /> By Andrew Lang.<br /> By John F. Mae-<br /> <br /> By May Bateman.<br /> <br /> Tar INDEPENDENT REVIEW.<br /> First Aid to the Critic. By C. F. Keary.<br /> Modern Languages in Public Schools. By G. Winthorp<br /> Young.<br /> <br /> “ The Dynasts.”’ By John Pollock.<br /> <br /> LoNGMAN’S MAGAZINE.<br /> The Wren-Bush. By Maud EK. Sargent.<br /> <br /> MACMILLAN’S MAGAZINE.<br /> By W. Beach Thomas,<br /> <br /> THE MONTH,<br /> <br /> The Oldest Life of St. Gregory.<br /> Thurston.<br /> Subjective Idealism. By the Rev. Thomas Rigby.<br /> <br /> The Song of Birds.<br /> <br /> By the Rev. Herbert<br /> <br /> THE NATIONAL REVIEW.<br /> <br /> Scottish Letters. By ‘‘ Glasgow.”&#039;<br /> An Old Almanac. By the Hon. Maud Lyttleton.<br /> <br /> THE PALL MALL MAGAZINE.<br /> <br /> A Royal Painter and His Friends. By Georg Brochner.<br /> <br /> About Our Fiction. John Oliver Hobbes, H. G. Wells,<br /> Andrew Lang, Edmund Gosse,W. L. Courtney, and Walter<br /> Frewen Lord.<br /> <br /> THE QUARTERLY REVIEW.<br /> <br /> The “ Advocatus Diaboli’’ on the Divina Commedia.<br /> <br /> The Influence of Cant on Modern Thought. By the<br /> Master of Baliol.<br /> <br /> Thomas Treherne and the Religious Poets of the 17th<br /> Century. By Professor W. Lewis Jones.<br /> <br /> TEMPLE BAR.<br /> <br /> The Progress of English Criticism. By Walter Lewin.<br /> <br /> There are no articles dealing with Literary, Dramatic, or<br /> a subjects in Chambers’s Journal or the World&#039;s<br /> Tork,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 45<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO THE PRODUCERS<br /> OF BOOKS.<br /> <br /> ee<br /> ERE are a few standing rules to be observed in an<br /> <br /> agreement. There are four methods of dealing<br /> with literary property :—<br /> <br /> I. Selling it Outright.<br /> <br /> This is sometimes satisfactory, if a proper price can be<br /> obtained. But the transaction should be managed by a<br /> competent agent, or with the advice of the Secretary of<br /> the Society.<br /> <br /> II. A Profit-Sharing Agreement (a bad form of<br /> agreement).<br /> <br /> In this case the following rules should be attended to:<br /> <br /> (1.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro-<br /> duction forms a part without the strictest investigation.<br /> <br /> (2.) Not to give the publisher the power of putting the<br /> profits into his own pocket by charging for advertisements<br /> in his own organs, or by charging exchange advertise-<br /> ments. Therefore keep control of the advertisements.<br /> <br /> (3.) Not to allow a special charge for ‘“ office expenses,”<br /> unless the same allowance is made to the author.<br /> <br /> (4.) Not to give up American, Colonial, or Continental<br /> rights.<br /> <br /> (5.) Not to give up serial or translation rights.<br /> <br /> (6.) Not to bind yourself for future work to any publisher.<br /> As well bind yourself for the future to any one solicitor or<br /> doctor !<br /> <br /> IlI. The Royalty System.<br /> <br /> This is perhaps, with certain limitations, the best form<br /> of agreement. It is above all things necessary to know<br /> what the proposed royalty means to both sides. It is now<br /> possible for an author to ascertain approximately the<br /> truth. From time to time very important figures connected<br /> with royalties are published in Zhe Author.<br /> <br /> IY. A Commission Agreement.<br /> <br /> The main points are :—<br /> <br /> (1.) Be careful to obtain a fair cost of production.<br /> (2.) Keep control of the advertisements.<br /> <br /> (3.) Keep control of the sale price of the book.<br /> <br /> General.<br /> <br /> All other forms of agreement are combinations of the four<br /> above mentioned.<br /> <br /> Such combinations are generally disastrous to the author.<br /> <br /> Never sign any agreement without competent advice from<br /> the Secretary of the Society.<br /> <br /> Stamp all agreements with the Inland Revenue stamp.<br /> <br /> Avoid agreements by letter if possible.<br /> <br /> The main points which the Society has always demanded<br /> from the outset are :—<br /> <br /> (1.) That both sides shall know what an agreement<br /> means.<br /> <br /> (2.) The inspection of those account books which belong<br /> to the author. We are advised that this is a right, in the<br /> nature of a common law right, which cannot be denied or<br /> withheld.<br /> <br /> (3.) Always avoid a transfer of copyright.<br /> <br /> ee<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS.<br /> <br /> — 9 —<br /> <br /> EVER sign an agreement without submitting it to the<br /> Secretary of the Society of Authors or some com-<br /> petent legal authority.<br /> <br /> 2. It is well to be extremely careful in negotiating for<br /> the production of a play with anyone except an established<br /> manager,<br /> <br /> 3. There are three forms of dramatic contract for plays<br /> <br /> in three or more acts :—<br /> <br /> (a.) Sale outright of the performing right. This<br /> 1s unsatisfactory. An author who enters into<br /> such a contract should stipulate in the contract<br /> for production of the piece by a certain date<br /> and for proper publication of his name on the<br /> play-bills,<br /> <br /> (b.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to<br /> perform on the basis of percentages on<br /> gross receipts. Percentages vary between 5<br /> and 15 per cent. An author should obtain a<br /> percentage on the sliding scale of gross receipts<br /> in preference to the American system. Should<br /> obtain a sum inadvance of percentages. A fixed<br /> date on or before which the play should be<br /> performed.<br /> <br /> (¢e.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to<br /> perform on the basis of royalties (i.c., fixed<br /> nightly fees). This method should be always<br /> avoided except in cases where the fees are<br /> likely to be small or difficult to collect. The<br /> other safeguards set out under heading (3.) apply<br /> also in this case.<br /> <br /> 4, Plays in one act are often sold outright, but it is<br /> better to obtain a small nightly fee if possible, and a sum<br /> paid in advance of such fees in any event. It is extremely<br /> important that the amateur rights of one-act plays should<br /> be reserved.<br /> <br /> 5. Authors should remember that performing rights can<br /> be limited, and are usually limited, by town, country, and<br /> time, This is most important.<br /> <br /> 6. Authors should not assign performing rights, but<br /> should grant a licence to perform. ‘The legal distinction is<br /> of great importance,<br /> <br /> 7. Authors should remember that performing rights in a<br /> play are distinct from literary copyright. A manager<br /> holding the performing right or licence to perform cannot<br /> print the book of the words.<br /> <br /> 8. Never forget that United States rights may be exceed-<br /> ingly valuable. ‘hey should never be included in English<br /> agreements without the author obtaining a substantial<br /> consideration.<br /> <br /> 9. Agreements for collaboration should be carefully<br /> drawn and executed before collaboration is commenced.<br /> <br /> 10. An author should remember that production of a play<br /> is highly speculative: that he. runs a very great risk of<br /> delay and a breakdown in the fulfilment of his contract.<br /> He should therefore guard himself all the more carefully in<br /> the beginning.<br /> <br /> 11. An author must remember that the dramatic market<br /> is exceedingly limited, and that for a novice the first object<br /> is to obtain adequate publication.<br /> <br /> As these warnings must necessarily be incomplete, on<br /> account of the wide range of the subject of dramatic con-<br /> tracts, those authors desirous of further information<br /> are referred to the Secretary of the Society.<br /> <br /> —____—_—_-—&lt;&gt;—_o___&lt;_<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.<br /> <br /> 1<br /> <br /> ITTLE can be added to the warnings given for the<br /> assistance of producers of books and dramatic<br /> authors. It must, however, be pointed out that, as<br /> <br /> a rule, the musical publisher demands from the musical<br /> composer a transfer of fuller rights and less liberal finan-<br /> cial terms than those obtained for literary and dramatic<br /> property. ‘The musical composer has very often the two<br /> rights to deal, with—performing right and copyright. He<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 46<br /> <br /> should be especially careful therefore when entering into<br /> an agreement, and should take into part.cular consideration<br /> the warnings stated above.<br /> <br /> eo =<br /> <br /> HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> SO<br /> <br /> 1 VERY member has a right to ask for and to receive<br /> advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-<br /> lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his<br /> <br /> business or the administration of his property. | The<br /> <br /> Secretary of the Society is a solicitor, put if there is any<br /> <br /> special reason the Secretary will refer the case to the<br /> <br /> Solicitors of the Society. Further, the Committee, if they<br /> <br /> deem it desirable, will obtain counsel’s opinion. All this<br /> <br /> without any cost to the member.<br /> <br /> 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright<br /> and publishers’ agreements do not fall within the experi-<br /> ence of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use<br /> the Society.<br /> <br /> 3. Send to the Office copies of past agreements and past<br /> accounts, with a copy of the book represented. The<br /> Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new<br /> or old, for inspection and note. The information thus<br /> obtained may prove invaluable.<br /> <br /> 4. Before signing any agreement whatever, send<br /> the document to the Society for examination.<br /> <br /> 5. Remember always that in belonging to the Society<br /> you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you<br /> are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are<br /> advancing the best interests of your calling in promoting<br /> the independence of the writer, the dramatist, the composer.<br /> <br /> 6. The Committee have now arranged for the reception<br /> of members’ agreements and their preservation in a fire-<br /> proof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as<br /> confidential documents to be read only by the Secretary,<br /> who will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers :<br /> —(1) To read and advise upon agreements and to give<br /> advice concerning publishers. (2) To stamp agreements<br /> in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep<br /> agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to<br /> agreements. Fuller particulars of the Society’s work<br /> can be obtained in the Prospectus.<br /> <br /> 7. No contract should be entered into with a literary<br /> agent without the advice of the Secretary of the Society.<br /> Members are strongly advised not to accept without careful<br /> consideration the contracts with publishers submitted to<br /> them by literary agents, and are recommended to submit<br /> them for interpretation and explanation to the Secretary<br /> of the Society. :<br /> <br /> 8. Many agents neglect to stamp agreements. This<br /> must be done within fourteen days of first execution. The<br /> Secretary will undertake it on behalf of members.<br /> <br /> 9. Some agents endeayour to prevent authors from<br /> referring matters to the Secretary of the Society; so<br /> do some publishers. Members can make their own<br /> deductions and act accordingly.<br /> <br /> 10. The subscription to the Society is £1 1s. pe<br /> annum, or £10 10s for life membership. :<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.<br /> <br /> 1<br /> <br /> HE Society undertakes to stamp copies of music on<br /> behalf of its members for the fee of 6d. per 100 or<br /> part of 100. The members’ stamps are kept in the<br /> <br /> Society’s safe. The musical publishers communicate direct<br /> with the Secretary, and the voucher is then forwarded to<br /> the members, who are thus saved much unnecessary trouble.<br /> <br /> ——_———_1 &gt; +&gt;—__—_<br /> <br /> THE READING BRANCH.<br /> <br /> -<br /> <br /> EMBERS will greatly assist the Society in this<br /> branch of its work by informing young writers<br /> of its existence. Their MSS. can be read and<br /> <br /> treated as a composition is treated by a coach. The term<br /> MSS. includes not only works of fiction, but poetry<br /> and dramatic works, and when it is possible, under<br /> special arrangement, technical and scientific works. The<br /> Readers are writers of competence and experience. The<br /> fee is one guinea.<br /> <br /> —_____+ &gt;_&gt;<br /> <br /> NOTICES.<br /> <br /> So<br /> <br /> HE Editor of Zhe Author begs to remind members of<br /> <br /> the Society that, although the paper is sent to them<br /> <br /> free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a<br /> <br /> very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great<br /> <br /> many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest<br /> 5s. 6d. subscription for the year.<br /> <br /> Communications for “The Author” should be addressed<br /> to the Offices of the Society, 39, Old Queen Street, Storey’s<br /> Gate, 8.W., and should reach the Editor not later than the<br /> 21st of each month.<br /> <br /> All persons engaged in literary work of any kind,<br /> whether members of the Society or not, are invited to<br /> communicate to the Editor any points connected with their<br /> work which it would be advisable in the general interest to<br /> publish.<br /> <br /> Communications and letters are invited by the<br /> Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on<br /> no other subjects whatever. Every effort will be made to<br /> return articles which cannot be accepted.<br /> <br /> —+<br /> <br /> The Secretary of the Society begs to give notice<br /> that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post,<br /> and he requests members who do not receive an<br /> answer to important communications within two days to<br /> write to him without delay. All remittances should be<br /> crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery Lane, or be sent<br /> by registered letter only.<br /> <br /> —_—_—_—___o &lt;&lt; o_____<br /> <br /> LEGAL AND GENERAL LIFE ASSURANCE<br /> SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> ————<br /> <br /> ENSIONS to commence at any selected age,<br /> either with or without Life Assurance, can<br /> be obtained from this society. a<br /> Full particulars can be obtained from the City<br /> Branch Manager, Legal and General Life Assurance<br /> Society, 158, Leadenhall Street, London, H.C.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 47<br /> <br /> AUTHORITIES.<br /> <br /> —-—— +<br /> <br /> E should like once again to call the atten-<br /> tion of musical composers and song writers<br /> to the fact that the Society undertakes to<br /> <br /> stamp, in accordance with the custom in the music<br /> trade, the copies of the works of its members. For<br /> this the Society charges the ordinary fee of sixpence<br /> per one hundred or part of one hundred. Every<br /> member for whom the Society undertakes this duty<br /> is thus saved a great deal of trouble and worry,<br /> He sends a notice to the publisher, who, when there<br /> is any music to be stamped, notifies the secretary<br /> direct. On receipt of the notice the music is<br /> stamped at once and the voucher forwarded.<br /> <br /> Members’ stamps are kept in the safe, and cannot<br /> be handled by anyone except the secretary or his<br /> duly appointed agent.<br /> <br /> At the end of each half year an account giving<br /> full details of the amount due is forwarded to the<br /> member, which is easily checked from the vouchers<br /> he has received,<br /> <br /> As this work is undertaken for the benefit of<br /> members and without any profit to the Society, it<br /> is hoped that it will be patronised by all those<br /> connected with the musical profession.<br /> <br /> Members of the Society will callto mind certain<br /> articles printed in 7’he Author dealing with the<br /> question of the sale of American magazines and<br /> newspapers in Canada, and the amount of postage<br /> charged by the authorities.<br /> <br /> These articles appear to have been widely read,<br /> and gave rise to certain questions in the House<br /> of Commons. There was a note on the subject<br /> in the October number.<br /> <br /> The answers to the questions put in the House<br /> of Commons were, unfortunately, unsatisfactory,<br /> but the committee endeavoured to pursue the<br /> matter further, and instructed the Secretary to<br /> write to the Postmaster-General, in the hope that<br /> it would be possible to raise the question at the<br /> next meeting of the Postal Union, and to the<br /> Canadian Authors’ Society, with a view to obtaining<br /> their support. The reply of the Postmaster-General<br /> is printed below. The Secretary of the Society has<br /> not as yet heard from the Canadian Society of<br /> Authors,<br /> <br /> GENERAL Post OFFICE, LONDON.<br /> <br /> Srz,—In reply to your letter of the 12th instant, Iam<br /> directed by the Postmaster-General to inform you that the<br /> next Postal Union Congress is to be held at Rome in<br /> April, 1905,<br /> <br /> With regard to your inquiry whether it would be possible<br /> to consider at that congress the question of the postage<br /> charged on printed matter sent from the United Kingdom<br /> to Canada, I am to observe that it is already open to the<br /> Postmaster-General to arrange special terms with the<br /> Canadian Post Office should he desire to do so,<br /> <br /> But, as stated in the House of Commons in reply toa<br /> question put a short time ago, a reduction of the present<br /> rate would necessarily have to be of a general character,<br /> and the Postmaster-General, in view of the serious loss of<br /> revenue which would be involved, is not prepared to<br /> recommend it,<br /> <br /> I an, Sir,<br /> Your obedient servant,<br /> (Signed) E. Crass,<br /> For the Secretary.<br /> G, HERBERT THRING, Esq.<br /> <br /> WE see from the United States Publishers’<br /> Weekly that at the annual meeting of the German<br /> Publishers’ Association at Leipzig a very strong<br /> group of delegates was in favour of renewing the<br /> memorial previously presented to the Reichstag for<br /> the repeal of the present Copyright Convention<br /> with the United States, and that the Authors’<br /> Association of Germany was quoted as being also<br /> in favour of renewing this application.<br /> <br /> The Publishers’ Weekly proceeds to state: “ It<br /> need hardly be pointed out that such a step on the<br /> part of Germany would not only constitute a<br /> decided misfortune to the cause of copyright<br /> throughout the world, but would also constitute a<br /> very serious additional difficulty in the way of<br /> securing favourable attention from Congress in the<br /> fall for the pending amendment.”<br /> <br /> It is the old story that it is easy to point to<br /> “the mote ” in your brother’s eye, but it is difficult<br /> to realise “the beam” that is in your own eye.<br /> No doubt such a step on the part of the Fatherland<br /> would be retrogression so far as International<br /> Copyright is concerned. Do the authorities in the<br /> United States, however, fully realise the fact that<br /> if Germany did withdraw from the Treaty they<br /> would still be far ahead of the United States in<br /> their position with regard to the ideal International<br /> Copyright, and that the sooner the United States<br /> grasp the fact the better will it be for the fulfilment<br /> of that ideal ?<br /> <br /> Much better than lament overa possible German<br /> retrogression, let the United States of America<br /> show some signs of progression.<br /> <br /> In the April number of 7&#039;he Author the subject<br /> of agents was dealt with at some length, and the<br /> difficulties that might arise between author and<br /> agent were fully set forth. It is necessary from<br /> time to time to write articles dealing with points<br /> of vital interest to members, in order that they<br /> should be fully cognisant of the dangers which<br /> they may encounter. :<br /> <br /> Although there is no need within so short a time<br /> to repeat the full tale of difficulties, yet owing to<br /> the fact that the notice of the Society has been<br /> called again to one or two cases where agents have<br /> acted outside their legitimate agency work, it is<br />  <br /> <br /> 48<br /> <br /> essential once more for the protection of members<br /> to place before them the following points :—<br /> <br /> First, the case of those authors who have<br /> proposals submitted to them from publishers or<br /> editors, through agents. Here it often happens<br /> that the agents are really acting for the publishers<br /> or the editors rather than for the author. If the<br /> editor or the publisher is anxious &gt; obtain the<br /> author he should pay the agent for the work done,<br /> and it should be fully understood that the agent<br /> is acting for the publisher. The line of demarca-<br /> tion, however, may be difficult to ascertain when an<br /> offer is submitted to an author who is already on the<br /> agent’s books. In the case of those authors who<br /> are not on the agent’s books the matter seems to<br /> be quite clear. ‘As a matter of fact some agents<br /> <br /> rint on their paper the names of magazines and<br /> <br /> ublishers with whom they are in connection, thus<br /> openly proclaiming themselves not to be the agents<br /> of the author.<br /> <br /> The author should then approach with diffidence,<br /> and not blindly give that confidence which ought<br /> to exist between the author and his agent.<br /> <br /> The second point is the danger of dealing -with<br /> those agents who sometimes act as principals. This<br /> is no uncommon danger, and not infrequently arises<br /> from the importunity of the author who is desirous<br /> of obtaining the wherewithal to buy his daily bread.<br /> For this, he has no hesitation in selling his birth-<br /> right—or his copyright. If the act is done openly<br /> very little can be said except to advise the author<br /> that such a transaction must necessarily be unsatis-<br /> factory. The sale itself may be bond fide from the<br /> agent’s point of view, yet, as has been frequently<br /> pointed out in Zhe Author, is dangerous in the<br /> extreme. The same transaction, however, is tinged<br /> with fraud when the agent acts as principal without<br /> disclosing the fact. When such a case is discovered<br /> it should be ruthlessly exposed.<br /> <br /> Tur following cutting from the Daily Chronicle<br /> will, no doubt, prove interesting to many of the<br /> readers of The Author now that the address of the<br /> ao offices lies within the precincts of Storey’s<br /> <br /> ate :—<br /> <br /> « The announcement of the closing for repairs of the road-<br /> way by Storey’s Gate must have set a few people wondering<br /> who Storey was that a gate should be named after him.<br /> Edward Storey was employed by Charles II. to carry out<br /> those improvements in St, James&#039;s Park which converted<br /> the neglected pleasaunce of Tudor times into something<br /> like the park as we know it. It was owing to his having<br /> a house on this site that the name arose. In the Daily<br /> Courant of September 5th, 1705, is the following advertise-<br /> ment :—‘ Dropt in St. James’s Park, September the 3rd,<br /> 1705, betwixt Mr. Story’s and the Duke of Buckingham’s<br /> House, a Gold Minuit Pendulum Watch, &amp;c. ; if offered to<br /> <br /> be Sold or pawn’d, you are desired to stop the same and:<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> give notice to Mr. Padington at his house in Princes Court<br /> near Mr. Story’s.? From that we may see how ‘ Mr.<br /> Story’s’ nad become, as it were, a postal address ; and so:<br /> it came to pass that a mere contractor shared the eponymous<br /> honour given to an Emperor, a Prince, or a Queen.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Ir is with much regret that we lave to chronicle:<br /> the death of Lady Besant, which occurred in<br /> Devonshire on Friday, October 7th.<br /> <br /> Lady Besant had been a member of the Society<br /> since its foundation, and was always in warm sym-<br /> <br /> athy with her husband’s work. It is the irony<br /> of fate that she did not live to see the permanent<br /> memorial to her husband, which the County<br /> Council have consented to set up on the Embank-<br /> ment, as a gift from members of the Society and<br /> others.<br /> <br /> 0<br /> <br /> HINTS ON DIALOGUE.<br /> <br /> ——_-——+—_<br /> <br /> HESE hints are intended solely for beginners,<br /> and can only bore or madden the practised<br /> writer. I hope he will accept this warning.<br /> <br /> Many beginners say to me, “ I cannot find a good<br /> plot.” They never say, “ I cannot write good<br /> dialogue.” Yet sometimes they cannot write<br /> good dialogue.<br /> <br /> Of the two dialogue is the more important.<br /> You must first of all get a person, before you tell<br /> us what he does. If you cannot make him seem<br /> to be a real person, it will not matter in the least<br /> what he does. If he is absolutely unreal, it will<br /> not matter though he hypnotises a dead ostrich in<br /> a cavern full of hidden treasure thousands of feet<br /> beneath the bed of the Atlantic. That is to say,<br /> it will not matter except to the uneducated novelette<br /> people whom you should not wish to attract.<br /> <br /> From the point of view of the story writer words<br /> speak louder than deeds. If every word that your<br /> invented person speaks is convincing evidence that<br /> he is real and living, he may do almost anything.<br /> The reader may find his action incomprehensible,<br /> and yet be convinced. In real life a man’s actions<br /> are often incomprehensible.<br /> <br /> The indirect method is always better than the<br /> direct method in story telling. If you wish your<br /> reader to gather a certain fact which we will call<br /> “ B,” it is better to tell him another fact which we<br /> will call “A,” and let him deduce “‘B” from it.<br /> Tf, for instance, you wish to describe a perfectly<br /> charming woman, you may describe the general<br /> adoration which she receives rather than analyse.<br /> in what her charm consists. So, too, it is better<br /> that your reader shall deduce the exact kind of<br /> person you have invented from what he says than<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> that yon should give a long and cumbrous descrip-<br /> tion of him. It is apt to make very tiresome<br /> reading, and in any case carries less conviction<br /> with it.<br /> <br /> Let me suppose, for instance, that I wrote as<br /> follows : ‘‘ He was weak rather than bad-natured.<br /> He tried to cover an inextinguishable brag with<br /> slabs of humility. He was without tact or taste,<br /> and had the kind of mind that remembers and<br /> enjoys out of date phrases. He had no sense of<br /> humour.” That may possibly give you some idea<br /> of the man; but now turn to “ Sandra. Belloni,”<br /> and read these words which Mr. Meredith puts<br /> into the mouth of Mr. Pole, addressing a “ courtly<br /> poor man” :—<br /> <br /> “ Giving a semi-circular sweep of his arm : ‘ Here<br /> you see my little estate, sir,’ he said. ‘ You’ve<br /> seen plenty bigger in Germany, and England too.<br /> We can’t get more than this handful in our tight<br /> little island. Unless born to it, of course. Well!<br /> We must be grateful that all our nobility don’t go<br /> to the dogs. We must preserve our great names.<br /> I speak against my own interest.’ ”<br /> <br /> All that I have said in my flat description can<br /> be gathered from that piece of dialogue, and it can<br /> be gathered in a much more interesting and much<br /> more convincing manner.<br /> <br /> Your aim is to make your reader know things,<br /> but not to let him know how he knowsthem. You<br /> can do this with dialogue.<br /> <br /> Granted, therefore, that in the making of real<br /> persons the words that you give them to speak are<br /> of the first importance, we now come to the difficulty<br /> of getting these words right.<br /> <br /> Real life must be studied exactly : it must not<br /> be copied exactly. You must transmute : you must<br /> not report. Your aim is not to put down real life<br /> on paper : your aim is to produce the effect of real<br /> life by what you put down on paper. And it is<br /> exactly in its relation to real life that dialogue<br /> becomes so difficult./Spoken dialogue and written<br /> dialogue are judged quite differently. Spoken<br /> conversations are judged rapidly through the ear<br /> alone, with the critical faculty more or less in<br /> abeyance, without the inclination or, as a rule, the<br /> opportunity for further examination. Written<br /> conversations are judged through the eye that may<br /> dwell, if it will, on the written words, with the<br /> critical faculty wide awake, and with every oppor-<br /> tunity of exercising it. If you read a good play,<br /> where the dialogue is made to be spoken, you will<br /> find it very different from the kind of dialogue you<br /> get in a good novel where it is made to be read.<br /> Take, for instance, the following passage from the<br /> second Act of ‘‘ The Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith ” :—<br /> <br /> “ Lucas: Why, what has brought about this<br /> change in you?<br /> <br /> “ Agnes: What ?<br /> <br /> 49<br /> <br /> * Lucas : What ?<br /> <br /> “ Agnes: I know.<br /> <br /> Lucas: You know ?<br /> <br /> : pie 2 Exactly how you regard me.<br /> <br /> Lucas: I don’t understand you.”<br /> <br /> _And probably the reader does not understand<br /> either, but Mr. Pinero has made no mistake. He<br /> was writing words that were to be spoken, and it<br /> was all perfectly intelligible and seemed even<br /> inevitable when spoken by Mr. Robertson and<br /> Mrs. Campbell at the Garrick Theatre. oe<br /> <br /> The writer of stories must, therefore, allow for<br /> the difference in the conditions. Here are a few<br /> instances of allowances that must be made :<br /> (1) Cold print has more strength than the spoken<br /> word. What seems merely flippant or a little<br /> slangy when one hears it spoken, will seem posi-<br /> tively vulgar when it is read in print. If an exact<br /> shorthand report of all that he had said during the<br /> day could be given to a man of average refinement<br /> and sensibility, he would go away and commit<br /> suicide. The exaggerations that we all commonly<br /> use with no idea that they are exaggerations stand<br /> up and shout their futility when they are written.<br /> <br /> (2) The wit and humour of real life are generally<br /> wretched, and are welcomed or forgiven because<br /> they have no pretensions. Print has an ineradic-<br /> able pretension, and the kind of dialogue which<br /> seems amusing enough in real life must be made<br /> more amusing before it will produce the same effect<br /> upon a printed page. But this improvement must<br /> not be overdone, as it frequently has been even<br /> by capable writers. At the twentieth successive.<br /> epigram your reader will be extremely likely to pull<br /> up and say to himself: “This is all very funny,<br /> but nobody ever did or could talk like this.” And<br /> the moment a reader says that about your story,<br /> your story is lost.<br /> <br /> (3) Spoken conversation generally contains<br /> many unfinished and broken sentences. In print<br /> these must be far fewer, or an unpleasant jerky<br /> effect will be produced which would have been<br /> absent from the conversation if spoken.<br /> <br /> (4) In spoken conversation there is much more<br /> than the mere words. ‘There are expression of<br /> face, tone of voice, and sometimes gesture, all of<br /> which have a modifying effect on those words.<br /> You must allow for this in one way or another ;<br /> you can record the expression, tone, or gesture<br /> (this becomes tiresome if it is done too frequently),<br /> or you can alter the words to the effect.<br /> <br /> But as a rule the beginner is not likely to copy<br /> real life too exactly. He is more likely to get too<br /> far away from it and to copy what he has seen in<br /> books. Originality is very much a matter of<br /> practice, and at first the young writer tends to<br /> use the observation of others rather than his own.<br /> If he has been influenced by the old-fashioned<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 50<br /> <br /> ‘storical fiction, he will be likely to. make his<br /> fats talk “essays. His -hero will express<br /> noble and generous sentiments for two pages and<br /> a half without a break, and yet be permitted to<br /> survive by his audience. ‘These things are too<br /> improbable. Or the author may make characters<br /> his own mouthpiece ; that is to say, he may make<br /> them speak to propagate his own opinions. This<br /> is all wrong, and is particularly common In the<br /> novel with a purpose.<br /> <br /> ‘he words that your characters speak must<br /> primarily illuminate these characters to make it<br /> clearer to the reader exactly what kind of people<br /> they are. But there may be another purpose as<br /> well. It may be necessary for a character to tell<br /> a story and give the reader information. In this<br /> case there must be a double melody. He may tell<br /> the story, but he must tell it in character, and he<br /> must be showing what he himself is throughout<br /> and concurrently. This point is very often missed,<br /> and the narration is given in terms which the<br /> narrator would not have used, It is worth while<br /> to turn back to “ Sandra Belloni,” to the sixth<br /> chapter, where Emilia recounts her history. That<br /> is perfect ; there is at no point any possibility of<br /> forgetting that it is Emilia speaking. She happens<br /> to be telling her own story, but it is perhaps her<br /> manner of telling it which throws most light upon<br /> her. Look, too, at Laura Tinsley’s description of<br /> the Brookfield tragedy, towards the end of the<br /> book. She is speaking of others, but she is also<br /> illuminating Laura Tinsley for the reader.<br /> <br /> Speak your dialogue aloud as you write it. You<br /> will find that a fair, rough test, whether you are<br /> slipping out of the conversational into the literary<br /> style, and whether the words are in keeping with<br /> the character who speaks them. Also it will often<br /> suggest what alteration, if any, you must make in<br /> transferring the words from speech into writing.<br /> Very frequently, of course, no alteration is required.<br /> <br /> Never attempt to remember all these hints while<br /> you are writing your dialogue, There must _be<br /> absolute concentration for the creative effort. Use<br /> them afterwards, when you are correcting and<br /> improving what you have written, and never<br /> correct until twenty-four hours after writing.<br /> After that interval it will be easier to place<br /> yourself in the position of your reader. Naturally,<br /> as time goes on, you may employ these hints at<br /> the time of writing, but you will employ them<br /> unconsciously. For instance, you will not con-<br /> sciously remember that it is a good test to speak<br /> your dialogue aloud as you write it, but you will<br /> find yourself speaking it.<br /> <br /> BaRry PAIN,<br /> <br /> ———_+<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “THE EDITOR REGRETS——”<br /> <br /> se<br /> <br /> T’ isn’t a mere euphemism, either. He really<br /> I does regret—though the literary aspirant,<br /> murmuring bitterly over his cherished and<br /> rejected article, “I don’t believe he ever looked at:<br /> it,” will not readily credit such an assertion. He<br /> thinks, poor author, being for the moment a<br /> pessimist of the deepest dye, that the editor has<br /> forgotten his own apprenticeship and has grown<br /> hard and unsympathetic in his prosperity. Nota<br /> bit of it. On the contrary, he often wonders, as<br /> curly sheets of paper twine themselves round his<br /> fingers and absolutely refuse to be coaxed into<br /> flatness, how he, who had a weakness for rolling his<br /> manuscripts, ever came to the front at all. He<br /> would dearly like to give the unconscious offender<br /> a hint, but Well, the fact is, he did do it<br /> once, in the early and enthusiastic days of his<br /> first editorial work, and the avalanche of corres-<br /> pondence that, as a result, he brought down on his<br /> devoted head, cured him altogether of the desire to<br /> make excursions outside his own domain.<br /> <br /> It hasn’t the ghost of a chance—that frivolously<br /> curly creation—for when its first page is released<br /> all the others rush in over the distracted reader<br /> like breakers on the seashore, and a great deal of<br /> work having to be compressed into a very short<br /> space of time, he puts it back carefully into its<br /> neat little cardboard mausoleum, and “regrets ””—<br /> its demise.<br /> <br /> The soiled manuscript, too, thumbed, marked,<br /> dog’s-eared, bearing obvious signs of having passed<br /> through many hands—all, presumably, unapprecia-<br /> tive—may just as well stay at home. The editor<br /> is human, and doesn’t want the leavings of his<br /> confréres, and so, if the writer is convinced—and<br /> he usually is—that by withholding his contribution<br /> he would be depriving the said editor of the chance<br /> of a lifetime let him, at least, revise and re-write<br /> it. It will seldom lose anything by the process.<br /> <br /> It should be superfluous—but, unfortunately, is<br /> not—to say that every MS., every time it is<br /> returned, should be re-examined before being sent<br /> out again, clean and smart, on its new venture.<br /> The pages should be numbered and have the title<br /> on each of them, and the wrapper, stamped and<br /> addressed, should be large enough to contain the<br /> packet without making fresh folds in the latter,<br /> and sufficiently strong for the contents.<br /> <br /> It is labour in vain to inflict a long letter on the<br /> editor, but a slip stating the title and number<br /> of words is distinctly useful to a busy man or<br /> woman. A brief—it must be very brief—resumé<br /> of the subject-matter is also, in the case of lengthy<br /> MSS., advisable,<br /> <br /> Granted, then, that the “copy,” properly<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> equipped, lies ready for despatch, the next question<br /> that arises is, “ Where is it likely to meet with<br /> acceptance ?”<br /> <br /> It is simply inviting disaster to post it off, hap-<br /> hazard, to the first magazine or newspaper that<br /> suggests itself. Politics and religion play a lerge<br /> part in the Press—even in that portion of it<br /> devoted to fiction—and the length of an article is<br /> a powerful factor in its fate. A great deal of<br /> information, supplied by editors themselves, is con-<br /> tained in the “ Literary Year-book”’; and the Press<br /> Directories, to be seen at any public library, supple-<br /> ment it most usefully by classifying the whole<br /> output of the Press as “fiction,” ‘* science,”<br /> “humorous,” and the like, and it is therefore<br /> significant of a very careless writer to forward his<br /> efforts to manifestly unsuitable journals.<br /> <br /> Literary persons not infrequently deserve their<br /> unenviable reputation for lack of method, but I<br /> once saw an extremely workmanlike register kept<br /> by an author. A large book of the exercise type<br /> was ruled off into spaces, headed respectively,<br /> “Date despatched and postage required. Title of<br /> MS. and number of words. Offices where sent.<br /> Accepted. Declined. Remarks.” The remarks—<br /> the others speak for themselves—contained such<br /> memoranda as the following :—<br /> <br /> “Exceptionally courteous refusal —written.<br /> (The Treasury, The Gentleman’s Magazine, The<br /> Girls Realm.)”<br /> <br /> “ Offices of the magazine changed.”<br /> <br /> “Printed form of refusal—unsigned and un-<br /> dated. (Very usual.)”<br /> <br /> “Very prompt in reading all contributions.<br /> (Quiver, Pearson’s, Sketch, and most of the weekly<br /> illustrateds.)”<br /> <br /> “¢ Commended—too long—invited to send some-<br /> thing shorter.”<br /> <br /> “Has two forms of refusal—one of which<br /> intimates that the editor would like to see more<br /> of the author’s work. (Windsor.)”<br /> <br /> “Encloses a form of subscription, with the<br /> statement, ‘Articles, short stories, and sketches<br /> can only be accepted from subscribers.’ (Judy.)”<br /> <br /> “Various reasons for refusal tabulated with<br /> much elaboration, and the specific one, or ones,<br /> indicated by a cross. (Pearson’s.)”<br /> <br /> “Cheque on acceptance. (Most of the weeklies.)”<br /> <br /> “Payment after publication. (Many of the<br /> monthlies.)”’<br /> <br /> “Retains manuscripts from a week to ten days.<br /> (Quiver, Idler, Treasury, Longman’s, Windsor.)”<br /> <br /> “Specially encouraging to new writers. (All<br /> Messrs. Harmsworth’s publications.)”<br /> <br /> The value of such a record is evident, and shows,<br /> at least, a desire to neglect no trifle that may con-<br /> tribute to success—a desire most editors are quick<br /> to recognise and appreciate, It is seldom, indeed,<br /> <br /> 51<br /> <br /> that a scrupulously clean manuscript is not returned<br /> 80, and if a faint odour of excellent tobacco some-<br /> times creeps out from its pages, it is, after all,<br /> pretty plain proof that the hard-hearted autocrat<br /> to whom it was consigned has—looked at it !<br /> <br /> ‘All contributions must be in type-script,” is<br /> the legend appearing now-a-days in most editorial<br /> notices, but I feel sure some of those who issue it<br /> would infinitely rather consider neat handwriting<br /> than the work executed by illiterate clerks in cheap<br /> offices. I have seen such work—ill-spelt, uneven,<br /> a curiosity in punctuation—sent out without a<br /> qualm. Being “typed” it conforms with the<br /> regulations, but—is it very surprising ?—it invari-<br /> ably returns to its owner.<br /> <br /> Don’t, then, dear reader—if, in conclusion, I<br /> may strike a personal note—waste your own time<br /> and editors’ unless you can attend to these trifles.<br /> Don’t write to know whether the article has been<br /> received—it is like pulling up a plant to see<br /> whether it is growing. Do not, above all things,<br /> send your uninvited article to the editor’s private<br /> address—an Englishman’s house is his castle.<br /> Besides, if he can’t see it from your point of view<br /> when he has any number of worse ones around<br /> him, he certainly won’t when it invites comparison<br /> with the latest achievement of his favourite author,.<br /> between which and him it has presumed to thrust.<br /> itself,<br /> <br /> ANNIE Q. CARTER.<br /> <br /> ——o——__o-__—_<br /> <br /> A LITERARY CRISIS.<br /> <br /> —_—+<br /> <br /> N the career literary of novelists may some-<br /> times be observed a notable and regrettable<br /> feature—I do not presume to consider this in<br /> <br /> a spirit of cold criticism, but with that instinct<br /> of the physician which makes for a remedy.<br /> <br /> An author having written a number of books of<br /> gradually increasing merit (although perhaps of<br /> varying interest) produces one which is pre-<br /> eminently an advance upon all previous work,<br /> either in artistic excellence or in human interestp—<br /> it may be in both,<br /> <br /> The book is straightway a success. It is praised<br /> by the critics, it is praised and discussed by the<br /> reading public. New editions are called for.<br /> America reads it. The Colonies read it. Tauchnitz.<br /> seeks permission to include it in his list. It sells<br /> in numbers. ‘The writer awakes to find laurels on<br /> his pillow.<br /> <br /> Then comes the surprising sequel. The reading<br /> public and the critics have looked forward with<br /> keenness to the now noted writer’s next book. All<br /> the faults the reviewers had been able to find in<br />  <br /> <br /> 52<br /> <br /> the last were mainly venial faults, faults which<br /> needed but for their correction that timely prick<br /> of criticism which the critics with their accustomed<br /> geniality had supplied. They saw no lack of<br /> promise. Their part being done, they prophesied<br /> great things of the writer. :<br /> <br /> What then is their astonishment and the dis-<br /> appointment of readers to find in their protege s<br /> succeeding book a distinct and undeniable falling<br /> off! The promise of its predecessor 1s stultified.<br /> The reviewer&#039;s prophecies have come to nought.<br /> Readers (and publishers) are disappointed.<br /> <br /> The book is, it may be, the poorest thing the<br /> author has produced. At all events it is markedly<br /> inferior to the book which brought him into<br /> notice.<br /> <br /> This thing has happened so frequently as almost<br /> to establish a rule. One may not cite names, of<br /> course, albeit a number, and these including some<br /> of our foremost writers, present themselves.<br /> <br /> The fact being indisputable, it is interesting and<br /> it may be helpful, to seek the reason. Is it due to<br /> exhaustion following upon supreme effort? Is it<br /> due to some noxious miasma exhaling in the tropic<br /> heats of success? Is it the pernicious influence of<br /> teas, of dinners and of other smiling functions<br /> whereto Mrs. Leo-Hunter bids the last-discovered<br /> Beast in order that he may roar for the eritertain-<br /> iment of her guests ?<br /> <br /> Or is it merely that Messrs. Mammon (the<br /> author’s publishers) having tasted the savour of<br /> successful editions, unduly spur him to repeat his<br /> efforts, and spoil his work by haste ?<br /> <br /> Personally, 1 doubt that the explanation lies in<br /> any of these factors. For the phenomenon is found<br /> in those who refuse to have their pace of produc-<br /> tion set by Messrs. Mammon, in those who are<br /> proof against social miasmata, in those who con-<br /> sign Mrs. Leo-Hunter actually to the fire-grate,<br /> or mentally (provided they are privileged by sex)<br /> to flames less temperate.<br /> <br /> I cannot help thinking that the explanation is<br /> more profound. I venture to offer the following<br /> suggestions toward it: That the productive methods<br /> of the novelist differ materially from those of any<br /> other form of brain work. While the historian,<br /> philosopher, or journalist evolves ideas, constructs<br /> theories, or narrates facts, the novelist creates<br /> persons, entities with individualities, wills, emo-<br /> tions, destinies, over which, when once created, he<br /> in many cases has little more control, perhaps even<br /> less, than a parent has over the development and<br /> destinies of his sons and daughters. That while<br /> the journalist, for example, remembers what he<br /> sees and describes it in language which presents it<br /> more or less clearly before his readers, the creative<br /> writer does not write from memory at all. His is<br /> the faculty to absorb and assimilate scenes and<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR:<br /> <br /> circumstances and emotions and to compound them<br /> into a new substance, a substance which spon-<br /> taneously evolves itself into drama and story, as<br /> clouds may be seen to evolve themselves perpetually<br /> into new shape.<br /> <br /> That while the story itself is worked out by<br /> sub-conscious faculties of mind (the subliminal<br /> consciousness as it has been styled) the more purely<br /> intellectual faculties are employed mainly in re-<br /> cording these sub-conscious and spontaneous<br /> operations. The true creative power, the inspira-<br /> tion which gives life, lies in the sub-consciousness,<br /> <br /> and is only hampered and hindered when the active,<br /> <br /> intelligence interferes and attempts to control the<br /> persons and developments of the drama.<br /> <br /> If I may cite my own case (and doubtless the<br /> psychological processes of the humblest are some-<br /> what as those of the highest) I am able frequently<br /> to perceive this dual action of my brain, the more<br /> actively intellectual portion standing apart (like a<br /> spectator with a note-book) watching the spon-<br /> taneous developments of another portion and<br /> rapidly clothing these in language which my pen<br /> sets down. I am able even to see in this sub-<br /> conscious stratum of my brain tiny moving figures<br /> which seem intensely alive and seldom pause for<br /> word or action, but play out their play like actors<br /> who know their parts perfectly. When I take up<br /> my pen in the morning I experience the utmost<br /> interest to know what they are going todo. For<br /> if I know, it is because they have subtly informed<br /> me, not because I have consciously decided for<br /> them. When, from fatigue (from having roared<br /> the previous evening, it may be, for Mrs. Leo-<br /> Hunter) my actors on some mornings are inert,<br /> experience has taught me not to jerk them into<br /> action, or they will merely play their parts like<br /> puppets moved by wires. I wait till they begin to<br /> move again spontaneously.<br /> <br /> The methods of all writers are not of course<br /> similar. With some the persons and course of a<br /> story are consciously and carefully fabricated and<br /> elaborated by the active intellectual faculties, in order<br /> to illustrate some theory or problem or to adorn<br /> some ingenious plot.<br /> <br /> But in these cases, in order to vitalise such a<br /> plot and to give life and reality to the persons of<br /> the story, the writer must first cast his notions<br /> into his sub-consciousness, to be there clothed with<br /> flesh and made to live aud breathe. Otherwise<br /> they will be no more than automata, pegs whereon<br /> the plot or problem hangs.<br /> <br /> Now I venture to offer as an explanation of the<br /> oftentimes injurious influence of success the sug-<br /> gestion that the self-consciousness to which it may<br /> give rise, hampers the normal working methods.<br /> The author is over-anxious to be worthy of the<br /> praise accorded him, to surpass himself. His<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 53<br /> <br /> natural methods of production are disturbed.<br /> The delicate balance between active consciousness<br /> and brooding consciousness (so to term it) is lost.<br /> In his striving to do well, he is afraid to trust<br /> enough to his less determined mental faculties.<br /> He plots and re-plots, constructs and re-constructs.<br /> Like a boy or a girl who has planted a seed in the<br /> ground, he interferes with its natural processes of<br /> erowth by perpetually examining and over-hauling<br /> it, in order to be sure that it is sprouting.<br /> <br /> The book is the child ef his intellect, instead of<br /> being the child of his nature. Everyone is disap-<br /> pointed. He himself, having devoted so many<br /> pains and so much attention to it, perhaps regards<br /> it as his best work.<br /> <br /> Those more qualified to judge find it artificial,<br /> unconvincing, full of notions it may be, and of<br /> “situations,” but lacking the life and health and<br /> harmonious perfection of a spontaneous natural<br /> growth.<br /> ARABELLA KENEALY.<br /> <br /> —_—__—_—_—_—_+—&gt;__+____—_—_-<br /> <br /> LITERATURE AND LAW IN THE UNITED<br /> STATES.<br /> <br /> So<br /> [FIRST ARTICLE. |<br /> <br /> E, here in England, complain of our copy-<br /> right lav—and American authors complain<br /> of theirs !<br /> <br /> Turn to the preface of any standard English<br /> work on copyright, and you will find the bitter<br /> complaint reiterated in every edition. Turn to the<br /> introduction of Mr. Arthur S. Hamlin’s admirable<br /> compilation of ‘‘ American Cases and Decisions ”’*<br /> (just published by Messrs. Putnam’s Sons), to<br /> read of—<br /> <br /> “| |. The unnecessary complexity of the provisions of<br /> the existing statute, the difficulty, and, in some cases, the<br /> impracticability, of fulfilling the obligations imposed<br /> by it.”<br /> <br /> It has quite a home-like familiar sound! It<br /> might have been written in England of English<br /> Copyright law.<br /> <br /> But the curious—shall I say, the amusing ?—<br /> part of Mr, Hamlin’s complaint is not here. We<br /> are all complaining animals. For us, the amusing<br /> part of Mr. Hamlin’s introduction will be his<br /> <br /> _* Copyright Cases: A Summary of Leading American<br /> Decisions on the Law of Copyright and on Literary<br /> Property, from 1891 to 1903; together with the Text of the<br /> United States Copyright Statute, and a Selection of Recent<br /> Copyright Decisions of the Courts of Great Britain and<br /> Canada, Compiled by Arthur S. Hamlin. Published for<br /> the American Publishers’ Copyright League by G. P.<br /> Putnam&#039;s Sons. 1904. $2.<br /> <br /> splendid eulogy of the copyright laws of other<br /> countries—in which he doubtless includes our own<br /> —and his finding in their perfeetions his strongest<br /> argument for damning the imperfections of his<br /> own. That is the unkindest cut of all! We break<br /> out periodically into ravines against our law. Listen<br /> to Mr. Hamlin on it :—<br /> <br /> “All the existing copyright statutes of the world,<br /> excepting that of the United States, have been the work<br /> of commissions of experts. The members of these com-<br /> missions have had authority to summon witnesses, and to<br /> take testimony, and, after having devoted sufticient time to.<br /> the mastery of the details of a subject which is of necessity<br /> complex, and which certainly calls for expert training, and<br /> for expert experience, they have presented their conclusions<br /> in the form of a report containing the specifications of the<br /> legislation recommended .. .. ” and so forth,<br /> <br /> Having read which, one turns in amazement to.<br /> the English law, involuntarily exclaiming: And<br /> tas is what we get! After all that noble work by<br /> those expert and experienced persons described by<br /> Mr. Hamlin—we take his account of it just as it<br /> stands—/his is the net result :—<br /> <br /> “ Numerous and ill-drafted Acts,”<br /> says Mr. Scrutton.<br /> <br /> ‘* Nothing has been done to ameliorate the lamentable<br /> condition in which the Commissioners found the law,”<br /> <br /> says Mr. MacGillivray. These are the opinions of<br /> our distinguished experts. If we turn to the<br /> “opinions” of those who are not experts—well, |<br /> that way madness lies! “The bull in the net”<br /> is the only suitable metaphor.<br /> <br /> So, Mr. Hamlin is, to say the least, a little<br /> puzzling. And, reading this excellent and most<br /> useful compilation of his, as I have read it, from<br /> cover to cover, I have tried, during the last few<br /> days, to puzzle it all out. All laws are imperfect in<br /> this imperfect yet progressive world. I cannot<br /> for the life of me see that this work—a record and<br /> condensation of United States cases from 1891 to<br /> 1903—takes up in its drag-net any considerable body<br /> of cases pointing directly at the “ complexities,”<br /> “ difficulties,” ‘ impracticabilities,” of which Mr.<br /> Hamlin complains. With the heartiest will in the<br /> world to confound American copyright law, I find<br /> myself unable to be any more kind to Mr.<br /> Hamlin than at least he is to us. I will not<br /> actually go so far as to praise his law. Nil<br /> aamirari should be our motto when we are con-<br /> fronted by the comfortable optimist who points<br /> out to us the excellent time authors are now having<br /> compared with the old days of “ patronage.” We<br /> will not forget so quickly as all that ‘the shambles<br /> where they died.” But I must ask him why, at<br /> least, he did not nail down some specific cases in<br /> this book in which these “complexities” were<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 52<br /> <br /> the last were mainly venial faults, faults which<br /> needed but for their correction that timely prick<br /> of criticism which the critics with their accustomed<br /> geniality had supplied. They saw no lack of<br /> promise. Their part being done, they prophesied<br /> great things of the writer. ;<br /> <br /> What then is their astonishment and the dis-<br /> appointment of readers to find in their proteges<br /> succeeding book a distinct and undeniable falling<br /> off! ‘The promise of its predecessor 1s stultified.<br /> The reviewer’s prophecies have come to nought.<br /> Readers (and publishers) are disappointed.<br /> <br /> The book is, it may be, the poorest thing the<br /> author has produced. At all events it is markedly<br /> inferior to the book which brought him into<br /> notice.<br /> <br /> This thing has happened so frequently as almost<br /> to establish arule. One may not cite names, of<br /> course, albeit a number, and these including some<br /> of our foremost writers, present themselves.<br /> <br /> The fact being indisputable, it is interesting and<br /> it may be helpful, to seek the reason. Is it due to<br /> exhaustion following upon supreme effort? Is it<br /> due to some noxious miasma exhaling in the tropic<br /> heats of suecess ? Is it the pernicious influence of<br /> teas, of dinners and of other smiling functions<br /> whereto Mrs. Leo-Hunter bids the last-discovered<br /> Beast in order that he may roar for the eritertain-<br /> inent of her guests ?<br /> <br /> Or is it merely that Messrs. Mammon (the<br /> author’s publishers) having tasted the savour of<br /> successful editions, unduly spur him to repeat his<br /> efforts, and spoil his work by haste ?<br /> <br /> Personally, I doubt that the explanation lies in<br /> any of these factors. For the phenomenon is found<br /> in those who refuse to have their pace of produc-<br /> tion set by Messrs. Mammon, in those who are<br /> proof against social miasmata, in those who con-<br /> sign Mrs. Leo-Hunter actually to the fire-grate,<br /> or mentally (provided they are privileged by sex)<br /> to flames less temperate.<br /> <br /> I cannot help thinking that the explanation is<br /> more profound. I venture to offer the following<br /> suggestions toward it: That the productive methods<br /> of the novelist differ materially from those of any<br /> other form of brain work. While the historian,<br /> philosopher, or journalist evolves ideas, constructs<br /> theories, or narrates facts, the novelist creates<br /> persons, entities with individualities, wills, emo-<br /> tions, destinies, over which, when once created, he<br /> in many cases has little more control, perhaps even<br /> less, than a parent has over the development and<br /> destinies of his sons and daughters. That while<br /> the journalist, for example, remembers what he<br /> sees and describes it in language which presents it<br /> more or less clearly before his readers, the creative<br /> writer does not write from memory at all. His is<br /> the faculty to absorb and assimilate scenes and<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR:<br /> <br /> circumstances and emotions and to compound them<br /> into a new substance, a substance which spon-<br /> taneously evolves itself into drama and story, as<br /> clouds may be seen to evolve themselves perpetually<br /> into new shape.<br /> <br /> That while the story itself is worked out by<br /> sub-conscious faculties of mind (the subliminal<br /> consciousness as it has been styled) the more purely<br /> intellectual faculties are employed mainly in re-<br /> cording these sub-conscious and spontaneous<br /> operations. The true creative power, the inspira-<br /> tion which gives life, lies in the sub-consciousness,<br /> and is only hampered and hindered when the active,<br /> intelligence interferes and attempts to control the<br /> persons and developments of the drama.<br /> <br /> If I may cite my own case (and doubtless the<br /> psychological processes of the humblest are some-<br /> what as those of the highest) 1 am able frequently<br /> to perceive this dual action of my brain, the more<br /> actively intellectual portion standing apart (like a<br /> spectator with a note-book) watching the spon-<br /> taneous developments of another portion and<br /> rapidly clothing these in language which my pen<br /> sets down. I am able even to see in this sub-<br /> conscious stratum of my brain tiny moving figures<br /> which seem intensely alive and seldom pause for<br /> word or action, but play out their play like actors<br /> who know their parts perfectly. When I take up<br /> my pen in the morning I experience the utmost<br /> interest to know what they are going todo. For<br /> if I know, it is because they have subtly informed<br /> me, not because I have consciously decided for<br /> them. When, from fatigue (from having roared<br /> the previous evening, it may be, for Mrs. Leo-<br /> Hunter) my actors on some mornings are inert,<br /> experience has taught me not to jerk them into<br /> action, or they will merely play their parts like<br /> puppets moved by wires. I wait till they begin to<br /> move again spontaneously.<br /> <br /> The methods of all writers are not of course<br /> similar. With some the persons and course of a<br /> story are consciously and carefully fabricated and<br /> elaborated by the active intellectual faculties, in order<br /> to illustrate some theory or problem or to adorn<br /> some ingenious plot.<br /> <br /> But in these cases, in order to vitalise such a<br /> plot and to give life and reality to the persons of<br /> the story, the writer must first cast his notions<br /> into his sub-consciousness, to be there clothed with<br /> flesh and made to live and breathe. Otherwise<br /> they will be no more than automata, pegs whereon<br /> the plot or problem hangs.<br /> <br /> Now I venture to offer as an explanation of the<br /> oftentimes injurious influence of success the sug-<br /> gestion that the self-consciousness to which it may<br /> give rise, hampers the normal working methods.<br /> The author is over-anxious to be worthy of the<br /> praise accorded him, to surpass himself. His<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> natural methods of production are disturbed.<br /> The delicate balance between active consciousness<br /> and brooding consciousness (so to term it) is lost.<br /> In his striving to do well, he is afraid to trust<br /> enough to his less determined mental faculties.<br /> He plots and re-plots, constructs and re-constructs.<br /> Like a boy or a girl who has planted a seed in the<br /> ground, he interferes with its natural processes of<br /> growth by perpetually examining and over-hauling<br /> it, in order to be sure that it is sprouting.<br /> <br /> The book is the child ef his intellect, instead of<br /> being the child of his nature. Everyone is disap-<br /> pointed. He himself, having devoted so many<br /> pains and so much attention to it, perhaps regards<br /> it as his best work.<br /> <br /> Those more qualified to judge find it artificial,<br /> unconvincing, full of notions it may be, and of<br /> “situations,” but lacking the life and health and<br /> harmonious perfection of a spontaneous natural<br /> growth.<br /> ARABELLA KENEALY.<br /> <br /> ——____+—}_+-____—_—_-<br /> <br /> LITERATURE AND LAW IN THE UNITED<br /> STATES.<br /> <br /> [FIRST ARTICLE. ]<br /> <br /> E, here in England, complain of our copy-<br /> right law—and American authors complain<br /> of theirs !<br /> <br /> Turn to the preface of any standard English<br /> work on copyright, and you will find the bitter<br /> complaint reiterated in every edition. Turn to the<br /> introduction of Mr. Arthur 8. Hamlin’s admirable<br /> compilation of ‘ American Cases and Decisions ”’*<br /> (just published by Messrs. Putnam’s Sons), to<br /> read of—<br /> <br /> “|, The unnecessary complexity of the provisions of<br /> the existing statute, the difficulty, and, in some cases, the<br /> impracticability, of fulfilling the obligations imposed<br /> Dy i.”<br /> <br /> It has quite a home-like familiar sound! It<br /> might have been written in England of English<br /> Copyright law.<br /> <br /> But the curious—shall I say, the amusing ?—<br /> part of Mr. Hamlin’s complaint is not here. We<br /> are all complaining animals. For us, the amusing<br /> part of Mr. Hamlin’s introduction will be his<br /> <br /> _* Copyright Cases: A Summary of Leading American<br /> Decisions on the Law of Copyright and on Literary<br /> Property, from 1891 to 1903; together with the Text of the<br /> United States Copyright Statute, and a Selection of Recent<br /> Copyright Decisions of the Courts of Great Britain and<br /> Canada. Compiled by Arthur 8. Hamlin. Published for<br /> the American Publishers’ Copyright League by G. P.<br /> Putnam&#039;s Sons. 1904, $2.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 58<br /> <br /> splendid eulogy of the copyright laws of other<br /> countries—in which he doubtless includes our own<br /> —and his finding in their perfections his strongest<br /> argument for damning the imperfections of his<br /> own. That is the unkindest cut of all! -We break<br /> out periodically into ravings against our law. Listen<br /> to Mr. Hamlin on it :-—<br /> <br /> “All the existing copyright. statutes of the world,<br /> excepting that of the United States, have been the work<br /> of commissions of experts. The members of these com-<br /> missions have had authority to summon witnesses, and to<br /> take testimony, and, after having devoted sufficient time to<br /> the mastery of the details of a subject which is of necessity<br /> complex, and which certainly calls for expert training, and<br /> for expert experience, they have presented their conclusions<br /> in the form of a report containing the specifications of the<br /> legislation recommended .... ” and so forth.<br /> <br /> Having read which, one turns in amazement to<br /> the English law, involuntarily exclaiming: And<br /> this is what we get! After all that noble work by<br /> those expert and experienced persons described by<br /> Mr. Hamlin—we take his account of it just as it<br /> stands—/his is the net result :—<br /> <br /> “ Numerous and ill-drafted Acts,”<br /> says Mr. Serutton.<br /> <br /> “ Nothing has been done to ameliorate the lamentable<br /> condition in which the Commissioners found the law,”<br /> <br /> says Mr. MacGillivray. These are the opinions of<br /> our distinguished experts. If we turn to the<br /> “opinions” of those who are not experts—well,<br /> that way madness lies! ‘The bull in the net”<br /> is the only suitable metaphor.<br /> <br /> So, Mr. Hamlin is, to say the least, a little<br /> puzzling. And, reading this excellent and most<br /> useful compilation of his, as I have read it, from<br /> cover to cover, I have tried, during the last few<br /> days, to puzzle it all out. All laws are imperfect in<br /> this imperfect yet progressive world. I cannot<br /> for the life of me see that this work—a record and<br /> condensation of United States cases from 1891 to<br /> 1903—takes up in its drag-net any considerable body<br /> of cases pointing directly at the “ complexities,”<br /> “ difficulties,” ‘‘ impracticabilities,” of which Mr.<br /> Hamlin complains. With the heartiest will in the<br /> world to confound American copyright law, I find<br /> myself unable to be any more kind to Mr.<br /> Hamlin than at least he is to us. I will not<br /> actually go so far as to praise his law. Wal<br /> admirari should be our motto when we are con-<br /> fronted by the comfortable optimist who points<br /> out to us the excellent time authors are now having<br /> compared with the old days of “ patronage.” We<br /> will not forget so quickly as all that “the shambles<br /> where they died.” But I must ask him why, at<br /> least, he did not nail down some specific cases in<br /> this book in which these “complexities” were<br />  <br /> <br /> 54<br /> <br /> particularly marked. His rare, and admirable foot-<br /> notes are given in the mildest and most scholarly<br /> spirit of humility, after his learned United States<br /> Courts Judges have done their worst on the<br /> evidence. So I seek in vain for some justification<br /> of his extreme if indirect praise of “all existing<br /> statutes of the world,” and his brisk condemnation<br /> of his’ own. I could easily find him, amongst<br /> English copyright decisions, a few hard cases to<br /> better anything in his bag. So much for single<br /> instances.<br /> <br /> On the general question: Has he not over there<br /> the most remarkable system ever devised for<br /> “keeping the money in the family” and bleeding<br /> strangers ? He may retort (though, of course,<br /> he won&#039;t): ‘ Yes, it’s all very well for printers and<br /> publishers!” Well then, has he not over there<br /> something that pretends to bring literary and<br /> artistic property into one protecting fold ; some-<br /> thing that at least pretends to a codification ?<br /> Again one’s thoughts revert to the English law,<br /> and one involuntarily asks—in perfect serious-<br /> ness: Is it, after all, only that this great nation of<br /> the West, so young, so eager for reform, is im-<br /> patient of the restraint to which we old fogeys<br /> have long grown accustomed, that in reality the<br /> “complexities” at which he hints are as nothing<br /> compared with our own? We have an Act for<br /> books, Acts for drama and music, many Acts for<br /> engravings, paintings, drawings and photographs ;<br /> an Act for sculpture ; International Acts ; the<br /> Conventions ; the Colonial Acts! We are im-<br /> patient of them, of course ; and we sigh for a<br /> better time and for the passage of Lord Thring’s<br /> Bill. But we jog along somehow, realising,<br /> perhaps, the small part after all that books and art<br /> make even now in our national affairs, and the<br /> wonderful way things have of adjusting themselves<br /> to our needs. Certainly our Acts, such as they are,<br /> have grown—slowly indeed—with our own growth,<br /> yielding to extreme pressure only, but allowing<br /> us, so long as we have no need to invoke them, a<br /> wonderfully free hand outside of them.<br /> <br /> “ Outside of them”! Just there, I think, is to<br /> be fixed Mr. Hamlin’s grievance. He cannot get<br /> outside of his Statute law. A citizen of the United<br /> States cannot, like us, acquire copyright by merely<br /> publishing a book. If he attempt it, down comes<br /> the guillotine—his head is off, his work is public<br /> property. In other words he must register before<br /> publication. We, with our strangely free and elastic<br /> methods, need not register. Every Englishman<br /> (and every friendly alien) from the moment he<br /> publishes his book, enjoys the blessing of statu-<br /> tory copyright in that book without fulfilling any<br /> other condition whatever. He has merely to pub-<br /> lish. It is true he must register if his book become<br /> the subject of copyright litigation. But how often<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> does that happen? Say we publish over here<br /> 5,000 books a year: do fifteen annually become<br /> the subject of copyright litigation? So, if we<br /> avoid litigation we have « tolerably lazy time ; and<br /> the one objection to the Authors’ Society is that it<br /> fosters our laziness, An author has only to send his<br /> guinea a year to the Society to be entirely relieved of<br /> the necessity of complaining about “ complexities,”<br /> “intricacies,” and so forth. And thus the Authors’<br /> Society (curious malevolence of things !) prevents<br /> our getting better laws.<br /> <br /> Now, of the half dozen important differences<br /> between our law and United States law the chief, for<br /> practical purposes, is this one of registration. In<br /> the United States not only does an author fail to<br /> get protection unless he register, but, even after he<br /> has registered, unless he has done so in the correct<br /> manner :<br /> <br /> (1.) Deposit of title and copies.<br /> <br /> (2.) In due time.<br /> <br /> (3.) Made in the United States.<br /> <br /> (4.) Bearing, when published, the proper notice,<br /> —he may at any moment have some claimant<br /> starting up to contest his right to his property on<br /> the mere technical form of his registration.<br /> <br /> For example, the renowned Augustin Daly (who<br /> appears to have been a somewhat lively litigant)<br /> deposited a title of a play as “ Under the Gaslight :<br /> A Romantic Panorama of the Streets and Homes of<br /> New York.” He published it under the title (evi-<br /> dently a second thought): “Under the Gaslight: A<br /> Totally Original Picturesque Drama of Life and Love<br /> inthese Times.” It may be said that the man who<br /> could be guilty of a title like that deserved any fate ;<br /> andshortly there started up one, Webster, who calmly<br /> appropriated the important scene in the play and<br /> dragged Daly through three trials, from the Circuit<br /> Court to the Supreme Court, before he was beaten.<br /> <br /> In like manner Howard Patterson deposited a<br /> title, “The Captain of the Rajah,” with a couple<br /> of lines of sub-title. This sub-title he cut down<br /> on publication. The book was promptly infringed<br /> on that ground. Injunction for him at first trial,<br /> certainly ; but he had to go to Court to protect his<br /> work. Mrs. Osgood was not so fortunate. She<br /> wrote an excellent hook on the application of glaze<br /> and colours to china, but unfortunately forgot that<br /> her two copies must be deposited not later than the<br /> date of publication, and that the notice (otherwise<br /> correct) must bear her name. Her suit was dis-<br /> missed on these grounds, and the defendant profited.<br /> Carr painted a picture and deposited the title and<br /> a photograph, but forgot the “description.” It<br /> took two trials to prove to him that Mr. Bennett,<br /> the millionaire proprietor of the New York Herald,<br /> could reprint his work without asking leave. ‘Three<br /> trials was the result of the famous American’sport-<br /> ing magazine, Outing, reprinting, without leave,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ct ORES DIRE CST ARIE a<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. &#039;<br /> <br /> the picture of the yacht Vigilant, which one Bolles<br /> had registered as “ Copyright by Bollesof Brooklyn.”<br /> “ Bolles of Brooklyn” was regarded as not pro-<br /> viding adequate means of identifying the photo-<br /> grapher, though he won in the end. Heertel took<br /> an action for penalties against Raphael Tuck &amp;<br /> Sons for printing a false notice of copyright on<br /> fancy cards. Judge Lacombe held that it was not<br /> a false notice, because it was no notice at all—the<br /> date was omitted. Heertel lost. Raphael Tuck<br /> &amp; Sons again came off best as against McLaughlin.<br /> They printed books with a false copyright notice—<br /> but in Germany. They only sold them in the<br /> United States, and they sold them prior to the<br /> passage of the Act prohibiting-such sale. Though<br /> the name Raphael Tuck appears rather frequently<br /> in cases of false notice, it must be remembered<br /> that our free English law gives copyright in<br /> books without any registration at all, and so any<br /> respectable firm may easily fall into the practice of<br /> putting the word “copyright” on everything it<br /> turns out.<br /> <br /> Cases could be multiplied indefinitely. It is<br /> curious the shifts to which people will go to evade<br /> the law in this respect, or to redress, after the<br /> guillotine has dropped, some fatal initial blunder.<br /> Mrs. Snow published a photograph without<br /> registering it. Thereafter, seeing her blunder, she<br /> had etched into the negative a cane in the hand of<br /> one of the figures. This negative she then “ copy-<br /> righted.’ Held that she had merely made an<br /> attempt to reclaim what she had already abandoned<br /> to the public, and that in any case her action was<br /> wrong. She claimed copyright in a “ photo.” But<br /> the only thing that could be the subject of it was<br /> not a “photo” but an etching—namely, the cane!<br /> Of course she lost.<br /> <br /> After this gallery of failures it is interesting to<br /> find the great Edison winning a case. He claimed<br /> copyright in a celluloid sheet of 4,500 kinetoscope<br /> photographs of the launching of the yacht Jeteor<br /> (infringed by one Lubin). It took two trials to<br /> decide that, for the purposes of registration, the<br /> 4,500 pictures constituted but one subject.<br /> <br /> Now, if we are inclined to condemn the Ameri-<br /> can law on the evidence of complexities afforded by<br /> the above cases, we have not only to remember<br /> that the law itself is of somewhat recent date, but<br /> also that for large commercial purposes American<br /> arts and letters were born but yesterday. Yet no<br /> species of property takes so long to establish its<br /> rights, to become truly adjusted to the life of those<br /> great communities in which alone it can flourish,<br /> or requires greater precision and intelligence for<br /> its proper management. And of the cases quoted,<br /> several resulted from just this lack of precision,<br /> which only such exemplary cases can ultimately<br /> cure. I have written elsewhere in this number of<br /> <br /> 55<br /> <br /> the advantages of our method of letting books<br /> fight their own battles and take their chances in the<br /> struggle for existence. Let me say here that I am<br /> not acquainted with one detail in the system of<br /> registration at the Library of Congress. I do not<br /> know whether the librarian would decline to accept<br /> for registration one of two books bearing the same<br /> title. Yet I can see that such a system would<br /> also have its advantages in excluding late comers<br /> from the field, in putting a premium on, at least,<br /> originality combined with a quick despatch in<br /> literary affairs, and in providing a permanent<br /> record of titles.<br /> <br /> This is the A B C of American copyright law—<br /> proper registration. It does not seem to be unduly<br /> complex, nor to require any hard thinking, any-<br /> thing more than absolute accuracy (in other words,<br /> good advice by your man of business) for its<br /> successful working. ‘There is much to be said for<br /> it. It is, in any case, the gateway to American<br /> copyright ; and, good or bad, it strikes the mere<br /> outsider as a straight and simple way in, leaving<br /> little to chance. We have scarcely anything over<br /> here that exactly resembles it—the “ reservation ”<br /> notice on music, perhaps, and the necessity of<br /> registering paintings, drawings, and photographs<br /> before an alleged infringement ; but these do not<br /> provide us with much litigation.<br /> <br /> Next month I hope to go deeper into American<br /> law, illustrating, as far as possible, from Mr.<br /> Hamlin’s book, its working in more difficult cases as<br /> compared with our own.<br /> <br /> CHARLES WEEKES.<br /> <br /> —_————_1—_&gt;_+—____—_-<br /> <br /> AFTER WORK.*<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> T is the prerogative of all men, after arriving<br /> at a certain age, to have reminiscences, and<br /> the privilege of some to record them. ‘To the<br /> <br /> latter category belongs Mr. Edward Marston, one<br /> of the oldest members of the publishing trade.<br /> His long connection with the trade has brought<br /> him into intimate touch with a number of interest-<br /> ing people for whom he published. In a_book<br /> entitled “ After Work: Fragments from the Work-<br /> shop of an old Publisher,” he has modestly sunk<br /> his own identity and given to the public some<br /> entertaining particulars of those with whom he<br /> has come into personal contact :—such as Bulwer<br /> Lytton, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Wilkie Collins,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ee ee eee<br /> <br /> * ‘After Work: Fragments from the Workshop of an Old<br /> Publisher.’ William Heinemann. 10s. net.<br />  <br /> <br /> 56<br /> <br /> R. D. Blackmore, Sir Henry Morton Stauley,<br /> William Black, and many others. But, beyond<br /> these notes, there are matters which are of<br /> interest to members of the Society. Mr. Marston<br /> explains how The Publishers’ Circular—that useful<br /> trade organ—was originally started, and gives<br /> many details concerning the business side of<br /> literature. He quotes, at length, the agreement<br /> entered into between his firm and Bulwer Lytton<br /> for the publication of that fascinating romance,<br /> “A Strange Story,” for which the firm paid £1,500<br /> for a licence to publish for two years. It would<br /> be a good thing if nowadays more authors made<br /> similar contracts, assigning merely a licence to<br /> publish for a limited period. ‘The amount received<br /> by Lord Lytton was, without doubt, large, if the<br /> position of authors and publishers at that time 1s<br /> taken into consideration, but the payment was<br /> justified by the result. Later in the book, Mr.<br /> Marston, with a little bitterness, proclaims the<br /> price that Mr. Wilkie Collins received for “No<br /> Name.” He points out that that gentleman had<br /> a perfect knowledge of his own value, and that he<br /> stood in no need of a literary agent to make a<br /> ‘bargain for him. The price paid by Messrs. Sampson<br /> Low was £3,000. Apparently, from Mr. Marston’s<br /> statement, the book resulted in no loss, though he<br /> asserts that the risk, from his point of view, was<br /> great, and forced upon his firm by a very vigorous<br /> competition. Many of the letters quoted by Mr.<br /> Marston from his authors, standing outside busi-<br /> ness, draw out their special characteristics. Mr.<br /> Blackmore writes about his vines and fruit trees.<br /> Sir H. M. Stanley writes about his trials and<br /> perils. It would be unfair to the book to make<br /> any large quotations, but the letters should not be<br /> missed by any who care for a knowledge of the<br /> personalities of their favourite authors.<br /> <br /> There are, besides, one or two points with which<br /> the reviewer is forced to deal, as they touch the<br /> work and reputation of the Society of Authors.<br /> The last chapter of the book Mr. Marston entitles<br /> “Dealings with Authors.” He makes the astound-<br /> ing pronouncement that Sir Walter Besant and<br /> others in the early days of the Society stated that<br /> publishers could not make any losses. This kind of<br /> rash generality, when Besant was alive, was con-<br /> stantly put forward and as strenuously denied.<br /> Perhaps Mr. Marston will refer to the exact<br /> page in 7&#039;he Author or the publications of the<br /> Society where this statement occurs. Again, he<br /> says that the Society began its operations by<br /> making sweeping and ungenerous attacks upon all<br /> publishers, assuming that all alike were robbers,<br /> and proving by balance sheets drawn from its<br /> Imagination that publishers could not, by any<br /> possibility, make a loss. In the proverbial phrase,<br /> <br /> Mr. Marston has ‘drawn upon his imagination<br /> <br /> ’ THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> for his facts,” and it is a pity that an otherwise<br /> admirable book should, to a certain extent, have<br /> been spoilt by the misstatements and biassed, un-<br /> generous comments contained in the last chapter.<br /> With this exception the book is one which<br /> should appeal to all those who, in their fondness<br /> for literature, care to make themselves better<br /> “acquaint ” with the individualities of the writers.<br /> <br /> o—~-<br /> <br /> IS POETRY READ AS IT USED TO BE?<br /> <br /> he<br /> <br /> R. W. D. HOWELLS, in Harper&#039;s Magazine,<br /> <br /> VI has lately made a futile endeavour to<br /> <br /> ascertain by the votes of its readers the<br /> present popularity of poetry in the United States.<br /> The subject awaking no interest or curiosity there,<br /> has for the present fizzled out. Perhaps the times<br /> were not ripe for the computation of poetical<br /> readers in such+an enormous area of land, or the<br /> clash and clang of more practical serious interests<br /> may have silenced the inquiry.<br /> <br /> However, the subject having a definite sugges-<br /> tiveness to literature and a relative value to<br /> thought, is worth attention.<br /> <br /> Of course, the curious and interesting question<br /> can never be brought under the range of statistics.<br /> Whether or not the readers of poetry in the<br /> United Kingdom are more numerous to-day than<br /> formerly is&#039;a problem which cannot be easily<br /> solved, but one can endeavour to glance at the<br /> probabilities one way or the other. ‘To pierce the<br /> heart of the subject is an impossibility: but in<br /> wandering around its skirts a few gleams of the<br /> truth may be visible.<br /> <br /> The first query that naturally arises is: Who<br /> are the readers of poetry ?<br /> <br /> They consist, I should imagine, of two classes.<br /> One suggestive word comprises the first: Youth !<br /> whose password is hope, whose look-out on life is<br /> fresh and wonderful ; whose lot, as yet, has not<br /> been soured and chilled by relentless circumstance<br /> and experience. Those who predominate in this<br /> class, by reason of their emotions, susceptibilities<br /> and sensitiveness, are young women; the band<br /> of light-hearted, dream-haunted, romance-loving<br /> girls, who find in poetry a response to their ,vague<br /> questionings and an interpretation of their<br /> mysterious imaginings.<br /> <br /> The second class comprises all those who make<br /> a hobby and study of poetry, and whose lives are<br /> imbued with what must always be the highest<br /> and truest expression of literature. Neither age,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> ‘<br /> 2<br /> <br /> £<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> =<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 57<br /> <br /> fashion, nor change can ever stale or wither the<br /> vivid joys of this eager pursuit. In Palgrave’s<br /> apt words :-— :<br /> <br /> «The magic of this art can confer on early<br /> years, Experience; on maturity, Calm ; on age,<br /> Youthfulness.”<br /> <br /> A small portion of this class, the scouts of the<br /> army, is that numerous throng who, over-burdened<br /> with poetic lore and fancy, must record it all in<br /> their own fashion and words: and thus there is<br /> always an immense legion of pseudo-poets, versi-<br /> fiers, minor minstrels who indite and publish their<br /> volumes of musical verse., Sometimes these appeal<br /> to unheeding ears ; often imperfection and weak-<br /> ness spell failure, and very occasionally the appre-<br /> ciation of a thoughtful reviewer may encourage the<br /> new versifier to further and worthier efforts.<br /> <br /> Having now set forth the classes who read<br /> ‘poetry, the following queries assert themselves :—<br /> <br /> Has the interest in poetry waned? Have<br /> poetical votaries diminished ? Have readers<br /> fallen off ?<br /> <br /> In answering these questions in a decisive,<br /> strong affirmative, I. shall endeavour to deduce<br /> reasons for my own opinion.<br /> <br /> The enormous production and circulation of<br /> novels in late years have lessened and almost<br /> destroyed the love of poetry amongst the very<br /> class to which it appeals the most. ‘The grades of<br /> fiction, from the garish covered penny horror to a<br /> novel like “he Cardinal’s Snutf Box,” or “The<br /> Column,” in their number and diversity, are<br /> somewhat appalling to consider; but in every<br /> novel which is literature as well as fiction, there<br /> are elements and constituents of poetry to minister<br /> and satisfy the subtle, romantic instincts of the<br /> young. In them are found the pictured scene ;<br /> the sweetness of exquisite words ; the vivid portrai-<br /> ture; the play of thought; the illumination of<br /> life’s truths or pathos—all the glints and glows<br /> of unfettered verse woven into a story of<br /> humanity !<br /> <br /> Thus, the enthralling influence of novels which -<br /> <br /> paint and depict ideals in life and human nature<br /> has weakened the hold of poetry upon the imagi-<br /> nation of youth. ‘The novel has supplanted the<br /> poem, and perhaps for a while, till the output of<br /> fiction brings the weariness of satiety, the youthful<br /> readers of poetry will continue to dwindle.<br /> <br /> There is also another potent reason. The health-<br /> ful love of open air pursuits and pleasures in. our<br /> day has spoilt the zest for indoor, poetic musings.<br /> The gladdening impulses and ardours of youth find<br /> anatural vent in the freedom of country games,<br /> exercises and sports. ‘The spiritual glow of rhythmic<br /> verse is exchanged for the living glow of physical<br /> well-being. The meditative maiden is no longer<br /> sad or happy in unison with delicate phrasings of<br /> <br /> thought, or with the brilliant surprise of trope or<br /> metaphor ; instead, her poetry exists amidst the<br /> “pomp of woodland and resounding shore,” with<br /> perhaps an interlude for an innocent flirtation.<br /> And thus, her already exuberant life is intensified<br /> by vigorous open air enjoyment.<br /> <br /> But the reasons which are creating a distaste of<br /> poetry amongst youthful readers have no signi-<br /> ficance.amongst the students and lovers of poetry<br /> of all ages. The causes of their callousness are<br /> deeper and stronger. ‘The burdens and the<br /> influences of the times and the period have<br /> affected their allegiance to the divine art. The<br /> efforts which are giving living wonders for the<br /> usefulness and weal of the nations and mankind<br /> are weaning them from their delight in the<br /> glamours of modulated thought.<br /> <br /> The spell of contrivance ; the marvel of being<br /> able to annihilate time and space ; the magic of<br /> discovery to baffle disease ; the power of being<br /> able to rule the fairy realms of science ; every<br /> thing that makes for progress and tends to<br /> enlightenment ; the animating ardour that inspires<br /> the leaders of men to combat error and inculcate<br /> truths for the nation’s weal: all these things<br /> drive the man “ Housed in a dream at a distance<br /> from his kind,” to a field of broader issues and<br /> more strenuous purposes.<br /> <br /> And it is because no “ bard sublime ” has arisen<br /> to translate and enshrine these undertakings and<br /> discoveries, and no creative voice is heard to inter-<br /> pret the struggle or herald the victory, that poetry<br /> is becoming decadent to its most earnest votary. It<br /> may be said in extenuation of this, that the verses<br /> of Rudyard Kipling respond to the nation’s poetic<br /> cravings. It is affirmed with laudatory emphasis<br /> that the spell of this wonderful era has been truly<br /> invoked in poetry by this successful author. And<br /> to a certain extent he has interpreted many of the<br /> age’s aspirations, perplexities, doubts, struggles ;<br /> but, to my mind, there is scope still for the larger<br /> vision, wider outlook, and deeper insight in some<br /> great poet of the future.<br /> <br /> In the meantime, whether due to the causes<br /> briefly touched upon, or to others which I cannot<br /> fathom, readers of poetry are gradually falling off ;<br /> the creative art itself is languishing, and no. one<br /> wonders. When the hope of a true poetic revival<br /> will resolve itself into a certainty, and another<br /> masterpiece like ‘Childe Harold” or the “ Idylls<br /> of the King” staitle a waiting world, then, per-<br /> haps, the vivifying influence of the art will again<br /> illuminate a land so opulent in its poetic treasures<br /> <br /> bequeathed by the past.<br /> Tstporr G. ASCHER.<br /> <br /> oO =<br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 58<br /> <br /> THE GRAND GUIGNOL.<br /> <br /> oa<br /> A Quire Imaginary CONVERSATION.<br /> <br /> WHY do people talk of the extraordinary<br /> A . brilliancy of the French and German<br /> theatres of the present day ?<br /> <br /> B. Because the French and German theatres of<br /> the present day are extraordinarily brilliant.<br /> <br /> A. That sounds a very unlikely reason.<br /> <br /> B. The truth is always wildly improbable.<br /> <br /> ‘A. L seem to have heard a good deal about the<br /> Italian theatre of late. Can you account for that<br /> in the same way?<br /> <br /> B. The Italian Renaissance has, at all events,<br /> drawn the most famous of living poets to the<br /> theatre.<br /> <br /> A. Oh—I take it that the Norwegian theatre is<br /> resting on its past ?<br /> <br /> B. Possibly ; but that past is very recent and<br /> very glorious.<br /> <br /> A. Does anybody talk of the extraordinary<br /> brilliancy of the British theatre of the present<br /> day ?<br /> <br /> B. Certainly. Mr. William Archer.<br /> <br /> A. How very interesting. Can you account for<br /> that ?<br /> <br /> B. I can try.<br /> <br /> A. Would you mind making the effort ?<br /> <br /> B. Mr. Archer has been watching the British<br /> theatre very closely for the last twenty years, and<br /> has seen, during that time, a good deal of very<br /> remarkable work.<br /> <br /> A, And he thinks that our drama is at last<br /> waking from the sleep of centuries ?<br /> <br /> B. “Centuries” is a big word; and “ waking”<br /> much too small a one.<br /> <br /> A. The drama has waked from its sleep ?<br /> <br /> B. I am sure of it.<br /> <br /> A. But don’t you think that there is any danger<br /> of its dropping off again ?<br /> <br /> B. Ah<br /> <br /> A. I think I follow you. Do youagree with the -<br /> <br /> method proposed for keeping it awake ?<br /> <br /> B. You mean the building of a fine roomy<br /> theatre, for it to take exercise in ?<br /> <br /> A. Yes; they say there is nothing like compul-<br /> sory exercise for the sleeping sickness. Have you<br /> faith in a grand National British Theatre ?<br /> <br /> B. I have more faith in the National Irish<br /> Theatre.<br /> <br /> A. Why ?<br /> <br /> B. Because it isn’t grand. “Things comes by<br /> degrees,” as the little Dublin boy said to Dickens.<br /> <br /> _A. I suppose there would be difficulties about a<br /> big new theatre. Money, to begin with. England<br /> seems to be too poor to support art as the conti-<br /> nental nations support it.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> B. Money is the least of difficulties, always.<br /> The right man with the right scheme could pretty<br /> certainly get together the few thousands needed<br /> —assuming that the man exists and the scheme is<br /> possible.<br /> <br /> A. You assume too much. But assuming a<br /> good deal more—assuming that a successful start<br /> were made—don’t you think that there would still<br /> be difficulties in the way ?<br /> <br /> B. I do.<br /> <br /> A. Then you are hopeless ?<br /> <br /> B. I may be, but I didn’t say so.<br /> <br /> A. Do you think a more modest undertaking<br /> would do any good ?<br /> <br /> B. It might do much more good, if it is all we<br /> are ready for at present. Among other things, it<br /> might pave the way for the larger scheme.<br /> <br /> A. Personally, I don’t believe in these’ self-<br /> conscious efforts to improve the arts, little or big.<br /> I agree with Tony Lumpkin and Mr, Sydney<br /> Grundy, “If P’&#039;m to have any good let it come of<br /> itself, and don’t keep ding-dinging it into my<br /> ears.”<br /> <br /> B. The Gospel of Silence.<br /> but history is against it.<br /> <br /> A. Has anybody ever regenerated the drama<br /> intentionally ?<br /> <br /> B. Certainly.<br /> <br /> A. Euripides, I suppose—or Victor Hugo. Can<br /> you give me any more modern example ?<br /> <br /> B. The most modern. The brilliant French<br /> comedy of Augier and Dumas had had its day, and<br /> everyone was talking of the decadence to come,<br /> when Antoine spoke—and in half a generation a<br /> school far more brilliant had arisen.<br /> <br /> A. Do you put Rostand, and Donnay, and the<br /> rest of them, all down to Antoine ?<br /> <br /> B. One man by himself could have done nothing,<br /> of course ; but Antoine had the Third Republic at<br /> his back, like all that is greatest in modern France,<br /> Still, he showed the way—and on a small scale.<br /> Forgive the mixture of the metaphor.<br /> <br /> A. All really great metaphors are mixed. Then<br /> what you want, I take it, is an experimental<br /> theatre ?<br /> <br /> B. You have put it in two words.<br /> <br /> A, Antoine has outgrown the experimental stage.<br /> Is there anything in Paris now which more nearly<br /> meets our want ?<br /> <br /> B. There is the Grand Guignol.<br /> <br /> A. And what is a Grand Guignol ?<br /> <br /> _ B. It is almost exactly the thing we need.<br /> <br /> A. Thank you; but I had rather you explained.<br /> <br /> B. The Grand Guignol was a shabby little<br /> lecture-hall up a backyard not far from the Moulin<br /> Rouge ; but with its success it has been recon-<br /> structed, and it is now quite a pleasant little—<br /> theatre-hall.<br /> <br /> It sounds tempting,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 4 i<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 59<br /> <br /> A. What do they act there ?<br /> <br /> B. Five one-act plays every evening.<br /> <br /> A. Good gracious !<br /> <br /> B. Four would be enough in England.<br /> <br /> A. I think so.<br /> <br /> B. The expenses are microscopic. Actors of<br /> very little experience can carry through a one-act<br /> play—clever authors of no stage-experience can<br /> write one; and in this work young authors and<br /> young actors may learn their business, as they have<br /> little chance of learning it under the long-run<br /> Jong-play system.<br /> <br /> A. And there is a public for them ?<br /> <br /> B. There is undoubtedly a public for them. The<br /> Grand Guignol is such a success that it has<br /> imitators all over the place—the Capucines, the<br /> Mathurins, half-a-dozen others.<br /> <br /> A. I suppose the prices are low ?<br /> <br /> B. Not very. The stalls are about half the<br /> price of those at the fashionable theatres ; but the<br /> second seats are, I think, not cheaper than the pit.<br /> And there are no third seats.<br /> <br /> A. People can drop in at any time, of course.<br /> <br /> B. Then there is something to suit all tastes.<br /> Realism, sensation, comedy, poetry<br /> <br /> A. And—h’m. Sensational realism, eh ? Do<br /> they go a little far that way ?<br /> <br /> B. It is quite true that they have owed part of<br /> their success to their powers of shocking even a<br /> Parisian audience; but this is by no means the<br /> beginning and end of their story.<br /> <br /> A: I should think that such a little theatre<br /> could easily be carried on as an adjunct to a big<br /> one—His Majesty’s or the St. James’s. The little<br /> company could consist largely of the understudies<br /> and minor actors of the large one, with occasionally<br /> a first-rate man glad to fill up an interval “on<br /> easy terms.” Such a company would quite well<br /> bear the burden of a one-act play—it’s not like<br /> sustaining heavy parts throughout an evening of<br /> three hours. And many aclever writer of dialogue<br /> could give us such a piece, and at the same time<br /> be learning how to write a longer one<br /> <br /> B. Rem acu tetigisti. You have touched the<br /> spot.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Epwarp Ross.<br /> <br /> —_—_—__+—_&gt;_+—_____-<br /> <br /> CORRESPONDENCE.<br /> <br /> —_+—~&lt;—+ —<br /> “ Wuat’s in A NAME?”<br /> <br /> Srr,—I do not wish to answer the letter of<br /> Mr. Charles Richard Panter in The Author of<br /> last October at too great length or too seriously,<br /> but I am a little puzzled to know why he should<br /> treat the opinions which I put forward in a tone<br /> <br /> at once so aggrieved and so aggressive. He says<br /> “In the second paragraph of his first letter,<br /> Mr. Armstrong asserts the right to the name of a<br /> book is not copyright. Why should it not be.”<br /> The answer might be given to this conundrum,<br /> “ Because it is not,” or “ Because it is a right of<br /> another description,” but perhaps Mr. Panter had<br /> better consult some work on copyright, or read the<br /> case of Dick y. Yates,in which the Court of Appeal<br /> laid down the law on the subject in 1881. I can<br /> assure Mr. Panter that I had nothing to do with<br /> it. I was not a member of the Court of Appeal of<br /> that day, nor do I expect to take part in the<br /> deliberations of that tribunal at any future period<br /> of my modest career. I only “asserted”? what I<br /> believed to be the law, because I entertained a<br /> not ill-founded opinion upon the subject, which<br /> Mr. Panter may show to be wrong if he can do so.<br /> Mr. Panter’s allusions to “cribbing” a title, and<br /> his not very courteous suggestion that my “ book<br /> did not sell” because of my not being “ allowed to<br /> adopt the title of another author’s work,” show that<br /> he does not fully grasp the nature of the difficulty<br /> from which authors suffer. They do not desire,<br /> nor do they complain, of not being permitted inten-<br /> tionally to take other men’s titles, but they do find<br /> it tiresome to fix upon a title and then to be<br /> informed, with threats of legal proceedings, that it<br /> has already been used for a work of which they<br /> never before heard.<br /> <br /> In my own case, as I explained, a lady desired to<br /> prevent me from using for a novel a name which<br /> she had once given to a short story, and which she<br /> intended thereafter to use as the title of a volume<br /> of short stories, and I gave way, although part of<br /> my book was already in page. | will give the title,<br /> as it affords a good instance of want of originality<br /> on the author’s part and its result. I had chosen<br /> the simple and inoffensive, but not very dis-<br /> tinguished or striking participle “ Drifting.” I<br /> don’t know whether the lady referred to ever pro-<br /> duced her book under the name which [ resigned<br /> to her, but I know that a clever and successful<br /> book came out some years afterwards under the<br /> same title, and if she attempted to stop its circula-<br /> tion Iam not aware that she succeeded. I hope,<br /> however, that whether they agree with me or not,<br /> I made my meaning clearer to other readers of<br /> The Author than to Mr. Panter.<br /> <br /> Yours, &amp;c., :<br /> E. A. ARMSTRONG.<br /> <br /> ———+<br /> <br /> Trrues AND Mr. C. R. PANTER.<br /> <br /> Srr,— Who is this that darkeneth counsel by<br /> <br /> words without knowledge ?” . :<br /> Mr. Panter asks: “Pray, what is that right<br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 60<br /> <br /> [of an author to the title of his book] if not<br /> copyright ?”” I reply : Common law right.<br /> <br /> “ (opyright,” says he, “ is the one right known<br /> to authors as capable of protecting their works.<br /> I reply : Not at all. :<br /> <br /> «« What would be thought,” he proceeds energetic-<br /> ally to ask, “of the man who declared he had a<br /> right to his own person as Mr. Penman Dryasdust,<br /> but no right whatever to his Christian and sur-<br /> name?” The reply is: Most people would think<br /> him an idiot. But let us examine Mr. Panter’s<br /> analogy, and see whither it will lead us. Here are<br /> the four feet, so to speak, on which his analogy<br /> stands :—<br /> <br /> According to Mr. Panter—<br /> <br /> 1. Mr. Dryasdust ...... Has a right to his own<br /> person which thecom-<br /> mon law will recog-<br /> nise. True.<br /> <br /> 12. A Book. (... ies Has a right against<br /> <br /> infringers which the<br /> <br /> common law will<br /> recognise. alse.<br /> <br /> ; 8. Mr. Dryasdust ...... Has a right to his own<br /> name asname. alse.<br /> (He has no more right<br /> to it than anyone who<br /> has had the misfortune<br /> to be born with it.<br /> The law will protect<br /> only the property and<br /> rights for which the<br /> name stands.)<br /> <br /> AoA Withee 5 Has no right atcommon<br /> law (or Mr. Panter<br /> evidently thinks so).<br /> <br /> L false.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> That is Mr. Panter’s analogy. One true state-<br /> ment to three false. I am tempted. to enquire<br /> whether he understands the nature and uses of<br /> analogical reasoning. Of law and copyright law<br /> he appears to have no knowledge. For, taking the<br /> analogy the other way, let us begin with statement<br /> No. 2, and say: “A book has a right against<br /> infringers which the copyright law will recognise.”<br /> This is true, but here the analogy, of a book to Mr.<br /> Dryasdust, suddenly undergoes complete extinction,<br /> since the copyright law has nothing in the world<br /> to do with Mr. Dryasdust’s defence of his person<br /> or name.<br /> <br /> But I should be filling up your November issue<br /> if I went any deeper into the energetic Mr. Panter’s<br /> fallacies. i shall drop them, and try to clear up<br /> this confusion of words about the rights in titles<br /> of books.<br /> <br /> Copyright, Mr. Panter should learn, is not a<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> natural right like a man’s right to his own<br /> person, his tables, chairs, and “ house utensils.’”<br /> Tt is a temporary monopoly, created by statute, analo-<br /> gous to the right in a patent or trade mark. So,<br /> therefore, it is conditioned by the Statute. Its<br /> duration is only for the statutory period —forty-two<br /> years (or life and seven years). It gives pro+<br /> tection to a species of property which otherwise<br /> would have none—books.<br /> <br /> Now of the books published each year which are<br /> so protected, about seven-eighths are valueless.<br /> They sink into oblivion before forty-two days have<br /> expired. Nevertheless, if the wisdom of the framers<br /> of the Act (including the great Macaulay) was not<br /> brilliantly shown in thus giving a protective<br /> monopoly for so long a time to rubbish, it was<br /> shown in this : it gave no monopoly in titles. If<br /> a book have a value (possibly the framers argued)<br /> the chances are about ten to one that it will shortly<br /> become a valuable article of commerce. In this<br /> state it can protect its own title quite adequately at<br /> common law. But if.on the other hand it have no<br /> value, the chances are about ten to one that it will<br /> shortly sink into oblivion. Now, in this state was<br /> it to be allowed to exclude other books of more value<br /> from the market by monopolising the exclusive<br /> right to its title? Does Mr. Panter see the<br /> point ?<br /> <br /> Let me enlarge for a moment on the ambiguous<br /> word “ value,” so that I may make myself quite<br /> clear to him. The “ value” referred to is not<br /> literary, nor artistic, nor scientific, nor theological<br /> value. it issimply—commercial. Why? Because<br /> we all agree as to money value ; and we all differ<br /> as to literary, artistic, and similar values. In process<br /> of law, indeed, you may hear counsel and even the<br /> Bench discuss literary and artistic values; but<br /> legislators (though they may state in their preamble<br /> that the Act is for “ the greater encouragement of”<br /> learning) cannot take direct cognisance of these<br /> things. Nor can legislators take cognisance of<br /> unhappy exceptions to general averages, like the<br /> case of “Lorna Doone,” “ Omar Khayydm,” etc.<br /> A bill framed to cover all possible exceptions, and<br /> to satisfy everybody’s nice opinions as to literary<br /> and artistic values, would never get to the Lords.<br /> So far our law is doubtless imperfect. But let Mr.<br /> Panter be consoled ; its neglect to protect titles is<br /> not one of its shortcomings.<br /> <br /> One wonders if such an idealist as Mr. Panter<br /> can come down from the heights of his burning.<br /> eloquence at all. He seems to think that plagiarism<br /> is an indictable offence. We are a very advanced<br /> nation, doubtless, but we have not yet advanced<br /> quite so far as that. I wish we had.<br /> <br /> CHARLES WEEKES.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 36, Southampton Street,<br /> Strand, W.C.	https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/499/1904-11-01-The-Author-15-2.pdf	publications, The Author
500	https://historysoa.com/items/show/500	The Author, Vol. 15 Issue 03 (December 1904)	<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=%3Cem%3EThe+Author%3C%2Fem%3E%2C+Vol.+15+Issue+03+%28December+1904%29"><em>The Author</em>, Vol. 15 Issue 03 (December 1904)</a>											<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Publication">Publication</a>	1904-12-01-The-Author-15-3					61–92																		<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=89&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=15">15</a>											<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=76&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1904-12-01">1904-12-01</a>							3			19041201	Che Mutbor.<br /> <br /> (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors.<br /> <br /> Monthly.)<br /> <br /> FOUNDED BY SIR WALTER BESANT.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Vou. XV.—No. 3.<br /> <br /> Cecmrsnk in<br /> <br /> 1904.<br /> <br /> [Paror SIXPENCE.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> TELEPHONE NUMBER :<br /> 374 VICTORIA.<br /> <br /> TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS :<br /> AUTORIDAD, LONDON.<br /> <br /> —_—_—_——*——e—<br /> <br /> NOTICES.<br /> <br /> eg<br /> <br /> OR the opinions expressed in papers that are<br /> signed or initialled the authors alone are<br /> responsible. None of the papers or para-<br /> <br /> graphs must be taken as expressing the opinion<br /> of the Committee unless such is especially stated<br /> to be the case.<br /> <br /> Tux Editor begs to inform members of the<br /> Authors’ Society and other readers of The Author<br /> that the cases which are from time to time quoted<br /> in The Author are cases that have come before the<br /> notice or to the knowledge of the Secretary of the<br /> Society, and that those members of the Society<br /> who desire to have the names of the publishers<br /> concerned can obtain them on application.<br /> <br /> — ~~ +<br /> <br /> List of Members.<br /> <br /> TueE List of Members of the Society of Authors<br /> published October, 1902, at the price of 6d., and<br /> the elections from October, 1902, to July, 1903, as<br /> a supplemental list, at the price of 2d., can now be<br /> obtained at the offices of the Society.<br /> <br /> They will be sold to members or associates of<br /> the Society only.<br /> <br /> ——<br /> <br /> The Pension Fund of the Society.<br /> <br /> Tue Trustees of the Pension Fund met at the<br /> Society’s Offices on the 19th of February, and<br /> having gone carefully into the accounts of the<br /> fund, decided to purchase £250 London and North<br /> <br /> Vor. XV.<br /> <br /> Western 3 % Debenture Stock. Accordingly, the<br /> investments of the Pension Fund at present<br /> standing in the names of the ‘l&#039;rustees are as<br /> follows.<br /> <br /> This is a statement of the actual stock; the<br /> money value can be easily worked out at the current<br /> price of the market :<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> COnsOlS OF 9 £1000 0 0<br /> Tiogal Wioans, (5 500, 0) 0<br /> Victorian Government 3 % Consoli-<br /> <br /> dated: Inseribed Stock: ......3...2.... 991 19 AL<br /> <br /> Wanli0al (6026 20h 9233<br /> London and North Western 3 % Deben-<br /> HUE SOCK 4 oo a. 250. 0. 0<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> AMON eek £2,243 9 2<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Subscriptions from April, 1904.<br /> <br /> &amp; Ss. a.<br /> April18, Dixon, W. Scarth . : - 0 2 0<br /> April18, Bashford, Harry H. 010 6<br /> April19, Bosanquet, Hustace F. . . 0 1076<br /> April23, Friswell, Miss Laura Hain . 0 5 O<br /> May 6,Shepherd,G. H. . 705. 0<br /> June 24, epee Sir Horace, ‘Bart.,<br /> G.C.B : : : oe 1 0<br /> July 27, Barnett, P ; £0 107.0<br /> Nov. g. eat, Charles 010 0<br /> Donations from April, 1904.<br /> May 16, Wynne, C. Whitworth. 7)<br /> June 23, Kirmse, R. . : od) 0<br /> June 23, Kirmse, Mrs. R. : - 0 5.0<br /> July 21, The Blackmore Memorial<br /> Committee : 20.50.00<br /> Aug. 5, Walker, William S : y 2 020<br /> Oct. 6, Hare, i. W. EMD... _ 1 1 0<br /> Oct. 6, Hardy, Harold : : ; 010 0<br /> Oct. 20, Cameron, Mrs. Lovett . --0 10.0<br /> Nov. 7, Benecke, Miss Ida . : ~ 1 1.0<br /> Nov. 11, Thomas, Mrs. Haig ; 2 2.0<br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> FROM THE COMMITTEE.<br /> <br /> — +&gt;<br /> <br /> HE Managing Committee held their November<br /> meeting at 39, Old Queen Street, Storey’s<br /> Jate, 8.W., on Monday, the 7th. The list<br /> <br /> of Members elected appears on another page.<br /> <br /> The Society’s United States Agent sent in his<br /> resignation, which was accepted by the Committee.<br /> ‘As stated in our last number, Mr. James Bryce is<br /> making inquiries on the Society’s behalf in New<br /> York, and the Committee hope very soon to be in<br /> a position to arrange for the appointment of a<br /> fresh Agent.<br /> <br /> The Secretary laid before the Committee a letter<br /> which he had received from Mr. Frampton, R.A.,<br /> stating that the replica of the Besant Memorial<br /> was completed. He was instructed to notify the<br /> London County Council of the fact, in order that<br /> they might make the necessary arrangements to<br /> set up the memorial in the allotted position on the<br /> Thames Embankment.<br /> <br /> On the proposal of the Chairman, it was resolved<br /> to address to the family of the late Sir Walter<br /> Besant a letter of sympathy on the loss they had<br /> sustained by the death of their mother, Lady<br /> Besant.<br /> <br /> It was decided, with reference to the Society’s<br /> dinner in 1905, that the list of stewards should not<br /> be advertised as in former years. ‘The expense of<br /> the advertisement is considerable, and now that the<br /> lists of the Society are regularly published there iS<br /> less need for it.<br /> <br /> There were one or two other matters before the<br /> Committee, but no contentious business involving<br /> the expenditure of any of the Society’s funds.<br /> There were the usual number of cases, which are<br /> set out in another column.<br /> <br /> Sy gee<br /> <br /> Cases.<br /> <br /> Wire the autumn season the number of cases<br /> before the Secretary are gradually increasing.<br /> <br /> In the November issue of Ze Author 1t was<br /> stated that only eight cases had been dealt with in<br /> the former month. During the past month<br /> eighteen cases have passed through the Secretary’s<br /> hands. Five referred to claims for money. In<br /> three of these the money has been paid and<br /> forwarded to the members. The fourth has been<br /> placed in the hands of the Society’s solicitors. In<br /> the last case the Secretary has not had time to<br /> receive an answer to his letter. In seven cases<br /> MSS. have been detained, and the authors have<br /> been unable to get any reply to their letters. So<br /> far only one has been successful. ‘These cases<br /> are difficult to deal with, as members of the<br /> Society do not always hold acknowledgments from<br /> editors. As a general rule, however, editors are<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> most courteous and obliging when they receive<br /> letters from the Secretary, and are willing to take<br /> ereat pains in order, if possible, to discover MSS.<br /> which have been overlooked. It is hoped, there-<br /> fore, that the other MSS. will be returned in due<br /> course.<br /> <br /> here is one case where money and accounts were<br /> due. The money has been paid, the accounts<br /> rendered, and the matter closed. One case for<br /> accounts only in which the accounts have been<br /> rendered ; and four other matters which cannot be<br /> classed under any special heading. One of these<br /> dealing with a United States house has been satis-<br /> factorily negotiated, and one with an English<br /> publisher has also come to a satisfactory conclusion.<br /> Of the other two, the one dealing with an English<br /> publisher, cannot at present be terminated, and the<br /> other, dealing with a publisher in Canada, needs<br /> time for settlement.<br /> <br /> Of the disputes quoted in last month’s Author<br /> five are still unsettled, three deal with publishers<br /> outside Great Britain, two with United States<br /> publishers, the latter may be looked upon as parti-<br /> ally settled, for a portion of the money due has been<br /> paid and the balance promised. ‘The third, dealing<br /> with an agent in Germany, is still in the course of<br /> negotiation, but the matter is somewhat difficult<br /> and complicated. One of the other cases refers to<br /> an English magazine, and the neglect of the editor<br /> to answer any of the Secretary’s letters may neces-<br /> sitate the matter being placed in the hands of the<br /> Society’s solicitors. The other deals with a publisher<br /> from whom the Society has constantly received dis-<br /> courteous and unbusinesslike treatment. The<br /> former treatment the Society is unable to correct.<br /> The latler, however, it is sometimes possible to set<br /> straight, but only by legal proceedings. Unfortu-<br /> nately, in the present Case, the member of the<br /> Society happens to be abroad, and the publisher<br /> has knowledge of the fact. We should not like to<br /> state that this is the reason why he refuses to<br /> forward the accounts, but although they have been<br /> due for over six months, and although the Secretary<br /> has. written for them on several occasions, the<br /> publisher, although replying on other points, has<br /> refused to deliver what the author has a right to<br /> demand.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> November Elections.<br /> <br /> 26, Mount Street, Gros-<br /> venor Square, Lon-:<br /> don, W.<br /> <br /> Ainslie, Douglas<br /> <br /> Ball, Mrs. Mary B. (Elyria<br /> Kirby).<br /> Barclay, Sir Thomas<br /> <br /> 17, Rue Pasquier, Paris.<br /> Bracher, Mrs. L. E.<br /> <br /> Hamilton, Waikato,<br /> New Zealand.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 63<br /> <br /> Hampden Club, Phoenix<br /> <br /> Broom, J. 8. :<br /> Street, N.W.<br /> <br /> Crofton, Miss Marian Kirkside, St. John’s<br /> Park, Blackheath,<br /> S.E.<br /> <br /> Daw, E. M. Beaumont House,<br /> Llanelly.<br /> <br /> 1, Rue Michelet, Paris.<br /> <br /> Finch, Madame :<br /> 2, Woodville Terrace,<br /> <br /> Freeman, Richard Austin<br /> <br /> Gravesend.<br /> Gostling, Miss Frances Barmingham, Worth-<br /> Marion : ing.<br /> Hollingsworth, Charles 28, Barry Road, S.E.<br /> Laing, Janet : Lisaghmore, Kirk-<br /> <br /> caldy, Fife, N.B.<br /> <br /> Laurence-Hamilton, J. . 30, Sussex Square,<br /> Brighton.<br /> <br /> Allahabad, India.<br /> <br /> Villino, Masini, Settig-<br /> nano, Florence, Italy.<br /> <br /> McCarthy, Justin Hunt- Herdholt, Westgate-on-<br /> ley - : : é Sea.<br /> <br /> Newcombe, Alfred C. 39, Warrington Cres-<br /> cent, W.<br /> <br /> 72, Albert Hall Man-<br /> sions, Kensington<br /> Gore, W.<br /> <br /> care of James Millar,<br /> Esq.,13, King’s Arms<br /> Yard, London, E.C.<br /> <br /> 19, Arlington Street,<br /> London, S.W.<br /> <br /> Cos Cob, Connecticut,<br /> <br /> Lewis, T. C.<br /> Maquarie, Arthur<br /> <br /> Paget, Mrs. Gerald<br /> <br /> Parkinson, William<br /> <br /> Ronaldshay, The Right<br /> Hon. the Earl of<br /> Seton, Ernest Thompson<br /> <br /> U.S.A.<br /> <br /> Simpson, H. F. Morland 80, Hamilton Place,<br /> Aberdeen.<br /> <br /> Steedman, Miss Christine Heyne Hall, Fillongley,<br /> Joventry.<br /> <br /> Tuite, Hugh.<br /> <br /> Wilson-Barrett, Alfred . 43, Lower Belgrave<br /> Street, Haton Square,<br /> S.W.<br /> <br /> Two members do not desire either their names<br /> or addresses printed.<br /> ope — =<br /> <br /> BOOKS PUBLISHED BY MEMBERS OF<br /> THE SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> cereals a<br /> (In the following list we do not propose to give more<br /> than the titles, prices, publishers, etc., of the books<br /> enumerated, with, in special cases, such particulars as may<br /> serve to explain the scope and purpose of the work.<br /> Members are requested to forward information which will<br /> enable the Editor to supply such particulars.)<br /> ART,<br /> A RecorD Or SPANISH PAINTING. By C. GASQUOINE<br /> HARTLEY. 9} x 6%, 366 pp. Walter Scott Publishing<br /> Co. 10s. 6d. n,<br /> <br /> THE LIFE AND ART OF SANDRO Borriceny1. By Junta.<br /> <br /> CARTWRIGHT. 124 x 94,205pp. Duckworth: 21s.n.<br /> <br /> THE TUSCAN AND VENETIAN ARTISTS : THEIR THOUGHT<br /> AND WorK. By Hope Rwa. 7% x 5, 182 pp. Dent.<br /> <br /> PICTURES IN THE TATE GALLERY. By C. GAsQuorInr<br /> Harruey. 114 x 9, 208 pp. Seeley.<br /> <br /> ENGLISH EARTHENWARE MADE DURING THE 177TH AND<br /> 18TH CENTURIES. 132 pp. 78 plates ; AND ENGLISH<br /> PORCELAIN MADE DURING THE 18TH CENTURY. 113 pp.<br /> 59 plate. By A. H. CHurcu, F.R.S. 7% X Ba.<br /> Wyman. z<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> BIOGRAPHY.<br /> GREAT ENGLISHMEN OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. By<br /> SIDNEY LEE. 82 x 53, 333 pp. Constable. 7s. 6d. n.<br /> THe Live or FaTHer IGNatius. By THE BARONESS DE<br /> BERTOUCH. 9 x 52, 439 pp. Methuen. 10s. 6d. n.<br /> Firty YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE. By Mason ARTHUR<br /> GRIFFITHS. 9% x 63, 426 pp. Cassell. 18s. n.<br /> ROBERT Burns, By Sir G. DouGuasand W. S. CROCKETT.<br /> 9 X 63, 40 pp. Hodder and Stoughton. 1s,<br /> BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG.<br /> <br /> IN THE CLOSED Room. By FRANCES HopGSon BURNETT<br /> 84 x 53,130 pp. Hodder and Stoughton. 3s. 6d. n.<br /> PH@NIX AND THE CARPET. By E. NusBit. 82 xX 54,<br /> <br /> 236 pp. Newnes. 6s.<br /> A ScHOOL CHAMPION. By R. JAcBERNS. 74 X 54,<br /> 356 pp. Chambers. 3s. 6d.<br /> THE GIRLS OF CroMER HALL.<br /> 240 pp. Nelson. 2s.<br /> Home Letters. By RAYMOND JACBERNS.<br /> . BeC Ks.<br /> A FAMILY GRIEVANCE, By RAYMOND JACBERNS. 182 pp.<br /> Gardner Darton. Ils, 6d.<br /> MARCHING TO AVA. A story of the first Burmese War.<br /> <br /> By HENRY CHARLES Moore. 73 X 54, 318 pp.<br /> zall, 25,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 3y RAYMOND JACBERNS.<br /> <br /> 224 pp.<br /> <br /> BOYS’ BOOKS.<br /> By A SCHOOLBOY’s HAND. By ANDREW HOME. 7} x 54,<br /> 302 pp. Black. 3s. 64d.<br /> CHILDREN.<br /> THE PEDLAR’s Pack. By Mrs. ALFRED BALDWIN.<br /> 8 x 53,397 pp. Chambers. 6s.<br /> DRAMA.<br /> <br /> PHILIP OF Macrepon. A Tragedy. By FREDERICK<br /> WINBOLT. Alexander Moring.<br /> <br /> TRAGIC DRAMA IN ASSCHYLUS, SOPHOCLES AND SHAKE-<br /> SPEARE. By LEWIS CAMPBELL. 8} X 53, 280 pp.<br /> Smith Elder. 7s. 6d.<br /> <br /> AGLAVAINE AND SELYSETTER.<br /> LINcK. ‘Translated by A. SuTRO.<br /> Allen. 1s. n.<br /> <br /> By MAurice MAETER-<br /> 74 x 5, 104 pp.<br /> <br /> FICTION.<br /> <br /> PorPpE JACYNTH, AND OTHER FANTASTIC TALES. By<br /> VERNON Len. 7X 5,200 pp. Grant Richards. 3s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> PLAYING THE GAME, A Story of Japan. By DouGgias<br /> SLADEN. 72 X 5,319 pp. White. 6s.<br /> <br /> A Book or Guosts. By 8. BARING GOULD.<br /> 383 pp. Methuen. 6s.<br /> <br /> A DUEL. By R. MARSH. 7? x 5,324 pp. Methuen. 6s.<br /> <br /> With A Virw TO MATRIMONY, AND OTHER STORIES.<br /> By JAMES BuyTH. 7} X 5. Grant-Richards. 6s.<br /> <br /> ONE or THE Few. By SARAH DoupNny. 7% X 5,<br /> 347 pp. Hutchinson. 6s. (&quot;4 :<br /> <br /> THE IsLES OF SUNSET. By A. C. BENSON. 73 X 5,<br /> 307 pp. Isbister. 6s,<br /> <br /> THE MARRYING OF SARAH GARLAND. By Mrs. FINNE-<br /> MORE, 72 X 5}, 326 pp. Hurst and Blackett. 6s,<br /> <br /> 1h xX 5,<br /> I<br /> ;<br /> }<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 64 THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> DIALSTON LANE. By W.W. Jacops. 74 X 43 326 pp-<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> NEWNE 6s. . :<br /> Miss Brent or Muap. By CHRISTABEL B, COLERIDGE,<br /> 73 x 5,243 pp. Isbister. 6s.<br /> <br /> ‘He SpectALIST. By A. M. IRVINE. 7} X 52; 317 pp.<br /> Lane. 6s.<br /> <br /> Jim MORTIMER, SURGEON. By R. S. WARREN<br /> 280 pp. Newnes. Bs. 6d.<br /> <br /> A Lapy in WarTine. By the Hon. Mrs. ANSTRUTHER.<br /> 7% X 5, 300 pp. Smith Elder. 65. oS<br /> <br /> A MorGanatic WIFE. 3y Louis Tracy. 7% X 9,<br /> 307 pp. White. 6s. g<br /> <br /> A JAPANESE ROMANCE. By CLivE HOLLAND. TX 5,<br /> 329 pp. Hodder and Stoughton. 6s.<br /> <br /> Tui AMBASSADOR’S GLOVE. By R. MACHRAY.<br /> 316 pp. J. Long. 6s.<br /> <br /> LAMMAS GROVE. 3y CARLTON DAWE,<br /> 331 pp. Brown, Langham &amp; Co. 6s.<br /> <br /> In Deep AByss. By GEORGES Onner. Translated by<br /> Frep RoTHWELL, B.A. 327 pp. Greening. 6s.<br /> <br /> RonaLD AND I. By ALFRED Pretor. London: Geo.<br /> Bell &amp; Sons. Cambridge : Deighton, Bell &amp; Co.<br /> Ss. 6d. a.<br /> <br /> THE CHAPEL ON THE HILL.<br /> London: Geo. Bell &amp; Sons.<br /> Bell &amp; Co. 3s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> Tu WIDOWHOOD OF GABRIELLE Grant. By EGLANTON<br /> THORNE. 72 X 54, 309 pp. Hodder and Stoughton,<br /> 6s.<br /> <br /> THE PRISONER OF CARISBROOKE.<br /> War. By SIDNEY HERBERT BURCHELL.<br /> 486 pp. Gay and Bird. 6s.<br /> <br /> Sanny. A Study, and other Tales of the Outskirts. By<br /> Hucu Cuirrorp. 7? X 5, 299 pp. Blackwood. 6s.<br /> <br /> Baccarat. By FRANK DANBY. {a x 0; 280&quot; pp-<br /> Heinemann. 6s.<br /> <br /> Curiosities. By Barry PAIN. 6 x 49, 184. pp.<br /> Unwin. Is.<br /> <br /> Tus TIGER or Muscovy. By Frep WHISHAW. 72 x 54,<br /> 332 pp. Longmans. 6s.<br /> <br /> Lessons. By EVELYN SHARP.<br /> ley Johnson. 2s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> Aroms OF EMPIRE. By CUTCLIFFE Fyne. 73 X 54,<br /> 311 pp. Macmillan. 6s.<br /> <br /> Men oF THE NorTH SEA.<br /> 7k x 5, 367 pp. Nash. 6s.<br /> <br /> HISTORY.<br /> SomE CONSEQUENCES OF THE NORMAN Conquest. By<br /> <br /> the Rev. GEOrFREY Hinu. 9 X 53, 251 pp. Stock<br /> 7s. Gd. Nn.<br /> <br /> 3ELL.<br /> <br /> 7% Xx 5,<br /> <br /> 12 x08,<br /> <br /> 3y ALFRED PRETOR.<br /> Cambridge : Deighton,<br /> <br /> A Tale of the Civil<br /> <br /> 7% x5, 176 pp. Brim-<br /> <br /> By WALTER W. Woop.<br /> <br /> LAW.<br /> A TREATISE ON THE LAW OF CONTRACTS. By J. CHITTY,<br /> Juxr. Fourteenth Edition. By J.M. Lenty. 10 x 64,<br /> 805 pp. Sweet &amp; Maxwell. 30s,<br /> <br /> LITERARY.<br /> STUDIES IN ProsE AND VERSE. By ARTHUR SYMONS.<br /> 84 x 54,291 pp. Dent. 7s. 6d. n.<br /> TH FEMININE Note rN Fiction. By W.L. COURTNEY.<br /> 7h X 5}, 276 pp. Chapman and Hall. 5s. n.<br /> THE ARTIST&#039;S Lire. By JOHN OLIVER HOBBES. Tk x 54,<br /> 138 pp. T. Werner Laurie. 2s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> MISCELLANEOUS,<br /> THE SEA FISHING INDUSTRY OF ENGLAND AND WALES.<br /> By F.G. AFLALO. 8} X 54, 386 pp. Stanford. 16s. n.<br /> MUSIC.<br /> <br /> Tne Music oF THE MAstERS. Wagner. By HE. NEw-<br /> MAN. 64 X 4}, 208 pp. Wellby. 2s. 6d, n.<br /> <br /> NATURAL HISTORY.<br /> <br /> Tue MAMMALS OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. By<br /> J. G. Mruuais, F.Z.8. 3 Vols. Vol. I. 363 pp. Long-<br /> mans. £6 6s. n.<br /> <br /> HousE, GARDEN AND Freup. A Collection of Short<br /> <br /> Nature Studies. By L. C. MrauL, F.R.S. 7% X 54,<br /> <br /> 316 pp. Arnold. 6s.<br /> <br /> POETRY.<br /> <br /> 300K OF REMEMBRANCE: BEING LYRICAL SELECTIONS<br /> <br /> ror Every DAY IN THE YEAR. Arranged by ELIZA-<br /> <br /> BETH GopFREY. 7 X 4, 415 pp. Methuen. 2s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> SeLectED Poems. By JOHN DAVIDSON. 7 X 44,<br /> 204 pp. Lane. 3s. 6d, n.<br /> <br /> A DARK Niau?’s WoRK. A North Country Ballad witha<br /> few other Poems. By SiR Go. Doveias. 7 X 4,<br /> 30 pp. Cottingham, Yorks. Tutin, 6d. n.<br /> <br /> For GREATER BRITAIN. By C. WHitworth WYNNE.<br /> 8h x 53, 39 pp. Gay and Bird.<br /> <br /> &gt;<br /> <br /> SCIENCE.<br /> <br /> Frrst REPORT OF THE WELLCOME RESEARCH LABORA-<br /> TORIES AT GORDON MEMORIAL COLLEGE, KHARTUM.<br /> 3y the Director, A. BALFouR. 11 x 7%, 83 pp.<br /> Department of Education, Sudan Government, Khartum.<br /> <br /> THEOLOGICAL.<br /> <br /> SprrITUAL FORESHADOWING. Anonymous. Messrs.<br /> Gay and Bird, 2s. 6d.<br /> VAUGHAN’S UNIVERSITY AND OTHER SERMONS. Edited<br /> <br /> by an Old Pupil (ALFRED Preror). Macmillan, 6s.<br /> <br /> TOPOGRAPHY.<br /> <br /> BONNIE SCOTLAND. Painted by SUTTON PALMER :<br /> Described by A. R. HopEH MONCRIEFP. 9 x 64, 255 pp.<br /> Black. 20s. n.<br /> <br /> RAIDERLAND. All about Grey Galloway, its Stories,<br /> Traditions, Characters, and Humours. By 5. &amp;<br /> CRocKETT. 8 x 54, 3827 pp. Hodder and Stoughton.<br /> 6s.<br /> <br /> TRAVEL.<br /> <br /> THROUGH TOWN AND JUNGLE.<br /> MAN and Fanny BuLLock WORKMAN.<br /> 380 pp. Unwin. 21s, n.<br /> <br /> 3y Wa. HUNTER WORK-<br /> 10 x 6%,<br /> <br /> ge<br /> <br /> LITERARY, DRAMATIC, AND MUSICAL<br /> NOTES.<br /> <br /> +<br /> <br /> NOTICE of the ninth annual issue of the<br /> “ Literary Year Book” has been forwarded<br /> to the office.<br /> <br /> As the publication is in fresh hands, it may be<br /> <br /> of interest to our readers to learn its contents.<br /> The work will be published by Messrs. George<br /> Routledge &amp; Sons, no doubt early in the year, and<br /> is divided into two parts. The first part, with red<br /> <br /> edges, contains a catalogue of books published in ~<br /> <br /> 1904, a Directory of Authors, an Obituary for<br /> 1904 with Bibliographies, an Index of Titles, and<br /> a list of Secretarial and Research workers.<br /> <br /> The second part, with blue edges, will contain<br /> new articles on Copyright and Agreements.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> The circular states that the article on Copyright<br /> has been written by a lawyer familiar with the<br /> legal bearings of this intricate subject, and the<br /> article on Agreements is written by an authority<br /> who combines in his own person the function of<br /> author and publisher, and attempts to hold the<br /> balance fairly between the interests of the author<br /> and the publisher, and deals impartially with the<br /> question of the literary agent. This part of the<br /> “Literary Year Book” was done exceedingly well<br /> in former years. It seems a great pity to have<br /> gone to the expense of providing other articles on<br /> a very difficult subject. It remains to be seen how<br /> far they cover the points put forward and what<br /> may be the view of one who, as an author and a<br /> publisher, stands as a judge to balance between<br /> the interests of the two. The same part of the<br /> volume will contain a Directory of Publishers and<br /> Agents (British and foreign), a List of Periodical<br /> Publications, with a Contributor’s Guide, Royalty<br /> Tables, a List of Libraries, and a Directory of<br /> Societies, Booksellers, Bookbinders, etc.<br /> <br /> We have set out in full the statement of what is<br /> claimed for the new issue of the “ Literary Year<br /> Book.” It should prove of valuable assistance to<br /> all who are interested in the writing and production<br /> of books.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Macmillan &amp; Co. are publishing early<br /> this month, “Great Lawn Tennis Players— their<br /> Methods Illustrated,” by G. W. Beldam, and P. A.<br /> Vaile. Messrs. E. G. Meers and A. Claridia both<br /> contribute chapters to the work, the former on<br /> advanced tactics, and the latter on the half volley.<br /> The price of the book, which contains over 200<br /> illustrations, is 10s. net.<br /> <br /> A book of verses written, illustrated, and deco-<br /> rated with specially designed end-papers, initials,<br /> headings, etc., by Sidney Lewis-Ransom, will be<br /> privately printed early in the new year. The<br /> edition will be strictly limited to 500 numbered<br /> and signed copies at a guinea. Intending sub-<br /> Scribers can see the original copy by appointment<br /> with Mr. S. Lewis-Ransom, Messrs. Bemrose &amp;<br /> Sons, Ltd., 4, Snow Hill, E.C.<br /> <br /> Mr. Hall Caine’s new novel, “The Prodigal<br /> Son,” was published early in November by William<br /> Heinemann in England, and Messrs. Appleton &amp; Co.<br /> in the United States. Translations of the work<br /> also appeared in France (“ Le Fils Prodigue”) ; in<br /> Germany (“Der Verlorene Sohn”); Italy (‘Tl<br /> Figliol Prodigo”) ; Sweden (“Den Forlorade<br /> Sonen”); Holland (“De Verlooren Zoon Uys<br /> Denmark (“Den Forlorne Son”); Finland<br /> (“ Tublaaja Poika ”). Weunderstand that transla-<br /> tions into six other languages are in the course of<br /> preparation.<br /> <br /> The first number of The Albany Magazine,<br /> <br /> 65<br /> <br /> the keynote of which is Literature, was published<br /> on November 21st by Messrs. 8. (. Brown, Langham<br /> &amp; Co. Among the contributors may be mentioned<br /> Eden Phillpotts, Morley Roberts, Richard White-<br /> ing, Francis Gribble, Edward Morton, and Henry<br /> Cresswell. :<br /> <br /> The second edition of “Round the World<br /> through Japan,” in four volumes, demy octavo,<br /> with fifty full page illustrations by Walter Del Mar,<br /> has been published by Messrs. A. &amp; C. Black at the<br /> price of 12s. 6d. net. The book deals mostly with<br /> Japan, but it contains four chapters on China,<br /> three on Ceylon, and chapters dealing with the<br /> other spots through which Mr. Del Mar travelled,<br /> <br /> In view of the frequent appearance of advertise-<br /> ments of ‘ Elizabeth ” books, Messrs. Macmillan &amp;<br /> Co. desire it to be known that the author of “ Eliza-<br /> beth and Her German Garden ” publishes her books<br /> through their firm only.<br /> <br /> The latest addition to Messrs. Macmillan &amp; Co.’s<br /> “English Men of Action” series is Sir Rennell<br /> Rodd’s monograph on Sir Walter Raleigh. The lives<br /> of few public men have offered more scope for con-<br /> troversy than has the career of the great Eliza-<br /> bethan, and this study of the complex character of<br /> the famous statesman, soldier, and sailor, by a<br /> modern writer who is identified with broad<br /> imperial views on national questions, will, no doubt,<br /> contain much interesting reading.<br /> <br /> “The First Men in the Moon,” by Mr. H. G.<br /> Wells, has been transferred to Messrs. Macmillan &amp;<br /> Co., and is now issued by them in the uniform<br /> three and sixpenny edition of this author’s works,<br /> <br /> A new edition of “The Liars” has just been<br /> published by the same firm, uniform with the other<br /> dramatic works of Mr. H. A. Jones.<br /> <br /> Miss J. 8. Wolff’s new book, “ Les Francais du<br /> dix-huitieme Siecle” (Edward Arnold, 1s. 6d.) is<br /> the story of the French Revolution simply and<br /> graphically told in French, with notes, ete., in<br /> English.<br /> <br /> Mr. Rolfe has gone into the country to finish his<br /> second work upon Hadrian the Seventh, the story<br /> which Messrs. Chatto &amp; Windus published last<br /> July.<br /> <br /> “The Ambassador’s Glove,” by Robert Mach-<br /> ray, has been published by Mr. John Long at the<br /> price of 6s. It is a story of a daring diamond<br /> robbery at a large hotel, and is full of incident.<br /> <br /> Mrs. Aylmer Gowing has been honoured with<br /> the Queen’s acceptance of a copy of her last book,<br /> “ A King’s Desire.”<br /> <br /> The Book Selection Committee of the National<br /> Home Reading Union have included the two<br /> historical novels, ‘The Gleaming Dawn” and<br /> 66<br /> <br /> “The Cardinal’s Page,” by James Baker, as books<br /> recommended to be read by the readers who are<br /> taking up the subject, “The England of Chaucer<br /> and Wyclif.” As this committee includes several<br /> well-known historians, the compliment of their<br /> choice confirms the numerous reviews of the books.<br /> <br /> Mr. Anthony Hope, lecturing at the Working<br /> Men’s College on Saturday, November 12th,<br /> referred to the modern novel, and stated that it<br /> was too often a vehicle to convey the author’s<br /> view of the world, or was written in order to solve<br /> a problem propounded by the author. He stated,<br /> further, that whereas with the old story the great<br /> question was, “ What happened?” with the present<br /> day story the chief question was, “Why did it<br /> happen ?” or “ Ought it to have happened ?”<br /> <br /> Messrs. Macmillan &amp; Co. have published the<br /> first volume of their reprint of the ‘‘ Diary and<br /> Letters of Madame D’Arblay (1778-1840), with a<br /> preface and notes by Austin Dobson. ‘The new<br /> issue is based on the edition of 1842 to 1846,<br /> edited by Mrs. Charlotte Francis Barrett, and will<br /> consist of six volumes.<br /> <br /> «“ Around a Distant Star,” by Jean Delaire,<br /> author of “ A Dream of Fame,” etc., is published by<br /> Mr. John Long, of 13 and 14, Norris Street, Hay-<br /> market. It is astoryofa journey intospace, embody-<br /> ing a new and interesting central idea. The book<br /> is published at the price of 6s.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Longman will publish shortly a story<br /> by Mr. Walter Herries Pollock, and his son, Mr.<br /> Guy C. Pollock, called “‘ Hay Fever.” It is concerned<br /> with the strange adventures of a highly and justly<br /> respected stockbroker, and is founded on the known<br /> actions of a drug, sometimes prescribed for hay<br /> fever, though the authors have not aimed at<br /> scientific accuracy. The story will appear first in<br /> the pages of Longman’s Magazine.<br /> <br /> A large second edition has just been issued of<br /> Mr. Walter Emanuel’s, ‘‘ The Snob,” the companion<br /> volume to the same authow’s, “ A Dog Day,” which<br /> is now in its twentieth thousand.<br /> <br /> Lord Burghclere’s translation of the Georgics of<br /> Virgil into English verse, which was privately<br /> circulated amongst his friends last year, and a few<br /> extracts from which appeared in the Néneteenth<br /> Century, was published by Mr. John Murray towards<br /> the end of last month.<br /> <br /> Dr. Richard Garnett’s comedy in blank verse, to<br /> which we referred in the May number of Zhe<br /> Author, was published by Mr. John Lane on the<br /> 23rd of last month. The title of the comedy is<br /> “William Shakespeare, Pedagogue and Poacher,”<br /> and among the characters introduced, in addition<br /> to William and Ann Shakespeare, are Sir Thomas<br /> and Lady Lucy, and the Earl of Leicester.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Miss Rosa Nouchette Carey’s book, “At<br /> the Moorings,” which Messrs. Macmillan &amp; Co.<br /> published recently at the price of 6s., has been<br /> included by Baron Tauchnitz in his continental<br /> series. We understand also that Messrs. Macmillan<br /> have published a new and cheaper edition of Miss<br /> Carey’s works at the price of 3s. 6d.<br /> <br /> Mr. H. V. Esmond’s new play, “‘ Love and The<br /> Man,” will be produced in New York in January<br /> by Mr. Forbes Robertson, but will not appear in<br /> London till September, 1905. The play is a<br /> serious one, in five acts, and deals with love and<br /> politics.<br /> <br /> Mr. Alfred Sutro’s play, “The Walls of Jericho,”<br /> described by the critics as a satire of “The Smart<br /> Set,” was produced at the Garrick Theatre on the<br /> 31st. of October, and has met with favourable<br /> reviews. Mr. Arthur Bourchier and Miss Violet<br /> Vanbrugh, in a careful study, contributed largely<br /> to the success.<br /> <br /> On Saturday, November 12th, Miss Olga Nether-<br /> sole produced Mrs. Craigie’s latest play, entitled<br /> ‘“‘The Flute of Pan,” at the Shaftesbury Theatre.<br /> The play deals with an imaginary kingdom entitled<br /> “Siguria.” The plot lies round a man outside the<br /> kingdom who falls in love and marries the Princess.<br /> His position turns out not altogether satisfactory.<br /> <br /> PARIS NOTES.<br /> <br /> ——-—— +<br /> <br /> OW that books on Russia and Japan are<br /> in demand, “ Promenades en Russie,’ by<br /> Madame Blanc-Bentzon, is an excellent one<br /> <br /> for giving an idea of the every-day life of the people.<br /> Among the most interesting chapters are those<br /> which treat of the experiment tried by a wealthy<br /> Russian woman for the welfare and education of<br /> her tenants. After staying for some time at one<br /> of her own estates in Russia, she was struck by the<br /> contrast between her own gay, happy life and the<br /> wretched existence of the people around her. We<br /> are told that le mal de la pitie la prit, un mal dont<br /> on ne guertt pas. She had inherited a certain estate<br /> where she had about a hundred peasant families as<br /> tenants. For over eighteen years she has worked<br /> amongst these people educating and humanising<br /> them. At her death she intends to leave her<br /> property to be divided amongst them. It was to<br /> this little model village that Madame Blanc<br /> Bentzon first went on arriving in Russia. She<br /> gives us an account of all she saw, of the country<br /> itself, its people, their habits and customs, their<br /> traditions and their religion.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 67<br /> <br /> After this we have an account of her visit to<br /> Tolstoi and of his criticisms of modern literature<br /> and thought. The last chapters on ‘ Russian<br /> Women” and “ Village Industries ” are as instruc-<br /> tive as they are interesting, and the whole volume<br /> is written in that clear, natural style which is one<br /> of the great charms of this authoress.<br /> <br /> Another book on Russia which is extremely up-<br /> to-date is entitled “ Roubles et Roublards,” by<br /> Pierre Giffard. The writer of this volume has only<br /> recently returned from a sojourn of several months<br /> in Manchuria. The book is divided into three<br /> parts, the first a series of short graphic chapters,<br /> forty-seven in all, in which we have some amazing<br /> accounts of the bribery and corruption prevalent in<br /> the various administrations. The second part of<br /> the volume is devoted to L’Guvre géante, or the<br /> “Transasiatic.” In thirty more short chapters we<br /> have some Russo-Chinese pictures. The whole<br /> volume is a book well worth reading, as it gives an<br /> excellent idea of the interior of the country it<br /> describes. Everything is told in a concise, bright<br /> way, and one sees that the author knows his<br /> subject thoroughly.<br /> <br /> Another series of ‘‘ Impressions of Japan,” by<br /> Pierre Loti, will be published shortly in the Revwe<br /> des Deur-Mondes.<br /> <br /> To students of history, particularly of the period<br /> of the French Revolution, the book of letters from<br /> a volunteer (1733-1796) will be of great interest.<br /> The volume is entitled “Joliclerc,” and a long<br /> introduction of more than eighty pages is con-<br /> tributed by M. Frantz Funck-Brentano, the well-<br /> known author of “L’Affaire du Collier,’ and<br /> of many other historical works. These letters<br /> are written by Francois-Xavier. Joliclerc to his<br /> mother, and they give an excellent idea of the<br /> soldier of the Revolution. It appears that M. Taine<br /> often regretted the absence of any documents<br /> enabling us to know the thoughts and ideas of the<br /> volunteers who enlisted in the army of the Reyo-<br /> lution. This Joliclere was a humble peasant of<br /> the Jura, but as M. Funck-Brentano says with<br /> reason, in his preface, “ Ces lettres sont des chefs<br /> dceuvre. . Nous ne croyons pas que la<br /> littérature posséde aucun document ou se montre<br /> Yame d’un homme avec plus de force, de clarté<br /> et de simplicité.”<br /> <br /> The third volume of M. Gilbert Stenger’s excel-<br /> lent work on the “ Histoire de la Société francaise<br /> pendant le Consulat ” is now published, and is still<br /> more interesting than the preceding ones. This<br /> third volume is on “ Bonaparte—Sa Famille—Le<br /> Monde et les Salons,” and it would certainly be<br /> difficult to find a subject about which there is<br /> so much to say. It seems as though there must<br /> be an endless fund of information and details<br /> about those times, for every historian finds some-<br /> <br /> thing new to tell us. In this book by M. Stenger,<br /> of over five hundred pages, the interest is kept<br /> up from the first chapter to the last.<br /> <br /> M. Charles Foley’s “Vendée” is a collection<br /> of short stories founded on episodes belonging to<br /> the tragic times during the Vendean struggles.<br /> M. Foley is one of the greatest authorities on the<br /> events of this epoch, as he has made a special<br /> study of it, and is well versed in the archives of<br /> that period. There are about twenty stories in<br /> this volume, illustrated by reproductions of en-<br /> gravings of the times. Most of the episodes are<br /> dramatic, and many of them heroic. It is in stories<br /> of this kind that M. Foley excels, as he writes<br /> with great delicacy, gives us the atmosphere of<br /> the times evoked, and describes equally well the<br /> exquisite refinements, the heroic sacrifices, and<br /> brutalities of the aristocrats, the peasants, the<br /> soldiers, and the mob. Several of the stories in<br /> this volume are masterpieces of sentiment and<br /> style.<br /> <br /> “La Fugitive,’ by J.-H. Rosny, is the title of<br /> a volume of short stories, all of which are told<br /> in acharming way. There are between forty and<br /> fifty of these stories, humorous, sad, tragic,<br /> realistic or romantic. Among those which are the<br /> most delicately told are “Le Retour du Passé,” “Le<br /> Chien,” ‘‘Le Retour,” and “Ie Cadeau Inattendu.”<br /> <br /> ‘“‘Le Dernier Mammouth” is another novel by<br /> M. Auzias Turenne, the author of “Cow Boy.”<br /> The author is a French Canadian, and his books<br /> are vigorous with the refreshing atmosphere of<br /> out-door life. They are no drawing-room novels,<br /> but stories of hardy pioneers, adventurers and<br /> explorers.<br /> <br /> “Te Village endormi,” by M. Georges Riat,<br /> gives an excellent picture of provincial life in<br /> France. It is the story of the rivalry between two<br /> villages in the Franche-Comté, one an agricultural<br /> district, the inhabitants of which are extremely<br /> conservative, and the other an industrial town of<br /> <br /> staunch Republicans, proud of their energy and<br /> progress. A romance runs through the book, as<br /> <br /> the son of the mayor of the one village is in love<br /> with the mayor’s daughter of the other village,<br /> and thanks to the political ideas of their respective<br /> parents, and the antagonism between the two<br /> villages, the course of true love does not run<br /> smoothly in this particular case.<br /> <br /> “Les Centaures,” by M. André Lichtenberger, is<br /> a curious novel telling of the last days and struggles<br /> of the race of Centaurs.<br /> <br /> M. Henri Davignon publishes a book entitled<br /> “ Moliére et la Vie,” which should certainly be read<br /> by all students or admirers of French classics.<br /> The author of this book compares many of the<br /> modern plays, which after an immense success are<br /> soon heard of no more, with those of Molicre. It<br />  <br /> <br /> 68<br /> <br /> ig more than two hundred years since the ‘ Bour-<br /> <br /> geois Gentilhomme ” was put on the stage, but the<br /> piece lives to-day, and never gets old or out of date.<br /> The chapters of this work are headed, ‘‘ Moliere et<br /> les Femmes,” ‘‘Moliere et la Bourgeoisie,<br /> “ Moliere et les Petites Gens,” and ‘ Le drame<br /> dans Moliére,” and all of them are weil worth<br /> reading.<br /> <br /> In the recent reviews there are several excellent<br /> articles. In the Revue des Deux Mondes Count<br /> Charles de Mouy writes on the “Congres de<br /> Berlin,’ and M. Robert de la Sizeranne on<br /> “T/Esthétique des Tombeaux.” In the Revue<br /> de Paris, M. Louis Aubert writes on the subject<br /> of future rivalry between the Americans and the<br /> Japanese. M. Finot, in La Revue has been<br /> giving us some interesting articles entitled “ Le<br /> Roman de la Race francaise,” and M. Ular in the<br /> same paper has an article on “La Militarisation<br /> de la Chine.”<br /> <br /> On the 4th of November M. Paul de Cassagnac<br /> died at the age of sixty-two. For the last<br /> forty years he had written in various news-<br /> papers, and in 1886 he founded the well-known<br /> paper L’Autorite.<br /> <br /> In the dramatic world this season promises to<br /> be a most brilliant one. At the Frangais “‘ Notre<br /> Jeunesse,” by M. Alfred Capus, is pronounced a<br /> success.<br /> <br /> ‘At the Renaissance “L’Escalade,” by M.<br /> Maurice Donnay, is the story of a savant thoroughly<br /> versed in psychology, who, after writing a ponderous<br /> book on “La Therapeutique des Passions,” falls<br /> in love himself as easily as any unsophisticated<br /> youth.<br /> <br /> “Maman Colibri,” by M. Henry Bataille, is being<br /> played at the Vaudeville, so that just at present<br /> there are plenty of interesting pieces running.<br /> <br /> The first International Congress of L’Art<br /> Dramatique, a society of authors and composers,<br /> took place at Nancy at the beginning of this season<br /> under the presidency of M. Alfred Capus. The object<br /> of this society is to put on the stage plays by authors<br /> who are unknown to the public. The cost of pro-<br /> duction is covered by the subscription of members<br /> and by a certain percentage given to the society by<br /> aathors whose plays have been put on, thanks to<br /> the help of this association. The society now has<br /> representatives in the French provinces and in<br /> many of the European countries. A monthly<br /> report is issued, “ L’Avant-Scéne,” and this paper<br /> is sent to all the managers.<br /> <br /> Some very interesting questions were discussed at<br /> this Congress, and it was proposed that every effort<br /> should be made to establish more popular theatres<br /> in the provinces and to encourage decentralisation<br /> as much as possible. The idea is that dramatic<br /> authors living in the provinces should have an<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> opportunity of producing their plays in their own<br /> part of the country without having to wait for 4<br /> verdict from Paris.<br /> Spain, Belgium, and Germany were represented<br /> by their delegates at this Congress.<br /> Anys HALLARD.<br /> <br /> —___—_—&lt;&gt;—_<br /> <br /> SPANISH NOTES.<br /> <br /> +<br /> <br /> PAIN is still plunged in distress at the loss<br /> of the Princess of Asturias, and the Press is<br /> eloquent in its plaints of the raid made by<br /> <br /> the arch enemy into the realm of youth, beauty,<br /> and royalty. The eldest little boy, Alfonzo Maria,<br /> just three years old, is appointed successor to his<br /> mother, Princess Mercedes, as heir to the throne,<br /> pending one in direct succession. The new<br /> infant is doing well in spite of her early initiation<br /> into the dignity of her position, for the little<br /> princess was not half-an-hour old before she was<br /> clad in rich robes and presented on a silver salver<br /> to the Pope’s Nuncio, the Prime Minister, Senor<br /> Sanchez de Tora, the Queen’s lawyer, several<br /> grandees of importance, a few generals, and the<br /> Prince’s royal suite. The sympathy of the whole<br /> country has been aroused for H.M. Queen Maria<br /> Cristina, who is still overwhelmed with grief.<br /> <br /> To turn to our notes of literary interest, the book<br /> list commenced last month by the striking philo-<br /> sophical-historical study of medizeval feudalism as<br /> seen in Gallicia. The title of the work “ El Cas-<br /> tello del Marques de Mos en Sotomayor,” gives the<br /> scene which the Marquesa de Ayerbe has taken as<br /> the subject of the book, and, inspired by her love for<br /> the place which saw her birth and where so much<br /> of her life has been spent, the authoress has spared<br /> herself no time and trouble in the research which<br /> has enabled her to imbue with living interest the<br /> characters who ruled over this district in what she<br /> is pleased to term ‘ the sublime epoch of the<br /> middle ages.” Madruga, the King of Gallicia,<br /> who took prisoner the Archbishop of Tuy, his<br /> virtuous successor, Don Alvaro, the parricide, Don<br /> Pedro, and poor Dofia Enriquez, who was assassi-<br /> nated by her own son, all are powerfully described<br /> by the pen of the learned lady, and the record gains<br /> in interest by descending as far as the establish-<br /> ment of the rights by the law court of Valladolid<br /> of Don Pelayo Antonio Correa Sotomayor, the great<br /> grandfather of the present duke, whose influential<br /> name is a household word in Madrid as the chief of<br /> the Royal Palace. :<br /> <br /> The history of the families of Spanish grandees<br /> is always rife with interest. That of Colonel<br /> Luis de Figuerola Ferrette can be traced back<br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 69<br /> <br /> for sixteen generations, and his mother having<br /> been sister to Pope Pius IX. adds a sort of sacer-<br /> dotal dignity to a man so distinguished for his<br /> devotion to his king and his country. A review in<br /> Paris has given a very laudatory notice of his new<br /> historical drama, ‘‘ Love, Honour, and Duty.”<br /> <br /> The new play by Manuel Linares Rivas Astray,<br /> called “ Aire de Fuera,” published by the Society of<br /> Spanish Authors, bids fair to ventilate the opinions<br /> on divorce which are now surging to the surface in<br /> Spain. The book is dedicated to the well-known<br /> actor Fernando Diaz de Mendoza, who takes the<br /> chief man’s part in the representation of the piece<br /> on the boards. The plot treats of a wife’s terror at<br /> having to return to her villainous husband at the<br /> end of the five years separation granted after untold<br /> humiliating legal proceedings, which seems at<br /> present to be the nearest approach to divorce<br /> known in Spain. The unhappy woman’s suicide is<br /> the solution of the difficulty. The other married<br /> couple show the opposite side of the picture as<br /> the husband suggests divorce in Belgium as<br /> the salve to his deception by his trusted wife. The<br /> dialogue is bright and trenchant, bristling with such<br /> sentiments as “ Men make the laws without think-<br /> ing that woman’s body contains a dreaming suffering<br /> soul.”<br /> <br /> The subject of divorce is being well aired just<br /> now, for Madame Carmen Burgos de Segui, the<br /> well-known writer, under the name of “ Colum-<br /> bine” in the Diario de Madrid, &amp;c., has just<br /> published a book called “ El Divorcio en Espana,”<br /> which is a collection of opinions she solicited on<br /> divorce from many of the leading people of the<br /> day. The interest of the work naturally lies in the<br /> diversity of the ideas expressed, and it forms a<br /> valuable study in Spanish thought on the question.<br /> The indefatigable editress publishes, moreover, in<br /> the Diario Universal of November 2nd, a long inter-<br /> view she had on the subject of divorce with<br /> Alfred Naquet, the well-known French reformist, in<br /> this direction. ‘Do you think that Spain will ulti-<br /> mately succeed in its efforts in this matter ?”<br /> asked the lady ; and the deputy replied, “ I believe<br /> it will be a long time hence, for success involves<br /> the necessity of a few members of the Congress<br /> being strong in the belief of liberty of thought.”<br /> And must not the vox populi be heard at the Parlia-<br /> mentary elections for such politicians to represent<br /> <br /> he people ?<br /> <br /> Consuelo de Alvarez also writes a powerful<br /> article in the daily Press on the question of<br /> divorce.<br /> <br /> Edmundo Gonzalez has just published a work<br /> called “ El Feminismo en las Sociedades Modernas,”<br /> which puts the question on a better platform in<br /> Spain—for when Consuelo del Rey says in her<br /> article on “ Woman and War,” that Spain would<br /> <br /> only care to be affiliated with the International<br /> Council of Women if such a council interested itself<br /> in the extermination of war, she is evidently<br /> ignorant of the great propaganda for peace in-<br /> augurated by the Council under such well-known<br /> women as Bertha V. Siittner, of Germany (author<br /> of the book, ‘‘ Arms Down,” which was commended<br /> by the Emperor William IT.), Jessie Ackermann<br /> (President of the Universal Alliance for Peace in<br /> America), Fru Blehr (President of the Universal<br /> Alliance for Peace by Education in Norway), and<br /> other ladies spoke powerfully on the subject at<br /> the recent International Congress for Women at<br /> Berlin.<br /> <br /> Several works of Prince Kropotkin, Harnack,<br /> and William James have been recently translated<br /> into Spanish, and “ Le Jardon d’Hpicure,” trans-<br /> lated by Ciges Aparicio, has created quite a sensa-<br /> tion, for it is declared to give food for a year’s<br /> thought, although it can be perused in a hour and<br /> a half.<br /> <br /> The well-known name of Galdos is now again<br /> before the public, as the author of the much<br /> required history of Spain during the nineteenth<br /> century. Itis to be called “ Episodias Nacionales,”<br /> and the pages just published in the Liberal on the<br /> late Queen Isabella II. promise well for the work<br /> of the famous novelist and dramatist.<br /> <br /> The Atheneum of Madrid was the scene last<br /> week of a lecture from the lips of the late Prime<br /> Minister, Senor Silvela, which marks Spain as the<br /> land par excellence for oratory. The distinguished<br /> audience numbered such well-known names as<br /> Sefior Moret (the minister who recently spoke so<br /> eloquently of our educational efforts in White-<br /> chapel), Canalejas, Echegaray, Dato, the Marques<br /> de Portago, &amp;c., &amp;e.<br /> <br /> Seiior Silvela commenced his speech with an<br /> interesting personal remark with regard to his<br /> retirement from Parliamentary life. “I was van-<br /> quished,” he said, “ not vanquished by my enemies<br /> or my friends, whose opinions certainly add to the<br /> cares of government, but I was vanquished by the<br /> sense of my inability to realise the ideals which<br /> impelled me to Parliamentary activity. But albeit<br /> vanquished in the arena of politics, I can never be<br /> called a deserter from realms of ideals for my<br /> country, and I gladly take my place in this<br /> Athenzeum, which has always been the scene of<br /> the great intellectual movements of our land.”<br /> Then, after an erudite reference to the leading<br /> minds of Christianity and philosophy, the orator<br /> proceeded to show that as truly as matter has its<br /> three dimensions, so is it undeniable that the<br /> human mind is subject to the measure of the true,<br /> the good, and the beautifal.<br /> <br /> RACHEL CHALLICE.<br />  <br /> <br /> COPYRIGHT IN SWEDEN.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> S Sweden joined the Berne Convention on<br /> August 1st, 1904, information as to the law<br /> of copyright prevailing in that country will<br /> <br /> be of interest, and may at any time be of use to<br /> members of the Society of Authors.<br /> <br /> The following notes have been contributed by the<br /> courtesy of a Swedish correspondent, Herr Harald<br /> Thornberg, whose translation with a few necessary<br /> alterations of idiom and phraseology we lay before<br /> our readers.<br /> <br /> The rights of Swedish subjects are governed by<br /> laws which bear the dates August 10th, 1877,<br /> May 28th, 1897, and April, 1904. The declaration<br /> of His Majesty the King of Sweden, which extended<br /> to his country the benefits of the Berne Convention,<br /> is dated July 8th, 1904.<br /> <br /> The provisions of the Swedish laws referred to<br /> are as follows : the sections or paragraphs are num-<br /> bered for the purpose of reference.<br /> <br /> General Provisions.<br /> <br /> (1) By the law of 1897 the author enjoys the<br /> exclusive right to print and multiply his works<br /> already published or unpublished, and the works<br /> thus protected include, besides literary compo-<br /> sitions, musical compositions, recorded by the<br /> ordinary or other forms of notation, maps, charts,<br /> architectural and other drawings, and reproductions<br /> of these, provided that they are not primarily<br /> produced for artistic purposes only.<br /> <br /> (2) By the law of 1897 an author enjoys the<br /> exclusive right to translate his work from one<br /> dialect to another of the same language. Tor the<br /> purposes of this section Swedish, Norwegian and<br /> Danish are deemed to be different dialects of the<br /> same language.<br /> <br /> (3) By the law of 1904 an author who, simul-<br /> taneously with his Swedish publication, publishes<br /> his book in another language or languages, and gives<br /> notice on his title page or at the commencement<br /> of his work that he is so doing, is deemed to have<br /> produced it in the language or languages specified.<br /> <br /> He enjoys the copyright in such translation for<br /> ten years, during which period he can restrain<br /> others from producing any other translation in the<br /> language or languages in question.<br /> <br /> (4) By the law of 1897 the translator of an<br /> author’s work into another language (provided that<br /> it be one the translation of which the author<br /> cannot restrain) enjoys the rights in his translation<br /> which are conferred upon an author by Section 1<br /> above. Hisrights, however, do not preclude others<br /> from making translations of the same work.<br /> <br /> (5) By the law of 1877 the publisher of any<br /> periodicals or books compiled from independent<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> contributions by various authors is deemed to be<br /> the author of the compilation, but acquires no<br /> right to publish any of the articles appearing in<br /> such periodical or book separately. ‘Ihe author<br /> may republish the articles which he has contributed<br /> to such periodical or compiled books at the end<br /> of one year from the date of their first publication.<br /> <br /> (6) By the law of 1877 the author may transfer<br /> his copyright to one or more persons either uncon-<br /> ditionally or with reservations. If he has not done<br /> so his rights will pass at his death to his heirs.*<br /> Unless expressly permitted to do so by the author<br /> the transferee of literary rights may not publish<br /> more than one edition, which may not consist of<br /> more than 1,000 copies.<br /> <br /> (7) By the law of 1877 copyright continues.<br /> during the author’s life-time and for fifty years<br /> after his death. Where two or more have collabo-<br /> rated as joint authors, not as independent con-<br /> tributors to a compilation, the said fifty years are<br /> to be reckoned from the death of the last deceased.<br /> <br /> (8) By the law of 1897 literary matter published<br /> by a scientific or other society which does not<br /> recognise the personal authorship of the work, and<br /> literary matter first published after the death of the<br /> author, are protected for fifty years from the date of<br /> their first publication.<br /> <br /> Fifty years is also the period of copyright for<br /> literary matter published anonymously or under a<br /> pseudonym, provided that, if the author before the<br /> end of the fiftieth year from the date of its first<br /> publication complies with certain prescribed con-<br /> ditions, he shall enjoy the copyright conferred by<br /> Section 7. These conditions are that he shall make<br /> known his identity either on the title page of a<br /> new edition, or by notice to the department of<br /> justice, followed by public advertisement repeated<br /> three times in the public press. Until the author<br /> has made himself known in one of the foregoing<br /> ways, the publisher shall represent him as the<br /> owner of the copyright.<br /> <br /> (9) By the law of 1897, when a literary compo-<br /> sition is published in a series of parts, the period<br /> of copyright is deemed to commence after the publi-<br /> cation of the last part. Should any part, however,<br /> have been published more than two years after the<br /> publication of the next preceding part, the period<br /> of protection for such next preceding part, as well<br /> as for any earlier parts, will be deemed to commence<br /> at the date of the publication of the part next<br /> preceding the interval of two years.<br /> <br /> (10) By the law of 1877, except in cases as to<br /> which it is expressly otherwise provided by. law,.<br /> no one may reprint that which is the subject of<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> * This word is used here and in paragraph 22 by Mr.<br /> Thornberg. It may mean personal representatives or<br /> <br /> descendants; it is not likely to mean “ heirs’ in the<br /> technical Hnglish meaning of the word.<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. | 71<br /> <br /> copyright during the continuance of the prescribed<br /> period without the permission of the owner of the<br /> copyright for the time being. No right to reprint<br /> what is otherwise protected is obtained by altering,<br /> abridging, or expanding the original matter. Re-<br /> printing under this section includes the publication<br /> of any unauthorised translation of the unpublished<br /> work of another, and of translations not pub-<br /> lished, as provided by Section 2, as well as publica-<br /> tion by any publisher, or by any person who has<br /> acquired a limited right to publish, when such pub-<br /> lication is not in accordance with the terms of his<br /> contract or licence to publish.<br /> <br /> (11) By the law of 1877 the prohibition of the<br /> unauthorised reprinting of the work of another<br /> does not apply to literary compositions which are<br /> in substance new and independent, and in which<br /> extracts from other works are introduced, either<br /> verbatim or in an abridged form, should such<br /> extracts be quoted as authorities, or for the purpose<br /> of criticising them, or as examples, or for the pur-<br /> pose of amplifying the topics treated of. Nor does<br /> such prohibition apply to the reprinting of passages,<br /> or of entire works of small dimensions, in compila-<br /> tions made for use in religious services, or in<br /> elementary instruction in reading, music, or draw-<br /> ing, or for the purpose of historical illustration, or<br /> when words are reprinted as the motive for a<br /> musical composition. In such cases, however, the<br /> name of the author must be given, should his<br /> name be attached to the original.<br /> <br /> (12) By the law of 1897 the prohibition of<br /> reprinting does not apply to quotations in periodical<br /> publications from articles which have appeared in<br /> publications of a similar character, provided that<br /> full acknowledgment is made, indicating the source<br /> from which the quotation is taken. Scientific<br /> treatises, literary compositions, and other works of<br /> greater length must not be reprinted in periodical<br /> publications, if the right to reprint has been<br /> expressly reserved at the beginning of the treatise<br /> or work in question, or at the beginning of the<br /> periodical volume, or volumes, in which it has<br /> appeared.<br /> <br /> The Swedish law of copyright so far as it affects<br /> dramatic and musical compositions.<br /> <br /> (13) By thelaw of 1897 dramatic and musical com-<br /> positions, the right of reproducing which by printing<br /> is protected by law, cannot be performed in public<br /> without the consent of the author or of the assignee<br /> of the author’s rights. Public performance of<br /> dramatic works, even without stage accessories,<br /> and of musical works, is subject to this restriction,<br /> both when the work in question has not been pub-<br /> lished in printed form, and when reservation of the<br /> right of public performance has been made upon<br /> the title page of the first printed edition.<br /> <br /> In the case of translations of published works<br /> for which the permission of the author is not<br /> required, the translator obtains the same right in<br /> his translation which he would have obtained as an<br /> author in an original work. In the absence of a<br /> special agreement to the contrary, the license or<br /> permission given by the author or the owner of the<br /> author’s rights to perform or present a dramatic<br /> or musical work, does not limit the number of per-<br /> formances and presentations, and is not assignable<br /> to a third party. The owner of the author’s rights,<br /> in the absence of any special agreement to the con-<br /> trary, may give such permission or licence to more<br /> than one person. Where the sole right of perform-<br /> ance or presentation has been assigned by the<br /> owner of the author’s rights, and the assignee<br /> during the five years next ensuing makes no use<br /> of such sole right, the owner of the author’s rights<br /> is at liberty to issue his licence or permission to<br /> another person or persons.<br /> <br /> (14) By the law of 1904 the right of an author<br /> or translator, as set out above with reference to<br /> musical and dramatic compositions, prevails during<br /> his lifetime and for thirty years after his death.<br /> In the case of works produced anonymously, any-<br /> one is at liberty to perform or present these after<br /> five years have elapsed from the date of their first<br /> publication or presentation.<br /> <br /> Legal remedies for the infringement of copyright<br /> m Sweden.<br /> <br /> (15) By the law of 1897 any person who<br /> infringes the copyright of another is liable to a fine<br /> of from twenty to one thousand crowns, to for-<br /> feiture of the edition published in contravention of<br /> such copyright, and to the payment of compensation<br /> in respect of copies sold at the full price of the<br /> authorised edition. This liability in respect of<br /> publications which are partially and to an ascer-<br /> tainable extent infringements of copyright, is<br /> proportionate to the extent of the infringement.<br /> <br /> Any person who by any unauthorised performance<br /> or presentation of dramatic or musical works (or of<br /> works both dramatic and musical) infringes the<br /> copyright of another is liable to a fine of from ten<br /> to one thousand crowns, and to pay by way of<br /> indemnity, to the owner of the copyright, the gross<br /> amount received by him at the time of such per-<br /> formance or presentation without deduction for any<br /> expenses incurred. When the performance which is<br /> the subject of legal proceedings has included the<br /> production of another work or other works, the<br /> indemnity thus payable shall be adjusted on a<br /> proportionate scale.<br /> <br /> Ifthe indemnity to be paid cannot be assessed<br /> upon the basis thus laid down, it shall be assessed<br /> upon such a scale as shall be found reasonable in<br /> the circumstances of the case, but so that the<br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> COPYRIGHT IN SWEDEN.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> S Sweden joined the Berne Convention on<br /> August Ist, 1904, information as to the law<br /> of copyright prevailing in that country will<br /> <br /> be of interest, and may at any time be of use to<br /> members of the Society of Authors.<br /> <br /> The following notes have been contributed by the<br /> courtesy of a Swedish correspondent, Herr Harald<br /> Thornberg, whose translation with a few necessary<br /> alterations of idiom and phraseology we lay before<br /> our readers.<br /> <br /> The rights of Swedish subjects are governed by<br /> laws which bear the dates August 10th, 1877,<br /> May 28th, 1897, and April, 1904. The declaration<br /> of His Majesty the King of Sweden, which extended<br /> to his country the benefits of the Berne Convention,<br /> is dated July 8th, 1904.<br /> <br /> The provisions of the Swedish laws referred to<br /> are as follows: the sections or paragraphs are num-<br /> bered for the purpose of reference.<br /> <br /> General Provisions.<br /> <br /> (1) By the law of 1897 the author enjoys the<br /> exclusive right to print and multiply his works<br /> already published or unpublished, and the works<br /> thus protected include, besides literary compo-<br /> sitions, musical compositions, recorded by the<br /> ordinary or other forms of notation, maps, charts,<br /> architectural and other drawings, and reproductions<br /> of these, provided that they are not primarily<br /> produced for artistic purposes only.<br /> <br /> (2) By the law of 1897 an author enjoys the<br /> exclusive right to translate his work from one<br /> dialect to another of the same language. For the<br /> purposes of this section Swedish, Norwegian and<br /> Danish are deemed to be different dialects of the<br /> same language.<br /> <br /> (3) By the law of 1904 an author who, simul-<br /> taneously with his Swedish publication, publishes<br /> his book in another language or languages, and gives<br /> notice on his title page or at the commencement<br /> of his work that he is so doing, is deemed to have<br /> produced it in the language or languages specified.<br /> <br /> He enjoys the copyright in such translation for<br /> ten years, during which period he can restrain<br /> others from producing any other translation in the<br /> language or languages in question.<br /> <br /> (4) By the law of 1897 the translator of an<br /> author’s work into another language (provided that<br /> it be one the translation of which the author<br /> cannot restrain) enjoys the rights in his translation<br /> which are conferred upon an author by Section 1<br /> above. Hisrights, however, do not preclude others<br /> from making translations of the same work.<br /> <br /> (5) By the law of 1877 the publisher of any<br /> periodicals or books compiled from independent<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> contributions by various authors is deemed to be<br /> the author of the compilation, but acquires no<br /> right to publish any of the articles appearing in<br /> such periodical or book separately. ‘Ihe author<br /> may republish the articles which he has contributed<br /> to such periodical or compiled books at the end<br /> of one year from the date of their first publication.<br /> <br /> (6) By the law of 1877 the author may transfer<br /> his copyright to one or more persons either uncon-<br /> ditionally or with reservations. If he has not done<br /> so his rights will pass at his death to his heirs.*<br /> Unless expressly permitted to do so by the author<br /> the transferee of literary rights may not publish<br /> more than one edition, which may not consist of<br /> more than 1,000 copies.<br /> <br /> (7) By the law of 1877 copyright continues<br /> during the author’s life-time and for fifty years<br /> after his death. Where two or more have collabo-<br /> rated as joint authors, not as independent con-<br /> tributors to a compilation, the said fifty years are<br /> to be reckoned from the death of the last deceased.<br /> <br /> (8) By the law of 1897 literary matter published<br /> by a scientific or other society which does not<br /> recognise the personal authorship of the work, and<br /> literary matter first published after the death of the<br /> author, are protected for fifty years from the date of<br /> their first publication.<br /> <br /> Fifty years is also the period of copyright for<br /> literary matter published anonymously or under a<br /> pseudonym, provided that, if the author before the<br /> end of the fiftieth year from the date of its first,<br /> publication complies with certain prescribed con-<br /> ditions, he shall enjoy the copyright conferred by<br /> Section 7. These conditions are that he shall make<br /> known his identity either on the title page of a<br /> new edition, or by notice to the department of<br /> justice, followed by public advertisement repeated<br /> three times in the public press. Until the author<br /> has made himself known in one of the foregoing<br /> ways, the publisher shall represent him as the<br /> owner of the copyright.<br /> <br /> (9) By the law of 1897, when a literary compo-<br /> sition is published in a series of parts, the period<br /> of copyright is deemed to commence after the publi-<br /> cation of the last part. Should any part, however,<br /> have been published more than two years after the<br /> publication of the next preceding part, the period<br /> of protection for such next preceding part, as well<br /> as for any earlier parts, will be deemed to commence<br /> at the date of the publication of the part next<br /> preceding the interval of two years.<br /> <br /> (10) By the law of 1877, except in cases as to<br /> which it is expressly otherwise provided by, law,.<br /> no one may reprint that which is the subject of<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> * This word is used here and in paragraph 22 by Mr.<br /> Thornberg. It may mean personal representatives or<br /> <br /> descendants; it is not likely to mean “heirs” in the<br /> technical English meaning of the word.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. . 71<br /> <br /> copyright during the continuance of the prescribed<br /> period without the permission of the owner of the<br /> copyright for the time being. No right to reprint<br /> what is otherwise protected is obtained by altering,<br /> abridging, or expanding the original matter. Re-<br /> printing under this section includes the publication<br /> of any unauthorised translation of the unpublished<br /> work of another, and of translations not pub-<br /> lished, as provided by Section 2, as well as publica-<br /> tion by any publisher, or by any person who has<br /> acquired a limited right to publish, when such pub-<br /> lication is not in accordance with the terms of his<br /> contract or licence to publish.<br /> <br /> (11) By the law of 1877 the prohibition of the<br /> unauthorised reprinting of the work of another<br /> does not apply to literary compositions which are<br /> in substance new and independent, and in which<br /> extracts from other works are introduced, either<br /> verbatim or in an abridged form, should such<br /> extracts be quoted as authorities, or for the purpose<br /> of criticising them, or as examples, or for the pur-<br /> pose of amplifying the topics treated of. Nor does<br /> such prohibition apply to the reprinting of passages,<br /> or of entire works of small dimensions, in compila-<br /> tions made for use in religious services, or in<br /> elementary instruction in reading, music, or draw-<br /> ing, or for the purpose of historical illustration, or<br /> when words are reprinted as the motive for a<br /> musical composition. In such cases, however, the<br /> name of the author must be given, should his<br /> name be attached to the original.<br /> <br /> (12) By the law of 1897 the prohibition of<br /> reprinting does not apply to quotations in periodical<br /> publications from articles which have appeared in<br /> publications of a similar character, provided that<br /> full acknowledgment is made, indicating the source<br /> from which the quotation is taken. Scientific<br /> treatises, literary compositions, and other works of<br /> greater length must not be reprinted in periodical<br /> publications, if the right to reprint has been<br /> expressly reserved at the beginning of the treatise<br /> or work in question, or at the beginning of the<br /> periodical volume, or volumes, in which it has<br /> appeared.<br /> <br /> The Swedish law of copyright so far as it affects<br /> dramatic and musical compositions.<br /> <br /> (13) By the law of 1897 dramatic and musical com-<br /> positions, the right of reproducing which by printing<br /> <br /> is protected by law, cannot be performed in public’<br /> <br /> without the consent of the author or of the assignee<br /> of the author’s rights. Public performance of<br /> dramatic works, even without stage accessories,<br /> and of musical works, is subject to this restriction,<br /> both when the work in question has not been pub-<br /> lished in printed form, and when reservation of the<br /> right of public performance has been made upon<br /> the title page of the first printed edition.<br /> <br /> In the case of translations of published works<br /> for which the permission of the author is not<br /> required, the translator obtains the same right in<br /> his translation which he would have obtained as an<br /> author in an original work. In the absence of a<br /> special agreement to the contrary, the license or<br /> permission given by the author or the owner of the<br /> author’s rights to perform or present a dramatic<br /> or musical work, does not limit the number of per-<br /> formances and presentations, and is not assignable<br /> to a third party. The owner of the author’s rights,<br /> in the absence of any special agreement to the con-<br /> trary, may give such permission or licence to more<br /> than one person. Where the sole right of perform-<br /> ance or presentation has been assigned by the<br /> owner of the author’s rights, and the assignee<br /> during the five years next ensuing makes no use<br /> of such sole right, the owner of the author&#039;s rights<br /> is at liberty to issue his licence or permission to<br /> another person or persons.<br /> <br /> (14) By the law of 1904 the right of an author<br /> or translator, as set out above with reference to<br /> musical and dramatic compositions, prevails during<br /> his lifetime and for thirty years after his death.<br /> In the case of works produced anonymously, any-<br /> one is at liberty to perform or present these after<br /> five years have elapsed from the date of their first<br /> publication or presentation.<br /> <br /> Legal remedies for the infringement of copyright<br /> m Sweden.<br /> <br /> (15) By the law of 1897 any person who<br /> infringes the copyright of another is liable to a fine<br /> of from twenty to one thousand crowns, to for-<br /> feiture of the edition published in contravention of<br /> such copyright, and to the payment of compensation<br /> in respect of copies sold at the full price of the<br /> authorised edition. This liability in respect of<br /> publications which are partially and to an ascer-<br /> tainable extent infringements of copyright, is<br /> proportionate to the extent of the infringement.<br /> <br /> Any person who by any unauthorised performance<br /> or presentation of dramatic or musical works (or of<br /> works both dramatic and musical) infringes the<br /> copyright of another is liable to a fine of from ten<br /> to one thousand crowns, and to pay by way of<br /> indemnity, to the owner of the copyright, the gross<br /> amount received by him at the time of such per-<br /> formance or presentation without deduction for any<br /> expenses incurred. When the performance which is<br /> the subject of legal proceedings has included the<br /> production of another work or other works, the<br /> indemnity thus payable shall be adjusted on a<br /> proportionate scale.<br /> <br /> If the indemnity to be paid cannot be assessed<br /> upon the basis thus laid down, it shall be assessed<br /> upon such a scale as shall be found reasonable in<br /> the circumstances of the case, but so that the<br />  <br /> <br /> 72<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> amount payable shall not be less than twenty-five<br /> crowns. :<br /> <br /> (16) By the law of 1897, all materials such as<br /> stereotype plates, blocks and formes, the only use<br /> of which can be the multiplying of copies of a work<br /> in infringement of the author’s rights, as well as<br /> all copies of a work made with a view to musical<br /> or dramatic infringements, shall be seized, and<br /> unless the parties otherwise agree, shall be destroyed.<br /> <br /> (17) By the law of 1877, the failure to<br /> mention the name of the author or the title of the<br /> periodical publication as set out in Sections 11 and<br /> 12, renders the offending party liable to a fine not<br /> exceeding one hundred crowns.<br /> <br /> (18) By the law of 1877, the penalties and<br /> indemnities ordered to be paid by those who publish<br /> works in infringement of the author’s rights are<br /> payable also, in proportion to the extent of the<br /> infringement, by those who knowingly offer such<br /> works for sale or import them into the kingdom.<br /> <br /> The Law affectiny foreigners, the consent of goint<br /> owners of copyright, the calculation of time, etc.<br /> (19) By the law of 1897, the Swedish law of<br /> <br /> copyright applies to all works of Swedish subjects<br /> <br /> and to works of foreigners first published in Sweden.<br /> <br /> Where reciprocal advantages are afforded by any<br /> <br /> other country, the king may by proclamation enable<br /> <br /> the subjects of that country to enjoy wholly or in<br /> part the advantages conferred by Swedish law in<br /> respect of works first published in that country.<br /> <br /> (20) By the law of 1897, when a work has<br /> been so produced that the cunsent of more than one<br /> person is necessary for its publication, performance<br /> or presentation, the consent of each such person<br /> must be obtained. In the case, however, of the pro-<br /> duction of work which is both musical and drama-<br /> tic, where the work is principally musical or<br /> principally dramatic, there the consent of the author<br /> of the preponderating element is sufficient.<br /> <br /> (21) By the law of 1877, in calculating the<br /> periods of time mentioned in Sections 5, 7, 8, 9,<br /> 13, 14, the calendar year is not counted in which<br /> the incident occurs from which the prescribed period<br /> is reckoned.<br /> <br /> (22.) By the law of 1877, when a work is<br /> unprinted and is in the possession of the author’s<br /> widow or heirs, the copyright may not be seized for<br /> debt, nor does it pass to creditors in case of<br /> bankruptcy.<br /> <br /> (23) By the law of 1877 legal proceedings in<br /> respect of the law of copyright can only be taken<br /> by the owner of the right alleged to be infringed.<br /> <br /> (24) The law of 1904 came into force on<br /> July 1st, 1904, and applies retrospectively . to<br /> literary work published before that date, provided,<br /> however, that translations lawfully made before<br /> that date without the author’s consent may<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THER AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> continue to be published, and provided also that<br /> any one who has lawfully performed or presented<br /> dramatical or musical works before that date may<br /> continue to do so.<br /> <br /> —_____+——+ —____—_.<br /> <br /> MR. GEORGE RUSSELL AND “THE NORTH<br /> AMERICAN REVIEW.”<br /> <br /> —&lt;&gt;—+——<br /> <br /> JE have taken the letter printed below<br /> \\ from the Zimes of November 18th. It<br /> <br /> seems an extraordinary thing that a<br /> magazine of the position of the North American<br /> Review should have taken the course set forth in<br /> Mr. Russell’s letter, and it is the more extraordinary<br /> as we understand that the editor had notice of the<br /> writer’s objection. No doubt in the daily papers<br /> a certain latitude is allowed to an editor in altering<br /> and correcting articles of ephemeral interest, as<br /> there are pressing events which necessitate the<br /> editor taking this responsibility. In many cases he<br /> has not time to apply to the author. This reason,<br /> however, cannot apply to the editor of a big<br /> monthly review, and the question of a time limiit<br /> cannot possible arise. Certainly in this case it<br /> did not arise, as the editor had had the article by<br /> him for at least three years. That he should have<br /> made the alterations without the consent of the<br /> author, and have altered the present tenses into<br /> preterites, is carrying the editorial power beyond all<br /> reason. It is bad enough for the editor of a big<br /> review to retain an article for three years without<br /> publication, though we must mention with regret<br /> that editors of some of the big reviews in England<br /> are not guiltless on this point—they sometimes.<br /> keep their authors waiting for publication and<br /> payment beyond the limits of all justice—but it<br /> has never come to our notice, except in the instance<br /> quoted above, that alterations have been made<br /> without the author’s sanction, and we must confess<br /> that Mr. G. W. E. Russell seems amply justified<br /> in the protest he has made by the letter to the<br /> Times.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> To THE EDITOR OF THE Times.<br /> <br /> S1r,—Pray give me space for a personal grievance.<br /> <br /> When Sir William Harcourt died several editors asked<br /> me to give some account of him. ll these invitations I<br /> declined, on the ground that I had strongly dissented from<br /> some parts of Sir William’s public conduct, and that I was<br /> unwilling, at such a moment, to revive former discords,<br /> <br /> Great is my consternation, on opening the North Ameri-<br /> can Review for November 15, to see an article on Sir<br /> William Harcourt signed by myself. This article must, I<br /> think, be three years old. It was written at the request of<br /> the editor, as a candid criticism of a living and active<br /> politician. The editor seems to have kept it by him all<br /> these years, and has now published it with alterations. All<br /> the present tenses have been altered into preterites ; and the<br /> article has thus been made to wear the semblance of an<br /> Obituary Notice.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> TAE AU THOR.<br /> <br /> I deeply regret this exercise of editorial discretion ; for it<br /> must cause pain to some for whom I feel the most sincere<br /> <br /> respect and regard.<br /> Your obedient servant,<br /> GEORGE W. E. RUSSELL.<br /> <br /> November 17th.<br /> a ee<br /> <br /> HINTS ON PRODUCTION.<br /> <br /> —1—~&lt;&gt;— » —<br /> <br /> I.<br /> MANUSCRIPTS.<br /> <br /> N the preparation of manuscript for publication<br /> <br /> | it is hardly necessary to say that a neatly<br /> <br /> written one is likely to receive greater con-<br /> sideration from an editor or publisher, especially if<br /> the author is a beginner. An untidy manuscript,<br /> full of alterations or emendations, is tiresome to read,<br /> and is sometimes rejected on that score. Even if<br /> there is some literary merit in the production, its<br /> slovenliness is apt to warn the publisher of possible<br /> author’s corrections in the proofs, the charges for<br /> which are often a bone of contention between the<br /> publisher, author and printer. Although the printer<br /> may have no preference for typewritten as against<br /> ordinary and clearly written copy, it may save some<br /> expense if the author corrects his manuscript and<br /> then has it carefully typewritten. This plan is<br /> certainly best, and would find favour with those<br /> who have to express an opinion on its literary<br /> merits. Again, as this reproduction is practically<br /> a proof, it can, of course, be corrected again before<br /> it is actually placed in the printer’s hands.<br /> <br /> If this is done it will obviate extra charges, and<br /> possibly avoid a deal of friction and, perhaps,<br /> unpleasant correspondence. It is not every author<br /> who appreciates the difficulty or expense of making<br /> alterations in the type when once set up, because<br /> a simple insertion or deletion of a passage may<br /> necessitate alterations alfecting lines or even pages<br /> of type. If some correction is needful, it is a wise<br /> precaution to substitute or cut out a word or words<br /> for anything actually required to be inserted or<br /> expunged from the proof. A given size of page<br /> set up in a certain type may be estimated to a<br /> nicety, but the precise cost of making alterations<br /> in type is not easily calculated or checked.<br /> <br /> The following table will give the approximate<br /> number of words contained in a square inch of<br /> various types (a) with one ordinary lead, and<br /> (b) matter set solid, z.e., without leads.<br /> <br /> Leaded. Solid.<br /> Pica oe 12 ee 15<br /> small Pies... 16 Ae 23<br /> Long Primer ... 20 a 27<br /> Bourgeois a. 24 a. 82<br /> Brevier = 29 38<br /> <br /> Nonpareil . 40 ie 59<br /> <br /> 73<br /> <br /> These figures are based on an average kind of<br /> work written in the English language.<br /> <br /> Boox Founts.<br /> <br /> There are many kinds to be chosen from, but<br /> the first thing is to select the size. Small types<br /> should not be used unless there is some real neces-<br /> sity to do so, for most can read an average one, but<br /> a small face is trying and hurtful to the eyes, and<br /> to some a physical impossibility. For ordinary<br /> work there is some sort of unwritten law governing<br /> the size of type to be employed for a volume of a<br /> certain size, and this average, roughly, is pica for<br /> demy 8vo, 82 in. x 5§ in., small pica for crown 8vo,<br /> 74 in. x 5 in., and long primer for foolscap 8vo,<br /> larger and smaller volumes taking proportionate<br /> sizes. If we were to take a consensus of opinion on<br /> what might be considered a fairly comfortable size<br /> of type for reading purposes, we probably would find<br /> both long primer and small pica as being the ideals.<br /> It is in one or other of these founts that nearly all<br /> one volume novels are printed, the detail of leading<br /> or non-leading being determined by the precise<br /> length of the manuscript, and the number of pages<br /> the book is to make when in print.<br /> <br /> With regard to the design or character of the<br /> type face, this is also an important matter. As the<br /> cost of printing from a well-designed type is no more<br /> than that of printing from an ill-formed one, care<br /> should be taken in the selection of a good character.<br /> This may be to some extent a matter of taste, but<br /> if a good many books are examined it will be found<br /> that by far the larger number are printed in the<br /> so-called “old style” character, which for books<br /> is certainly the best kind, whereas the ‘“ modern<br /> face,” such as Zhe Author is printed in, is best<br /> adapted for magazine or newspaper printing.<br /> <br /> The format of a page and the placing of that<br /> page on the paper, so as to give the proper propor-<br /> tion of margin when printed, are two very important<br /> elements if a well-designed volume is desired. ‘To<br /> arrive at this result requires a good deal of judg-<br /> ment, for a full or crowded page placed on the leaf<br /> at random at once condemns any pretence to an<br /> artistic book. A handsome type page would be<br /> one which would occupy about one-half of the total<br /> area of the leaf of paper; that page must not be<br /> placed in the centre of the page, but somewhat<br /> cornered as it were, so that the inner and head<br /> margins should be respectively about one-third to<br /> two-thirds of the margin on tail and on fore-edge.<br /> By these means the two open pages of any volume,<br /> not a single page, would form the unit—the two<br /> being linked together, as it were. If, on the other<br /> hand, the margins of each page were centralized<br /> all round, the effect of the open two pages would be<br /> that the facing pages were distressingly far apart<br />  <br /> <br /> 74<br /> <br /> and, although the head and tail margins were<br /> equal, they would appear to have slipped or<br /> dropped down below the centre, this being an<br /> optical illusion. : ;<br /> <br /> The question of cost in setting up various sizes<br /> ig a complicated one, and if we take the London<br /> scale of charges as our basis we find that wages<br /> here are higher as compared with the provinces.<br /> In printing generally the difference of cost is<br /> chiefly in regard to composition, and press work<br /> charges are not much affected by the locality. In<br /> some respects the higher charges prevailing in town<br /> are counterbalanced by the convenience of having<br /> the printer nearer at hand.<br /> <br /> The exact prices for composition are regulated<br /> according to whether the “copy” is to be seb up<br /> from manuscript or from printed copy, technically<br /> termed “ reprint,” which must be an absolute fac-<br /> simile as regards type, both in size and width—<br /> that is, it must be line for line and page for page<br /> with the original. There is also an intermediate<br /> charge for “copy” which is printed but yet not a<br /> facsimile, or it may be it is a facsimile with altera-<br /> tions in manuscript, both of which fall under this<br /> intermediate head. Further. the question of the<br /> matter being leaded or non-leaded affects the price<br /> in all the foregoing instances, that which is set with-<br /> out leads carrying the higher price, for the obvious<br /> reason that any pages set solid would contain more<br /> lines in a page, and thus necessitate more labour to<br /> the compositor. From this it will be seen that the<br /> scale of charges for composition is a very intricate<br /> one, and the difficulties are still more increased by<br /> the introduction of other nominal charges made as<br /> extras on each sheet, such as the introduction of<br /> other sizes of type for extract matter or footnotes,<br /> besides other details too numerous to mention.<br /> All these remarks apply to works printed in the<br /> vernacular—books printed in foreign languages are<br /> provided for under a different scale, and the<br /> frequent use of foreign words sometimes involves<br /> an extra charge.<br /> <br /> As some rough and ready idea of cost, taking an<br /> ordinary volume, such as a novel, printed in the<br /> English language without any of the extras indicated<br /> above, the approximate charges for composing a<br /> volume set with leads from manuscript or reprint<br /> set without leads, may be taken as—<br /> <br /> 1d. per square inch ifset in Pica.<br /> 14d. % - Small Pica.<br /> 13d. ” ¥ Long Primer.<br /> <br /> These prices are the average London ones.<br /> Manuscript copy if set solid would be rather higher.<br /> On the other hand, reprint leaded would be some-<br /> what cheaper.<br /> <br /> Cuas. T. JACOBI.<br /> (To be continued.)<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> UNITED STATES, GREAT BRITAIN.—<br /> COMPARATIVE COSTS OF PRODUCTION.—<br /> COMPARATIVE PROFITS.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> 47 E have much pleasure in submitting to<br /> members of the Society some costs of<br /> production from the United States, which<br /> <br /> we have obtained through the diligence of the<br /> Secretary of the United States Authors’ Society.<br /> The estimates are reckoned in dollars and in<br /> pounds, taking for convenience a dollar to equal<br /> 4s. 2d., and are compared with the English costs<br /> of production of a similar type of book. The first<br /> estimate reters to a book of 272 pp. crown octavo,<br /> 29 lines, and 253 words to a page. One thousand<br /> copies are printed, and the type is small pica.<br /> <br /> Unitep Srates Cost or PRODUCTION.<br /> <br /> I.<br /> Dollars. £8. d.<br /> Composition and _ electro<br /> typing plates, 272 pages<br /> at 50 cents=2s. 1d. per<br /> page; or 17 sheets of<br /> 16 pages, at £1 14s. 8d.<br /> per sheet. . 136 26 6 8<br /> <br /> Printing, say ten sheets at<br /> $3=12s. 6d. per sheet of<br /> <br /> 32 pages. : : . 380 6 5 0<br /> Paper, ten reams of 100<br /> <br /> pounds, at $6=£1 5s. per<br /> <br /> ream. : : 60 12 10 0<br /> Binding, at 12 cents=6d. . 120 25 0 0<br /> Binding stamp. 10 2 473<br /> Five boxes at 75 cents=<br /> <br /> 3s. 14d. . 3°75 16 oF<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> $359°75 £74 18 115<br /> Say £74 19s.<br /> <br /> British Cost oF PRODUCTION.<br /> I.<br /> <br /> Composition, 17 sheets of 16 pages, at<br /> £1 5s. . ‘ : : ; 4<br /> Moulds and stereos, at 12s. per sheet. 10 4 0<br /> Printing, 17 sheets of 16 pages, say 10<br /> sheets of 32 pages, in order to bring<br /> the estimate into uniformity with<br /> that from U.S.A., at 15s. per sheet<br /> <br /> of 32 pages. ; 5 ; «2410 0<br /> Paper, 84 reams, say 10 sheets of 32<br /> pages, at £1 per sheet of 32 pages. 10 0 0<br /> Binding, at 5d., or (say) 42s. per 100<br /> copies. . : : : : ~ 21 0 0<br /> £69 19 0<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 75<br /> <br /> From these two costs, giving a very full value<br /> to the dollar, we see that the United States<br /> cost is £5 in excess of the English cost. So far,<br /> then, the difference between the two costs of pro-<br /> duction is immaterial, but this point has to be<br /> considered, that English books are, as a rule,<br /> printed from type, and, therefore, if the edition<br /> was for one thousand copies only, the item for<br /> moulds and stereos (12s. per sheet of 16 pages,<br /> £10 4s.) would have to be deducted, making the<br /> difference between the two costs of production,<br /> £15 4s. In addition, the United States publisher<br /> seems to pay for boxes for the moulds, the charge, as<br /> appears on the cost, being 15s. 6d., and credits his<br /> account with the surplus paper as sold for pulping.<br /> From this estimate have been omitted three<br /> items that will have to be taken into considera-<br /> tion before it will be possible to state what profit<br /> there is to the author, and what to the publisher.<br /> Firstly,—Corrections.<br /> Secondly,— Advertising.<br /> Thirdly,—Circularising.<br /> <br /> (i.e. expenses of the publisher&#039;s office).<br /> <br /> The corrections would roughly work out between<br /> 10 and 15 per cent. of the cost of composition. The<br /> advertising in the United States, according to<br /> information received, is very nearly double the<br /> amount spent in England, out it is almost im-<br /> possible to gange this point satisfactorily, and it is<br /> doubtful whether absolute reliance can be placed<br /> on this statement. For circulars—that is, ordinary<br /> publishers’ expenses, and postages—the United<br /> States publisher reckons a sum of thirty dollars<br /> per edition of one thousand copies, or £6 5s. on<br /> £74 19s. This works out at less than the 10<br /> per cent. which publishers in England are very<br /> fond of stating must be reckoned to cover office<br /> expenses, &amp;c. This item, however, the Society<br /> has always repudiated, when working out the<br /> profits, unless the publisher shows himself willing<br /> to grant the same charges in the author’s account.<br /> <br /> In addition to the tabulated cost must be<br /> reckoned :—<br /> UNITED STATES.<br /> Dollars.<br /> Corrections (15 per cent. of the cost of<br /> composition and stereos) ‘ 20.40<br /> Advertising an edition of 1,000 copies 240<br /> $260.40<br /> BritisH Cost.<br /> os oO:<br /> Corrections (15 per cent. of the cost of<br /> composition and stereos) . 414 4<br /> Advertising an edition of 1,000 copies<br /> of Finglish edition . : : 2s 30. 0 0<br /> £34 14 4<br /> <br /> Toran Cost oF Propuction.<br /> United States.<br /> <br /> $359°75 + $2604 = $620°15 = £129 3s. 114d.<br /> (say £129 4s.) ‘<br /> British.<br /> £69 19s. + £34 14s. 4d. = £104 18s. 4d.<br /> <br /> Against this it must be remembered that, as a<br /> rule, the United States publisher gets more for his<br /> book than the English publisher. For instance, a<br /> 5s. nett book sells in the United States at $1°50=<br /> 6s. 3d., and, therefore, instead of reckoning as has<br /> been customary in the costs of production men-<br /> tioned on former occasions in Zhe Author, the 6s.<br /> book, subject to discount as the unit of calculation,<br /> it is easier to take the 5s. nett book, and the<br /> $1°50 = 6s. 3d., and this would be a fair price for<br /> the book whose estimate is quoted.<br /> <br /> Taking it, therefore, that 100 books are circu-<br /> lated free, for review and other purposes, the<br /> receipts may be reckoned as follows :—<br /> <br /> Unitrep Sratres Book ReruRN FROM SALES.<br /> <br /> 900 copies at $150.<br /> <br /> $1350°0 ... (less 25 per cent. to retailer)<br /> 337°)<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> $1012°5 ... (less 10 per cent. to the<br /> wholesale jobber)<br /> 101°25<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> $911:25 = £189 16s. 104d.<br /> <br /> British Book RETURN FROM SALES.<br /> <br /> 900 copies of 5s. nett book.<br /> <br /> Five-sixths of 5s., 13 copies as 12, less 10 per<br /> cent.<br /> <br /> = 692 X 5s. :<br /> <br /> = 3:46s. for each copy =a fraction above<br /> 3s. 5dd. per copy.<br /> <br /> 3°46 x 900 = 3114s.<br /> <br /> = £155 14s.<br /> <br /> We have made the returns of sales in the United<br /> States from reliable figures supplied to the office.<br /> The above is therefore a fair statement.<br /> <br /> The returns from the British Book, however,<br /> are, according to the publisher’s statement, the<br /> lowest received from the bookseller and distributor,<br /> wholesale or retail. It is probable, therefore, that<br /> the real returns are somewhat higher.<br /> <br /> Carrying the calculation a little further, the<br />  <br /> <br /> 76<br /> <br /> profit on the first edition of 1,000 of the United<br /> States book is—<br /> £189 16 10<br /> 129 4 90<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> £60 12 10<br /> On the British book is—<br /> <br /> £155 14 0<br /> 104138 4<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> £51 0 8<br /> <br /> Unirep Srares SALES AND PERCENTAGE.<br /> <br /> If the author, therefore, took in the one case<br /> £30 6s. for his profit, that is about half, what<br /> percentage would he be receiving on the published<br /> <br /> rice of the book ?<br /> <br /> This problem is then presented :<br /> <br /> Nine hundred copies sold at $1°50 (75 pence)<br /> realise £30 6s. to the author. What, then, is<br /> the percentage on each copy ? Working the sum<br /> out<br /> <br /> £809 _ £908 _ £10886<br /> 900 9<br /> = 8°08 pence for every copy at $1°50<br /> (75 pence).<br /> <br /> The author receiving 8°08 per copy would receive<br /> <br /> the following per cent. :—<br /> <br /> 752 8&#039;08..: 100;<br /> 8:08 e 100 oe 2 10-7,<br /> <br /> (9 i)<br /> <br /> or just over 103 per cent.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> British SALES AND P&amp;SRCENTAGE.<br /> <br /> If the same calculation is made in the case of a<br /> British book, the author will, in the same way,<br /> take half profits, that is to say, £25 10s. = £25°5.<br /> <br /> If nine hundred copies sold at 5s. nett bring<br /> £25-5 to the author, the author receives for each<br /> copy<br /> <br /> B25 _ £25) _. £-0988 = 68d,<br /> 900 9<br /> just over 63d.<br /> <br /> If the author receives 6:8d. per copy of a book<br /> that sells for 5s., his share per cent. of the selling<br /> price of the book is shown by<br /> <br /> 68 x 100 68<br /> 0:68::100: —2—_=, =11%,<br /> As 6 6°8 0 60 6 oO<br /> <br /> exactly 114 per cent.<br /> <br /> Here one or two points deserve to be noticed.<br /> First, the author receives only half-profits. ‘This<br /> is not necessarily a fair division.<br /> <br /> Next, the publisher—taking also half-profits—<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> the same sum as the author, receives interest on<br /> his investment thus, omitting the pence :—<br /> In the United States—<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> As £129 3s. : £30 6s. :: 100: 2%<br /> As 2583 : 606 :: 100; = ave «1<br /> 2583<br /> ae 60000 93°46.<br /> 2583<br /> <br /> not quite 234 per cent.<br /> In England—<br /> <br /> As £104 13s. : £25 10s.;: 100: 2%<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> As 2098 :510 -:400; = ee<br /> 2093<br /> 51000.<br /> =a<br /> <br /> a little over 24 per cent.<br /> <br /> These returns of 23 and 24 per cent. respectively<br /> represent the publisher’s interest upon his capital<br /> invested, supposing that the sale of the 1,000<br /> copies takes place, as it generally does, in twelve<br /> months. If the sale is accomplished only in two<br /> years, the interest upon the investments become<br /> 114 and 12 per cent. respectively ; not at all bad<br /> interest. If the 1,000 copies are sold in six months<br /> the interest rises to 46 and 48 per cent. per annum<br /> respectively.<br /> <br /> It will be seen that whilst the United States pub-<br /> lisher receives actually more from sales than the<br /> British publisher (£189 16s. against £155 14s.),and<br /> also has a larger profit (£60 12s. against £51),<br /> his greater expenses make his gain per cent. per<br /> annum on his investment smaller (23 per cent.<br /> against 24).<br /> <br /> The examples which we have taken are those<br /> of a fair cost of production and a small sale.<br /> Where approximate figures have been taken, the<br /> calculations show the publisher’s profits to be<br /> slightly smaller than they actually are.<br /> <br /> G. H. T.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ——_——_—_—_1—&lt;—<br /> <br /> UNITED STATES.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “The Author’s Year Book and Guide to 600<br /> Places to Sell MSS.” *<br /> <br /> HIS publication comes from the United States.<br /> <br /> If any author, guided by the title, should be<br /> <br /> inclined to purchase the book, seeking for<br /> information, it is as well to state that the work, a<br /> however useful in other respects to the author in 30<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> * « Author’s Year Book and Guide to 600 Places to Seli po!<br /> MSS.” W. E. Price, 24—26, East Twenty-first Street, a<br /> New York, U.S.A.<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 77<br /> <br /> the United States or in Great Britain, does not<br /> justify the label which is attached to it.<br /> <br /> The work opens with a list of papers and maga-<br /> zines to which MSS. can be sent, and with a list<br /> of publishers, but there is no information as to<br /> the style of article, story, or composition that the<br /> ‘editors are willing to accept or the publishers<br /> willing to produce. So far, therefore, the book<br /> fails entirely as a guide to the 600 places which<br /> it enumerates and to the individualities of the<br /> different publishing houses.<br /> <br /> The remainder of the book is filled with articles<br /> on literary subjects, such as “ Authors and Busi-<br /> ness” (reprinted from the New York Times<br /> Saturday Review), which contains a few useful<br /> hints, readily picked up in any of the books<br /> published for the guidance of authors. Then<br /> follow some views promulgated by the editors of<br /> magazines, scrappy, and of little assistance.<br /> After these comes an interesting article on the<br /> nett price system and its relation to authors,<br /> interesting to the student of the economics of<br /> book-selling and book-writing rather than bene-<br /> ficial to the unfortunate trying to dispose of<br /> a MS.<br /> <br /> Ever since Sir Walter Besant founded the Society<br /> of Authors one of its aims has been to show the<br /> close relation between the bookseller and the<br /> author, and to point out that the prosperity of<br /> the former is closely allied with the prosperity of<br /> the latter, and that the bookseller’s profits must<br /> assist, In some way, the author’s profits. The<br /> writer states, very wisely: ‘‘ Does anyone like to<br /> pay 1 dollar 50 cents for a book and see it offered<br /> a few days later on dry goods counters for 85 cents ?<br /> In making investments people are slow to buy on<br /> a falling market.”<br /> <br /> The next article, “A Word to Authors,” must<br /> bave been written by a publisher, and is therefore<br /> dangerous as guide to the author. A few quota-<br /> tions will make this self-evident:—“ As a rule,<br /> authors imagine publishers to be their natural<br /> foes, preying upon them as sharks do upon the<br /> lesser finny tribes of the deep. A little thought<br /> would dissipate this impression. Authors have<br /> no idea of the costs which are incidental to the<br /> production of a book.” Here is the key to the<br /> publishing note. In the United States, unfor-<br /> tunately, authors have very little idea of the cost<br /> of production of a book. The Society has for<br /> years endeavoured to obtain trustworthy state-<br /> inents of the cost of printing, paper, binding,<br /> advertising, in the United States, and so far but<br /> meagre information has come to the office. In<br /> consequence, it is difficult to gauge the profits to<br /> which the author is entitled, and the publisher,<br /> from his point of view, is wise to keep the secret<br /> as long as possible. Another sentence also betrays<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> the cloven hoof: “ When all these costs have been<br /> paid, there remains a comparatively small margin<br /> of profit. Hence, whatever royalties publishers<br /> may agree to pay, authors may consider that they<br /> are having a fair return for their labour.” A<br /> more ingenuous statement was never made, nor<br /> one which could make it clearer that the taint of<br /> the publisher runs through the whole article. If<br /> aman desired to buy a horse, he would naturally<br /> buy in the cheapest market, and if the man who<br /> was selling the horse happened to be ignorant of<br /> its value, the buyer would make as good a bargain<br /> for himself as he possibly could. It is not likely,<br /> therefore, that a tradesman desiring to purchase<br /> an article would pay the seller £2u for it if he<br /> could get it for £10. There is no reason why the<br /> author should consider the publisher different<br /> from other tradesmen, and therefore—that what<br /> the publisher agreed to pay would necessarily be<br /> a fair return for his labour.<br /> <br /> “What we have just said is emphasised by the<br /> fact that the larger number of books never pay<br /> expenses.” This again is a fault of the publishing<br /> trade which has often been exposed in 7’he Author.<br /> The musical publishers in London state that hardly<br /> 5 per cent. of the songs published cover their<br /> expenses. The fact that tne publisher chooses to<br /> gamble with the books of some authors is no argu-<br /> ment why the successful author should pay the<br /> publisher’s gambling debts, and must not affect<br /> any author in his negotiations for the sale of his<br /> works.<br /> <br /> There is an interesting article by Mr. Page Fox<br /> on * Books Waiting to be Written,” but it is<br /> interesting from the originality of the ideas set<br /> forth rather than from the point of view of prac-<br /> tical advice to the author. Among the books<br /> referred to is ‘A Town History,” and his advice<br /> for writing a work of this description would, no<br /> doubt, appeal to the United States dollar-catcher<br /> rather than co the select and cultured compilers of<br /> literature. He says, *‘ Publish the portraits and<br /> residences or places of business of the leading<br /> townsmen. Mention in the book everybody in<br /> the town whom you can. Even for the most<br /> humble can be found a place in a work of<br /> genealogy. The wealthy will give you large<br /> sums for the illustrations, and the vanity of the<br /> poor will cause them to buy a book in which their<br /> name appears.” Then follows a rough statement<br /> of the cost and the probable profit :<br /> <br /> “(Oost of issue of book, $1,000 ; one thousand<br /> subscribers at $2 apiece, $2,000. One hundred<br /> of the wealthy class will pay you $10 apiece for<br /> their portraits, $1,000. Profits, $2,000. If you<br /> are satisfied with the result, go on to the next<br /> town, and so on ad infinitum.”<br /> <br /> After perusal of this paragraph, the remark<br />  <br /> <br /> 78 THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> made by R. I. Stevenson would not be at all<br /> inappropriate : ‘‘ Golly ! What a book !”<br /> <br /> This article is by far the longest in the book,<br /> and carries with it much amusing reading on the<br /> commerce of book-making. a<br /> <br /> In another contribution on short story writing<br /> it would appear that the same difficulty exists in<br /> the United States as in Great Britaiu—namely,<br /> the fact that publishers are convinced that books<br /> of short stories do not sell. The writer gives<br /> some probable reasons for this conclusion, which,<br /> however, do not appear to be very sound.<br /> <br /> There are other articles interesting to authors<br /> from different points of view, such as “ How to<br /> <br /> Succeed as a Novelist,” ‘‘ The Preparation of<br /> <br /> the MS.,” “In the Literary Market,” the last by<br /> Mr. Albert Bigelow Paine. He makes a very<br /> sensible remark, which many authors should bear<br /> in mind: “There is no royal road to authorship.<br /> It is fight, fight, and go on fighting to the end.”<br /> <br /> Lastly come some short notes about English<br /> periodicals and their contributors, which contain<br /> chiefly notes of the editors dealing with the con-<br /> tributions published in their different papers,<br /> and finally come “The General Memoranda,”<br /> “ Warnings to Dramatic Authors,” and an interest-<br /> ing article from Mr. G. Bernard Shaw : “ How to<br /> make Plays Readable.” These last three have<br /> been taken from the pages of Ze Author, but<br /> having read the book carefully, we have failed to<br /> find any acknowledgment of their source. Even<br /> though no copyright is claimed for them—unless,<br /> indeed, Mr. Shaw claims copyright—still, as a<br /> matter of courtesy, a formal acknowledgment might<br /> have been made.<br /> <br /> To sum up, the book fails on its main points<br /> if its title is any guide to the desires of its com-<br /> piler, A book on the lines of some books that<br /> are produced in England, giving not only the<br /> names of the magazines and papers in the United<br /> States, but also the kind of articles and stories<br /> which they will take, the length of the articles and<br /> stories, the prices they will pay for them, and other<br /> details of information, would, no doubt, be interesting<br /> and useful to many writers this side of the water ;<br /> or, again, a practical guide for authors, on lines<br /> similar to some of the books which have been pub-<br /> lished in England, might be very useful to the<br /> budding United States author ; but this book fails<br /> to deal with either point exhaustively. It is<br /> neither a practical guide for the author, nor is ita<br /> guide to the 600 places in which to sell MSS.<br /> <br /> From the first title, “The Author’s Year Book,”<br /> the book seems destined to appear from year to<br /> year. If this is the case, with greater care and with<br /> greater knowledge bestowed upon the essential<br /> details, the work may prove satisfactory in the<br /> course of time.<br /> <br /> MAGAZINE CONTENTS.<br /> <br /> —~?--+<br /> DECEMBER, 1904.<br /> <br /> BLACKWOOD&#039;S MAGAZINE.<br /> “Madam”: A Lady of the Morland.<br /> Skrine.<br /> Musings<br /> <br /> Oxford.<br /> <br /> By Mary J. H.<br /> <br /> without Method. The Rhodes Scholars at<br /> <br /> THE BOOKMAN.<br /> The Writings of Theodore Watts Dunton. By Ernest<br /> Rhys.<br /> Book MONTHLY.<br /> The Popular Novelist: His Art, Mission and Influence.<br /> 3y Hall Caine.<br /> CHAMBERS&#039;S JOURNAL,<br /> Patmos: Its Monastery and Passion Play.<br /> William Whittall.<br /> THE CONTEMPORARY REVIEW.<br /> The Nature of Literature. By Vernon Lee.<br /> Nitshevo. By Edwin Emerson.<br /> Maeterlinck as a Reformer of the Drama. By Count 8. C.<br /> de Soissons.<br /> Some Recent Books.<br /> <br /> By Sir PAP<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> By “A Reader.”<br /> <br /> CORNHILL.<br /> Tn the Throes of Composition. By Michael MacDonagh.<br /> Historical Mysteries.—Saint Germain the Deathless. By<br /> Andrew Lang.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW.<br /> In the Footsteps of Rousseau. By Havelock Ellis.<br /> <br /> Mozart as a Dramatic Composer. By Dr. John Tod-<br /> hunter.<br /> <br /> The Novels of Disraeli. By Lewis Melville.<br /> The National Art Collections Fund. By H. M. Paull.<br /> The Mother of Navies. By T. Andrea Cook.<br /> <br /> THE INDEPENDENT REVIEW<br /> The Work of Mr. Henry James. By Sydney Waterlow.<br /> The Myth of Magna Carta. By Edward Jenks.<br /> <br /> LONGMAN’S MAGAZINE.<br /> Izaak Walton at Droxford. By John Vaughan.<br /> At the Sign of the Ship. The State of British® Fiction.<br /> By Andrew Lang.<br /> <br /> The Beautiful Sheridans. By Alfred Beaver,<br /> <br /> MACMILLAN’s MAGAZINE.<br /> Rome before 1870. Anonymous.<br /> <br /> THe MoNTHLY REVIEW.<br /> <br /> The Revival of Gaelic in Ireland. By F.O. Russell.<br /> Evil. By Norman Pearson.<br /> <br /> THE NATIONAL REVIEW.<br /> Some Children’s Essays. By Miss K. Bathurst,<br /> The Spokesman of Despair. By Jane Findlater.<br /> <br /> XIX, CENTURY AND AFTER,<br /> Free Thought in the Church of England. By The Rev.<br /> Prebendary Whitworth.<br /> Mr. Mallock and the Bishop of Worcester.<br /> H. Maynard Smith. : :<br /> The Literature of Finland. By Hermione Ramsden. = ah<br /> Women in Chinese Literature. By Herbert A. Giles. :<br /> <br /> TEMPLE BAR.<br /> By M. Kirkby Hill.<br /> <br /> By the Rev.<br /> <br /> Kit Smart.<br /> <br /> A Diary of the 17th Century. By Constance Spender. x<br /> <br /> There are no articles dealing with Literary, Dramatic or *<br /> Musical subjects in Zhe Month or The World&#039;s Work.<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THB AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO THE PRODUCERS<br /> OF BOOKS.<br /> <br /> +<br /> <br /> ERE are a few standing rules to be observed in an<br /> agreement. There are four methods of dealing<br /> with literary property :—<br /> <br /> I. Selling it Outright.<br /> <br /> This is sometimes satisfactory, if a proper price can be<br /> obtained. But the transaction should be managed by a<br /> competent agent, or with the advice of the Secretary of<br /> the Society.<br /> <br /> II. A Profit-Sharing Agreement (a bad form of<br /> agreement).<br /> <br /> In this case the following rules should be attended to:<br /> <br /> C1.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro-<br /> duction forms a part without the strictest investigation.<br /> <br /> (2.) Not to give the publisher the power of putting the<br /> profits into his own pocket by charging for advertisements<br /> in his own organs, or by charging exchange advertise-<br /> ments. Therefore keep control of the advertisements.<br /> <br /> (3.) Not to allow a special charge for “office expenses,”<br /> unless the same allowance is made to the author.<br /> <br /> (4.) Not to give up American, Colonial, or Continental<br /> cights.<br /> <br /> (.) Not to give up serial or translation rights.<br /> <br /> (6.) Not to bind yourself for future work to any publisher.<br /> As well bind yourself for the future to any one solicitor or<br /> doctor !<br /> <br /> II. The Royalty System.<br /> <br /> This is perhaps, with certain limitations, the best form<br /> of agreement. It is above all things nece ry to know<br /> what the proposed royalty means to both sides. It is now<br /> possible for an author to ascertain approximately the<br /> truth, From time to time very important figures connected<br /> with royalties are published in Zhe Author.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> IV. A Commission Agreement.<br /> <br /> The main points are :—<br /> <br /> (1.) Be careful to obtain a fair cost of production.<br /> (2.) Keep control of the advertisements.<br /> <br /> (3.) Keep control of the sale price of the book.<br /> <br /> General.<br /> <br /> All other forms of agreement are combinations of the four<br /> above mentioned.<br /> <br /> Such combinations are generally disastrous to the author,<br /> <br /> Never sign any agreement without competent advice from<br /> the Secretary of the Society.<br /> <br /> Stamp all agreements with the Inland Revenue stamp.<br /> <br /> Avoid agreements by letter if possible.<br /> <br /> The main points which the Society has always demanded<br /> from the outset are :—<br /> <br /> C1.) That both sides shall know what an agreement<br /> means.<br /> <br /> (2.) The inspection of those account books which belong<br /> &#039;o the author. We are advised that this is a right, in the<br /> nature of a common law right, which cannot be denied or<br /> withheld.<br /> <br /> (3.) Always avoid a transfer of copyright.<br /> <br /> PE Ciel ie oe<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS.<br /> se<br /> EVER sign an agreement without submitting it to the<br /> Secretary of the Society of Authors or some com-<br /> _ petent legal authority.<br /> 2. It is well to be extremely careful in negotiating for<br /> the production of a play with anyone except an established<br /> manager,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 19<br /> <br /> 3. There are three forms of dramatic contract f<br /> in three or more acts :—<br /> <br /> (a.) Sale outright of the performing right. This<br /> is unsatisfactory. An author who enters into<br /> such a contract should stipulate in the contract<br /> for production of the piece by a certain date<br /> and for proper publication of his name on the<br /> play-bills,<br /> <br /> (%.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to<br /> perform on the basis of percentages on<br /> gross receipts. Percentages vary between 5<br /> and 15 per cent. An author should obtain a<br /> percentage on the sliding scale of gross receipts<br /> in preference to the American system. Should<br /> obtain a sum in advance of percentages. A fixed<br /> date on or before which the play should be<br /> performed.<br /> <br /> (¢.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to<br /> perform on the basis of royalties (7.¢., fixed<br /> nightly fees). his method should be always<br /> avoided except in cases where the fees are<br /> likely to be small or difficult to collect, The<br /> other safeguards set out under heading (@.) apply<br /> also in this case.<br /> <br /> 4. Plays in one act are often sold outright, but it is<br /> better to obtain a small nightly fee if possible, and a sum<br /> paid in advance of such fees in any event. It is extremely<br /> important that the amateur rights of one-act plays should<br /> be reserved.<br /> <br /> 5. Authors should remember that performing rights can<br /> be limited, and are usually limited, by town, country, and<br /> time. This is most important.<br /> <br /> 6. Authors should not assign performing rights, but<br /> should grant a licence to perform. ‘he legal distinction is<br /> of great importance.<br /> <br /> 7, Authors should remember that performing rights in a<br /> play are distinct from literary copyright. A manager<br /> holding the performing right or licence to perform cannot<br /> print the book of the words.<br /> <br /> 8. Never forget that United States rights may be exceed-<br /> ingly valuable. ‘hey should never be included in English<br /> agreements without the author obtaining a substantial<br /> consideration.<br /> <br /> 9. Agreements for collaboration should be carefully<br /> drawn and executed before collaboration is commenced.<br /> <br /> 10. An author should remember that production of a play<br /> is highly speculative: that he runs a very great risk of<br /> delay and a breakdown in the fulfilment of his contract.<br /> He should therefore guard himself all the more carefully in<br /> the beginning.<br /> <br /> 11. An author must remember that the dramatic market<br /> is exceedingly limited, and that for a novice the first object<br /> is to obtain adequate publication.<br /> <br /> As these warnings must necessarily be incomplete, on<br /> account of the wide range of the subject of dramatic con-<br /> tracts, those authors desirous of further information<br /> are referred to the Secretary of the Society.<br /> <br /> or plays<br /> <br /> o—p—«<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.<br /> <br /> —_-————<br /> <br /> ITTLE can be added to the warnings given for the<br /> assistance of producers of books and dramatic<br /> authors. It must, however, be pointed out that, as<br /> <br /> a rule, the musical publisher demands from the musical<br /> composer a transfer of fuller rights and less liberal finan-<br /> cial terms than those obtained for literary and dramatic<br /> property. The musical composer has very often the two<br /> rights to deal with—performing right and copyright. He<br /> 80<br /> <br /> fore when entering into<br /> <br /> should be especially careful there r nt<br /> art. cular consideration<br /> <br /> an agreement,and should take intop<br /> the warnings stated above.<br /> <br /> ee<br /> <br /> HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> —&lt;-+<br /> <br /> i VERY member has a right toask for and to receive<br /> K advicé upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-<br /> lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his<br /> business or the administration of his property. — The<br /> Secretary of the Society is a solicitor, but if there is any<br /> special reason the Secretary will refer the case to the<br /> Solicitors of the Society. | Further, the Committee, if they<br /> deem it desirable, will obtain counsel’s opinion. — All this<br /> without any cost to the member.<br /> <br /> 2, Remember that questions connected with copyright<br /> and publishers’ agreements do not fall within the experi-<br /> ence of ordinary solicitors. ‘Therefore, do not scruple to use<br /> the Society.<br /> <br /> 3. Send to the Office copies of past agreements and past<br /> accounts, with a copy of the book represented. The<br /> Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new<br /> or old, for inspection and note. The information thus<br /> obtained may prove invaluable.<br /> <br /> 4. Before signing any agreement whatever, send<br /> the document to the Society for examination.<br /> <br /> 5. Remember always that in belonging to the Society<br /> you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you<br /> are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are<br /> advancing the best interests of your calling in promoting<br /> the independence of the writer, the dramatist, the composer.<br /> <br /> 6. The Committee have now arranged for the reception<br /> of members’ agreements and their preservation in a fire-<br /> proof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as<br /> confidential documents to be read only by the Secretary,<br /> who will keep the key of the safe. he Society now offers:<br /> —(1) To read and advise upon agreements and to give<br /> advice concerning publishers. (2) ‘lo stamp agreements<br /> in readiness for a possible action upon them. (8) To keep<br /> agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to<br /> agreements. Fuller particulars of the Society’s work<br /> can be obtained in the Prospectus.<br /> <br /> 7. No contract should be entered into with a literary<br /> agent without the advice of the Secretary of the Society.<br /> Members are strongly advised not to accept without careful<br /> consideration the contracts with publishers submitted to<br /> them by literary agents, and are recommended to submit<br /> them for interpretation and explanation to the Secretary<br /> of the Society.<br /> <br /> This<br /> The<br /> <br /> 8. Many agents neglect to stamp agreements.<br /> must be done within fourteen days of first execution.<br /> Secretary will undertake it on behalf of members.<br /> <br /> 9. Some agents endeavour to prevent authors from<br /> referring matters to the Secretary of the Society; so<br /> do some publishers. Members can make their own<br /> deductions and act accordingly.<br /> <br /> 10. The subscription to the Society is £1 1s. per<br /> annum, or £10 10s for life membership.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> HE Society undertakes to stamp copies of music on<br /> behalf of its members for the fee of 6d. per 100 or<br /> part of 100. The members’ stamps are kept in the<br /> <br /> Society’s safe. The musical publishers communicate direct<br /> with the Secretary, and the voucher is then forwarded to<br /> the members, who are thus saved much unnecessary trouble.<br /> <br /> es<br /> <br /> THE READING BRANCH.<br /> <br /> ——— + —<br /> <br /> EMBERS will greatly assist the Society in this<br /> VI branch of its work by informing young writers<br /> of its existence. Their MSS. can be read and<br /> treated as a composition is treated by a coach. The term<br /> MSS. includes not only works of fiction, but poetry<br /> and dramatic works, and when it is possible, under<br /> special arrangement, technical and scientific works. The<br /> Readers are writers of competence and experience. The<br /> fee is one guinea. .<br /> <br /> 2 — &gt;<br /> <br /> NOTICES.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> MYNHE Editor of Zhe Author begs to remind members of<br /> [&#039; the Society that, although the paper is sent to them<br /> <br /> free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a<br /> very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great<br /> many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest<br /> 5s. 6d. subscription for the year.<br /> <br /> Communications for “The Author” should be addressed<br /> to the Offices of the Society, 39, Old Queen Street, Storey’s<br /> Gate, S.W., and should reach the Editor not later than the<br /> 21st of each month.<br /> <br /> All persons engaged in literary work of any kind,<br /> whether members of the Society or not, are invited to<br /> communicate to the Editor any points connected with their<br /> work which it would be advisable in the general interest to<br /> publish.<br /> <br /> Communications and letters are invited by the<br /> Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on<br /> no other subjects whatever. LEvery effort will he made to<br /> return articles which cannot be accepted.<br /> <br /> ee<br /> <br /> The Secretary of the Society begs to give notice<br /> that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post,<br /> and he requests members who do not receive an<br /> answer to important communications within two days to<br /> write to him without delay. All remittances should be<br /> crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery Lane, or be sent<br /> by registered letter only.<br /> <br /> ee ee<br /> <br /> LEGAL AND GENERAL LIFE ASSURANCE :<br /> SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> eae<br /> <br /> ENSIONS to commence at any selected age,<br /> <br /> either with or without Life Assurance, can<br /> <br /> be obtained from this society. a<br /> <br /> Full particulars can be obtained from the City<br /> Branch Manager, Legal and General Life Assurance<br /> <br /> Society, 158, Leadenhall Street, London, H.C.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 81<br /> <br /> AUTHORITIES.<br /> <br /> — oo<br /> <br /> 7% see a complaint in the Publishers’ Circular<br /> W that the energetic trader of the United<br /> States is endeavouring to rob English<br /> publishers of their book trade in the Colonies, by<br /> flooding the Colonies with American editions.:<br /> <br /> If this is, in reality, the case, there must be<br /> something radically wrong. Nearly all English<br /> authors include in their licence to publish given<br /> to the English publisher the markets of Great<br /> Britain, her Colonies, and dependencies. Some-<br /> times, however, this licence is altered, by excepting<br /> Canada, which country is, therefore, either included<br /> in the agreement with the American publisher, or<br /> is under a separate agreement with a Canadian<br /> publisher. It follows, therefore, that if United<br /> States publishers are sending editions into Australia,<br /> South Africa, and other Colonies, they are infringing<br /> the copyright law, and it is time for those publishers<br /> whose business is touched to take the matter in<br /> hand, or for those authors, whose books are pirated,<br /> to take action for infringement of copyright.<br /> <br /> However, if we study the book exports from the<br /> United States during the last eight months, the<br /> statement contained in the Publishers’ Circular<br /> does not seem to be corroborated.<br /> <br /> The exports from the United States to British<br /> North America have certainly increased enormously<br /> in value, from $1,055,000 in the first eight months<br /> of the year 1903, to $1,126,000 in 1904 during the<br /> same period. ‘There are various reasons which<br /> may account for this. Primarily, as already stated,<br /> the Canadian market is very often excepted from<br /> the contract with the British publisher, and is<br /> assigned to the United States publisher. Secon-<br /> darily, the Canadian publisher sometimes contracts<br /> direct with the British author and proceeds to buy<br /> from the United States, and, lastly, the enormous<br /> extent of the boundary between the United States<br /> and Canada often makes it impossible to keep out<br /> pirated editions.<br /> <br /> If the United States publisher gets the contract,<br /> it is really the fault of the Canadian publisher,<br /> who, if he does not choose to bestir himself and<br /> come and claim his contract from the English<br /> author, must expect to have it taken away from<br /> him by those who are more energetic.<br /> <br /> In British Australasia during the first eight<br /> months of 1903 the exports were 130,000 dollars,<br /> during the same period of 1904, 132,000 dollars.<br /> Here it cannot be said that there is an enormous<br /> increase. It is clear, therefore, that the complaint<br /> of the Publishers’ Circular cannot be substantiated.<br /> <br /> In British South Africa there is a decrease from<br /> 38,000 to 25,000 dollars.<br /> <br /> If, however, it is possible to obtain a concrete<br /> <br /> case against the United States, it is essential that<br /> the British author or the British publisher should<br /> take the matter in hand, and see that the copyright<br /> treaties, as far as they regard book property, are<br /> carried out energetically and effectually. :<br /> <br /> The simplest solution of the difficulty seems to<br /> lie in stirring up the Government customs officials<br /> to look after their duties more closely, and this is<br /> the course that has been adopted in Canada.<br /> <br /> Ir is most important that an author or a dramatist<br /> should have control over the use of his own name,<br /> This may seem a platitude, but difficulties are<br /> not infrequently arising owing to the fact that<br /> neither in the dramatic contract nor in the contract<br /> for literary publication, has the author made it<br /> sufficiently clear under what name or under what<br /> pseudonym he desires the work to be produced. It<br /> might possibly occur, especially with a dramatic<br /> piece, that the manager, even though he had merely<br /> a licence to perform, would not give a fair show to<br /> the author’s name on the play bills ; and if he had<br /> purchased all the performing rights no action on<br /> the part of an author could force him to publish<br /> the name unless there was a clause in the contract<br /> binding him to do so.<br /> <br /> The same remark holds good by analogy when<br /> applied to a licence to publish or to the sale of<br /> copyright of a literary work ; but there are other<br /> points arising which make it necessary for the<br /> author and dramatist to be exceedingly careful.<br /> <br /> It is not infrequently the case that youthful<br /> efforts are sold outright under a nom de plume.<br /> If the author or dramatist should subsequently<br /> become famous, it is possible that his imma-<br /> ture work might be placed on the market with<br /> his name attached by a publisher who purposely<br /> ignores the pseudonym. As the book would<br /> come fresh before the public out of its early<br /> grave, the majority of people, forgetful of the<br /> burial, would not recognise that a resurrection had<br /> taken place, and an immature work would be<br /> treated with all the seriousness of maturity. The<br /> most strenuous efforts of the author or dramatist<br /> would be unable to prevent the action taken by the<br /> publisher or manager, for the work had actually<br /> been written by the person, and although the<br /> author might suffer damage, the case would not be<br /> such as would be legally actionable.<br /> <br /> Firstly, then, the author or dramatist should<br /> never transfer the copyright or performing rights<br /> absolutely, but should only grant a licence to<br /> publish or a licence to perform. Secondly, if the<br /> author or dramatist does transfer the copyright or<br /> the performing right, and it is of importance that<br /> his pseudonym alone should be attached or that his<br /> name alone should be attached, or that the work<br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 82<br /> <br /> should be published anonymously, such a clause<br /> should be inserted in the agreement.<br /> <br /> It has been necessary to point out what might<br /> otherwise appear self-evident, as on two or three<br /> occasions examples have been put forward, and have<br /> come to the notice of the Society, in which great<br /> inconvenience, annoyance, and sometimes not<br /> inconsiderable damage, has been caused in matters<br /> of this kind to the author or dramatist.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> _—_—_—_—___—_—_¢—&lt;_&gt;—_____-<br /> <br /> OBITUARY NOTE.<br /> <br /> 1-1<br /> <br /> Herpert Wintiam ALLINGHAM, F.R.C.S.,<br /> Suntor ASSISTANT SURGHON TO Sr. GEORGE&#039;S<br /> HOSPITAL.<br /> <br /> ] ERBERT WILLIAM ALLINGHAM, Sur-<br /> geon to the Household of the King and<br /> Surgeon-in-Ordinary to the Prince of Wales,<br /> whose brilliant career was terminated in so tragic<br /> a manner at Marseilles at the beginning of last<br /> month, was a member of our Society for no less than<br /> seventeen years, and took many opportunities of<br /> expressing his interest in our work. His introduc-<br /> tion to higher professional status when a very young<br /> man came partly through the editing of a medical<br /> classic written by his father, and the business in<br /> connection with that publication was arranged<br /> by the office of the Society of Authors. Herbert<br /> Allingham’s career as an operating surgeon was one<br /> of great brilliancy, his knowledge, courage and<br /> technical skill bringing him repeated successes in<br /> seemingly desperate conditions. As will have been<br /> gathered from the many obituary notices published<br /> of him, he may be regarded in no indirect manner as<br /> a martyr to science, for in the course of his work he<br /> inoculated himself with a particularly insidious and<br /> obstinate disease. This undoubtedly preyed upon<br /> his mind, even to an unnecessary extent, and on the<br /> top of this misfortune came the sad illness and death<br /> of a beloved wife. His domestic loss at the very<br /> time when he most needed consolation plunged him<br /> into a state of deep depression. He had no resources<br /> out of his daily routine—a man who rises to the very<br /> top of an arduous and learned profession while still<br /> in his thirties does not find much time for the cultiva-<br /> tion of other branches of learning—and when his<br /> life-work became distasteful to him he fell a prey to<br /> an abiding fear that he had not the necessary self<br /> control to do justice to the tremendous responsi-<br /> bilities exacted of him by the public. Those of our<br /> members who knew Herbert Allingham will recall<br /> him as a remarkably bright, keen, courteous, self-<br /> possessed young man, the very ideal of the surgeon<br /> who, in the intent to save life or give relief, will spare<br /> no pains and will accept all risks. It is, indeed, a<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> tragedy that a life, so replete with valuable promise<br /> and so distinguished by great performance, should<br /> thus have been cut off. We tender our marked<br /> sympathies to Mr. William Allingham, Herbert<br /> Allingham’s father, who also is a member of our<br /> Society, and who, although he has now retired some<br /> years from actual practice, is well remembered in<br /> the scientific world both as author and practical<br /> surgeon.<br /> Se<br /> <br /> II. Lady Besant.<br /> <br /> Ir has been mentioned elsewhere how Sir<br /> Walter Besant drew his story of ‘Dorothy Forster”<br /> from the history of his wife’s ancestors, the Fosters<br /> of Northumberland. But it is not so generally<br /> known that Lady Besant was connected with<br /> literature in another way through her forefathers,<br /> the Foster-Barhams, of Cornwall and Devon. ‘Lhe<br /> “Dictionary of National Biography ” shows in the<br /> last two centuries five Foster-Barhams who were<br /> distinguished as scholars, poets, musicians, authors,<br /> and religious and social reformers. From this<br /> ancestry Lady Besant inherited that keen sense<br /> of appreciation for music and poetry, and especially<br /> that love of musical and lyrical verse which was a<br /> marked characteristic of her literary taste. From<br /> her father, Mr. Eustace Foster-Barham, she imbibed.<br /> her love of the classics and of classical English<br /> poetry, and from him also she inherited some of<br /> that love and knowledge of nature and bird-life<br /> which was another of Lady Besant’s characteristics.<br /> <br /> Familiarity with the notes and flight of birds is<br /> a rare talent; it may be transmitted from one<br /> generation to another, but it needs also an<br /> inherited capacity to receive it—a capacity which<br /> seems in danger of dying out with the increasing<br /> noise aud hurry of life. Lady Besant would<br /> wander even on Hampstead Heath in the early<br /> summer to listen for “the warblers,” and try to<br /> make their notes distinguishable to ears less keen<br /> than her own. And she was always ready to<br /> associate a poetic thought with her nature study,<br /> leading her friends by her quotations to a quickened<br /> perception of natural life, and, by her nature lore,<br /> opening up to them fresh fields of literature.<br /> She did not, like her ancestors, write books and<br /> poetry, but she loved them, and she inspired those<br /> who wrote. Many touches of the life and nature<br /> in Sir Walter Besant’s books are due to her<br /> observation and insight.<br /> <br /> While warmly sympathising with her husband’s<br /> literary interests, she was also’ a worthy helpmate<br /> of “one who loved his fellow-men.” All who<br /> <br /> have had the privilege of meeting Lady Besant<br /> can testify to the gracious refinement of thought<br /> and manner and the genuine hospitality of spirit<br /> which added a peculiar charm and inspiration to<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 83<br /> <br /> her household. Those who knew her intimately<br /> can tell that this hospitality of spirit was due to a<br /> large-heartedness that thought and spoke the best<br /> of everyone, and sought to draw from everyone<br /> their best. She leaves behind her influence and<br /> memory in very many lives, humble and simple,<br /> as well as learned and literary, enriched by her<br /> friendship, or even by a mere passing acquaintance<br /> with her gentle thoughts and unfailing sympathy.<br /> ONE OF HER MANY FRIENDS.<br /> <br /> o—~&gt;<br /> <br /> SECRET COMMISSIONS.<br /> <br /> —&gt;<br /> <br /> T is sometimes alleged that laws are ineffectual<br /> I unless they are in accordance with, and sup-<br /> ported by, the standard morality of the time.<br /> This statement requires qualification. Laws in ad-<br /> vance of the general morality of the average middle-<br /> class man can—if they are not too farin advance, and<br /> have the sympathy of the more intelligent portion<br /> of the community—do much to raise the general<br /> standard of morals, honesty, or manners. Con-<br /> spicuous examples may be found in the success of the<br /> laws against duelling, and against bribery at<br /> elections. Our grandfathers preserved without the<br /> slightest shame lists of the voters who were to be<br /> bought for 5/. or 10/. a head. The Parliamentary<br /> candidates of to-day will leave behind them nothing<br /> worse than lists of subscriptions paid within the<br /> limits of their constituencies.<br /> <br /> The matter of secret commissions seems to have<br /> now reached a point at which the intervention of<br /> the law may have a wholesome effect in checking a<br /> system which is universally deplored, and almost as<br /> universally practised. Such, at any rate, was the<br /> opinion of the late Lord Russell of Killowen, who<br /> introduced a bill in the House of Lords with this<br /> object. The measure, unfortunately, did not<br /> receive the sanction of the Legislature, but we may<br /> hope that before many years have elapsed some<br /> similar enactment may pass both Houses. What<br /> is wanted in order to convince many worthy and,<br /> in their own opinion, honourable men that what<br /> they are doing every day is immoral is to declare<br /> that it is illegal. At present it is commonly held<br /> in commercial circles that trade custom covers and<br /> justifies dealings, which, in the absence of such<br /> custom, would be admitted to be flagrantly dis-<br /> honest. Agents, purporting to render accounts of<br /> “out of pocket expenses,” put in their own pockets<br /> considerable discounts, or tradesmen, acting nomin-<br /> ally in partnership with persons not in trade, as, for<br /> instance, authors and publishers, render accounts<br /> which do not correctly represent their actual<br /> disbursements,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Though not always easy of direct proof, owing to<br /> the various ways in which this discount is allowed<br /> by the printer or the engraver to the publisher, it<br /> is a matter of common knowledge, and will hardly<br /> be denied, that such discounts are in many cases<br /> allowed, received, and not accounted for to the<br /> author. We may quote a few instances.<br /> <br /> In one case the Secretary of the Society, on checking<br /> an author’s advertising account, discovered that the<br /> publisher had added 10 per cent. to the amount.<br /> At first the publisher was unwilling to withdraw<br /> the sum claimed, alleging that it was a custom of<br /> the trade; that all publishers did it, and that it<br /> would be impossible for a publisher’s business to<br /> prosper unless he took these commissions ; but on<br /> our Secretary insisting, the amount was reluctantly<br /> given up. In another case, a publisher, acting as<br /> agent, charged the author a higher price than he<br /> had himself paid for illustrations to a book, and<br /> in a third instance the publisher granted the<br /> recision of an agreement on condition that vouchers<br /> for the accounts were not demanded. But the<br /> instances capable of proof are, as has been stated,<br /> few, and must necessarily be so, owing to the fact<br /> that the commission is secret.<br /> <br /> Publishers have recently produced forms of<br /> agreement, in which, for the first time, the state-<br /> ment appears that the publisher charges a commis-<br /> sion on the cost of production in cases where he<br /> undertakes to get the printing done on behalf of<br /> the author at the author’s expense. In an agree-<br /> ment set forth in the November number of 7&#039;he<br /> Author such a clause will be found; it runs as<br /> follows :—<br /> <br /> “The amount is reckoned at the invoiced cost,<br /> which is almost invariably 5 per cent. more than<br /> the net cost.” This charge, of course, is no longer<br /> a secret commission, though in the subsequent<br /> clauses no definite percentage is stated. But there<br /> is danger that in addition to the publicly declared<br /> commission which the publishers in their agree-<br /> ments now express their intention of retaining,<br /> there may still be some publishers who will take,<br /> in addition, a secret commission, so that the last<br /> state of the author may become worse than the<br /> first. When a secret commission was taken, the<br /> author could always, by taking the advice of the<br /> Society, find out, approximately, whether the price<br /> he was paying for printing was fair or not, and in<br /> this way knew whether he was paying 5 or 10 per<br /> cent. above the market price. Now he may have<br /> to pay 5 or 10 per cent. above the market price and<br /> pay the declared commission as well.<br /> <br /> We have been led to these remarks by the report<br /> of a very interesting case, lately tried on appeal,<br /> where an agent, who employed a printer, took a<br /> secret commission, The agent and defendant in<br /> this case was not a publisher, but an auctioneer,<br /> 84<br /> <br /> who undertook to sell certain goods for the<br /> plaintiff, and was, in addition to his commission,<br /> <br /> to be paid out of pocket expenses, including adver-<br /> tising, publishing bills, and printing catalogues.<br /> &quot;he auctioneer received and did not bring into<br /> account arebate on the bills from the tradesmen<br /> employed. In the County Court the action went<br /> against the plaintiff, but on appeal the unanimous<br /> judgment of a Court, consisting of the Lord Chief<br /> Justice, Mr. Justice Kennedy, and Mr, Justice<br /> Ridley, was given in favour of the appellant.<br /> <br /> The summary of the facts of the case and<br /> extracts from the judgments delivered, which<br /> follow, are quoted from the report in the Zimes of<br /> November 4th :—<br /> <br /> “ The defendants called evidence to prove, and did prove<br /> to the satisfaction of the learned judge, that there was a<br /> long established usage or practice amongst auctioneers to<br /> act as the defendants had acted with regard to the discounts<br /> on the accounts, and that it was the usual practice for the<br /> printers to deal with the auctioneers as principals, and to<br /> allow them as trade customers the trade discount off the<br /> retail price, the whole of the retail price being charged by<br /> the auctioneers against the vendors. It was admitted that<br /> no mention of the discount was made by the defendants to<br /> the plaintiff ; and the plaintiff swore that he did not know<br /> of any usage or practice under which the defendants might<br /> claim such discount, though he admitted that he knew there<br /> was such a practice with regard to the bills sent in by news-<br /> papers for advertising. The County Court Judge was of<br /> opinion that the defendants had acted honestly, and that,<br /> inasmuch as they took no secret commission from any<br /> person with whom they were negotiating a contract to be<br /> made between that person and the plaintiff, and inasmuch<br /> as the plaintiff was not in fact damnified, the plaintiff&#039;s<br /> claim failed, and that he was not entitled to recover from<br /> the defendants the amount of the trade discount allowed<br /> to the defendants, nor the amount of the commission earned<br /> by the defendants on the sale of the plaintiff&#039;s goods.”<br /> <br /> The Lord Chief Justice in delivering judgment for the<br /> plaintiff said, he must say, so far as he was concerned, he was<br /> satisfied that there was no fraud on the part of the<br /> respondent in taking and retaining the discounts allowed<br /> by the printer and others. In his opinion it was a mistake<br /> which arose from a wrong idea of what they were entitled<br /> to under their contract, and a wrong idea as to what they<br /> were entitled to by virtue of this so-called usage, as to<br /> which evidence was produced at the trial. The circum-<br /> stances of this case were, apart from explanations, a little<br /> unfortunate, and in his opinion the fact that the discounts<br /> were not disclosed did require some explanation. He was<br /> satisfied, however, that the explanation given by the<br /> respondents sufficiently explained their conduct in the<br /> matter.<br /> <br /> He must say that he thought that the law which had been<br /> applied in the cases referred to should be applied in all<br /> cases where an agent employed to do certain work received<br /> a secret commission in relation to the performance of his<br /> duty to his employer from any other than his employer.<br /> He only wished to add that he thought it was highly pro-<br /> bable that there did prevail, unfortunately, in commercial<br /> circles in which perfectly honourable men played a per-<br /> fectly honourable part, a most extraordinary laxity in the<br /> view which was placed on these proceedings. Ifa principal<br /> employed an agent for a given remuneration to do work for<br /> him, and employed him upon these terms, that agent was<br /> not allowed to make a secret profit for himself out of that<br /> transaction. The-sooner that was recognised, and the<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> sooner these secret commissions were made to be dis-<br /> approved of by men in an honourable profession, the better<br /> it would be for trade and commerce in all its branches. He<br /> said that not because for one moment he thought that these<br /> gentlemen were acting otherwise than in what they believed<br /> to be in accordance with their rights, but the argument of<br /> Mr. Duke had led the Court—indeed it had invited them—<br /> to say that the Court should allow these commissions to<br /> these gentlemen as against their principal because the<br /> principal knew, or ought to have known, that something of<br /> the kind was going on. Of course, if iv was brought to the<br /> knowledge of the principal that such things were being<br /> paid, it ceased to be secret, and then, of course, the question<br /> did not arise ; but when there was no knowledge the agent<br /> ought to account, and it was only honest that he should<br /> carry on his business on the principle that he should<br /> account.<br /> <br /> For the reasons which he had stated, the appellant was<br /> entitled to judgment for the two sums which the respon-<br /> dents had received by way of discount, but was not<br /> entitled to recover the commission which he had paid to<br /> them.<br /> <br /> Mr. Justice Kennedy said that on the general question he<br /> was of the same opinion. He thought that with regard to<br /> the discount the appellant was, as a matter of contract,<br /> entitled to receive the sums which the respondents had<br /> retained. By the terms of the agreement under which the<br /> respondents were em ployed they were entitled to claim<br /> beyond this commission out of pocket expenses only. What<br /> they now sought to retain was not out of pocket expenses.<br /> It had been suggested that “out of pocket expenses &amp;<br /> might be qualified by a knowledge that in some portion of<br /> contracts which the auctioneers would necessarily enter<br /> into they might possibly be allowed a discount. It appeared<br /> to him quite impossible, as it would be unjust, to act upon<br /> such suggestions, because presumably the auctioneers ought<br /> to be treated, and they certainly claimed to be treated as<br /> men of honour; and if he said he would charge only out<br /> of pocket expenses, he (his Lordship) would think that any<br /> one who dealt with him, if so addressed, would expect to<br /> have the benefit of any discounts, if there were any, in<br /> that particular case. Further, he wished to say, without<br /> adding to what the Lord Chief Justice had said, because he<br /> had expressed it better than he (Mr. Justice Kennedy)<br /> could if he attempted to do it over again, he did think it<br /> was sad to find the extent to which in these days persons<br /> of apparent honour, and no doubt respectability, seemed to<br /> be willing to justify or to connive at secret commissions.<br /> The whole gist of the evil was in the word * Secret,” not in<br /> the word “ Commission.” If the employer was told, as he<br /> ought to be told, that the agent was going to make certain<br /> profits out of the transaction beyond the remuneration the<br /> principal was paying, there would be no possible harm ;<br /> but unless that was brought to the knowledge of the<br /> principal, if a person took the commission, or if he con-<br /> nived at another person receiving a secret commission, he<br /> was doing a thing which went far to bring a rot into the<br /> honesty of commercial transactions. He quite agreed with<br /> the Lord Chief Justice that it was only just to say that<br /> the respondents were acting perfectly honestly in doing<br /> what they imagined was right under an established practice.<br /> He would, however, be sorry to say that the practice was<br /> an honest one, unless the fact was brought to the knowledge<br /> of persons employing the agent.<br /> <br /> Mr, Justice Ridley said he concurred with the judgment:<br /> of the Lord Chief Justice.<br /> <br /> The remarks of the learned judges, at once<br /> trenchant as regards the practice condemned, and<br /> charitable to the particular offenders, leave little to<br /> be added.<br /> <br /> We trust that so clear a judicial exposition of<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> the moral law, and so emphatic a decision, that on<br /> this matter of secret commissions the law of<br /> <br /> England is identical with it, may do something to<br /> touch the unawakened consciences of men “of<br /> apparent honour, and, no doubt, respectability,”<br /> and to prevent them in future from following a<br /> course of action which the Court of Appeal has<br /> decided to be dishonest in itself and likely “ to bring<br /> a rot into the honesty of commercial transactions.”<br /> <br /> —————_+—&gt;—_____—_—__<br /> <br /> SWORD AND PEN.<br /> <br /> —_-——&gt;—- —_<br /> <br /> OLDIERS seem ever to have displayed a<br /> strong predilection for the pen. After the<br /> sword, indeed, it is the weapon that has had<br /> <br /> the first place in their affections. From Julius Czesar<br /> to ‘ Linesman”’ they have shone as historians, the<br /> first named being perhaps the best war corre-<br /> spondent on record. His “ Veni, Vidi, Vici,” still<br /> remains unequalled and unsurpassed. In three<br /> words he contrived to say what his fellow craftsmen<br /> of the present day would want three volumes for.<br /> <br /> If there are no Cwesars at the present day, and<br /> if the Napiers and Hamleys of the nineteenth<br /> century have no place in the twentieth one, the<br /> age is none the less barren of good military authors.<br /> Thus, in addition to the Commander-in-Chief<br /> himself, the soldier-writers still with us include<br /> Field-Marshals Viscount Wolseley and Sir Evelyn<br /> Wood, V.-C., Generals Sir William Butler, Sir<br /> Francis Clery, Frederick Maurice, and R. 8. Baden-<br /> Powell; while two of the most successful play-<br /> wrights—Robert Marshall and Basil Hood are<br /> ex-captains of line regiments. Besides these, there<br /> are a host of others, ranking from subalterns<br /> upwards, who have conclusively shown that their<br /> prowess with the pen is no mean one.<br /> <br /> Among military historians, pure and simple, the<br /> first place was (until his lamented death last year),<br /> easily occupied by Colonel G. IF. R. Henderson,<br /> C.B. Of his completed works, the ‘Battle of<br /> Spicheren’”’ and “Campaign of I’redericksburg”’<br /> are the best known. By the way, Colonel<br /> Henderson also translated Count Sternberg’s<br /> ** Experience of the Boer War.”<br /> <br /> At the head of the long list of present-day<br /> military authors will be found two field-marshals.<br /> These are respectively Lord Wolseley and Earl<br /> Roberts. Lord Wolseley’s first contribution to the<br /> publishers’ lists was a “ Narrative of the War with<br /> China.” Eight years later, in 1869, appeared his<br /> well-known “ Soldier’s Pocket Book.” In 1873 he<br /> wrote a companion volume for the auxiliary forces.<br /> As a historian, his preliminary essay was made with<br /> a “Life of John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough.”<br /> <br /> 85<br /> <br /> He followed this in 1895, with the “ Decline and<br /> Fall of Napoleon,” a volume which Inaugu-<br /> rated “The Pall Mall Magazine Library.” Lord<br /> Wolseley has also written numerous prefaces and<br /> introductions to books by his comrades in arms,<br /> while his contributions to magazines and reviews<br /> would in themselves make another volume.<br /> <br /> Like his distinguished predecessor in the office<br /> of Commander-in-Chief, Lord Roberts has tre-<br /> quently acted as a literary godfather, while he has<br /> also inspired a shelf full of biographies. None of<br /> these, however, have had a fraction of the well-<br /> deserved success accorded to his own “Forty-one<br /> Years in India.” Of this, some thirty editions have<br /> been issued since its original appearance in 1897.<br /> Two years earlier he wrote the “ Rise of Wellington.”<br /> <br /> The literary beginnings of Sir Evelyn Wood,<br /> V.-C., were of a modest nature. They took the<br /> form of the publication of a series of lectures,<br /> delivered before the members of the Royal United<br /> Service Institution, in 1876 and 1877. Nearly<br /> two decades elapsed before he wrote anything<br /> else. This was a volume on the Crimea. In 1897<br /> appeared his ‘ Achievements of Cavalry,” followed<br /> shortly afterwards by ‘‘ Cavalry in the Waterloo<br /> Campaign.”<br /> <br /> Perhaps, of all military authors of the present<br /> day, the most prolific and versatile is Lieut.-General<br /> Sir William Butler. Novels, biographies, and<br /> histories have all been born of his industry. He<br /> commenced in 1872 with the ‘‘ Great Lone Land,”<br /> and in 1899 appeared his last book, the “ Life of<br /> Sir George Pomeroy Colley.” ‘This is generally<br /> admitted to be one of the best biographies yet<br /> written. ‘lhe same author also contributed lives<br /> of General Gordon and Sir Charles Napier to the<br /> “English Men of Action” series. Altogether,<br /> General Butler’s name appears on the title page<br /> of nine separate books. The total of Major-General<br /> Frederick Maurice’s literary industry is ten.<br /> Included among these are biographies of his father,<br /> Frederick Denison Maurice, Sir H. B. Hamley, and<br /> Stonewall Jackson, histories of the Kgyptian (1882)<br /> and Ashanti Campaigns, and a recondite treatise<br /> on “ Hostilities without Declaration of War,” to the<br /> last edition of the ‘‘ Encyclopedia Britannica.”<br /> <br /> Long before the appearance of his famous pam-<br /> phlet on “ Scouting,” Major-General R. 8. Baden-<br /> Powell wrote books on professional matters. ‘The<br /> best known among these dealt with the important<br /> subject of ‘ Reconnaissance.” In 1889 he was<br /> responsible for a work on ‘ Pigsticking.” ‘This<br /> was succeeded by the ‘ Downfall of Prempeh”<br /> (1896) and the “ Matabele Campaign” (1897).<br /> Like Lord Roberts, “ B.-P.” has been the subject of<br /> at least half-a-dozen biographies, the majority of<br /> which are as fatuous examples of mere book-making<br /> as it would be possible to conceive.<br /> <br /> <br /> 86<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “The Manual of Infantry Drill” is undoubtedly<br /> the most widely circulated volume in camp and<br /> barracks. Although anonymity shrouds its author-<br /> ship, General Sir Charles Mansfield Clarke (the<br /> newly appointed Governor of Malta) is commonly<br /> credited with being responsible for it. The strict<br /> anonymity which at one time veiled the personality<br /> of “ Linesman ” (the author of “ Words by an Eye<br /> Witness”) has now been brushed aside. ‘The<br /> adopter of this nom de yuerre is Captain Maurice<br /> Grant, of the Devonshire Regiment, at present a<br /> Deputy-Assistant-Adjutant-General at the War<br /> Office, and more concerned with the preparation of<br /> “Blue Books” than any other form of literature.<br /> None of the Peeping Toms of Modern Grub Street,<br /> however, have as yet succeeded in identifying<br /> “ Intelligence Officer ” (who wrote “ On the Heels of<br /> De Wet”) with anyone whose name is contained in<br /> the current Army List.<br /> <br /> At first sight the connection between Mars and<br /> the Muse does not perhaps seem very evident.<br /> That such a one exists, however, is conclusively<br /> proved by the fact that several volumes of verse<br /> have emanated from military authors. One of the<br /> best known among these is from the pen of that<br /> distinguished soldier, Sir Ian Hamilton, and was<br /> published by John Lane. Of novelists who wield<br /> the sword, the number is rather larger. It includes<br /> Colonel Newnham Davis, Major Drury, Captain<br /> Haggard, D).S.0., and Captain Peacock.<br /> <br /> Horace WYNDHAM.<br /> <br /> —_——__—_——_—__¢___—__<br /> <br /> BOOK ADVYERTISING.*<br /> <br /> —-——+ —<br /> <br /> NOR anything more tame or more unsatisfactory<br /> than the book advertising that goes on we<br /> should have to look a long way. It seems<br /> <br /> to me there is almost no advertising at all in the<br /> book trade, but merely “announcing.” Elsewhere<br /> T am apt to meet with advertisements at once<br /> striking and speaking, but never in the pub-<br /> lishers’ columns. Indeed, it would be hard for<br /> print to make a more dreary impression than it<br /> does in precisely these announcements. I do not<br /> know how it is with the bibliomaniac, but when I<br /> see a hatch of publishers’ lists in a paper, I<br /> experience nothing but aversion—a nausea partly<br /> that so much writing should be produced, and<br /> partly that it should have so dismal an introduc-<br /> tion. The only effect such pages have is to make<br /> one turn over as quickly as possible ; and one says<br /> to oneself, “ If these books are half as sleepy as the<br /> <br /> _ * OF course, this does not quite apply to publications of<br /> information and reference.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> way in which their publishers announce them,<br /> what a terribly dry lot they must be, how<br /> depressing, how lifeless, stagnant, andinert !” It<br /> would be interesting, if only for the experiment, to<br /> see a book advertised as soap is, as pills are—with<br /> go and ingenuity, and that persuasiveness which,<br /> when attention has once been arrested, then steps<br /> in to make one want the article. But there are<br /> difficulties.<br /> <br /> I need hardly say here how materially this sub-<br /> ject touches a certain pocket whose depletion our<br /> society is at much pains to prevent—the author’s,<br /> I mean. But it requires especial attention for this<br /> reason, that while for the cost of getting up a<br /> book, be that ever so exorbitant, a commissioning<br /> author does at least receive some guid pro quo in<br /> the shape of paper, print, and binding, the cost of<br /> advertising may be so much money just thrown<br /> away. I say “may be,” but suspect thav. in<br /> perhaps a majority of instances it positively is so,<br /> judging this, however, more from the impotence<br /> and indistinction of the average book announce-<br /> ment than from any familiarity with authors’<br /> accounts; for such experience as I have of the<br /> latter is more illuminating than extensive.<br /> <br /> Perhaps, under these circumstances, I may be<br /> permitted to refer to a case of my own for example.<br /> In this instance £15 was the sum spent for adver-<br /> tising, which, under the publishers’ direction,<br /> procured me forty odd insertions in various<br /> periodicals of an announcement in the usual style,<br /> viz., three or four lines in small type, sandwiched<br /> between a mass of other titles, press notices, and so<br /> on—as bald, forlorn, and pitiable an arrangement<br /> as could be devised. Though I had no exact<br /> means of checking the efficacy of these advertise-<br /> ments, I know for certain they did not bring me<br /> over six additional customers, if as many. From<br /> each of these I received the payment of roundly<br /> half a crown. Result :—Expenditure, £15; re-<br /> ceipts, 15s.; net loss, or charitable bequest to<br /> newspaper proprietors, £14 5s.<br /> <br /> Tt is no use saying now that the merchandise<br /> was bad, because we know very well that the most<br /> worthless nostrums can be profitably advertised,<br /> and even entirely bogus schemes be so urged to<br /> success. The point is that this dry and mechanical<br /> way of cataloguing books that publishers have got<br /> into does not give the author a run for his money,<br /> though, to be sure, the negligence is on both sides,<br /> and partly necessitated into the bargain. But say<br /> that, instead of leaving this £15 to be frittered-<br /> away in so many paltry obscurities, I had concen-<br /> trated it in ten distinct, alertly written “ads.,” and<br /> carefully placed these, should I not have received —<br /> at least ten times as many inquiries—yes, had it<br /> been but. a load of bricks at 3s. 6d. apiece net ?<br /> <br /> It is not so much any wild and sweeping reforms<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> I advocate in this matter ; but where feasible I do<br /> call for more enterprise, more attention, more<br /> vivacity. A good advertisement speaks to you:<br /> it carries its point, and fixes that on the mind ; its<br /> action is a positive one. But what are we to say<br /> of the featureless inventories which in the book-<br /> trade still pass for advertisement ? What is there<br /> individual about these? Are they lucid, crisp,<br /> emphatic, intelligent ? Do they assert anything in<br /> aconvincing manner? [ say it is all as miserably<br /> lame as could be ; and I should like to know how<br /> it is some author or other does not at last wake up<br /> to crow out, like a cock on a frosty morning, that<br /> his book is “the best.” Alas for our self-satisfac-<br /> tion ! In this market “the best” are already there,<br /> and underselling us, too, at that.<br /> <br /> In truth (to mention a few of the difficulties<br /> now) a book isa poor thing to advertise, the good<br /> ones so valuable as to be beyond recommendation,<br /> the bad ones so superfluous that nobody really can<br /> find the heart to insist upon them. The limited<br /> extent of the appeal is indeed a very serious im-<br /> pediment here. And it is not so much that books<br /> are luxuries, for so in the very nature of the case<br /> are all other advertised articles. Itis the fact that<br /> these goods, before satisfying the purchaser, have<br /> to command a certain amount of his sympathy, and<br /> shape themselves, not simply to his convenience,<br /> but to the spirit of him. This is the reason why,<br /> strictly speaking, it is impossible to treat books—<br /> other than those of a merely formal class—as<br /> proper articles of commerce. With commodities<br /> the mental and moral order of the purchaser does<br /> not come in question, but with books it does, and<br /> this complication will always more or less prevent<br /> us from advertising them as true branded commo-<br /> dities are—that is to say, with decision, assurance,<br /> and pertinacity. Could any writer, I ask, were it<br /> Shakespeare himself, give so much as your tailor’s<br /> guarantee, and claim in his announcement, “ We<br /> fit you” ? Decidedly no. The author’s stock is<br /> all of a size; and it is only the few and the scat-<br /> tered others of about that calibre that he can<br /> attempt to cater for. Nay, were some of us to<br /> speak for ourselves, we should have to affirm that<br /> those to whom we wish to be recommended are a<br /> public whose very existence is essentially no more<br /> than phantasmal. Precisely of this audience we<br /> have never met a single member, but can trust<br /> only that they lurk somewhere.<br /> <br /> Of great writers it might be said that time is<br /> their advertisement (and there is no medium yield-<br /> ing better results). What more eloquent advocate,<br /> indeed, can an author desire than his writing ?<br /> what fairer testimonial? Unfortunately, however,<br /> it is exactly this distribution of sample-pieces that<br /> presents so much difficulty. It is not everyone who<br /> has the knack of just that style requisite to gain<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> 87<br /> <br /> signed admission to the standing periodicals, nor<br /> everyone who has something purely topical to say.<br /> Even when this is the case, the probability is<br /> that the specimens so circulated are of a specially<br /> adapted character—of a character, in other words,<br /> not properly representative. From this sort of<br /> advertisement a man gains enumeration at the ex-<br /> pense of reputation. In the alternative event, the<br /> author, making of his books or, it may be, manu-<br /> scripts, his personal journal and propaganda, must<br /> simply wait for the word to percolate of its own<br /> gravity to congenial company, in this sometimes<br /> forwarded, sometimes thrust back, by the deputa-<br /> tion of official “tasters.” And those who have<br /> ever found themselves in the predicament will<br /> hardly need any reminder from me what an excru-<br /> ciatingly slow process this generally is. How many<br /> purveyors are there in any case who, had they but<br /> fifty customers, would have five hundred ?<br /> Advertisement, like an usher, calls out our<br /> names, but not the personalities or capacities<br /> attached to them. Where the name itself implies<br /> nothing, consequently, the announcement is sure<br /> not to go for much ; and unknown authors ought<br /> to bear the fact in mind, if they do not want to<br /> waste money. No doubt, if the advertiser could<br /> only be sure he were informing THE READER, his<br /> recommendation would not lack for point and<br /> effectiveness. Besides, a word, a sign even, would<br /> be sufficient here. Stood up, however, in front of<br /> the book-buying public — this foreign, heteroge-<br /> neous, preoccupied assembly—enthusiasm too often<br /> dies wretchedly away, the tongue falters, and<br /> what was to have been a brag is uttered a feeble<br /> gasp. The speaker looks round. Instead of the<br /> fanfare, a toy trumpet has heralded his approach.<br /> Norman ALLISTON.<br /> <br /> o~&lt;e&amp; ¢<br /> <br /> A GUIDE TO GRUB STREET.<br /> <br /> ++<br /> <br /> rHVHERE is an alarming rumour current in<br /> <br /> Fleet Street to the effect that in the near<br /> <br /> future all newspaper articles will be written<br /> by machinery. Until such time, however, the<br /> older fashioned methods will doubtless prevail.<br /> What these methods are, and the best way of<br /> acquiring them, Mr. Arthur Lawrence essays to set<br /> forth in this manual.* At any rate, in the first two<br /> lines of the opening chapter he describes it as “a<br /> work intended to serve as a guide to journalism.”<br /> Unfortunately its achievement falls very short of<br /> <br /> * «Journalism as a Profession,” by Arthur Lawrence<br /> (Hodder &amp; Stoughton).<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 88<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> its intention, and the literary aspirant may read<br /> the volume from cover to cover twice over<br /> without being any nearer the editorship of<br /> either the Times or Comic Cuts than when he<br /> started. The book, however, will make him think<br /> that he is. It will also have the effect of imbuing<br /> the minds of numbers of ambitious journalistic<br /> amateurs with the idea that newspaper pro-<br /> prietors are aching to pay them large sums of<br /> money. This is a matter for regret. Every<br /> young woman in the kingdom thinks she can<br /> write a story, and some of them are quite positive<br /> about it. Our instructor tells them airily that<br /> “there are several writers of serial stories in the<br /> popular weeklies who earn £1,500 a year.” He<br /> puts the average rate of remuneration at a guinea<br /> a thousand words. Mary Ann reads this, and her<br /> mouth waters. If she perceived, however, that<br /> between her and the acquisition of £1,500 stretched<br /> the composition of approximately a million and a<br /> half words, her transports would subside in marked<br /> degree. Of journalism, too, in general we are told,<br /> “The beginner of not more than average ability<br /> may reasonably hope to be self-supporting—in<br /> somewhat meagre fashion, perhaps—at the start.”<br /> Well, “hope” is cheap.<br /> <br /> As a beginner himself Mr. Lawrence seems to<br /> have met with better fortune than most people.<br /> “The number of MSS. returned to me,” he writes<br /> naively, “during six years of free-lance contribu-<br /> tions was not more than 1 per cent.” He omits to<br /> mention, however, the number that were accepted.<br /> <br /> Mr. Lawrence’s opinion that “it is less the sub-<br /> ject than the treatment which counts” is not<br /> shared by editors as a class. Indeed, when the<br /> subject is all right—from their point of view—<br /> nothing else is of any great importance. No<br /> amount of literary skill will make them look with<br /> eyes of favour on a contribution that does not deal<br /> primarily with a topic that will appeal to their<br /> readers. This is why our “popular” magazines<br /> print so many ill-written articles on interesting<br /> subjects. A second view expressed by the author<br /> of “ Journalism as a Profession” is also unlikely<br /> to meet with general approval. It occurs in his<br /> chapter on interviewing, in the course of which he<br /> states in effect that it is undesirable to submit to<br /> the person referred to the biographical and critical<br /> portions of the article. These, he argues, should<br /> be printed without inquiring beforehand whether<br /> they are approved of or not. Among most people<br /> this sort of thing would be regarded as bad<br /> manners. It is a little curious, therefore, to find<br /> Mr. Lawrence including “ good taste” among the<br /> necessary qualifications of an interviewer.<br /> <br /> Several pages in this enlightening manual are<br /> devoted to the subject of short story writing.<br /> Aspirants will turn to these eagerly, for no descrip-<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> tion of literary work is more attractive to the would-<br /> be author. In dealing with the subject our guide<br /> invokes the aid of a brother-writer. Meredith and<br /> <br /> Kipling being unavailable, he gives them the wise ©<br /> <br /> words of the next best expert on hand. This is no<br /> less an authority than the editor of Forget-me-Not !<br /> “ Here’s richness !’’ as Mr. Squeers once observed.<br /> The mentor thus called in takes himself very<br /> seriously, and insists upon simplicity, directness,<br /> condensation, development, and “ form,” together<br /> with any number of other desirable attributes, before<br /> the high standard of Home Chat and similar organs<br /> can be reached. He advises the beginner to turn<br /> his attention to serials, opening up a golden vista<br /> in this direction. ‘‘ At present,’’ he declares,<br /> “there are nearly five hundred serials running in<br /> London periodicals, and editors value the capable<br /> serial-writer above rubies.” Perhaps this is why<br /> they pay them from fifteen shillings per thousand<br /> words, which is the market price for beginners in<br /> Carmelite Street. Even at a guinea per thousand<br /> (the scale here stated as being usual) it seems<br /> unduly optimistic to say that ‘a young man who<br /> has once got a start can comfortably earn £1,000<br /> a year.” At any rate, he has got to write a million<br /> words—that is, the contents of ten long novels—<br /> to do it.<br /> <br /> On this delicate matter of the journalist’s earning<br /> powers Mr. Lawrence holds a no less cheery view.<br /> “‘T have frequently,” he remarks, “had ocular<br /> demonstration of the fact that thirty, forty, and<br /> even fifty guineas can be obtained for a well-illus-<br /> trated and popular article,” and then goes on to<br /> speak of a writer—“ quite unknown to the public ”<br /> —who received £480 for a series of twelve contri-<br /> butions. After this it seems a little strange to<br /> find him saying, ‘‘In most periodicals money is<br /> not scattered about. Newspapers, magazines, and<br /> reviews are conducted on the same principle as any<br /> other form of trade enterprise.” But Mr. Lawrence<br /> says many strange things. One of them (on p. 74)<br /> is “ different — to.”<br /> <br /> The final chapter in Mr. Lawrence’s book is<br /> written by Sir Alfred Harmsworth. It deals with<br /> “The Making of a Newspaper,” and is worth more<br /> than all the others put together.<br /> <br /> H. W.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> a<br /> <br /> THE FEMININE NOTE IN FICTION.<br /> <br /> — ee<br /> <br /> T the introduction to his volume of essays on<br /> <br /> certain women writers of the present time,<br /> Mr. W. L. Courtney starts with the assump-<br /> tion that women who write novels introduce a<br /> particular point of view of their own, that there is,<br /> in short, a distinctive feminine style in fiction.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> He is not unmindful, however, of the painful truth<br /> that if there is a distinct feminine standpoint there<br /> is a distinct masculine standpoint also, and that<br /> the latter is as likely to lead to misapprehension as<br /> the former. It must be confessed that study of<br /> Mr. Courtney’s essays fails, in the case of the<br /> present writer, to give a clear notion of what this<br /> distinctively feminine note is. At times one has<br /> the impression that a note of ponderous solemnity,<br /> a prophetic hollowness of voice that hints the gas<br /> and tripod of the Sibyl herself, is the common<br /> quality of literary women ; but, after all, distinctly<br /> masculine persons utter oracles by the furlong.<br /> At other moments a passion for paradox, and for<br /> the epigrams that the editor of the Fortnightly<br /> despises so wrongly, seems to be the typical vice<br /> of the female novelist. One serious defect, com-<br /> mon to all women writers except Sappho and<br /> Charlotte Bronté, appears to be an insane passion<br /> for detail, and this is generally combined with<br /> self-consciousness and didacticism. The diary<br /> which some pretty women daren’t keep and all<br /> plain ones keep so religiously is the cause of<br /> the self-consciousness: the didacticism is the Old<br /> Eve that lurks even in the pious bosom of the<br /> deaconess and the novelist with a Purpose. Mr.<br /> Courtney sat down to write a book—or rather, I<br /> should say that he has collected a book from those<br /> reviews of his whose style is a refreshing and sober<br /> contrast with the somewhat flamboyant periods of<br /> the other columns of the Daily T&#039;elegraph—a book<br /> which professes to deal with one note in fiction<br /> peculiar to women. He has written essays on eight<br /> distinguished ladies (the Muses themselves only<br /> attained to the mystic number nine), and, as a conse-<br /> quence, has given us an interesting volume on eight<br /> feminine notes in fiction. I suggest that he publish<br /> an additional volume on the same subjegt every<br /> year. Variwn etmutabile sniper fanina 7 The only<br /> common qualities in feminine fiction that I have<br /> ever detected are, first, a tendency to say, like the<br /> Duchess in “* Lady Windermere’s Fan,” that all men<br /> are monsters, or to draw angels with moustaches<br /> and clerical trousers; and secondly, to call them-<br /> selves ugly names if they do not already possess<br /> them. John Oliver Hobbes, Amalie Skram,<br /> Madame Edgrems-Leffler, Zack, Gyp,—why do the<br /> brilliant creatures all choose, or possess lawfully,<br /> these terribly aggressive appellations ?,“ By the<br /> Ilyssus, as Matthew Arnold would havé said, there<br /> was no Skram. By the Thames, howevei, there<br /> are plenty of names just as formidable. Why<br /> should our feminine fictionists rejoice in adding<br /> such a truly ugly discord to the Strauss-like<br /> cacophonies of modern life? The masculine note<br /> in criticism of it should ever be the loud and<br /> natural D of denunciation.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> sr, J. Li.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 89<br /> IN A PUBLISHER’S WAITING-ROOM.<br /> 3Y THE JUNIOR PARTNER.<br /> 1<br /> HE “front clerk ”—as he is called—(whose<br /> <br /> business it is to “ squeeze ” visitors and make<br /> <br /> them yield up the truth about themselves,<br /> whether they be “authors,” “advertising,” or<br /> “accounts,” and these, too, bond fide, and no<br /> humbug) knocks at my door.<br /> <br /> On the card, which he places before me without<br /> comment, is the name of a man of some distinction<br /> in our Civil Service ; and, glancing at the “ requisi-<br /> tion’ slip which accompanies it, upon which a<br /> caller is required to mention his business, I see<br /> that the section is not filled up, so the slip adds<br /> nothing to my knowledge of his business.<br /> <br /> When, five minutes later, I open the door of the<br /> waiting-room and ask him to be seated, my mind is<br /> (I like to think) a blank. Iam without prejudice.<br /> But as soon as the light catches his face I see that<br /> he is probably an author, one who has, perhaps,<br /> never published anything before.<br /> <br /> Men will go to a strange doctor, lawyer, clergy-<br /> man, and speak unblushingly, sometimes of strange<br /> discreditable things. There is a tacit understanding.<br /> The object of the visit is approximately known. No<br /> preliminaries are necessary: digestion or conscience<br /> is giving trouble ; a “settlement ” or a ‘ divorce”<br /> is to be arranged: nothing is so strange or so<br /> commonplace but the profession will support it, and<br /> the client shortly feel at ease. Something of this<br /> kindly aid to human nature, which the pro-<br /> fessional man derives from his office, the publisher<br /> himself strives after, and, in a large “ practice,”<br /> sometimes attains to. The author rarely. The<br /> author is either an unpublished author, a failure,<br /> or a success. If either of the former, his most<br /> common fault is shyness. If the latter, sheepish-<br /> ness is not exactly his failing. No, he is not<br /> sheepish. He is usually the sovereign lord of<br /> heaven and earth, sometimes the true Olympian,<br /> but sometimes the bully and the fool. It is not<br /> altogether their fault; they are perhaps building,<br /> somewhere out of sight, their own idea of the City<br /> of God. And one must make allowances; one<br /> must allow for birth, parentage, training ; and<br /> lastly, for this strange unique thing that at length<br /> happens to them—they have a desire, strange to all<br /> animals and to most men, to express themselves in<br /> words ; to make it their business in life to live in<br /> an imaginary world. And so they come to us busi-<br /> ness men, made sad and sober by many mistakes,<br /> and explain themselves as best they may ; and we<br /> in our turn try to meet them half way by surround-<br /> ing ourselves with cautious and civil assistants<br /> armed with all the latest books of biographical<br />  <br /> <br /> 90<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> reference ; and by keeping an open unprejudiced<br /> mind.<br /> <br /> My caller is of medium height, squarely built,<br /> but small headed. His hair is thin and of the<br /> colour of straw—a yellow that just misses that<br /> colour. But the notable thing about him are his<br /> eyes: small, common, grey-blue eyes, you would<br /> say, at a first glance. It is when he begins to<br /> speak, when he is sure of the person with whom he<br /> is speaking, that they light up and say more than<br /> the man himself can say. Indeed, this much-<br /> travelled man, with all those letters after his name,<br /> and the years and honours upon him, can say but<br /> little, and say it very badly. As he speaks he<br /> leans forward towards his listener and bends his<br /> head low.<br /> <br /> “J have come—I am sorry to trespass on your<br /> time—I wish to have a book—published, you see ?<br /> Not to pay for it. [Abruptly.] I do not wish to<br /> do that.” He smiles engagingly, uncertain of his<br /> ground. Reassured, he proceeds :<br /> <br /> “JT might be called—you would think me<br /> perhaps in a position to pay for it. Solam ; but—<br /> the fact is, I am not literary : all my friends are—<br /> the reverse. Well—unless you could see your way<br /> to publish it, I should—you see—be deeper in<br /> ignorance as to its true value. I should have no<br /> guarantee. I want to get at its true value. If it<br /> is not valuable enough to publish—for you—I shall<br /> not publish it.”<br /> <br /> I asked him to tell me what the book is about.<br /> <br /> “Ah; it is along story.” He sits up, relieved<br /> that the dreadful secret is at length out; that<br /> the preliminaries are even over ; approaching the<br /> explanation now with a kind of vigour born of<br /> confidence begotten in his hearer. Yet he is very<br /> nervous, and I try to put him at ease.<br /> <br /> * You say ‘a long story’: how many words ?”<br /> and we both laugh. The ice is broken. After the<br /> mutual understanding, he begins.<br /> <br /> “You know, I have travelled a good deal—here<br /> and there—a matter of necessity—working pretty<br /> hard, ‘serving my country’ [the winning smile<br /> again |—and—but like the man in Kipling, I’ve<br /> always had a thought behind—‘ back of all,’ as the<br /> Americans say—which—which—I scarcely know<br /> how to express it—which continually urged upon<br /> me that ‘his was not the real thing, the real pur-<br /> pose of my life. Thirty years of it I’ve done,<br /> nevertheless—absorbed in my work, going here<br /> and there, and sometimes forgetting, but never<br /> completely; especially of late. In fact, of late,<br /> though I might call myself a busy man still, I’ve<br /> felt this desire more insistent than ever ”’—<br /> <br /> “What desire ?”<br /> <br /> “Ah, yes, of course: the desire to record my<br /> experiences in a book.”<br /> “Then, a book of travels ?”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “Well, no, not exactly ; it is really imaginary ;<br /> in fact, a purely imaginary work—I mean, a work<br /> of the imagination. And yet it deals only with<br /> facts.”<br /> <br /> 1 smile at his hesitation and point out: “In<br /> that case I have to warn you that the facts will be<br /> used against you at the trial.” The suggestion<br /> missed him. He was not literary.<br /> <br /> “ How so?” abruptly.<br /> <br /> “Tn this way: if an author allege of his work<br /> that it is a record of fact, or is founded on fact, as<br /> fact, he must expect it to be judged. Fiction does<br /> not gain anything by being founded on fact; and<br /> the literary crime of writing poor fiction is not<br /> extenuated but rather aggravated by alleging of<br /> it that it is a record of fact, for in that case it is<br /> neither the one thing nor the other.”<br /> <br /> “ Quite so—of course.” Dubiously.<br /> <br /> “At least, that, I believe, is the profess‘onal<br /> reader’s view.”<br /> <br /> “‘ But may there not be exceptions ?”<br /> <br /> “ Surely.”<br /> <br /> “T do not say I am the—the heaven-sent<br /> exception. But—you must forgive me—this book<br /> of mine will, I think, astonish you. It has cost me<br /> years of thought—years: I have put all of myself<br /> —the best I have—into it. You must admit that<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ‘the very best, the most truthful part, of even the<br /> <br /> most ordinary man’s thoughts may be really worth<br /> something.”<br /> <br /> “To himself, to his friends, yes; but, as litera-<br /> ture, not necessarily.”<br /> <br /> “ How ?—what do you mean by literature ?”<br /> <br /> My face involuntarily expressed deprecation. I<br /> made a movement which his nervousness wrongly<br /> interpreted, and he rose.<br /> <br /> “ May I send it, then, if you please? You will<br /> take care of it? You have my name and address.<br /> And—will you, will you, please, (in a whisper full<br /> of anxiety)—read it yourself?”<br /> <br /> “That I fear I cannot promise.”<br /> <br /> “Well, never mind. Thank you very much. I<br /> am afraid I have been trespassing. Thank you.<br /> Ti send it at once. Thank you. Good-bye.”<br /> <br /> The pleading eyes of this ‘‘ man of action” were<br /> with me for days. A busy man, he had evidently<br /> suffered much from some mental worry, and had<br /> thus been driven back upon the world of thought<br /> where he found himself at sea. A pathetic figure,<br /> with that invincible belief which so many would-<br /> be authors have in common: that the success and<br /> happy ease with which they carry out the practical<br /> work of their lives must qualify them at length for<br /> success in a totally different sphere—that it is a<br /> guarantee of it.<br /> <br /> The manuscript arrived the next day. It was<br /> not anovel. It was a twelve-canto poem in blank<br /> verse, for the model of which ‘‘ Paradise Lost” had<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> evidently served, recounting the author’s birth,<br /> bringing up, experiences, activities, and, in the<br /> last canto, the loss of his earthly paradise when<br /> his wife left him for someone else—not literature ;<br /> indeed, quite worthless.<br /> <br /> —_______+ &gt; ____<br /> <br /> CORRESPONDENCE.<br /> ass<br /> <br /> Srr,— What is our literature coming to ?<br /> <br /> I take the following choice extracts at random<br /> from ‘The Storm of London,” which I am told is<br /> the rage of the season :<br /> <br /> 1. ‘ Amphibrion” or “ Amphytrion ” (the author<br /> favours both forms, but never by accident the right<br /> one).<br /> <br /> 2. “The London Hetaires.”<br /> <br /> 3. “ Preferable ¢han social decomposition.”<br /> <br /> 4, “ Awaiting for.”<br /> <br /> 5. “ Let me pour you (sic) a cup of tea.”<br /> <br /> 6<br /> <br /> 7<br /> <br /> 8<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ). “An mfalliable guide.”<br /> . “They are having you on” (elegant).<br /> . “The lady: ‘So funny to give orders to a<br /> <br /> F229:<br /> <br /> person who stands just as naked as you are<br /> (choice).<br /> <br /> 9. ‘The corruption of a Louis XV. with the<br /> casuist of a Loyola.”<br /> <br /> 10. “ The poor diaphanous lady.”<br /> <br /> 11. “ A silver candelabra.”<br /> <br /> 12. “ Out of humour against the performance.”<br /> <br /> And so on ad nauseam ; while, for the punctua-<br /> tion (good heavens ! )—a pepper pot must have been<br /> used.<br /> <br /> How did it ever pass muster with the publisher’s<br /> reader ? oP<br /> <br /> ——+—&lt;—<br /> <br /> “WHAT&#039;S IN A NAME?”<br /> <br /> Sir,—Mr. Armstrong’s letter does not refute my<br /> proposition that no man, under any pretext what-<br /> ever, has a right to use another man’s property in<br /> book-titles. ‘This subject of title-taking I have<br /> treated more upon moral than legal grounds. If<br /> he thinks that my remarks upon his letters in 7&#039;he<br /> Author have passed the bounds of fair comment,<br /> I tender him, in all sincerity, a full and frank<br /> apology.<br /> <br /> Mr. Charles Weekes prefaces his raw reply to my<br /> proposition with the complimentary question,<br /> “Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words<br /> without knowledge ?” With equal grace I demand,<br /> “ Who is this that offereth sophistry for reasoning ?”<br /> <br /> Besides copyright, he tells us, an author has<br /> “common law right.” This, in part, is a flagrant<br /> sophism. Common law is unwritten law, and<br /> where is the right in that which is unwritten ?<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. | 9]<br /> <br /> Mr. Weekes means, I suppose, that the common<br /> law gives one man a right to appeal against<br /> another’s appropriating his property in book-titles,<br /> Just so. But that does not constitute a right<br /> moral or legal, to the book-title, any more than the<br /> purloining of title-deeds gives a right to possession<br /> of the property of which they are the evidence.<br /> Take a title-deed, as book-titles are purloined, and<br /> the act is criminal.<br /> <br /> To save space I shall not handle his fallacious<br /> analogy between book-titles and trade-marks as he<br /> did my correct one concerning Mr. Penman Dryas-<br /> dust and a book-title. I shall merely point out his<br /> contradictions of himself, and his sophistry, He<br /> writes :—<br /> <br /> “A book has a right<br /> against infringers which<br /> the common law will<br /> recognise. alse.”<br /> <br /> This he calls taking the analogy the other way.<br /> ‘Twist it whatever way he will, it is a contradiction.<br /> He complains of my want of analogical reasoning ;<br /> but what about his own unconscious lack of it as<br /> shown in the following passage? In plenitude of<br /> words he writes :—“ Copyright, Mr. Panter should<br /> learn, ... is not like a man’s right to ‘house<br /> utensils,’ It is analogous to the right in a patent<br /> or trade-mark.” Above Mr. Weekes, in the cock-<br /> sure vein, declares for an author’s “common law<br /> right.” And here he eliminates the cocksure by<br /> stating it is only an analogous one! Book-titles<br /> and trade marks are not analogous; and until it<br /> can be shown that an author gives the same title<br /> to every work he writes as a publisher stamps his<br /> trade-mark upon every book he produces, there can<br /> be no analogy between book-titles and trade-marks.<br /> ‘lo use Mr. Weekes’ own phrasing against himself :<br /> ‘“« Here the analogy of” book-titles to trade-marks<br /> “undergoes complete extinction. I am tempted<br /> to inquire whether he understands the nature and<br /> uses of analogical reasoning.” A book-title and a<br /> trade mark possess as much analogy as do the<br /> marks upon the bodies of Smith and Beck, and<br /> yet this ‘analogy ” gave the innocent man seven<br /> years of penal servitude.<br /> <br /> What says the Copyright Act (5 and 6 Vict. c. 42),<br /> 8. 3, with respect to the word “book.” ‘A book<br /> shall be construed to mean and include every<br /> volume, and part or division of a volume, &amp;e., &amp;e.,<br /> of original composition published.” Is the title not<br /> a part of the volume ? Why, then, should the title,<br /> or first sentence of the volume, be wrenched from<br /> its fellow sentences in order to make //, and noother<br /> sentence, a question of contention in a law court ?<br /> To make it such belies the pronouncement of the<br /> Copyright Act, that a part as well as the whole of<br /> a volume is under its protection.<br /> <br /> “A book has a right<br /> against infringers which<br /> the copyright law will<br /> recognise. This is true.”<br /> <br /> <br /> 90 THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> reference ; and by keeping an open unprejudiced<br /> mind.<br /> <br /> My caller is of medium height, squarely built,<br /> but small headed. His hair is thin and of the<br /> colour of straw—a yellow that just misses that<br /> colour. But the notable thing about him are his<br /> eyes: small, common, grey-blue eyes, you would<br /> say, at a first glance. It is when he begins to<br /> speak, when he is sure of the person with whom he<br /> is speaking, that they light up and say more than<br /> the man himself can say. Indeed, this much-<br /> travelled man, with all those letters after his name,<br /> and the years and honours upon him, can say but<br /> little, and say it very badly. As he speaks he<br /> leans forward towards his listener and bends his<br /> head low.<br /> <br /> “JT have come—I am sorry to trespass on your<br /> time—I wish to have a book—published, you see ?<br /> Not to pay for it. [Abruptly.] Ido not wish to<br /> do that.” He smiles engagingly, uncertain of his<br /> ground. Reassured, he proceeds :<br /> <br /> “T might be called—you would think me<br /> perhaps in a position to pay for it. SoIam ; but—<br /> the fact is, I am not literary : all my friends are—<br /> the reverse. Well—unless you could see your way<br /> to publish it, I should—you see—be deeper in<br /> ignorance as to its true value. I should have no<br /> guarantee. I want to get at its true value. If it<br /> is not valuable enough to publish—for you—I shall<br /> not publish it.”<br /> <br /> I asked him to tell me what the book is about.<br /> <br /> “Ah; it isa long story.” He sits up, relieved<br /> that the dreadful secret is at length out; that<br /> the preliminaries are even over ; approaching the<br /> explanation now with a kind of vigour born of<br /> confidence begotten in his hearer. Yet he is very<br /> nervous, and I try to put him at ease.<br /> <br /> “You say ‘a long story’: how many words ?”<br /> and we both laugh. The ice is broken. After the<br /> mutual understanding, he begins.<br /> <br /> “You know, I have travelled a good deal—here<br /> and there—a matter of necessity—working pretty<br /> hard, ‘serving my country’ [the winning smile<br /> again |—and—but like the man in Kipling, I’ve<br /> always had a thought behind—‘ back of all,’ as the<br /> Americans say—which—which—I scarcely know<br /> how to express it—which continually urged upon<br /> me that ‘his was not the real thing, the real pur-<br /> pose of my life. Thirty years of it I’ve done,<br /> nevertheless—absorbed in my work, going here<br /> and there, and sometimes forgetting, but never<br /> completely; especially of late. In fact, of late,<br /> though I might call myself a busy man still, I’ve<br /> felt this desire more insistent than ever ’—<br /> <br /> “What desire ?”<br /> <br /> “Ah, yes, of course: the desire to record my<br /> experiences in a book.”<br /> <br /> “Then, a book of travels ? ”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “Well, no, not exactly ; it is really imaginary ;<br /> in fact, a purely imaginary work—I mean, a work<br /> of the imagination. And yet it deals only with<br /> facts.”<br /> <br /> I smile at his hesitation and point out: “In<br /> that case I have to warn you that the facts will be<br /> used against you at the trial.” The suggestion<br /> missed him. He was not literary.<br /> <br /> “ How so ?” abruptly.<br /> <br /> “In this way : if an author allege of his work<br /> that it is a record of fact, or is founded on fact, as<br /> fact, he must expect it to be judged. Fiction does<br /> not gain anything by being founded on fact; and<br /> the literary crime of writing poor fiction is not<br /> extenuated but rather aggravated by alleging of<br /> it that it is a record of fact, for in that case it is<br /> neither the one thing nor the other.”<br /> <br /> “Quite so—of course.” Dubiously.<br /> <br /> ““At least, that, I believe, is the professional<br /> reader’s view.”<br /> <br /> ‘‘ But may there not be exceptions ?”<br /> <br /> “ Surely.”<br /> <br /> “T do not say I am the—the heaven-sent<br /> exception. But—you must forgive me—this book<br /> of mine will, I think, astonish you. It has cost me<br /> years of thought—years: I have put all of myself<br /> —the best I have—into it. You must admit that<br /> <br /> ‘the very best, the most truthful part, of even the<br /> <br /> most ordinary man’s thoughts may be really worth<br /> something.”<br /> <br /> “To himself, to his friends, yes ; but, as litera-<br /> ture, not necessarily.”<br /> <br /> ‘* How ?—what do you mean by literature ?”<br /> <br /> My face involuntarily expressed deprecation. I<br /> made a movement which his nervousness wrongly<br /> interpreted, and he rose.<br /> <br /> “May I send it, then, if you please? You will<br /> take care of it? You have my name and address.<br /> And—will you, will you, please, (in a whisper full<br /> of anxiety)—read it yourself ?”<br /> <br /> “That I fear I cannot promise.”<br /> <br /> “Well, never mind. Thank you very much. I<br /> am afraid I have been trespassing. Thank you.<br /> I&#039;ll send it at once. Thank you. Good-bye.”<br /> <br /> The pleading eyes of this “man of action” were<br /> with me for days. A busy man, he had evidently<br /> suffered much from some mental worry, and had<br /> thus been driven back upon the world of thought<br /> where he found himself at sea. A pathetic figure,<br /> with that invincible belief which so many would-<br /> be authors have in common: that the success and<br /> happy ease with which they carry out the practical<br /> work of their lives must qualify them at length for<br /> success in a totally different sphere—that it is a<br /> guarantee of it.<br /> <br /> The manuscript arrived the next day. It was<br /> not anovel. It was a twelve-canto poem in blank<br /> verse, for the model of which ‘‘ Paradise Lost”? had<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. | 91<br /> <br /> evidently served, recounting the author’s birth,<br /> bringing up, experiences, activities, and, in the<br /> last canto, the loss of his earthly paradise when<br /> his wife left him for someone else—not literature ;<br /> indeed, quite worthless.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> —~&gt;— +<br /> <br /> CORRESPONDENCE.<br /> Be<br /> <br /> Str,— What zs our literature coming to ?<br /> <br /> I take the following choice extracts at random<br /> from ‘The Storm of London,” which I am told is<br /> the rage of the season :—<br /> <br /> 1. *‘ Amphibrion” or “ Amphytrion ” (the author<br /> favours both forms, but never by accident the right<br /> one).<br /> <br /> 2. “The London Hetaires.”<br /> <br /> 3. “ Preferable than social decomposition.”<br /> <br /> 4, “ Awaiting for.”<br /> 5. “ Let me pour you (sic) a cup of tea.”<br /> 6. “An infalliable guide.”<br /> <br /> 7. “They are having you on” (elegant).<br /> <br /> 8. “The lady: ‘So funny to give orders to a<br /> person who stands just as naked as you are’”<br /> (choice).<br /> <br /> 9. “The corruption of a Louis XY. with the<br /> casuist of a Loyola.”<br /> <br /> 10. “ The poor diaphanous lady.”<br /> <br /> 11. “A silver candelabra.”<br /> <br /> 12. “ Out of humour against the performance.”<br /> <br /> And so on ad nauseam ; while, for the punctua-<br /> tion (good heavens ! )—a pepper pot must have been<br /> used.<br /> <br /> How did it ever pass muster with the publisher’s<br /> reader ? © Ap<br /> <br /> — + ——<br /> <br /> ““WHAT’s IN A NaME?”’<br /> <br /> Sir,—Mr. Armstrong’s letter does not refute my<br /> proposition that no man, under any pretext what-<br /> ever, has a right to use another man’s property in<br /> book-titles. ‘This subject of title-taking I have<br /> treated more upon moral than legal grounds. If<br /> he thinks that my remarks upon his letters in Zhe<br /> Author have passed the bounds of fair comment,<br /> I tender him, in all sincerity, a full and frank<br /> apology.<br /> <br /> Mr. Charles Weekes prefaces his raw reply to my<br /> proposition with the complimentary question,<br /> “Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words<br /> without knowledge ?” With equal grace I demand,<br /> “ Whois this that offereth sophistry for reasoning ?”<br /> <br /> Besides copyright, he tells us, an author has<br /> “common law right.” This, in part, is a flagrant<br /> sophism. Common law is unwritten law, and<br /> where is the right in that which is unwritten ?<br /> <br /> Mr. Weekes means, I suppose, that the common<br /> law gives one man a right to appeal against<br /> another’s appropriating his property in book-titles,<br /> Just so. But that does not constitute a right<br /> moral or legal, to the book-title, any more than the<br /> purloining of title-deeds gives a right to possession<br /> of the property of which they are the evidence,<br /> Take a title-deed, as book-titles are purloined, and<br /> the act is criminal.<br /> <br /> To save space I shall not handle his fallacious<br /> analogy between book-titles and trade-marks as he<br /> did my correct one concerning Mr. Penman Dryas-<br /> dust and a book-title. I shall merely point out his<br /> contradictions of himself, and his sophistry. He<br /> writes :—<br /> <br /> “A book has a right<br /> <br /> ‘A be “ A book has a right<br /> against infringers which<br /> <br /> against infringers which<br /> <br /> the common law will the copyright law will<br /> recognise. False.” recognise. This is true.”<br /> <br /> This he calls taking the analogy the other way.<br /> Twist it whatever way he will, it is a contradiction.<br /> He complains of my want of analogical reasoning ;<br /> but what about his own unconscious lack of it as<br /> shown in the following passage? In plenitude of<br /> words he writes :—* Copyright, Mr. Panter should<br /> learn, ... is not like a man’s right to ‘house<br /> utensils.” It is analogous to the right in a patent<br /> or trade-mark.” Above Mr. Weekes, in the cock-<br /> sure vein, declares for an author’s “common law<br /> right.” And here he eliminates the cocksure by<br /> stating it is only an analogous one! Book-titles<br /> and trade marks are not analogous; and until it<br /> can be shown that an author gives the same title<br /> to every work he writes as a publisher stamps his<br /> trade-mark upon every book he produces, there can<br /> be no analogy between book-titles and trade-marks.<br /> To use Mr. Weekes’ own phrasing against himself :<br /> ‘Here the analogy of” book-titles to trade-marks<br /> “undergoes complete extinction. I am tempted<br /> to inquire whether he understands the nature and<br /> uses of analogical reasoning.” A book-title and a<br /> trade mark possess as much analogy as do the<br /> marks upon the bodies of Smith and Beck, and<br /> yet this ‘analogy ” gave the innocent man seven<br /> years of penal servitude.<br /> <br /> What says the Copyright Act (5 and 6 Vict. c. 42),<br /> 8. 3, with respect to the word “book.” “A book<br /> shall be construed to mean and include every<br /> volume, and part or division of a volume, &amp;¢., &amp;c.,<br /> of original composition published.” Is the title not<br /> a part of the volume ? Why, then, should the title,<br /> or first sentence of the volume, be wrenched from<br /> its fellow sentences in order to make /¢, and noother<br /> sentence, a question of contention in a law court ?<br /> To make it such belies the pronouncement of the<br /> Copyright Act, that a part as well as the whole of<br /> a volume is under its protection.<br /> <br /> <br /> 92<br /> <br /> Next Mr. Weekes asks, “ Does Mr. Panter see the<br /> point” of a book being allowed to exclude other<br /> books of more value from the market monopolising<br /> the exclusive right to its title ? I answer, Yes, if it<br /> be not wrong to take and use another man’s title ;<br /> and No, if the contrary be held right. To say<br /> that because a book is of more value than another,<br /> it, therefore, has a right to that other’s title, is<br /> dishonest. And no man outside the precincts of<br /> Colney Hatch, if he respected public opinion con-<br /> cerning his mental health, would dare to say<br /> otherwise.<br /> <br /> Other remarks of Mr. Weekes I cannot notice, as<br /> they are wide of the point at issue with respect to<br /> the game of title-cribbage. He adds a like cypher<br /> to Mr. Armstrong’s arithmetical naught. For a<br /> perfect definition and able verdict I would recom-<br /> mend their study of Cowper’s “ Eyes v. Nose.”<br /> <br /> CHARLES RICHARD PANTER.<br /> Wickhampton.<br /> <br /> Seis FY LE<br /> <br /> DEAR Srr,—The question of copyright in titles,<br /> opened by Miss Mary Cholmondeley’s letter, is one<br /> that must be of interest to every writer. May I<br /> add my experiences to the sum of knowledge on the<br /> subject, for in my case what was sauce for the goose<br /> does not seem to me to have been quite sauce for<br /> the gander.<br /> <br /> Four years ago a story of mine ran serially in<br /> The Argosy. In deciding upon a title I took<br /> every step I could think of to satisfy myself that<br /> I was not infringing rights belonging to others,<br /> and Mr. George Allen, my publisher, and myself<br /> exchanged more than one letter on the subject. As,<br /> however, the firm assured me they could after<br /> “careful enquiry” find no trace of the names<br /> having been used, the story was called “ Outrageous<br /> Fortune,” and so began its course. In April, after<br /> three instalments had been printed, came an intima-<br /> tion from another publisher that a book under the<br /> same title had been brought out by him some little<br /> time before. He protested against my use of it.<br /> I gave way and the name was changed to “ Malicious<br /> Fortune.” So far I have no cause of complaint.<br /> I had poached, however innocently, on another’s<br /> manor, and the only course open was apology and<br /> withdrawal.<br /> <br /> But the incident was hardly closed before I<br /> experienced very much the same thing myself. A<br /> story of mine, “ Between the Devil and the Deep<br /> Sea,” was still in some demand, but another, called<br /> “oT wixt Devil and Deep Sea,” a title, I contend,<br /> substantially the same, was put upon the market.<br /> Instances at once occurred of friends wishful to<br /> purchase or read my book being given my<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> successor’s in its place, and through my publishers,<br /> Messrs. Ward, Lock &amp; Co., I wrote to the pub-<br /> lishers of the second story and protested. I was<br /> met by a decided unwillingness to relinquish<br /> what, after my recent experience, I looked upon<br /> as my property, and the passing of letters waxed<br /> fast though not furious. At length a compromise was<br /> suggested. Would it meet the case, | was asked,<br /> if a slip drawing attention to the similarity of title<br /> and dis-similarity of contents were sent to all the<br /> literary papers? I replied that such a slip in the<br /> form of an advertisement and duly paid for as such,<br /> would content me. The notice was sent, but not<br /> in the form of an advertisement, neither, presum-<br /> ably, was it duly paid for: The only paper, as far<br /> <br /> asmy knowledge goes, that took any notice of it<br /> was The Academy, and that printed it, omitting<br /> the names of both books and authors, in the shape<br /> of a hilarious little paragraph pointing out the<br /> depths to which writers will descend to secure a<br /> cheap notoriety.<br /> <br /> I was far from considering that this met the<br /> case, but, being mindful of the delightful uncer-<br /> tainty of the law on such matters, I shrank from<br /> litigation. There was therefore nothing left me<br /> but to sit down, by no means resignedly, under<br /> what I still regard as an infringement of my<br /> rights.<br /> <br /> I am now at work on a third novel, for which<br /> T have chosen what appears to me to be the one<br /> and only suitable title that exists. From the bot-<br /> tom of my heart do I echo Miss Cholmondeley’s<br /> account of her own state of mind in similar cir-<br /> cumstances. I have no possible means of satisfying<br /> myself as to whether or not that title has been<br /> used before. Far from inviting the assistance<br /> of others, of courting the publicity which alone<br /> could set my mind at rest on the matter, I dare<br /> not breathe that title to my dearest friend lest<br /> some unscrupulous somebody hear of it and run<br /> off with my treasure. How joyfully should I<br /> welcome the advent of the register suggested<br /> more than once in the pages of Zhe Author,<br /> wherein upon payment of a guinea my title might<br /> be duly entered and so sate-guarded to me, not<br /> perhaps for ever, but for a reasonable length of<br /> time. Surely I should not rejoice alone. Much<br /> has been made of the difficulties in the way of<br /> such a register, but are not those difficulties a<br /> little exaggerated? ‘Those to whom a title is of<br /> value could at once take advantage of it. In —<br /> cases where a title has ceased to be of value to.<br /> anyone, I venture to submit that no one would<br /> be aggrieved should it be used again.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> I am, Sir, very truly yours,<br /> Srecta M. Durine.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The Writers’ Club,	https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/500/1904-12-01-The-Author-15-3.pdf	publications, The Author
501	https://historysoa.com/items/show/501	The Author, Vol. 15 Issue 04 (January 1905)	<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=%3Cem%3EThe+Author%3C%2Fem%3E%2C+Vol.+15+Issue+04+%28January+1905%29"><em>The Author</em>, Vol. 15 Issue 04 (January 1905)</a>											<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Publication">Publication</a>	1905-01-01-The-Author-15-4					93–120																		<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=89&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=15">15</a>											<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=76&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1905-01-01">1905-01-01</a>							4			19050101	Che Huthor.<br /> <br /> (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)<br /> <br /> FOUNDED BY SIR<br /> <br /> WALTER BESANT.<br /> <br /> Vou. XV.—No. 4.<br /> <br /> TELEPHONE NuMBER :<br /> 374 VICTORIA.<br /> <br /> TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS :<br /> AUTORIDAD, LONDON.<br /> <br /> ——S—_ -—&gt;—_2 —_____<br /> <br /> NOTICES.<br /> ——&gt;—<br /> <br /> signed or initialled the authors alone are<br /> <br /> responsible. None of the papers or para-<br /> graphs must be taken as expressing the opinion<br /> of the Committee unless such is especially stated<br /> to be the case.<br /> <br /> : ee the opinions expressed in papers that are<br /> <br /> Tux Editor begs to inform members of the<br /> Authors’ Society and other readers of The Author<br /> that the cases which are from time to time quoted<br /> in The Author are cases that have come before the<br /> notice or to the knowledge of the Secretary of the<br /> Society, and that those members of the Society<br /> who desire to have the names of the publishers<br /> concerned can obtain them on application.<br /> <br /> ——&gt;—+—__<br /> <br /> List of Members.<br /> <br /> THE List of Members of the Society of Authors<br /> published October, 1902, at the price of 6d., and<br /> the elections from October, 1902, to July, 1903, as<br /> a supplemental list, at the price of 2d., can now be<br /> obtained at the offices of the Society.<br /> <br /> They will be sold to members or associates of<br /> the Society only.<br /> <br /> —_*+—&gt;—+—_<br /> <br /> The Pension Fund of the Society.<br /> <br /> Tux Trustees of the Pension Fund met at the<br /> Society’s Offices on the 19th of February, and<br /> having gone carefully into the accounts of the<br /> <br /> fund, decided to purchase £250 London and North<br /> <br /> Vou, XV.<br /> <br /> JANUARY IsT, 1905.<br /> <br /> ——e ee<br /> <br /> [Prick SIxpEncr.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Western 3 % Debenture Stock. Accordingly, the<br /> investments of the Pension Fund at present<br /> standing in the names of the Trustees are ag<br /> follows.<br /> <br /> This is a statement of the actual stock ; the<br /> money value can be easily worked out at the current<br /> price of the market :—<br /> <br /> ee £1000 0 0<br /> FaCn) COANE 200 500 0 0<br /> Victorian Government 3 % Consoli-<br /> dated Inscribed Stock ............... 291 19 11<br /> Wea ie 201 9 8<br /> London and North Western 3 % Deben-<br /> EEG DUOC es 250 0 0<br /> Wotal 22... £2,243 9 2<br /> ee<br /> <br /> Subscriptions from April, 1904.<br /> <br /> ooo<br /> <br /> £8. a:<br /> April18, Dixon, W. Scarth . : 7 0. 5 0<br /> April18, Bashford, Harry H. ; » O10 6<br /> April19, Bosanquet, Eustace F. . O10 6<br /> April23, Friswell, Miss Laura Hain 0 b 0<br /> May 6, Shepherd, G. H. .. : 0 3 0<br /> June 24, Rumbold, Sir Horace, Bart.,<br /> G.C.B. : . ol A<br /> July 27, Barnett, P. A. : : - 0:10<br /> Nov. 9, Hollingsworth, Charles . 0 10<br /> Donations from April, 1904.<br /> May 16, Wynne, C. Whitworth 5 0. 0<br /> June 28, Kirmse, R. . : : : :<br /> <br /> June 23, Kirmse, Mrs. R.<br /> <br /> July 21, The Blackmore Memorial<br /> <br /> Committee é 20 0 0<br /> Aug. 5, Walker, William 8, 200<br /> Oct. 6, Hare, F. W. E., M.D. 1 1.0<br /> Oct. 6, Hardy, Harold 010 0<br /> Oct. 20, Cameron, Mrs. Lovett 010 0<br /> Noy. 7, Benecke, Miss Ida. 1 1 0<br /> Nov. 11, Thomas, Mrs. Haig : 2 ,<br /> <br /> 5<br /> <br /> Noy. 24, Egbert, Henry :<br /> <br /> <br /> 94<br /> FROM THE COMMITTEE.<br /> <br /> ———+ —<br /> <br /> rTVHE last Committee meeting of the year was<br /> held on Monday, the 5th of December, when<br /> Mr. Douglas Freshfield was in the chair.<br /> <br /> There was a further election of members, bringing<br /> the total for the past year up to 233. This is the<br /> largest election which the Society has had in any<br /> one year during the past ten years. It is satisfac-<br /> tory to the Managing Committee to obtain this<br /> evidence of the appreciation of the advantages<br /> obtained from the Society’s work by writers<br /> engaged in the various branches of literature.<br /> <br /> One or two matters of importance were con-<br /> sidered by the Committee, concerning which it<br /> would be impolitic at the present stage to give<br /> detailed information. One matter, unfortunately,<br /> is likely to involve from twenty to thirty members<br /> of the Society. It is desirable to state only that<br /> the Committee, with the help of the secretary and<br /> the Society’s solicitors, are watching the issues with<br /> great care on behalf of the members...<br /> <br /> Some time ago, it may be remembered, the<br /> Committee decided to take counsel’s opinion on<br /> the question of the payment of Income Tax by<br /> authors. The opinion has now been obtained and<br /> was laid before the Committee. It is printed in<br /> this number of The Author.<br /> <br /> During the month of November the Chairman<br /> sanctioned the placing in the hands of the<br /> Society’s solicitors three County Court cases and<br /> two High Court cases. This was reported to<br /> and confirmed by the Committee. In the three<br /> County Court cases the amounts due have heen<br /> paid and the costs recovered. In one case, how-<br /> ever, there is a question of account which may need<br /> some further settlement. In the two High Court<br /> cases writs have been issued, and in one judgment<br /> under Order 14 has been obtained. It is hoped<br /> that the Society’s solicitors will be able to obtain<br /> judgment in the other by the same process.<br /> <br /> The negotiations carried on by the Committee for<br /> the purpose of obtaining a fresh agent in the<br /> United States are being pushed forward. The<br /> recommendation of Mr. James Bryce, who has just<br /> returned from the United States, was laid before<br /> the Committee, and the secretary was instructed to<br /> write to the gentleman, whose name was submitted,<br /> and enquire whether he would be willing to take up<br /> the duties involved.<br /> <br /> —— + —<br /> <br /> Cases.<br /> <br /> Since the last publication of The Author only<br /> six matters have been placed in the Seerctary’s<br /> hands for settlement, three for money due to<br /> members and three for the return of MSS. Intwo<br /> of the cases in which the Secretary has applied for<br /> the return of MSS. he has obtained the return for<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> the authors concerned. Sufficient time has not yet<br /> passed to enable the third case to be settled.<br /> <br /> The cases for money due are still in course<br /> of negotiation, but the editor of one of the papers<br /> has promised to send a cheque on the next pay<br /> day. In another case against a foreign publisher,<br /> the author had been unable to obtain any reply for<br /> overayear. ‘The Secretary, however, has obtained<br /> an answer and a promise to look into the matter,<br /> and there is every reason to hope that the Society<br /> will be able to bring the matter to an issue. 2<br /> <br /> It may be necessary to take number three into<br /> Court, as the principal from whom the money is<br /> due denies liability, although from the letters and<br /> information in the Secretary’s hands his indebted-<br /> ness seems to be quite clear.<br /> <br /> — oa<br /> <br /> December Elections.<br /> <br /> 37, Egerton ‘Terrace,<br /> Knightsbridge, 8.W.<br /> 8, Fairholm Road, West.<br /> <br /> Kensington, W.<br /> <br /> 10, Gilston Road, S.W.<br /> 10, Idmiston Gardens,<br /> West Norwood, 8.E.<br /> 17, Kensington Gore,<br /> <br /> Coffin, Mrs.<br /> Frere, Latham<br /> <br /> Irving, Laurence .<br /> Kentish - Rankin,<br /> <br /> M.A. ; F.R.G.S.<br /> Knowles, Miss Margaret<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> S.W.<br /> MacLiesh, Mrs. Wiston Lodge, Leaming-<br /> ton, N.B.<br /> Martin, Miss Eva M. St. Kilda, Carrington,<br /> (“Sydney Hessel- Nottingham.<br /> rigge ”)<br /> Miller, Mrs. Mary . 11, Woburn Place, W.C.<br /> Roberts, Miss Ethel Oak Hill Lodge, Frog-<br /> Adair . nal, N.W.<br /> <br /> Robinson, Major Gen.<br /> C. W., C.B.<br /> Scouller, John<br /> <br /> Snushall, Miss E. .<br /> Turton, Mrs.<br /> <br /> Williams, Archibald<br /> <br /> Beverley House, Katon<br /> Rise, Ealing, W.<br /> <br /> 774, Grove Lane, Den-<br /> mark Hill, S.E. ~<br /> <br /> Emneth, Wisbech, Cambs.<br /> <br /> The Nook, 138, Bruns-<br /> wick Hill, Reading.<br /> <br /> Uplands, Stoke Poges,<br /> Bucks.<br /> <br /> $$$ —__—<br /> <br /> BOOKS PUBLISHED BY MEMBERS OF<br /> THE SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> ——_-—— +<br /> <br /> (In the following list we do not propose to give more<br /> than the titles, prices, publishers, etc., of the books<br /> enumerated, with, in special cases, such particulars as may<br /> serve to explain the scope ‘<br /> Members are requested to forward information which will<br /> enable the Editor to supply such particulars.) \<br /> <br /> ART.<br /> THE RATIONALE OF ART.<br /> <br /> Published by the Author at Kames-<br /> 5s. n. .<br /> <br /> 7k x 5, 148 pp.<br /> burgh, Beckenham, Kent.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> and purpose of the work.<br /> <br /> By NorRMAN ALLISTON<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 95<br /> <br /> THE HIGHTEENTH CENTURY IN ENGLISH CARICATURE,<br /> By SELWYN BRINTON. 63 x 5, 96 pp. Siegle.<br /> Is. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> BIOGRAPHY.<br /> <br /> MEMOIRS OF THE MARTYR KING. Beinga Detailed Record<br /> of the Last Two Years of the Reign of His Most Sacred<br /> Majesty King CharlesI, 1646-48-49, By ALLAN Fra.<br /> <br /> 134 X 104, 278 pp. Lane. £5 5s. n.<br /> <br /> RUPERT, PRINCE PALATINE. By Eva Scort, 8} x 54,<br /> 384 pp. Constable. 3s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> MEMORIES. By Constancy F. GorDoN CumMMING. 83<br /> X 53, 487 pp. Blackwoods. 20s. n.<br /> <br /> tHE LIFE OF EDWARD LorD HAWKE. By MonTaGur<br /> <br /> Burrows. (rd. and Revised Edition), ik G45,<br /> 333 pp. Keliher. 6s.<br /> BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG.<br /> NEW TREASURE SEEKERS. By E. NESBIT. 8 x 43.<br /> <br /> 328 pp. Unwin. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE DESIRE OF THE NATIONS. By M. A. Mocarra,<br /> 10 X 7, 246pp. Mowbray. 3s. 6d.<br /> <br /> A FAMILY GRIEVANCE. By RAYMOND JACBERNS. 14X65,<br /> 182 pp. Wells Gardner. 1s. 6d.<br /> <br /> ELSIE’s MAGICIAN. By FRED WHISHAW. 7} xX 5,191 pp.<br /> Chambers. 1s. 6d.<br /> <br /> ENGLAND&#039;S SEA SrorIEs. A Popular Record of the<br /> Doings of the English Navy from the Earliest Days. By<br /> ALBERT LEE. 8 x 5,336 pp. Melrose. 5s,<br /> <br /> A SUMMERFUL OF CHILDREN. By ELLA and AGNES<br /> TOMLINSON. With 65 pictures of some Sussex Children.<br /> 82 X 6%, 87 pp. Dent, 10s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> THE DREAM GARDEN. A CHILDREN’S ANNUAL, 1905.<br /> Edited by Nerra SyrerT. 10} x 7}, 237 pp. Baillie.<br /> <br /> 5s. D.<br /> Puss IN Boots. By Louis WAIN. 1} X 6. Treherne.<br /> 1s. 6d.<br /> BOYS’ BOOKS.<br /> OUT OF THE RUNNING. A School Story. By HARroLp<br /> <br /> AVERY. 74 X 5,279 pp. Collins. 2s. 6d.<br /> <br /> CHILDREN’S BOOKS.<br /> <br /> A CHAPLET OF VERSE FOR CHILDREN, By Mrs. ALFRED<br /> BALDWIN. 74 X 5,110 pp. Mathews. 3s. 6d.<br /> <br /> Fairy STORIES FROM THE LITTLE MOUNTAIN. By JOHN<br /> FINNEMORE. 74 X 5,111 pp. Sunday School Union.<br /> 1s.<br /> <br /> THe TALE oF SQuEAKY Mouvsz,<br /> 54 X 43,135 pp.<br /> <br /> 3y A. 8S. GIBSON,<br /> Grant Richards. 2s.<br /> CHRONOLOGY.<br /> <br /> A PRACTICAL DAILY CALENDAR FOR ALL YEARS—Past,<br /> PRESENT, AND FUTURE—FRoM SATURDAY, JANUARY<br /> <br /> Ist, A.D. 1, By Rev. J. J. GRaTrex. 33 x 24,<br /> (celluloid card), The Author, Brandiscorner, R.S.O%<br /> 6d.<br /> <br /> DRAMA.<br /> <br /> Wm. SHAKESPEARE. PEDAGOGUE AND POACHER. By<br /> RiCHARD GARNETT. 74 x 5, 111 pp. Lane. 3s. 6d. n.<br /> A LEsson IN Harmony. By ALFRED AUSTIN, Poet<br /> Laureate. 7 x 42, 35 pp. French. 1s.<br /> Lerry. By A. W. PIneEro, 62 X 5, 247 pp. Heine-<br /> mann. Ils, 6d.<br /> EDUCATIONAL.<br /> <br /> ERasmus’s PRAISE or Fouzy. English School Texts,<br /> <br /> Edited by W. H. D. Roussg, Litt. D. 63 X 64. 126 pp.<br /> Blackie. 8d.<br /> FICTION,<br /> A SPOILED PRIEST AND OTHER STORIES. By P. A,<br /> <br /> S4EEHAN, D.D,<br /> <br /> 7% X 5,213 pp. Burns &amp; Oates. 5s,<br /> <br /> THE LAND oF BonDAGn. A Romance. By Joun<br /> BLOUNDELLE BuRTON. 7} x 5, 318 pp. — White. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE QUEEN’s KNIGHT ERRANT, A Story of the Days<br /> of Sin WALTER RALEIGH. By BEATRICE MARSHALL,<br /> 72 X 54, 322 pp. Seeley. 5s.<br /> <br /> THE FALKNERS OF GREENHURsT. By JEAN MIDDLEMAss.<br /> 73 X 5,308 pp. Digby Long &amp; Co. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE MINISTER’s GUEST. By Mrs. IsaBen SMITH.<br /> 73 X 5,400 pp. T. Fisher Unwin. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE Book OF ANGELUS DRAYTON.<br /> <br /> By Mrs. Frep<br /> REYNOLDS. 7% x 44, 400 pp.<br /> <br /> J. Long. 6s.<br /> <br /> JULIA. By KATHERINE TYNAN. 7% X 5, 322 pp. Smith<br /> Elder. 6s.<br /> THE EDGE or CIRCUMSTANCE, By E.NoBir. 72 x 5,<br /> <br /> 348 pp. Blackwood. 6s.<br /> SIEGFRIED. By S. BARING GouLD. 8 x 54, 351 pp.<br /> Dean. 6s.<br /> THE OTHER Worzp. By F. FRANK¥oRT Moorr, 1? x_6,<br /> 274 pp. Nash. 6s,<br /> A FALLEN IDoL, By F. ANSTEY,<br /> 83 xX 53, 204 pp. Newnes. 6d.<br /> A PRINCE OF THE PEOPLE, A Romance of modern<br /> Royalty. By Mason Puri TREVOR. 7% x 43,<br /> 299 pp. Isbister. 6s.<br /> HISTORY.<br /> THE VicERoy’s Post Bac. Correspondence hitherto un-<br /> published of the Earn or HARDWICKE, First Lord<br /> Lieutenant of Ireland after the Union. By MIcHAEL<br /> MACDONAGH. 8 xX 534, 466 pp. Murray. 12s. n.<br /> THE Hoty RomMAN Empire. By JAMES BRYCE. 7? x 54,<br /> 571 pp. Macmillan. 7s, 6d.<br /> HisToricaL Mysterizs. By ANDREW LANG. 8 x 53,<br /> 304 pp. Smith Elder. 9s. n.<br /> <br /> (Paper-bound reprint).<br /> <br /> LITERARY,<br /> <br /> THE ENCHANTED WooD AND OTHER ESSAYS ON THE<br /> GENIUS OF PLACES, By VERNON LEE, le. x 8,<br /> 321 pp. Lane. 3s. 6d. n,<br /> <br /> MEDICAL.<br /> <br /> CASSELL’S PHYSICAL Epucator. By EusTAcE MILES,<br /> <br /> 94 X 64. 756 pp. Cassell. 9s.<br /> MILITARY.<br /> <br /> STRATEGY ILLUSTRATED BY BRITISH CAMPAIGNS. By<br /> Capt. C. H, K. Macquorp. 9} x 64, 252 pp. Cassell.<br /> 10s. 6d.<br /> <br /> PAMPHLETS.<br /> A PLEA FOR THE HISTORICAL TEACHING orf HIsToRy,<br /> By C. H. FirruH. Clarendon Press, Oxford. 1s. n.<br /> POETRY.<br /> <br /> Musa VERTICORDIA. By FRANcIS Courts. 72 X 5<br /> <br /> Lane, 3s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> Porms. By Giacomo LEopaRpI. Translated by SIR<br /> THEODORE MARTIN, 7} X 5, 123 pp. Blackwood,<br /> 5s. n.<br /> <br /> SOUNDS AND SWEET AIRS. By JOHN ToODHUNTER.<br /> 64 x 5, 96 pp. Mathews. Is. n, 2<br /> THE GEORGICS OF VIRGIL. Translated into English Verse<br /> <br /> by the Right Hon. tHp LorD BURGHCLERE, 8% x 74,<br /> 195 pp. Murray. 10s. 6d. n.<br /> REPRINTS.<br /> <br /> THE PRiogESS’s TALE AND OTHER TALES. By GEOFFREY<br /> <br /> CHAUCER. Done into Modern English by Prof. SKEAT.<br /> 158 pp. (Introductory matter and notes at the end).<br /> <br /> Morinvg. 1s. 6d, n. each,<br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 96<br /> <br /> SOCIOLOGY.<br /> Tian PROBLEM OF THE UNEMPLOYED. An Enquiry and<br /> Economic Policy. By J. A. HoBson. 2nd Edition<br /> Methuen. 2s. 6d.<br /> <br /> Revised. 74 X 42, 160 + 40, pp.<br /> TECHNOLOGY.<br /> Printing. A Practical Handbook on the Art of Typo-<br /> graphy. Third (revised and enlarged) Edition. By<br /> C.F. Jacosi. 74 x 44, 409 pp. Bell. 7s. 6d,<br /> <br /> THEOLOGY.<br /> <br /> How To USE THE PRAYER BOOK.<br /> <br /> (Guides to Religious Knowledge Series).<br /> Longmans. 2s.<br /> <br /> CHRISTUS IN ECCLESIA.<br /> <br /> By Mrs. E. ROMANES,<br /> 159 pp.<br /> <br /> SERMONS ON THE CHURCH<br /> By Hastines RAsHALL,<br /> <br /> AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.<br /> D.Litt., D.C.L. 8} X 53, 364 pp. Edinburgh : Clark.<br /> 4s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> Tue CHRIst HAS Come. THE SECOND ADVENT OF THE<br /> past. By B. HAMPDEN COOK. 8rd Edition, with<br /> important additions and changes. 8} x 54, 195 pp.<br /> Simpkin, Marshall. 2s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> ‘HE CANONS OF ATHANASIUS OF ALEXANDRIA. The<br /> ‘Arabic and Coptic Versions Edited and Translated by<br /> W. RiepeL and W. E. Crum. 9 X 5%, 153 pp. (issued<br /> by the Text and ‘Translation Society). Williams and<br /> Norgate.<br /> <br /> TOPOGRAPHY.<br /> <br /> SECRET CHAMBERS AND HIDING PLACES.<br /> Fea. 82 x 53,317 pp. Bousfield. 5s, n.<br /> <br /> TRAVEL.<br /> <br /> Op FLORENCE AND MoperN Tuscany, By JANET Ross.<br /> 7k x 5,229 pp. Dent. 4s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> THe ALPS FRoM END To END. By Sir W. MARTIN<br /> Conway. 84 X 53,300 pp. Constable. 3s. 6d,<br /> <br /> CITIES AND SIGHTS OF SPAIN. A Handbook for Tourists.<br /> <br /> By ALLAN<br /> <br /> By Mrs. AUBREY LE Buonp. 7 x 5, 214 pp. Bell.<br /> Sunny SrciILy. Irs RusTICS AND ITS RUINS. By<br /> Mrs. ALEC TWEEDIE. 9 X 54, 392 pp. Hutchinson.<br /> <br /> 18s, n.<br /> —_—_——_+—__+—___—__<br /> <br /> LITERARY, DRAMATIC, AND MUSICAL<br /> NOTES.<br /> <br /> oo<br /> at HE Incorrigible Twins,” is a story of two<br /> children. The scene is laid in South<br /> Africa and in England. The subject is<br /> dealt with sympathetically by D’Esterre, author<br /> of “Gerald and Dolly.” The book is published<br /> by Messrs. H. G. Skinner &amp; Co., of Camberwell.<br /> “The Compact,” by May Evans (“A Welsh<br /> Spinster”’) is issned by the Walter Scott Publishing<br /> Co., Ltd., with five illustrations, at the price of 6s.<br /> The author, in her Preface, states that ‘‘ The Com-<br /> pact” is not primarily intended as a story, nor a<br /> mere medium for a moral truth. It is a mental<br /> study of the following idea: “ Would any woman<br /> <br /> give her soul to save the soul of the man she loved ? .<br /> <br /> An edition, limited to 400 copies, of Mr. Allan<br /> Fea’s work, “ Memoirs of the Martyr King,” has<br /> been issued by Mr. John Lane at the price of £5 5s.<br /> net. he book is printed on hand-made paper, is<br /> bound in leather, and contains upwards of one<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> hundred photogravure portraits and other illus-<br /> trations.<br /> <br /> Mr. Douglas Sladen’s new work, “ More Queer<br /> Things about Japan,” which is described as a<br /> sequel to the same author’s former book, “ Queer<br /> things about Japan,” has been published by Messrs.<br /> Treherne &amp; Co. at the price of 21s. net.<br /> <br /> A second edition of “ Marie-Eve,” by Miss Marian<br /> Bower, author of “The Guests of Mine Host ” and<br /> “The Puppet-Show,” has just been issued.<br /> <br /> K. L. Montgomery, the author of the romances,<br /> «The Cardinal’s Pawn” and “ Major Weir,” has<br /> completed a new story entitled ‘ Stringer the<br /> Unconventional,” which the author hopes to<br /> serialise before publication. The scene is laid in<br /> Chateau d’Oex.<br /> <br /> No. 5 of Messrs. Egerton &amp; Co.’s series of<br /> “Little Plays for Little Players’ is an acting ver-<br /> sion of “Little Red Riding Hood.” The book is by<br /> Gladys Davidson, the lyrics by Louise Egerton, and<br /> the music by Stephen R. Philpot. The libretto is<br /> published at the price of 3d., and the music at the<br /> price of 1s.<br /> <br /> Mr. John Long is about to publish on behalf of<br /> Miss Jean Middlemass, a novel entitled ‘Count<br /> Reming.”<br /> <br /> Messrs. Macmillan announce the second edition<br /> of Sir Frederick Pollock’s First Book of Jurispru-<br /> dence for Students of the Common Law, containing<br /> amplifications and new references.<br /> <br /> His Majesty the King has been pleased to accept<br /> a copy of a new historical work entitled, “‘ Eng-<br /> land’s Sea Story,” by the Rev. Albert Lee. The<br /> work, which claims to be a Popular Record of the<br /> Doings of the English Navy from the Earliest<br /> Days, is published by Mr. Andrew Melrose at the<br /> <br /> rice of 5s.<br /> <br /> “Dolly’s Governess” is the title of a humorous<br /> story written by Mr. George Somers Layard and<br /> published by Messrs. Isbister &amp; Co. at the price<br /> of 1s. net.<br /> <br /> We have received from Messrs. A. &amp; CO. Black<br /> (4, Soho Square, W.C.) “ Who’s Who,” for 1905<br /> (7s. 6d.), “ Who&#039;s Who” Year Book (1s.), and “The<br /> Englishwoman’s Year Book ” for 1905.<br /> <br /> “ Who&#039;s Who,” the first issue of which appeared<br /> in 1849, increases in bulk year by year, the present<br /> issue containing 1,796 pages. It is undoubtedly a<br /> useful annual.<br /> <br /> “ Who’s Who” Year Book, which was first pub-<br /> <br /> lished last year as a supplement to “ Who’s Who,”<br /> <br /> contains a fairly exhaustive list of periodicals,<br /> magazines, and newspapers. It also contains a list<br /> of civil servants, together with a list of clubs,<br /> societies, &amp;c., &amp;c.<br /> <br /> “The Englishwoman’s Year Book” for 1905,<br /> edited by Miss Emily Janes, contains a number of<br /> articles dealing with the different professions open<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 97<br /> <br /> Also a mass of information of use to<br /> It appears to be a very handy<br /> <br /> to women.<br /> women generally.<br /> book of reference.<br /> <br /> The Statutes of Practical Utility passed in 1904,<br /> with a Selection of Statutory Rules, made during<br /> the same period (Sweet &amp; Maxwell, Stevens &amp; Sons,<br /> 7s. 6d.), have just been brought out in the tenth<br /> annual continuation of “Chitty’s Statutes.” The 19<br /> Statutes annotated include the Licensing Act, the<br /> Shop Hours Act, the Prevention of Cruelty to<br /> Children Act, the Savings Banks Act, and the<br /> Weights and Measures Act. The new Education<br /> Code, with its striking introduction as to moral<br /> training, is printed in its entirety, and so is the<br /> Religious Instructions Circular, known as “Circular<br /> 512.” The reader will also find the Motor-Cars<br /> (Use and Construction) Order, and the Poor<br /> Prisoners’ Defence Regulations and Rules, which<br /> are subsidiary to the two Acts of 1903 on those<br /> subjects. The Witchcraft Act of 1735, and the<br /> Manufactured Tobacco Act of 1863 are added in<br /> an appendix. The preface contains various sugges-<br /> tions for the improvement of the legislative<br /> machine by the substitution of adjournments for<br /> prorogations and other methods.<br /> <br /> ‘‘ How to Use the Prayer Book,” by Mrs. G. T.<br /> Romanes, is not intended to be a history of the<br /> Prayer Book, but rather as an aid to understanding<br /> the ideal of faith and conduct contained in the<br /> English Prayer Book. The book is published by<br /> Messrs. Longmans at the price of 2s. net.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Macmillan &amp; Co. published at the end of<br /> December a work on “Shakespearean Tragedy,” by<br /> Prof. A. C. Bradley, of Oxford. In it the author<br /> takes the four principal tragedies — “ Hamlet,”<br /> “Othello,” “King Lear,’ and “Macbeth ’’—and<br /> considers them from a single point of view. Pro-<br /> fessor Bradley endeavours, in short, to excite a more<br /> intense apprehension of the action and the per-<br /> sonages of each play, in order that his readers may<br /> be brought into closer imaginative association with<br /> the genius of their creator, and for the attainment<br /> of this object it has been no part of his plan to<br /> discuss such questions as Shakespeare’s place in<br /> English literature, the development of his genius,<br /> or questions regarding his life and character.<br /> <br /> Mr. Austin Dobson has written an interesting<br /> introduction to the new edition of Locker-Lamp-<br /> son’s “ London Lyrics,” which will shortly come<br /> out in “ The Golden Treasury Series.” Mr, Dobson<br /> has also written many new notes for this edition<br /> which throw light on the sources of the poems.<br /> <br /> “Torn Lace,” by Miss Charlotte Mansfield,<br /> <br /> published by the Walter Scott Publishing Co., at<br /> the price of 8s. 6d., is the simple story of an Italian<br /> peasant girl, who, passing through many tempta-<br /> tions, in the final scene sacrifices her life for another.<br /> <br /> Mr. John Long will shortly publish Mrs. Aylmer<br /> <br /> Gowing’s new novel, “Lord of Himself,” which<br /> describes how the heir to a peerage, an under-<br /> graduate at Oxford, wins the Newdigate Prize, is<br /> cast upon the world, and fights his Way against all<br /> odds. A young Princess is his guardian angel.<br /> The pictures of Oxford life will make the story<br /> interesting to many.<br /> <br /> “A Boy’s Control and Self-expression ” (pub-<br /> lished at the price of 6s.), is the title of a new<br /> work from the pen of Mr. Eustace Miles. In his<br /> preface, the author states that his object is to make<br /> a boy more independent, and to enable him to learn<br /> the habit of self-control, self-expression, and self-<br /> respect by apparently alien things, including<br /> physical exercises. Copies of the book may be<br /> obtained from the author at 10, St. Paul’s Road,<br /> Cambridge. ‘<br /> <br /> Mrs. Alec Tweedie’s book, “Sunny Sicily,” is<br /> now on the market, published by Messrs. Hutchin-<br /> son &amp; Co. The author says that Sicily teems with<br /> interest for the historian, the archeologist, the<br /> builder, for the painter, and for the lover of folk-<br /> lore, that probably no spot on earth of equal size<br /> holds such varied or such ceaseless charm. The<br /> book (published at the price of 18s.), is a descrip-<br /> tion of those features of the island which will<br /> appeal to the classes mentioned, as well as to the<br /> general body of readers.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Newnes have included in their sixpenny<br /> copyright novels, Mr. Eden Phillpott’s amusing<br /> story, “‘ A Deal with the Devil,” which some ofour<br /> readers may remember. The story, which describes<br /> the career of a modern Faust, has been illustrated<br /> by Mr. H. M. Brock.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Williams &amp; Norgate will issue shortly a<br /> third part of Dr. A. H. Church’s work, “On the<br /> Relation of Phyllotaxis to Mechanical Laws,”<br /> which will be devoted to “Secondary Growth<br /> Phenomena,” and will also contain mathematical<br /> notes by Mr. EK. H. Hayes and the author. It will<br /> be illustrated with a number of figures.<br /> <br /> ‘‘A Summerful of Children,” by Ella and Agnes<br /> Tomlinson, has been published by Messrs. J. M.<br /> Dent &amp; Co. at the price of 10s. 6d. net. The old<br /> nursery rhymes have been illustrated by photo-<br /> graphs from life, and the result has been amply<br /> justified, owing to the skill and judgment of the<br /> photographers.<br /> <br /> Mr. Frederick Winbolt’s new book, “Philip of<br /> Macedon, a Tragedy,” has recently been issued by the<br /> De la More Press. A full description of the play<br /> will be found in the “ Era” of November 26th.<br /> <br /> “On Life’s Journey” is the title of a collection<br /> of poems, by Mary Gorges, which has been published<br /> by Messrs. Walter G. Wheeler &amp; Co. The poems,<br /> which are of a varied character, deal with homely<br /> incident, scripture type and symbol, the songs of<br /> birds and the scent of flowers.<br /> <br /> <br /> 98<br /> <br /> An informative article on the remarkable railway<br /> bridge across the Zambesi River below the Victoria<br /> Falls, illustrated from original photographs, appears<br /> in this month’s “ World’s Work and Play ” from the<br /> pen of Mr. Eustace Reynolds-Ball.<br /> <br /> Messrs. A. &amp; C. Black published early last<br /> month the 4th edition of ‘Cairo of To-Day,”<br /> by the same author. The work, which has<br /> been revised and brought up to date, and in part<br /> rewritten, is intended to meet the demand among<br /> English and American visitors for a cheap and<br /> practical guide, Whilst mainly appealing to<br /> -tourists who are only able to spend a few weeks in<br /> Egypt, it does not neglect the interests of winter<br /> residents and invalids. The price of the work is<br /> 2s. 6d.<br /> <br /> “ Rita’s” successful novel, ‘‘ The Jesters,” is<br /> being translated into Swedish through the “ Bureau<br /> Scandinavian ”’ agency.<br /> <br /> Mr. Brimley Johnson announces for publication<br /> in the spring a small book of light verse, entitled<br /> “Tea Table Rhymes,” by M. P. Guimaraens.<br /> <br /> A successful copyright performance of “The<br /> Cowslip Ball” (cantata-playette), by Ellen Collett,<br /> to music by George S. Aspinall, took place at the<br /> West Hampstead Town Hall on December 17th,<br /> before a crowded audience. The performance was<br /> ably given by the pupils of the Misses Barnett,<br /> sisters of Mr. John Francis Barnett, who presented<br /> prizes afterwards.<br /> <br /> —\_\_o——_e—__——_<br /> <br /> PARIS NOTES.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> HE annual prizes of the Société des Gens de<br /> Lettres were awarded in December. The<br /> Chauchard prize of 3,000 francs fell to<br /> <br /> Madame Séverine, the Balzac prize of 1,500 francs<br /> to M. Maurice Montegut, and the President’s<br /> prize to M. Albert Boissiere. The Petit Bourg<br /> prize was awarded to M. de Braisne ; two Chau-<br /> chard prizes of 1,000 francs each were given to<br /> M. Allais and M. Pierre Giffard. M. Guillanmin<br /> and M. Quentin-Bauchart both received a medal.<br /> The annual prize of 5,000 francs of the de Gon-<br /> court Academy has been awarded to M. Léon<br /> Frapié for his book entitled “a Maternelle.” It<br /> is a novel written with a purpose, and is the story<br /> of a young girl who has studied hard and taken<br /> her degrees, but who finds it difficult to obtain a<br /> good post and so enters a “ maternal school ” in a<br /> very poor part of Paris. She is at first impressed<br /> by the organisation of this institution, but as time<br /> goes on she is struck by the fact that the education<br /> given to the children is on an entirely wrong<br /> system. She comes to the conclusion that the<br /> education they receive is not what they will need<br /> in the hard struggle for life which will undoubtedly<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> be their fate. The author has succeeded in writing<br /> an interesting novel, and at the same time treating<br /> one of the most important social questions of the day.<br /> <br /> The Nobel Prize for poetry is to be divided this<br /> year between Frédéric Mistral and the Spanish<br /> poet, Echegaray. Mistral intends using his share<br /> of the prize in buying an old palace at Arles for<br /> the famous ethnological museum, the “ Muséon<br /> Arlaten.” He will restore the palace, and some<br /> literary fétes will probably be given there.<br /> <br /> In “Vies Intimes” M. Henry Bordeaux gives<br /> us a series of studies from life of romances that<br /> have been lived. ‘The titles of the various chapters<br /> will serve to show that the subjects chosen are<br /> some of the most interesting of the kind of the last<br /> three centuries :—* Petites méditations sur des<br /> Correspondances Amoureuses,” “ Mme. de Warens<br /> @apres de nouveaux documents,” “ Le roman d’une<br /> princesse,”” ‘ L’amour dans les ruines,” ‘“ Adélaide<br /> de Bellegarde,” “La Tour du Lépreux,” “ Rosalie<br /> de Constant,’ “ Uneamiede Chateaubriand,” “ Balzac<br /> at Mme. de Hanska,” “ Victor Hugo fiancé,” “ Miche-<br /> let amoureux,” “La Vie de Georges Sand,” “ Le<br /> premier amour de George Sand,” “ Le premier et<br /> le dernier amour de Berlioz,” “ La correspondance<br /> de Beethoven,” ‘La correspondance de Wagner,”<br /> “ Elizabeth d’Autriche et Louis de Baviére,” “ Une<br /> amie du poéte Aubanel,” “ Vie singuliére d’une<br /> Sainte moderne.” With the clearness and sincerity<br /> which are the characteristics of this author’s work,<br /> M. Bordeaux draws for us some admirable sketches<br /> of the women he has selected to illustrate his subject.<br /> His reflections und observations, which are most per-<br /> tinent and just, add greatly to the value of the book.<br /> <br /> “ Ay-dessus de |’Abime,’? by Madame Blanc<br /> Bentzon, is an extremely up-to-date sketch of a<br /> certain phase of social life in modern France. It<br /> shows the difficulties of the transition stage through<br /> which the country is now passing. The idea of<br /> separation between Church and State has divided<br /> the people more or less into various camps—those<br /> who adhere to their faith in ecclesiastical authority,<br /> those who approve of the separation between<br /> Church and State, those who would shake off all<br /> possible fetters, and those who are indifferent and<br /> only ask to be left in peace.<br /> <br /> In this story, Francoise Desprez, the most in-<br /> teresting character in the volume, is a girl who has<br /> received an education superior to her true rank in<br /> life. Her troubles begin when she has passed her<br /> <br /> examinations, taken her degrees, and has to earn —<br /> <br /> her own living. She has been educated at the<br /> secular college, and is consequently looked upon<br /> <br /> with disdain by the fervent Roman Catholics. She —<br /> <br /> is by birth a country girl, and feels imprisoned in<br /> a city.<br /> college life are distasteful to her.<br /> <br /> « En. cing ans,” she writes, “ jai traversé tous —<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The routine, monotony, and strict rules of<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 99<br /> <br /> les cercles de l’enfer pédagogique ; j’ai aidé a<br /> attiser ces abominables fours ou l’on chanffe les<br /> examens a grand renfort de manuels, sans dévelop-<br /> per chez les éléves l’initiative ni la réflexion.”<br /> <br /> She has arrived at an age when she longs to see<br /> something of life outside the walls of a schoolroom,<br /> and she applies to a wealthy woman who has taken<br /> great interest in her to find her a situation in a<br /> private family. By following Francoise in her<br /> travels we are introduced to various typical mem-<br /> bers of present day society in France. We have<br /> the well-to-do family, consisting of husband and<br /> wife, with a daughter married suitably according<br /> to the old way of thinking, and an unmarried<br /> daughter, Colette, who is being educated according<br /> to the new system. She goes in for all kinds of<br /> sport, and is for a French girl decidedly emanci-<br /> pated. Then there is a financier, greatly respected<br /> on account of his vast wealth, until the tide of<br /> speculation turns for him, and he escapes reproach<br /> by suicide. His son has lived the life of a mil.<br /> lionaire, and is engaged to Colette at the time of<br /> his father’s ruin. With great tact and worldly<br /> wisdom Colette’s parents, while expressing their<br /> sympathy with the young man, break off their<br /> daughter’s engagement. ‘There is also the inevit-<br /> able American woman who has climbed, by means<br /> of her dollars, into a certain position in French<br /> society. She has bartered her money fora husband<br /> ten years her junior, with some kind of a title, and<br /> she gathers around her in her new home all kinds<br /> of antiquities more or less authentic,<br /> <br /> Frangoise and the son of the ruined speculator<br /> are the most interesting personages of the story.<br /> The great charm of this novelette consists in the<br /> faithful portrait it gives of this transition period in<br /> French life. The new woman problem is by no<br /> means solved yet in France. Several novelists<br /> have attempted to deal with it, but the attempts<br /> so far have not been very satisfactory. In this<br /> apparently slight story by Madame Blane Bentzon<br /> there is much more depth than one at first realises.<br /> The authoress is a keen observer and has handled<br /> her subject. most delicately. She gives us several<br /> types of women of this transition period, and one<br /> of the most true to life is Marthe Granger, a<br /> daughter of the people, who devotes her whole<br /> existence to caring for the children of one of the<br /> poorest districts of Paris. Within the last ten<br /> years she has rescued over three thousand children.<br /> Such work is going on quietly and surely in Paris,<br /> and it is very evident that the authoress of « Au-<br /> dessus de l’Abime,” when drawing her pictures of<br /> the new woman in France, has studied her subject<br /> more thoroughly than most of her confreres.<br /> <br /> A curious book has just been published by M.<br /> Emile Dard. It is a volume compiled from<br /> hitherto unknown documents giving an account<br /> <br /> of General Choderlos de Laclos, the author of that<br /> famous book ** Liaisons Dangereuses,” which Paul<br /> Bourget mentions as “ the masterpiece perhaps of<br /> analytical novels.” Laclos was a captain in the<br /> army under Louis XVI. He wasa most ambitious<br /> man, and when he found he did not advance in his<br /> career he wrote his celebrated book as a pamphlet<br /> against the Court. M. Dard describes Laclos as<br /> “un auteur caché du Drame revolutionnaire.” Hig<br /> influence was certainly felt in many different<br /> spheres, and his career was a most adventurous<br /> one.<br /> <br /> Among the new books are “Les Chevaliers de<br /> PAu-delai,” by Jean Rameau, a novel which treats<br /> of the trickery practised on a very wealthy widow<br /> by charlatans, who traded on her superstitions ;<br /> “a Cruche cassée,” by Gabrielle Réval, a some-<br /> what dramatic novel, in which we have an excellent<br /> picture of provincial life in France ; “ La Seconde<br /> Faute,” by Henri d’Hennezel; “La Nef,” by<br /> Eléimir Bourges, a kind of epic poem in prose, in<br /> which the author evokes the tortures and the<br /> visions of Prometheus. The style is admirable,<br /> and the whole book in every way worthy of the<br /> author of “ Le Orépuscule des Dieux.” “Roman.<br /> ciers et viveurs du XIXe. Siecle,” by Philibert<br /> Audebrand, is a book of memoirs in which the<br /> <br /> author evokes for us many of the well-known<br /> <br /> personages of the last century. “Un Homme libre,”’<br /> by Maurice Barrés ; “ L’Ombre de la Maison,” by<br /> Ivan Strannik; “L’Aventure d’Huguette,” by<br /> Guy de Chantepleure ; “Le Tumulte,” by Georges<br /> d’Esparbés.<br /> <br /> The literary rights of French authors in Canada<br /> appear to be proved now satisfactorily. It appears<br /> that as Great Britain has accepted the terms of<br /> the Berne Convention, Canada through Grea<br /> Britain has also accepted them. The publication<br /> of French works which are unauthorised by the<br /> author is therefore illicit, and the question of<br /> authors’ rights is to be brought into the Canadian<br /> law courts, so that’ French authors may be legally<br /> protected in future. The Council of the Cercle de<br /> la Lnbrairie in Paris is of opinion that steps should<br /> be taken at once in this matter. In the first place<br /> the French Société des Gens de Lettres should<br /> bring an action against the Canadian papers which<br /> are publishing French literature unauthorised by<br /> the author. Then a French publisher should<br /> make a claim on any Canadian publisher who has<br /> brought out French books that are not authorised<br /> by the author, and a law suit should be brought in<br /> cases where a French book that has been printed<br /> in New York is introduced into Canada. It is<br /> hoped that the Society of Dramatic Authors will<br /> also take up this matter, so that there should bea<br /> general protest against the present state of things.<br /> <br /> In the Revue des Dewa-Mondes there is an article<br /> <br /> <br /> 100<br /> <br /> by M. Henry Houssaye on “Ta Retourdu Roi en<br /> 1815.” M. Schuré gives some interesting details<br /> with regard to Wagner&#039;s correspondenve with<br /> Mathilde Wesendonk. M. Filon writes an article<br /> on H. G. Wells as novelist, prophet, and reformer.<br /> <br /> In La Revue Stéfane Pol discusses the question<br /> «“ Gomment combattre VYalcolisme.” M. Claude<br /> Anet writes on “Les chevaliers du vol aux Etats<br /> Unis,” and M. Garofolo on “Ta Orimonologie<br /> Moderne.” In La Quinzaine the Vicomte<br /> @ Adhémar writes on ‘Science eb Philosophie ”<br /> (a propos du radium), and M. de Contenson<br /> an interesting article on “ Le Devoir social de<br /> Vacheteur.”<br /> <br /> In the Jercure de France there is an article by<br /> Alexandra Myrial on “ Le Pouvoir religieux au<br /> Thibet,” and some hitherto unpublished letters of<br /> Chateaubriand.<br /> <br /> The great theatrical event of the month has been<br /> the staging of “ King Lear” at the Théatre<br /> Antoine. The translation is by MM. Pierre Loti<br /> and Vedel. The play is admirably put on and<br /> seems likely to prove a great success.<br /> <br /> “Notre Jeunesse,” by Alfred Capus, is a most<br /> <br /> brilliant play, in which the working out of the<br /> thesis and the dialogue are excellent. It is dis-<br /> tinctly a piece a these. Lucien Briant, who is very<br /> happily married, has an illegitimate daughter whom<br /> he has never seen. He is a good-natured, kind-<br /> hearted man, but with no will of his own. His<br /> old father is a veritable tyrant and a cynic. He<br /> lives with his son and his daughter-in-law, and in<br /> the first act it is very evident that Madame Briant<br /> has come to the end of her patience as regards<br /> submission to the caprices of her husband’s<br /> father, Her husband is absorbed in business<br /> affairs ; she finds her country life dull and<br /> monotonous, and in desperation commences a<br /> flirtation with a man whose love adventures<br /> have made him famous in social circles. Just<br /> at this dangerous moment in Madame Briant’s<br /> life the sister of one of her husband’s oldest friends<br /> tells her the story of Lucien’s daughter. Madame<br /> Briant sees the young girl, and, longing as she does,<br /> for some serious object in life, she determines to<br /> adopt her. The two women arrange the whole<br /> affair, and Lucien, to his horror, is confronted by<br /> his daughter. To explain everything to his old<br /> father is no easy task, and he is finally in despair<br /> at the turn matters are taking. His father will<br /> not hear of the adoption of the new found daughter<br /> and his wife treats him as a coward for not listen-<br /> ing to the voice of his own conscience. Inthe end<br /> the women prevail and Lucien, for the first time in<br /> his life opposes his father, who remains obdurate.<br /> The whole play is a brilliant satire on many phases<br /> of social life, but it is the satire of an optimist, and<br /> not that of a cynic.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> M. Jules Lemaitre has read his new comedy,<br /> “Ta Massiére” at the Renaissance Theatre.<br /> M. Antoine has accepted a piece by M. Antoine<br /> Bibesco, entitled “ Guet Apens.”<br /> Atys HALLARD.<br /> <br /> ——_—_——_1— &gt; —__———_<br /> <br /> UNITED STATES NOTES.<br /> ee:<br /> <br /> OLITICAL distractions seem to have produced<br /> little or no effect upon the literary world of<br /> America; and though exact statistics are not<br /> as yet to hand, it may- be stated without fear of<br /> contradiction that 1904 has been by no means a bad<br /> year for those interested in book-production, Some<br /> signs of a tendency to redress the balance between<br /> fiction and other literature have shown themselv4s,<br /> apart from such temporary influences as the war in<br /> the Far East and the Presidential election.<br /> <br /> An anonymous publisher, who has been printing<br /> his “ Confessions ” in the “ Boston Transcript,” has<br /> much to say on the subject of the commercialisa-<br /> tion of literature. He admits the fact, but denies<br /> the degradation which has been considered a<br /> necessary corollary to it. “There is much less<br /> reason to fear the commercial degradation of many<br /> other callings than the publishers,” he concludes<br /> cheerfully.<br /> <br /> But the most piquant part of the “ Confessions ”<br /> is supplied by certain admissions which constitute<br /> a considerable deduction from this conclusion.<br /> While admitting that ‘the very best traditions of<br /> publishing are yet a part of the practice of the best<br /> American publishing houses,” we are told that<br /> there are others who keep “ Literary drummers 4<br /> to look up popular authors and solicit books,<br /> instead of respecting each other’s clientéle. ‘* There<br /> are two men in the United States who have gone<br /> about making commercial calls on practically every<br /> man and woman who has ever written a successful<br /> book ”—says our authority. This, he concedes, is<br /> “demoralisation and commercialisation with a<br /> vengeance.” But, it seems, “ it is the sin of the<br /> authors.” Here we must interpose a word. Whilst<br /> far from standing forth as a partisan of the afore-<br /> said “ Literary drummer,” or any such person, the<br /> contention urged in favour of the old system of<br /> each house respecting the other’s authors seems to<br /> us to be pressed unduly when it is argued that the<br /> relation between author and<br /> able to that between patient and physician. And<br /> even if the analogy holds, it may sometimes be<br /> <br /> expedient for an author to change his publisher, as<br /> <br /> it is for a patient to have fresh advice.<br /> In connection with the abuses of fiction adver-<br /> tising, our anonymous publisher lets himself go in<br /> <br /> publisher is compar-—<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> a healthy way and is justly severe upon “ Sapon-<br /> aceous publishers,” “Soap - novelists,” and the<br /> “ Wabash method.” But he assures us that these<br /> things are not so successfulas they seem. “ There<br /> is, I think, not a single soap-novelist who has put<br /> forth a subsequent novel of as great popularity as<br /> his “record breaker,” and he has even sometimes<br /> brought ultimate ruin upon his publisher. Good<br /> books to begin with, and personal sincerity on the<br /> part of the publisher, these are laid down, and we<br /> think rightly, as the prime requisites of good<br /> publishing.<br /> <br /> Whether the retailing of “personal and com-<br /> mercial gossip” by magazines and literary journals<br /> is So serious an evil as is represented we take leave<br /> to doubt ; and we are not so sure as the anonymous<br /> censor that “the one thing that is certain is that<br /> the critical crew and the academic faculty ” are<br /> sure not to recognise good literature when they see<br /> it. One has heard this before, but is loth to<br /> believe it.<br /> <br /> And now to take a survey of the crop. The<br /> list of fall announcements totalled some twelve<br /> hundred books, but these include a fair proportion<br /> of works by British writers. Poetry is as scant in<br /> bulk and import as usual, but history and biography<br /> are proportionately well represented. Literary criti-<br /> cism shows some vitality, whilst fiction displays<br /> its perennial luxuriance, and writers on politics<br /> and economics have something substantial to<br /> offer. Theology and ethics will, of course, always<br /> flourish in a nation the basis of whose civilisation<br /> is Teutonic. Once more we have to confess that<br /> there is no single volume which can claim the<br /> attribute “great,” though there are not a few of<br /> considerable interest and some of abiding merit.<br /> No new writer of anything like first rank has<br /> arisen, and no one of the old favourites has to any<br /> great extent advanced his position. A good<br /> average level has been maintained in original<br /> work, and there has been a noticeably increasing<br /> demand for reprints of English classics. Thackeray<br /> in particular seems to be called for at present : an<br /> editorial in the Dial speaks of four yards of him<br /> standing on the writer’s desk! This must, we<br /> think, be noted as a sign of literary health,<br /> though some might deem it a symptom of decay.<br /> <br /> The late Mr. Lafcadio Hearn’s “Japan: an<br /> attempt at Interpretation,” is possibly the most<br /> remarkable work emanating from an American-<br /> trained author. It has a literary quality which<br /> scarcely distinguishes such scholarly excursions<br /> into the same subject as Professor George W.<br /> Knox’s “ Japanese Life in Town and Country ” or<br /> Mr. Alfred Stead’s compilation, “ Japan by the<br /> Japanese.”’<br /> <br /> Two biographical works which call for special<br /> comment are Captain Robert E. Lee’s “ Recollec-<br /> <br /> 101<br /> <br /> tions and Letters” of his father, the Confederate<br /> General, and Moncure D. Conway’s “ Autobio-<br /> graphy.” The memoir of General Lee is founded<br /> upon his letters to his wife, a descendant of Martha<br /> Washington, and upon his son’s reminiscences<br /> which begin with the father’s return from the<br /> Mexican war, in which he won his spurs as a<br /> soldier. Lee comes ont well, both as man and<br /> general, in his son’s book, and shines little less in<br /> peace than in war. The mutual appreciation of<br /> himself and Stonewall Jackson is especially<br /> touching, and his conduct towards the future<br /> biographer, who served some time under him as a<br /> private, has quite a Roman touch,<br /> <br /> Mr. Conway’s book will be more familiar to<br /> English readers, but the part of his life anterior to<br /> 1864, when he settled in London, describes a<br /> notable phase of American development which will<br /> appeal chiefly to those who live in the land of his<br /> birth. The influence of Emerson is very marked.<br /> <br /> Another book has been written upon the Con-<br /> cord sage. It comes from the pen of Elizabeth<br /> Luther Cary, who is an experienced hand in literary<br /> biography. It is a well-balanced and capable<br /> study, erring only in an undue appreciation of the<br /> philosopher’s poetic gifts.<br /> <br /> Another autobiography, that of Rear-Admiral<br /> Schley, treats of quite another world and breathes<br /> a very different air. It is interesting to hear that<br /> it was Captain Marryat who first sent Schley to<br /> the sea, and also that Farragut used the expression,<br /> “JT want none of this Nelson business in my<br /> squadron about not seeing signals,” when<br /> Lieutenant Schley in an action with the Con-<br /> federates misinterpreted a signal to withdraw<br /> from action.<br /> <br /> The story of the Greely relief expedition is<br /> also highly interesting reading; the later and<br /> more contemporary parts of the book are im-<br /> portant but, of course, controversial.<br /> <br /> General James Grant Wilson’s “Thackeray in<br /> the United States” will be too well known already<br /> to readers of these Notes to call for further com-<br /> ment. Its publication may be partially responsible<br /> for the present large American demand for the<br /> works of the author it treats of.<br /> <br /> Other biographies which can only be named<br /> here are Augustus C. Buell’s “ History of Andrew<br /> Jackson,” Joseph M. Roger’s “The True Henry<br /> Clay,” and “The Life, Letters, and Travels of<br /> Father De Smet,” four volumes compiled by<br /> Captain Hiram M. Chittenden and A. T. Richard-<br /> gon.<br /> <br /> In_ historical literature Dr. Reuben Gold<br /> Thwaites has been indefatigable as ever; Messrs.<br /> William Estabrook Chancellor and Fletcher Willis<br /> Hewes have brought out the first two parts of their<br /> “History of the United States ;” and the initial<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 102<br /> <br /> volumes of Rufus Rockwell Wilson’s ‘Source<br /> Books of American History” have been issued.<br /> “The Evolution of the U.S. Constitution and<br /> History of the Monroe Doctrine,” by Dr. John<br /> A. Kasson, is an important item in Messrs.<br /> Houghton, Mifflin and Co.’s list ; and Cyrus<br /> Townsend Brady’s ten years’ story of “ Indian<br /> Fights and Fighters,” is worthy of mention.<br /> “The Historian’s History of the World,” a little<br /> work in 25 vols. is now reported as ‘ complete.”<br /> <br /> Charles Eliot Norton’s publication of the<br /> letters written to him by John Ruskin is a matter<br /> of moment to both continents, as also perhaps are<br /> Thackeray’s letters to the Baxter family.<br /> <br /> In fiction there have been new works by Henry<br /> James, W. D. Howells, and Marion Crawford.<br /> The first and third scarcely rank nowadays as<br /> American authors; but Mr. Howells will always<br /> be a true American. His latest novel, “ The<br /> Son of Royal Langbrith,” is one of his very best<br /> New England problem stories, the problem in this<br /> case being concerned with the treatment, of an<br /> unworthy father’s memory.<br /> <br /> Among younger masters of the craft, Mr.<br /> Stewart White has followed up “The Blazed<br /> Trail”? and “The Forest,” by a worthy successor,<br /> “The Mountains”; George Barr McCutcheon,<br /> has written a sequel to “ Graustark ” (‘ Beverley<br /> of Graustark”) which has recently been at the<br /> top of the “best sellers” ; and the author of the<br /> celebrated Self-made Merchant’s Letters has pro-<br /> duced in “Old Gorgon Graham” a new series<br /> which do not show the usual falling-off of a<br /> sequel. Another “best seller,” “The Affair at<br /> the Inn,” was inspired and directed by Kate<br /> Douglas Wiggin, but, as readers of the AUTHOR<br /> _will be aware, was written in England in collabo-<br /> ration with two English ladies and a gentleman.<br /> <br /> Mr. Robert Grant has written in “The Under-<br /> current” a novel which discusses the divorce ques-<br /> tion in a candid and interesting manner.<br /> <br /> The authorship of the clever “ Jessica Letters”<br /> has been revealed. It belongs to Mrs. Lundy<br /> Howard Harris and Mr. Paul Elmer.<br /> <br /> Mr. Jack London has again delighted his<br /> admirers with “The Sea Wolf,” and Messrs. H.<br /> L. Wilson and E. Phillips Oppenheim have satisfied<br /> theirs with “The Seeker” and ‘ The Betrayal.”<br /> <br /> A promising first appearance has been made<br /> by Miss Edith Rickert with her story of the<br /> Shetland Isles, called “The Reaper.” ‘ Wanted,<br /> a Cook,” by Alan Dale, has reached a large<br /> public.<br /> <br /> We should not conclude this imperfect survey<br /> without a passing allusion to two widely different<br /> works. Dr. William J. Rolfe’s valuable “ Life of<br /> Shakespeare,” and Miss Ida M. Tarbell’s meri-<br /> torious “ History of the Standard Oil Trust.”<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Life is not long enough for us to enter into the<br /> merits of the dispute between those who claim<br /> and those who deny the exclusive right to use the<br /> title of Webster’s Dictionary.<br /> <br /> Our obituary list contains few important names.<br /> There is Lafcadio Hearn, the American journalist,<br /> who ended a romantic career by becoming a<br /> Japanese subject and professor, and left a legacy<br /> of many charming books upon his adopted<br /> country.<br /> <br /> Mrs. Euphemia Vale Blake, who reached the<br /> advanced age of eighty-eight, was the author of<br /> “Arctic Experiences” and “A History of<br /> Tammany Hall,” amongst other works.<br /> <br /> Prof. Charles Woodruff Shields, of Princeton,<br /> was a well-known writer on the science of<br /> religion, who abandoned Presbyterianism to become<br /> an Episcopalian. Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop’s<br /> name will endure in her books of travel in Asia<br /> and North America. It is more doubtful whether<br /> Jol. Prentiss Ingraham will find a place among<br /> the Immortals, in spite of the thousand novels<br /> which he left behind him.<br /> <br /> —_———_+—_&gt;—_+__—_<br /> <br /> HINTS ON PRODUCTION.<br /> <br /> +<br /> <br /> Il.<br /> Mov.LpING, STEREOTYPING OR ELECTROTYPING.<br /> <br /> TT keep type standing for any period without<br /> a rental is not fair to the printer; therefore<br /> if the work is likely to be reprinted later on,<br /> <br /> it should be either stereotyped or electrotyped.<br /> <br /> If the probability of a reprint being required is<br /> small, moulding is a tentative process which does<br /> not cost very much. This is the preliminary stage<br /> of stereotyping by the papier-maché method. The<br /> moulds are readily stored, and if required later<br /> on may be easily cast from, the two methods of<br /> moulding and casting, done at two different periods,<br /> costing very little more in the aggregate than if<br /> stereotyped direct in the first place. But if there is<br /> acertainty that plates will be required, either stereo-<br /> type or electrotype plates may be made at the<br /> outset. The first is the cheaper kind, but the<br /> second, although dearer, is more serviceable if<br /> several editions are likely to be required.<br /> <br /> Here again it may be assumed roughly that the<br /> charges for these respective methods are—<br /> <br /> Moulding ... 4d. per sq. in.<br /> Stereotyping (at some Sd. in<br /> future date) from all.<br /> <br /> moulds oe ads. i<br /> Stereotyping direct ... 34. 5 5<br /> <br /> Electrotyping ... ald<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 103<br /> <br /> PAPERS.<br /> <br /> Paper isthe next important thing to be dealt with,<br /> and of this necessary material there is a very large<br /> selection to choose from. Naturally that made by<br /> hand is the best kind, and roughly three or four<br /> times dearer than an average paper made by<br /> machine. For bookwork the very cheap kinds are<br /> not recommended. Another class to be avoided as<br /> far as possible is shiny paper; in fact, smooth or<br /> glossy papers are always objectionable, although,<br /> in these days of graphic literature, process blocks<br /> absolutely demand a smooth surface for the satis-<br /> factory printing of illustrations. Papers which are<br /> extremely light in bulk and those which are very<br /> heavy are also to be avoided—the first are generally<br /> too poor in substance to stand handling, and the<br /> second are objectionable from the fact that they<br /> are usually clay-loaded. A medium weight should<br /> be selected, for one can obtain a fairly light-hand-<br /> ling paper, considering the bulk, without sacrific-<br /> ing the quality in order to obtain a minimum<br /> weight. It may be taken for granted that some-<br /> thing is wrong in its manufacture when either of<br /> the extremes is manifest and the bulk of the<br /> volume is considered. A paper made with a rough<br /> antique finish naturally bulks more than one which<br /> has been calendered, but judgment must be<br /> exercised in considering the two classes of paper—<br /> both of which are necessary for the production of<br /> either plain or illustrated volumes.<br /> <br /> Papers are made as a rule to definite sizes, but<br /> in the case of those produced by machine these<br /> sizes can be varied. Sheets for printing purposes<br /> are frequently made in double and quadruple sizes,<br /> in order to facilitate and cheapen production, but<br /> we need only give the single or more ordinary sizes<br /> with the publishers’ or booksellers’ equivalents in<br /> 4to and 8vo:<br /> <br /> Printers’ Size of Publishers’ Sizes.<br /> <br /> Sheet. Quarto. Octavo.<br /> mppetial .., 30 x 22) .. Ib xl 3. 1 x 7%<br /> Super Royal 274 x 203 ... 133 x 10} ... 10} x 6%<br /> Royal soe 20 Le x 0 LO x 6<br /> moon 3. 24 % 19°. 12° =&lt; OF 298 x 6<br /> Demy po eee te LE xe Be. SEK OF<br /> Post oe 20 16) a IO ee 8<br /> Crown ey 20 «16 10 x 1 1d Kb<br /> Foolseap ... 17 x 13} SA xX 6 ... 6) x 4<br /> Pat -.. 164 x 12} We x 642 6k x OE<br /> <br /> Books in quarto or octavo if with cut edges<br /> would measure slightly less, especially in height.<br /> The bulk of books as regards thickness cannot be<br /> foretold to a nicety, nor can the weight be quite<br /> determined, without a size or pattern copy being<br /> made up out of the exact paper, for, as before<br /> explained, the material used in making and the<br /> precise finish of the sheets does very considerably<br /> affect the exact bulking proportions of the paper.<br /> <br /> A ream consists of 500 sheets nominally, and<br /> papers are made to certain weights—so many<br /> pounds to a ream of a given size. An average<br /> weight of an ordinary paper in double crown size<br /> (30 x 20 in.) such as is used for a novel, if the<br /> paper is ofan antique character, may be 36 lb., and<br /> the equivalent weight in demy (224 x 174 in.)<br /> and double foolscap (27 x 17 in.) would be 24]b.<br /> and 27 lb. respectively.<br /> <br /> The cost prices of average papers may be taken<br /> for the purposes of calculation at 3d. per lb. per<br /> machine and about 1s. per lb. for those made<br /> by hand, but, of course, there are many qualities of<br /> each kind, both cheaper and dearer.<br /> <br /> ILLUSTRATIONS.<br /> <br /> The question of method to be adopted for illus-<br /> trating a work is an important matter and requires<br /> careful consideration. The old books were nearly<br /> all made beautiful with engravings on copper or on<br /> wood—the latter mostly. Although these methods<br /> were the most artistic, the expenses of production<br /> were great and at the same time very slow.<br /> Reproductive processes are so numerous now-a-<br /> days, so cheap, and at the same time so expeditious,<br /> that the choice is somewhat bewildering to many.<br /> By means of photography almost anything can be<br /> reproduced by these mechanical processes, and the<br /> methods mostly employed for illustrating books<br /> are those of photogravure, collotype, half-tone and<br /> line blocks. The first two are adapted for the<br /> separate plates of any volume, and are the more<br /> expensive kinds, especially the first. The other<br /> two methods are best for textual illustrations,<br /> although unfortunately it is a sime qua non that<br /> for all half-tone blocks very smooth paper must be<br /> used in order to bring out the full effects of tone.<br /> To avoid the use of this paper it is best to adopt<br /> the line method of reproduction as far as possible,<br /> for all drawings or pictures in wash or photo-<br /> graphs can only be made by the half-tone process.<br /> With regard to prices for all these processes it is<br /> somewhat difficult to give instances, for in the first<br /> place there is always a minimum charge for each<br /> subject, because any single reproduction is not worth<br /> handling below acertain price. In forming an idea<br /> of cost the making of photogravure plates costs<br /> about 2s. per inch; half-tone blocks range any-<br /> where between 9. and 1s., and line blocks half the<br /> price of half-tone. In all these cases the original<br /> plates or blocks can be held for future use, but with<br /> collotype plates it is a different matter, for. the<br /> method consists of printing from a gelatine film<br /> which has to be made from the negative and<br /> renewed from time to time in course of printing<br /> off. It may be taken for granted that for full page<br /> or separate plates, when only short numbers are<br /> volumes of Rufus Rockwell Wilson’s ‘ Source<br /> Books of American History’? have been issued.<br /> “The Evolution of the U.S. Constitution and<br /> History of the Monroe Doctrine,” by Dr. John<br /> A. Kasson, is an important item in Messrs.<br /> Houghton, Mifflin and Co.’s list ; and Cyrus<br /> Townsend Brady’s ten years’ story of “ Indian<br /> Fights and Fighters,” is worthy of mention.<br /> “The Historian’s History of the World,” a little<br /> work in 25 vols. is now reported as “ complete.”<br /> <br /> Charles Eliot Norton’s publication of the<br /> letters written to him by John Ruskin is a matter<br /> of moment to both continents, as also perhaps are<br /> Thackeray’s letters to the Baxter family.<br /> <br /> In fiction there have been new works by Henry<br /> James, W. D. Howells, and Marion Crawford.<br /> The first and third scarcely rank nowadays as<br /> American authors; but Mr. Howells will always<br /> be a true American. His latest novel, ‘“ The<br /> Son of Royal Langbrith,” is one of his very best<br /> New England problem stories, the problem in this<br /> case being concerned with the treatment of an<br /> unworthy father’s memory.<br /> <br /> Among younger masters of the craft, Mr.<br /> Stewart White has followed up “The Blazed<br /> Trail? and “The Forest,” by a worthy successor,<br /> “The Mountains”; George Barr McCutcheon,<br /> has written a sequel to “ Graustark” (“ Beverley<br /> of Graustark”) which has recently been at the<br /> top of the “ best sellers” ; and the author of the<br /> celebrated Self-made Merchant’s Letters has pro-<br /> duced in “Old Gorgon Graham” a new series<br /> which do not show the usual falling-off of a<br /> sequel. Another “best seller,” “ The Affair at<br /> the Inn,” was inspired and directed by Kate<br /> Douglas Wiggin, but, as readers of the AUTHOR<br /> <br /> _will be aware, was written in England in collabo-<br /> ration with two English ladies and a gentleman.<br /> <br /> Mr. Robert Grant has written in “The Under-<br /> current” a novel which discusses the divorce ques-<br /> tion in a candid and interesting manner.<br /> <br /> The authorship of the clever “ Jessica Letters”<br /> has been revealed. It belongs to Mrs. Lundy<br /> Howard Harris and Mr. Paul Elmer.<br /> <br /> Mr, Jack London has again delighted his<br /> admirers with “The Sea Wolf,” and Messrs. H.<br /> L. Wilson and E. Phillips Oppenheim have satisfied<br /> theirs with “The Seeker” and “ The Betrayal.”<br /> <br /> A promising first appearance has been made<br /> by Miss Edith Rickert with her story of the<br /> Shetland Isles, called “The Reaper.” « Wanted,<br /> a Cook,” by Alan Dale, has reached a large<br /> public.<br /> <br /> We should not conclude this imperfect survey<br /> without a passing allusion to two widely different<br /> works. Dr. William J. Rolfe’s valuable “ Life of<br /> Shakespeare,” and Miss Ida M. Tarbell’s meri-<br /> <br /> torious “ History of the Standard Oil Trust.”<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Life is not long enough for us to enter into the<br /> merits of the dispute between those who claim<br /> and those who deny the exclusive right to use the<br /> title of Webster’s Dictionary.<br /> <br /> Our obituary list contains few important names.<br /> There is Lafcadio Hearn, the American journalist,<br /> who ended a romantic career by becoming a<br /> Japanese subject and professor, and left a legacy<br /> of many charming books upon his adopted<br /> country.<br /> <br /> Mrs. Euphemia Vale Blake, who reached the<br /> advanced age of eighty-eight, was the author of<br /> “Arctic Experiences” and “ A History of<br /> Tammany Hall,” amongst other works.<br /> <br /> Prof. Charles Woodruff Shields, of Princeton,<br /> was a well-known writer on the science of<br /> religion, who abandoned Presbyterianism to become<br /> an Episcopalian. Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop’s<br /> name will endure in her books of travel in Asia<br /> and North America. It is more doubtful whether<br /> Col. Prentiss Ingraham will find a place among<br /> the Immortals, in spite of the thousand novels<br /> which he left behind him.<br /> <br /> —___—_+ &lt;&gt; —__—_<br /> <br /> HINTS ON PRODUCTION.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> Il.<br /> MovuLpine, STEREOTYPING OR ELECTROTYPING.<br /> <br /> O keep type standing for any period without<br /> a rental is not fair to the printer; therefore<br /> if the work is likely to be reprinted later on,<br /> it should be either stereotyped or electrotyped.<br /> <br /> If the probability of a reprint being required is<br /> small, moulding is a tentative process which does<br /> not cost very much. This is the preliminary stage<br /> of stereotyping by the papier-maché method. The<br /> moulds are readily stored, and if required later<br /> on may be easily cast from, the two methods of<br /> moulding and casting, done at two different periods,<br /> costing very little more in the aggregate than if<br /> stereotyped direct in the first place. But if there is<br /> acertainty that plates will be required, either stereo-<br /> type or electrotype plates may be made at the<br /> outset. The first is the cheaper kind, but the<br /> second, although dearer, is more serviceable if<br /> several editions are likely to be required.<br /> <br /> Here again it may be assumed roughly that the<br /> charges for these respective methods are—<br /> <br /> Moulding a ... $d. per sq. in.<br /> Stereotyping (at som Sd. in<br /> future date) from all.<br /> <br /> moulds s oo ide, os<br /> Stereotyping direct ... 4d. , 5<br /> Electrotyping ... 1d, o<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> E 2<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> PAPERS.<br /> <br /> Paper isthe next important thing to be dealt with,<br /> and of this necessary material there is a very large<br /> selection to choose from. Naturally that made by<br /> hand is the best kind, and roughly three or four<br /> times dearer than an average paper made by<br /> machine. For bookwork the very cheap kinds are<br /> not recommended. Another class to be avoided as<br /> far as possible is shiny paper; in fact, smooth or<br /> glossy papers are always objectionable, although,<br /> in these days of graphic literature, process blocks<br /> absolutely demand a smooth surface for the satis-<br /> factory printing of illustrations. Papers which are<br /> extremely light in bulk and those which are very<br /> heavy are also to be avoided—the first are generally<br /> too poor in substance to stand handling, and the<br /> second are objectionable from the fact that they<br /> are usually clay-loaded. A medium weight should<br /> be selected, for one can obtain a fairly light-hand-<br /> ling paper, considering the bulk, without sacrific-<br /> ing the quality in order to obtain a minimum<br /> weight. It may be taken for granted that some-<br /> thing is wrong in its manufacture when either of<br /> the extremes is manifest and the bulk of the<br /> volume is considered. A paper made with a rough<br /> antique finish naturally bulks more than one which<br /> has been calendered, but judgment must be<br /> exercised in considering the two classes of paper—<br /> both of which are necessary for the production of<br /> either plain or illustrated volumes.<br /> <br /> Papers are made as a rule to definite sizes, but<br /> in the case of those produced by machine these<br /> sizes can be varied. Sheets for printing purposes<br /> are frequently made in double and quadruple sizes,<br /> in order to facilitate and cheapen production, but<br /> we need only give the single or more ordinary sizes<br /> with the publishers’ or booksellers’ equivalents in<br /> 4to and 8vo:<br /> <br /> Printers’ Size of Publishers’ Sizes.<br /> <br /> Sheet. Quarto. Octavo.<br /> Imperial on ee ee Ib eT Tx Tk<br /> Super Royal 274 x 204 ... 13% x 104 ... 10} x 6%<br /> Royal mee oe 20 AE 10, 10 KGS<br /> Medium 22019 12 OR Oe 6<br /> Demy sa coy X 1 ALE &amp;K 8e We. 2 8S KX BS<br /> Post ee lO 6 10 oe) Be coe Bene<br /> Crown peel 15 10 ee TR a<br /> Foolscap ... 17 x 133 .- 83 x 62 ... 6% x 44<br /> Pots pe Oe IDE eK 6). OF Xk 38<br /> <br /> Books in quarto or octavo if with cut edges<br /> would measure slightly less, especially in height.<br /> The bulk of books as regards thickness cannot be<br /> foretold to a nicety, nor can the weight be quite<br /> determined, without a size or pattern copy being<br /> made up out of the exact paper, for, as before<br /> explained, the material used in making and the<br /> precise finish of the sheets does very considerably<br /> affect the exact bulking proportions of the paper.<br /> <br /> 108<br /> <br /> A ream consists of 500 sheets nominally, and<br /> papers are made to certain weights—so many<br /> pounds to a ream of a given size. An average<br /> weight of an ordinary paper in double crown size<br /> (30 x 20 in.) such as is used for a novel, if the<br /> paper is ofan antique character, may be 36 Ib., and<br /> the equivalent weight in demy (224 x 17k in.)<br /> and double foolscap (27 x 17 in.) would be 241b.<br /> and 27 Ib. respectively.<br /> <br /> The cost prices of average papers may be taken<br /> for the purposes of calculation at 3d. per lb. per<br /> machine and about 1s. per lb. for those made<br /> by hand, but, of course, there are many qualities of<br /> each kind, both cheaper and dearer.<br /> <br /> ILLUSTRATIONS.<br /> <br /> The question of method to be adopted for illus-<br /> trating a work is an important matter and requires<br /> careful consideration. The old books were nearly<br /> all made beautiful with engravings on copper or on<br /> wood—the latter mostly. Although these methods<br /> were the most artistic, the expenses of production<br /> were great and at the same time very slow.<br /> <br /> teproductive processes are so numerous now-a-<br /> days, so cheap, and at the same time so expeditious,<br /> that the choice is somewhat bewildering to many.<br /> By means of photography almost anything can be<br /> reproduced by these mechanical processes, and the<br /> methods mostly employed for illustrating books<br /> are those of photogravure, collotype, half-tone and<br /> line blocks. The first two are adapted for the<br /> separate plates of any volume, and are the more<br /> expensive kinds, especially the first. The other<br /> two methods are best for textual illustrations,<br /> although unfortunately it is a sine qua non that<br /> for all half-tone blocks very smooth paper must be<br /> used in order to bring out the full effects of tone.<br /> To avoid the use of this paper it is best to adopt<br /> the line method of reproduction as far as possible,<br /> for all drawings or pictures in wash or photo-<br /> graphs can only be made by the half-tone process.<br /> With regard to prices for all these processes it is<br /> somewhat difficult to give instances, for in the first<br /> place there is always a minimum charge for each<br /> subject, because any single reproduction is not worth<br /> handling below acertain price. In forming an idea<br /> of cost the making of photogravure plates costs<br /> about 2s. per inch ; half-tone blocks range any-<br /> where between 9d. and 1s., and line blocks half the<br /> price of half-tone. In all these cases the original<br /> plates or blocks can be held for future use, but with<br /> collotype plates it is a different matter, for. the<br /> method consists of printing from a gelatine film<br /> which has to be made from the negative and<br /> renewed from time to time in course of printing<br /> off. It may be taken for granted that for full page<br /> or separate plates, when only short numbers are<br /> <br /> <br /> 104<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> required, collotype pictures sometimes cost less<br /> than half-tone illustrations because of the initial<br /> cost of the block ; but, on the other hand, should<br /> a long number of copies be required of these<br /> separate plates, the initial cost of making half-tone<br /> blocks or even photogravure plates is merged into<br /> the total cost of producing the illustration.<br /> <br /> Press WORK.<br /> <br /> This term embraces all printing off, whether by<br /> hand or by machine. As already explained, to<br /> cheapen the cost of production of books, printing<br /> machines are now made much larger in size and<br /> paper may be obtained to suit the requirements of<br /> those machines. For instance, a crown 8vo novel<br /> is generally printed on a sheet of quad crown,<br /> 40 x 30 in., which would contain 64 pages when<br /> printed both sides. This is a consideration when<br /> the number to be printed is fairly large. Prices for<br /> ordinary plain printing (that is, without illustra-<br /> tions) are charged as reams of 500 printed both<br /> sides, which means 1,000 impressions for each ream.<br /> These charges vary according to the size of sheet<br /> employed in printing, and depend also on the<br /> quality of the work. It should be noted that it<br /> is important that all printing should be firm,<br /> black, clean and even in “colour” throughout.<br /> A yolume which has been carefully designed in<br /> its format is sometimes spoiled by bad or careless<br /> press work, and possibly by the use of a common<br /> or poor ink, which gives off a weak or gray effect<br /> that is trying to the eyes in reading.<br /> <br /> BINDING.<br /> <br /> This is the final stage in the making of a book,<br /> which also requires some consideration. For most<br /> books a publisher’s (i.e, cloth) binding suffices.<br /> There are many varieties of cloths, linens, and<br /> other fabrics to be selected from, and if gold is to<br /> be employed on the cover for lettering or for a special<br /> design, do not let it be too prominent, for, as a<br /> rule, a mass of gold looks vulgar, especially if a<br /> common kind be used. A design blocked in ink<br /> is in better taste provided the ink harmonizes with<br /> the covering material of the case. Besides, ink is<br /> much cheaper than gold, and really looks more<br /> effective ifa good design has been prepared for it.<br /> The question of cutting or not cutting the edges<br /> of a volume should be determined by the character<br /> of the work. A book which is going to be read<br /> straight off, or a reference volume, should have<br /> the edges cut all round, but éditions de luxe and<br /> other dainty editions, or any work printed on<br /> handmade paper, should be left untouched.<br /> <br /> Cuas. T. JACOBI.<br /> <br /> Oe 9<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> AUTHORS AND INCOME TAX.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> S disputes have frequently arisen between<br /> authors and income tax collectors con-<br /> cerning the amount due to the Revenue on<br /> <br /> the sums that authors receive in payment for their<br /> literary work, the Committee decided to place a<br /> full statement of the case before counsel with a<br /> view of obtaining his opinion on the issues, The<br /> following case therefore, prepared by the secretary,<br /> and approved by the solicitors, with counsel’s<br /> opinion on the questions, is printed below.<br /> <br /> CASE,<br /> <br /> In order that the subject may be considered<br /> in its completeness, it is necessary to put forward<br /> in some detail the methods adopted between authors<br /> and publishers.<br /> <br /> The usual forms of agreement between author<br /> and publisher for the publication of books may,<br /> perhaps, be enumerated as follows :—<br /> <br /> (1) A sale out-right, in which the author<br /> transfers to the publisher his copyright and all<br /> other rights and receives alump sum. Sometimes<br /> in one payment and sometimes by instalments (say<br /> on delivery of MS.: passing of last proofs and<br /> publication).<br /> <br /> (2) A profit-sharing agreement, a form much<br /> less common now than some years ago. In some<br /> cases the.copyright is transferred to the publisher ;<br /> in others it is retained by the author. As a<br /> general rule the author provides the MS. and the<br /> publisher the cost of production, advertisement, etc,<br /> The whole monetary outlay is placed on the debit<br /> side of the account, with any commission that the<br /> publisher charges, and the return from the sales is<br /> placed on the other side of the account, and the<br /> proceeds are divided in the proportions agreed on,<br /> but the author is not liable to bear any portion of<br /> the loss in case the book, on the accounts, does not<br /> show a balance to thegood. This form of contract<br /> is varied in different ways : sometimes the author<br /> pays part of the cost of production and is credited<br /> with that amount, sometimes the publisher has the<br /> right to sell a certain number of copies before the<br /> profits are divided ; but the mode in which receipts<br /> and payments in respect of the joint venture in the<br /> book are dealt with remains the same.<br /> <br /> (3) An agreement based on the royalty system.<br /> It is very exceptional in the royalty agreements at<br /> present signed by authors and publishers for the<br /> author to convey his copyright to the publisher,<br /> though this does sometimes occur.<br /> generally transfers to the publisher a licence to<br /> publish, on certain terms and conditions set forth<br /> in the agreement, a fixed or unlimited number of<br /> editions or copies of the book, and receives in<br /> <br /> The author :<br /> <br /> return a payment of royalty on the published price:<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> (as distinct from the actual or discount price) on<br /> every copy sold. Of these forms of agreement<br /> there are also variations. Sometimes the author<br /> receives an advance lump sum in addition to<br /> royalties (dependent on sales), but this is certainly<br /> the exception ; sometimes, and more frequently,<br /> he receives a lump sum in advance of royalty.<br /> This amount has been held not to be repayable in<br /> case the royalty on the number of copies sold does<br /> not reach the figure advanced. Another variation<br /> is a contract for deferred royalty, where the author<br /> receives a royalty after the sale of a certain number<br /> of copies.<br /> <br /> (4) A commission agreement, where the author<br /> pays for the whole cost of production and receives<br /> in return the full amount which the publisher<br /> realises by sale of copies of the book, less his<br /> commission and any expenses incurred by him,<br /> such as advertisements.<br /> <br /> There is another class of cases to be considered,<br /> that is, authors’ receipts from contributions to<br /> magazines and other periodical literature.<br /> <br /> In some cases—contracts on this basis are most<br /> frequent nowadays—the author sells to a magazine,<br /> or periodical, or daily paper the use of his work<br /> for serial issue limited either to one paper or<br /> embracing entire serial rights. Again, it not<br /> infrequently occurs that an author sends his work<br /> up to a paper or periodical, and the work is printed<br /> without any contract. In this case, no doubt,<br /> the author does not confer the copyright<br /> on the proprietors of the publication. Lastly,<br /> there remains those cases in which the periodical<br /> purchases the copyright of the work and pays for<br /> it, the work coming under the 18th section of the<br /> Copyright Act (5 &amp; 6 Vict. c. 45), to which counsel<br /> is referred. Very often under these circumstances<br /> the periodical makes no further use of the article,<br /> but allows the author to reprint in book form,<br /> making a formal acknowledgment or paying a small<br /> consideration. It will be best to consider the<br /> publication in a periodical or serial form as distinct<br /> from the publication of books.<br /> <br /> In the publication of books in the four examples<br /> put forward, it is submitted that as long as the<br /> author retains the copyright he has the property<br /> in his work, and therefore any royalty or profits<br /> that may be coming to him in any year should be<br /> reckoned as income of that vear on which he should<br /> be bound to pay the annual tax, either annually<br /> upon the amount he receives or by reckoning his<br /> income over a period of three years. He merely<br /> farms out or leases his work either by a licence to<br /> the publisher to publish, receiving returns by pay-<br /> ment of royalty or by a share of the profits, or<br /> again, by a licence to sell in the cases where he<br /> keeps the printing and publishing in his own<br /> hands, and makes the publisher a mere middleman<br /> <br /> 105<br /> <br /> for the sale of his work. But when an author<br /> transfers his property, receiving in payment either<br /> a sum down or a share of the profits or payment by<br /> means of royalty, the question arises how far he ig<br /> to look upon the amount as income or capital, and<br /> this view seems to carry with it considerable doubt.<br /> If it is denied that moneys received for the sale of<br /> copyright are income, it will follow that an author,<br /> producing much work in a year, and selling all<br /> copyrights to his publisher, earns no taxable income,<br /> On the other hand, if such moneys be reckoned as<br /> income, the consequence can be set out in the<br /> following hypothetical case.<br /> <br /> A certain work produces in royalty £60 a year.<br /> It is sold for £600, which the author sinks in a<br /> terminable annuity of £40. The effect is to<br /> reduce his income from this source by £20 a year,<br /> but if the £600 a year is income, and a three years’<br /> average is struck, the author makes his terminable<br /> income from this source, £240 for the first year,<br /> £220 for the second, and £200 for the third, and<br /> will also have to pay income tax on his annuity of<br /> £40. Accordingly over three years the author has<br /> to pay income tax on £780, when his actual income<br /> is only £120. Supposing an author sells his copy-<br /> right for £600 to a publisher, and it is decided<br /> that this amount is to be reckoned as income, the<br /> publisher proceeds to sell the property to another,<br /> does the publisher reckon the £600 as income ?<br /> It is submitted he would not do so.<br /> <br /> Again, it should be considered whether, if<br /> an author writes works and does not proceed to<br /> publish them, and if the amount received from the<br /> sale of the copyright is to be reckoned as income, he<br /> is to make a schedule of the value of his copyrights<br /> in the return of income tax, although he may not<br /> as yet have marketed the commodity. This position<br /> seems to be untenable, and seems again to point to<br /> the fact that the property is, in itself, capital rather<br /> than income.<br /> <br /> Farther, counsel is requested to consider whether<br /> a payment in advance of royalty (under a royalty<br /> agreement which provides for the sale of the copy-<br /> right) stands on the same footing as payment of a<br /> lump sum down for the copyright.<br /> <br /> Questions of a similar kind arise when the whole<br /> serial rights in a contribution (7.e., a distinct part<br /> of the copyright) are sold to a magazine or<br /> periodical. Counsel is therefore asked to advise<br /> on the following questions :—<br /> <br /> (1) Is the sum received by an author in respect<br /> of a work of which he retains the copyright in all<br /> cases to be considered as income ?<br /> <br /> (2) Is the sum received on the sale of a copy-<br /> right to be considered as capital or income? And<br /> if capital, can a lump payment for such minor<br /> rights.as serial use, right of translation, dramatisa-<br /> tion, etc., be put on the same footing ?<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 106<br /> <br /> (3) If the sum received is capital, will the<br /> <br /> liability of an author to pay income tax be varied<br /> by the method in which he receives payment—(q) by<br /> a lump sum in full discharge ; (0) by a share of<br /> the profits; (c) by a royalty ; (d) by a sum in<br /> advance of royalty ; (e) by a lump sum on sale of<br /> serial use to a magazine, periodical, or paper.<br /> <br /> (4) So far as an author’s receipts are to be<br /> treated as income, how is his payment to be<br /> regulated? Has he the right to make deductions<br /> for expenses incurred in compiling a book or<br /> in writing an article—(a) directly, as railway<br /> journeys, purchase of books, purchase of photo-<br /> ‘graphs, stationery, typewriting, etc. 5 (0) indirectly,<br /> for rental of portion of his house as office ?<br /> <br /> (5) May he calculate the amounts he receives on<br /> the three-year basis ?<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> CoUNSEL’S OPINION RE ASSESSMENT OF INcoME<br /> Tax ON Prorits FRoM LirERaRy, PrRo-<br /> DUCTIONS.<br /> <br /> By 5 &amp; 6 Vict. c. 35, 8. 100, Sched. (D) :—The<br /> duties hereby granted, contained in the schedule<br /> marked (D) shall be assessed and charged under the<br /> following rules :—<br /> <br /> ScHEDULE (D).<br /> <br /> Rules for ascertaining the last-mentioned duties<br /> in the particular cases herein mentioned.<br /> <br /> First case... .<br /> <br /> Second case.—The duty to be charged in respect<br /> of professions, employments or vocations, not con-<br /> tained in any other schedule of this Act.<br /> <br /> RULES.<br /> <br /> Pirst, =...<br /> <br /> Second.—The duty to be charged shall be com-<br /> puted at a sum not less than the full amount of<br /> the balance of the profits, gains and emoluments of<br /> such professions, employments and vocations (after<br /> making such deductions, and no other, as by this Act<br /> are allowed), within the preceding year.<br /> <br /> Russ APPLYING To BoTH THE PRECEDING CASES.<br /> <br /> First.—In estimating the balance of the profits<br /> or gains to be charged according to either of the<br /> first or second cases, no sum shall be set against or<br /> deducted from such profits or gains for any disburse-<br /> ments or expenses whatever, not being wholly and<br /> exclusively laid out or expended for the purposes of<br /> such profession, employment or vocation ; nor for<br /> the rent or value of any dwelling-house or domestic<br /> offices, or any part of such dwelling-house or<br /> domestic offices, except such part thereof as may<br /> be used for the purposes of such trade or concern,<br /> not exceeding the proportion of the said rent herein-<br /> after mentioned, nor for any sum expended in any<br /> other domestic or private purposes, distinct from<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THB AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> the purposes of such trade, or of such profession,<br /> employment, or vocation. ;<br /> <br /> From the words “the amount of the balance of<br /> the profits and gains” it will be seen that<br /> income tax is intended to be a tax upon a per-<br /> son’s annual profits and gains, and such profits and<br /> gains must be ascertained on ordinary principles of<br /> commercial trading.<br /> <br /> “The rule contemplates the preparation of a<br /> balance-sheet in which proper trading disburse-<br /> ments and liabilities are to be set against trade<br /> assets, so that the surplus of the latter, if any, will<br /> represent the assessable profits or gains of the con-<br /> cern. All the other rules applicable to Schedule (D)<br /> are framed upon the same footing.” (Gresham<br /> Life Assurance Society v. Styles, (1892) A. C. per<br /> Lord Watson, p. 317.)<br /> <br /> Turning now to the questions which have been put:<br /> <br /> (1) and (2) The principle laid down in the above-<br /> mentioned judgment of Lord Watson, in my<br /> opinion, applies to the present case.<br /> <br /> Therefore, in ascertaining the amount of his<br /> profits or gains for the year an author must in<br /> all cases place upon the credit side of the balance-<br /> sheet the sum which he has received in respect of<br /> a work of which he retains the copyright. In the<br /> same manner he must account for any lump sum<br /> which he may receive on the sale of the copyright<br /> or any minor rights. Then, if after deducting any<br /> expenses which he may have incurred wholly and<br /> exclusively for the purposes of his profession or<br /> vocation a profit remains, he must pay income<br /> tax on the amount of such profit. ;<br /> <br /> There is really no mystery connected with the<br /> sales of copyright or minor rights, and they must<br /> be treated in any ordinary commercial way. I can<br /> see no difference in principle between the cases put<br /> and that of a coachbuilder who builds a carriage.<br /> &#039;If the coachbuilder either lends out the carriage for<br /> hire or sells it there can be no doubt that in making<br /> his yearly return of profits or gains for the purpose<br /> of income tax he must bring into account the<br /> amount he receives for the hire or upon the sale. *<br /> <br /> (3) In my opinion, for the reasons already given<br /> in (1) and (2), the liability of the author to pay<br /> income tax on the amounts received will not be varied<br /> by the method in which he receives payment;<br /> although, of course, the time of payment of the tax<br /> may be, because he will only have to bring into<br /> account the amounts which he receives in the parti-<br /> cular year for which he has to make his return.<br /> <br /> (4) Here, again, the matter must be treated upon -<br /> ordinary principles of commercial trading, having<br /> regard to the restrictions imposed by the Act.<br /> <br /> The author is entitled to deduct any disburse-<br /> ments or expenses which he may have laid out or<br /> expended wholly or exclusively for the purposes of<br /> his vocation.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Therefore, in my opinion, the expenses or cost<br /> of such items as photographs, stationery and<br /> typewriting may be deducted.<br /> <br /> Books stand upon rather a different footing,<br /> because after they have been read they are still of<br /> value, and I think the proper deduction to be made<br /> would be the difference between the cost price and<br /> the present value of the book.<br /> <br /> With regard to travelling expenses I think that if<br /> they were incurred exclusively for the purpose of<br /> getting some information for the purpose of his<br /> vocation—e.y., to enable him to write a description<br /> of a particular place or to inspect a particular<br /> document—they might be deducted.<br /> <br /> In making any of the above deductions it must be<br /> remembered that the expenses need not necessarily<br /> be appropriated to any particular book or work, so<br /> long as they are incurred in the period for which<br /> the return is made and were incurred wholly and<br /> exclusively by the author for the purpose of his<br /> vocation.<br /> <br /> With regard to the rental of a portion of his<br /> house as an office, I think that the author would be<br /> entitled to deduct it if it can be proved that<br /> such portion of the house is used exclusively for<br /> the purpose of his profession or vocation, and if it<br /> can be shown that he would not have taken so large a<br /> house but for the fact that he was going to devote<br /> apart of it to the exercise of his vocation. The<br /> amount of such deduction would of course be sub-<br /> ject to the limits mentioned in the Income Tax Act.<br /> (See 6 Vict. ¢. 35, s. 101.)<br /> <br /> (5) By sec. 48 of 16 &amp; 17 Vict. c. 34, the duty to<br /> be charged under Schedule (D) in respect of pro-<br /> fessions or vocations shall be computed on a sum<br /> not less than the full amount of the balance of the<br /> profits and gains of such professions or vocations<br /> upon a fair and just average of three years.<br /> <br /> If the author should have set up and commenced<br /> his profession or vocation within the three years from<br /> the date when he makes his return I think that<br /> under the first rule of the first case in Schedule (D)<br /> the computation would have to be made for one year<br /> on the average of the balance of the profits and<br /> gains from the period of first setting up.<br /> <br /> W. Ottver Hopes.<br /> <br /> 7, Fig Tree Court, Temple.<br /> <br /> a<br /> MAGAZINE CONTENTS.<br /> <br /> -—&lt;&gt;— + —<br /> <br /> DECEMBER, 1904.<br /> <br /> THE ALBANY.<br /> A Shelley Letter.<br /> The Exile of Geo. Gissing.<br /> How I became an Author,<br /> The Drift of the Drama.<br /> On Giving People what they Want.<br /> <br /> By Richard Whiteing.<br /> By E. A. Morton.<br /> By Francis Gribble.<br /> <br /> 107<br /> <br /> Bookman,<br /> <br /> Society in Recent Fiction. By Susan Countess of Malmes-<br /> bury, and Lady Violet Greville.<br /> <br /> Mark Rutherford’s Bunyan. By Ian Maclaren.<br /> <br /> The Feminine Note in Fiction. By Lucas Malet,<br /> <br /> CHAMBERS’ JOURNAL,<br /> <br /> Shakespeare in Scotland. By Alex. Cargill.<br /> The Romance of Old Book Collecting. By Clive Holland.<br /> <br /> CONTEMPORARY REVIEW.<br /> <br /> After the Reaction. By C. F. G. Masterman.<br /> <br /> The Relation between Ecclesiastical and General History.<br /> By Prof. Adolf Harnack. :<br /> <br /> Religion, Science and Miracle. 3y Sir Oliver Lodge.<br /> CORNHILL.<br /> <br /> Charles Lamb’s Commonplace Books.<br /> <br /> : By E. V. Lucas.<br /> Historical Mysteries.<br /> <br /> By Andrew Lang.<br /> <br /> THE FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW.<br /> <br /> Adam Smith and Some Problems of To-day.<br /> Marriott.<br /> <br /> Artemis and Hippolytus. By J. G. Frazer.<br /> <br /> The Winged Destiny and Fiona Macleod.<br /> Goddard.<br /> <br /> The Crisis in the Book Market.<br /> Shore.<br /> <br /> The Sportsman’s Library, 1904.<br /> <br /> By Ethel<br /> By W. Teignmouth<br /> 3y F. G. Aflalo.<br /> THE INDEPENDENT REVIEW.<br /> Of Style. By C. F. Keary.<br /> <br /> The “ Trojan Women” of Kuripides.<br /> <br /> 3y Gilbert Murray.<br /> The Religions of Japan.<br /> <br /> By Baron Suyematsu.<br /> <br /> MACMILLAN’S MAGAZINE.<br /> <br /> The Ludlow Masque. By G. A. Nicklin.<br /> The Vicar of Morwenstow. By G. 8S. Freeman.<br /> The Pleasures of a Book Lover. By Michael Barrington.<br /> <br /> NATIONAL REVIEW.<br /> <br /> The London University and the Study of History. By<br /> <br /> Prof. Pollard.<br /> NINETEENTH CENTURY.<br /> <br /> Free Thought in the Church. By W. H. Mallock.<br /> <br /> Hymns “ Ancient’ and “ Modern.” By M. E. Jersey.<br /> <br /> The Rhodes Bequest and University Federation. By<br /> J. Churton Collins. :<br /> <br /> Queen Christina’s Pictures. By Bildt.<br /> <br /> PALL MALL MAGAZINE,<br /> Lines Written in a Copy of Henley’s “ Lyra Heroica.”<br /> By R. Ellis Roberts. 8<br /> Studies in Personality : Miss Marie Corelli. By Herbert<br /> Vivian. ee<br /> How Dr. Johnson wrote his Dictionary,<br /> Dobson.<br /> <br /> By Austin<br /> <br /> TEMPLE BAR.<br /> <br /> Richard Wagner in Zurich, By H. Alexander Clay.<br /> <br /> WorLbD’s WORK AND PBAY.,<br /> The Fourth Estate in Africa, By Leo Weinthal.<br /> <br /> There are no articles dealing with literary, dramatic, or<br /> <br /> : ; ; : 1s<br /> <br /> musical subjects in Blackwood’s Magazine, Longman’s<br /> Magazine, ov The Month,<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO THE PRODUCERS<br /> OF BOOKS.<br /> <br /> ——<br /> <br /> ERE are a few standing rules to be observed in an<br /> agreement. There are four methods of dealing<br /> with literary property :—<br /> <br /> I. Selling it Outright.<br /> <br /> This is sometimes satisfactory, if @ proper price can be<br /> obtained. But the transaction should be managed by a<br /> competent agent, or with the advice of the Secretary of<br /> the Society.<br /> <br /> Il. A Profit-Sharing Agreement (a bad form of<br /> agreement).<br /> <br /> In this case the following rules should be attended to:<br /> <br /> C1.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro-<br /> duction forms a part without the strictest investigation.<br /> <br /> (2.) Not to give the publisher the power of putting the<br /> profits into his own pocket by charging for advertisements<br /> in his own organs, or by charging exchange advertise-<br /> ments. ‘Therefore keep control of the advertisements,<br /> <br /> (3.) Not to allow a special charge for “ office expenses,”<br /> uniess the same allowance is made to the author.<br /> <br /> (4.) Not to give up American, Colonial, or Continental<br /> rights.<br /> <br /> “.) Not to give up serial or translation rights. :<br /> <br /> (6.) Not to bind yourself for future work to any publisher.<br /> As well bind yourself for the future to any one solicitor or<br /> doctor !<br /> <br /> III. The Royalty System.<br /> <br /> This is perhaps, with certain limitations, the best form<br /> of agreement. It is above all things necessary to know<br /> what the proposed royalty means to both sides. It is now<br /> possible for an author to ascertain approximately the<br /> truth. From time to time very important figures connected<br /> with royalties are published in The Author.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> IY. A Commission Agreement.<br /> <br /> The main points are :-—<br /> <br /> (1.) Be careful to obtain a fair cost of production.<br /> (2.) Keep control of the advertisements.<br /> <br /> (3.) Keep control of the sale price of the book,<br /> <br /> General.<br /> <br /> All other forms of agreement are combinations of the four<br /> above mentioned.<br /> <br /> Such combinations are generally disastrous to the author.<br /> <br /> Never sign any agreement without competent advice from<br /> the Secretary of the Society.<br /> <br /> Stamp all agreements with the Inland Revenue stamp.<br /> <br /> Avoid agreements by letter if possible.<br /> <br /> The main points which the Society has always demanded<br /> from the outset are :—<br /> <br /> (1.) That both sides shall know what ‘an agreement<br /> means.<br /> <br /> (2.) The inspection of those account books which belong<br /> to the author. We are advised that this is a right, in the<br /> nature of a common law right, which cannot be denied or<br /> withheld.<br /> <br /> (3.) Always avoid a transfer of copyright.<br /> <br /> —_____——_+—___<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS.<br /> <br /> deme Oe<br /> EVER sign an agreement without submitting it to the<br /> Secretary of the Society of Authors or some com-<br /> petent legal authority.<br /> 2. It is well to be extremely careful in negotiating for<br /> the production of a play with anyone except an established<br /> manager,<br /> <br /> 108 THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> 8. There are three forms of dramatic contract for plays<br /> in three or more acts :—<br /> <br /> (a.) Sale outright of the performing right. This<br /> is unsatisfactory. An author who enters into<br /> such a contract should stipulate in the contract<br /> for production of the piece by a certain date<br /> and for proper publication of his name on the<br /> play-bills.<br /> <br /> (b.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to<br /> perform on the basis of percentages on<br /> gross receipts. Percentages vary between 5<br /> and 15 per cent. An author should obtain a<br /> percentage on the sliding scale of gross receipts<br /> in preference to the American system. Should<br /> obtain a sum inadvance of percentages. A fixed<br /> date on or before which the play should be<br /> performed.<br /> <br /> (c.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to<br /> perform on the basis of royalties (i.c., fixed<br /> nightly fees). ‘this method should be always<br /> avoided except in cases where the fees are<br /> likely to be small or difficult to collect. The<br /> other safeguards set out under heading (0.) apply<br /> also in this case.<br /> <br /> 4, Plays in one act are often sold outright, but it is<br /> better to obtain a small nightly fee if possible, and a sum<br /> paid in advance of such fees in any event. It is extremely<br /> important that the amateur rights of one-act plays should<br /> be reserved.<br /> <br /> 5. Authors should remember that performing rights can<br /> be limited, and are usually limited, by town, country, and<br /> time. This is most important.<br /> <br /> 6. Authors should not assign performing rights, but<br /> should grant a licence to perform. The legal distinction is<br /> of great importance.<br /> <br /> 7. Authors should remember that performing rights in a<br /> play are distinct from literary copyright. A manager<br /> holding the performing right or licence to perform cannot<br /> print the book of the words.<br /> <br /> 8. Never forget that United States rights may be exceed-<br /> ingly valuable. ‘hey should never be included in English<br /> agreements without the author obtaining a substantial<br /> consideration.<br /> <br /> 9, Agreements for collaboration should be carefully<br /> drawn and executed before collaboration is commenced.<br /> <br /> 10, An author should remember that production of a play<br /> is highly speculative: that he runs a very great risk of<br /> delay and a breakdown in the fulfilment of his contract.<br /> He should therefore guard himself all the more carefully in<br /> the beginning.<br /> <br /> 11. An author must remember that the dramatic market<br /> is exceedingly limited, and that for a novice the first object<br /> is to obtain adequate publication.<br /> <br /> As these warnings must necessarily be incomplete, on<br /> account of the wide range of the subject of dramatic con-<br /> tracts, those authors desirous of further information<br /> are referred to the Secretary of the Society.<br /> <br /> —___—_+—&gt;—+-—___<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.<br /> <br /> —— &gt;<br /> <br /> ITTLE can be added to the warnings given for the<br /> assistance of producers of books and dramatic<br /> authors. It must, however, be pointed out that, as<br /> <br /> a rule, the musical publisher demands from the musical<br /> composer a transfer of fuller rights and less liberal finan-<br /> cial terms than those obtained for literary and dramatic<br /> property. The musical composer has very often ‘the two<br /> rights to deal with—performing right and copyright. He<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> a ¥<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR,<br /> <br /> should be especially careful therefore when entering into<br /> an agreement, and should take into part. cular consideration<br /> the warnings stated above.<br /> <br /> $&lt;<br /> <br /> HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> 2<br /> <br /> 1, VERY member has a right toask for and to receive<br /> advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-<br /> lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his<br /> <br /> business or the administration of his property. The<br /> <br /> Secretary of the Society is a solicitor, but if there is any<br /> <br /> special reason the Secretary will refer the case to the<br /> <br /> Solicitors of the Society. Further, the Committee, if they<br /> <br /> deem it desirable, will obtain counsel’s opinion. All this<br /> <br /> without any cost to the member.<br /> <br /> 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright<br /> and publishers’ agreements do not fall within the experi-<br /> ence of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use<br /> the Society.<br /> <br /> 3. Send to the Office copies of past agreements and past<br /> accounts, with a copy of the book represented. The<br /> Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new<br /> or old, for inspection and note. The information thus<br /> obtained may prove invaluable.<br /> <br /> 4. Before signing any agreement whatever, send<br /> the document to the Society for examination,<br /> <br /> 5. Remember always that in belonging to the Society<br /> you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you<br /> are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are<br /> advancing the best interests of your calling in promoting<br /> the independence of the writer, the dramatist, the composer.<br /> <br /> 6. The Committee have now arranged for the reception<br /> of members’ agreements and their preservation in a fire-<br /> proof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as<br /> confidential documents to be read only by the Secretary,<br /> who will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers:<br /> —(1) To read and advise upon agreements and to give<br /> advice concerning publishers, (2) To stamp agreements<br /> in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep<br /> agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to<br /> agreements. Fuller particulars of the Society’s work<br /> can be obtained in the Prospectus.<br /> <br /> 7. No contract should be entered into with a literary<br /> agent without the advice of the Secretary of the Society,<br /> Members are strongly advised not to accept without careful<br /> consideration the contracts with publishers submitted to<br /> them by literary agents, and are recommended to submit<br /> them for interpretation and explanation to the Secretary<br /> of the Society.<br /> <br /> 8. Many agents neglect to stamp agreements, This<br /> must be done within fourteen days of first execution, The<br /> Secretary will undertake it on behalf of members,<br /> <br /> 9. Some agents endeavour to prevent authors from<br /> referring matters to the Secretary of the Society; so<br /> do some publishers. Members can make their own<br /> deductions and act accordingly.<br /> <br /> 10. The subscription to the Society iis £1 1s. per<br /> annum, or £10 10s for life membership.<br /> <br /> 109<br /> TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.<br /> <br /> —— 7 ——<br /> pe Society undertakes to stamp copies of music on<br /> behalf of its members for the fee of 6d. per 100 or<br /> _,. part of 100. The members’ stamps are kept in the<br /> Society&#039;s safe. The musical publishers communicate direct<br /> with the Secretary, and the voucher is then forwarded to<br /> the members, who are thus saved much unnecessary trouble,<br /> <br /> To<br /> <br /> THE READING BRANCH.<br /> Seg<br /> <br /> EMBERS will greatly assist the Society in this<br /> branch of its work by informing young writers<br /> <br /> of its existence. Their MSS. can be read and<br /> treated as a composition is treated by a coach. The term<br /> MSS. includes not only works of fiction, but poetry<br /> <br /> and dramatic works, and when it is possible, under<br /> special arrangement, technical and scientific works. The<br /> Readers are writers of competence and experience, The<br /> fee is one guinea,<br /> <br /> ———_—o + ___<br /> NOTICES.<br /> <br /> —— 1<br /> HE Editor of Zhe Author begs to remind members of<br /> the Society that, although the paper is sent to them<br /> free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a<br /> very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great<br /> many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest<br /> 5s. 6d. subscription for the year.<br /> <br /> Communications for “The Author” should be addressed<br /> to the Offices of the Society, 39, Old Queen Street, Storey’s<br /> Gate, 8.W., and should reach the Editor not later than the<br /> 21st of each month.<br /> <br /> All persons engaged in literary work of any kind,<br /> whether members of the Society or not, are invited to<br /> communicate to the Editor any points connected with their<br /> work which it would be advisable in the general interest to<br /> publish.<br /> <br /> Communications and letters are invited by the<br /> Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on<br /> no other subjects whatever. Every effort will be made to<br /> return articles which cannot be accepted.<br /> <br /> — +<br /> <br /> The Secretary of the Society begs to give notice<br /> that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post,<br /> and he requests members who do not receive an<br /> answer to important communications within two days to<br /> write to him without delay. All remittances should be<br /> <br /> y<br /> <br /> crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery Lane, or be sent<br /> by registered letter only.<br /> <br /> a ee ee<br /> <br /> LEGAL AND GENERAL LIFE ASSURANCE<br /> SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> —+—~&gt;— +<br /> <br /> ENSIONS to commence at any selected age,<br /> pP either with or without Life Assurance, can<br /> be obtained from this society.<br /> Full particulars can be obtained from the City<br /> Branch Manager, Legal and General Life Assurance<br /> Society, 158, Leadenhall Street, London, E.C.<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> AUTHORITIES.<br /> <br /> —+—<br /> <br /> ! N article by Mr. W. Teignmouth Shore,<br /> <br /> A entitled “The Crisis in the Book Market,”<br /> appears in the December number of 7&#039;he<br /> <br /> Fortnightly. :<br /> <br /> A subject of this kind must, of necessity, appeal<br /> to members of the Society of Authors, as the<br /> prosperity of the book market must affect the<br /> author’s income. Mr. Shore has brought forward<br /> many generalities but few facts for what he terms<br /> “The Crisis in the Book Market,” and takes a<br /> very pessimistic view of the position.<br /> <br /> The first consideration of the article induces<br /> one to think that the whole system—author, trade,<br /> and reader—was running in a vicious circle, but<br /> Mr. Shore appears finally to put his finger on what<br /> he considers the weak spot, and comes to the<br /> conclusion that publishers are to blame for over-<br /> production and the consequent glutting of the<br /> market.<br /> <br /> He also states as an obiter dictum, “ Woe betide<br /> our writers if they slay the golden goose by play-<br /> ing the game of ‘heads I win, tails you lose.’”<br /> It is rather difficult to understand how playing a<br /> game of pitch and toss can slay any goose, even if<br /> it is golden; but putting this aside, why should<br /> the publisher be thus stigmatised ? As a similar<br /> remark was put forward on a former occasion, it is<br /> necessary once again to show the absurdity of the<br /> statement. Those who write and those who read<br /> are the two chief factors in this dispute. If those<br /> who read want to obtain the thoughts of those<br /> who write, and those who write are anxious to<br /> place their works amongst those who read, then if<br /> Mr. Teignmouth Shore’s “golden goose” was<br /> cleared off the market with its Christmas throat<br /> cut there would still be other means of bringing<br /> the two parties together. The readjustment of<br /> the trade would, no doubt, take a little time, but<br /> where there is supply and demand it would be<br /> bound to come at last. Although the publisher<br /> may not be exactly the “ golden goose,” it is<br /> possible that he may stimulate authors in the<br /> keen competition of the publishing business, toa<br /> production beyond the demands of the readers.<br /> ‘This is what Mr. Teignmouth Shore is inclined to<br /> think has occurred. ‘Taking all things into<br /> consideration,” he says, “the bad condition of the<br /> book market can be made good only by efforts on<br /> the part of the publishers, and if these efforts are<br /> not made, the law of the survival of the fittest<br /> must take its course.”<br /> <br /> The law of the survival of the fittest must take<br /> its course in any event, and Mr. Shore, we are<br /> inclined to think, is too pessimistic.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> We have received from the publishers, Messrs.<br /> Stevens and Haynes, the 4th Edition of Mr. W. A.<br /> Copinger’s well known work on copyright, re-<br /> edited by Mr. J. M. Easton, of the Inner Temple.<br /> As the work came to hand but a short time before<br /> the issue of Zhe Author, it has been found<br /> impossible to give such consideration and care to<br /> its perusal as would be essential for a formal<br /> review. We hope, however, in another number,<br /> after an exhaustive study, to deal with the work in<br /> a manner befitting the importance of the subject.<br /> <br /> Mr. Easton, in his preface, states that some<br /> slight alterations have been made in arrange-<br /> ment, and that the increase in International Copy-<br /> right and the Judicial decisions since the last<br /> edition in 1893 have necessitated a re-writing of<br /> portions of the book dealing with this branch of<br /> the Law of Copyright.<br /> <br /> He acknowledges his indebtedness in dealitg<br /> with foreign law to “Le Droit d’ Auteur,” the<br /> organ of the Copyright Union. We have frequently<br /> had to thank the secretary and the officials con-<br /> nected with the International Bureau at Berne,<br /> and to be grateful to ‘‘ Le Droit d’ Auteur” for the<br /> careful and comprehensive way in which they have<br /> done their duty in dealing with the subject of<br /> copyright, and we are pleased to notice Mr. Easton&#039;s<br /> corroborative appreciation.<br /> <br /> In another column is printed the case set before<br /> counsel by the committee referring to the payment<br /> of Income Tax by authors, followed by counsel’s<br /> opinion on the questions submitted to him.<br /> <br /> It is somewhat amusing, with counsel’s opinion<br /> so strongly stated against The Author, to read the<br /> following utterance made by Mr. Gladstone, and<br /> recorded in Sir J. B. Robinson’s “Fifty Years<br /> of Fleet Street.”<br /> <br /> “He (Mr. Gladstone) told a story of Macaulay<br /> receiving £8,000 for his history and escaping pay-<br /> ment of Income Tax, on the ground that it was<br /> principal and not interest.”<br /> <br /> We wonder whether this was a statement of<br /> fact within Mr. Gladstone’s knowledge, or a matter<br /> of report and hearsay.<br /> <br /> It is to be feared that the Income Tax collectors<br /> have learnt their business more thoroughly since<br /> then, otherwise there would have been no need for<br /> the Society to go to the expense of obtaining<br /> counsel’s opinion.<br /> <br /> Amona the reasons or excuses put forward by<br /> publishers for offering inadequate payment to<br /> authors has been the statement that they are<br /> crippled by the excessive sums they have to. pay to<br /> the popular celebrities of the day. ‘Two instances<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> in which this ground has been alleged, one in this<br /> country, one in the United States, have recently<br /> come under our notice. It can hardly be necessary<br /> to point out that the excuse is not a good one. If<br /> the publisher pays a heavy price to an author he<br /> does so in the expectation that the transactions will<br /> lead to a corresponding profit, either directly or<br /> indirectly, as an advertisement and asa lure. If<br /> he misealculates, the publisher only proves himself<br /> wanting in business judgment. Should he offer<br /> less than fair market terms for the work of young<br /> authors, they are free to go elsewhere. There is no<br /> lack of firms ready to deal.<br /> <br /> WE regret to notice the death of Miss Adeline<br /> Sergeant, who was a member of the Society from<br /> 1893 till 1898, when she resigned owing to ill-<br /> health. Miss Sergeant was the youngest daughter<br /> of the Rey. R. Sergeant, a rector in Derbyshire,<br /> and was born at Ashbourne in 1851. Her writing<br /> was, at all times, virile, strong, and engrossing.<br /> On one occasion, after she had made her name, she<br /> tried the daring experiment of publishing a book<br /> anonymously. The success of the book was remark-<br /> able, and was no doubt most satisfactory evidence<br /> to her of her continued powers. How many<br /> authors have made the experiment ? and, if they<br /> had, would obtain the same result ? We know of<br /> no similar instance.<br /> <br /> oe<br /> <br /> THE NOBEL PRIZES.<br /> <br /> — ++<br /> <br /> HE Nobel Prize for Literature has been<br /> divided between M. Mistral, the Provencal<br /> poet, and Don Jose Echegaray, the Spanish<br /> <br /> dramatist.<br /> <br /> Great Britain has, so far, been unsuccessful<br /> under the Nobel Statutes in obtaining any recog-<br /> nition for its great writers. The prizes in former<br /> years have been awarded as follows :—<br /> <br /> 1901. M. Sully Prudhomme, the French poet.<br /> <br /> 1902. Prof. Theodor Mommsen.<br /> <br /> 1903. Mr. Bjornstjerne Bjornson.<br /> <br /> Although Great Britain has failed in literature,<br /> she has been very successful in science, last year<br /> in medicine and this year in physics. Lord<br /> Rayleigh, Professor of Natural Philosophy at the<br /> Royal Institute, and Sir William Ramsay, Pro-<br /> fessor of Chemistry at University College, have<br /> been awarded prizes this year, which are of the<br /> value of about £8,000.<br /> <br /> The Nobel Prize Committee of the Incorporated<br /> Society of Authors met at the offices of the society<br /> early last month, and passed the usual resolution for<br /> the dispatch of the circulars to those entitled to<br /> vote under the Swedish Statutes.<br /> <br /> iit<br /> <br /> As in former years, the votes will be collected<br /> before the Ist of January, and will be forwarded to<br /> Stockholm before the 1st of February. They are<br /> then laid before the Swedish Committee appointed<br /> for the purpose of selection for the award in 1905.<br /> <br /> ———_—_-~» — bee<br /> <br /> LITERATURE AND LAW IN THE UNITED<br /> STATES.<br /> <br /> a<br /> ‘[Seconp Arricnn.]<br /> <br /> I POINTED ont at some length, in the November<br /> issue of this magazine, the first important<br /> <br /> difference between our copyright law and that<br /> of the United States, as shown by recent decisions<br /> given by the American courts and now presented<br /> in the admirable compilation by Mr. Arthur 8.<br /> Hamlin.*<br /> <br /> That. first important difference, as I said, was<br /> registration. There is no copyright in America<br /> except by registration; and, even then, only if it<br /> is in the correct form prescribed by the American<br /> statute. In this respect, therefore, the very door-<br /> way to American copyright was shown to be a<br /> pitfall to the unwary ; whereas here at home we<br /> acquire copyright in books by the mere act of<br /> publication.<br /> <br /> Before proceeding to discover, from Mr. Hamlin’s<br /> instructive book, what, in America, constitutes<br /> publication, and what are the necessary consequences<br /> of it in the eyes of the American statute, whether<br /> a book be first published there, or first published<br /> elsewhere and afterwards there, let us pause for a<br /> moment to consider what may be the subject-matter<br /> of copyright in America.<br /> <br /> Subsect-MaTrer or CopyriGgur.<br /> <br /> This will not detain us long, for the examples<br /> given in this work show that America looks at this<br /> branch of copyright much as we do ourselves.<br /> <br /> I suggested in my previous article that America<br /> was still young in literature and the arts. It will<br /> scarcely be credited that she is so young as this :—<br /> A Mr. Cleland made and copyrighted a coloured<br /> photograph entitled “ Palisades Alpine Pass in<br /> Colorada.” A Mr, Thayer promptly infringed it.<br /> What was his defence? Simply that the scenery<br /> was “natural” scenery, and consequently public<br /> <br /> * Copyright Cases: A Summary of Leading American<br /> Decisions on the Law of Copyright and on Literary<br /> Property, from 1891 to 1903; together with the Text of the<br /> United States Copyright Statute, and a Selection of Recent<br /> Copyright Decisions of the Courts of Great Britain and<br /> <br /> Canada. Compiled by Arthur S, Hamlin. Published for<br /> the American Publishers’ Copyright League by G. P.<br /> Putnam’s Sons. 1904, $2.<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 112<br /> <br /> property! More wonderful stil], he successfully<br /> defended himself on this plea at the first trial. On<br /> appeal, however, he was, of course, put out of court<br /> at once. So a photograph of natural scenery,<br /> however “natural ” and unreclaimed it may be, is<br /> a proper subject-matter for copyright protection in<br /> America. So, also, we should say.<br /> <br /> Let us now have another extreme case, only this<br /> time at the other end of the scale. One Young<br /> sent to the Librarian of Congress a blank book,<br /> demanding to have it copyrighted ! The Librarian<br /> refused. Young promptly sought a writ of man-<br /> damus to compel the Librarian to copyright his<br /> blank book. His argument was that the Librarian’s<br /> duty was a purely ministerial one—that he had no<br /> discretion in the matter. The judge, however,<br /> tripped him up. It was quite true, he said, that<br /> the Librarian had no discretion ; but before he, the<br /> judge, could issue the writ, Mr. Young would have<br /> to show that the writ would avail—namely, that a<br /> book containing not a single English sentence<br /> could be the subject of copyright. Mr. Young, of<br /> course, could not show this, and the court could<br /> not therefore “order a vain thing to be done.”<br /> Blank books cannot be the subject of copyright<br /> here or in America,<br /> <br /> Nor will a fitle of a book or play as such, and<br /> apart from its subject-matter, obtain protection.<br /> Du Maurier’s famous novel, ‘Trilby,” provided<br /> this decision. Messrs. Harper, its American pub-<br /> lishers, sought an injunction against one Renous,<br /> who produced a play entitled * Trilby ” (copying<br /> the plot and characters of the novel), to restrain<br /> him from using the title of the novel. This the<br /> judge refused. Fortunately the affidavits showed<br /> that the rest of the novel had also been pirated,<br /> and the judge therefore went out of his way to<br /> grant relief; but he let it be clearly understood that<br /> no action in copyright law could lie against the<br /> user of a mere title.<br /> <br /> But, this well-known ruling apart, note the dis-<br /> tinction between this and our own law. Here, it<br /> is free to anyone to dramatise a novel provided he<br /> does not let the printed or type-written copy of the<br /> drama get into the hands of the public. In that<br /> case an action will lie for the infringement of the<br /> copy right.<br /> <br /> A mere title, therefore, here or in America, gets<br /> no protection from the statute law. But in<br /> America the mere dramatiser of a novel may be<br /> proceeded against as an infringement. Not so<br /> here.<br /> <br /> “Ticker Tapes,” as they are called in America,<br /> provided another interesting case of equitable relief.<br /> One news company sued another for making use of<br /> readings from its tape machines. They could not<br /> be copyrighted, urged the wronged company,<br /> because they were published before there was time<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> to register them. The judges agreed, but held, in<br /> its equity jurisdiction, that the action of taking<br /> was unfair competition, and so granted an injunction<br /> restraining it.<br /> <br /> Readings of tape machines cannot, therefore, be<br /> copyrighted in America. Here they are, ipso facto,<br /> copyrighted the moment they emerge from the<br /> instrument.<br /> <br /> In answer to the well-known question: What<br /> constitutes literary value ? many interesting cases<br /> group themselves under this head of “ subject<br /> matter.”<br /> <br /> Has a bottle label, a letter file index, a racing<br /> chart, any literary value; has a circus poster<br /> artistic value—sufficient to entitle these produc-<br /> tions to copyright protection ?<br /> <br /> The bottle label in question was the property of<br /> Mr. Higgins, the famous ink and paste maker<br /> (with whose photo-mounting composition every<br /> amateur photographer ought to be acquaint2d),<br /> The only specific words on the label were: “ Water-<br /> proof Drawing Ink.” It was duly registered for<br /> copyright. The judge held that a mere descrip-<br /> tion of the contents of the bottle had no value for<br /> copyright purposes apart from the article described,<br /> and refused the injunction. Our courts would do<br /> the same.<br /> <br /> Similarly, a mere index to a letter file, however<br /> skilfully devised, was not within the protection of<br /> the Copyright Act, no literary explanation of its<br /> working being given. A book describing a short-<br /> hand system likewise failed to get protection against<br /> another book describing the same system, but<br /> written differently. There might be twenty books<br /> describing the same thing, provided they were<br /> different in treatment. But a racing chart, which<br /> formed part of a sporting paper, received protection;<br /> and it was no defence to say that it was disentitled<br /> to protection because designed for gaming pur-<br /> poses. A racing chart alone, however, could<br /> scarcely protect itself.<br /> <br /> A circus poster, showing performers on bicycles,<br /> and so forth, was not disentitled to protection on<br /> the ground of its being a mere advertisement. cx<br /> work of art,” said the judge, “is none the less a<br /> work of art because it is of little merit or humble<br /> degree.”<br /> <br /> Thus American Courts provide us with almost<br /> precisely similar rulings to the English Courts on ©<br /> the question as to what may and may not be the |<br /> subject matter of copyright.<br /> <br /> PUBLICATION AND ITS EFFECTS.<br /> <br /> Let us now see whether there is any difference<br /> between English and American law as to what —<br /> constitutes publication, and what are some of the |<br /> consequences of publication. ;<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> i We know that, over here, before we give a book<br /> to the world by publishing it, we can prohibit its<br /> «© publication by any unauthorised person by means<br /> »&gt;&gt; of an action at common law. It is the same in<br /> oe America. Similarly, after we have published a<br /> book, the common law protection ceases as far as<br /> its infringement goes, and the work now comes<br /> under the protection of the statute. But what,<br /> our author frequently asks, 7s publication ? Let<br /> » us see what America says on the subject.<br /> The Jewellers’ Mercantile Agency printed a book<br /> » of what, in America, are called “credit ratings,”<br /> which I take to be, from the evidence, a list of<br /> jewellers’ customers, with an account of their finan-<br /> cial standing. This they leased to their subscribers<br /> © only, having first copyrighted it. As soon as the<br /> | book was infringed, the plaintiffs alleged that,<br /> though copyrighted, it had not really been pub-<br /> i lished, seeing that it was only leased to their own<br /> “private subscribers. The trial court took this view<br /> <br /> . and granted them an injunction. But the appeal<br /> court reversed the judgment, holding that to lease<br /> a book to an unlimited number of subscribers<br /> amounted to‘a publication. This would be held<br /> ‘&#039; 5) to be good English law also.*<br /> qi Similarly, when Professor Loisette (the curer of<br /> <br /> ~~ weak memory) issued his book to subscribers under<br /> “= a contract of secrecy, this was construed as a<br /> ji&#039;s4 publication of it, and the pirate went free. And<br /> when one Rigney published a cut in a trade<br /> journal, allezing that there was no real publication<br /> because it only circulated within the limits of the<br /> trade—his contention was manifestly ill founded.<br /> <br /> Does the previous serial issue of a work consti-<br /> tute publication in America ? Or, when the work<br /> has not been copyrighted in this serial form, may<br /> it afterwards be copyrighted in volume form? No,<br /> unfortunately. So the author of the “ Autocrat of<br /> the Breakfast Table,” Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes,<br /> lost his copyright in that famous book.<br /> <br /> But if the last instalments of a serial be duly<br /> copyrighted, does this secure copyright in the<br /> whole work? ‘The appeals court answered this<br /> question for another famous author, Mrs. Stowe,<br /> but also in the negative.<br /> <br /> Before we come to the subject of the ‘‘ conse-<br /> quence of publication,” a very important case, not<br /> included in Mr. Hamlin’s book, but recently<br /> decided, should be mentioned as coming between<br /> the two questions of “publication” and its “ con-<br /> sequences,’’<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> © 2<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> we * It is noticeable that in both trials the important<br /> question as to whether “ publication” was a prerequisite<br /> to complete a copyright in America was avoided, Here<br /> itis, No book acquires copyright here without it. The<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Jaw in America on this point is doubtful; but Mr. Hamlin<br /> is of the opinion that the depositing of title and copies<br /> perfects the copyright without any publication,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 113<br /> <br /> In this case the great American Tobacco Com-<br /> pany got beaten in their own country. They<br /> printed and published, as an advertisement, the<br /> painting called “Chorus,” ‘a meritorious work<br /> of art, by Sadler, a British subject,” who sold it<br /> to Emil Werckmeister, “a citizen of Germany,”<br /> who hung it in the Royal Academy, London.<br /> <br /> The question was: Did this exhibition of the<br /> picture amount to “ publication” so as to deprive<br /> Werckmeister of his right to obtain copyright in<br /> America? In other words: Was the picture<br /> published ?<br /> <br /> In deciding this important question, Judges<br /> Lacombe, Townsend, and Cox were under the<br /> necessity of reviewing all the important decisions<br /> previously given in the analogous cases of books,<br /> lectures, and dramatic compositions, since the<br /> question as regards paintings had not hitherto<br /> been directly decided. With this review (which<br /> occupies fifteen pages of the royal-octavo pamph-<br /> Jet before me) I shall not trouble readers of Zhe<br /> Author. Suffice it to say, the judges decided<br /> that the exhibition did not amount to a publica-<br /> tion, on the grounds that (1) admission was by<br /> payment, implying a limitation of the persons who<br /> were to view the painting ; and that (2) there<br /> was express prohibition by the rules of the<br /> Academy against making copies of pictures ex-<br /> hibited therein.<br /> <br /> Now this decision is one to be thankful for,<br /> although it runs counter to our own law, which<br /> regards public exhibition in a gallery as publica-<br /> tion; and for the best commentary on the<br /> American decision (written long before it was<br /> given) I must refer readers of Zhe Author to<br /> Mr. Macgillerray’s book on ‘ Copyright,” pages<br /> 263-4,<br /> <br /> CONSEQUENCES OF PUBLICATION.<br /> <br /> Under this section of Mr. Hamlin’s book we<br /> move among giants, and it becomes still more<br /> interesting when the “ publication” in question<br /> is a publication owlside the United States. Such<br /> cases are particularly instructive to all authors,<br /> English and Continental, having a sale in the<br /> United States.<br /> <br /> Richard Wagner transferred his music-book<br /> rights in “Parsifal” to B. Schotts &amp; Sons, re-<br /> serving the acting rights to himself (which we know<br /> he liked to do—since no one else was, in his<br /> opinion, competent to deal with them). Schotts<br /> sent the book to America, but were many years too<br /> late for copyright. Oonfried put ‘‘ Persifal” on<br /> the boards, and Wagner brought an action to<br /> restrain him. Held that the book having once<br /> been published, the “reservation” notice was of<br /> no avail in America. ‘“ Parsifal”? could be “put<br /> on” by anyone.<br />  <br /> <br /> 114<br /> <br /> The next case is interesting to all budding<br /> geniuses. When Mr. Kipling was yet in that<br /> enviable state, his books were naturally not copy-<br /> righted in America. So in the year 1900, when<br /> he had become world-famous, he tried to ‘‘ take it<br /> out of” America by bringing an action against<br /> publishers there to restrain them, not from pub-<br /> lishing and selling his stories, which he could not<br /> prevent, but from publishing and selling them<br /> except in such collections and under such totles<br /> as he himself should authorise. One finds it diffi-<br /> cult to refrain from a smile, and wonders what he<br /> said to his lawyers when the court told him there<br /> was nothing about that in the statute.<br /> <br /> Sudermann, Germany’s playwright, provides our<br /> last case under this head. He published the text<br /> of the play “Die Ehre” in Germany, and the<br /> celebrated Augustin Daly decided, with his per-<br /> mission, to put it on the boards in America. But<br /> one Walwrath got in before him and produced<br /> the play, and defended himself successfully against<br /> injunction, by pleading the previous German<br /> publication.<br /> <br /> The moral of all these cases for authors is: see<br /> that, if you hope for anything from America, your<br /> work is duly copyrighted there before you publish it<br /> elsewhere.<br /> <br /> If the courteous editor of The Author will allow<br /> me, I hope at a future date to deal with the<br /> remaining sections of Mr. Hamlin’s book: “ Literary<br /> Property and its Transfer,” “ Unfair Use,” and<br /> “Remedies and Penalties,” as America regards<br /> these matters.<br /> <br /> CHARLES WEEKES.<br /> <br /> 2 ge<br /> <br /> EDITORIAL CRITICISMS.<br /> Se st<br /> T is seldom that an editor in returning a MS.<br /> I of which he cannot avail himself will vouch-<br /> safe his precise reason for declining it.<br /> <br /> He has not the leisure, perhaps, or it may be that,<br /> as hé cannot honestly offer encouragement to the<br /> writer, he restricts himself to the stereotyped form<br /> of regret which commits him to nothing. It may<br /> even be that he dreads what so often happens ifhe<br /> give his contributor an opening—that the latter<br /> will proceed to question his decision at the expense<br /> of much ink and paper.<br /> <br /> Should he, however, depart from his rule and<br /> proffer a criticism, it is worth considering in cold<br /> blood, no matter how cutting, presumptuous, or<br /> brutal an aspect it wears, for probably a lifetime<br /> of experience has perfected him in the art of<br /> silhouetting the weak points of an article at a<br /> glance. If he devote five or ten of his precious<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> minutes to bestowing the benefit of that experience<br /> on a complete stranger he does it, undoubtedly,<br /> with the kindliest of motives, and by no means<br /> merits the vituperation which ofttimes requites him:<br /> <br /> English editors volunteer ‘‘remarks”’ -less fre-<br /> quently than American ones, but it is the authors’<br /> fault. American writers (and not novices only)<br /> beg for a review of their work and profit by it,<br /> whereas their English brethren, hugging their<br /> amour propre, are apt to regard anything savouring<br /> of condemnation as insult added to injury.<br /> <br /> “Tt is impossible for us to criticise MSS., so<br /> many are submitted,” is a very usual notice in the<br /> Transatlantic magazines. It is rarely met with in<br /> an English periodical, for it is not needed. Yet<br /> “to see oursels as ithers see us” must be as<br /> salutary to authors as to other folk.<br /> <br /> «The reader foresees the dénouement almost from<br /> the beginning.” This comment was once sent vith<br /> a rejected story of my own, the “almost” just<br /> saving my self-esteem, for in a MS. of 2,000 words—<br /> a very acceptable length, by the way—there is not<br /> overmuch room for “ drawing a red herring across<br /> the trail.” I comforted myself with that reflection,<br /> but &amp; propos of the criticism a problem presented<br /> itself—whether the majority of readers like to have<br /> the whole plot divulged, sprung upon them as it<br /> were, in the two last lines, or whether they have a<br /> secret predilection for the pleasant sense of their<br /> own perspicacity which the divination, from the<br /> very beginning, of the author’s intention inspires.<br /> Endeavouring to be quite honest with myself, I<br /> decided that I personally agreed with my friendly<br /> mentor, and had a distinct leaning towards ‘a<br /> measure of mystification.<br /> <br /> “The central ‘idea has done duty in scores of short<br /> stories.” This was, I remember, something of a<br /> blow, since I had fondly imagined my little tale quite<br /> original, but being well aware the editor saw more<br /> fiction in a day than I in a month, I sat down to<br /> think the matter out, and the more I reviewed his<br /> ultimatum the more grateful I was to him for<br /> having had the courage of his opinions, and the<br /> more willing to concede that some time, somewhere,<br /> I too had encountered. a not altogether alien<br /> argument.<br /> <br /> In this case—and to my mind it covered a multi-<br /> tude of sins—the regret was a written one, and put<br /> me in possession of an autograph I had long coveted.<br /> “Your story is too improbable.” Yet I had<br /> sent the MS. where “impossible” would have<br /> <br /> described the letterpress even better than “impro- —<br /> <br /> bable,” and I had spoken of what I knew to be<br /> true. Nevertheless the editor, with his finger on<br /> the pulse of the public, was right. I eliminated<br /> <br /> the “impossible” truth I hadthought so fascinating,<br /> and promptly disposed of my “ copy.”<br /> “Tf you care to change the convent into a Church<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> hy<br /> -<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> of England boarding-school ’—O bathos !—“ we<br /> will reconsider the article.” Now the hours and<br /> the pains I had spent on “ getting up” that<br /> convent made the bare notion grievous. The<br /> walls were high and ivy-clad, the garden within<br /> them a place of peace, whilst the softened strains<br /> of the ‘“‘ Ave Maria” issuing from the little oratory<br /> were indispensable io my mise en scene. I felt I<br /> couldn’t part with a word, so I kept the MS.<br /> intact and sent it elsewhere. But I did not sell<br /> it for a very long time—not, indeed, until I had<br /> taken the editor’s advice.<br /> <br /> . L hold no brief for editors, nor do I claim<br /> infallibility for them—it is notorious that many a<br /> time and oft they decline excellent work, after-<br /> wards bitterly bewailing their short-sightedness—<br /> but I earnestly maintain that, since their intentions<br /> in advising are of the very best, it is crass folly to<br /> ignore their well-meant strictures or to lull oneself<br /> into the belief that one is superiur to ali such<br /> warnings.<br /> <br /> I have quoted adverse criticisms in every case,<br /> partly because they are more useful, but chiefly<br /> because favourable ones are few and far between.<br /> <br /> Literary wares bear a suspicious resemblance to<br /> all other saleable commodities, much as we like to<br /> flatter ourselves they are on an altogether higher<br /> plane. If good they are eagerly snapped up at the<br /> lowest price the author s poverty or love of fame will<br /> induce him to accept, and to praise them would be a<br /> quite superfluous indiscretion on the purchaser’s<br /> part, raising their market value immediately and<br /> possibly depriving him of a cheap monopoly. If<br /> they are faulty in the ways I have instanced the<br /> editor does himself no harm and the writer an in-<br /> estimable service by saying so, besides creating a<br /> bond of sympathy between himself and the more<br /> sensible of his contributors.<br /> <br /> If the ranks of the wise be ever so slightly<br /> swelled by the perusal of this article it has not<br /> been written in vain.<br /> <br /> : ANNIE Q. CARTER.<br /> <br /> oe gee<br /> <br /> LITERARY RESPONSIBILITY.<br /> <br /> 1<br /> <br /> S an author responsible for the sayings and<br /> sentiments of his characters? ‘lhat—like<br /> “to be or not to be””—is the question : and<br /> <br /> a very burning question, too, upon occasions.<br /> <br /> The reading public apparently labours under an<br /> impression that the author of a novel has cast<br /> himself for every one of the parts ; that (after the<br /> manner of Bottom the Weaver) he is ready to<br /> play Pyramus and Thisbe, and the lion too—to<br /> excel in Ercles’ vein, to speak in a monstrous little<br /> -voice, to roar that it will do any man’s heart good<br /> <br /> 115<br /> <br /> to hear him ; and yet all the time to be himself,<br /> bringing out of his mental treasure-house such<br /> stores of wisdom and knowledge as he has collected<br /> during the shining hours of his mundane career.<br /> <br /> We writers are constantly being hit full in the<br /> face with inquiries as to whether we “ really think ”<br /> the sundry and divers—often diverse—things that<br /> our characters see fit to enunciate ; and the horns of<br /> the dilemma whereon we then find ourselves are too<br /> sharp for us. If we say Yes, we are convicted of<br /> folly ; if we say No, we are convicted of untruth ;<br /> which is the severer condemnation it is not for us<br /> to decide. The sentiment thus quoted is probably<br /> the very last that one would choose to have fathered<br /> upon oneself : a sentiment which one has purposely<br /> put into the mouth either of a fool, to prove his<br /> want of wisdom, or of a knave, to prove his want<br /> of honesty. Yet the anxious inquirer pertinently<br /> asks whether it is, so to speak, one’s own confession<br /> of faith. If we say we agree with it, then we<br /> know ourselves for ever set down as fools or knaves<br /> as the case may be; if, on the other hand, we<br /> repudiate the doubtful sentiment, then we are con-<br /> fronted with the fact that we have said it in print,<br /> and that therefore we must have thought it, just<br /> as Mr. Winkle must have said that his name was<br /> Daniel as well as Nathaniel, or else it could never<br /> have been written on Mr. Justice Stareleigh’s<br /> notes.<br /> <br /> Next to being buried wholesale in Westminster<br /> Abbey, perhaps the most glorious thing that can<br /> happen to an author is to be preserved piecemeal,<br /> as it were, in a Birthday Book. The Birthday<br /> Book is the literary amber wherein our choicest<br /> epigrams are embalmed: and all of us to whom<br /> this honour has been accorded ought to be thankful<br /> that our jewr d’esprit have thus been rescued from<br /> the transitory state of ephemera to the immortality<br /> of flies in amber. But it is when we see ourselves<br /> first dissected and then mummified in a Birthday<br /> Book, that the terrible responsibility of authorship<br /> comes home to us! The speeches which we gave<br /> to our puppets to show, as we thought, the material<br /> whereof these puppets were made, now stand forth<br /> —with no background of atmosphere, no shadow<br /> of context—as our own confession of what life has<br /> taught us, and of what we are in turn longing to<br /> hand on to other people. It is ghastly !<br /> <br /> But apart from the fierce light that beats upon<br /> the separate atoms of the Birthday Book, even the<br /> consumers of novels roasted whole seem to find<br /> difficulty in differentiating between the author and<br /> his characters. I remember a reviewer once saying<br /> of me, in sorrow rather than in anger, that “ Miss<br /> Fowler ought to have known that no lady would<br /> address a gentleman as *Captain.’” Miss Fowler<br /> did know it, and had made use of what she vainly<br /> considered a subtle device to convey to her readers<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 116<br /> <br /> that the lady speaking was no lady. But I had<br /> apparently succeeded merely in conveying the im-<br /> pression that I was no lady myself; the reviewer<br /> evidently having fallen into the popular error of<br /> supposing that I was playing the parts of Pyramus<br /> and Thisbe and the lion as well.<br /> <br /> Now I maintain that a writer is not responsible<br /> for anything that appears in his books in the form<br /> of dialogue. His object is to make his characters<br /> speak according to their kind—to say what it<br /> would be natural for such people to say in such<br /> circumstances. He does not want to convey to<br /> the reader what sort of a person he is himself, but<br /> what sort of people are those about whom he is<br /> writing ; just as a painter has no wish to make a<br /> picture like himself, but like the person whose<br /> portrait he is painting. For the time being the<br /> writer must forget his own individuality and his<br /> own opinions, merging them in the personality of<br /> the creatures of his imagination. . He must be an<br /> actor, throwing himself heart and soul into the<br /> part which he has undertaken to play. In fact, I<br /> would even go so far as to say that in a really<br /> good piece of work the author is more apt to<br /> become like his hero, than the hero like the author :<br /> so that in drawing evil characters, and in writing<br /> about things and people which are distinctly not<br /> lovely nor of good report, the author is doing<br /> more harm to himself than to his readers, as the<br /> tendency of us all is to become the thing that we<br /> pretend to be. But alas! the better we act, the<br /> less is our audience pleased. When we play the<br /> lion’s part they expect that half our face shall be<br /> seen through the lion’s mane lest the ladies should<br /> be afeard: and instead of roaring as much like a<br /> lion as it lies in us to roar, they prefer that we<br /> should name our name, and tell them plainly that<br /> we are Snug the Joiner. Of a truth the hard-<br /> handed men that worked in Athens knew how<br /> to please the public better than some of us do<br /> after all.<br /> <br /> But, on the other hand, I do think that an<br /> author is responsible for what he says in narrative<br /> —that is to say, if he chooses to say anything at<br /> all which is not in the way of simple narration.<br /> Should he drop into philosophy, as Silas Wegg into<br /> poetry, he is bound to see that the philosophy is the<br /> best of its kind that he has in stock. He must<br /> stand or fall by whatever sentiments he then<br /> expresses. The greatest writers, with Shakespeare<br /> at their head, tell us nothing about themselves at<br /> all; we are absolutely ignorant as to what manner<br /> of men they were: their art is purely dramatic.<br /> But we have some good examples to follow, never-<br /> theless, if we choose to reveal our own thoughts<br /> and opinions to some extent in our writings ; but<br /> we owe it to our readers as well as to ourselves<br /> that this revelation should be, if not all the truth,<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> at least nothing but the truth. Itis as untruthful<br /> —and therefore as inartistic—to say in narrative<br /> what we do not really think, as it is to make our<br /> characters say what they would not really think if<br /> they were actual people.<br /> <br /> For my own part, I neither drop into poetry nor<br /> into philosophy, but into downright old-fashioned<br /> preaching. I own the soft impeachment and make<br /> no bones aboutit. But | admit that what I preach I<br /> ought, if not to practice, at any rate to believe, and<br /> to be prepared to stand or fall by: though I<br /> absolutely decline to be responsible for the senti-<br /> ments and opinions expressed by my characters, as<br /> They are not I—they are themselves; and in<br /> fact they are very often not even the sort of people ah<br /> that I like or approve of; but that is no excuse for =<br /> me to trifle with them, or to put words into their<br /> mouths which I very well know they would never<br /> have uttered. I have a duty towards them, as well<br /> as towards myself and my public.<br /> <br /> The conclusion of the whole matter, therefore,<br /> seems to be this. As long as the author is «— .«<br /> dealing in dialogue, he must play in the tyrant’s *<br /> vein, or speak in a monstrous little voice, or |<br /> roar loudly enough to hang usall, according asthe —_. «<br /> parts of Pyramus or Thisbe or the lion demand— ;<br /> he must lose himself in his characters. But when 2 wl<br /> once he makes up his mind to writea prologuewhich<br /> shall, for the more better assurance, tell the public —.<br /> that Pyramus is not killed indeed—in short, that Et<br /> Pyramus is not Pyramus at all but Bottom the ~~<br /> Weaver—then let him take thonght to every word<br /> that he utters and to every opinion that he expresses;<br /> for surely he must one day give an account of these<br /> to all those readers who have believed what he said<br /> —if not before a Higher Tribunal. Whether he<br /> is drawing a fictitious character or describing his<br /> own, he must never cease in his endeavour<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ‘‘To paint the thing as he sees it<br /> For the God of things as they are.”<br /> <br /> ELLEN THORNEYCROFT FOWLER.<br /> <br /> ++<br /> <br /> SHOULD AUTHORS HIDE THEMSELVES?<br /> <br /> —_t—— + —<br /> By Bastu Tozer.<br /> <br /> R. T. T. WRIGHT has been protesting<br /> lately in the Literary World against the<br /> publication of authors’ portraits in public _<br /> <br /> periodicals, and adding support to his argument by —<br /> declaring that a friend of his, a lady, remarked to<br /> him recently that she used always to read Mr.<br /> So-and-So’s articles with interest, until one day<br /> she saw a portrait of the distinguished writer in<br /> one of the illustrated papers. ‘That disillusioned | *<br /> her. A man with a face like that, she thought— =| *<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 117<br /> <br /> well, she didn’t say then just what she did think.<br /> Probably she felt that in a way she had been<br /> duped. The editor of the publication in which<br /> she had been in the habit of reading the distin-<br /> guished writer’s contributions ought, she no doubt<br /> felt, at least to have hinted to his readers what<br /> the distinguished writer looked like ; whether his<br /> features were chiselled or the reverse, if he wore<br /> his hair long, or preferred the billiard-ball coiffure,<br /> who supplied him with his suits and with his<br /> “neck-wear.” “I wish I hadn’t seen it,” the fair<br /> critic—or rather, unfair sceptic—did end by admit-<br /> ting with reference to the offensive photograph ;<br /> “he looks so gross, and I think I shall never like<br /> his articles again.”<br /> <br /> This is regrettable, from the standpoint of<br /> writer and reader alike, and it opens up a rather<br /> important question, namely, whether authors ought<br /> or ought not to hide themselves ? I remember a<br /> crushing reply that I received about a year ago,<br /> when, in the lending library of a certain well-<br /> known watering-place, I suggested to an acquaint-<br /> ance, again a lady, that she should read a book<br /> that I named, a book by an author whose works<br /> are generally popular. “What!” she exclaimed,<br /> in a tone of great contempt, “J read _ that<br /> man’s books? Why, he lives here!” Now, I<br /> have every reason to believe that this lady was by<br /> no means singular in her views, but that, on the<br /> contrary, there are hundreds, perhaps thousands,<br /> of readers, men as well as women, who would<br /> scorn the bare idea of reading anything that is<br /> written by anyone they happen to be personally<br /> acquainted with, no matter how excellent the<br /> article or the story may be. It is merely the<br /> truth of the hackneyed saying, “ Familiarity breeds<br /> contempt,” making itself manifest in a rather<br /> different guise, and these two ingenuous assertions,<br /> dropped, as it were incidentally and at haphazard,<br /> by two members presumably of the ordinary read-<br /> ing public, leads to the belief that the more our<br /> authors, as a body, keep themselves to themselves,<br /> the better it will be, pecuniarily, for themselves as<br /> well as for their publishers and editors.<br /> <br /> All this tends to show, then, that the habit of<br /> creating, unconsciously no doubt, “ideals,” of<br /> building up in the imagination little idols to be<br /> gazed upon from afar with respect and probably<br /> admiration, is not yet extinct. The girl in her<br /> teens who is fond of reading, and who is of a<br /> romantic, imaginative nature, unconsciously comes<br /> to think that the various handsome and attractive<br /> leading male characters in the books written by the<br /> highly-popular author, John Jones, must reflect<br /> some of the personal charms of their creator,<br /> John Jones himself. This belief gradually grows<br /> <br /> _ upon her, and as it grows she unwittingly comes to<br /> <br /> cherish it. By degrees John Jones becomes in her<br /> <br /> mind a very real personage, a sort of blend of<br /> everything that is fascinating about the various<br /> men he has pourtrayed in his various successful<br /> novels. At times she thinks about him a good<br /> deal. In her lucid intervals she perhaps wonders<br /> what he really is like, and whether, after all, he is<br /> not quite different from the being she has so often<br /> in her imagination pictured him to be, but asa<br /> rule the “ideal” remains paramount. Then one<br /> ee a portrait is, so to speak, sprung upon<br /> ner.<br /> <br /> “Oh!” The exclamation escapes her with a<br /> little gulp as she sees this portrait for the first<br /> time. Even if good-looking he is not in the least<br /> like what Lottie Venn used to call the “angel<br /> man” she had conjured up in her imagination,<br /> and that single glance at the portrait has shattered<br /> for ever her little “idol.” If only the wretched<br /> photograph had been left out of sight she would<br /> have revelled in reading all that he had to say<br /> about himself, his views upon life in general, the<br /> details of his mode of existence, and so on. Her<br /> appetite for his novels would if anything have<br /> been whetted by the knowledge that he lived in a<br /> bijou residence “ in the confines of lesser Surbiton,”<br /> that he was fond of croquet, a good bridge player,<br /> and an excellent judge of a cigar; that he ate<br /> sparingly, shunned alcohol, and approved of Back-<br /> ache’s Breakfast Nuts. Indeed it interests many<br /> persons to know that the much-talked-about gilt-<br /> haired heroine of John Jones’s latest masterpiece was<br /> neither created with a fountain pen nor hammered<br /> out on a typewriter, but that she was dictated to a<br /> stenographer, or shouted into a phonograph, and<br /> subsequently manifolded and sent straight to the<br /> printers. Yet I think I am well within the mark<br /> when I say that eight authors out of twelve<br /> appear to greater advantage in their writings than<br /> they do in real life, and certainly over and over<br /> again I have heard members of the general public<br /> —the circulating library public—express disap-<br /> pointment after being, accidentally or otherwise,<br /> brought into contact with authors whose works<br /> they enjoyed reading. The serious writer, for<br /> instance, is somewhat flippant in general conversa-<br /> tion. The humorist on paper is often deadly dull<br /> at a social gathering. The writer of brilliant<br /> epigrams may be “ quite ordinary” when you meet<br /> him at a dinner party. The lady novelist, whose<br /> creations are adorable, herself is sometimes tire-<br /> some to talk toand plain-featured toa degree. All<br /> these discoveries are unpleasant, and help to dis-<br /> enchant. Therefore the assertion made lately that<br /> some authors nowadays adversely affect the sales of<br /> their books—I am speaking of course of novelists—<br /> by being themselves rubbed shoulders with here,<br /> there and everywhere, may not be devoid of<br /> truth.<br />  <br /> <br /> 118<br /> <br /> THE ARCHDEACON’S PERSONALTY.<br /> <br /> —_+—~&gt;+<br /> <br /> A DIALOGUE.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> By M. R.<br /> ScenE—CHAMBERS IN STAPLES INN.<br /> <br /> Tom Smith (Barrister).<br /> Jack Robinson (Writer).<br /> <br /> Smith (alone, sitting in an armchair by the fire).<br /> Now what I want to know is why the devil is my<br /> name Smith if I wasn’t born to be something out<br /> of the common? And here I am _starving-in<br /> wretched chambers, without briefs, devilling for<br /> a barrister, which is like devilling a bone a hungry<br /> tyke has spent an hour with. Heigho! I suppose<br /> I must read something—at any rate it’s less de-<br /> eraded than writing novels. ((roes to his shelves<br /> and takes down Henley’s “Book of Verses.) Come<br /> now, where is the rondeau with the refrain “ Let us<br /> be drunk!” I only wish I could afford to be so<br /> with a decent regularity that would excite no<br /> remark. (Reads and puts the book down). I wish<br /> old Jack would come as he promised. (A knock<br /> at the door). Why, there he is!<br /> <br /> Robinson. Well, here I am, old chap. Why,<br /> why, what’s the matter with you? You look as<br /> melancholy as a stray cat on a rainy night. What<br /> is the matter ? A question of oof ?<br /> <br /> Smith (sententiously). My dear Jack, your similes<br /> are low and the word “oof ” is very vulgar, though<br /> what it signifies is supremely and splendidly rare.<br /> J have a shilling.<br /> <br /> Robinson. Cheer up, my dear fellow, I&#039;ll toss<br /> you for it. Did you get my telegram ?<br /> <br /> Smith. Telegram? No.<br /> <br /> Robinson. Then I suppose I beat the telegraph<br /> this time. I was to have met your wild young<br /> devil of a cousin at the “ Cri.” ; so I wired you I<br /> would look in about nine. However, he didn’t turn<br /> up, and I wouldn’t wait, and came here in a<br /> hansom.<br /> <br /> Smith. You fat rascal, so you can telegraph<br /> and ride in cabs; sit down in the light and let me<br /> look at you, you confounded millionaire. Or was<br /> it that you did it with your last half-crown. Yes ?<br /> Ah, you true Bohemian! (Double knock at outer<br /> door.) Ah! there’s your telegram. A wasted<br /> sixpence! Into the fire with it.<br /> <br /> Robinson (jumping vainly to rescue it). Here, I<br /> say, come, you should always open a telegram.<br /> But there it goes, my message is in the sky by now.<br /> How, in the name of a mismanaged behind-the-time<br /> post and telegraph office do you know that was my<br /> telegram ?<br /> <br /> Smith (sardonically). What in the name of<br /> penniless Bohemia do you think it was ? The offer<br /> of a judgeship, or a report of my uncle’s death ?<br /> <br /> ‘Robinson. How can I tell? But you certainly<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> should have opened it. How is the rich and<br /> venerable avuncular archdeacon ? How well he<br /> bears these magnificent adjectives !<br /> <br /> Smith. The dear old boy is horribly well, eats<br /> and drinks well, stamps about like the Com-<br /> mandatore, usually keeps his temper, takes exer-<br /> cise and no medicine, though he has a doctor on<br /> the premises as a kind of prophylactic. And if he<br /> <br /> _lives till eighty that doctor is to have a big bonus<br /> <br /> over and above his fees. And those would keep<br /> me in luxury.<br /> <br /> Robinson. Do you know that tame medical man ?<br /> <br /> Smith. Of course I do.<br /> <br /> Robinson. And yet<br /> <br /> Smith. Ah! You see I’m on the equity side.<br /> You, being on the criminal side, evidently can do<br /> as you please with your uncles.<br /> <br /> Robinson. My dear Innocent, I am not related<br /> to those of my uncles who are ever of any use to me.<br /> And as for my mother’s brothers, they are as one<br /> man kept by my father! Their unanimity in<br /> refusing to work is wonderful.<br /> <br /> Smith. Poison them off, and your father may<br /> increase your allowance. Have some whiskey !<br /> <br /> (Another knock at the door.)<br /> <br /> Smith (eacitedly). By Jove! another telegram !<br /> <br /> Robinson (snatchiug it from Smith). By Jove,<br /> indeed ! and this, this one ismine! Now you have<br /> done it! Ofalithe hot-headed, addle-pated, reason-<br /> less literary nincompoops I ever<br /> <br /> Smith. Silence, silence, you adjectival incubus.<br /> What the deuce shall I do? Let me think.<br /> <br /> Robinson. Yes, yes, sit down and read up for<br /> precedents in Shelley or Browning. And I’ll be<br /> practical for you. I&#039;ll go to the telegraph office<br /> <br /> and get a copy. (He looks out of the window.)<br /> No, I’m hanged if I do!<br /> <br /> snowing like the very devil.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> You had better get<br /> <br /> your porter to take a note from you to explain.<br /> <br /> matters.<br /> Smith, Yes, that will be the best thing. (@oes out.)<br /> Robinson (picking up the book of verses) :<br /> What’s this ?<br /> <br /> “ What is the use of effort? Love and debt<br /> And disappointment have us in a net,<br /> Let us break out and taste the morning’s prime—<br /> Let us be drunk——”<br /> <br /> Truly a poetical sentiment ; good sooth, the brave<br /> rhymer isright. ‘ We cannot please the tragicaster.<br /> Time!” (Smith returns.) Ob, here you are?<br /> Well, don’t worry, and out with the whiskey.<br /> <br /> Smith. There you are, help yourself, and I&#039;ll<br /> <br /> help myself. It’s the last half-bottle of a dozen<br /> the Venerable gave me. What an ass I was with<br /> that telegram. Do you know, Jack, I feel quite<br /> excited? It might actually be goo: news of some.<br /> <br /> sort. I have had a grey monotony of bad for a<br /> long eternity.<br /> <br /> 2<br /> <br /> I take it all back. It’s.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Robinson. Warm the grey with whiskey and<br /> forget publishers and editors and solicitors. What<br /> about the antique Venerable? What if he really<br /> has cheated the doctor of his bonus and left you<br /> your share ?<br /> <br /> Smith. Don’t talk rot. I don’t want the old<br /> boy to go and boom in the vast inane yet awhile.<br /> Let him live. He has helped me a good bit one<br /> way or another, and would have done so more if<br /> I hadn’t disgusted him by refusing the law and the<br /> prophets for——<br /> <br /> Robinson. The law and no profits out of letters,<br /> not even half profits, or ten per cent. after a sale of<br /> two thousand. But you talk much too correctly. I<br /> am not an uncle and don’t want proper sentiments ;<br /> you said just now you were on the equity side.<br /> This is just a true equity case. Think what a rare<br /> and rosy time, what a port winey archidiaconal<br /> abbotlike time he has had. Now he might retire<br /> gracefully and let you come in. Think of all it<br /> would mean! Think, think how you would quit<br /> elegiacs for drinking songs, and law for love!<br /> Here’s to his promotion.<br /> <br /> Smith. In his own whiskey! Well, well, I own<br /> it would mean a good deal. Mean, yes (jumps up)<br /> by the eternal processes of everlasting litigation<br /> I would throw my case books out of the window<br /> and burn them in a bonfire. And as to writing,<br /> why, I would chuck rhyme for reason, and reason<br /> for the fatness of things. I would circumnavigate<br /> the globe of my unexplored desire in a hired whirl-<br /> wind, and take the moon on a lease.<br /> <br /> Robinson. And the fixed stars and the planets,<br /> including Venus ?<br /> <br /> Smith. What, get married do youmean ? Well,<br /> all things are possible, even marriage for a rhymer.<br /> But go to, you are a cynic and dwell with clever<br /> journalists, hearing them prate inverted platitude<br /> called paradox, and with critics who go about<br /> teaching their grandmothers to suck eggs.<br /> <br /> Robinson. Yes, their literary grandmothers, you<br /> benighted heathen. If that telegram only means<br /> oof, you shall be educated to construct hyperbole<br /> into a science and taught to see the preciousness of<br /> verse hard boiled in a religious stewpan of ancient<br /> measure. And I will inveigle you into taking or<br /> making a theatre in a big steamer anchored three<br /> miles beyond low-water mark, so as to be out of<br /> reach of the censor’s scissors. Oh, that would bea<br /> Theatre Libre !<br /> <br /> Smith. And the critics and the audience would<br /> be even sicker than they are on shore. No, no,<br /> my pippy literary chicken, you shall come with me<br /> and leave the dusiy Fleet Street barnyard. If<br /> being born in a stable doesn’t make a horse of you,<br /> <br /> herding with asses may make an ass of you. You<br /> want grass, and the air and the sky.<br /> Robinson (shouting). Aye; and all, all the<br /> <br /> 119<br /> <br /> planets. ‘‘ Let us break out and taste the morning’s<br /> prime.”’ Poor old Henley !<br /> <br /> Smith. ‘Let us be drunk.” (Sits down.) And<br /> all this comes out of the ashes of a telegram<br /> floating on whiskey and water. What did you<br /> wire to me for? I have been up in the empyrean,<br /> beyond the ether, and the curses of law and labour<br /> lay blackly on our star. And now<br /> <br /> Robinson. And now, now comes the porter with<br /> the telegram. Believe me, you tragicaster, you<br /> dusty imp on a law book, you combination of all<br /> incompatibles of the modern, you shall be free and<br /> revel in the personalty of the Archdeacon. Read,<br /> read, what is it ?<br /> <br /> Smith. There will, I fear, be other claims on<br /> that property. It is from my cousin whom you<br /> did not meet. ‘Come and bail me out. I am at<br /> Vine Street Police Station.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> M. R.<br /> <br /> i 9<br /> <br /> LORD ALYERSTONE ON LITERATURE<br /> AND THE BAR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> HE Lord Chief Justice was the guest of the<br /> evening at the Authors’ Club dinner on<br /> Monday, December 5th, with Sir Conan<br /> <br /> Doyle in the chair. In the course of an illumining<br /> and instructive speech Lord Alverstone drew an<br /> interesting parallel between the careers of law and<br /> authorship. He admitted that while speaking<br /> broadly the life of a successful lawyer had not<br /> much in common with that of a successful man of<br /> letters, yet in one respect they had much in<br /> common. For instance, success in advocacy calls<br /> into play the same qualities demanded of a skilful<br /> historian. He gave a striking instance of this in a<br /> criminal trial for murder in which he was once<br /> engaged.. The sole materials for the defence were<br /> three letters written a few weeks before his death<br /> by the victim. A night’s exhaustive study and<br /> analysis of these documents enabled him to piece<br /> together the story and build up a case which<br /> resulted in the triumphant acquittal of the accused.<br /> Dramatic authors, no doubt, had much in common<br /> with barristers, though the author certainly had<br /> the pull over counsel in that he could invent the<br /> replies as well as the questions of cross-examination<br /> (laughter). The cleverest and most convincing<br /> case of cross-examination on the stage was in that<br /> remarkable play ‘‘ Mrs. Dane’s Defence.” Coming<br /> to another department of literature—poetry, he<br /> feared there was little of the romance of poetry ab<br /> the Bar. Nor, indeed, was there much oratory<br /> now-a-days in the law courts. He remembered<br /> <br /> that Lord Coleridge had once observed to him<br /> that the days of set speeches of counsel with<br /> formal exordium and peroration were out of date.<br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 118<br /> <br /> THE ARCHDEACON’S PERSONALTY.<br /> <br /> —_1-—&gt;—+<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> By M. R.<br /> SceNE—CHAMBERS IN STAPLES INN.<br /> <br /> A DIALOGUE.<br /> <br /> Tom Smith (Barrister).<br /> Jack Robinson (Writer).<br /> <br /> Smith (alone, sitting in an armchair by the fire).<br /> Now what I want to know is why the devil is my<br /> name Smith if I wasn’t born to be something out<br /> of the common? And here J am starving-in<br /> wretched chambers, without briefs, devilling for<br /> a barrister, which is like devilling a bone a hungry<br /> tyke has spent an hour with. Heigho! I suppose<br /> I must read something—at any rate it’s less de-<br /> graded than writing novels. (Goes to his shelves<br /> and takes down Henley’s “Book of Verses.) Come<br /> now, where is the rondeau with the refrain ‘“ Let us<br /> be drunk!” I only wish I could afford to be so<br /> with a decent regularity that would excite no<br /> remark. (Reads and puts the book down). I wish<br /> old Jack would come as he promised. (A knock<br /> at the door). Why, there he is!<br /> <br /> Robinson. Well, here I am, old chap. Why,<br /> why, what’s the matter with you? You look as<br /> melancholy as a stray cat on a rainy night. What<br /> is the matter ? A question of oof ?<br /> <br /> Smith (sententiously). My dear Jack, your similes<br /> are low and the word “oof ” is very vulgar, though<br /> what it signifies is supremely and splendidly rare.<br /> I have a shilling.<br /> <br /> Robinson. Cheer up, my dear fellow, I&#039;ll toss<br /> you for it. Did you get my telegram ?<br /> <br /> Smith. Telegram? No.<br /> <br /> Robinson. &#039;Then I suppose I beat the telegraph<br /> this time. I was to have met your wild young<br /> devil of a cousin at the “ Cri.” ; so I wired you I<br /> would look in about nine. However, he didn’t turn<br /> up, and I wouldn’t wait, and came here in a<br /> hansom.<br /> <br /> Smith. You fat rascal, so you can telegraph<br /> and ride in cabs; sit down in the light and let me<br /> look at you, you confounded millionaire. Or was<br /> it that you did it with your last half-crown. Yes ?<br /> Ah, you true Bohemian! (Double knock at outer<br /> door.) Ah! there’s your telegram. A wasted<br /> sixpence! Into the fire with it.<br /> <br /> Robinson (jumping vainly to rescue it). Here, I<br /> say, come, you should always open a telegram.<br /> But there it goes, my message is in the sky by now.<br /> How, in the name of a mismanaged behind-the-time<br /> post and telegraph office do you know that was my<br /> telegram ?<br /> <br /> Smith (sardonically). What in the name of<br /> penniless Bohemia do you think it was ? The offer<br /> of a judgeship, or a report of my uncle’s death ?<br /> ‘Robinson. How can I tell? But you certainly<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> should have opened it. How is the rich and<br /> venerable avuncular archdeacon ? How well he<br /> bears these magnificent adjectives !<br /> <br /> Smith. The dear old boy is horribly well, eats<br /> and drinks well, stamps about like the Com-<br /> mandatore, usually keeps his temper, takes exer-<br /> cise and no medicine, though he has a doctor on<br /> the premises as a kind of prophylactic. And if he<br /> <br /> lives till eighty that doctor is to have a big bonus<br /> <br /> over and above his fees. And those would keep<br /> me in luxury.<br /> <br /> Robinson. Do you know that tame medical man ?<br /> <br /> Smith. Of course I do.<br /> <br /> Robinson. And yet<br /> <br /> Smith. Ah! You see I’m on the equity side.<br /> You, being on the criminal side, evidently can do<br /> as you please with your uncles.<br /> <br /> Robinson. My dear Innocent, I am not related<br /> to those of my uncles who are ever of any use to me.<br /> And as for my mother’s brothers, they are as one<br /> man kept by my father! Their unanimity in<br /> refusing to work is wonderful.<br /> <br /> Smith. Poison them off, and your father may<br /> increase your allowance. Have some whiskey !<br /> <br /> (Another knock at the door.)<br /> <br /> Smith (excitedly). By Jove! another telegram !<br /> <br /> Robinson (snatchiug it from Smith). By Jove,<br /> indeed ! and this, this one ismine! Now you have<br /> doneit! Ofali the hot-headed, addle-pated, reason-<br /> less literary nincompoops I ever<br /> <br /> Smith. Silence, silence, you adjectival incubus.<br /> What the deuce shall I do? Let me think.<br /> <br /> Robinson. Yes, yes, sit down and read up for<br /> precedents in Shelley or Browning. And I&#039;ll be<br /> practical for you. I&#039;ll go to the telegraph office<br /> and get a copy. (He looks out of the window.)<br /> No, I’m hanged if Ido! I take it all back. It’s.<br /> snowing like the very devil. You had better get<br /> your porter to take a note from you to explain,<br /> matters.<br /> <br /> Smith. Yes, that will be the best thing. (@oes out.)<br /> <br /> Robinson (picking up the book of verses) :<br /> What’s this ?<br /> <br /> “ What is the use of effort? Love and debt<br /> And disappointment have us in a net,<br /> <br /> Let us break out and taste the morning’s prime—<br /> Let us be drunk——”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Truly a poetical sentiment ; good sooth, the brave<br /> rhymer isright. ‘“ We cannot please the tragicaster.<br /> Time!” (Smith returns.) Oh, here you are?<br /> Well, don’t worry, and out with the whiskey.<br /> Smith. There you are, help yourself, and I&#039;ll<br /> help myself. It’s the last half-bottle of a dozen<br /> the Venerable gave me. What an ass I was with<br /> that telegram. Do you know, Jack, I feel quite<br /> excited ? It might actually be gooil news of some, —<br /> sort. I have had a grey monotony of bad for a<br /> long eternity. i<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Robinson. Warm the grey with whiskey and<br /> forget publishers and editors and solicitors. What<br /> about the antique Venerable? What if he really<br /> has cheated the doctor of his bonus and left you<br /> your share ?<br /> <br /> ” Smith. Don’t talk rot. I don’t want the old<br /> boy to go and boom in the vast inane yet awhile.<br /> Let him live. He has helped me a good bit one<br /> way or another, and would have done so more if<br /> I hadn’t disgusted him by refusing the law and the<br /> prophets for<br /> <br /> Robinson. The law and no profits out of letters,<br /> not even half profits, or ten per cent. after a sale of<br /> two thousand. But youtalk much too correctly. I<br /> am not an uncle and don’t want proper sentiments ;<br /> you said just now you were on the equity side.<br /> This is just a true equity case. Think what a rare<br /> and rosy time, what a port winey archidiaconal<br /> abbctlike time he has had. Now he micht retire<br /> gracefully and let you come in. Think of all it<br /> would mean! Think, think how you would quit<br /> elegiacs for drinking songs, and law for love!<br /> Here’s to his promotion.<br /> <br /> Smith. In his own whiskey! Well, well, I own<br /> it would mean a good deal. Mean, yes (jumps up)<br /> by the eternal processes of everlasting litigation<br /> I would throw my case books out of the window<br /> and burn them in a bonfire. And as to writing,<br /> why, I would chuck rhyme for reason, and reason<br /> for the fatness of things. I would circumnavigate<br /> the globe of my unexplored desire in a hired whirl-<br /> wind, and take the moon on a lease.<br /> <br /> Robinson. And the fixed stars and the planets,<br /> including Venus ?<br /> <br /> Smith. What, get married do you mean ? Well,<br /> all things are possible, even marriage for a rhymer.<br /> But go to, you are a cynic and dwell with clever<br /> journalists, hearing them prate inverted platitude<br /> called paradox, and with critics who go about<br /> teaching their grandmothers to suck eggs.<br /> <br /> Robinson. Yes, their literary grandmothers, you<br /> benighted heathen. If that telegram only means<br /> oof, you shall be educated to construct hyperbole<br /> into a science and taught to see the preciousness of<br /> verse hard boiled in a religious stewpan of ancient<br /> measure. And I will inveigle you into taking or<br /> making a theatre in a big steamer anchored three<br /> miles beyond low-water mark, so as to be out of<br /> reach of the censor’s scissors. Oh, that would bea<br /> Theatre Libre !<br /> <br /> Smith. And the critics and the audience would<br /> be even sicker than they are on shore. No, no,<br /> my pippy literary chicken, you shall come with me<br /> and leave the dusty Fleet Street barnyard. If<br /> being born in a stable doesn’t make a horse of you,<br /> herding with asses may make an ass of you. You<br /> want grass, and the air and the sky.<br /> <br /> Robinson (shouting). Aye; and all, all the<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 419<br /> <br /> planets. ‘Let us break out and taste the morning’s<br /> prime.’ Poor old Henley !<br /> <br /> Smith. “Let us be drunk.” (Sits down.) And<br /> all this comes out of the ashes of a telegram<br /> floating on whiskey and water. What did you<br /> wire to me for? I have been up in the empyrean,<br /> beyond the ether, and the curses of law and labour<br /> lay blackly on our star. And now<br /> <br /> Robinson. And now, now comes the porter with<br /> the telegram. Believe me, you tragicaster, you<br /> dusty imp on a law book, you combination of all<br /> incompatibles of the modern, you shall be free and<br /> revel in the personalty of the Archdeacon. Read,<br /> read, what is it ?<br /> <br /> Smith. There will, I fear, be other claims on<br /> that property. It is from my cousin whom you<br /> did not meet. ‘Come and bail me out. I am at<br /> Vine Street Police Station.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> M. R.<br /> <br /> ee<br /> <br /> LORD ALYERSTONE ON LITERATURE<br /> AND THE BAR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> HE Lord Chief Justice was the guest of the<br /> evening at the Authors’ Club dinner on<br /> Monday, December 5th, with Sir Conan<br /> <br /> Doyle in the chair. In the course of an illumining<br /> and instructive speech Lord Alverstone drew an<br /> interesting parallel between the careers of law and<br /> authorship. He admitted that while speaking<br /> broadly the life of a successful lawyer had not<br /> much in common with that of a successful man of<br /> letters, yet in one respect they had much in<br /> common. For instance, success in advocacy calls<br /> into play the same qualities demanded of a skilful<br /> historian. He gave a striking instance of this in a<br /> criminal trial for murder in which he was once<br /> engaged., The sole materials for the defence were<br /> three letters written a few weeks before his death<br /> by the victim. A night’s exhaustive study and<br /> analysis of these documents enabled him to piece<br /> together the story and build up a case which<br /> resulted in the triumphant acquittal of the accused.<br /> Dramatic authors, no doubt, had much in common<br /> with barristers, though the author certainly had<br /> the pull over counsel in that he could invent the<br /> replies as well as the questions of cross-examination<br /> (laughter). The cleverest and most convincing<br /> case of cross-examination on the stage was in that<br /> remarkable play “‘ Mrs. Dane’s Defence.” Coming<br /> to another department of literature—poetry, he<br /> feared there was little of the romance of poetry ab<br /> the Bar. Nor, indeed, was there much oratory<br /> now-a-days in the law courts. He remembered<br /> that Lord Coleridge had once observed to him<br /> that the days of set speeches of counsel with<br /> formal exordium and peroration were out of date.<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> 120<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Later in the evening Lord Alverstone remarked<br /> that the story of one of the guests who told the tale<br /> of a man who, reading the epitaph on the tomb-<br /> stone of a well-known solicitor, ‘‘ Here lies a lawyer<br /> and an honest man,” innocently asked why they<br /> buried two men in one grave, reminded him of the<br /> legal conundrum, “‘ What is the difference between<br /> an attorney-at-law and an action-at-law?” “An<br /> action-at-law only lies sometimes.” (Iaughter.)<br /> <br /> Or<br /> <br /> CORRESPONDENCE.<br /> <br /> —-—— + —_<br /> <br /> “Wuat’s In A Namn?”<br /> <br /> Sir,—I think the severest thing I said about<br /> Mr. Panter in my previous letter was that he was<br /> an ‘‘idealist.” Few idealists, in this prosy world,<br /> succeed in reforming it, chiefly because so many<br /> of them take little pains to understand it. Mr.<br /> Panter strikes me as one of the many. He will<br /> never reform the copyright law until he has given<br /> a little study to it. Not till then will he be entitled<br /> to treat it “‘more upon moral than upon legal<br /> grounds.”<br /> <br /> I tried to get Mr. Panter to understand that<br /> copyright would have no existence but for the<br /> copyright statutes; that the right was analogous<br /> to the right ina patent or trademark. He will not<br /> understand it. 1 tried to show him the reasonable-<br /> ness of those statutes in not giving protection to<br /> titles. Hewill have none of it. I tried to get him<br /> to distinguish between statute law and common<br /> law. It only makes him angry; and when the<br /> idealist is angry, he is very angry indeed. He calls<br /> me “cocksure,’”’ hints broadly that I should be in<br /> Colney Hatch, says that I write in a “raw” way,<br /> “in plenitude of words,’ ‘sophistically;” asks<br /> naive questions (leaving out in his haste his marks<br /> of interrogation), and makes hotch-pot of my<br /> simplest statements.<br /> <br /> Very well, then; if the idealist cannot come<br /> down to earth, the man of earth must perforce go<br /> up to the idealist. I shall not try any more to give<br /> Mr. Panter that instruction which he so badly needs,<br /> but just take him on his own ground.<br /> <br /> Mr. Panter wants the titles of books to be<br /> protected by statute just as the books themselves<br /> are now. For, in Mr. Panter’s belief, a title is<br /> “the first sentence” of a book, and, therefore,<br /> worthy of equal protection with it. That is to say,<br /> the title Hamlet is “ the first sentence” of Shake-<br /> speare’s play of that name; Vittoria is “the first<br /> sentence’ of Mr. Meredith’s novel; and Kim “the<br /> first sentence” of Mr. Kipling’s.<br /> <br /> “ Every sentence,” says Mr. Meiklejohn in his<br /> Grammar, “must consist of at least two parts :<br /> the thing we speak about and what we say about<br /> <br /> the thing.” Mr. Panter’s “sentences” only consist<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> of one word. Is Mr. Meiklejohn wrong then, or is<br /> Mr. Panter ?<br /> <br /> Assuming for the moment, and for the amuse-<br /> ment it will yield us, that Mr. Meiklejohn is wrong<br /> and Mr. Panter right, and that the title of a book<br /> is “the first sentence” of it, and consequently on<br /> that ground worthy of equal protection with a<br /> book, let us see how that will work out.<br /> <br /> In England alone we publish about five thousand<br /> books a year. ach of these books is protected for<br /> forty-two years of life and seven years. Five<br /> thousand times forty-two—it might be sixty-two if<br /> the author lived long enough—gives 210,000.<br /> According to Mr. Panter, the law should extend a<br /> protective monopoly for half a century or so, to<br /> 210,000 titles of books, the actual books themselves<br /> —most of them, say, all but a round hundred—<br /> having long ago decently departed into the limbo of<br /> past things, very many of them a year or two after<br /> their birth, many of them a week or two! And<br /> what of the titles of poems, essays, and stories ?<br /> These would run, in a short time, into millions !<br /> <br /> The present condition of things under which titles<br /> of books fight with a fickle public for dear life, live<br /> as long as they can, and die when they needs must,<br /> yielding at length to their betters—may be a<br /> grievance. It may be a grievance that Mr. Panter<br /> and others find their pet titles indecently “jumped”<br /> by some horrid little scribbler, either before their<br /> books are ready for publication, or, being published,<br /> before (in their authors’ opinion) the life is half out<br /> of them—that, too, may be a grievance. But I<br /> entreat Mr. Panter once again to take consolation<br /> to himself ; these things are simply nothing to the<br /> position in which Mr. Panter and his friends would<br /> find themselves if the law gave the thousands of<br /> scribbling amateurs and literary sciolists the right<br /> to ring-fence their millions of titles against each<br /> <br /> other under a “Panter Act.”<br /> CHARLES WEEKES.<br /> Fly-Fishers’ Club, S.W.<br /> [This correspondence must now cease.—EDIToR.]<br /> —_+—&lt; + —_.<br /> <br /> AMERICAN SPELLING IN ENGLISH Books.<br /> <br /> Sir,—Can nothing be done by the Society of<br /> Authors and other influential bodies to prevent<br /> English books being printed in American spelling ?<br /> Naturally authors wish to get an advantage of<br /> American copyright, but why cannot there be a<br /> separate American edition? The only wonder to<br /> me is that, under present circumstances, the<br /> American printer does not insist on altering the<br /> wording as well.as the spelling of our books. I<br /> suppose if they did claim to do this our authors and<br /> publishers would not protest—for fear they should<br /> be so many dollars out of pocket.<br /> <br /> REGINALD HAYNEs.	https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/501/1905-01-01-The-Author-15-4.pdf	publications, The Author
502	https://historysoa.com/items/show/502	The Author, Vol. 15 Issue 05 (February 1905)	<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=%3Cem%3EThe+Author%3C%2Fem%3E%2C+Vol.+15+Issue+05+%28February+1905%29"><em>The Author</em>, Vol. 15 Issue 05 (February 1905)</a>											<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Publication">Publication</a>	1905-02-01-The-Author-15-5					121–152																		<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=89&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=15">15</a>											<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=76&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1905-02-01">1905-02-01</a>							5			19050201	Che Huthor.<br /> <br /> (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly. )<br /> <br /> FOUNDED BY SIR WALTER BESANT.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Vou. XV.—No. 5.<br /> <br /> FEBRUARY IsT, 1905.<br /> <br /> [Prick SIxPENcE.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> TELEPHONE NUMBER :<br /> 374 VICTORIA.<br /> <br /> TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS :<br /> AUTORIDAD, LONDON.<br /> <br /> —_———_+——_ —_____<br /> <br /> NOTICES.<br /> <br /> 9<br /> <br /> OR the opinions expressed in papers that are<br /> signed or initialled the authors alone are<br /> responsible. None of the papers or para-<br /> <br /> graphs must be taken as expressing the opinion<br /> of the Committee unless such is especially stated<br /> to be the case.<br /> <br /> Tue Editor begs to inform members of the<br /> Authors’ Society and other readers of The Author<br /> that the cases which are from time to time quoted<br /> in The Author are cases that have come before the<br /> notice or to the knowledge of the Secretary of the<br /> Society, and that those members of the Society<br /> who desire to have the names of the publishers<br /> concerned can obtain them on application.<br /> <br /> —— +<br /> <br /> List of Members.<br /> <br /> THE List of Members of the Society of Authors<br /> published October, 1902, at the price of 6d., and<br /> the elections from October, 1902, to July, 1903, as<br /> a supplemental list, at the price of 2d., can now be<br /> obtained at the offices of the Society.<br /> <br /> They will be sold to members or associates of<br /> the Society only.<br /> <br /> —t1——1+<br /> <br /> The Pension Fund of the Society.<br /> <br /> Tux Trustees of the Pension Fund met at the<br /> Society’s Offices in February, 1904, and having<br /> gone carefully into the accounts of the fund,<br /> decided to purchase £250 London and North<br /> <br /> Vou, XV.<br /> <br /> Western 3 % Debenture Stock. Accordingly, the<br /> investments of the Pension Fund at present<br /> standing in the names of the Trustees are as<br /> follows.<br /> <br /> This is a statement of the actual stock ; the<br /> money value can be easily worked out at the current<br /> price of the market :—<br /> <br /> Conse 2s £1000 0 0<br /> Wocal Hoang, 0 a 500 0 0<br /> Victorian Government 3 % Consoli-<br /> <br /> dated Inscribed Stock ...............<br /> War lian 7.<br /> London and North Western 3 % Deben-<br /> <br /> bare StOCK t. :<br /> <br /> 291 19 11<br /> 201 9 38<br /> <br /> Total<br /> <br /> Subscriptions from May, 1904.<br /> <br /> May 6, Shepherd, G.H. . : :<br /> <br /> June 24, Rumbold, Sir Horace, Bart.,<br /> GCB . : : :<br /> <br /> July 27, Barnett, P. A. 4 :<br /> <br /> Nov. 9, Hollingsworth, Charles .<br /> <br /> 1905<br /> <br /> Jan. 12, Anonymous<br /> <br /> Donations from May, 1904,<br /> <br /> May 16, Wynne, C. Whitworth<br /> June 23, Kirmse, R. ;<br /> June 23, Kirmse, Mrs. R.<br /> July 21, The Blackmore<br /> Committee :<br /> Aug. 5, Walker, William 8.<br /> Oct. 6, Hare, F. W. E., M.D.<br /> Oct. 6, Hardy, Harold<br /> Oct. 20, Cameron, Mrs. Lovett<br /> Nov. 7, Benecke, Miss Ida .<br /> Noy. 11, Thomas, Mrs. Haig<br /> Noy. 24, Egbert, Henry<br /> 1905<br /> Jan.<br /> Jan.<br /> <br /> oon<br /> anc<br /> oS So<br /> <br /> Memorial<br /> <br /> bo<br /> <br /> CNH COHRDMS<br /> He<br /> MNWHECOHOCS<br /> <br /> coococo$o<br /> <br /> , Middlemas, Miss Jean<br /> , Bolton, Miss Anna<br /> <br /> coo<br /> <br /> _<br /> aoe<br /> co<br /> <br /> <br /> FROM THE COMMITTEE.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> rW\HE first meeting of the Committee in the new<br /> year was held on Monday, January 16th, at<br /> the Society’s Offices, 39, Old Queen Street.<br /> Mr. Douglas Freshfield took the chair. Twenty-<br /> four members and associates were elected. The<br /> list of these will be printed in the March number<br /> ot The Author, together with the February<br /> elections. There was much important business<br /> hefore the Committee. In the first instance, Mr.<br /> A. Hope Hawkins, Mr. Owen Seaman and Mr.<br /> J. M. Lely were re-elected members of the<br /> Managing Committee, and a vote of condolence<br /> was passed to Mrs. Rose on the death of her<br /> husband, Mr. Edward Rose, who had been for<br /> many years a constant and earnest worker on the<br /> Committee. A short article, written by his friend<br /> Mr. A. Hope Hawkins, appears on another page.<br /> <br /> Mr. Jerome K. Jerome attended the meeting<br /> and placed before the members particulars of an<br /> action which he had pending against a United<br /> States firm for infringement of copyright, and<br /> asked for the Society’s support. The Committee<br /> decided to give Mr. Jerome their assistance in<br /> carrying the case through to a successful issue.<br /> <br /> The address which is to be presented to the<br /> Spanish Academy on the tercentenary of the<br /> publication of “ Don Quixote ” has now been signed<br /> by all the members of the Council whom it has<br /> been possible to reach. The Committee decided to<br /> have the address bound in morocco-leather and<br /> forwarded to the Academy in time for the<br /> Cervantes Celebrations. Its text is printed in<br /> another column.<br /> <br /> The correspondence that has recently appeared<br /> in the Standard was laid in full before the mem-<br /> hers of the Committee, and a letter drafted by the<br /> Secretary and approved by the Chairman was<br /> finally settled by the Committee, and appeared in<br /> the Standard on the 19th of January.<br /> <br /> The Committee propose to take steps in order to<br /> press home the feeling of English authors on the<br /> question of United States Copyright on the<br /> legislature and on the public in the States.<br /> Members will be informed of the form their action<br /> will take at a later date.<br /> <br /> The Secretary reported that the Chairman had<br /> given his consent during the past month to three<br /> cases in the County Court. Two of these have<br /> been settled satisfactorily, and the third, a Scotch<br /> <br /> case, is still proceeding.<br /> <br /> The letter from the gentleman whose name had<br /> been placed before the Committee by Mr. James<br /> Bryce, as a suitable agent for the Society in the<br /> United States, was read, and, as he expressed his<br /> willingness to undertake the work on behalf of the<br /> <br /> Society, the Committee confirmed his appointment.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Cases.<br /> <br /> Srnog the last issue of Zhe Author there have<br /> been twelve cases in the Secretary’s hands. Seven<br /> of these, or more than half, were for money due to<br /> members. Four have been settled satisfactorily<br /> and the money has been paid. In the fifth case<br /> part of the amount due has been paid and a<br /> promise of a further sum in the course of a week or<br /> go has been obtained. The two remaining will be<br /> terminated at no distant date; one of them with an<br /> American magazine must necessarily be somewhat<br /> delayed. A case dealing with the settlement of an<br /> agreement has been satisfactorily terminated.<br /> Another dealing with an infringement of copyright<br /> and damage for such infringement has also been<br /> concluded. ‘The money has been paid and the<br /> infringement acknowledged. ‘There were two cases<br /> for the return of MSS. In one of these money<br /> was also due. The money has been obtained and<br /> the MS. returned in the one case; but in the<br /> other the Secretary is still waiting for an answer.<br /> The last case dealt with a dispute between a<br /> member and an agent. The member’s contention<br /> has been admitted by the agent, and the matter is<br /> at an end.<br /> <br /> It is pleasing to state therefore that eight of<br /> the twelve cases have been brought to a conclusion<br /> in a manner satisfactory to the members concerned.<br /> There are still four matters open from the former<br /> month. In one the money due has been promised.<br /> In another, it has been impossible to find the<br /> correct address of the delinquent who holds the<br /> MS., and it is doubtful therefore whether the<br /> Society will be able to accomplish anything.<br /> Another case for money due concerns a publisher<br /> in Munich, and the secretary is still in correspon-<br /> dence on the matter.<br /> <br /> There have been three cases sanctioned by the<br /> Chairman for County Court action. Two of these<br /> have terminated satisfactorily, and the third is in<br /> the course of settlement.<br /> <br /> ——————_e—&lt;— —__—<br /> <br /> BOOKS PUBLISHED BY MEMBERS OF<br /> THE SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> i<br /> <br /> (In the following list we do not propose to give more<br /> than the titles, prices, publishers, etc., of the books<br /> enumerated, with, in special cases, such particulars as may<br /> serve to explain the scope and purpose of the work.<br /> Members are requested to forward information which will.<br /> enable the Editor to supply such particulars.)<br /> <br /> BIOGRAPHY.<br /> THOMAS MoorE. By STEPHEN GWYNN. 7} X 5, 203 pp.<br /> Macmillan. 2s. n<br /> FICTION.<br /> <br /> Tur SPECIALIST. By A. M. Irvine. 7? X 5}, 317 pp. 4<br /> <br /> Lane. 6s,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> STORIES FROM THE PLAYS OF ALEXANDER DUMAS:<br /> Henri Trois, ANTONY, MDLLE. DE BELLE ISLE. By<br /> Harry A. Spurr. 72 xX 5, 250 pp. Cottingham:<br /> Tutin. 2s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> THe Kina’s ScarLeET. By HorAcE WYNDHAM. 73 x 5,<br /> 305 pp. Brown Langham. 6s.<br /> <br /> CONFESSIONS OF A YouNG LApDy. By RICHARD MARSH.<br /> 7% X 5}, 303 pp. John Long. 6s.<br /> <br /> AUBREY ELLISON. By St. JOHN LuUCAs.<br /> 317 pp. Brown Langham. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE PROVINCIALS. By LADY HELEN FORBES.<br /> 320 pp. J. Long. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE FACE IN THE FLASHLIGHT. By FLORENCE WARDEN,<br /> 7% x 5,318 pp. J. Long. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE NIGHT OF RECKONING. By F. BARRETT.<br /> 318 pp. J. Long. 6s.<br /> <br /> LorpD oF HIMSELF. By Mrs. AYLMER GowinG. 7? x 5,<br /> 320 pp. J. Long. 6s.<br /> <br /> Mrs. CURGENVEN OF CURGENVEN. By S. BARING<br /> GOULD. 72 x 54, 357 pp. Cheap Edition. Methuen. 1s.<br /> <br /> THE SECRET WoMAN. By EDEN PHILLPOTTS. 7% x 54,<br /> 356 pp. Methuen. 6s.<br /> <br /> Lapby PENELOPE. By Morey RoBerts, 73 X 5, 309 pp.<br /> White. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE WAR OF THE SEXES.<br /> 298 pp. J. Long. 6s.<br /> <br /> ie Xs 35,<br /> <br /> 73 x 5,<br /> <br /> 73 5<br /> (ZF XK.0,<br /> <br /> By f. 8: Youne. 2 x 5,<br /> <br /> GARDENING.<br /> <br /> A GARDENER’S YEAR. By H. RrpER HAGGARD. 9 x 53,<br /> 404 pp. Longmans, 12s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> LITERARY.<br /> <br /> SHAKESPEREAN TRAGEDY. Lectures on Hamlet, Othello,<br /> King Lear, Macbeth. By A. C. BRADLEY. 9 x 53,<br /> 498 pp. Macmillan. 10s. n.<br /> <br /> THE MYTHOLOGY oF THE BRITISH ISLANDS. By<br /> C. SQUIRE. 9 Xx 52,448 pp. Blackie. 12s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> FRENCH PROFILES. By EDMUND GOSsSE. 72 X 5, 372 pp.<br /> Heinemann. 7s. 6d.<br /> <br /> THE LEGEND OF THE TWILIGHT.<br /> 64 X 5, 96 pp. Burleigh. Is. n.<br /> <br /> By H. A. ROLLo.<br /> <br /> MILITARY.<br /> <br /> ANECDOTES OF SOLDIERS IN PEACE AND WaAR.<br /> Arranged by J..H. SETTLE. 73 X 5, 600 pp. Methuen.<br /> 3s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> MISCELLANEOUS.<br /> Mr. Puncn’s Diary. By W. EMANUEL, 7 Xx 54, 144 pp.<br /> Punch Office. 1s.<br /> POETRY.<br /> <br /> Mirror Mrtopigs. By J. M. Sruart-Youna. 7% x 54,<br /> 109 pp. Kegan Paul. 2s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> SCIENCE,<br /> <br /> A Popular GuIpE To THE HEAVENS. By Sir R. 8.<br /> Batt, LL.D., F.R.S. 84 x 74, 96 pp. 83 plates.<br /> Philip. 15s. n.<br /> <br /> THEOLOGY.<br /> By RAYMOND JACBERNS.<br /> 2s, 6d. 0.<br /> <br /> SUNDAY TALKS WITH GIRLS.<br /> 7% X 5,162 pp. Brown Langham.<br /> TRAVEL.<br /> <br /> Carro or To-Day. By BE. A. REYNoLDS BALL. Fourth<br /> Edition, revised and enlarged. 72 x 4}, 264 pp. Black.<br /> <br /> 123<br /> <br /> LITERARY, DRAMATIC, AND MUSICAL<br /> NOTES.<br /> <br /> — 9<br /> <br /> SMALL volume of short stories, entitled<br /> <br /> “ A Legend of the Twilight,” by the author<br /> <br /> of “His Political Conscience,” will be<br /> <br /> published immediately by Mr. Thomas Burleigh at<br /> 155, Victoria Street, S.W.<br /> <br /> We understand that Mr. Richard Bagot is about<br /> to publish a new novel which he has just completed.<br /> <br /> As the readers of his former novels are no doubt<br /> aware, Mr. Bagot is a member of the Roman Catholic<br /> Church, which he joined so long ago as 1881.<br /> <br /> The novel which first brought his name before<br /> the public was entitled “ The Casting of Nets.”<br /> <br /> Messrs. Skeffington will shortly publish a work<br /> by Norman Porritt, M.R.C.S., entitled “ Religion<br /> and Health, their Mutual Relationship and<br /> Influence.”<br /> <br /> Miss May Crommelin, whose last volume of short<br /> stories “ A Pretty Maid and Others,” published by<br /> Mr. John Long, has been well received, is now<br /> engaged on a novel which will appear in the<br /> autumn season.<br /> <br /> Miss Gertrude Warden is passing the winter in<br /> Sicily, collecting materials for her next novel.<br /> <br /> We have received a syllabus of lectures to be<br /> given under the auspices of the Dante Society<br /> during the first six months of the current year.<br /> <br /> On February 15th, Mr. Luigi Ricci will lecture<br /> on “Countess Matelda of Tuscany,” the Right<br /> Hon. the Earl of Lytton in the chair.<br /> <br /> On March Ist, the Rev. W. J. Payling Wright,<br /> B.A., will lecture on “La Lupa Dantesca,” Mr.<br /> Edmund Gosse, LL.D. in the chair.<br /> <br /> On April 5th, the Rev. Newton Mant, M.A., will<br /> lecture on Italian architecture in Italian cities,<br /> the Right Hon. the Lord Suffield, P.C., in the<br /> chair.<br /> <br /> On May 38rd, Professor George Saintsbury, M.A.,<br /> will lecture on “ Dante and the Grand Style,” Mr.<br /> Alfred Austin in the chair.<br /> <br /> On June 7th, Mrs. Craigie will lecture on<br /> “Plato and Dante,” Sir Theodore Martin, K.C.,<br /> V.O., in the chair,<br /> <br /> All tke lectures will be<br /> Pfeiffer Hall of Queen’s College, 45,<br /> Street, W., and will start at 8.30 p.m.<br /> <br /> “Pawns of Destiny” is the title of a new<br /> complete novel by Miss HE. T. Miller, which<br /> Messrs. William Stevens have issued in their<br /> sixpenny Jlagazine of Fiction.<br /> <br /> A new work by the same author, under the title<br /> of ‘ Ridgewell Bells,” will be published first in serial<br /> form, and later in book form.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Macmillan &amp; Co. will publish imme-<br /> diately “ Great Lawn Tennis Players : their Methods<br /> <br /> delivered at the<br /> Harley<br /> <br /> <br /> 124<br /> <br /> Illustrated.” The work has been produced by the<br /> collaboration of Mr. G. W. Beldam, who is respon-<br /> sible for the illustrations, and Mr. P. A. Vaile, who<br /> supplies the text, and the book has been prepared<br /> on the same lines as Mr. Beldam’s “ Great Golfers.”<br /> The illustrations, which number over two hnndred,<br /> are not “posed” photographs, but are in every<br /> instance taken in actual play. Hach picture is<br /> dealt with in detail by Mr. Vaile. The work<br /> contains an article by Mr. EB. G. Mears on<br /> “The Advanced Tactics of the Game,’’ and one on<br /> «The Half Volley,” by Mr. G. A. Caridia, the well-<br /> known exponent of that stroke.<br /> <br /> A German translation of Mr. Ferrar Fenton’s<br /> “Bible in Modern English” is in preparation<br /> by Meta Clausius, of Glion, Vand. The first<br /> volume, which he will issue shortly, is ready for<br /> the press.<br /> <br /> We understand that Mr. H. A. Vachell, whose<br /> novel “Brothers” has just run into a seventh<br /> edition, has finished a work which will be published<br /> at once.<br /> <br /> Mr. Eden Phillpott’s new novel ‘The Secret<br /> Woman,” published by Messrs. Methuen &amp; Co.<br /> towards the end of last month, has for its centre<br /> the little village of Belstone, and the story is<br /> concerned with certain folk who dwell near at<br /> hand and pursue the various occupations of the<br /> district.<br /> <br /> Mr. Edmund Gosse’s new book “French Pro-<br /> files,” which Mr. Heinemann published in the<br /> middle of January, contains essays on most of the<br /> distingushed men of letters of contemporary<br /> France—Zola, Daudet, Anatole France, Pierre<br /> Loti, René Bazin, to name only a few. The book<br /> also contains the paper which Mr. Gosse read<br /> before the Société des Conférences in Paris on<br /> “The Influence of French Literature upon English<br /> Poetry.”<br /> <br /> «The System ” is the title of Mr. Percy White’s<br /> new novel which Messrs. Methuen will issue<br /> shortly. It is the story of a young man of original<br /> talent whom quixotic temperament leads into<br /> disaster, generally of an amusing nature.<br /> <br /> Love and courtship form the theme, and a quiet<br /> cathedral town the locality of Mr. E. T. Benson’s<br /> new novel “An Act in a Backwater,” which Mr.<br /> Heinemann will publish.<br /> <br /> “Lost Angel of a Ruined Paradise,’ by the<br /> Rey. P. A. Sheehan, is the title of a drama dealing<br /> with the lives of three school girls. The first part<br /> of the drama is located in Dublin, from which<br /> the author transfers to London the entire group<br /> of characters. Messrs. Longmans &amp; Co. are<br /> the publishers of the book, the price of which is<br /> 8s. 6d.<br /> <br /> The paper which Mr. A. 8. E. Ackermann read<br /> before the Jubilee Meeting of the Royal Society of<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Engineers in the beginning of May of last year,<br /> was awarded a prize of three guineas by the<br /> “ Society of Engineers” last month.<br /> <br /> The Rev. J. J. Gratrex, of Putford Rectory,<br /> Brandiscorner, N. Devon, has issued a little<br /> (celluloid) card, 82in. by 24in. in size, which pro-<br /> vides a calendar for all years from Saturday,<br /> January Ist, a.D. 1, by which the day of the week<br /> or any date in these years can easily be ascer-<br /> tained. Mr. Gratrex entitled his work “ The Regal<br /> Calendar.” Copies can be purchased at the rate<br /> of 6d. each or 2s. 6d. for half-a-dozen.<br /> <br /> “Great Friends,” a modern comedy by G. 8.<br /> Street, was produced by the Stage Society at<br /> the Court Theatre on the 30th and 81st of<br /> January.<br /> <br /> “Prunella” or “Love in a Dutch Garden,”<br /> written by Laurence Housmann and Granville<br /> Barker, was produced at the Court Theatre on<br /> Friday, December 23rd. The play is described<br /> by the Zimes as a blend of the quaint, the<br /> sentimental, and the weird.<br /> <br /> Closely following this production, Mr. Barrie’s<br /> play of “Peter Pan, or the Boy who wouldn’t<br /> Grow Up” was mounted at the Duke of York’s<br /> Theatre. The play was favourably received. Miss<br /> Nina Boucicault as “ Peter Pan,” Miss Dorothea<br /> Baird as Mrs. Darling, the “ grown up” mother,<br /> and Mr. Gerald Du Maurier alternately as Mr.<br /> Darling and Gus Hook, and the other members<br /> of the company, helped to insure its success.<br /> <br /> PARIS NOTES.<br /> <br /> —+—&gt; +<br /> <br /> A Société francaise sous la Troisieme<br /> République,” d@’apres les romanciers con-<br /> temporains, by Marius-Ary Leblond. ‘The<br /> <br /> volume is divided into six chapters, in which are<br /> <br /> studied the child, the officer, the financier, the<br /> nobility, anarchists, and socialists. ‘T&#039;aine’s idea<br /> was that, during the last hundred years in Ger-<br /> many and sixty years in France, history had<br /> been entirely transformed by the study of<br /> literature. The author of the above volume<br /> <br /> therefore studies the novelists and the characters<br /> in their books, with the idea of getting a picture<br /> <br /> of our times.<br /> “Les Etats Unis au XXe. Siécle,” by M. Leroy<br /> Beaulieu, is, as the author describes it, “ an inven:<br /> <br /> tory of the forces and resources of the United<br /> <br /> States.” The author has a perfect knowledge of<br /> his subject, and in this volume he not only studies<br /> the factors which have served to bring about the<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> eat)<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> present position of the American nation in the<br /> universe, but he also gives figures and calculations<br /> which appear to be indisputable.<br /> <br /> “La Guerre Russo-Japonaise,” by Léon Tolstoi,<br /> translated by M. E. Halpérine-Kaminski. To this<br /> article, which gives its title to the volume, the<br /> translator has added other writings by the Russian<br /> author expressing the same theories. The titles<br /> of these are: “Les deux guerres,” “Carthago<br /> delenda est,” “La Guerre du Transvaal,” “ Sou-<br /> venirs de Sebastopol.” There are long quotations<br /> from Voltaire, Anatole France, Isaiah and Lao<br /> Tseu.<br /> <br /> “La Macédoine et les Puissances,” by M. Gaston<br /> Routier, is a volume containing a series of inter-<br /> views with all the important politicians of the<br /> Balkan Peninsula on the Macedonian question.<br /> This inquiry throws a great deal of light on this<br /> much-discussed subject.<br /> <br /> “ues Lois de la Guerre continentale” is a book<br /> of considerable interest for all nations at the<br /> present time. It was originally published by the<br /> historical section of the German military staff.<br /> The present volume is a translation by M. Paul<br /> Carpentier, who is an advocate and also a lauréat<br /> of the Institute of France. M. Carpentier’s work<br /> is particularly valuable, as he points out by means<br /> of notes certain passages which would otherwise<br /> be misleading, because the German author has<br /> omitted certain important articles of the Hague<br /> Convention and various other details which are of<br /> great importance.<br /> <br /> “Ot allons-nous ?” by C. Coignet, is the title<br /> of a pamphlet published some little time back,<br /> which gives a clear and concise account of the<br /> events which have gradually brought about the<br /> present crisis in France. The author, who has<br /> lived through many changes and known some of<br /> the leaders in French politics, takes us back to<br /> the days of Jules Ferry, and shows us just what<br /> has led to the present conflict between Church and<br /> State. According to the author, if Jules Ferry’s<br /> policy had been continued the present crisis would<br /> certainly have been avoided.<br /> <br /> An extremely interesting book for travellers<br /> intending to visit the Holy Land is the volume<br /> entitled ‘ La Palestine,” published by the Assump-<br /> tionist Fathers stationed at Jerusalem. For more<br /> than twenty-five years the Fathers have been<br /> organising pilgrimages to Palestine, and this<br /> valuable work is the result of their experiences,<br /> There are maps and accounts, too, of the various<br /> archeological researches in that country.<br /> <br /> “Newman,” by Henri Bremond, is another<br /> volume published in the collection La Pensée<br /> contemporaine.<br /> <br /> “Les Malheurs d’une Grande Dame sous<br /> Louis XV.,” by M. de Coynart, is the story of<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 125<br /> <br /> Mme. de Montboissier. The facts are taken from<br /> history, and the whole book is as interesting as a<br /> novel.<br /> <br /> “La Vie au Palais-Royal,” by M. Augé de<br /> Lassus, is a book to be read at once before the<br /> famous old palace undergoes any further trans-<br /> formations.<br /> <br /> “Mémoires du due de Choiseul” is the title of<br /> the new volume published by M. Calmettes. The<br /> chief part of this work consists of a number of<br /> letters, hitherto unpublished, concerning the<br /> journeys and campaigns of the writer of them,<br /> the war and the Austrian succession, Choiseul’s<br /> experiences as Ambassador to Rome and Vienna,<br /> the preliminaries and consequences of the Seven<br /> Years’ War.<br /> <br /> ‘La Maison de la Petite Livia,” a posthumous<br /> volume by Pierre de Querlon, the author of “Les<br /> Tablettes romaines,” and other novels.<br /> <br /> Among the new books are “ Bergeries,” by<br /> M. Claude Anet; “L’Obstacle,” by M. Pierre<br /> Perrault ; ‘ Sécularisée,”’ by M. Jean Bouvier ;<br /> “Vie de Chateau,” by M. Claude Ferval ; “Madame<br /> Fulbert,” by Mme. Jeanne France; “Le Maitre<br /> du Monde,” by Jules Verne; “Les Serments<br /> ont des ailes,” by the author of “Amitié<br /> Amoureuse”; ‘La Cruche Cassée,” by Gabrielle<br /> Réval; “Histoire de la France contemporaine,”<br /> by Gabriel Hanotaux.<br /> <br /> M. Guy de Chantepleure’s new book is a<br /> volume containing three short stories. “ L’Aven-<br /> ture d’Huguette”’ gives the title to the volume.<br /> <br /> “Le Roman de 1’Espagne héroique,” by M.<br /> Gaston Routier; “ Le Vent emporte la poussiére,”’<br /> by Georges Bonnamour.<br /> <br /> ‘“‘L’Envers de la Gloire,” by M. Adolphe<br /> Brisson. In this volume the author gives<br /> us a series of articles on Victor Hugo, Quinet,<br /> Zola, Pére Didon, Charles Garnier, and Henri<br /> Heine.<br /> <br /> M. Bergson has succeeded to the chair of<br /> Modern Philosophy at the College of France,<br /> occupied hitherto by M. Gabriel Tarde. The<br /> recent pamphlet by C. Coignet, entitled “ Nouvelle:<br /> Philosophie, Bergson,” gives an excellent résumé<br /> of the chief lines of the theory of Bergson, who, as<br /> the author says, has not yet touched directly on<br /> moral and religious questions, ‘Mais, qu’il le<br /> veuille on ne le veuille pas, sa métaphysique<br /> humanisant la nature et divinisant I’humanite,<br /> lie au souverain affranchissement l’immortelle<br /> espérance.”<br /> <br /> Once more America is in advance of England.<br /> A course of lectures on American Literature is<br /> now being given in the English language at the<br /> Sorbonne by an American. Some years ago<br /> America took the lead in this direction by inviting<br /> some of the first literary men in France to lecture<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 126<br /> <br /> at her Universities. This hospitality has now<br /> been returned by France.<br /> <br /> In La Revue des Deux Mondes, January 1st,<br /> there is an article of great interest by Th. Bentzon<br /> entitled “Impressions d’Eté a Londres.” It is<br /> always curious to note the impressions of a foreigner<br /> in England and to see ourselves as others see us.<br /> There is an optimistic note throughout the article,<br /> which is cheering when we hear 80 much on all<br /> sides about modern degeneration. The French<br /> author is charmed with many of the innovations of<br /> recent years in England, and appears to see many<br /> improvements since a former visit. Many subjects<br /> are touched upon; philanthropic works and the<br /> various clubs for women are discussed. No two<br /> nations, perhaps, are such sealed books to each<br /> other as England and France, so that an impartial<br /> article of this kind is worth reading in both<br /> countries.<br /> <br /> At the Renaissance “La Massiére,” by Jules<br /> Lemaitre, appears to be a success. The scene is<br /> laid in one of the Schools of Painting so numerous<br /> in Paris. A great artist, who visits the studio<br /> regularly to criticise the work, falls in love with<br /> one of his pupils. As he is a married man, with a<br /> son of about the same age as the girl in question,<br /> there are complications. In the end, everything<br /> happens so that the piece may terminate in the<br /> most satisfactory way. The artist’s son and the<br /> young girl marry, and the father is elected a member<br /> of the French Academy.<br /> <br /> At the Nouveau-ThéAtre M. Lugné-Poe has been<br /> giving an admirable translation, by M. Georges<br /> Heérelle, of @’Annunzio’s “ La Gioconda.” Early<br /> in February he will put on at the same theatre<br /> “Ta fille de Jorio.”<br /> <br /> Auys HaLLarp.<br /> <br /> a<br /> <br /> SPANISH NOTES.<br /> <br /> —— + —<br /> <br /> O the Government has again fallen in Spain,<br /> and this without any loss of prestige to<br /> : Sefior Maura, who was Prime Minister. The<br /> important post of Chief of the General Staff of the<br /> Army to which the Minister of War wished General<br /> Leon to be appointed was declared by the King to<br /> be more fitting for General Polavieja, and his<br /> Majesty’s refusal to sign the order brought for-<br /> ward by his Minister led to the resignation of the<br /> Cabinet.<br /> <br /> It is interesting to see the tribute now paid to the<br /> Prime Minister, who has during the whole period<br /> of his power not only been the butt of every kind<br /> of attack in the Press, but, as we know, received<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> knife whilst with the King<br /> <br /> a stab from a<br /> during his historic visit to Barcelona. “Sefior<br /> Maura,” says the Hspana, “had a firm and lofty con-<br /> ception of the dignity of the Government, and his<br /> resignation under the particular circumstances was<br /> the most parliamentary event that has happened<br /> during the latter years of the Regency and since<br /> the majority of Alfonzo XIII. The omnia pro<br /> dominatione serviliter was far from being the line<br /> of action of the Prime Minister,” continues the<br /> writer, “and it was this which gained him the<br /> respect of the country in spite of continual opposi-<br /> tion ; and nothing but the King’s dissent from<br /> the wish of the Cabinet would have led to his<br /> present resignation. General Azcarraga having<br /> been asked by Alfonzo XIII. to succeed Maura<br /> as head of the Government, he has appointed<br /> to the Ministry the Marquises of Vadillo<br /> and Aguilar de Campoo, General Villar and<br /> the Seriores Castellano, Ugarte, Cardenas and<br /> Lacierda.<br /> <br /> In the Academy of the Fine Arts Senor Silvela,.<br /> the quondam Prime Minister, has particularly.<br /> delighted his hearers by his erudite discourse on<br /> —(1) the supreme efficacy of art, (2) art in<br /> relation to science, (3) the power of music and<br /> eloquence over a nation ; and when Sefior Salvador<br /> returned thanks to the new academician for his:<br /> able discourse it was to give a brief epitome<br /> of the illustrious man’s literary career, which<br /> has always been more to his taste than that of<br /> politics.<br /> <br /> Senor Rousifial, who wrote such an interesting<br /> biography of Balaguer, the late famous Cataloniam<br /> poet, has just distinguished himself by publishing<br /> a very striking play called “The Mystic” This.<br /> play has been translated from Catalan into Spanish<br /> by Seftor Dicenta, and it is now having a most<br /> successful run in Madrid.<br /> <br /> “Ta Estirpe de Jupiter” (“The Race of<br /> Jupiter”) is the title of a new and very forcible:<br /> drama from the pen of Seftor Linares Rivas, in<br /> which Sefiora Guerrero, Senorita Suarez, Seforita.<br /> Villar, Seior Diaz de Mendoza, and Senor Santiago-<br /> have taken their parts on the stage. As the story<br /> treats mainly of the various conquests of an artist,<br /> the interest of the performance hangs chiefly on the<br /> power of the actresses to portray the passions of<br /> love and jealousy, and in this the applause of the<br /> audience shows they were not unsuccessful. The<br /> psychological truth which the playwright seems<br /> to wish to enforce is that neither rank nor —<br /> wealth can give the stimulation to an artist for<br /> his work which is induced by real attraction—<br /> hence the triumph of the artist’s model over the<br /> Countess Amarilis.<br /> <br /> Spain is showing an increasing interest in the<br /> new books of other countries, and we not only find<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> translations of Wagner, Tolstoi, Kropotkine,<br /> Reclus, etc., but the last work by P. J. Moebius,<br /> the German philosopher, has just been published<br /> in Spanish by Madame Carmen de Burgos Segui,<br /> under the title “ La Inferioridad mental de la<br /> Mujer.” And it is interesting to see that the<br /> German’s premiss of the mental inferiority of woman<br /> is vigorously opposed by the vindication of female<br /> intelligence from the pen of Colonel Figuerola<br /> Ferretti, the enthusiastic Spanish pioneer of<br /> Feminism. With the power of true logic the<br /> colonel shows that his countrywomen do not suffer<br /> from mental inferiority, but from lack of educa-<br /> tion, for wherever the opportunity for study is<br /> given they excel—be it in the realms of art, litera-<br /> ture, or philanthropy. Striking examples are<br /> quoted from the author&#039;s personal experiences of<br /> the superior brain power of women, and the<br /> passages relating to the necessity of love in mar-<br /> riage being supported by the culture of a wife’s<br /> intelligence shows that the Spaniard is some-<br /> what more advanced in his ideas than is usual in<br /> his country.<br /> <br /> The eternal feminine is certainly exercising the<br /> masculine mind just now, for Don Edmundo<br /> Gonzalez Blanco has just published a work called<br /> «Feminismo en las Sociedades Modernas,” which<br /> is not only a biological and psychological study of<br /> the weaker sex, but the position of woman is<br /> scientifically treated from a domestic, economic,<br /> and esthetic point of view.<br /> <br /> Pio Boroja’s “Aurora Roja,” (‘The Rosy<br /> Dawn’) is quoted just now as “the book of the<br /> day.” But the pessimism of the work must<br /> prevent it being very popular. The author&#039;s<br /> evident power of describing men and nature can-<br /> not outweigh the depressing influence of such<br /> passages as ‘‘Man lives if he can, and if he cannot<br /> he dies, and if he dies he is buried, and that is the<br /> end of his rights and his philosophy.”<br /> <br /> The idea of a Spanish-American University at<br /> Salamanca is steadily gaining ground, thanks to the<br /> enthusiastic propagandist efforts of Dr. Cobos.<br /> The advantages accruing to the New and Old World<br /> by an educational centre combining the advan-<br /> tages of both have now been set forth in all<br /> the chief cities of Spain.<br /> <br /> A meeting has recently been held by the<br /> Minister of Education to insure the forthcoming<br /> Ter-Centenary of Don Quixote being celebrated<br /> befittingly by all the schools of the country. The<br /> Spanish Press refers to Don Tomas Tamayo de<br /> Vargues and Don Nicolo Antonio as the only two<br /> supporters of Cervantes in the seventeenth century,<br /> which is only another instance of the little appre-<br /> ciation accorded to a genius in his lifetime.<br /> <br /> The cordiality shown by the Cubans to Don<br /> <br /> Ramon Gaytan de Ayala, the Spanish Minister in<br /> <br /> 127<br /> <br /> the Island, has given great pleasure in Madrid, for<br /> King Alfonzo was toasted with enthusiasm at<br /> the banquet given in honour of the Spaniard.<br /> <br /> It is interesting to hear that the laurels of the<br /> Nobel Prize for poetry are divided between Eche-<br /> gary and Mistral. Neither of the celebrities lost<br /> in this division of honours, for it only showed<br /> the power of judges to recognise that the opposite<br /> lines of thought were pursued by the two poets<br /> with equal power, albeit of different countries.<br /> Mistral, we hear, will devote his prize to the<br /> foundation of an ethnographical museum in Arles.<br /> It is interesting to read the generous tributes paid<br /> to each other by the two poets of France and<br /> Spain who have met with such success.<br /> <br /> Mistral in his reply to Evhegaray’s beautiful<br /> letter assures the Spanish poet that his great<br /> dramatic power savours of the palmy days of<br /> Ancient Greece, and grateful as he is to the<br /> Swedish Academy for uniting France and Spain<br /> in the triumph of the Nobel prize, he himself has<br /> done nothing but devote his life to the restoration<br /> of his native language and the glorification of<br /> his dear land (the South of France). The pro-<br /> vencal poet then refers to his father having served<br /> as a soldier in the campaign of the Pyrenees of<br /> 1793, and he then touched upon what he termed<br /> his own “triumphal progress” in Spain in 1868<br /> when he was presented to Zorrilla, Nufiez de Arce,<br /> Runz Aguilera, and many other leading spirits of<br /> the land.<br /> <br /> The Southern tour of the Duke of Connaught<br /> and his family is exhibiting the Spaniards in the<br /> province of matchmakers in a marked degree, for<br /> on January 9th., the Jmparcial, the well known<br /> Madrid newspaper, not only published the portrait<br /> of Princess Victoria Patricia of Connaught as the<br /> probable future Queen of Spain, but the same page<br /> also presents the picture of her sister, the Princess<br /> Margaret of Connaught, as the destined bride of<br /> the heir apparent of Portugal. The correspondent<br /> certainly says that “nothing certain is known of<br /> these projects either in Madrid or Lisbon ;” and<br /> need one refer to the proverbial “Chateaux en<br /> Espagne?” But one thing is certain, and that is<br /> that the desire for such an alliance with England<br /> is a very real feeling in Spain, and doubtless it is<br /> the same in Portugal.<br /> <br /> The Jmparcial is offering a prize of 5,000 pesetas<br /> for the best project for the regulation of the<br /> Budget with regard to the Army, Navy, Public<br /> Education and the Ports.<br /> <br /> When the deputies are elected at the public<br /> polls such a project will command attention, and<br /> it was this vox populi for which Colonel Ferretti<br /> pleaded in his Petition to high quarters in<br /> November, 1902.<br /> <br /> RACHEL CHALLICE.<br />  <br /> <br /> 128<br /> <br /> THE PROPERTY IN DRAWINGS REPRO-<br /> DUCED IN MAGAZINES AND NEWS-<br /> PAPERS.<br /> <br /> —t 1<br /> <br /> N action was tried in December of last year<br /> by Mr. Justice Darling, with a special jury,<br /> which involved a question of considerable<br /> <br /> interest to artists, and indirectly also to authors ;<br /> a question also of importance to editors, who are<br /> inclined to assume rights over drawings and<br /> articles sent to them which are not recognised by<br /> their contributors, or by law.<br /> <br /> The following extract from the Zimes’ report of<br /> the trial (used with the kind permission of the<br /> proprietor) contains all the points material to the<br /> consideration of this question.<br /> <br /> « AyRTON v. C. ARTHUR PEARSON (LIMITED).”<br /> <br /> This was an action brought by Mr. Ormrod Maxwell<br /> Ayrton, an architect, for the sum of £173 5s., the value of<br /> certain drawings alleged to have been wrongfully detained<br /> by the defendants. In the alternative the plaintiff<br /> claimed damages on account of the said drawings having<br /> been lost or destroyed owing to the negligence of the<br /> defendants as bailees of the said drawings. The defence<br /> was that the drawings were the property of the<br /> defendants, and, alternatively, that the sum claimed was<br /> excessive.<br /> <br /> Mr. Dickens, K.C., in opening the plaintiff’s case, said<br /> that the plaintiff had formed the novel idea of making<br /> studies for weather-vanes which should be applicable to<br /> particular buildings. With this object in view he had<br /> made certain designs representing, among other things, a<br /> coach and horses, which would be appropriate for an inn,<br /> a sportsman with agun and dog for a gamekeeper’s<br /> cottage, and a man engaged in studying the line of a putt<br /> with a caddie standing at the flag, which would be suitable<br /> for a golf clubhouse.<br /> <br /> Certain designs of this nature were published in an art<br /> journal known as the Studio, and attracted the attention<br /> of the editor of Pearson&#039;s Magazine, who wrote to the<br /> plaintiff in the early part of the year (1903), asking him to<br /> furnish some of his designs for the purpose of being repro-<br /> duced in the pages of the magazine, together with an<br /> explanatory article. The plaintiff agreed to supply<br /> sixteen designs and an article, for which he was to receive<br /> the sum of £10, and the article and designs were in due<br /> course sent to the editor. In the course of correspondence<br /> between the editor and plaintiff, the former wrote: “ We<br /> should not, of course, require the full copyright of your<br /> designs.” On December 3rd, 1903, the plaintiff wrote to<br /> the editor of Pearson&#039;s Magazine asking for the return of<br /> his drawings, and on December 7th received a letter in<br /> reply which contained the following passage: The<br /> original drawings have been mislaid or lost, as I fear, ina<br /> gigantic spring cleaning which the office has recently<br /> undergone.” Five of the drawings which had not been<br /> made use of were returned to the plaintiff. The designs<br /> which the plaintiff had made were not for sale, and con-<br /> sequently their value must be assessed by what they were<br /> worth to the plaintiff for the purpose of exhibition and for<br /> hanging in his office, so that his clients might see the kind<br /> of work which he was capable of doing.<br /> <br /> __Mr. Ormrod Maxwell Ayrton, A.R.I.B.A., said that the<br /> idea of weather-vanes was partly his own and partly a<br /> revival of an old custom. His object was to exhibit them<br /> and to show them to clients. He valued the drawings at<br /> an average of £15 15s. each. In cross-examination he said<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> that he knew of no custom where pictures sent for a<br /> magazine article belonged to the people who published the<br /> article. He had not registered the copyright either in the<br /> pictures which had been returned or in those which were<br /> published. 1t would be impossible to take copies from the<br /> reproductions in the magazine. They could be reproduced<br /> in a way, but all the character would be gone. He was<br /> practically certain that all the drawings which were lost<br /> were coloured, and not in outline.<br /> <br /> In re-examination he said that it was never his intention<br /> to part with the property in the pictures for £10, the sum<br /> which he was paid for the article in Pearson&#039;s Magazine.<br /> <br /> Mr. Arthur Blomfield, F.R.I.B.A., stated that the<br /> pictures in question had great artistic merit. An average<br /> of £15 15s. was, in his opinion, not at all excessive.<br /> <br /> Professor Moira, of the Royal College of Arts, South<br /> Kensington, said that the artistic merit of the designs was<br /> very high, and that the amount claimed was not excessive.<br /> <br /> Mr. Alfred Lyss Baldry, an art critic, said that in his<br /> opinion the drawings were clever, with a good deal of<br /> originality and power, and the composition was good. He<br /> thought the average of £15 15s. was very moderate.<br /> <br /> On the second day of the trial Mr. Dickens said that he<br /> was unaware that the defendants were going to set upa<br /> custom by which they claimed the property in the illustra-<br /> tions sent to them. He therefore asked leave to recall<br /> Mr. Baldry on the point.<br /> <br /> Mr. Baldry, recalled, said that where an article was sup-<br /> plied to a magazine with illustrations he had never heard<br /> of any custom under which the illustrations became the<br /> property of the magazine. Illustrated journals generally<br /> bought the illustrations outright, but it was an understood<br /> thing that illustrations accompanying articles in magazines<br /> should be returned in the absence of any special stipulation.<br /> <br /> For the defence, Mr. Clement Shorter, formerly editor of<br /> the Illustrated London News and Illustrated English<br /> Magazine, and now editor of the Sphere, said that in the<br /> absence of any contract to the contrary it was the custom<br /> that illustrations sent with articles became the property of<br /> the proprietor of the paper to which they were sent. There<br /> was no distinction whether the illustrations were sent to<br /> magazines or illustrated journals. He thought that the<br /> price asked by the plaintiff for his drawings was absurd.<br /> <br /> Cross-examined by Mr. Dickens, witness was of opinion<br /> that where the contributor sent valuable drawings for<br /> reproduction with an article, in the absence of any stipula-<br /> tion, the drawings would become the property of the<br /> magazine contributed to. His experience was that when<br /> they bought an article with the drawings the price included<br /> the drawings.<br /> <br /> Mr. Justice Darling : There was a personnamed Whistler<br /> who at one time had no reputation and drew etchings.<br /> (Laughter.)<br /> <br /> Witness: Yes, I remember when his things fetched<br /> nothing.<br /> <br /> Mr. Justice Darling : Now they are very valuable.<br /> <br /> Witness: Yes.<br /> <br /> Mr. George Hammond, art editor of the Illustrated<br /> London News, said that they invariably kept the drawings<br /> sent them in the absence of any special contract with<br /> regard to them. He thought in the present case that to.<br /> ask fifteen guineas a piece for the lost drawings was<br /> preposterous, and two guineas would be a fair price.<br /> <br /> Mr. Stanley Wood, artist, and well-known contributor<br /> <br /> of drawings to magazines, said that the drawings became<br /> <br /> the property of the magazines to which they were sent. —<br /> <br /> The illustrations in question he thought ought to cost about<br /> 10s. each.<br /> <br /> Mr. H. P. Adams, architect and surveyor, of Woburn —<br /> <br /> Place, said that he had seen the article and some of the<br /> drawings. As architectural drawings they were useless,<br /> <br /> but they were clever drawings. He thought that two to —<br /> three guineas apiece was a fair price. 2<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Counsel having addressed the jury,<br /> <br /> Mr. Justice Darling summed up, and the jury found a<br /> verdict for the plaintiff for £40, and judgment was given<br /> accordingly.<br /> <br /> The issue in this case was, as the report shows,<br /> one of fact for the jury. The defendants endea-<br /> youred to set up a custom by which they alleged<br /> that an editor (or proprietor and a magazine as<br /> represented by the editor) obtained the property<br /> in the original drawings used by him for the<br /> purpose of illustration, in the absence of any<br /> stipulation to the contrary. ‘The jury found that<br /> no such custom existed, or at all events none<br /> of such universal application as to include<br /> drawings valued by some of the witnesses at<br /> fifteen guineas apiece, but paid for (by agree-<br /> ment) with a sum of £10 to cover sixteen<br /> drawings and an article. It will be observed that<br /> the» witnesses for the plaintiff had professional<br /> knowledge of the value of such work for the<br /> purposes for which he required the original<br /> designs, and that the witnesses for the defence<br /> looked on them from a purely journalistic point of<br /> view, and seemed to think that an artist’s work<br /> when once enshrined in the pages of a magazine<br /> was valueless for all other objects. In many<br /> instances this latter aspect of the matter is<br /> substantially true. A drawing made to illustrate<br /> a@ current event or a story in a newspaper or<br /> magazine is frequently of little value for sale as<br /> a work of art, but although this is often the case,<br /> it is by no means always so. Some drawings are<br /> works of art which are of considerable merit in<br /> themselves and of value as such, or they may<br /> become valuable at a future time when the artist<br /> has become famous, and in such a case may be a<br /> useful asset to their owner, whoever he may be.<br /> The originals in these days of process reproduction<br /> are preserved (when editors do not lose them<br /> during spring cleanings), and there is no difficulty<br /> in the way of restoring them to the artist should<br /> they in fact belong to him.<br /> <br /> In the days when Fred Walker, Millais, John<br /> Leach, and a host of others did the work that has<br /> helped to make their names household words in<br /> the world of art, the wood-engraver cut to pieces<br /> the drawing on the block, and the question could<br /> not in such instances arise.<br /> <br /> None, however, can deny that the question of<br /> ownership would have been of importance had this<br /> been otherwise.<br /> <br /> How the question of fact is to be determined<br /> when disputes of this kind arise depend upon the<br /> circumstances of each case. The matter, as has<br /> been said, affects authors as well as artists, because<br /> so far as the law is concerned their position is<br /> similar. These disputes arise because they send<br /> their contributions to the editor, and allow them<br /> <br /> 129<br /> <br /> to be published without providing specifically by<br /> contract for all the contingencies which may arise,<br /> and editors having the advantage of the defensive<br /> position, usually decline to give way until they<br /> are compelled to. The recent case of Aflalo v.<br /> Lawrence and Bullen, ended in a decision of the<br /> House of Lords against the author, but it went<br /> very little further than laying down what was<br /> known already, namely, that the facts of each case<br /> must guide the decision of the issue. The head-<br /> note to the report of the judgment in the House<br /> of Lords stands thus in the Law Reports :—<br /> <br /> “ Where the proprietor of an encyclopedia em-<br /> ploys and pays anoth_r person to compose articles<br /> for publication in the encyclopedia, the question<br /> whether the copyright in the articles belongs to<br /> the proprietor within section 18 of the Copyright<br /> Act, 1842, depends on an inference of fact, not<br /> law, to be drawn by a reasonable man from the<br /> nature of the contract and all the circumstances.<br /> The contract need not be in writing; no express<br /> words need be used, and the inference that the<br /> copyright was intended to belong to the proprietor<br /> may be fairly drawn where there are no special<br /> circumstances, and the only material facts are the<br /> employment and the payment.”<br /> <br /> The attention of the public generally must be<br /> called to the fact that the case refers to encyclo-<br /> peedias and not to periodicals. No doubt, both<br /> kinds of literary property are mentioned in the<br /> 18th section of the Copyright Act, but there is a<br /> strong distinction between the two. As each case<br /> is settled on its facts, if the House of Lords made<br /> a deduction of the transfer of copyright with<br /> regard to encyclopeedias which have a permanent<br /> value, it does not follow they would draw the<br /> same deduction with regard to periodicals.<br /> <br /> Many papers have carelessly stated when re-<br /> ferring to this case, that as a matter of course the<br /> ruling in Aflalo v. Lawrence and Bullen would<br /> apply to “contributors to magazines and periodi-<br /> cals.” This deduction, however, should not be<br /> rashly taken.<br /> <br /> In Mr. Ayrton’s case the facts were eloquent.<br /> He had not been employed to make the drawings<br /> in dispute, but his existing designs had attracted<br /> attention ; the correspondence as quoted above<br /> reserved for him the copyright (which would be<br /> useless without the drawings) and showed that<br /> only a right to reproduce in a particular magazine<br /> was stipulated for, while the price agreed was one<br /> which was small enough if only paid for the right<br /> to reproduce once. It was ridiculous if regarde?<br /> as payment for drawings which would be useful<br /> for other purposes, after they had been used for<br /> that of illustrating the article in question. In all<br /> cases of this kind the question of price is strictly<br /> material in determining the question, “ what was<br /> 130<br /> <br /> it that the artist or author meant to sell, and<br /> <br /> which the editor meant to buy ?”<br /> <br /> In such cases as that of Aflalo and Lawrence and<br /> Bullen, in all cases where editors claim and authors<br /> dispute as to whether the copyright has passed in<br /> articles published in periodicals, in all cases where<br /> original drawings are sought to be recovered, and<br /> upon many similar occasions, price agreed upon<br /> is of the utmost importance as independent testi-<br /> mony to the intention of the parties. Authors<br /> and artists have to live by their pens and their<br /> pencils, and are not likely to give away copyrights<br /> and other rights without adequate payment, or<br /> without attempting to obtain it should their<br /> attention be called to the point at the time of<br /> making their bargains. Where their attention is<br /> so called, they insert in their letters or introduce<br /> into their verbally-made agreements some con-<br /> ditions referring to the ultimate fate of their<br /> property; when they assume that this will be pre-<br /> served to them and say nothing, they have to rely<br /> on all the facts surrounding the transaction, and<br /> of these the price accepted should be placed before<br /> the jury and should be carefully considered by<br /> them.<br /> <br /> Mr. Ayrton is to be congratulated on the verdict<br /> obtained, although it fell short of what he asked<br /> for, and the jury should be congratulated also upon<br /> the verdict by which they upheld the artist’s<br /> rights, under the guidance of a judge who himself<br /> has had some personal experience of dealings with<br /> editors and proprietors.<br /> <br /> EA:<br /> <br /> —_—_—_—_——_—&gt;__+—____-<br /> <br /> LAW OF COPYRIGHT.*<br /> <br /> os<br /> <br /> HE first edition of Mr. W. A. Copinger’s<br /> “Law of Copyright” appeared so long ago<br /> as September, 1870, and was then the only<br /> <br /> book which attempted to deal in a large way with<br /> this very difficult subject. The second edition,<br /> revised and brought up to date, was published in<br /> 1881, and the third edition in 1893. All these<br /> editions were re-written and re-edited by the same<br /> master-hand.<br /> <br /> The present volume has been entrusted to Mr.<br /> J. M. Easton, and comes before us as the fourth<br /> edition. There are many books on Copyright at<br /> present before the public, some dealing with special<br /> questions such as Dramatic Copyright, Artistic<br /> Copyright, Musical Copyright, or Literary Copy-<br /> right, some books as Mr. Scrutton’s and Mr.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> me The Law of Copyright.’’ By W. A. Copinger. Fourth<br /> edition, by J. M. Easton, Published by Stevens and.<br /> Haynes.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> MacGillivray’s valuable works dealing with Copy-<br /> right from the point of view of the authors of<br /> Great Britain ; but none of the books covers such<br /> a wide range as the work originally published by<br /> Mr. Copinger, and now re-edited by Mr. Easton.<br /> Tt deals not only with Copyright in Great<br /> Britain, but also with International Copyright,<br /> United States Copyright; Copyright in the<br /> Colonies, and the Copyright Laws of all the prin-<br /> cipal countries of the world. So large a subject<br /> must necessarily demand large space. We are not<br /> surprised therefore that the book. contains between<br /> eight and nine hundred pages, and an Index and<br /> Appendices covering nearly another three hundred.<br /> <br /> The book has been divided into seven parts, and<br /> commences with Part 1, Literary Copyright. Part 2<br /> deals with Musical and Dramatic Copyright ;<br /> Part 3, Artistic Copyright ; Part 4, Copyright in<br /> Designs ; Part 5, International and Colonial Copy-<br /> right ; Part 6, Copyright in Foreign Countries ;<br /> Part 7, Arrangements between Authors and Pub-<br /> lishers, and Appendices.<br /> <br /> The arrangement of the book is, on the whole,<br /> very satisfactory, and the most important questions.<br /> are handled with studious care and an intimate<br /> view of the subject. The work of the present<br /> editor, in order to bring it up to date, has indeed<br /> been heavy. He discusses the very latest<br /> questions and the very latest cases, and in an<br /> addendum ineludes the fact of Sweden’s adhesion<br /> to the Berne Convention in August of last<br /> year. He has commented at some length on the<br /> case of Aflalo v. Lawrence and Bullen, which was.<br /> taken to the House of Lords by the support of the<br /> Society, and which for some time will be the<br /> leading case on the rights of authors in articles<br /> written for encyclopedias. He quotes also the<br /> case of Gollancz and Dent, which under the Society’s<br /> auspices terminated in favour of the author.<br /> <br /> These points are of considerable interest, as many<br /> publishers and even some authors assert that the<br /> actions the Society supports are often vexatious.<br /> and frivolous. If the result of the decisions in two<br /> of these actions tends to make clear a difficult<br /> and complicated law, the efforts of the Society<br /> have not been spent in vain, and those who stand<br /> outside the Society should remember that their<br /> security is the result of the public spirit of the<br /> other members of their profession.<br /> <br /> In the article on Literary Copyright, the editor<br /> deals at length with questions of infringement—<br /> <br /> that most difficult of all points which has to be<br /> <br /> settled from the facts when the deduction to<br /> be drawn from those facts is often doubtful and<br /> uncertain. In order to give the most liberal<br /> opportunity for those interested in Copyright Law,<br /> and for those who deal with Copyright Property,<br /> <br /> to come to a decision, he puts forward all the —<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> leading cases on the point with considerable<br /> minuteness, and brings into prominence all the<br /> points on the subject which would be likely to<br /> assist the inexperienced. He deals also with the<br /> very interesting case of Walter v. Lane, and the<br /> House of Lords decision on the point. Musical<br /> and Dramatic Copyright have their fair share<br /> of attention, though hardly the same space is<br /> devoted to these subjects as is devoted to literary<br /> property. The result is all that could be<br /> desired, as the same care has been bestowed on<br /> these portions as on those dealing with literary<br /> as distinct from dramatic work. Then follows<br /> Artistic Copyright, beginning with the Copyright<br /> Law in engravings, prints, and lithographs, con-<br /> tinuing with Copyright in Sculptures, and con-<br /> cluding with the most important of Artistic<br /> Copyright Laws—Copyright in Paintings, Draw-<br /> ings, and Photographs. The subject is an<br /> exceedingly difficult one, and might well call for<br /> a book by itself. It is much more complicated<br /> owing to the confusion in the Acts, and the lack<br /> of leading cases, than is Literary Copyright.<br /> <br /> Finally, he deals with International Copyright—<br /> a question of growing importance owing to the<br /> spread of inter-communication, and the powers<br /> granted to the citizens of most of the countries of<br /> Europe under the Berne Convention. Outside<br /> the Berne Convention the only two countries with<br /> which Great Britain has an arrangement are<br /> Austria- Hungary and the United States of<br /> America. Our arrangement with Austria-Hungary<br /> is practically on the lines of the Berne Convention,<br /> and it will, no doubt, be possible for that country<br /> at no distant date to join the union of nations.<br /> Owing to the correspondence in the Standard, the<br /> arrangement with the United States must be before<br /> the minds of all who have any literary, dramatic<br /> or musical property to market.<br /> <br /> The chapter dealing with Colonial Copyright is<br /> most interesting and instructive. Several of the<br /> Colonies have passed Copyright Laws of their own<br /> for various purposes within their respective<br /> limits, but no Colonial Act can override the<br /> Imperial Acts. The great advantage of this to<br /> the Colonies, as well as to Great Britain, is that a<br /> book published in any part of the Empire obtains<br /> copyright throughout the Empire. Therefore,<br /> anyone who may spring into eminence as a writer,<br /> musician, or dramatist in any of the Colonies has<br /> at once an enormous market before him, and an<br /> enormous power of disseminating his views if his<br /> works are properly handled.<br /> <br /> Some of the Colonies which have passed separate<br /> Copyright Laws are New South Wales, New<br /> Zealand, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania,<br /> Victoria, Western Australia, Canada, Newfound-<br /> land, Cape Colony, the Transvaal, and the Orange<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 131<br /> <br /> River Colony. The editor discusses the question<br /> of Canadian Copyright—in the past one of the<br /> most difficult subjects before the Government—u<br /> to its latest development in the Act of 1900, This<br /> Act appears now to be working satisfactorily, and<br /> it is hoped has settled the question, at any rate<br /> until the Imperial Government once again brine<br /> to the fore a Copyright Act which will do away<br /> with the many difficulties at present surrounding<br /> the Act of 1842. :<br /> <br /> The next section deals with the Copyright Laws<br /> existing in foreign countries. Although it’ is true<br /> that under these Acts not many cases arise, yet it<br /> is of great value to have a book which includes a<br /> resume of the features and limitations of copyright<br /> in foreign countries. Questions have come before<br /> the Secretary of the Society of Authors, dealing<br /> with infringement of copyright in Germany, Spain,<br /> France, Italy, Scandinavia, and the United States,<br /> and further questions will arise as time goes on.<br /> <br /> The German Copyright Act is the latest legisla-<br /> tion of any importance. This law was passed in<br /> 1901 and came into force on January Ist, 1902.<br /> There are, in fact, two laws—the Law of Copyright<br /> and the Law of Publishers’ Contracts. They are<br /> both exceedingly long and minute, and will, no<br /> doubt, prove difficult of interpretation. It is all<br /> the more important, therefore, to have a clear<br /> statement of their contents, They differ consider-<br /> ably from the Statutes on Copyright ina country<br /> like France, where the law is settled chiefly by<br /> leading cases rather than by minute statutory<br /> details. On the whole, the French have a freer<br /> interpretation than the Germans are ever likely<br /> to have.<br /> <br /> Lastly, comes a chapter on the arrangements<br /> between authors and publishers. This is an<br /> eminently useful chapter, for many questions do<br /> not come directly under Copyright Law, but deal<br /> directly with literary, dramatic, musical, and<br /> artistic property, and no book on the subject<br /> can be quite satisfactory unless it contains a<br /> chapter under this heading or unless it refers<br /> to agreements of this kind between publishers and<br /> authors.<br /> <br /> This chapter is followed by the Appendices,<br /> containing copies of the Berne Convention, United<br /> States Copyright Act, Forms for Registration<br /> of Books and Other Property. The Appendices<br /> G and H contain short Forms of Agreement<br /> between Authors and Publishers, and Assignments<br /> of Copyright and Forms of Agreement referring to<br /> Artistic Property. After a careful consideration of<br /> the whole book these two Appendices are the only<br /> points about which we raise any serious cause for<br /> complaint. A careful perusal of them by any<br /> one who has knowledge of the main points<br /> which should be protected shows them to be<br />  <br /> <br /> 130<br /> <br /> it that the artist or author meant to sell, and<br /> which the editor meant to buy ?”<br /> <br /> In such cases as that of Aflalo and Lawrence and<br /> Bullen, in all cases where editors claim and authors<br /> dispute as to whether the copyright has passed in<br /> articles published in periodicals, in all cases where<br /> original drawings are sought to be recovered, and<br /> upon many similar occasions, price agreed upon<br /> is of the utmost importance as independent testi-<br /> mony to the intention of the parties. Authors<br /> and artists have to live by their pens and their<br /> pencils, and are not likely to give away copyrights<br /> and other rights without adequate payment, or<br /> without attempting to obtain it should their<br /> attention be called to the point at the time of<br /> making their bargains. Where their attention is<br /> so called, they insert in their letters or introduce<br /> into their verbally-made agreements some con-<br /> ditions referring to the ultimate fate of their<br /> property; when they assume that this will be pre-<br /> served to them and say nothing, they have to rely<br /> on all the facts surrounding the transaction, and<br /> of these the price accepted should be placed before<br /> the jury and should be carefully considered by<br /> them.<br /> <br /> Mr. Ayrton is to be congratulated on the verdict<br /> obtained, although it fell short of what he asked<br /> for, and the jury should be congratulated also upon<br /> the verdict by which they upheld the artist’s<br /> rights, under the guidance of a judge who himself<br /> has had some personal experience of dealings with<br /> editors and proprietors.<br /> <br /> E. A.<br /> <br /> —_____——_.—~—_+—_<br /> <br /> LAW OF COPYRIGHT.*<br /> <br /> 1 +<br /> <br /> HE first edition of Mr. W. A. Copinger’s<br /> “Law of Copyright” appeared so long ago<br /> as September, 1870, and was then the only<br /> <br /> book which attempted to deal in a large way with<br /> this very difficult subject. The second edition,<br /> revised and brought up to date, was published in<br /> 1881, and the third edition in 18938. All these<br /> editions were re-written and re-edited by the same<br /> master-hand.<br /> <br /> The present volume has been entrusted to Mr.<br /> J. M. Easton, and comes before us as the fourth<br /> edition. There are many books on Copyright at<br /> present before the public, some dealing with special<br /> questions such as Dramatic Copyright, Artistic<br /> Copyright, Musical Copyright, or Literary Copy-<br /> right, some books as Mr. Scrutton’s and Mr.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> * “The Law of Copyright.’ By W. A. Copinger. Fourth<br /> edition, by J. M. Easton. Published by Stevens and<br /> Haynes.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> MacGillivray’s valuable works dealing with Copy-<br /> right from the point of view of the authors of<br /> Great Britain ; but none of the books covers such<br /> a wide range as the work originally published by<br /> Mr. Copinger, and now re-edited by Mr. Easton.<br /> Tt deals not only with Copyright in Great<br /> Britain, but also with International Copyright,<br /> United States Copyright; Copyright in the<br /> Colonies, and the Copyright Laws of all the prin-<br /> cipal countries of the world. So large a subject<br /> must necessarily demand large space. We are not<br /> surprised therefore that the book. contains between<br /> eight and nine hundred pages, and an Index and<br /> Appendices covering nearly another three hundred.<br /> <br /> The book has been divided into seven parts, and<br /> commences with Part 1, Literary Copyright. Part 2<br /> deals with Musical and Dramatic Copyright ;<br /> Part 3, Artistic Copyright ; Part 4, Copyright in<br /> Designs ; Part 5, International and Colonial Copy-<br /> right ; Part 6, Copyright in Foreign Countries ;<br /> Part 7, Arrangements between Authors and Pub-<br /> lishers, and Appendices.<br /> <br /> The arrangement of the book is, on the whole,<br /> very satisfactory, and the most important questions<br /> are handled with studious care and an intimate<br /> view of the subject. The work of the present<br /> editor, in order to bring it up to date, has indeed<br /> been heavy. He discusses the very latest<br /> questions and the very latest cases, and in an<br /> addendum ineludes the fact of Sweden’s adhesion<br /> to the Berne Convention in August of last.<br /> year. He has commented at some length on the<br /> case of Affalo v. Lawrence and Bullen, which was.<br /> taken to the House of Lords by the support of the<br /> Society, and which for some time will be the<br /> leading case on the rights of authors in articles<br /> written for encyclopedias. He quotes also the<br /> case of Gollancz and Dent, which under the Society’s<br /> auspices terminated in favour of the author.<br /> <br /> These points are of considerable interest, as many<br /> publishers and even some authors assert that the<br /> actions the Society supports are often vexatious.<br /> and frivolous. If the result of the decisions in two<br /> of these actions tends to make clear a difficult<br /> and complicated law, the efforts of the Society<br /> have not been spent in vain, and those who stand<br /> outside the Society should remember that their<br /> security is the result of the public spirit of the<br /> other members of their profession.<br /> <br /> In the article on Literary Copyright, the editor<br /> deals at length with questions of infringement—<br /> that most difficult of all points which has to be<br /> settled from the facts when the deduction to-<br /> be drawn from those facts is often doubtful and<br /> uncertain. In order to give the most liberal —<br /> opportunity for those interested in Copyright Law,<br /> and for those who deal with Copyright Property,<br /> to come to a decision, he puts forward all the<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> leading cases on the point with considerable<br /> minuteness, and brings into prominence all the<br /> points on the subject which would be likely to<br /> assist the inexperienced. He deals also with the<br /> very interesting case of Walter v. Lane, and the<br /> House of Lords decision on the point. Musical<br /> and Dramatic Copyright have their fair share<br /> of attention, though hardly the same space is<br /> devoted to these subjects as is devoted to literary<br /> property. The result is all that could be<br /> desired, as the same care has been bestowed on<br /> these portions as on those dealing with literary<br /> as distinct from dramatic work. Then follows<br /> Artistic Copyright, beginning with the Copyright<br /> Law in engravings, prints, and lithographs, con-<br /> tinuing with Copyright in Sculptures, and con-<br /> cluding with the most important of Artistic<br /> Copyright Laws—Copyright in Paintings, Draw-<br /> ings, and Photographs. The subject is an<br /> exceedingly difficult one, and might well call for<br /> a book by itself. It is much more complicated<br /> owing to the confusion in the Acts, and the lack<br /> of leading cases, than is Literary Copyright.<br /> <br /> Finally, he deals with International Copyright—<br /> a question of growing importance owing to the<br /> spread of inter-communication, and the powers<br /> granted to the citizens of most of the countries of<br /> Europe under the Berne Convention. Outside<br /> the Berne Convention the only two countries with<br /> which Great Britain has an arrangement are<br /> Austria- Hungary and the United States of<br /> America. Our arrangement with Austria-Hungary<br /> is practically on the lines of the Berne Convention,<br /> and it will, no doubt, be possible for that country<br /> at no distant date to join the union of nations.<br /> Owing to the correspondence in the Standard, the<br /> arrangement with the United States must be before<br /> the minds of all who have any literary, dramatic<br /> or musical property to market.<br /> <br /> The chapter dealing with Colonial Copyright is<br /> most interesting and instructive. Several of the<br /> Colonies have passed Copyright Laws of their own<br /> for various purposes within their respective<br /> limits, but no Colonial Act can override the<br /> Imperial Acts. The great advantage of this to<br /> the Colonies, as well as to Great Britain, is that a<br /> book published in any part of the Empire obtains<br /> copyright throughout the Empire. Therefore,<br /> anyone who may spring into eminence as a writer,<br /> musician, or dramatist in any of the Colonies has<br /> at once an enormous market before him, and an<br /> enormous power of disseminating his views if his<br /> works are properly handled.<br /> <br /> Some of the Colonies which have passed separate<br /> Copyright Laws are New South Wales, New<br /> Zealand, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania,<br /> Victoria, Western Australia, Canada, Newfound-<br /> land, Cape Colony, the Transvaal, and the Orange<br /> <br /> 131<br /> <br /> River Colony. The editor discusses the question<br /> of Canadian Copyright—in the past one of the<br /> most difficult subjects before the Government—up<br /> to its latest development in the Act of 1900, This<br /> Act appears now to be working satisfactorily, and<br /> it is hoped has settled the question, at any rate<br /> until the Imperial Government once again’ brine<br /> to the fore a Copyright Act which will do away<br /> with the many difficulties at present surroundins<br /> the Act of 1842. r<br /> <br /> The next section deals with the Copyright Laws<br /> existing in foreign countries. Although it is true<br /> that under these Acts not many cases arise, yet it<br /> is of great value to have a book which includes a<br /> resumé of the features and limitations of copyright<br /> in foreign countries. Questions have come before<br /> the Secretary of the Society of Authors, dealing<br /> with infringement of copyright in Germany, Spain,<br /> France, Italy, Scandinavia, and the United States,<br /> and further questions will arise as time goes on.<br /> <br /> The German Copyright Act is the latest legisla-<br /> tion of any importance. This law was passed in<br /> 1901 and came into force on January Ist, 1902.<br /> There are, in fact, two laws—the Law of Copyright<br /> and the Law of Publishers’ Contracts. They are<br /> both exceedingly long and minute, and will, no<br /> doubt, prove difficult of interpretation. It is all<br /> the more important, therefore, to have a clear<br /> statement of their contents. They differ consider-<br /> ably from the Statutes on Copyright in a country<br /> like France, where the law is settled chiefly by<br /> leading cases rather than by minute statutory<br /> details. On the whole, the French have a freer<br /> interpretation than the Germans are ever likely<br /> to have.<br /> <br /> Lastly, comes a chapter on the arrangements<br /> between authors and publishers. This is an<br /> eminently useful chapter, for many questions do<br /> not come directly under Copyright Law, but deal<br /> directly with literary, dramatic, musical, and<br /> artistic property, and no book on the subject<br /> can be quite satisfactory unless it contains a<br /> chapter under this heading or unless it refers<br /> to agreements of this kind between publishers and<br /> authors.<br /> <br /> This chapter is followed by the Appendices,<br /> containing copies of the Berne Convention, United<br /> States Copyright Act, Forms for Registration<br /> of Books and Other Property. The Appendices<br /> G and H contain short Forms of Agreement<br /> between Authors and Publishers, and Assignments<br /> of Copyright and Forms of Agreement referring to<br /> Artistic Property. After a careful consideration of<br /> the whole book these two Appendices are the only<br /> points about which we raise any serious cause for<br /> complaint. A careful perusal of them by any<br /> one who has knowledge of the main points<br /> which should be protected shows them to be<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 132 THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> unsatisfactory for the author, the publisher, and<br /> the artist. ‘Che forms are full of omissions, and in<br /> addition there are forms which should have been<br /> included which have not been mentioned at all.<br /> <br /> In a book which shows so deep and so intelligent<br /> a study of so vast a subject, to find only one serious<br /> fault is a matter for generous approval. Mr. Easton<br /> must be congratulated on the very complete<br /> manner in which he has carried forward what, in<br /> its original form, was a very efficient book ; that<br /> he has so laboriously brought up Mr. Copinger’s<br /> last edition to the present date; that he has so<br /> exhaustively studied the various difficulties to<br /> which the subject gives rise; and that, after so<br /> much labour and such deep study, he has been<br /> able in a manner so satisfactory to place his results<br /> before the public. :<br /> <br /> There can be no question, therefore, since the<br /> fourth edition of Mr. Scrutton’s valuable book<br /> was brought forward, since Mr. MacGillivray issued<br /> his important work, and since the fourth edition<br /> of Mr. Copinger’s work is now produced, that the<br /> Copyright Law has been neglected, and lacks the<br /> necessary interpretation.<br /> <br /> G. H. T.<br /> <br /> —_——__o—__o___—_<br /> <br /> LITERARY YEAR BOOK.<br /> 1905.<br /> <br /> — ++ —<br /> <br /> HE ninth annual issue of the “Literary<br /> Year Book” is now published. It comes<br /> with a different imprint—Messrs. George<br /> <br /> Routledge and Sons—with certain changes and<br /> new features. On the whole the principle which<br /> has guided the editor has produced satisfactory<br /> results, but the present reviewer has only been<br /> able to look closely into those portions of the book<br /> which refer to law and copyright, leaving the<br /> tables and catalogues set forth to be dealt with by<br /> others in a subsequent number of this magazine.<br /> <br /> The question of copyright has been handled in a<br /> manner and by a treatment entirely different from<br /> that in former issues. As the former productions<br /> were, from one point of view, satisfactory, so the<br /> present production from another point of view is<br /> by no means unsatisfactory. But copyright law<br /> cannot be healthily masticated in the form of<br /> tabloids.<br /> <br /> In the present tabulated form its incongruities<br /> are made particularly apparent. Take, for example,<br /> one or two points. The period for which copy-<br /> right endures in books, is for the life of the author<br /> and seven years after his death, or forty-two years<br /> from the date of first publication, whichever is<br /> the longer period; but publication is differently<br /> defined in the case of a book and in the case of a<br /> <br /> play. In engravings, however, copyright endures<br /> for twenty-eight years from first publication, and<br /> in paintings, drawings and photographs for the<br /> life of the artist and seven years after his death,<br /> whilst in sculpture it lasts for fourteen years.<br /> Again, the law covering the assignment of copy-<br /> rights varies considerably. The assignment of<br /> books must be in writing or by registration ; of<br /> dramatic pieces in the handwriting of the author<br /> or his agent. Assignments of engravings must<br /> be with the written consent of the proprietor<br /> attested by two witnesses ; of paintings, drawings<br /> and photographs must be in writing and must<br /> also be registered. The assignment of sculpture<br /> must be by deed signed by the proprietor and<br /> attested by two witnesses. The law of registra-<br /> tion in its effect on books differs from its effect on<br /> pictures.<br /> <br /> Among all these complexities it is very difficult<br /> to arrive at any satisfactory knowledge, and it is<br /> to be hoped that the Government will once more<br /> take in hand the question of consolidating the<br /> Copyright Acts.<br /> <br /> In dealing with the question of Canadian copy-<br /> right, the editor makes no mention of the Act<br /> which was passed through the Canadian House<br /> and was assented to by Her Majesty Queen<br /> Victoria on July 18th, 1900. How is this?<br /> There is no doubt, as stated in the Zsmes when<br /> the Act was passed, that this solution of the<br /> Canadian copyright question was brought forward<br /> mainly at the instigation of the Society of<br /> Authors, who spent much time and money in<br /> their endeavours to bring the matter to a satis-<br /> factory issue.<br /> <br /> It has been possible to commend the form of<br /> the article on copyright law. Its substance<br /> may prove inadequate and misleading. Special<br /> attention should be drawn to the 18th section of<br /> the Copyright Act and the judgment given in<br /> the House of Lords in the case of Aflalo v.<br /> Lawrence and Bullen. ‘The editor says, “In<br /> an ordinary case the agreement that copyright<br /> shall belong to the editor or proprietor may be<br /> inferred from the mere employment and payment<br /> of the author.”<br /> <br /> This is not so. The Judges in the House of<br /> Lords deduced the fact that in an encyclopedia the<br /> copyright may belong to the proprietor, owing to a<br /> large sum of money having been expended on the<br /> <br /> production of the book. The deduction seems to<br /> <br /> be false, as it does not take into consideration the<br /> amount paid to the author. This amount would,<br /> of course, vary with the sale of the copyright or<br /> with the sale of the article for use in the encyclo-<br /> <br /> pedia only. But the point hes never been settled p%<br /> in regard to periodicals, and most probably the — °<br /> <br /> judgment which applied to an encyclopaedia<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> would not apply to periodicals, as the contents<br /> of an encyclopedia have, when published in that<br /> shape, @ permanent and lasting position, which con-<br /> tents of periodicals when published in periodical<br /> issue have not.<br /> <br /> In dealing with authors’ agents and agreements,<br /> the editor is inclined to think that authors are apt<br /> to under-estimate the share due to the publisher<br /> in the successful production of a book. This<br /> hardly appears to be the case. Again, he says:<br /> “The publisher should be a man of some literary<br /> attainments.” On the contrary, it is much better<br /> for the publisher to leave the literary attainments<br /> to his reader and adviser and confine himself<br /> purely to business.<br /> <br /> He takes a very strong view against the agent,<br /> and justly so. To a constant reader of The Author<br /> the following point has always been made clear.<br /> If a writer goes to a publisher, he does to a certain<br /> extent keep him at arm’s-length, and is prepared<br /> to look at any agreement offered him from the<br /> legal point of view. To the agent, however, the<br /> author entrusts his honour as to a confidential<br /> family solicitor, and, as in the latter case, not in-<br /> frequently finds his trust misplaced.<br /> <br /> Finally, the editor exclaims : “ Who will protect<br /> the author against the rapacity of the agent?”<br /> Quis custodiet ipsos custodes 2? Why did he not<br /> append a note and refer to the Society of Authors ?<br /> As this society is in no way connected with the<br /> financial success of the production of books, it<br /> can take an absolutely impartial view. On many<br /> occasions the committee have on behalf of its<br /> members been compelled to take strenuous action<br /> against agents, as well as against publishers and<br /> others.<br /> <br /> Following the articles referred to comes an<br /> article on agreements. Although the introduction<br /> to this article shows a healthy spirit of fairness,<br /> the agreements lack many important points and<br /> leave many points to be cleared. Take, for<br /> instance, the commission agreement.<br /> <br /> The difficulties of this kind of agreement are<br /> fairly represented, and the chances against the<br /> success of the commission book are fully cata-<br /> logued, but in one clause the editor says, “The<br /> publishers hereby agree to print, publish, adver-<br /> tise and sell the first edition.” If a publisher<br /> undertakes to “sell” the first edition, he is<br /> going a little far, and would himself naturally<br /> object to enter into such a contract. He would,<br /> no doubt, use his best endeavours to obtain a gale.<br /> In the second clause, copies are sold in the United<br /> Kingdom at the regular trade price and are most<br /> commonly accounted for to the author at two-<br /> thirds of the published price less a discount of<br /> 10 per cent., and the editor proceeds to state : “‘ This<br /> calculation is reached by taking the lowest price<br /> <br /> 133<br /> <br /> charged by the publishers to the wholesale book-<br /> sellers and exporters.” But why should the author<br /> be credited with the lowest price a publisher<br /> receives, when many of the copies may be sold at<br /> a higher figure! Surely, when the author pays for<br /> the cost of the production of his book, he is en-<br /> titled to receive the same figure as the publisher<br /> receives, less 10 per cent., the publisher’s com-<br /> mission. The editor, later on, proceeds to take<br /> the publisher’s side of the case very decidely, and<br /> says: “It would be especially unfair to him—the<br /> publisher—in a commission agreement that he<br /> should account to the author for copies as sold,<br /> which he has actually supplied as odd or 18th<br /> copies.” The latter case is no more unfair to the<br /> publisher than the former is to the author.<br /> <br /> The publisher, again, is given a free hand to sell<br /> the book, by auction or privately, to a dealer at<br /> reduced prices or by way of remainder. This may<br /> be all very fine from the publisher’s point of view,<br /> but again the author might strongly object to<br /> having his book sold below cost price. Other<br /> points might be mentioned concerning the same<br /> agreement, but it is impossible to give an exhaustive<br /> criticism.<br /> <br /> ‘Take the second agreement for the sale of copy-<br /> right. From the author&#039;s point of view the omis-<br /> sions are very heavy. We mention one alone,<br /> publication is of the greatest importance to the<br /> author ; but if he sold his copyright without any<br /> clause binding the publisher to put the book on<br /> the market he might find his work utterly wasted.<br /> <br /> The agreement dealing with the division of<br /> profits may be passed over. This method of pub-<br /> lication is in all ways unsatisfactory from the<br /> author’s point of view, and should be avoided.<br /> <br /> Some of the remarks respecting the royalty<br /> agreement are interesting and should be carefully<br /> studied by those who think of entering into a con-<br /> tract of this kind, but the arguments against the<br /> advance on royalty are fallacious. No doubt the<br /> publisher puts in a certain amount of capital, but<br /> surely the author puts in the same amount, though<br /> not in the form of money. Sometimes, indeed,<br /> the author may put into his MS. the work of a<br /> whole lifetime ; but even if this view of the posi-<br /> tion is not accepted, the economic law of supply<br /> and demand comes into force. If a publisher,<br /> who is a man of business, considers it worth his<br /> while to advance money on royalties in order to<br /> purchase a licence to produce a certain book, it is<br /> absurd to say that such an arrangement is un-<br /> reasonable. Business men do not readily enter<br /> into unbusinesslike arrangements, and they must<br /> know when they enter into the bargain, that such<br /> payment will be amply restored to them, as far as<br /> their judgment can tell, by the sales of the book,<br /> or else they cannot be reckoned as men of business.<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 132 THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> unsatisfactory for the author, the publisher, and<br /> the artist. ‘The forms are full of omissions, and in<br /> addition there are forms which should have been<br /> included which have not been mentioned at all.<br /> <br /> In a book which shows so deep and so intelligent<br /> a study of so vast a subject, to find only one serious<br /> fault is a matter for generous approval. Mr. Easton<br /> must be congratulated on the very complete<br /> manner in which he has carried forward what, in<br /> its original form, was a very efficient book ; that<br /> he has so laboriously brought up Mr. Copinger’s<br /> last edition to the present date; that he has so<br /> exhaustively studied the various difficulties to<br /> which the subject gives rise; and that, after so<br /> much labour and such deep study, he has been<br /> able in a manner so satisfactory to place his results<br /> before the public. :<br /> <br /> There can be no question, therefore, since the<br /> fourth edition of Mr. Scrutton’s valuable book<br /> was brought forward, since Mr. MacGillivray issued<br /> his important work, and since the fourth edition<br /> of Mr. Copinger’s work is now produced, that the<br /> Copyright Law has been neglected, and lacks the<br /> necessary interpretation.<br /> <br /> G. H. T.<br /> <br /> ————___+—&gt;_o—__—__<br /> <br /> LITERARY YEAR BOOK.<br /> 1905.<br /> <br /> —1+—— + —<br /> <br /> HE ninth annual issue of the “ Literary<br /> Year Book” is now published. It comes<br /> with a different imprint—Messrs. George<br /> <br /> Routledge and Sons—with certain changes and<br /> new features. On the whole the principle which<br /> has guided the editor has produced satisfactory<br /> results, but the present reviewer has only been<br /> able to look closely into those portions of the book<br /> which refer to law and copyright, leaving the<br /> tables and catalogues set forth to be dealt with by<br /> others in a subsequent number of this magazine.<br /> <br /> The question of copyright has been handled in a<br /> manner and by a treatment entirely different from<br /> that in former issues. As the former productions<br /> were, from one point of view, satisfactory, so the<br /> present production from another point of view is<br /> by no means unsatisfactory. But copyright law<br /> cannot be healthily masticated in the form of<br /> tabloids.<br /> <br /> In the present tabulated form its incongruities<br /> are made particularly apparent. Take, for example,<br /> one or two points. The period for which copy-<br /> right endures in books, is for the life of the author<br /> and seven years after his death, or forty-two years<br /> from the date of first publication, whichever is<br /> the longer period; but publication is differently<br /> defined in the case of a book and in the case of a<br /> <br /> play. In engravings, however, copyright endures<br /> for twenty-eight years from first publication, and<br /> in paintings, drawings and photographs for the<br /> life of the artist and seven years after his death,<br /> whilst in sculpture it lasts for fourteen years.<br /> Again, the law covering the assignment of copy-<br /> rights varies considerably. The assignment of<br /> books must be in writing or by registration ; of<br /> dramatic pieces in the handwriting of the author<br /> or his agent. Assignments of engravings must<br /> be with the written consent of the proprietor<br /> attested by two witnesses ; of paintings, drawings<br /> and photographs must be in writing and must<br /> also be registered. The assignment of sculpture<br /> must be by deed signed by the proprietor and<br /> attested by two witnesses. The law of registra-<br /> tion in its effect on books differs from its effect on<br /> pictures.<br /> <br /> Among all these complexities it is very difficult<br /> to arrive at any satisfactory knowledge, and it is<br /> to be hoped that the Government will once more<br /> take in hand the question of consolidating the<br /> Copyright Acts.<br /> <br /> In dealing with the question of Canadian copy-<br /> right, the editor makes no mention of the Act<br /> which was passed through the Canadian House<br /> and was assented to by Her Majesty Queen<br /> Victoria on July 18th, 1900. How is this?<br /> There is no doubt, as stated in the Zsmes when<br /> the Act was passed, that this solution of the<br /> Canadian copyright question was brought forward<br /> mainly at the instigation of the Society of<br /> Authors, who spent much time and money in<br /> their endeavours to bring the matter to a satis-<br /> factory issue.<br /> <br /> It has been possible to commend the form of<br /> the article on copyright law. Its substance<br /> may prove inadequate and misleading. Special<br /> attention should be drawn to the 18th section of<br /> the Copyright Act and the judgment given in<br /> the House of Lords in the case of Afialo v.<br /> Lawrence and Bullen. The editor says, “In<br /> an ordinary case the agreement that copyright<br /> shall belong to the editor or proprietor may be<br /> inferred from the mere employment and payment<br /> of the author.”<br /> <br /> This is not so. The Judges in the House of<br /> Lords deduced the fact that in an encyclopedia the<br /> copyright may belong to the proprietor, owing to a<br /> large sum of money having been expended on the<br /> production of the book. The deduction seems to<br /> <br /> be false, as it does not take into consideration the<br /> <br /> amount paid to the author. This amount would,<br /> of course, vary with the sale of the copyright or<br /> with the sale of the article for use in the encyclo-<br /> pedia only. But the point hes never been settled<br /> in regard to periodicals, and most probably the<br /> judgment which applied<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> to an encyclopedia .<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 133<br /> <br /> would not apply to periodicals, as the contents<br /> of an encyclopedia have, when published in that<br /> shape, a permanent and lasting position, which con-<br /> tents of periodicals when published in periodical<br /> issue have not.<br /> <br /> In dealing with authors’ agents and agreements,<br /> the editor is inclined to think that authors are apt<br /> to under-estimate the share due to the publisher<br /> in the successful production of a book. This<br /> hardly appears to be the case. Again, he says:<br /> “The publisher should be a man of some literary<br /> attainments.” On the contrary, it is much better<br /> for the publisher to leave the literary attainments<br /> to his reader and adviser and confine himself<br /> purely to business.<br /> <br /> He takes a very strong view against the agent,<br /> and justly so. To a constant reader of The Author<br /> the following point has always been made clear.<br /> If a writer goes to a publisher, he does to a certain<br /> extent keep him at arm’s-length, and is prepared<br /> to look at any agreement offered him from the<br /> legal point of view. To the agent, however, the<br /> author entrusts his honour as to a confidential<br /> family solicitor, and, as in the latter case, not in-<br /> frequently finds his trust misplaced.<br /> <br /> Finally, the editor exclaims : “ Who will protect<br /> the author against the rapacity of the agent?”<br /> Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Why did he not<br /> append a note and refer to the Society of Authors ?<br /> As this society is in no way connected with the<br /> financial success of the production of books, it<br /> can take an absolutely impartial view. On many<br /> occasions the committee have on behalf of its<br /> members been compelled to take strenuous action<br /> against agents, as well as against publishers and<br /> others.<br /> <br /> Following the articles referred to comes an<br /> article on agreements. Although the introduction<br /> to this article shows a healthy spirit of fairness,<br /> the agreements lack many important points and<br /> leave many points to be cleared. Take, for<br /> instance, the commission agreement.<br /> <br /> The difficulties of this kind of agreement are<br /> fairly represented, and the chances against the<br /> success of the commission book are fully cata-<br /> logued, but in one clause the editor says, “The<br /> publishers hereby agree to print, publish, adver-<br /> tise and sell the first edition.” If a publisher<br /> undertakes to “sell” the first edition, he is<br /> going a little far, and would himself naturally<br /> object to enter into such a contract. He would,<br /> no doubt, use his best endeavours to obtain a sale.<br /> In the second clause, copies are sold in the United<br /> Kingdom at the regular trade price and are most<br /> commonly accounted for to the author at two-<br /> thirds of the published price less a discount of<br /> 10 per cent., and the editor proceeds to state : “ This<br /> calculation is reached by taking the lowest price<br /> <br /> charged by the publishers to the wholesale book-<br /> sellers and exporters.” But why should the author<br /> be credited with the lowest price a publisher<br /> receives, when many of the copies may be sold at<br /> a higher figure ! Surely, when the author pays for<br /> the cost of the production of his book, he is en-<br /> titled to receive the same figure as the publisher<br /> receives, less 10 per cent., the publisher’s com-<br /> mission. The editor, later on, proceeds to take<br /> the publisher’s side of the case very decidely, and<br /> says: “It would be especially unfair to him—the<br /> publisher—in a commission agreement that he<br /> should account to the author for copies as sold,<br /> which he has actually supplied as odd or 13th<br /> copies.” The latter case is no more unfair to the<br /> publisher than the former is to the author.<br /> <br /> The publisher, again, is given a free hand to sell<br /> the book, by auction or privately, to a dealer at<br /> reduced prices or by way of remainder. This may<br /> be all very fine from the publisher’s point of view,<br /> but again the author might strongly object to<br /> having his book sold below cost price. Other<br /> points might be mentioned concerning the same<br /> agreement, but it is impossible to give an exhaustive<br /> criticism.<br /> <br /> Take the second agreement for the sale of copy-<br /> right. From the author’s point of view the omis-<br /> sions are very heavy. We mention one alone,<br /> publication is of the greatest importance to the<br /> author ; but if he sold his copyright without any<br /> clause binding the publisher to put the book on<br /> the market he might find his work utterly wasted.<br /> <br /> The agreement dealing with the division of<br /> profits may be passed over. This method of pub-<br /> lication is in all ways unsatisfactory from the<br /> author’s point of view, and should be avoided.<br /> <br /> Some of the remarks respecting the royalty<br /> agreement are interesting and should be carefully<br /> studied by those who think of entering into a con-<br /> tract of this kind, but the arguments against the<br /> advance on royalty are fallacious. No doubt the<br /> publisher puts in a certain amount of capital, but<br /> surely the author puts in the same amount, though<br /> not in the form of money. Sometimes, indeed,<br /> the author may put into his MS. the work of a<br /> whole lifetime ; but even if this view of the posi-<br /> tion is not accepted, the economic law of supply<br /> and demand comes into force. If a publisher,<br /> who is a man of business, considers it worth his<br /> while to advance money on royalties in order to<br /> purchase a licence to produce a certain book, it is<br /> absurd to say that such an arrangement is un-<br /> reasonable. Business men do not readily enter<br /> into unbusinesslike arrangements, and they must<br /> know when they enter into the bargain, that such<br /> payment will be amply restored to them, as far as<br /> their judgment can tell, by the sales of the book,<br /> or else they cannot be reckoned as men of business.<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> 134<br /> <br /> It is somewhat difficult to criticise the agreement<br /> itself, as the editor has covered the wording of the<br /> clauses by a careful explanation, but it should be<br /> stated that, in no circumstances, should an author<br /> sell the copyright of his work, the translation<br /> rights, or any of the minor rights.<br /> <br /> The habit of paying royalty on thirteen copies<br /> as twelve has come into contracts of late years, but<br /> authors should remember that this takes away<br /> 8 per cent., and that, in consequence, where they<br /> would otherwise have received the royalty on<br /> every copy, they would be entitled to a higher<br /> royalty if they receive it on thirteen copies<br /> reckoned as twelve. In the case in which the<br /> author’s royalty is subject to a reduction, if the<br /> sales are made at reduced prices or by way of<br /> remainder, it should be distinctly understood what<br /> a sale at reduced prices is, as trade sales vary con-<br /> siderably ; cases have arisen in which publishers<br /> have desired to pay a smaller royalty on the<br /> ground of a sale at reduced prices, when really the<br /> book had been sold to the trade at a slight reduc-<br /> tion on account of a large purchase.<br /> <br /> In the correction clause the editor allows the<br /> author a margin of only 6s. per sheet of sixteen<br /> pages. This is certainly small. ‘there are one<br /> or two additional clauses of importance which<br /> should have been suggested in this agreement.<br /> <br /> To sum up, 1t would appear that the editor in<br /> his desire to be fair to both parties, has fallen<br /> between two stools. He has put forward a series of<br /> agreements which are of no advantage to pub-<br /> lishers (they do not show the difficulties to be<br /> avoided or what bargains they should strive to<br /> make for themselves) nor to authors. They do not<br /> show them what their rights are and how they<br /> should retain them.<br /> <br /> Even if the editor had been desirous of<br /> keeping the balance fixed between the author<br /> and the publisher, he has certainly in this matter<br /> thrown some extra weight into the publisher’s<br /> scales.<br /> <br /> The forms of agreement which the editor has<br /> chosen to criticise are certainly by no means the<br /> best forms of agreement that come on the market.<br /> There are one or two publishers who have the<br /> printed forms which are the subject of editorial<br /> comment, and it would seem rather that<br /> the agreements have emanated from their<br /> offices.<br /> <br /> It would be advisable in future editions, for<br /> whoever is responsible for this part of the work,<br /> to study more varied forms of agreement, and<br /> consider the different methods by which<br /> different publishers and different authors have<br /> been accustomed to deal with the property of the<br /> <br /> author.<br /> RT, H,<br /> <br /> THER AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> UNITED STATES COPYRIGHT.<br /> <br /> 1<br /> <br /> VERY interestmg correspondence dealing<br /> with the question of the United States<br /> copyright law has been initiated in the<br /> Standard by Mr. Douglas Sladen. The con-<br /> tributors seem to be unanimous on one point,<br /> that is, the unfairness of the United States<br /> copyright law to British authors and British<br /> copyright property, but they take different views<br /> as to the manner of dealing with the difficulty.<br /> Some desire still to rely on argument and per-<br /> suasion, whilst others desire to retaliate in order<br /> to force the United States to adopt a more equitable<br /> position. Thus the writers are divided into two<br /> parts, the majority desiring to bring pressure on<br /> the United States rather than to force retaliatory<br /> legislation on this side. The columns of The<br /> Author show that the Committee of the Society<br /> have always kept a keen eye upon the question of<br /> United States copyright, and, according to a letter<br /> that appeared in the Standard on January 19th,<br /> they have now decided to take some active steps.<br /> Last year the United States Copyright Association<br /> asked for the criticism of the Society on the copy-<br /> right law, but especially excluded the question of<br /> United States printing. The Author printed the<br /> correspondence in full. Members interested in the<br /> subject should read it carefully.<br /> <br /> It should be mentioned by the way that the<br /> competition in literary commodities cannot be<br /> placed on the same lines as the competition in<br /> other commodities, as some authors seem to think.<br /> The liberal minded, therefore, must not be alarmed<br /> at the words “ protection” and “ retaliation,” and<br /> must not think that the doctrines of Cobden are<br /> being overturned; in fact the protection demanded<br /> for literature is free trade in its widest sense.<br /> Lord Avebury in his letter touches on this<br /> <br /> oint.<br /> <br /> The Author has from time to time pointed out<br /> that the United States copyright law is even more<br /> severe against foreign nations than it is against<br /> England. ‘The United States publisher does not<br /> care to produce a simultaneous publication of a<br /> foreign book in the language of the original, and,<br /> in consequence, the unfortunate foreign author is<br /> compelled to translate into English, in addition to<br /> setting up in the United States and publishing<br /> simultaneously, if he wants to secure copyright.<br /> Germany for the past two years has fought<br /> vigorously against this position, and the German<br /> Authors’ and Publishers’ Associations have urged<br /> their Government to withdraw from the agreement<br /> with the United States. :<br /> <br /> Mr. G. H. Putnam, a prominent member of the<br /> Publishers’ Association in the United States, and a<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 135<br /> <br /> staunch upholder of a wide copyright, has used his<br /> best endeavours to prevent what they term in the<br /> States ‘“‘retrogression,” and has made every<br /> effort to amend the United States law and place<br /> foreigners in a better position.<br /> <br /> The proposed amendment will give a year from<br /> the publication of the original in the foreign country<br /> for the publication of the translation in the United<br /> States before the copyright is lost. The first<br /> attempts were unsuccessful, but there appears to<br /> be a good prospect of the Bill becoming law at<br /> no distant date.<br /> <br /> It is this effort on the part of the United States<br /> and the consequent proposed law that has prompted<br /> the correspondence in the Standard. If the action<br /> of Germany is taken as an example, it would seem<br /> that retaliatory measures, or the threat of retaliatory<br /> measures, would have the desired effect, and it may<br /> fairly be deduced that if the same or even stronger<br /> retaliatory measures were taken in Great Britain,<br /> the same or even better results might accrue. But<br /> there is this further point to be taken into con-<br /> sideration, which will also serve as a strong argu-<br /> ment.<br /> <br /> In the days when the first United States Act<br /> was passed, owing to the fact that the United<br /> States author had practically no protection, the<br /> production of literature was small, and the<br /> number of publishers limited. Since those days,<br /> however, the partial protection which has been<br /> granted has raised the number of authors in the<br /> United States ten fold, and the number of pub-<br /> lishers in equal proportion. Retaliatory measures,<br /> therefore, would at the present time affect a larger<br /> number of people than they would have affected<br /> years ago, and it would be easier for the United<br /> States publishers and authors to bring more ample<br /> pressure to bear now than when, with such a de-<br /> termined and praiseworthy struggle, they passed<br /> the first United States Act.<br /> <br /> It is needless to say that as matters at present<br /> stand all the United States authors and certainly<br /> the great majority of the United States publishers,<br /> with the cultured minority of the United States<br /> citizens, are in favour of taking up that position<br /> in copyright legislation which all other civilised<br /> nations have taken. But, unfortunately, the<br /> politician and the trade care for none of these<br /> things, the advancement of their literature<br /> offers no attraction, and the opinion of the author<br /> has to bow before the greed of the printer.<br /> <br /> Mr. Bernard Shaw, in his letter to the Standard<br /> of Junuary 4th, is the true exponent of the<br /> position.<br /> <br /> He shows—and with justice—that if the United<br /> States should join the Bern Convention, their<br /> printers would not lose but would most likely gain<br /> by the change. Firstly, they would gain an<br /> <br /> enormous amount in the printing of English books<br /> that are not printed and published simultaneously<br /> now, but are shipped over in sheets ; and, secondly,<br /> they would gain by the increased production of<br /> United States literature, as it is a fact that the<br /> larger the scope given to men of talent in any<br /> direction for protection of their work, the larger<br /> the number of men of talent likely to adopt that<br /> work as a profession. This has been, and must<br /> be, a necessary law of evolution, and the enormous<br /> increase of United States writers during the past<br /> ten years is a witness to this law.<br /> <br /> But English authors must be quite clear on one<br /> point, ze., that if the United States joined the<br /> Bern Convention, the competition with the<br /> United States author would be increased and not<br /> diminished. Mr. Douglas Sladen, in his letter,<br /> seems to think that retaliatory measures would<br /> sweep the United States competition off the<br /> market. This is not so. Those authors of the<br /> United States who have an English public would<br /> still be copyrighted and have an English public.<br /> Those who have no English public, whose works it<br /> would not pay to copyright, would be sold in<br /> cheap editions all over the United Kingdom, and<br /> the competition would be greater. Retaliatory<br /> measures, therefore, would produce a more<br /> disastrous result from this point of view than<br /> would be produced by persuading the United<br /> States to join the Convention.<br /> <br /> It is unfortunate, as Mr. Matthews in another<br /> letter whimsically suggests, that we are kin to the<br /> Americans, otherwise we should be treated as<br /> foreigners and gain a similar advantage.<br /> <br /> In the excitement caused by the discussion<br /> about the law above referred to, a phase of United<br /> States copyright even more important has been<br /> overlooked.<br /> <br /> From the Umited States Publishers’ Weekly it<br /> appears that Mr. Tawney, who introduced a Bill<br /> into the House of Representatives on March 2nd,<br /> 1904, has recently brought forward the same Bill,<br /> the final clause of which runs as follows :—<br /> <br /> “And provided further, that accompanying the two<br /> copies of a book, photograph, chromo, or lithograph,<br /> required to be delivered or deposited as above, there<br /> shall be an affidavit under the seal of a registered notary<br /> public of the United States, and made by the person<br /> desiring the said copyright, or his United States agent<br /> or representative. setting forth that the two copies<br /> required to be so deposited have been printed from type<br /> set within the limits of the United States, or from photos<br /> made therefrom, or from negatives or drawings on stone<br /> made within the limits of the United States or from<br /> transfers made therefrom: Provided also, that a penalty<br /> of not less than one thousand dollars nor more than five<br /> thousand dollars shall be imposed for the violation of<br /> any of the provisions of this section.”<br /> <br /> Copyright registration is already sufficiently<br /> difficult, but if every copyright owner or his<br /> 136<br /> <br /> agent has to support his deposit of copies by an<br /> affidavit, copyright registration will become almost<br /> unbearable, and no agent or publisher would<br /> undertake the risk of making such an affidavit at<br /> a penalty of not less than £50 and perhaps as<br /> high as £250. If the United States in their first<br /> copyright law only advanced half way from their<br /> barbaric condition the present law referring to<br /> foreigners would take them a little further<br /> towards civilisation, but Mr. Tawney’s Bill would<br /> take them back again almost to the starting<br /> point.<br /> <br /> These two points, then, should be carefully con-<br /> sidered : 1. Whether it is better in order to obtain<br /> equitable legislation to adopt retaliatory measures<br /> in Great Btitain, or whether it is better to bring<br /> more pressure to bear on the United States.<br /> From the conduct of Germany the first course<br /> would appear to be the best. 2. Whether Mr.<br /> Tawney’s amendment to the present Act should be<br /> opposed tooth and nail by all, both in the United<br /> States and in Great Britain.<br /> <br /> Finally, before the subject of United States<br /> copyright and international relations is laid aside, it<br /> might be as well to draw attention to a lament by<br /> Mr. W. D. Howells in the Christmas number of<br /> Harper&#039;s Magazine on the existing condition of<br /> things.<br /> <br /> He publishes a letter he has received from a<br /> correspondent raising a complaint against the<br /> present position of the United States, and setting<br /> out that no solid Engish book is now printed there,<br /> and his correspondent ends by saying “in conse-<br /> quence we shall relapse into barbarism, and then<br /> resort to piracy, which will so improve our minds<br /> that we shall again seek a lawful alliance, then<br /> degenerate again, and so on and so on.”<br /> <br /> Mr. Howells’ correspondent seems to forget that<br /> though the present law may exclude a certain<br /> number of English authors it has stimulated the<br /> literature of the United States, and surely the<br /> literature of their own countrymen ought to be<br /> able to raise the citizens to a level of civilisation :<br /> but both the writer of the letter and Mr. Howells<br /> seem to doubt whether this can be the case, and<br /> in lamenting the fact that the English authors are<br /> not published in cheap editions, think that there<br /> is no corresponding stimulus to American author-<br /> ship. Further, Mr. Howells, in commenting on<br /> the letter, says : “ English authors have now less<br /> currency in America than they had before the<br /> passage of the Act, and American authors have<br /> less currency in England, although in the social,<br /> political, and commercial interests there has<br /> been so great an affination of their respective<br /> nations.”<br /> <br /> The real fact of the case is that in this matter<br /> the United States have only emerged half way.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> If they had emerged entirely and placed them-<br /> selves on the same basis as other civilised nations,<br /> neither the complaint of Mr. Howells’ corre-<br /> spondent nor his own would arise. But it is<br /> impossible to confirm the last part of Mr. Howells’<br /> statement. He mentions that twenty years ago<br /> all the best United States authors were known in<br /> England. He includes in his list about eight<br /> names, but he may gain comfort with the full<br /> knowledge that where one author was known in<br /> England twenty years ago there must be at least<br /> five known at the present time. Without difficulty<br /> it would be possible to write down thirty United<br /> States authors who are not unknown this side of<br /> the Atlantic. This fact merely disproves Mr.<br /> Howells’ statement, and does not afford any<br /> permanent satisfaction. Mr. Howells proceeds :<br /> “That the two great branches of the Anglo-Saxon<br /> race no longer drink from the same wells of Eng-<br /> lish.” Again this can hardly be upheld. It is<br /> possible that the United States do not drink from<br /> our British well, owing to the fact that the United<br /> States trading element, dealing with property which<br /> does not belong to it, has insisted on the printing<br /> clause, but the British are drinking from the<br /> United States well in ample abundance. It is<br /> pleasant, however, to see Mr. Howells terminate<br /> his article with the following words: “ Better our<br /> historical novels and a good national conscience<br /> than the best English fiction and the sense of<br /> having robbed the author.” May this statement<br /> be a growing sentiment in the minds of the<br /> politician and the trade.<br /> R. M.<br /> <br /> —_—___e—&gt;—_+-—____—__-<br /> <br /> MIL WERCKMEISTER v. AMERICAN<br /> LITHOGRAPHIC AND AMERICAN TOBACCO<br /> COMPANY.<br /> <br /> +<br /> <br /> HIS case was tried in the United States<br /> Circuit Court of Appeals. The main issue<br /> was whether the exhibition of a picture in the<br /> <br /> Royal Academy in London was such a publication<br /> as would necessitate the American copyright notice<br /> being printed upon it in order to secure United<br /> States copyright. Some very interesting remarks<br /> were made as to what constituted publication. As<br /> an obiter dictum it is stated that the Courts have<br /> found the rule that the capacity for public repre-<br /> sentation of a dramatic piece is distinct from the<br /> publication of other literary productions. This, of<br /> course, we know has already been decided, and is<br /> one of the points of distinction between the<br /> United States law and. the British law, as first<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 137<br /> <br /> public representation in England is tantamount to<br /> first publication. Again ‘the exhibition of a work<br /> of art for the purpose of securing a purchaser or<br /> an offer to sell does not adversely affect the right<br /> to acquire copyright.”<br /> <br /> This question of the copyright notice which<br /> the United States Courts insist upon may prove<br /> a great difficulty in special cases. The one<br /> advantage of the method adopted under the Bern<br /> Convention is the fact that there is no need to<br /> comply with the particular formalities in other<br /> countries—signatories to the Convention—if in the<br /> country of origin the formalities are complied<br /> with, until publication in the other countries<br /> actually takes place.<br /> <br /> It seems absurd that a work of art put on the<br /> public market or a work of literature published in<br /> England should be bound to have a United States<br /> copyright notice upon it, and it is submitted that<br /> this position cannot be upheld. This question,<br /> unfortunately, was not at issue in the case above<br /> quoted, although it might have been determined had<br /> the dispute not been settled on another point,<br /> whether the exhibition of a picture ina public gallery<br /> amounted to publication so as to bring it under<br /> the statute, and, therefore, upset the common law<br /> right of the artist to control the reproduction<br /> before publication.<br /> <br /> The decision come to was that exhibition at the<br /> Royal Academy did not amount to such publica-<br /> tion. This is satisfactory, as the artistic effect of<br /> all the pictures being labelled with United States<br /> Copyright Notices would hardly be pleasing,<br /> although from the commercial view of the land<br /> of the almighty dollar it might be sound.<br /> <br /> _<br /> <br /> MAGAZINE CONTENTS.<br /> <br /> ——<br /> JANUARY, 1905.<br /> <br /> BLACKWOOD’s MAGAZINE.<br /> <br /> Recollections of a Visit to Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton at<br /> Knebworth in 1857, By E. H. J.<br /> THE BOOKMAN.<br /> The New Young Islanders. By A. Macdonell.<br /> Hawker of Morwenstow. By C. E. Byles.<br /> CHAMBERS’ JOURNAL.<br /> <br /> School Books Old and New. By Katherine Burrill,<br /> <br /> CONTEMPORARY REVIEW.<br /> <br /> Utilitarian Secondary Education. By A. Macnaughton.<br /> <br /> Robert Browning and Alfred Domett. By Wm. Hall<br /> Griffin.<br /> <br /> The Oxyrhynchus Sayings of Jesus. By Vernon Bartlett.<br /> <br /> The Dual Nature of Deity. By Geo. Barlow.<br /> <br /> CoRNHILL.<br /> <br /> Blackstick Papers, No. 10: “Ja ium.’’ rs<br /> Poe) edhe sa : 10 Jacob Omnium. By Mrs.<br /> The Tereentenary of Don Quixote. By Austin Dobson<br /> <br /> A Welsh Rector of the Last Century. By His Honour<br /> Judge Pavey.<br /> G. D. Friend of Lamb. By E. V. Lucas.<br /> <br /> A Rhodes Scholar from Germany on Oxford. By H<br /> Evan Lindeiner Wildau. r oe<br /> <br /> THE EDINBURGH REVIEW.<br /> <br /> Aubrey de Vere, Poet.<br /> <br /> The Fall of the Directory.<br /> Bishop Creighton.<br /> <br /> Spenser in Ireland.<br /> <br /> Homer and His Commentators.<br /> Burne-Jones.<br /> <br /> THE FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW.<br /> Psychological versus Armchair Historians. 3y Emil<br /> Reich.<br /> Anton Rubenstein. By A. E. Keeton.<br /> Sainte-Beuve. By Francis Gribble.<br /> Swinburne’s Collected Poems. By Ernest Rhys.<br /> <br /> THE INDEPENDENT REVIEW.<br /> <br /> One View of Christian Faith, By C. R. Buxton.<br /> The Ideas of Anatole France. By Olgar Thorold.<br /> Bishops and Historians. By Herbert Paul.<br /> <br /> LONGMAN’S MAGAZINE,<br /> <br /> Aubrey de Vere. By Mrs. C. Towle.<br /> The Hills of Dream: a Poem. By D. J. Robertson.<br /> <br /> MACMILLAN’S MAGAZINE.<br /> The Dutch Undergraduate. By J. D. Hoare.<br /> Some Contemporary Criticism. By H. H. Dodwell.<br /> Shakespeare’s Books, By Geo. Bartram.<br /> <br /> THE MONTH.<br /> <br /> Blessed Edward Campion’s “ Decem Rationes.” By J. H.<br /> Pollen.<br /> <br /> The Plague of the Text Book.<br /> <br /> MoNTHLY REVIEW.<br /> <br /> Umbrian Art. By Edward Hutton.<br /> Vittoria Accoramboni. By Christopher Hare,<br /> <br /> NATIONAL REVIEW.<br /> <br /> Some Aspects of Children’s Books, By Miss Catherine<br /> Dodd.<br /> <br /> Field Names. By the Rev. Canon Ellacombe.<br /> <br /> Correspondence between Frederick Nietzsche and Geo.<br /> Brandes, with an introduction. By Elizabeth Forster<br /> Nietzsche.<br /> <br /> NINETEENTH CENTURY,<br /> Fantin and Boudin. By Frederick Wedmore.<br /> Higher Education in India. By Henry Madras,<br /> <br /> THE QUARTERLY REVIEW.<br /> <br /> William Stubbs, Churchman and Historian,<br /> Horace Walpole and Wm. Cowper.<br /> Matthew Arnold.<br /> <br /> The Direction and Method of Education,<br /> <br /> WorLp’s WORK AND PLAY.<br /> Religion in the Novel. By Hall Caine<br /> <br /> There is no article dealing with literary, dramatic, or<br /> musical subjects in Zemple Bar,<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 138 THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO THE PRODUCERS<br /> OF BOOKS.<br /> <br /> ++<br /> ERE are a few standing rules to be observed in an<br /> agreement. ‘There are four methods of dealing<br /> with literary property :—<br /> <br /> I. Selling it Outright.<br /> <br /> This is sometimes satisfactory, if a proper price can be<br /> obtained. But the transaction should be managed by a<br /> competent agent, or with the advice of the Secretary of<br /> the Society.<br /> <br /> Il. A Profit-Sharing Agreement (a pad form of<br /> agreement).<br /> <br /> In this case the following rules should be attended to :<br /> <br /> C1.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro-<br /> duction forms a part without the strictest investigation.<br /> <br /> (2.) Not to give the publisher the power of putting the<br /> profits into his own pocket by charging for advertisements<br /> in his own organs, or by charging exchange advertise-<br /> ments. Therefore keep control of the advertisements.<br /> <br /> (8.) Not to allow a special charge for ‘office expenses,”<br /> unless the same allowance is made to the author.<br /> <br /> (4.) Not to give up American, Colonial, or Continental<br /> rights.<br /> <br /> (5.) Not to give up serial or translation rights.<br /> <br /> (6.) Not to bind yourself for future work to any publisher.<br /> As well bind yourself for the future to any one solicitor or<br /> doctor !<br /> <br /> III. The Royalty System.<br /> <br /> This is perhaps, with certain limitations, the best form<br /> of agreement. It is above all things necessary to know<br /> what the proposed royalty means to both sides. It is now<br /> possible for an author to ascertain approximately the<br /> truth. From time to time very important figures connected<br /> with royalties are published in The Author.<br /> <br /> IV. A Commission Agreement.<br /> <br /> The main points are :—<br /> <br /> (1.) Be careful to obtain a fair cost of production.<br /> (2.) Keep control of the advertisements.<br /> <br /> (3.) Keep control of the sale price of the book.<br /> <br /> General.<br /> <br /> All other forms of agreement are combinations of the four<br /> above mentioned.<br /> <br /> Such combinations are generally disastrous to the author.<br /> <br /> Never sign any agreement without competent advice from<br /> the Secretary of the Society.<br /> <br /> Stamp all agreements with the Inland Revenue stamp.<br /> <br /> Avoid agreements by letter if possible.<br /> <br /> The main points which the Society has always demanded<br /> from the outset are :—<br /> <br /> (1.) That both sides shall know what an agreement<br /> means.<br /> <br /> (2.) The inspection of those account pooks which belong<br /> to the author. We are advised that this is a right, in the<br /> nature of a common law right, which cannot be denied or<br /> withheld.<br /> <br /> (3.) Always avoid a transfer of copyright.<br /> <br /> ——__—_+—__o___—_<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS.<br /> <br /> 1<br /> IN sex sign an agreement without submitting it to the<br /> Secretary of the Society of Authors or some com-<br /> petent legal authority.<br /> 2. It is well to be extremely careful in negotiating for<br /> the production of a play with anyone except an established<br /> mabager.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 3. There are three forms of dramatic contract for plays:<br /> in three or more acts :—<br /> <br /> (a.) Sale outright of the performing right. This<br /> is unsatisfactory. An author who enters into<br /> such a contract should stipulate in the contract<br /> for production of the piece by a certain date<br /> and for proper publication of his name on the<br /> play-bills.<br /> <br /> (b.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to<br /> perform on the basis of percentages on<br /> gross receipts, Percentages vary between 5<br /> and 15 per cent. An author should obtain a<br /> percentage on the sliding scale of gross receipts-<br /> in preference to the American system. Should<br /> obtain a sum inadvance of percentages. A fixed<br /> date on or before which the play should be<br /> performed.<br /> <br /> (c.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to<br /> perform on the basis of royalties (.c., fixed<br /> nightly fees). This method should be always<br /> avoided except in cases where the fees are<br /> likely to be small or difficult to collect, The<br /> other safeguards set out under heading (0.) apply<br /> also in this case.<br /> <br /> 4, Plays in one act are often sold outright, but it is<br /> better to obtain a small nightly fee if possible, and a sum<br /> paid in advance of such fees in any event. It is extremely<br /> important that the amateur rights of one-act plays should<br /> be reserved.<br /> <br /> 5. Authors should remember that performing rights can<br /> be limited, and are usually limited, by town, country, and<br /> time. This is most important.<br /> <br /> 6. Authors should not assign performing rights, but<br /> should grant a licence to perform. The legal distinction is<br /> of great importance.<br /> <br /> 7. Authors should remember that performing rights ina<br /> play are distinct from literary copyright. A manager<br /> holding the performing right or licence to perform cannot<br /> print the book of the words.<br /> <br /> 8. Never forget that United States rights may be exceed-<br /> ingly valuable. ‘hey should never be, included in English<br /> agreements without the author obtaining a substantia)<br /> consideration.<br /> <br /> 9. Agreements for collaboration should be carefully<br /> drawn and executed before collaboration is commenced.<br /> <br /> 10. An author should remember that production of a play<br /> is highly speculative: that he runs a very great risk of<br /> delay and a breakdown in the fulfilment of his contract.<br /> He should therefore guard himself all the more carefully in<br /> the beginning.<br /> <br /> 11, An author must remember that the dramatic market<br /> is exceedingly limited, and that for a novice the first object<br /> is to obtain adequate publication. :<br /> <br /> ‘As these warnings must necessarily be incomplete, om<br /> account of the wide range of the subject of dramatic con-<br /> tracts, those authors desirous of further information<br /> are referred to the Secretary of the Society.<br /> <br /> —__—_——_—&lt;—_o—_——_<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ITTLE can be added to the warnings given for the<br /> assistance of producers of books and dramatic<br /> authors. It must; however, be pointed out that, as<br /> <br /> a rule, the musical publisher demands from the musical<br /> composer a transfer of fuller rights and less liberal finan-<br /> cial terms than those obtained for literary and dramatic<br /> property. The musical composer has very often the two.<br /> rights to deal with—performing right and copyright. He<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ay<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> should be especially careful therefore when entering into<br /> <br /> an agreement,and should take into part.cular consideration .<br /> <br /> the warnings stated above.<br /> —— ee ee<br /> <br /> HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> i. VERY member has a right toask for and to receive<br /> advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-<br /> lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his<br /> <br /> business or the administration of his property. The<br /> <br /> Secretary of the Society is a solicitor, but if there is any<br /> <br /> special reason the Secretary will refer the case to the<br /> <br /> Solicitors of the Society. Further, the Committee, if they<br /> <br /> deem it desirable, will obtain counsel’s opinion. All this<br /> <br /> without any cost to the member.<br /> <br /> 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright<br /> and publishers’ agreements do not fall within the experi-<br /> ence of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use<br /> the Society.<br /> <br /> 3. Send to the Office copies of past agreements and past<br /> accounts, with a copy of the book represented. The<br /> Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new<br /> or old, for inspection and note. The information thus<br /> obtained may prove invaluable.<br /> <br /> 4. Before signing any agreement whatever, send<br /> the document to the Society for examination.<br /> <br /> 5. Remember always that in belonging to the Society<br /> you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you<br /> are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are<br /> advancing the best interests of your calling in promoting<br /> the independence of the writer, the dramatist, the composer.<br /> <br /> 6. The Committee have now arranged for the reception<br /> of members’ agreements and their preservation in a fire-<br /> proof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as<br /> confidential documents to be read only by the Secretary,<br /> who will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers:<br /> —(1) To read and advise upon agreements and to give<br /> advice concerning publishers. (2) To stamp agreements<br /> in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep<br /> agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to<br /> agreements. Fuller particulars of the Society’s work<br /> can be obtained in the Prospectus.<br /> <br /> 7. No contract should be entered into with a literary<br /> agent without the advice of the Secretary of the Society.<br /> Members are strongly advised not to accept without careful<br /> consideration the contracts with publishers submitted to<br /> them by literary agents, and are recommended to submit<br /> them for interpretation and explanation to the Secretary<br /> of the Society.<br /> <br /> 8. Many agents neglect to stamp agreements. This<br /> must be done within fourteen days of first execution. The<br /> Secretary will undertake it on behalf of members,<br /> <br /> 9. Some agents endeavour to prevent authors from<br /> referring matters to the Secretary of the Society; so<br /> do some publishers. Members can make their own<br /> deductions and act accordingly.<br /> <br /> 10, The subscription to the Society is £1 4s. per<br /> annum, or £10 10s for life membership.<br /> <br /> TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> igs Society undertakes to stamp copies of music on<br /> behalf of its members for the fee of 6d. per 100 or<br /> <br /> _ part of 100. The members’ stamps are kept in the<br /> Society’s safe. The musical publishers communicate direct<br /> with the Secretary, and the voucher is then forwarded to<br /> the members, who are thus saved much unnecessary trouble.<br /> <br /> ———— )<br /> <br /> THE READING BRANCH.<br /> <br /> Cae es<br /> EMBERS will greatly assist the Society in this<br /> Vi branch of its work by informing young writers<br /> of its existence. Their MSS. can be read and<br /> treated as a composition is treated by a coach. ‘The term<br /> MSS. includes ‘not only works of fiction, but poetry<br /> and dramatic works, and when it is possible, under<br /> special arrangement, technical and scientific works. The<br /> Readers are writers of competence and experience. The<br /> fee is one guinea.<br /> <br /> +—&gt;_¢ ______<br /> <br /> NOTICES.<br /> <br /> Sn a coe See<br /> HE Editor of Zhe Author begs to remind members of<br /> the Society that, although the paper is sent to them<br /> free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a<br /> very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great<br /> many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest<br /> 5s. 6d. subseription for the year.<br /> <br /> Communications for “The Author” should be addressed<br /> to the Offices of the Society, 39, Old Queen Street, Storey’s<br /> Gate, S.W., and should reach the Editor not later than the<br /> 21st of each month.<br /> <br /> All persons engaged in literary work of any kind,<br /> whether members of the Society or not, are invited to<br /> communicate to the Editor any points connected with their<br /> work which it would be advisable in the general interest to<br /> publish.<br /> <br /> Communications and letters are invited by the<br /> Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on<br /> no other subjects whatever. Every effort will be made to<br /> return articles which cannot be accepted.<br /> <br /> —— &gt; +<br /> <br /> The Secretary of the Society begs to give notice<br /> that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post,<br /> and he requests members who do not receive an<br /> answer to important communications within two days to<br /> write to him without delay. All remittances should be<br /> crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery Lane, or be sent<br /> by registered letter only.<br /> <br /> ———0—~&lt;&gt;_ —<br /> <br /> LEGAL AND GENERAL LIFE ASSURANCE<br /> SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> +&gt;<br /> <br /> i PENSIONS to commence at any selected age,<br /> either with or without Life Assurance, can<br /> <br /> be obtained from this society. :<br /> Full particulars can be obtained from the City<br /> Branch Manager, Legal and General Life Assurance<br /> Society, 158, Leadenhall Street, London, H.C.<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> AUTHORITIES.<br /> <br /> —_-—~&gt;—+—<br /> <br /> TuuRE has been some doubt in the minds of<br /> members of the Society as to those countries which<br /> are at present members of the Bern Convention.<br /> Tt may be of some use, therefore, again to catalogue<br /> the signatories.<br /> <br /> The subject is of considerable importance, looked<br /> at from any point of view, but owing to the fact<br /> that Sweden joined in August of last year, there<br /> is thisadditional point that the three Scandinavian<br /> countries, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, are now<br /> members. As the difference of language in each<br /> of these countries is stated in their own Copyright<br /> Law to be merely a difference of dialect, the trans-<br /> Jation in one country is secured in all three, and<br /> there is no longer fear of piracy.<br /> <br /> The Signatures.<br /> <br /> Germany, Tunis,<br /> Belgium, Monaco,<br /> Spain, Luxembourg,<br /> France, Japan,<br /> <br /> Haiti, Norway,<br /> Italy, Denmark,<br /> Switzerland, Sweden.<br /> <br /> In order to complete the record of international<br /> relations as far as Great Britain is concerned, there<br /> remains the United States Copyright Act and the<br /> treaty with Austria-Hungary. The latter runs<br /> very much on the same lines as the clauses con-<br /> tained in the Convention of Bern.<br /> <br /> We desire again to call the attention of authors<br /> to the value of translation rights, as the matter is<br /> constantly coming before the Secretary.<br /> <br /> Translators in foreign countries often write<br /> to authors in the United Kingdom and inquire<br /> whether they may have the honour of translating<br /> their works. When the question of payment is<br /> brought forward, the reply comes back either<br /> that the translator cannot afford to pay any sum<br /> whatever, but considers the author obtains a good<br /> advertisement, or that translations are exceedingly<br /> badly paid for in the country of which the trans-<br /> lator is a citizen, and that the utmost it is possible<br /> to offer is £—. This offer sometimes goes as high<br /> as £10, but more frequently is much lower.<br /> <br /> It is true that translations are not paid for at a<br /> high rate, for in addition to the remuneration due<br /> to the original author, the remuneration for the<br /> translator has to be taken into consideration, but<br /> the following example will show that the statement<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> of the position is not always in accordance with<br /> fact.<br /> <br /> ‘A well-known English author was asked for the<br /> right of translation in his work, and on inquiry<br /> for payment received the answer already put<br /> forward, that the translator would be unable to<br /> obtain any money beyond what would cover his<br /> work as translator, but hoped the author would<br /> be able to get a certain amount of advertisement.<br /> The author finding that he failed to get cash, con-<br /> sented to receive nothing for the translation of the<br /> story.<br /> <br /> Our attention was called to the matter by a<br /> correspondent, who informed us that the trans-<br /> lation was being published as a serial in one<br /> of the largest and richest papers. Did the<br /> translator obtain a nice sum for this publica-<br /> tion ? or did the proprietor of the paper obtain<br /> the advantage by purchase of cheap copy ? What<br /> became of the book publisher ?<br /> <br /> In other cases also the rights have been given<br /> away by the authors. Again, examples have come<br /> to our notice where authors of the highest rank<br /> have received in foreign countries the paltry sum<br /> of £5 for translation rights.<br /> <br /> Authors, therefore, should take note of these<br /> points, and should not permit their works to be<br /> translated for nothing in countries which are<br /> members of the Bern Convention without having<br /> a most accurate statement as to the marketable<br /> quality of the translation, for they may rest assured<br /> that if the translator knows how to manage his<br /> business he will obtain a good recompense for his<br /> work, What has been stated applies to all countries<br /> bound together by International Agreement.<br /> <br /> Amone the correspondence we have the pleasure<br /> of printing a letter from the English representative<br /> of the North American Review, correcting a mistake<br /> made in Zhe Author in an article touching the<br /> dispute between Mr. G. W. E. Russell and that<br /> magazine.<br /> <br /> We regret the mistake, but the correction does<br /> not seem to alter, to any great extent, the un-<br /> accountable action of the North American Review<br /> and the circumstances surrounding the publication<br /> of the article referred to.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Mermeers of the Society will be pleased to hear<br /> that the replica of the Besant Memorial has now<br /> been affixed to one of the granite bases by Waterloo<br /> Bridge.<br /> <br /> The exact locality is just to the west of the<br /> pridge, opposite the road coming down from the<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Strand to the Embankment. The’ County Council,<br /> who undertook to fix the site and place the work,<br /> gave no formal unveiling.<br /> <br /> As far as the Society was concerned the formal<br /> tribute to Sir Walter Besant was completed when<br /> the original was unveiled in the crypt of St. Paul’s<br /> Cathedral.<br /> <br /> Amusing errors in nomenclature are sometimes<br /> to be found in the “books received” column of<br /> the great dailies, which are presumably “edited ”<br /> by one of the counting house clerks. Sometimes<br /> the variant given to the title is a distinct im-<br /> provement on the original. For instance, we<br /> notice “The Silent East” instead of “ The Silken<br /> East.” But an entry we once came across in a<br /> “books received” column, which dealt with an<br /> indian romance, was scarcely an improvement.<br /> The book was entitled “ Before the British Raj.”<br /> This was altered to “ Before the British Rag!”<br /> <br /> It appears from the papers that the idea of a<br /> permanent Shakespeare memorial is at last assuming<br /> its proper proportions. The County Council have<br /> agreed to provide a site if the necessary funds are<br /> forthcoming, and a provisional committee has been<br /> brought together. The names contained in the<br /> list show the support the movement is receiving,<br /> The President of our Society is one of the com-<br /> mittee, Dr. Furnivall has accepted the position of<br /> Chairman, Lord Avebury has consented to act<br /> as Treasurer, and Professor Israel Gollancz as<br /> Honorary Secretary. There seems to be no doubt<br /> that with the strong support already promised no<br /> difficulty will be experienced in ‘obtaining the<br /> necessary funds. For the sake of those who desire<br /> to interest themselves in the matter, it is as well to<br /> state that all communications should be sent to the<br /> Secretary, 32, George Street, Hanover Square, W.<br /> <br /> +<br /> <br /> EDWARD ROSE.<br /> <br /> 1° the last hours of the old year Edward Rose<br /> passed away at his house in Hampstead. By<br /> his death, at a comparatively early age, the<br /> Society loses a faithful friend and the members<br /> of the Committee a valued colleague. Having<br /> joined the latter body in 1900, he continued a<br /> regular attendant at its meetings till the end.<br /> His long and intimate acquaintance with the<br /> <br /> 141<br /> <br /> theatre—as actor, as critic, and as playwright—<br /> gave him a knowledge of the dramatic side of<br /> the Committee’s work which was of the greatest<br /> service in its deliberations. He was also keenly<br /> interested in educational literature, being himself<br /> the author of more than one school book ; and he<br /> brought to the consideration of all questions an<br /> open mind, a_ well-balanced judgment, and a<br /> courtesy and kindliness of manner which made him<br /> a model Committeeman. He was a man of many<br /> interests—an educationalist, a politician, a student<br /> of social questions (he was an early and ardent<br /> supporter of the “ Garden City” movement) ; but his<br /> life’s work lay in the theatre, and here he was best<br /> known as a very skilful and successful master of<br /> the difficult art of adaptation. His original work<br /> is not, indeed, to be disregarded. “In Days of<br /> Old” will be remembered as a charming and<br /> graceful romantic play. But as an adapter he<br /> could claim at least three notable successes, * Vice<br /> Versa,” “The Prisoner of Zenda,” and “ Under<br /> the Red Robe,” and he did much—perhaps more.<br /> than any other man—to re-establish the “ drama-<br /> tized novel” in popular favour. The work of an<br /> adapter, as he conceived it, was by no means mere<br /> carpentry. While taking singular care to preserve.<br /> all of the original which was valuable for the uses.<br /> of the stage, he added much from his own store,<br /> rightly understanding that, before a novel can<br /> make a good play, it may well need addition as<br /> well as subtraction, a stronger infusion of the<br /> dramatic no less than an elision of what is not<br /> dramatic. So he made a play of his own out of a<br /> book which was not his own, and stood entitled to.<br /> the credit of its success.<br /> <br /> Devoted to his work, always full of new projects,<br /> yet at the same time with an outlook and interest<br /> stretching far beyond the walls of the theatre, he<br /> lived till the end a life rich in mental activity,<br /> although of later years his health was delicate and<br /> his spirit overshadowed by a great and enduring<br /> sorrow which had befallen him in the loss of a<br /> dearly-loved daughter. To his friends—to those<br /> who had the good fortune to know him well,<br /> whether in holiday hours or in days and weeks of<br /> work done together—he leaves behind him a<br /> pleasant memory, the memory of a man who, not<br /> himself dowered with high spirits, had such a<br /> gift of affectionate sympathy, and so complete a<br /> freedom from repining for himself and from envy<br /> towards others, that the joys and successes of his<br /> friends became to him as his own. He will live<br /> in their recollection as a good man, a good work-<br /> man, and a good friend.<br /> <br /> A. H. H.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> THE MASTERS OF ENGLISH<br /> LITERATURE.*<br /> <br /> — &gt; —<br /> <br /> CCORDING to the preface, “The Masters of<br /> <br /> English Literature,” by Stephen Gwynn, is<br /> <br /> a book for young or busy people who do<br /> <br /> not wish to remain ignorant of what “every school-<br /> <br /> boy knows,” and whose knowleage and time are<br /> limited.<br /> <br /> Whilst it will doubtless fulfil this purpose<br /> (which puts it merely on the level of a handbook or<br /> literary “Who’s Who”), we venture to think that it<br /> will serve better ends than this, and that the author’s<br /> tentative hope that it may send the readers to the<br /> fountain head will also be fully realized.<br /> <br /> He has the art of putting the reader in touch<br /> with the various authors and their times by clear<br /> and sympathetic criticism of the passages cited,<br /> and, whilst pointing out their leading charac-<br /> teristics, he leaves enough unsaid to induce the<br /> reader to search further and think for himself.<br /> <br /> It is this which raises the book above the level<br /> ‘of a mere book of reference. His criticism is<br /> suggestive, and will be of interest to all lovers of<br /> literature who will recognize fresh beauties in<br /> familiar passages, and be led to study the originals<br /> with greater insight.<br /> <br /> It cannot be too highly recommended to students<br /> reading for examinations where time is short, and<br /> accurate knowledge, combined with scholarship, of<br /> great value.<br /> <br /> The author is so much in touch with his subject<br /> that in one case at least, whilst commenting on<br /> “Mrs. Battle’s Opinions on Whist,” a few lines are<br /> written in criticism, which might easily have flowed<br /> from the pen of the essayist himself. Yet there is<br /> no favouritism or over-praise of any special work;<br /> from Chaucer to Tennyson the balance of impartial<br /> judgment and clear narration is well kept, so that<br /> neither prejudice nor confusion is raised in the<br /> mind of the reader searching for information.<br /> <br /> The extracts given show unusual knowledge and<br /> insight, but in the case of Wordsworth, too much<br /> stress has been laid on the weaker side of his<br /> simplicity. One fine sonnet at least should have<br /> been quoted for the benefit of those who have not<br /> got beyond “ We are Seven,” and verses of that<br /> description. We fear that the ordinary reader, after<br /> perusing the “Idiot Boy,” will but echo the couplet<br /> thrown long ago at the heads of the poets of the<br /> Lake School :<br /> <br /> &amp; They lived in the Lakes, an appropriate quarter<br /> For poems diluted with plenty of water.”’<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> _* “The Masters of English Literature,” by Stephen<br /> Gwynn. Published by Macmillan &amp; Co.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> The majority are but too well aware of the<br /> simplicity which at times borders on the inane,<br /> comparatively few have realised the incomparable<br /> beauty of “ Harth has not anything to show more<br /> fair,” the deep feeling of “ The world is too much<br /> with us,” the dreamy charm of the sonnet on<br /> Death, or the exquisite light touch which describes<br /> the daffodils in the lyric, “ I wandered lonely as a<br /> cloud.” In literature, as in everything else, local<br /> colour is of great value, and the stress laid by the<br /> author on the circumstances under which the works<br /> were written is as useful to the student as the<br /> criticism of the works themselves. The chapters<br /> on Milton, Dryden and Pope are notable instances of<br /> this. It is impossible to cultivate a catholic taste<br /> in literature without getting in touch with the<br /> times (often strange and antagonistic to our own<br /> day), in which some of the finest works were<br /> written. The author is well aware of this, and<br /> has noted it in the chapter on the 18th century<br /> novelists. In it he explains much of their former<br /> repute, and more of their disrepute in the present<br /> day. They are in a sense “caviare to the general,”<br /> and the reason why is set forth in clear terms by<br /> one who understands. No one who reads this<br /> little book can fail to have a very effective grasp<br /> of the main points of English literature, and in<br /> addition they will possess a feeling for the spirit of<br /> each age which will be of material advantage to<br /> them in pursuing their researches.<br /> <br /> i<br /> <br /> THE TERCENTENARY OF “DON QUIXOTE.”<br /> (Published at Madrid, January, 1605.)<br /> <br /> (Reprinted from the January Number of the Cornhill<br /> Magazine by kind permission of the Editor.)<br /> <br /> DVENTS we greet of great and small,<br /> Much we extol that may not live,<br /> Yet to the new-born type we give<br /> <br /> No care at all!<br /> <br /> This year, three centuries past,—by age<br /> More maimed than by Lepanto’s fight,—<br /> This year Cervantes gave to light<br /> <br /> His matchless page,<br /> <br /> Whence first outrode th’ immortal Pair,—<br /> The half-crazed Hero and his hind,—<br /> To make sad laughter for mankind ;<br /> <br /> And whence they fare<br /> <br /> Throughout all Fiction still, where chance<br /> Allies Life’s dullness with its dreams,—<br /> Allies what is with what but seems,—<br /> <br /> Fact and Romance :—<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ‘essenateesiiah<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> O Knight of fire and Squire of earth !<br /> O changing give-and-take between<br /> The aim too high, the aim too mean,<br /> <br /> T hail your birth,<br /> <br /> Three centuries past, in sunburned Spain,<br /> And hang, on Time’s Pantheon wall,<br /> My votive tablet to recall<br /> That lasting gain!<br /> Austin Dosson.<br /> <br /> SO<br /> <br /> “DON QUIXOTE” TERCENTENARY.<br /> <br /> ae<br /> N the “From the Committee ”’ mention has been<br /> made from time to time of the action the<br /> Committee of the Society has taken in order<br /> <br /> to mark the literary importance of the Tercentenary<br /> of the publication of “Don Quixote.” The text<br /> of the address which will be sent to the Spanish<br /> Academy, drafted by Mr. Austin Dobson, approved<br /> by the President of the Society, Mr. George<br /> Meredith, and the Managing Committee, and signed<br /> by all the members of the Council, is now printed.<br /> <br /> ADDRESS TO THE SPANisH ACADEMY.<br /> <br /> The Council of the Society of Authors desires<br /> to express, on behalf of the members of that<br /> Society, the pleasure and entire sympathy with<br /> which they have learned that steps are being<br /> taken to celebrate the tercentenary of the publication<br /> of * Don Quixote.”<br /> <br /> There is a special, and, indeed, exceptional<br /> reason why Englishmen should wish to associate<br /> themselves with the contemplated ceremonial.. We<br /> in England were, from the first, among the most<br /> enthusiastic admirers of “ Don Quixote.” We have<br /> translated the book repeatedly and elaborately ;<br /> we have printed it in Spanish, and one of the most<br /> searching and scholarly of its commentators is to<br /> be found in the ranks of our ecclesiastics. Its<br /> Knight and Squire have become part of our national<br /> life ; its incidents have stimulated the invention of<br /> our artists, and lent imagery to our poets and<br /> dramatists, and the impress of its genius is upon<br /> all our great novelists, from Fielding and Sterne to<br /> Dickens and Thackeray.<br /> <br /> But there are further reasons—more general in<br /> their nature, and less local in their application—why<br /> we should join in doing honour to your illustrious<br /> compatriot. Spaniard of the Spaniards, he was<br /> also a cosmopolitan in fiction—a citizen of the<br /> world of letters. His method and his matter are<br /> alike imperishable, because they are based in<br /> universal humanity. Wherever is waged that<br /> endless war between metaphysics and mother-wit ;<br /> wherever imagination quits the beaten track of<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> 143<br /> <br /> commonplace for the haunted bye-ways of romance:<br /> wherever the old heroic spirit is stirred once<br /> more to the sublime ambition of self-sacrifice -<br /> there must men remember and revere the name of<br /> Miguel de Cervantes.<br /> <br /> “Don Qurxorte” Dinner.<br /> <br /> In London on Thursday, January 19th,<br /> dinner was held at the Whitehall Rooms of the<br /> Hotel Metropole, under the chairmanship of Major<br /> Martin Hume, to celebrate the same event.<br /> <br /> The chief guest of the evening was the Spanish<br /> Ambassador.<br /> <br /> Among the company present were Mrs. Craigie,<br /> Mr. Anthony Hope Hawkins, Mr. Edmund Gosse,<br /> Mr. Clement Shorter, Mr. Austin Dobson, Mr.<br /> Edward Clodd, Mr. Sidney Lee, and Mr. Justin<br /> H. McCarthy, Sir Henry Irving (representing the<br /> Stage), Prof. Ray Lankester, (Science), and Mr.<br /> George Frampton, R.A., (Art).<br /> <br /> The Spanish Ambassador, in responding to the<br /> toast of “ The Immortal Memory of Don Quixote,”<br /> proposed by the chairman, pointed out that the<br /> idealism destroyed by “Don Quixote” had not<br /> left Spain without lofty aims, and expressed the<br /> pleasure which he felt at the present cordial<br /> relations existing between Great Britain and his<br /> native country.<br /> <br /> Mr. Edmand Gosse, in proposing prosperity to<br /> the literatures of England and Spain, declared that<br /> in his opinion Spanish influence had implanted<br /> upon Elizabethan drama its love of splendour,<br /> colour and music.<br /> <br /> Sir Henry Irving, replying for the Drama, con-<br /> trasted the position of modern dramatists with<br /> that occupied by Cervantes, whom he stated at no<br /> time received more than about £7 10s. for any of his<br /> plays, and expressed a desire to meet a present-<br /> day dramatist willing to sell his work on similar<br /> terms.<br /> <br /> Sir Henry also dealt with the difficulties con-<br /> nected with the satisfactory production of “ Don<br /> Quixote” on the stage, and concluded his speech<br /> by remarking on the possibility of Shakespeare<br /> having had the opportunity of recognising a<br /> kindred soul before he died.<br /> <br /> ee<br /> <br /> CHARACTER-DRAWING.<br /> <br /> +<br /> <br /> HERE was a time (Plancus was consul then,<br /> <br /> if you are exacting for a date), when I used<br /> <br /> to be a great admirer of the paintings of<br /> <br /> G. D. Leslie, R.A., finding, I suppose, rest and<br /> refreshment in a certain grace which they possess,<br /> and their studied sobriety of tone. And I can<br /> <br /> <br /> THE<br /> <br /> THE MASTERS OF ENGLISH<br /> LITERATURE.*<br /> <br /> ———————<br /> <br /> CCORDING to the preface, “The Masters of<br /> <br /> English Literature,” by Stephen Gwynn, is<br /> <br /> a book for young or busy people who do<br /> <br /> not wish to remain ignorant of what “every school-<br /> <br /> boy knows,” and whose knowleage and time are<br /> limited.<br /> <br /> AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The majority are but too well aware of the<br /> simplicity which at times borders on the inane,<br /> comparatively few have realised the incomparable<br /> beauty of “ Harth has not anything to show more<br /> fair,” the deep feeling of “The world is too much<br /> with us,” the dreamy charm of the sonnet on<br /> Death, or the exquisite light touch which describes<br /> the daffodils in the lyric, “ I wandered lonely as a<br /> cloud.” In literature, as in everything else, local<br /> colour is of great value, and the stress laid by the<br /> author on the circumstances under which the works<br /> <br /> Whilst it will doubtless fulfil this purpose<br /> (which puts it merely on the level of a handbook or<br /> literary “Who’s Who”), we venture to think that it<br /> will serve better ends than this, and that the author’s<br /> tentative hope that it may send the readers to the<br /> fountain head will also be fully realized.<br /> <br /> He has the art of putting the reader in touch<br /> with the various authors and their times by clear<br /> and sympathetic criticism of the passages cited,<br /> and, whilst pointing out their leading charac-<br /> teristics, he leaves enough unsaid to induce the<br /> reader to search further and think for himself.<br /> <br /> It is this which raises the book above the level<br /> of a mere book of reference. His criticism is<br /> suggestive, and will be of interest to all lovers of<br /> literature who will recognize fresh beauties in<br /> familiar passages, and be led to study the originals<br /> with greater insight.<br /> <br /> It cannot be too highly recommended to students<br /> reading for examinations where time is short, and<br /> accurate knowledge, combined with scholarship, of<br /> great value.<br /> <br /> The author is so much in touch with his subject<br /> that in one case at least, whilst commenting on<br /> “Mrs. Battle’s Opinions on Whist,” a few lines are<br /> written in criticism, which might easily have flowed<br /> from the pen of the essayist himself. Yet there is<br /> no favouritism or over-praise of any special work;<br /> from Chaucer to Tennyson the balance of impartial<br /> judgment and clear narration is well kept, so that<br /> neither prejudice nor confusion is raised in the<br /> mind of the reader searching for information.<br /> <br /> The extracts given show unusual knowledge and<br /> insight, but in the case of Wordsworth, too much<br /> stress has been laid on the weaker side of his<br /> simplicity. One fine sonnet at least should have<br /> been quoted for the benefit of those who have not<br /> got beyond “ We are Seven,” and verses of that<br /> description. We fear that the ordinary reader, after<br /> perusing the “Idiot Boy,” will but echo the couplet<br /> thrown long ago at the heads of the poets of the<br /> Lake School :<br /> <br /> fe They lived in the Lakes, an appropriate quarter<br /> For poems diluted with plenty of water.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> * “The Masters of English Literature,’ by Stephen<br /> Gwynn. Published by Macmillan &amp; Co,<br /> <br /> were written is as useful to the student as the<br /> criticism of the works themselves.<br /> on Milton, Dryden and Pope are notable instances of<br /> this. It is impossible to cultivate a catholic taste |<br /> in literature without getting in touch with the |<br /> times (often strange and antagonistic to our own 7 H<br /> day), in which some of the finest works were 2 oe<br /> written. pu<br /> has noted it in the chapter on the 18th century<br /> novelists.<br /> repute, and more of their disrepute in the present |e<br /> day. They are in a sense “caviare to the general,” lect<br /> and the reason why is set forth in clear terms by<br /> one who understands.<br /> little book can fail to have a very effective grasp 4<br /> of the main points of English literature, and in<br /> addition they will possess a feeling for the spirit of<br /> each age which will be of material advantage to<br /> them in pursuing their researches.<br /> <br /> wei<br /> <br /> The chapters<br /> <br /> The author is well aware of this, and<br /> <br /> In it he explains much of their former | \oat<br /> <br /> No one who reads this<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> +&gt; ___—_<br /> <br /> THE TERCENTENARY OF “DON QUIXOTE.”<br /> <br /> (Published at Madrid, January, 1605,)<br /> <br /> (Reprinted from the January Number of the Cornhill<br /> Magazine by kind permission of the Editor.)<br /> <br /> DVENTS we greet of great and small,<br /> Much we extol that may not live,<br /> Yet to the new-born type we give<br /> <br /> No eare at all!<br /> <br /> This year, three centuries past,—by age<br /> More maimed than by Lepanto’s fight,—<br /> This year Cervantes gave to light<br /> <br /> His matchless page,<br /> <br /> Whence first outrode th’ immortal Pair,— p&gt;<br /> The half-crazed Hero and his hind,— f°<br /> To make sad laughter for mankind ; :<br /> <br /> And whence they fare<br /> <br /> Throughout all Fiction still, where chance<br /> Allies Life’s dullness with its dreams,—<br /> Allies what is with what but seems,—<br /> <br /> Fact and Romance :—<br /> <br /> <br /> eat<br /> <br /> co<br /> €<br /> <br /> eS<br /> 9<br /> <br /> oe<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> O Knight of fire and Squire of earth !<br /> O changing give-and-take between<br /> The aim too high, the aim too mean,<br /> <br /> T hail your birth,<br /> <br /> Three centuries past, in sunburned Spain,<br /> And hang, on Time’s Pantheon wall,<br /> My votive tablet to recall<br /> That lasting gain !<br /> Austin Dogpson.<br /> <br /> Or<br /> <br /> “DON QUIXOTE” TERCENTENARY.<br /> ee<br /> <br /> N the “From the Committee ” mention has been<br /> made from time to time of the action the<br /> Committee of the Society has taken in order<br /> to mark the literary importance of the Tercentenary<br /> uf the publication of “ Don Quixote.” The text<br /> of the address which will be sent to the Spanish<br /> Academy, drafted by Mr. Austin Dobson, approved<br /> by the President of the Society, Mr. George<br /> Meredith, and the Managing Committee, and signed<br /> by all the members of the Council, is now printed.<br /> <br /> ADDRESS TO THE SPANISH ACADEMY.<br /> <br /> The Council of the Society of Authors desires<br /> to express, on behalf of the members of that<br /> Society, the pleasure and entire sympathy with<br /> which they have learned that steps are being<br /> taken to celebrate the tercentenary of the publication<br /> of “ Don Quixote.”<br /> <br /> There is a special, and, indeed, exceptional<br /> reason why Englishmen should wish to associate<br /> themselves with the contemplated ceremonial.. We<br /> in England were, from the first, among the most<br /> enthusiastic admirers of “ Don Quixote.’”” Wehave<br /> translated the book _repeatedly and elaborately ;<br /> we have printed it in Spanish, and one of the most<br /> searching and scholarly of its commentators is to<br /> be found in the ranks of our ecclesiastics. Its<br /> Knight and Squire have become part of our national<br /> life ; its incidents have stimulated the invention of<br /> our artists, and lent imagery to our poets and<br /> dramatists, and the impress of its genius is upon<br /> all our great novelists, from Fielding and Sterne to<br /> Dickens and Thackeray.<br /> <br /> But there are further reasons—more general in<br /> their nature, and less local in their application—why<br /> we should join in doing honour to your illustrious<br /> compatriot. Spaniard of the Spaniards, he was<br /> also a cosmopolitan in fiction—a citizen of the<br /> world of letters. His method and his matter are<br /> alike imperishable, because they are based in<br /> universal humanity. Wherever is waged that<br /> <br /> endless war between metaphysics and mother-wit ;<br /> wherever imagination quits the beaten track of<br /> <br /> 143:<br /> <br /> commonplace for the haunted bye-ways of romance :<br /> wherever the old heroic spirit is stirred once<br /> more to the sublime ambition of self-sacrifice -<br /> there must men remember and revere the name of<br /> Miguel de Cervantes.<br /> <br /> “Don Quixote” Dinner.<br /> <br /> In London on Thursday, January 19th, a<br /> dinner was held at the Whitehall Rooms of the<br /> Hotel Metropole, under the chairmanship of Major<br /> Martin Hume, to celebrate the same event,<br /> <br /> The chief guest of the evening was the Spanish<br /> Ambassador.<br /> <br /> Among the company present were Mrs. Craigie,<br /> Mr. Anthony Hope Hawkins, Mr. Edmund Gosse,<br /> Mr. Clement Shorter, Mr. Austin Dobson, Mr.<br /> Edward Clodd, Mr. Sidney Lee, and Mr. Justin<br /> H. McCarthy, Sir Henry Irving (representing the<br /> Stage), Prof. Ray Lankester, (Science), and Mr.<br /> George Frampton, R.A., (Art).<br /> <br /> The Spanish Ambassador, in responding to the<br /> toast of “ The Immortal Memory of Don Quixote,”<br /> proposed by the chairman, pointed out that the<br /> idealism destroyed by “Don Quixote” had not<br /> left Spain without lofty aims, and expressed the<br /> pleasure which he felt at the present cordial<br /> relations existing between Great Britain and his<br /> native country.<br /> <br /> Mr. Edmund Gosse, in proposing prosperity to<br /> the literatures of England and Spain, declared that<br /> in his opinion Spanish influence had implanted<br /> upon Elizabethan drama its love of splendour,<br /> colour and music.<br /> <br /> Sir Henry Irving, replying for the Drama, con-<br /> trasted the position of modern dramatists with<br /> that occupied by Cervantes, whom he stated at no<br /> time received more than about £7 10s. for any of his<br /> plays, and expressed a desire to meet a present-<br /> day dramatist willing to sell his work on similar<br /> terms.<br /> <br /> Sir Henry also dealt with the difficulties con-<br /> nected with the satisfactory production of “ Don<br /> Quixote” on the stage, and concluded his speech<br /> by remarking on the possibility of Shakespeare<br /> having had the opportunity of recognising a<br /> kindred soul before he died.<br /> <br /> Se eee<br /> <br /> CHARACTER-DRAWING.<br /> <br /> 9<br /> <br /> HERE was a time (Plancus was consul then,<br /> if you are exacting for a date), when I used<br /> to be a great admirer of the paintings of<br /> <br /> G. D. Leslie, R.A., finding, I suppose, rest and<br /> refreshment in a certain grace which they possess,<br /> and their studied sobriety of tone. And I can<br /> 144<br /> <br /> recall saying to one who, to my inexperience,<br /> represented the height of mature culture, that at<br /> the Academy I looked for the Leightons and the<br /> Leslies, and did not care for anything else. She<br /> gave a deep assent—in those sesthetic days deep<br /> assents took the form of a sigh—and I felt proud<br /> of my judgment. But the next year I went to the<br /> Royal Academy with an artist, who, standing<br /> before the mob-capped Leslie maiden of that<br /> particular year, pointed out to me that the girl’s<br /> hands came about where her elbows should have<br /> been. And henceforward the charm of G. D.<br /> Leslie faded away for me.<br /> <br /> In mental things you cannot point out malforma-<br /> tions as easily as in things physical ; and it is<br /> perhaps well for the happiness of most novel-<br /> readers that you cannot. Yet even in the mere<br /> drawing of a figure, I for my part needed to have<br /> the defects made plain. And I feel a moral con-<br /> viction that if I could take the reader’s arm and<br /> stroll with him through a gallery of our most<br /> popular fiction, I could convince him of misdraught-<br /> ings of character quite as fatal as Leslie’s mis-<br /> drawings of mob-capped maidens : limbs too long or<br /> too short, necks all awry, every kind of impossi-<br /> bility. And he should soon learn to distinguish—<br /> though I do not think he does so yet—the unusual<br /> from the impossible. Nobody expects a gallery of<br /> portraits to be all alike ; and yet in a gallery of<br /> portraits you can easily, or easily learn to dis-<br /> tinguish between bad drawing and good drawing.<br /> When Velasquez paints you a dwarf, he is a dwarf<br /> and nothing more. But when Madox Brown does<br /> so—as in his pot-boy in “‘ Work’”’—he has painted<br /> a horror who haunts you just because the deformity<br /> of nature is complicated by the deformity of bad<br /> draughtsmanship. He did not intend that, no<br /> more than he intended his St. Peter, whose feet<br /> Christ is washing, in our Tate Gallery picture, to<br /> have a head almost twice too large for his body.<br /> <br /> I am sure that if we were equally sensible to<br /> malformations in character-drawings, all those<br /> personages of fiction whose merits or defects were<br /> outside nature would haunt us in the like fashion.<br /> Then those impossibly courageous heroes whom<br /> young ladies adore would not be pleasant to contem-<br /> plate at all—they would be more monstr’, horrend’,<br /> inform’ than Quasimodo; just as the Farnese<br /> Hercules is much more horrible than heroic. But<br /> alas ! we—we in England are the worst in this<br /> respect—seem hardly to have begun to understand<br /> the laws of character-drawing, and even to have<br /> declined in this regard of recent years. There<br /> are no studios where this kind of draughtsmanship<br /> can be taught. It is not studying the works<br /> of the great classics which will do the business.<br /> Had not the book illustrators of fifty years ago<br /> the classic masters in their own art before them ?<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> But who would now tolerate the hands and<br /> feet of Richard Doyle, say, or of Phiz? I am<br /> not saying that in these cases, as in that of Madox<br /> Brown, you do not get great excellences. Looking<br /> at their merits alone, you pardon their defects,<br /> which yet reach down to the elements of their art.<br /> So I make no doubt it will be with some of our<br /> best contemporary novelists fifty years hence.<br /> People will read them still with delight ; but they<br /> will wonder how the mere technique of the character-<br /> drawing could have gone so wonderfully astray.<br /> <br /> For my part I surmise that the failure of technique<br /> in the two arts—in figure-drawing and in character-<br /> drawing—springs from very much the same cause<br /> in either case. I imagine a Madox Brown (or a<br /> Richard Doyle; it doesn’t matter which you<br /> choose), getting his model in front of him, but so<br /> much occupied with what he wants to show of the<br /> face—minutest hairs, wrinkles, what-not, in the one<br /> case ; humorous touches in the second—that he<br /> almost forgets to look at the figure. At any rate,<br /> he never thinks of the face as a part of the body as<br /> a whole. Least of all does he think of face or<br /> figure as moving or caught under sudden aspects<br /> of light, and so forth. Well, it is the same with<br /> the drawer of character, ninety-nine times out of a<br /> hundred. The “ personality” with him plays the<br /> part which the head played for the Pre-Raphaelite.<br /> ‘And he on his side never thinks of that personality<br /> in motion, displaying itself as it only could display<br /> itself in reality in the rough-and-ready speech of<br /> actual life, in the sudden calls of common affairs.<br /> Of course we do not to-day—as Scott and Dickens<br /> did, at least with their hero and heroine—make<br /> the folk of our novels “talk like a book.” That<br /> that has been as much abandoned as the soliloquy<br /> on the stage is so far a sign of advance. But the<br /> pook-folk almost always speak—if I may use the<br /> word—in vacuo. They say what in the opinion<br /> of the author of their being would be at the back<br /> of their minds. They do not show the influence<br /> on themselves of the personality with whom they<br /> are in contact, nor any one of the thousand acci-<br /> dents which in real life always deflect speech from<br /> the perfect straight line. I call that speaking m<br /> vacuo. At any rate, it is an atmosphere which<br /> is not of earth, like the atmosphere of a Pre-<br /> Raphaelite picture.<br /> <br /> I say that a study of the classics will not alone<br /> correct this evil. 1 have listened a hundred times<br /> to Shakespeare on the stage, and I am absolutely<br /> <br /> convinced that the actor never really imagines ©<br /> <br /> himself the personage he presents. He gets as far<br /> perhaps as imagining he imagines himself that<br /> personage. What he really does is (at best) to<br /> appreciate in its general bearing the essential<br /> emotion which the lines express. And all his<br /> brother actors (at best) do the same. Thus you<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> got a series of separate studies arranged into a<br /> picture ; which once again is the Pre-Raphaelite<br /> method. You never got the enveloping atmo-<br /> sphere which unitesthem all. To get that atmosphere<br /> in the case of Shakespeare is indeed almost a<br /> superhuman task. One can guess it, half appre-<br /> hend it in reading, no more. For here the atmo-<br /> sphere is not that of every day: it is transformed by<br /> the poetical setting. And yet even in this divine<br /> air the characters play upon each other, create<br /> each other, as they do not in any other poetical<br /> drama even of that time : not to the same extent,<br /> not nearly to the same extent. Shakespeare himself<br /> felt this without doubt, when he insisted so much<br /> on naturalness, on naturalism. And though his<br /> sentence has become a cant one with us, it is most<br /> noticeable how on either side of Shakespeare the<br /> Elizabethan dramatists shade off into extravagance,<br /> slip away into the non-natural (in love as in other<br /> things)—Marlowe does upon one side, Webster<br /> and Ford upon the other side. Even when they do<br /> not this, even when they turn the folk that strut<br /> and bellow out of doors, there is still the same kind<br /> of separation between the different characters that<br /> I have spoken of already—individuality in the<br /> wrong sense of the word. Their utterances read<br /> almost as if they were all speaking soliloquies or<br /> “talking like a book” in the Dickens-Scott fashion.<br /> <br /> More than anything does the technique of an<br /> art that is vital vary from age to age. And it is<br /> of no use to urge that good character-drawing<br /> belongs to all ages—to Shakespeare, to Sterne, to<br /> Richardson, to Thackeray. For it will not belong<br /> to our productions, if we set ourselves to imitate<br /> the manner of Shakespeare or Sterne or Richardson<br /> or Thackeray. It will not come through any<br /> elaboration of upholstering either—no more in the<br /> novel than on the stage. There is no harm in<br /> M. Antoine’s realism of stage-setting, and there is<br /> no harm in all the details in which the naturalist,<br /> he who prides himself on that title, takes delight.<br /> But unless you can get real folk to walk the boards<br /> all such stage-management is of little worth.<br /> <br /> C. F. Keary.<br /> <br /> $&lt; —_<br /> <br /> THE DECAY OF HUMOUR.<br /> <br /> —— +<br /> <br /> N Forster&#039;s “Life of Dickens” it is related<br /> that “The Pickwick Papers” were not<br /> absolutely successful until the character of<br /> <br /> Sam Weller was introduced. This witty type of<br /> a cockney servant stamped the inimitable book<br /> with the saving grace of humour. Perhaps the<br /> quaint turns of speech, the sly wisdom of the<br /> devoted Sam’s ideas, may not commend themselves<br /> <br /> 145<br /> <br /> nowadays; their ancient flavour may not whet<br /> the modern, fastidious, literary palate; but genuine<br /> whimsicality must always appeal to the sense of<br /> humour which to a greater or less extent is latent<br /> in all of us. And over all the works of this master<br /> of fiction the spirit of drollery hovers and wanders<br /> to illumine the shadows of life. And this is why<br /> his popularity has kept pace with the growth of<br /> modern readers.<br /> <br /> Some years ago a few choice spirits, with<br /> exuberant pens and laughing intentions, embodied<br /> their ideas in certain books which had a measure<br /> of popularity. Brilliant wit and epigrammatic<br /> force did not lurk in their pages, which were only<br /> seasoned with inoffensive jokes and mild incon-<br /> eruities. But a wonderful result happened!<br /> These exuberant platitudes were styled the new<br /> humour! as if real humour could ever grow old,<br /> or actual wit become stale. But a large section of<br /> the reading public, perhaps, oppressed with the<br /> solemn seriousness of nearly all imaginative<br /> literature, exultingly welcomed these appeals to<br /> their laughing instincts. The constituents of this<br /> so-called new humour were only pinchbeck and<br /> veneer, but it served. It has already become<br /> obscure and forgotten. It has lived its little day<br /> and is heard no more.<br /> <br /> Why amongst our various periodicals are there<br /> no humorous or even semi-humorous ones ? Where<br /> is the light play of thought, the touches of persi-<br /> flage, the fantastic grace of whimsicality, the<br /> subtle egigram, the shaft of satire, the grotesque<br /> absurdity, or even the twist of verbal meanings,<br /> all bordering on or relating to the saving grace of<br /> humour? What mystic spirit of solemnity has<br /> clouded modern thought ?<br /> <br /> It may be said, however, that there is a certain<br /> ancient comic institution to supply the humorous<br /> needs of the public. Certainly its illustrations<br /> often sharply outline the shows and vanities of the<br /> hour ; but its venerable quips and irksome sallies<br /> hardly provoke hilarity. Nevertheless, the institu-<br /> tion claims its votaries, for the spirit of the past,<br /> when genius stamped its pages with brilliancy and<br /> brightness, still endears this publication. But there<br /> is ample room for a modern rival. When are we<br /> to have it ?<br /> <br /> The fiction of the period is sometimes brilliant,<br /> but seldom diverting. here are a few popular<br /> novels full of generous farce or touched with a<br /> keen spirit of humour, on others a bizarre wild-<br /> ness and curious vein of drollery ; but the general<br /> tone of modern fiction is dejecting, pessimistic<br /> and solemn. Yet the genius of the modern<br /> novelist ranges in every direction. Plots, inci-<br /> dents, characters, are as varied as the countries of<br /> the earth ; but wit or humour is almost nd ; and<br /> the busy, reading world is so eager to laugh and<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 146<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> to chuckle! Surely the novel which photographs<br /> life’s episodes, events and aspects ought to reveal<br /> its lighter and mirth-compelling moods. The<br /> times are crying out for merry thought, lively<br /> characters, hopefulness, gladness in the domain<br /> of imagination and life.<br /> <br /> Poetry nowadays seems almost a caput mor-<br /> fwum, and our few bards only pipe doleful music.<br /> Their ditties are set ina minor key. There is no<br /> Thomas Hood to evoke smiles as well as tears;<br /> no Byron to electrify the world with brilliant wit.<br /> Even the lighter fantasies of society verse are<br /> not popular. The strife, stress and endeavour of<br /> life have shadowed song. ‘The saving grace of<br /> humour has departed from it.<br /> <br /> The modern comedy of manners and men, with<br /> a consistent plot, natural incidents and situations,<br /> seems to be non-existent. But the solemn serious-<br /> ness of the times finds its inevitable reaction in<br /> the forced buffoonery of a three-act farce written<br /> around the distinguished actor-manager. Still its<br /> unreal panorama of life and the inconsequent<br /> vagaries of the puppets arouse mirth. The jaded,<br /> solemn citizen finds relief in the grotesque, incon-<br /> gruous play that amuses without making any<br /> appeal to the intelligence. The glimpses into an<br /> absurd, humorous, but unconvincing world are<br /> still a transient pleasure.<br /> <br /> Even the modern poetic drama, such as it is, is<br /> devoid of humorous interludes. There is no<br /> mirth-provoking purpose to illumine its glint and<br /> glamour ; no iridescent wit to bring the trope<br /> and metaphor into relief. Evidently the clowns<br /> and fools of the poet of all time have not taught<br /> the modern poetic playwright any preparatory<br /> lessons. He has not sought the effects of contrast,<br /> the light play of incongruous thought, the vivid<br /> impression of an epigram. Consequently, his<br /> plays, marred with incompleteness, only partially<br /> interest.<br /> <br /> Is it any wonder that the jaded public,<br /> oppressed with the solemn austerity of what it<br /> hears and reads, enjoys inept musical farces ?<br /> What if their melodies are weak echoes, the lyrics<br /> a jingle and jangle of nonsense, and the dialogue<br /> sprinkled with threadbare inanities ; dejected<br /> humanity enjoys the relief. It laughs and forgets.<br /> The light, mirthful hours banish memories of the<br /> solemn platitudes, the dreary gush of sentiment<br /> that infect literature and the Press, which, for<br /> all we know to the contrary, may be the cause<br /> of the alarming increase of patients in lunatic<br /> asylums.<br /> <br /> We not only take our pleasures sadly, but our<br /> work, conversation, and social intercourse seem<br /> pervaded with gloom. The dismal silence in an<br /> omnibus or railway carriage might be the precursor<br /> of the final Judgment Day. ‘The stolid, sad faces<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> of the passengers seem to mirror doleful cares or<br /> unhappy experiences. Oh, for a chuckle or a<br /> titter to break the oppressive silence and the<br /> brooding solemnity !<br /> <br /> The old Puritanical spirit still seems to darken<br /> our lives and our homes. ‘There are tens of<br /> thousands of sensible people in London to-day<br /> who deem theatre-going a sin. In hundreds of<br /> chapels the iniquity of the Stage is insisted on,<br /> and doleful hymns and sermons are presumed to<br /> add to the happiness of humanity. The religion<br /> of innocent amusement and merry thought is<br /> tabooed.<br /> <br /> It is said that conversation is becoming a lost<br /> art ; thus one of the prerogatives of mankind, the<br /> propensity to laugh, seems also to be gradually<br /> disappearing in this country. In course of time,<br /> unless severe and prompt measures are taken to<br /> check our dismal tendencies, our laughing powers<br /> will become atrophied through disuse. The art<br /> of smiling graciously will be lost, until gradually<br /> the haman face divine will revert to its old sad<br /> ape-like appearance. Everyone will frown or have<br /> a lugubrious aspect. The music of the coming<br /> time will only consist of funeral marches ; the<br /> plays will only be dire tragedies, and everyone<br /> will have suicidal tendencies !<br /> <br /> How delightful it is to be associated or live with<br /> those who see the humorous side of things, the<br /> mirthful oddities of life. The person who can<br /> transform a serious remark into a joke, or a<br /> plaintive saying into a jocular one is the world’s<br /> benefactor. How one’s heart warms to one who<br /> can brighten lagging moments with a happy<br /> anecdote, jest or repartee. These choice, mirth-<br /> ful souls are the salt of home life. Their inflaence<br /> kills care and stifles despondency. The stress,<br /> worry and the pin-pricks of existence vanish in the<br /> atmosphere of their liveliness. To dwell with one<br /> of these joyous temperaments is like breathing<br /> the air of pine woods or the ozone of the sea.<br /> It is the hopeful, vigorous atmosphere of real<br /> happiness.<br /> <br /> Perhaps the scholastic training of the future<br /> will include the study and appreciation of jokes!<br /> There must be a school for anecdotes, epigrams<br /> and conundrums. ‘The teachers must be wits ;<br /> there must be regular examinations in drollery,<br /> and prizes and scholarships must be awarded to<br /> those who can distil the most merriment out of<br /> life’s toils, abstractions and cares; whilst to be<br /> dull, grave, solemn or dismal without sufficient<br /> reason shall be considered a punishable offence.<br /> Of course, the professors at these gay institutions<br /> must be Professors of the Saving Grace of<br /> Humour.<br /> <br /> IsrporE G. ASCHER.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> A MODERN FRENCH HISTORIAN.<br /> <br /> +o<br /> ONSIEUR FRANTZ FUNCK-BREN-<br /> TANO is having a most successful tour in<br /> the United States, where he is engaged in<br /> _ giving eighty conferences on “ Ancient France” for<br /> the Federation of the French-American Alliance.<br /> <br /> No one could be better fitted for such an under-<br /> taking. Monsieur Brentano has lived in that great<br /> past of France in a manner altogether unique and<br /> special.<br /> <br /> For ten whole years he devoted his life to<br /> classifying the archives of the Bastille and com-<br /> piling a catalogue for the Government of those<br /> thrilling and dramatic human records, many of<br /> them written in the blood of the prisoner on strips<br /> of linen shirt, on the plaster of the walls, on<br /> anything which would retain a mark.<br /> <br /> There is a small room at the Bibliothéque de<br /> TArsénal, the old palace of the Duc de Sully, the<br /> walls of which are entirely lined from floor to<br /> ceiling with neatly covered and catalogued folios<br /> —all records of the once famous Bastille.<br /> <br /> It is not surprising that Monsieur Brentano,<br /> having lived on intimate terms for so many years<br /> with these unfortunate, and in many cases illus-<br /> trious, prisoners, deciphering their most heart-<br /> rending confessions, dying petitions, and sometimes<br /> maledictions, should write of them with the pen of<br /> one who knows, not only as the historian and<br /> scholar, the President of the ‘‘ Société des Etudes<br /> Historiques,” the Professor of the Collége de<br /> France, the Librarian of the Bibliotheque de<br /> l’Arsénal, but as one who has dwelt among them,<br /> felt their heart-throbs, witnessed their tears.<br /> <br /> No priest in the confessional could have got in<br /> closer touch with the strange, capricious nature of<br /> that abnormal criminal, the poisoner Marquise de<br /> Brinvilliers ; or the noble, heroic soul of the<br /> unfortunate Marie Antoinette. It is this insight<br /> into character and motive which gives to the work<br /> of Monsieur Brentano its peculiar interest and hold<br /> on the imagination. His style is terse and singu-<br /> larly lucid. There is no touch of sentimentality,<br /> no attempt to work on your feelings—just a care-<br /> ful statement of facts, a careful analysis of motive,<br /> borne out by documentary evidence supplied by<br /> letters, reports of trials, sentences, etc. ; but you<br /> feel these are human beings of like passions with<br /> those now living, not historical lay-figures seen<br /> through a dim past.<br /> <br /> The principal works of Monsieur Brentano are<br /> *‘Légendes et Archives de la Bastille ” (in which<br /> the author solves the problem of the “ Man with<br /> the Iron Mask”), the “ Drame des Poisons,”<br /> “ Histoire du Collier,’ its tragic sequel, ‘La<br /> Mort de la Reine,” and “ Les Brigands de France.”<br /> <br /> With regard to the last-named, it is one to<br /> <br /> 147<br /> <br /> rejoice and thrill the heart of every schoolboy,<br /> though there is much in it to make his mother<br /> shudder. The original of Blue Beard, the monster<br /> Barbe Bleue comes under this head, and one can<br /> hardly sympathise with Monsieur Brentano’s para-<br /> doxical theory that the main difference between<br /> brigands and respectable members of the community,<br /> is, that the former are honest fellows “ hating any<br /> sham,” when you read that after doing to death in<br /> an unspeakably horrible fashion two hundred and<br /> forty young boys and girls, the monster finally<br /> repented and made a most pious ending upon the<br /> scaffold !<br /> <br /> This year Monsieur Brentano will become known<br /> to the public also as a dramatist. Three of his<br /> plays, one a collaboration with Monsieur Sardou,<br /> have been taken by leading theatres in Paris, and<br /> the American rights for, I believe, two of the plays<br /> are already bought.<br /> <br /> The “ Mort de la Reine” and “ Histoire du<br /> Collier” have both been translated into English,<br /> and are well known, at all events in literary circles.<br /> If the author could be induced to repeat his<br /> American conferences in London his books would<br /> soon certainly not fail to become widely popular,<br /> for they are living romances. The conferences,<br /> too, are of a popular kind, not the dry-as-dust<br /> lectures in the French tongue one is occasionally<br /> invited to attend in London drawing-rooms, but<br /> full of the same human and dramatic element<br /> which characterises his books. ‘They are illus-<br /> trated also by magic-lantern slides of old France<br /> and portraits of the men and women who are the<br /> subjects of the lecture.<br /> <br /> No one minds going to school again under the<br /> auspices of Frantz Funck-Brentano, and no one<br /> ever gets a chance of going to sleep.<br /> <br /> CoNSTANCE ELIZABETH MAuvD.<br /> &lt;&gt; —_____—<br /> <br /> TYPE-WRITING : A PROTEST.<br /> <br /> op<br /> <br /> AM going to enter a protest, under the depress-<br /> ing conviction that all protest is useless, and<br /> that there is no remedy for the evil. I refer<br /> <br /> to the increasing tendency of typists to lower their<br /> prices, which were low enough before in all con-<br /> science. I write, also, subject to a correction<br /> which is even more depressing. Whenever I say<br /> that personally I object to employing any type-<br /> writer who charges less than 1s. a thousand words, I<br /> am told that in this I display a wanton ignorance<br /> of economics; I am besought to consider the facts,<br /> and reminded that many people, who could not<br /> possibly afford 1s, a thousand and can afford 8d. or<br /> 9d. are spending as much as £30 or £40 or more:<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> 148<br /> <br /> on type-writing in the year, and that if the charges<br /> were higher the inevitable consequence would be<br /> that these valuable people would simply cease to<br /> give out their work. But would this happen so<br /> inevitably ? Would not they continue to spend<br /> their £30 or £40 on copying, since they can afford<br /> it, anid merely give out rather less MS. in the year<br /> than they did before? A consequence by which<br /> both the type-writing trade and the self-respecting<br /> type-writing individual would gain. The others<br /> deserve all the discouragement they can get; or<br /> would, if their case were not so hard.<br /> <br /> And of course there is the argument from speed.<br /> It is only obvious, I am told, that typists who can<br /> turn out 2,000 words in the same time that others<br /> take to copy 1,000, actually gain by charging 9d.<br /> instead of 1s. Possibly (if they cannot get the<br /> 1s.) ; but to the simple mind it seems (quite apart<br /> from the fact that these cheap persons are ruining<br /> the market for other people) curious that skilled<br /> workers should be paid less rather than more for<br /> their extra dexterity.<br /> <br /> Then there is the argument from incompetence<br /> (curiously, again, it is the very reverse of the argu-<br /> ment from speed). Some typists, it is said, are<br /> not worth more than the low terms they offer.<br /> Very likely, and nobody could complain if the hire<br /> were in all cases proportioned to the labourer’s<br /> worth. But this is not so. Sometimes the lower<br /> terms are offered by incompetent persons setting<br /> up on their own account. As often as not the<br /> inferior work is turned out by the prentice hands<br /> of firms charging the higher rates ; while it is just<br /> the superior speed of the skilled operators which<br /> enables them to undersell their competitors.<br /> <br /> I know the subject is by no means so simple as<br /> I may seem anxious to make out. All sorts of<br /> things have to be taken into consideration. For<br /> instance, I was roused to this protest by the insi-<br /> dious solicitations of a circular, addressed to me by<br /> a firm in a provincial town, offering to type my<br /> MSS. for me at the seductive rate of 6d. a thou-<br /> sand. My answer was a strong, and, as I believed<br /> at the time, well-deserved remonstrance. It drew<br /> forth an elaborate explanation. The town in ques-<br /> tion had a season, and the season affected the firm.<br /> These sixpences, therefore, were only its winter<br /> terms; in the summer it asks and has no difficulty<br /> in getting as much as 1s. 3d. a thousand. But in<br /> the dead season work is so scarce in that place that<br /> the only alternative to offering these low terms is to<br /> dismiss the staff, and the staff prefer to be kept on<br /> at any terms.<br /> <br /> : Now, such an arrangement may be perfectly<br /> justifiable as between employer and employed ; its<br /> effect on the market is none the less deplorable.<br /> The fault is not with the typists, and not always (in<br /> fact, seldom, one imagines) with their employers.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Neither is the remedy altogether in their hands.<br /> It is hard to say what remedy there is. Can we<br /> expect them to take a noble altruistic attitude by<br /> foregoing their only chance of finding employment<br /> in this over-crowded market? Or may we hope for<br /> a more moral view on the part of the class which at<br /> least controls the out-put if it has no direct power<br /> over the price ?<br /> <br /> In all this I am sure I am displaying a wanton<br /> ignorance of economics. What does it matter, if<br /> it only provokes somebody else to display the sort<br /> of knowledge that suggests a remedy ?<br /> <br /> May SINcLarr.<br /> <br /> rs<br /> <br /> ARS LONGA—YITA BREVIS.<br /> <br /> a<br /> <br /> Scene: London.—A drawing-room in MAGDALEN<br /> Daty’s house.<br /> <br /> Time: The Present.<br /> <br /> PERSONS :<br /> Magpauen Daty, a novelist.<br /> CHARLOTTE JOHNSON, her friend.<br /> <br /> SCENE I.<br /> <br /> Cuar. What? After waiting years to get your<br /> work accepted, do you mean to say you&#039;re going to<br /> fling the whole thing up now ?<br /> <br /> Mac. Yes, no doubt whatever of my intentions.<br /> Do you see this? (Holds up a packet of papers.)<br /> To put me quite out of the reach of temptation,<br /> here goes my last manuscript. (Throws the packet<br /> anto the fire.)<br /> <br /> CuHar. Oh, Magdalen!<br /> <br /> Maa. Short work, wasn’t it ? (She watches the<br /> papers burning, while CHARLOTTE tries to save them<br /> witha poker.) Well, what do you think of me now ?<br /> I haven’t got a copy, you know ?<br /> <br /> Cuar. I think you insane. Why, editors are<br /> simply snapping at everything you send them, and<br /> in another year youd have made your name. And<br /> wasn’t George Matthews going to take you on his<br /> staff? What’ll you do about that ?<br /> <br /> Mac. Nothing ; [ve refused Mr. Matthews’<br /> offer.<br /> <br /> CHAR. Whatever for ?<br /> <br /> Mac. I&#039;ll tell you, if you&#039;ll let that poker<br /> alone ; there’s no good raking among those ashes,<br /> they’re done for. Do listen instead of making that<br /> horrid row.<br /> <br /> Cuar. Well? (Drops the poker.)<br /> <br /> Mac. (shuddering). Oh! I knew you&#039;d go and<br /> do that! Sit down and try and look more intelli-<br /> gent; I’m going to talk seriously—not that you&#039;ll<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> understand it in the least. People are pleased to<br /> say my stories are “so true to life,” and I daresay<br /> they are. J’m not. I’ve never lived—never until<br /> now.<br /> <br /> CHAR. (with sublime contempt). Oh, now.<br /> <br /> Mag. I was fool enough to think I could run<br /> the two things comfortably together. But I can’t.<br /> Therefore, as you see, I’ve jilted “ art.”<br /> <br /> Car. But why—when there was another<br /> alternative<br /> <br /> Maa. Because—because art is long and can<br /> wait, and life is short and must be accepted now or<br /> never.<br /> <br /> Caar. Oh come, I can’t take ‘hat in ; what do<br /> you mean ?<br /> <br /> Mac. I mean that I’m going to marry Leslie<br /> Copeland, as you know.<br /> <br /> CHAR. Oh, now I see what you&#039;re driving at.<br /> You’re—actually—going to—sacrifice your career<br /> vo Mr. Copeland ?<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Mac. “Sacrifice” is not exactly the word I<br /> should use.<br /> CHar. Isn&#039;t it? He’saliterary man himself—<br /> <br /> would he do as much for you ?<br /> <br /> Maa. (with hesitation): He needn’t ; men are<br /> different, you see.<br /> <br /> CHarR. (with a sniff). Are they, are they ?<br /> <br /> Mac. Yes, you may blink the fact, since it seems<br /> to annoy you, but it remains. One woman can’t<br /> live two lives, though one man may.<br /> <br /> Cuar. He may, by shirking the responsibilities<br /> of both.<br /> <br /> Mac. No, by sheer strength. A man has more<br /> staying power, for the simple reason that he has more<br /> self-restraint.<br /> <br /> Car. Skittles! That’s the last thing he’s got.<br /> <br /> Maa. At any rate he doesn’t mix up his heart<br /> with his brains in order to write a novel. That’s<br /> what a woman does as arule; andit’s fatal. Say<br /> what you like, we are handicapped. You can never<br /> tell how a woman may end, but if a man’s an artist<br /> once, he’s an artist to the end of the chapter.<br /> His mind’s built in water-tight compartments, and<br /> if he springs a leak in one it doesn’t affect the<br /> rest, while ten to one a woman finds herself sinking<br /> before she knows there’s a storm. That’s where it<br /> is ; I couldn’t be Leslie’s wife and an artist (how I<br /> hate the word ! ) in the same lifetime.<br /> <br /> CHAR. Well, I can’t see it.<br /> Mac. Can’t you? Do you realise what it<br /> means? It means to live with your own ideas<br /> <br /> night and day, to be always listening to their voices,<br /> thinking their thoughts, till you see and hear and<br /> care for nothingelse. ‘T’o be Leslie’s wife means<br /> I can’t tell you, for I don’t know myself yet. I<br /> only know that the woman who puts her whole<br /> heart into a book won’t have much of it left for<br /> her husband. And I’m equally certain that I<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 149<br /> <br /> should ruin Leslie’s life, if I went on working after<br /> I married him. I know the sort of things that<br /> would happen. Every word I write carries away<br /> a bit of me with it, and when my final masterpiece<br /> has left me as dull as a University Extension<br /> Lecturer, would it console Leslie to know that my<br /> works are full of sparkling dialogue ?<br /> <br /> Cuar. It ought to, if he wasn’t a selfish brute.<br /> But there’s no good arguing. I know most women<br /> are fools when there’s a man in the case, though<br /> I thought you had a soul above that sort of<br /> thing.<br /> <br /> Mac. Ah! You didn’t know me; I didn’t<br /> know myself a year ago. I believed I had a mind,<br /> perhaps a heart, and I was very positive I had a<br /> will ; but as for a “soul,” it wasn’t till I knew<br /> Leslie that I found out I had one. ‘There&#039;s<br /> another brilliant discovery for you.<br /> <br /> CHar. So you immediately go and commit<br /> suicide on the strength of it—throwing yourself<br /> away in this fashion !<br /> <br /> Mac. Throwing—myself—away. Perhaps; but<br /> I gain more than I lose.<br /> <br /> CHar. And supposing you were to lose him 2<br /> What would you do then?<br /> <br /> Maa. Then—I shouldn’t want to do any-<br /> thing. But why do you saggest such hideous<br /> possibilities ?<br /> <br /> Cuar. Because you talk as if life had no other<br /> interest for you beyond your absurd infatuation for<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> that man. Why, life’s full of interests. Look at<br /> me<br /> Mac. You! I never saw a sadder sight—a<br /> <br /> woman who spends eight hours a day in an office,<br /> because she thinks it manly. (Stghs heavily.)<br /> Well, I suppose one can magnify one’s office—even<br /> if it is in the City.<br /> <br /> Cuar. (rising). Oh, it’s one opening, you<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> know; then I’ve got my typewriting, that’s<br /> another. Catch me giving up my career! And if<br /> I’d your chances—well<br /> <br /> Maa. Then possibly you’d do as I do.<br /> <br /> Cuar. (shaking hands). Ymnot afool. Good-<br /> <br /> bye, dear, I must be off. What are you going to do<br /> next week ?<br /> <br /> Mac. Oh,my cousin Violet Laybourne’s coming<br /> up for the season, She’s promised to give up<br /> flirtation if I&#039;ll take her in for a month. She<br /> wants to see a little of life, so I shall have my<br /> hands full.<br /> <br /> Cuar. (meditatively). Yes. (Holding her at<br /> arm’s length and examining her critically.) Do<br /> you know, you really ought to get a smarter gown.<br /> ‘And—couldn’t you make rather more of your hair,<br /> <br /> ‘ or does Mr. Copeland like it best as it is ?<br /> <br /> I don’t know, really,<br /> <br /> Mac. (laughing).<br /> perhaps he does.<br /> <br /> (They kiss, and Charlotte goes out.)<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> AN INTERVAL OF SIX WEEKS.<br /> SCENE II.<br /> <br /> Cuar. (enthusiastically). Oh, yes, rather, dear,<br /> I’m getting on like a house on fire. I’m in your<br /> line now, you know—I do the ‘Notes for Our<br /> Pantry” column in Zhe Woman’s Weekly; it’s a<br /> good opening. And what are you doing ?<br /> <br /> Mae. (wearily). 1? Im doing nothing at<br /> present.<br /> <br /> (An awkward pause, )<br /> <br /> Cuar. (tentatively). Is it true you’re not going<br /> to marry Mr. Copeland after all ?<br /> <br /> Mac. Yes, and it’s still truer that Mr. Cope-<br /> land’s not going to marry me.<br /> <br /> Cuar. Dear me, you don’t mean to say so! I<br /> heard the report, but I don’t know any particulars.<br /> <br /> Mac. There weren’t any.<br /> <br /> Cuar. Nonsense? How did it all happen ?<br /> Do tell me, dear, I’m dying to know.<br /> <br /> Maa. There’s nothing to tell; it was all over<br /> inaweek. Let me see——(couwnting on her fingers )<br /> Violet came on a Monday. On Wednesday he<br /> began to protest against things in general. On<br /> Thursday he said he couldn’t stand the modern<br /> world and modern ideas—the decadents bored him,<br /> and the advanced people made him ill. On Friday<br /> he remarked, in a casual way, that I was terrifically<br /> complex—saturated with the modern spirit. All<br /> Saturday he talked about the simplicity of the<br /> golden age (she had on a sprigged white muslin<br /> blouse that day), and on Sunday he expressed a<br /> wish tu be in Arcady. At his own request I gave<br /> him leave to go there, and he’s there now, I<br /> believe, engaged to my cousin—a charming little<br /> anachronism.<br /> <br /> Cuyar. What? Has he thrown you over for<br /> her, the fluffy-brained thing? She’s only got one<br /> idea in her head.<br /> <br /> Mac. And that not a very modern one; Violet<br /> is simplicity itself. Don’t get excited, it’s all for<br /> the best, in this best of all possible worlds.<br /> <br /> Cnar. It isn’t, it’s shameful. Such a genius,<br /> too! Of course, that makes it all the worse to<br /> bear. My poor Magdalen, I know how you&#039;re<br /> feeling it, though you look as cool and hard as<br /> a cucumber. Well, there’s one consolation for<br /> you—they’ll be so miserable !<br /> <br /> Maa. You consider that a comforting reflection?<br /> <br /> Cuar. I do. Serves him right, too! She<br /> won&#039;t care a rap about lis genius and all the rest<br /> of it ; she won’t understand one of the things he<br /> writes<br /> <br /> Maa.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> On the contrary, she thinks him<br /> <br /> “awfully clever’; and if she doesn’t, what matter?<br /> He can apreal from Violet to posterity. As I once<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> remarked before, Art is long, and—the future wil}<br /> be his.<br /> <br /> CHar. (rising indignantly). It’s hers, too;<br /> can’t you see that? Or don’t you care? Why,<br /> that little idiot will simply wear his fame as the<br /> finest feather in her cap!<br /> <br /> Mac. Possibly. Violet always had excellent<br /> taste in dress. (Looks abstractedly at a photograph<br /> on the mantelshelf. )<br /> <br /> Cuar. (afler an awkward pause). Well. Come<br /> and see me soon, dear.<br /> <br /> ( They part.)<br /> <br /> Mace. ((o the photograph). Oh, Leslie, I wouldn’t.<br /> mind if only you had a future.<br /> <br /> — a<br /> <br /> CORRESPONDENCE.<br /> <br /> 1<br /> <br /> Mr. Grorce Russevt ano “ Tus Nortu<br /> AMERICAN REVIEW.”<br /> <br /> Srr,—A recent article in Zhe Author has been<br /> brought to my notice, dealing with Mr. George<br /> Russell’s letter to the Zimes respecting his article<br /> in the North American Review upon the late<br /> Sir William Harcourt.<br /> <br /> It is stated in your comments upon this topic<br /> that you ‘understand that the editor had notice<br /> of the writer’s objection ” to the article appearing<br /> after Sir William’s death.<br /> <br /> In fairness to my colleague at New York, I must.<br /> inform you that this was not the case, as Mr.<br /> Russell’s remonstrance was only made upon seeing<br /> the article in the November number.<br /> <br /> I am, Sir,<br /> Your obedient servant,<br /> G. LEVESON GOWER<br /> (European representative of the North American<br /> Review).<br /> —— oe<br /> <br /> THE VALUE OF “ORIGINALS.”<br /> I.<br /> <br /> Sir,—Permit me to draw attention to the<br /> important case reported in The Daily Telegraph,<br /> with the title of “‘ Weather Vanes,” on Dee. 20,.<br /> 1804, and in preceding issues.<br /> <br /> Several editors gave evidence in the case, and<br /> substantially agreed with that of Mr. Stanley<br /> Wood, who put the whole matter in a few words.<br /> by the definite statement that originals, ae,<br /> original drawings, sent to a magazine were the<br /> property of the proprietor, unless there were some<br /> special contract. The claim of £173 for plaintiff&#039;s.<br /> eleven designs was outrageous ; ten shillings each<br /> was sufficient.<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> y<br /> #<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Antoni<br /> <br /> er,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> What I desire to know is, by what right does<br /> an original sent to a magazine become “the pro-<br /> perty of the proprietor?” Does the same claim<br /> extend to original written contributions ?<br /> <br /> The greatest puzzle of all is to know how the<br /> editor came to appraise the value of the originals<br /> at “ten shillings each.” On his own showing<br /> such an original must, if sent to him, have become<br /> his own “property.” Then why give “ten<br /> shillings” for what belongs to you already ?<br /> Will anyone explain this ?<br /> <br /> Waiter W. SKEAT.<br /> +<br /> <br /> II.<br /> <br /> Sir,—By a happy printer&#039;s accident, whereby<br /> Dr. Skeats’s letter appeared in proof on certain<br /> galleys which you were so good as to send me,<br /> I have had the luck to see and read it before other<br /> readers of 7&#039;e Author. Will you therefore kindly<br /> aliow me to play the humble part of the mouse in<br /> the fable to this king of letters, who has himself<br /> often befriended me in greater matters.<br /> <br /> The question he proposes is this: I sell to a<br /> magazine either the copyright or the serial right<br /> (or both) in certain drawings—to whom do the<br /> actual drawings afterwards belong ?<br /> <br /> Now, in four cases out of five, the actual drawings<br /> have, after reproduction and publication, little<br /> saleable value. The result of this upon these<br /> business transactions is that artists have grown<br /> careless about their rights. They sell the drawings<br /> —that is, copyright, serial rights, and the physical<br /> property in the drawings. True, they do not<br /> actually intend to sell so much, and there is the<br /> vice of the whole matter.<br /> <br /> Artists and authors are only now waking up to<br /> the fact that they should practice the same methods<br /> of doing business as other business men. A<br /> photographer, for example, sends an editor a<br /> printed form, explicitly stating the right given—<br /> including size and the vehicle which alone is to<br /> carry the right. But as regards artists, my<br /> experience is that only the older men ever dream<br /> of subdividing and reserving their rights. Yet this<br /> matter is quite simple. An artist has only to say :<br /> “ Please note, I sell you only such and such right,<br /> reserving all others to myself; and the originals<br /> are to remain my property, and to be returned to<br /> me after reproduction.” The portentous words<br /> “special contract” mean nothing more than this.<br /> <br /> The same thing applies to MSS. In this case,<br /> similarly, only the actual MSS. of celebrated men<br /> is of money value. Ruskin’s MSS., for example,<br /> have changed hands at considerable prices since<br /> his death. But there is no reason why authors<br /> who believe the MSS. of their works will one day<br /> be valuable should not reserve the right in them<br /> and get them back.<br /> <br /> 151<br /> <br /> Why an editor who loses drawings should, on a<br /> claim being made for them, estimate their value at:<br /> ten shillings each”’—although he believes them<br /> to be his own property—this appears to be one of<br /> those judicial jokes which are funny only to<br /> <br /> the onlookers. :<br /> CG. YV. A:<br /> <br /> Malpas, Chesire.<br /> <br /> eC<br /> SWORD AND PEN.<br /> <br /> Str,—I have read with much pleasure Mr.<br /> Horace Wyndham’s interesting article, ‘“ Sword<br /> and Pen,” in the December number of Z&#039;he Author.<br /> May I suggest that a list so comprehensive as to<br /> include Julius Ceesar and “ Linesman ” should also<br /> contain the name of that well-known Canadian<br /> Imperialist Lieut.-Colonel George T. Denison,<br /> whose *‘ Modern Cavalry,” published in 1868, was<br /> afterwards translated into both German and<br /> Russian, and was the undoubted source of certain<br /> reforms and improvements in the cavalry of the<br /> former nation. Colonel Denison’s “ History of<br /> Cavalry,” for which he obtained the prize of 5,000<br /> roubles offered by the Czar for the best work on<br /> the subject in 1877, is also well known; while his<br /> “ Soldiering in Canada,” published in Toronto and<br /> England four years ago, is one of the most<br /> interesting and chatty of military autobiographies.<br /> It is a significant fact that “ Modern Cavalry”<br /> and “The History of Cavalry” have had their<br /> greatest vogue among foreign military readers,<br /> who were not slow to perceive their value. In<br /> England, where the military constitution is subject<br /> to chronic conservatism, it was perhaps considered<br /> an unheard-of and disagreeable innovation that<br /> the best works on the topics treated should pro-<br /> ceed from the pen of a colonial citizen-soldier, out-<br /> side of the sacred pale of the “ regulars,” who,<br /> at the time he wrote them, was industriously<br /> following his profession of law. I do not think for<br /> a moment that this had anything to do with the<br /> exclusion of Colonel Denison’s name from Mr.<br /> Wyndham’s chronicle. Since tne Boer War we<br /> have had to come to the conclusion that the citizen-<br /> soldier will be the soldier of the future, and that it<br /> is upon his competence, in a great measure, that<br /> the fortunes of war will depend.<br /> <br /> Bernarpd McEvoy.<br /> <br /> Vancouver, B.C.<br /> <br /> oo<br /> Book BrGaaars.<br /> <br /> Sir,—Authors have for years been more or less<br /> subjected to the annoyance of applications for free<br /> copies of their works, all kinds of specious reasons<br /> being given by the writers.<br /> <br /> This system appears to be a very cheap way of<br /> forming a library, and from the recent increase In<br /> the number of such applications it is apparently a<br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 152<br /> <br /> successful one. I can understand some people<br /> wishing to possess more or less entertaining books<br /> without paying for them, but when they apply for<br /> the dry stuff I write (technical) it would appear<br /> likely that there is a channel where they get rid of<br /> them at a profit.<br /> <br /> During the last few months I have had several<br /> such applications from complete strangers, couched,<br /> I need hardly say, in the most flattering terms ; but<br /> as my vanity was satiated years ago I refused them<br /> all. From what I hear, this sort of thing appears<br /> likely to become an unmitigated nuisance unless<br /> checked, and my object in writing is to ask all<br /> authors to absolutely refuse such unfair requests.<br /> <br /> Literature, luckily, has its compensations, but<br /> most of us do not write entirely for amusement. If<br /> our begging friends happened to be hatters or<br /> drapers, for instance, what would they think if<br /> authors called and asked to be presented with a<br /> new silk hat—or say one trimmed with ostrich<br /> feathers for nothing—Verbum sap.<br /> <br /> Yours faithfully,<br /> M. Powis Baus, M.I.C.E.<br /> <br /> a oe<br /> <br /> TITLES.<br /> <br /> Srr,—Will you allow me to uplift my humble<br /> voice and air three grievances ?<br /> <br /> I wrote a children’s book called “Pat” which<br /> sold merrily for some years. Suddenly I found<br /> the title changed to “ Patricia” without my know-<br /> ledge or consent, because some other publisher<br /> had a book of that name (which I never heard of)<br /> and insisted on my title being changed.<br /> <br /> Some twenty years ago I read a charming novel<br /> called “The Sword of Damocles.” Quite lately I<br /> saw it advertised in a sixpenny edition. I ordered<br /> it, and find myself possessed of a sensational tale<br /> by a totally different author.<br /> <br /> This Christmas I ordered what purported to be<br /> a new edition of “ Mrs. Leycester’s School.” I find<br /> all the delightful account of the school, including<br /> the young ladies fighting and scratching, is entirely<br /> omitted. The book consists merely of the histories<br /> related by the aforesaid young ladies. Should it<br /> not have been advertised as abridged ?<br /> <br /> The ways of the publisher as regards titles are<br /> too much for me. Puzziep.<br /> <br /> ee<br /> <br /> IncomE Tax FOR AUTHORS.<br /> <br /> DEAR Srr,—Your counsel’s admirable com-<br /> parison between authorship and coachbuilding has<br /> filled me with such profound conviction that I<br /> venture to ask him or any other kind Christian<br /> soul to resolve a few difficulties which still stand<br /> in the way of my adopting it as an axiom.<br /> <br /> We may take it for granted, I presume, that<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> both author and coachbuilder are God’s creatures<br /> of a day, that their brains are about equal, that<br /> they both, alas ! have to pay an iniquitous tax on<br /> brains. Also that the brains of a coachbuilder<br /> and an author equally require raw material on<br /> which to work.<br /> <br /> The coachbuilder’s is, let us say, largely varnish,<br /> with minor items of wood, iron, horsehair, etc.,<br /> superadded. Of all these he has a supply only<br /> limited by his purchasing power. The author like-<br /> wise has pen, ink, paper in quantities only limited<br /> by his pocket. So far it seems as if both brains<br /> had a satisfactory medium in which to work.<br /> But unfortunately pen, ink, paper and brains do<br /> not make it possible to produce imaginative or<br /> creative work indefinitely.<br /> <br /> There is such a phrase “ He has written himself<br /> out.” There is no phrase “ He has coach-built<br /> himself out.” Why? Because the building of<br /> one coach does not in any way detract from the<br /> builder’s power of production, while it adds to his<br /> technical skill. In like manner the writing of<br /> fiction adds or ought to add technical skill to the<br /> author, but it also uses up irrevocably plot, incident,<br /> description, all of which are limited in relation to<br /> the limited experience.<br /> <br /> Take my own case. I was five and twenty years<br /> laboriously buying with time, brains, health the<br /> raw material for “On the Face of the Waters.” I<br /> can use none of that material again. But I was<br /> not allowed to deduct anything for deterioration<br /> of plant, while the coachbuilder may buy a new<br /> varnish brush at the expense of the State! It<br /> may be said that this applies equally to others<br /> besides authors. Undoubtedly it does to all en-<br /> gaged in any brain work in which the only raw<br /> material available is a by-product of the same brain.<br /> <br /> But a very little consideration will show clearly<br /> that, strictly speaking, the only brain work of this<br /> character is imaginative art. Take the case of a<br /> doctor or lawyer. If they work themselves out it is<br /> from no lack of raw material. The sick and the<br /> litigious are with us always. In addition each<br /> case of diphtheria or divorce treated, so far from<br /> being deterioration of plant, adds to the likelihood<br /> and possibility of treating exactly similar cases.<br /> Whereas, so far as my experience as an author<br /> goes, the only phrase which once uttered in black<br /> and white is not gone for ever is “ My Darling.”<br /> The B. P. does not mind repetition in a love<br /> scene. All else, plot, incident, description, is so<br /> <br /> much clear deterioration of a plant which is .<br /> <br /> necessarily limited by the personal experience of<br /> the brain which is at once raw material and manu-<br /> facturer. May I therefore beg your counsel to<br /> give his analogy in detail.<br /> F. A. STEEL.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Talgarth Hall, Machynlleth.	https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/502/1905-02-01-The-Author-15-5.pdf	publications, The Author
503	https://historysoa.com/items/show/503	The Author, Vol. 15 Issue 06 (March 1905)	<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=%3Cem%3EThe+Author%3C%2Fem%3E%2C+Vol.+15+Issue+06+%28March+1905%29"><em>The Author</em>, Vol. 15 Issue 06 (March 1905)</a>											<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Publication">Publication</a>	1905-03-01-The-Author-15-6					153–184																		<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=89&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=15">15</a>											<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=76&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1905-03-01">1905-03-01</a>							6			19050301	Che Huthor.<br /> <br /> (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)<br /> <br /> FOUNDED BY SIR<br /> <br /> WALTER BESANT.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Vou. XV.—No. 6.<br /> <br /> Marcu Isr, 1908.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> TELEPHONE NUMBER :<br /> 374 VICTORIA.<br /> <br /> TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS :<br /> AUTORIDAD, LONDON.<br /> <br /> ———__+—@—+_____<br /> <br /> NOTICES.<br /> <br /> —1&lt;—+—__<br /> <br /> OR the opinions expressed in papers that are<br /> EK signed or initialled the authors alone are<br /> responsible. None of the papers or para-<br /> graphs must be taken as expressing the opinion<br /> of the Committee unless such is especially stated<br /> to be the case.<br /> <br /> Tue Editor begs to inform members of the<br /> Authors’ Society and other readers of The Author<br /> that the cases which are from time to time quoted<br /> in The Author are cases that have come before the<br /> notice or to the knowledge of the Secretary of the<br /> Society, and that those members of the Society<br /> who desire to have the names of the publishers<br /> concerned can obtain them on application.<br /> <br /> —1+-—&lt;&gt;— + —_<br /> <br /> List of Members.<br /> <br /> Tux List of Members of the Society of Authors<br /> published October, 1902, at the price of 6d., and<br /> the elections from October, 1902, to July, 1903, as<br /> a supplemental list, at the price of 2d., can now be<br /> obtained at the offices of the Society.<br /> <br /> They will be sold to members or associates of<br /> the Society only.<br /> <br /> —_-———9_—__<br /> <br /> The Pension Fund of the Society.<br /> <br /> Tux Trustees of the Pension Fund met at the<br /> Society’s Offices in February, 1904, and having<br /> gone carefully into the accounts of the fund,<br /> decided to purchase £250 London and North<br /> Western 3 % Debenture Stock. Accordingly, the<br /> investments of the Pension Fund at present<br /> <br /> Vou, XV.<br /> <br /> [Prick Srxpencr.<br /> <br /> standing in the names of the Trustees are as<br /> follows.<br /> <br /> This is a statement of the actual stock ; the<br /> money value can be easily worked out at the current<br /> price of the market :—<br /> ey £1000 0 0<br /> Local Loans 500 0 0<br /> Victorian Government 3 °% Consoli-<br /> <br /> dated Inscribed Stock ...............<br /> <br /> Zot 19 V1<br /> <br /> War fan en 201: 9- 38<br /> London and North Western 3 % Deben-<br /> BUTS SOCK. ee 250 0 0<br /> Potel 2 £2243 9 2<br /> Subscriptions from May, 1904.<br /> &amp; 8. a.<br /> May 6, Shepherd, G. H. ; = 0 5 0<br /> June 24, Rumbold, Sir Horace, Bart.,<br /> G.C.B. : : : 1 tO<br /> July 27, Barnett, P. A. : : 010 0<br /> Nov. 9, Hollingsworth, Charles . 010 O<br /> 1905<br /> Jan. 12, Anonymous . : ; ~ 0 2.6<br /> Donations from May, 1904.<br /> May 16, Wynne, C. Whitworth . 2720 0200<br /> June 23, Kirmse, R. . . : 5.045. 0<br /> June 23, Kirmse, Mrs. R. : : 5 0<br /> July 21, The Blackmore Memorial<br /> Committee ; : - 20 0 0<br /> Aug. 5, Walker, William S. : - 2:0 0<br /> Oct. 6, Hare, F. W.E., M.D. . os let 0<br /> Oct. 6, Hardy, Harold : : ~ 0160 0<br /> Oct. 20, Cameron, Mrs. Lovett . - 0-10. 0<br /> Noy. 7, Benecke, Miss Ida . : » 1b 0<br /> Noy. 11, Thomas, Mrs, Haig : uo? 2 20<br /> Nov. 24, Egbert, Henry : : &lt;0 6 0<br /> 1905<br /> Jan. , Middlemas, Miss Jean 10 0<br /> Jan. , Bolton, Miss Anna 5 0<br /> Jan. 24, Barry, Miss Fanny .<br /> <br /> 27, Bencke, Albert<br /> <br /> 28, Harcourt-Roe, Mrs.<br /> 18, French-Sheldon, Mrs.<br /> 21, Lyall, Sir Alfred, P.C.<br /> <br /> Jan.<br /> Jan.<br /> Feb.<br /> Feb.<br /> <br /> mMooccoooc }S<br /> on<br /> o<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> FROM THE COMMITTEE.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> T the meeting of the Committee, held on the<br /> 6th day of February, the following business<br /> was transacted.<br /> <br /> Mr. Douglas Freshfield, who has for the past<br /> two years so ably and so disinterestedly under-<br /> taken the arduous duties attached to the post of<br /> chairman, retired under the constitution of the<br /> Society, and Sir Henry Bergne, who has for many<br /> years been a member of the Committee, was elected<br /> to fill the post.<br /> <br /> Sir Henry Bergne’s past connection with the<br /> Foreign Office and with international copyright<br /> questions is known to all members of the Society,<br /> and will be of advantage at the present time,<br /> when United States copyright legislation is<br /> coming so prominently forward.<br /> <br /> Twelve members and associates were elected to<br /> the Society. The list, together with the January<br /> elections, is printed below. On the proposal of<br /> Mr. A. Hope Hawkins, Mr. Bernard Shaw was<br /> unanimously elected a member of the Council<br /> and Committee to fill the place left vacant by the<br /> death of Mr. Edward Rose. Mr. Shaw’s qualifica-<br /> tions for the post to which he has been elected are<br /> so well known, that it is needless to bring them<br /> before members of the Society.<br /> <br /> In pursuance of the resolution passed at the last<br /> meeting, the question of United States copyright<br /> was further discussed. Details will be given when<br /> the line of action has been finally adopted.<br /> <br /> The date of the General Meeting has been fixed<br /> for Thursday, March 30th.<br /> <br /> The report and notice of General Meeting will<br /> be sent out in due course.<br /> <br /> The Committee decided to take up, on behalf of<br /> one of the Society’s members, a case against a<br /> publisher in Munich, and the Secretary has been<br /> instructed to write to H.B.M. Minister and request<br /> him to advise the Society as to the best course to<br /> pursue. If necessary the matter will be placed in<br /> the hands of a German lawyer.<br /> <br /> Under the constitution of the Pension Fund of<br /> the Society, Mr. A. W. a’Beckett, the Committee&#039;s<br /> nominee, retired in due course, and, submitting his<br /> name for re-election, was unanimously re-elected.<br /> <br /> The Society’s nominee will, according to custom,<br /> <br /> be elected at the General Meeting.<br /> <br /> ——<br /> <br /> Cases.<br /> <br /> Srnoz the last issue of The Author seven cases<br /> have been in the Secretary’s hands, three for money,<br /> two for the return of MSS., one dealing with<br /> an intricate question of copyright law, and the<br /> remaining case referring to the wrongful use of the<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> name of one of the Society’s members. The last<br /> case has been settled, but none of the others has<br /> been brought to a satisfactory conclusion at<br /> present, although negotiations are still being<br /> carried on.<br /> <br /> All the matters in dispute in the Secretary’s<br /> hands that remained unsettled at the end of last<br /> month have now been terminated in favour of the<br /> members.<br /> <br /> During the past month the Society has obtained<br /> judgment in a County Court case which has been<br /> hanging on for some time. It has also succeeded,<br /> through the aid of its solicitors, in collecting the<br /> payment due to a member from an Edinburgh<br /> publisher.<br /> <br /> The Committee have sanctioned an action<br /> against a German publisher. The papers have,<br /> on the advice of His Majesty’s Minister at Munich,<br /> been placed in the hands of a German lawyer.<br /> <br /> One other case in the solicitors’ hands has been<br /> satisfactorily settled, as the accounts demanded<br /> have been obtained, and a cheque will, no doubt,<br /> be forthcoming as soon as the accounts have been<br /> approved by the author.<br /> <br /> In the case of Mr. Grant Richards’ bankruptcy,<br /> a receiver has been appointed. When he has had<br /> time to look into all the contracts he will be ina<br /> position to negotiate with authors for the transfer<br /> of their property, but there are so many different<br /> kinds of contracts involved in any publishing<br /> <br /> business, and the legal questions are so complicated,<br /> that authors must have patience.<br /> <br /> et<br /> <br /> January Elections<br /> <br /> Alden, W. L. 61, Cloudesdale Road,<br /> Balham, 8.W.<br /> ‘“ Ballin, T. S. Dean”<br /> <br /> Barnett, Rev. T. R. Fala, Blackshiels, Mid-<br /> <br /> (Torquil Macleod) lothian.<br /> Barry, Miss F. Lewesdon, Lyme Regis,<br /> Dorset. :<br /> Bencke, Albert H. Oliva, West Derby,<br /> Liverpool.<br /> <br /> Bonfield, J. T. (Mar-<br /> maduke Lannes)<br /> Crawford, Mrs. Dunsfauld Ryse, Chid-<br /> dingfold, Surrey.<br /> Clooncahir, Lough Rynn,<br /> Dromod, Ireland.<br /> Wayside, Eltham, Kent.<br /> <br /> Digges, Rev. J. C.<br /> <br /> Felkin, A. L. (A. St.<br /> Lawrence )<br /> <br /> Figgis, Darrell E. . 84, Darenth Road, Stam-<br /> ford Hill, N.W.<br /> <br /> Joubert, Carl<br /> <br /> Le Riche, P. J. 96, Marine Parade,<br /> <br /> Worthing, Sussex.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Moyes, The Right Rev.<br /> Mer. Canon<br /> Muriay, Major S. L.<br /> <br /> Cathedral House, Francis<br /> Street, Westminster.<br /> <br /> 1, Southside, Wimble-<br /> don.<br /> <br /> Ullenhall Vicarage, Hen-<br /> leyin Arden, Warwick-<br /> shire.<br /> <br /> 1, Forester Road, Bath.<br /> <br /> Springbank, | Woking-<br /> ham, Berks.<br /> <br /> 149, Harley Street, W.<br /> <br /> Pelton, Rev. W. F.<br /> <br /> Rothwell, Charles KE...<br /> <br /> Salwey, Mrs. Charlotte<br /> M. (née Birch)<br /> <br /> Scharleib, Mrs., M.D.,<br /> M.S.<br /> <br /> Stuart-Young, J. M. Ardwick Green, Man-<br /> chester.<br /> <br /> 548, Halburn Street,<br /> Aberdeen.<br /> <br /> —_*——»——_<br /> <br /> Watson, W. Petrie :<br /> <br /> February Elections.<br /> <br /> Alford, Lincolnshire.<br /> <br /> Strathmore,St. Bernard’s<br /> Road, Olton, Warwick-<br /> <br /> Brown, Haydn<br /> Caldicott, J. W.<br /> <br /> shire.<br /> <br /> Chater, Arthur G. - 41, Porchester Square,<br /> W.<br /> <br /> McDonnell, Randal Home Leigh, Grey-<br /> <br /> stones, co. Wicklow.<br /> Roker, Sunderland.<br /> 4, Harcourt Buildings,<br /> Temple, E.C.<br /> 2, Regent Street, Oxford.<br /> 36, Walker Street, Edin-<br /> burgh.<br /> Willson, Beckles . . 60, Acacia Road, St.<br /> John’s Wood, N.W.<br /> Wilson, H.W. . . 144, Elgin Avenue, W.<br /> Three members do not desire the publication<br /> either of their names or their addresses.<br /> <br /> Monks, Rev. Gilbert<br /> Paine, Wyatt<br /> <br /> Roberts, Miss Jean<br /> Stodart-Walker, A.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ee<br /> <br /> BOOKS PUBLISHED BY MEMBERS OF<br /> THE SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> ——&gt;+ =m<br /> <br /> (In the following list we do not propose to give more<br /> than the titles, prices, publishers, etc., of the books<br /> enumerated, with, in special cases, such particulars as may<br /> serve to explain the scope and purpose of the work.<br /> Members are requested to forward information which will<br /> enable the Editor to supply such particulars.)<br /> <br /> BIOGRAPHY, !<br /> Lire oF Sirk JoHN BervERLEY ROBINSON,<br /> C.B., D.C.L., Chief Justice of Upper Canada. By MAgor<br /> <br /> GENERAL C. W. Roprnson, C.B. 94 x 6}. 490 pp.<br /> Blackwood. 16s.n.<br /> <br /> DRAMA,<br /> THe MAN@uvREs or Jane. An Original Comedy in<br /> Four Acts. By Henry ArTHuR JONES. 63 x 42.<br /> 124pp. Macmillan. 2s. 6d. %.<br /> <br /> BaRr.,<br /> <br /> 155<br /> <br /> EDUCATIONAL.<br /> <br /> THE NEW TEMPLE READER. Tdited by E. E. Sprieur.<br /> 7% X 5. 288 pp. Horace Marshall. ‘1s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> LAMB’s SCHOOLDAYS AND OTHER Essays. Macaulay’s<br /> First Chapter ; Boccaccio, Tales from the Decameron.<br /> Edited by W. H. D. Roussz, Litt.D, 64 x 41.<br /> 128 + 1364+ 119 pp. Blackie, 8d. : ;<br /> <br /> FICTION.<br /> LANGBARROW HALL. By THEODORA WILSON WILSON,<br /> Harper &amp; Bros. 6s.<br /> THE REBEL .WoorIne. By J.<br /> 368 pp. Hutchinson. 6s.<br /> SopHy Bunce. By THomAS Copp.<br /> Nash. 6s.<br /> Count REMINY.<br /> G. Long. 6s.<br /> GEORGE&#039;S GEORGINA. By RENNIE RENNISON.<br /> 334 pp. Simpkin Marshall, 6s.<br /> <br /> THE PILGRIMS. By E. BeLAsYsE. 74 x 5.<br /> Greening &amp; Co. 6s, &lt;<br /> <br /> AN ACT IN A BAcKWater. By E. F.<br /> 276 pp. Heinemann. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE INFoRMER. By FRED WHISHAW. 72% 5.<br /> J. Long. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE SYSTEM.<br /> Methuen. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE RELIGION OF EVELYN HASTINGS.<br /> Cross. 73 x 5}. 255 pp.<br /> Co. 5s.<br /> <br /> WINNIFRED’S WAY. By MAsgor A. GRIFFITHS.<br /> 306 pp. White. 6s.<br /> <br /> A QUIXOTIC WOMAN.<br /> John Murray,<br /> <br /> THE GATE OF<br /> <br /> A. STRUART. 72 x 5,<br /> 1s: xX 6. 316 pp:<br /> sy JEAN MIDDLEMASS. 72 x 5. 304 pp.<br /> 1k-x&lt; D.<br /> 323 pp.<br /> BENSON. 72x 5.<br /> 317 pp.<br /> 3y PueRcy WHITE. 73 Xx 5. 330 pp.<br /> <br /> 3y VICTORIA<br /> The Walter Scott Pub.<br /> <br /> 7? x 54.<br /> By IsaABEL Firz Roy HECHT. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE Desert. By JoHN OXENHAM.<br /> <br /> 7% x 5. 323 pp. Methuen. 6s.<br /> THE BELL IN THE FOG AND OTHER STORIES. By<br /> GERTRUDEATHERTON, 7} X 5. 380 pp. Macmillan.<br /> <br /> 6s. i<br /> THE SIRDAR’S SABRE.<br /> White. 6s.<br /> PETER’S MOTHER.<br /> 1% x 5. 344 pp.<br /> A CouNTRY DIARY.<br /> 244 pp. Allen. 68.<br /> {OSAMOND GRANT. By Mrs. LOVETT CAMERON. 7? X 5.<br /> 309 pp. J. Long. 6s.<br /> <br /> GARDENING.<br /> <br /> By Lous Tracy. 73 x 5. 241 pp.<br /> <br /> By Mrs. Henry De La PASTURE.<br /> Smith Elder. 6s.<br /> <br /> By Mrs. ALFRED Cock. 7} x 5.<br /> <br /> FLOWERS AND FRUIT FoR THE HomeE. By J. L.<br /> RICHMOND. 7 X 5. 247 pp. Edinburgh, Morton;<br /> London, Simpkin Marshall, 5s. n.<br /> <br /> HISTORICAL.<br /> <br /> HisToRY OF THE OUTER HEBRIDES. By W. C.<br /> MACKENZIE, I&#039;.8.A. Scot. 9} x 6. 623 pp. Gardner.<br /> 21s.<br /> <br /> THE PROBLEM OF FIORENZO DI LORENZO OF PERUGIA.<br /> A Critical and Historical Study. By JEAN CARLYLE<br /> GRAHAM. 8} xX 7}. 123 pp. 25 Plates. Loescher. 21s.<br /> <br /> LITERARY.<br /> Essays AND AppRESSES. By THe RiguTr Hon.<br /> A. J. BALFouR, M.P. Third and_ enlarged edition.<br /> <br /> 7i x 5. 443 pp.<br /> <br /> I Edinburgh, Douglas. 7s. 6d. n.<br /> BOOKS AND THINGS.<br /> <br /> A Colleetiou of Stray Remarks. By<br /> <br /> G.S. Street, 73 X 5}. 247 pp. Duckworth. 6s,<br /> MEDICAL<br /> <br /> Their Mutual Relationship and<br /> By NorMAN Parritt, M.R.C.S. 74 X 5.<br /> 3s, 6d.<br /> <br /> RELIGION V. HEALTH,<br /> Influence.<br /> 186 pp.<br /> <br /> Skeflington,<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 156<br /> <br /> MILITARY.<br /> ‘A SECRET AGENT IN Port ARTHUR.<br /> 72 x 5. 316 pp. Constable. 6s. :<br /> WELLINGTON’S CAMPAIGNS. Peninswla—W aterloo, 1808-<br /> 15. Also Moore’s Campaign of Corunna (for Military<br /> <br /> By W. GREENER.<br /> <br /> Students). By Masor-GENERAL C. W. Ropinson, C.B.<br /> Part 1, 1808-9-10. Roleia to Busaco. 8} x 54. 141 pp.<br /> Rees, 3s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> PHILOSOPHY.<br /> DARWINIAN Fanuactes. By J. SCOULLER.<br /> 296 pp. Simpkin Marshall. 3s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> POLITICAL.<br /> THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR, AND THE PRESENT STATE<br /> <br /> m1<br /> (g OO.<br /> <br /> oF Russia. By CARL JoUBERT. 9 x 5}. 265 pp.<br /> Nash. 7s. 6d.<br /> SPORT.<br /> <br /> GREAT LAWN ‘TENNIS PLAYERS. Their Methods<br /> Illustrated. By G. W. Benpam &amp; Pp, A. VAILE.<br /> 9 x 6. 403pp. Macmillan. 12s. 6d.n.<br /> <br /> THEOLOGY.<br /> <br /> SERMONS ON SOCIAL SUBJECTS. Compiled by the Rev,<br /> W.H. Hunt, 252 pp. Skeffington. 5s,<br /> <br /> TOPOGRAPHY.<br /> THe THACKERAY CountTRY. By Lewis MELVILLE.<br /> 8} X 5}. 223 pp. Black. 6s. n.<br /> TRAVEL<br /> <br /> SICILY, THE New WINTER Resort. An Encyclopedia of<br /> Sicily. By i:Dovgnas SLADEN. 7} X 5. 616 pp.<br /> Methuen. 5s. n.<br /> <br /> THE LAND OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. Sketches and<br /> Impressions in Andalusia. By W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM.<br /> 8} x 6. 228 pp. Heinemann. 6s. n.<br /> <br /> —____—_+-—@—+—___—_<br /> <br /> LITERARY, DRAMATIC, AND MUSICAL<br /> NOTES.<br /> <br /> —+—&gt;—+<br /> <br /> ISS VICTORIA CROSS, the author of<br /> “Anna Lombard,” “Six Stories of a<br /> Man’s Life,” and other works, has pub-<br /> lished through the Walter Scott Publishing Com-<br /> pany a new novel entitled “The Religion of<br /> Evelyn Hastings.” It is a simple love story in<br /> which the faith of the heroine is strengthened by<br /> her belief in the spiritual power of telepathic<br /> suggestion.<br /> We have received notice that Mr. J. A. Cooper,<br /> a member of the Society of Authors, will preside<br /> at the 47th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Press<br /> Association of Toronto, when seven important<br /> topics will come before the Association for con-<br /> sideration. The Association will hold a supper at<br /> McConkey’s, in Toronto, on the evening of the<br /> first day. The following is alist of the Officers of<br /> the Association :—John A. Cooper, President ;<br /> A. McNee, 1st Vice-President ; A. H. U. Colquhoun,<br /> 2nd Vice-President ; Joseph T. Clark, Secretary-<br /> Treasurer; John R. Bone, Assistant Secretary-<br /> Treasurer; D. Williams, W. E. Smallfield, J. F.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> McKay, M. A. James, W. Ireland, Executive Com-<br /> mittee ; H. J. Pettypiece, M.P.P., Past President.<br /> <br /> The third volume of Mr. Austin Dobson’s<br /> annotated edition of the “Diary and Letters of<br /> Madame D’Arblay,” will shortly be published by<br /> Messrs. Macmillan &amp; Co. It deals with the period<br /> from 1786 to 1788, and, in Fanny Burney’s inimit-<br /> able manner, throws much light on the inner life<br /> of the English Court, and also on the doings of the<br /> literary and artistic circles of that time.<br /> <br /> Jt has been arranged that Lord Avebury’s recent<br /> book on Free ‘&#039;rade, which sets forth his views on<br /> the great question of the day, is to be published<br /> by Messrs. Macmillan &amp; Co. in a_half-crown<br /> edition in the course of a week orso. The author<br /> holds the opinion that before the country gives its<br /> decision the subject should be discussed in the<br /> widest possible manner, and it is hoped that in its<br /> new form this work will reach a greatly increased<br /> circle of readers.<br /> <br /> “The Bell in the Fog and other Stories,” by<br /> Gertrude Atherton, published by Messrs. Macmillan<br /> &amp; Co., is a collection of ten tales. The three first<br /> have a more or less common interest in that they<br /> deal with theosophical and supernatural subjects,<br /> with the scenes laid in Hertfordshire, Yorkshire,<br /> and Brittany.<br /> <br /> The romantic story of Wilhelmina Margravine,<br /> of Bayreuth, an influential woman of the eighteenth<br /> century, who moved in Continental Courts, and<br /> founded the fortunes of the town, has been written<br /> by Mrs. Edith E. Cuthell, and will be published in<br /> the spring by Messrs. Chapman &amp; Hall. The<br /> book will be an 8vo. volume, and fully illustrated.<br /> The price will be 12s. 6d.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Hutchinson &amp; Co. have just published a<br /> new novel by J. A. Steuart, under the title of<br /> “The Rebel Wooing.” The scenes of the story,<br /> the hero of which is a Scottish divine, are laid in<br /> Scotland and England.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Routledge have included in their New<br /> Universal Library an authorised selection of Sir<br /> Lewis Morris’s poems under the title of “ The<br /> Golden Treasury.”<br /> <br /> “ Sicily,” by Mr. Douglas Sladen, has just been<br /> published by Messrs. Methuen &amp; Co. The first<br /> part of the work aims at giving a general idea of<br /> the Island of the Sun as a winter resort, while the<br /> second is a road guide, giving the names of all the<br /> towns of Sicily to which there is any reasonable<br /> means of access by road, rail, or steamer.<br /> <br /> “ Hearts of Wales,” an old romance, is the title<br /> of a new work by Allen Raine, which will be<br /> published during the present month.<br /> <br /> Mrs. Humphry Ward’s novel, “ The Marriage of<br /> William Ashe,’ which is appearing serially in<br /> Harper’s Magazine, will be published in book form on<br /> the 9th of this month in this country by Smith, Elder<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ‘s<br /> 4<br />  <br /> <br /> &amp; Co., and by Messrs. Harper Bros. in the United<br /> States. The social and political setting in which<br /> the characters move, and the unconventional<br /> element in the rising statesman’s marriage, suggest<br /> for their foundation passages from the career of a<br /> famous minister of three centuries ago.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Smith, Elder &amp; Co. have also published<br /> Mrs. de Ja Pasture’s new book, “ Peter’s Mother,”<br /> the scene of which is laid in a Devonshire country<br /> house, the mistress of which is Peter’s mother. :<br /> <br /> “The Silver Key, a Romance of France and<br /> England,” by Nellie K. Blissett, will be issued<br /> during March by Messrs. Chapman and Hall.<br /> Charles II. and his favourite sister, Henrietta,<br /> Duchess of Orleans, figure prominently in the plot,<br /> which deals with the alleged poisoning of the<br /> Duchess and the signing of the Treaty of Dover.<br /> <br /> Miss Theodora Wilson Wilson has just finished<br /> revising a novel, “ Ursula Raven,” which appeared<br /> serially in Te Daily News, for publication in book<br /> form by Messrs. Harper Bros. in the early autumn.<br /> <br /> “The Desire of the Nations,” by Mary A.<br /> Mocatta, is a simple attempt written for educated<br /> children to illustrate from Old Testament history<br /> preparation for the Incarnation and continuity of<br /> worship. The price of the work, which Messrs.<br /> Mowbray are publishing, is 5s.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Jarrold &amp; Sons have just issued a<br /> cheap edition of “The Poets Laureate,” by J.C.<br /> Wright. It contains an additional chapter on the<br /> present laureate, Mr. Alfred Austin, and is thus<br /> brought up to date.<br /> <br /> “Sir Claude Mannerley,” by Edith C. Kenyon,<br /> will be published by Messrs. Ward, Lock &amp; Co. on<br /> the 3rd of March. Miss Kenyon’s last book, “ A<br /> Girl in a Thousand,” is still on sale. Its pub-<br /> lishers, Messrs. S. W. Partridge &amp; Co., have secured<br /> Miss Kenyon’s promise to write them another<br /> tale for the autumn.<br /> <br /> “The Brooches of many Nations,” by Harriet<br /> A. Heaton, edited by J. Potter Briscoe, has been<br /> published by Murray’s Nottingham Book Company.<br /> The author has devoted herself to the study of<br /> the history, art and symbolism of brooches, and the<br /> evolution of the brooch as traced from the bone pins<br /> found in British barrows of the stone age and in<br /> remains ofa later period. She deals with the brooches<br /> of countries as widely divergent as Assyria, Egypt,<br /> Scandinavia, Greece, Rome, and the British Isles.<br /> <br /> “The Problem of Fiorenzo di Lorenzo of<br /> Perugia,” a critical and historical study by Jean<br /> Carlyle Graham, which has been published by<br /> Messrs. Loescher at the price of 21s., has been well<br /> reviewed in the Italian journals Nuova Anthologia,<br /> Roma Letteraria, L’ Unione Liberale, and L’ Italie.<br /> <br /> “The Voice of the Fathers,” by S. T. A. Caul-<br /> <br /> feild, will shortly be published by Messrs. Brown,<br /> The work, to which the Right<br /> <br /> Langham &amp; Co,<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> 157<br /> <br /> Hon. the Viscount Halifax contributes an intro-<br /> duction, deals with the doctrine and ritual of the<br /> first six centuries.<br /> <br /> The notice that appeared in The London Gazette<br /> to the effect that 7&#039;he Monthly Review had been<br /> voluntarily wound up does not mean, as many<br /> people thought, that the Review has ceased to appear.<br /> ‘This is the legal formula by which the Review ceases<br /> to be the property of a limited liability company.<br /> It is now, we understand, the property of Mr. John<br /> Murray, by whom it will be published as before.<br /> <br /> “A Country Diary,” by Mrs. Alfred Cock, has<br /> been published by Mr. Geo. Allen at the price of<br /> 6s. The book contains three stories, into all of<br /> which the supernatural element enters.<br /> <br /> Mr. Charles Lowe’s novel of the Tuileries and<br /> the Siege of Paris has been published by Mr. T.<br /> Werner Laurie. The tale is called «A Lindsay<br /> Love,” and depicts French Court life.<br /> <br /> The two final volumes of Mr, E. V. Lucas’s edition<br /> of the Lamb writings will be issued in a few days<br /> by Messrs. Methuen. They consist of the “ Letters,”<br /> about which Mr. Lucas says, in his preface :—<br /> ‘In this edition of the correspondence of Charles<br /> Lamb, that of his sister, Mary Lamb, is for the<br /> first time included. In it also appear, for the first<br /> time, between seventy and eighty letters, many of<br /> them of the highest importance ; and it is’ the<br /> first edition to take note in chronological order of<br /> those letters printed by other editors that are not<br /> available for the present volumes—a step which<br /> should, I think, add to the correspondence’s<br /> biographical value.’<br /> <br /> The Literary World, which since 1867 has been<br /> published as a penny weekly, is now published as<br /> an illustrated threepenny monthly. The first issue<br /> appeared in February. A serial entitled “ Roger<br /> Temple,” by Norman Gale, is ramning through its<br /> pages. Mr. Norman Gale has been a constant<br /> writer in the Literary World during past years.<br /> <br /> Mr. Ernest Thompson Seton, the author of<br /> “Wild Animals I have Known,” is publishing<br /> through Messrs. Constable &amp; Co. a new book<br /> entitled “ Monarch, the Big Bear of Tallac”’ The<br /> work will contain one hundred drawings by the<br /> author.<br /> <br /> Miss Olive Katharine Parr has just completed a<br /> book of short stories entitled “ Back Slum Idyls.”<br /> Though in the form of fiction, they are all fact,<br /> observed during her mother’s unusual experiences<br /> as honorary prison visitor to three of H.M. prisons<br /> and guardian of the poor of a large London<br /> parish. :<br /> <br /> Messrs. Macmillan &amp; Co. make some interesting<br /> announcements in connection with the new series<br /> of “ English Men of Letters”? which has been for<br /> some time in course of publication. Mr. Stephen<br /> Gwynn’s life of Thomas Moore has been issued.<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 8<br /> <br /> Mr. Arthur C. Benson has completed his monograph<br /> on Edward Fitzgerald for this series, and it is now<br /> in the press.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Macmillan have now added “The<br /> Manceuvres of Jane” to their uniform edition of<br /> the plays of Mr. Henry Arthur Jones.<br /> <br /> A cheaper edition, price s., of Carl Swerdua’s”<br /> (Miss ©. C. Andrews) novel, ‘On London Stones,”<br /> is to be issued shortly by Messrs. James Clarke<br /> &amp; Co., under the amended title of “A Town<br /> Romance ; or, On London Stones.”<br /> <br /> A new work by the same writer, entitled “The<br /> Penance of Penelope,” will be published imme-<br /> diately by Messrs. William Stevens, first as a serial<br /> and later in book form.<br /> <br /> «“ Mollentrave on Women,” by Alfred Sutro, was<br /> produced at the St. James’s Theatre on February<br /> 13th. The play ismainly concerned with the various<br /> schemes, of a matrimonial nature, engineered by<br /> Mollentrave, a character portrayed by Mr. Hric<br /> Lewis, whose pet delusion—a profound knowledge<br /> of women—retained by him to the conclusion of<br /> the piece, causes complications which, however, are<br /> set right at the fall of the curtain.<br /> <br /> Mr. Sydney Grundy’s new play, “The Diplo-<br /> matists,” mounted at the Royalty Theatre on<br /> February 11th, and described as a farce in two<br /> acts, deals with the attempt of two neighbouring<br /> families to maintain an appearance unwarranted<br /> by their pecuniary position, each to persuade the<br /> other of the advantages of an alliance between<br /> them. Itis an adaptation from the French.<br /> <br /> A further play by a member of the Society—<br /> Captain Robert Marshall’s “Lady of Leeds ’—<br /> appeared at Wyndham’s Theatrein the middle of last<br /> month. ‘The piece deals with the determination of<br /> three rejected suitors to be revenged upon a lady who<br /> has refused each of their advances, and, incidentally,<br /> affords Mr. Weedon Grossmith scope for the<br /> exercise of his drollery.<br /> <br /> Mr. R. ©. Carton’s play, “ Mr. Hopkinson,”<br /> appeared at the Avenue Theatre on Tuesday,<br /> February 21st. Miss Compton took the leading<br /> part as “The Duchess of Braceborough,” and<br /> Mr. Frederick Kerr acted as “The Duke.”<br /> <br /> We understand that Mrs. Humphry Ward’s<br /> play written in collaboration with Mr. Louis N.<br /> Parker, entitled “ Agatha,” will be produced by<br /> Mr. ‘Tree on the afternoon of March 7th. The<br /> performance will be given on behalf of the<br /> Princess Mary’s Village Homes, and the Princess<br /> of Wales has promised to be present.<br /> <br /> Mr. Granville Barker, of the Stage Society, and<br /> Mr. J. E. Vedrenne, have arranged for a further<br /> series of matinées at the Court Theatre at the<br /> beginning of March. Among the plays to be<br /> produced will be Mr. Bernard Shaw’s burlesque of<br /> himself, ‘ How he lied to her husband.”<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> PARIS NOTES.<br /> <br /> Oe<br /> <br /> € A Vie Future,” by Louis Elbé, is a most<br /> L interesting book, and the work of a thinker<br /> and savant. The author tells us that the<br /> object of his researches has been to study the<br /> problem of the survival of the human soul, as<br /> taught by the philosophers of ancient times and by<br /> the traditions handed down from distant ages, and<br /> to consider all this by the light of modern science.<br /> With the greatest competence and the most abso-<br /> lute impartiality M. Elbé gives us a brief sketch<br /> of the various beliefs and religions dating from the<br /> most remote ages of civilisation. He then touches<br /> on the various sciences from astronomy to experi-<br /> mental psychology, and the historical and scientific<br /> arguments which justify faith in another life, but<br /> although he shows us clearly that modern science<br /> does not destroy the hypothesis of a future life, he<br /> admits that it cannot give any idea as to what the<br /> future life will be.<br /> <br /> As the titles of some of the chapters will show,<br /> this book is not one to be scanned hastily. It<br /> requires careful reading, and is well worth studying<br /> from the first line to the last. The first part of<br /> the volume is devoted to “The Wisdom of the<br /> Ancients,” and the various chapters are “‘ L’idée de<br /> la survivance dans les civilisations antiques,” “ Tra-<br /> ditions et monuments préhistoriques,” ‘ Les peu-<br /> plades sauvages,” ‘Les Chinois,” “Les Egyptiens,”<br /> ‘Les Hindous,” “ Les Chaldéens,” ‘* Les Gaulois,”<br /> “Les Juifs,” ‘‘ Les Grecs,” ‘ Les Romains,” “ Le<br /> Christianisme,” ‘‘ L’immortalité conditionnelle dans<br /> les églises protestantes,”’ ‘Le spiritisme et la<br /> théosophie.’ The second part of the book treats<br /> of ‘‘ Modern Science,” and is divided into the<br /> chapters following: ‘‘ Déductions tirées des sciences<br /> fondamentales,”’ “ L’astronomie,” “ La terre dans<br /> Punivers,” “Les sciences physiques,” “ La perman-<br /> ence de la matiére et de l’énergie,” “ Les sciences<br /> physiques et chimiques,” “ La conception de l’éther<br /> dans la constitution de la matiére et les mani-<br /> festations de l’énergie,” ‘Sciences physiques et<br /> mécaniques,” ‘Le réle de I’éther dans l’univers,”<br /> “ Biologie,” “ La matiére et la vie,” ‘ Le tourbillon<br /> vital,” ‘‘Les fronti¢res de la science,” “ Le fluide<br /> odique,” “ L’éxtériorisation du double fluidique,”<br /> ‘Manifestations 4 grandes distances,” ‘ La télé-<br /> <br /> pathie,” “Examen des hypothéses propos¢es,”<br /> <br /> ‘“* Conclusions.”<br /> The great argument which M. Elbé brings<br /> <br /> forward to support his theory is “the law of |<br /> permanence which governs all the manifestations —<br /> We must conclude,” he says,<br /> “that this law could not allow conscious force to<br /> perish when we see with what incorruptible fidelity _<br /> <br /> of universal life.<br /> <br /> it watches over the preservation of the minutest<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ee<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> material atom, the transformation of physical<br /> energy, and the registering of accomplished facts.”<br /> <br /> The review published by Messrs. Hachette, Za<br /> Vie Heureuse, has awarded a prize for the best book<br /> written recently by a woman. Most of the promi-<br /> nent French authoresses were on the jury, so that<br /> their works could not be taken into consideration.<br /> The idea of this scheme must therefore be to bring<br /> to the front writers who are not well known.<br /> Among the members of the jury were Mmes. Arvéde<br /> Barine, Blanc-Bentzon, Pierre de Coulevain, Judith<br /> Gautier, Damel Lesueur, Marcelle Tinayre. The<br /> prize was awarded to Myriam Harry for her novel<br /> “Ta Conquéte de Jérusalem,” a book which<br /> attracted great attention at the time of its publi-<br /> cation. Myriam Harry’s first volume was a<br /> collection of short stories entitled ‘‘ Passage de<br /> Bédouins,” published in 1899. The subjects are<br /> ali taken from Oriental life, and the writer has<br /> succeeded in getting the atmosphere of the places<br /> she describes into her stories. Myriam Harry’s<br /> next book was “ Petites Hpouses,” an exquisitely<br /> written idyll, the subject of which is the love-affair<br /> of a Frenchman and a young Annamite girl during<br /> the sojourn of the former at Saigon. This book<br /> is an extremely clever psychological study. The<br /> mentality of the child-wife, Frisson de Bambou,<br /> with her mingled simplicity and subtlety is most<br /> delicately portrayed, while the influence of environ-<br /> ment on the character of the European is, in itself,<br /> an interesting subject. In “La Conquéte de<br /> Jerusalem” the authoress gives us a graphic de-<br /> scription of the Jerusalem of to-day. Hélie Jamain<br /> ig a young Frenchman whose great-uncle had<br /> accompanied Chateaubriand to Palestine, and had<br /> brought back with him all kinds of curious relics<br /> and souvenirs from the Holy Land. Hélie, from<br /> his earliest childhood, had dreamed of Jerusalem,<br /> and had pictured himself there as a Crusader, a<br /> pilgrim, or a martyr. Later on, when he had<br /> finished his education, travelled in various countries<br /> and lived long enough in Egypt to learn Arabic<br /> and to know something of the manners and customs<br /> of Oriental people, he decides to go to Jerusalem.<br /> Some Lazarist priests had fired him with enthusi-<br /> asm and endeavoured to persuade him into under-<br /> taking a mission to the Holy Land, where the<br /> Church of Rome had lost its prestige. After a<br /> short sojourn in Jerusalem, Hélie begins to lose<br /> faith in being able to accomplish the task he has<br /> in view. In this country, from which the whole<br /> world had received its charitable and holy inspira-<br /> tions, he now finds the greatest religious intolerance,<br /> jealousy, and hatred. “On all sides people were<br /> praying and disputing. They no longer sang in<br /> order to praise God, but to drown the voices of<br /> those who held another creed and to prevent them<br /> being heard in Heaven.” We are told that “No<br /> <br /> 159<br /> <br /> one in Jerusalem belongs to a country but to a<br /> religion, no one adheres to a class, but to a creed.<br /> All the different beliefs are equally detested, but<br /> everyone admits this reciprocal hatred, and respects<br /> the fanaticism of his neighbour,” so that Hélie<br /> comes to the conclusion that the only man who<br /> would be universally despised in Jerusalem would<br /> be a just and tolerant individual with broad views,<br /> who recognised what was good in every different<br /> religion and creed.<br /> <br /> In the ghetto quarter Hélie is looked upon with<br /> suspicion, as he has ventured to suggest certain<br /> innovations, and one night he is found lying in a<br /> deserted street wounded and unconscious. He is<br /> taken to the nearest hospital, which happens to be<br /> one founded by Protestants. Hélie during his<br /> convalescence falls in love with one of the nurses,<br /> the daughter of an Alsatian pastor, and a few<br /> weeks later marries her. The chief interest of the<br /> story lies in the psychological study of this man<br /> imbued with all the poetry and idealism of the<br /> Catholic religion and the Latin race. His wife,<br /> Cécile, has all the positivism and narrowness of a<br /> Calvinist, so that it is only in rare moments that<br /> there is any true communion between them.<br /> Hélie is persuaded by Cécile to adopt her religion,<br /> and his existence from thenceforth is one long<br /> mental combat and a series of disappointments.<br /> There is a great fascination about the book, but<br /> one closes it considerably disillusionised on the<br /> subject of modern Jerusalem.<br /> <br /> After the celebrated exhibition of paintings by the<br /> French early masters, M. Henri Bouchot’s study,<br /> “Les Primitifs Francais” (1292—1500) is very<br /> apropos. &#039;The author gives many details about the<br /> various artists, and particularly about Jean Perréal.<br /> <br /> Among the recent books are “ Histoire de la<br /> guerre Russo-Japonaise,” by M. Gaston Donnet ;<br /> “Le Reveil de la nation arabe dans I’Asie Turque,”<br /> by Negib Azoury.<br /> <br /> * Reliquoe” is a posthumous publication of a<br /> collection of stories and descriptions of voyages,<br /> by M. Louis Guéry, with a preface by M. Edouard<br /> Rod and M. Stryienski. M. Guéry died last year<br /> at the age of twenty-three, and had already<br /> published two novels, “Le plus heureux Temps<br /> de la vie,” and ‘“ L’Autre Voie.”<br /> <br /> “Ta Rose du Bocage,” by Francois Casale, is a<br /> novel dating back to the time of the First<br /> Consulate.<br /> <br /> “La Valise Diplomatique,” by Léon de Tinseau,<br /> is a volume of short stories, the scene of most of<br /> them being laid in the East.<br /> <br /> “ Les Sophistes Francais et la Révolution,” by<br /> M. Th. Funck-Brentano.<br /> <br /> “‘Madame Récamier et ses amis,” by Edouard<br /> Henriot ; © Un ouvrage inédit de M. de Staél,”<br /> by Edouard Henriot ; “ Histoire de l’Emigration,”<br /> 160<br /> <br /> by Ernest Daudet ; ‘La Princesse Charlotte de<br /> Rohan et le Duc d’Enghien,” by Jacques de la<br /> <br /> Faye ; “ Classification sociale,” by Edmond<br /> Demolins ; ‘ L’Etat social de lAvenir,” by<br /> <br /> Professor Bilz; “ Une vie d@’ Officier Russe,” by<br /> Colonel Vereschaguine; ‘“ La Vie de Paris,” by<br /> Jean Bernard.<br /> <br /> M. F. Brunetiére is now giving a course of<br /> lectures on “The History of Free Thought in the<br /> Kighteenth Century, or the Encyclopedistes.”<br /> <br /> In La Nouvelle Revue, a diplomatist writes on<br /> ‘Les Ambitions du Japon.”” M. de Pouvourville<br /> in an article on “ L’Armée moderne et ses cadres,”<br /> discusses the reforms to be made in the army.<br /> <br /> In La Quinzaine, Henry Madeleine writes on<br /> “TL’Esprit militaire des officiers allemands.” M.<br /> Goyau continues his study of “ Fébronianisme et<br /> Joséphisme.”<br /> <br /> In the Revue des Deus Mondes there is an<br /> article by Général de Négrier, ‘‘Le Moral des<br /> Troupes ” ; and Madame Arvede Barine continues<br /> her history of “‘ La Grande Mademoiselle.”<br /> <br /> In the Revue de Paris there is also an article,<br /> “A propos du Japon et de la Paix,” and in the<br /> Revue Philosophique, Charles Richet discusses the<br /> consequences of peace and war, arguing that war<br /> does not exalt the greatest virtues of a man.<br /> <br /> Madame Sarah Bernhardt is at present giving<br /> Victor Hugo’s ‘‘ Angelo.”<br /> <br /> At the Thédtre de l’Oeuvre, M. Lugné Poe has<br /> just recently given “ La Gioconda,” ‘* Maison de<br /> Poupée,” “ Phedre,” and “ La Fille de Jorio.”<br /> <br /> M. Bour, of “ Alleliiia’ fame, has come to the<br /> front as an actor-manager. We have mentioned in<br /> The Author his various enterprises and his great<br /> success as an interpreter of some of the chief<br /> roles in the plays he has introduced in France.<br /> We have to thank him for the opportunity of<br /> having seen some excellent Italian, Portuguese,<br /> Spanish and German plays, and he is now about<br /> to found a theatre for the poets, and to do for<br /> idealism what Antoine has done for naturalism.<br /> M. Bour is at present playing “Cadet Roussel,”<br /> by Jacques Richepin, at the Bouffes-Parisiens, and<br /> a subscription has been raised in order to subsidise<br /> that theatre for him.<br /> <br /> One of the greatest successes of the month has<br /> been “La Retraite,” the German play, by M.<br /> Beyerler, which is now running at the Vaudeville.<br /> It is a study of German military life, and curiously<br /> enough there is only one woman’s role in the whole<br /> play. The piece has been admirably translated by<br /> M.M. Rémon and Valentin, and it was awaited<br /> impatiently here. At one time it was thought<br /> that it would be difficult to put it on in France, as<br /> French actors might not be willing to appear in<br /> German uniforms.<br /> <br /> Auys HALLARD.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> NOTES ON AGREEMENTS.<br /> <br /> —_+-—&lt;—+—__<br /> <br /> TY is some months since any agreement has<br /> I been put forward for criticism in the columns<br /> <br /> of The Author.<br /> <br /> There are certain agreements which come before<br /> the Secretary from time to time, and which, in con-<br /> sequence, need repeated explanation. It need not<br /> necessarily follow that agreements will work out<br /> badly, even if they are badly drawn. LHverything,<br /> in these circumstances, must depend upon the<br /> methods of the publisher, but a badly drawn agree-<br /> ment in the hands of a publisher who desires to<br /> take the utmost advantage of his legal position is<br /> necessarily disastrous to the author. It is in order<br /> that the author may be able to see clearly, before<br /> entering into an agreement, what terms he could<br /> safely accept, that it is advantageous from time to<br /> time to criticise forms of contract.<br /> <br /> It is necessary to draw attention to the wording<br /> in the description of the parties to the agreement<br /> printed below. ‘‘ Whereby it is mutually agreed<br /> between the parties hereto for themselves and their<br /> respective executors, administrators, and assigns<br /> or successors, as the case may be.” It is most<br /> unsatisfactory to contract with the successors or<br /> assigns of a publishing house. Many members<br /> of the Society are beginning to find, in the case of<br /> a recent bankruptcy, how awkward their position<br /> is when they have entered into these terms with a<br /> publisher. A publishing contract should be a<br /> personal contract, and authors should always<br /> endeavour to keep it so, in spite of what pub-<br /> lishers may say to the contrary.<br /> <br /> In Clause 1 the words “with due diligence ” are<br /> very indefinite. It should be clearly stated that<br /> the book should be on the market before a certain<br /> date. In many cases this is of importance, as pay-<br /> ments are made on the date of publication. The<br /> form in which the book is to be produced, and the<br /> price at which it is to sell to the public should be<br /> definitely mentioned, and the publisher should also<br /> be bound to produce a first edition of at least 1,500<br /> copies in the form and at the price agreed upon.<br /> <br /> The second Clause is, in some respects, not<br /> unreasonable, as in many cases the author is the<br /> only person who can tell whether a book is an<br /> infringement of copyright or contains anything<br /> libellous, but although he should guarantee the<br /> <br /> publisher against expenses which have been.<br /> <br /> incurred owing to his (the author’s) neglect, he<br /> should not be responsible for any costs which may<br /> be taken or incurred by the publisher. This<br /> <br /> clause might lead the author into unknown diffi-<br /> culties, should the publisher without proper advice,<br /> take action to protect the work from alleged<br /> infringement.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ii as es<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> _ cism.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Clause 8 is much too wide and comprehensive,<br /> and in the hands of a bad publisher has been<br /> utilised with disastrous effect against the author.<br /> The last part of the clause from “ and the author<br /> shall not” down to ‘“‘dramatised version of the<br /> work” should be entirely deleted. Cases have<br /> been known where the publisher has refused to<br /> give his consent unless he received 50 per cent. of<br /> the profits arising from the sale of translation<br /> rights—an absurd position, even if the sale of<br /> these rights have been negotiated through the<br /> publisher’s agency—and it is impossible to tell<br /> what he might ask in the case of a successful<br /> dramatic version. These rights of translation<br /> and dramatisation have nothing whatever to do<br /> with the publication of the book, and ought never,<br /> in any circumstances, to be under the control of<br /> the publisher. Although it is possible that the<br /> publisher, who has not negotiated the sale, may not<br /> desire to exercise his option, it is not equitable to<br /> the author that he should be given the option. It<br /> is not always satisfactory to let the equitable rights<br /> be settled by the business party to a contract.<br /> <br /> Clause 4, section A, cannot be too severely con-<br /> demned, as there is no stimulus to the publisher to<br /> sell beyond the 1,000 copies of the book or, count-<br /> ing 13 as 12, say 1,080 copies. Every clause is a<br /> mistake which places the publisher’s and author’s<br /> interests in opposition, and should the publisher<br /> see the sales dropping just as he is nearing the<br /> 1,000 copies, it is quite certain that he will not be<br /> in a hurry to sell the last 50; for he will be<br /> bound to pay the author a royalty from the begin-<br /> ning and on all further sales. If it were clear that<br /> the sale of 1,000 copies would fall far short of the<br /> expense incurred on cost of production, there<br /> might be some stimulus for the publisher to keep<br /> the book on the market, but the sale of 1,000 copies<br /> of the ordinary 6s. book and subject to no royalties<br /> would not only cover all expenses, but bring back<br /> a good 50 per cent. on the capital invested.<br /> <br /> In some circumstances it might be better for<br /> the pocket of the author and for the circulation of<br /> the book to have a royalty from the 1,001st copy<br /> only, than to agree to the clause just under criti-<br /> In the hands of an unscrupulous publisher<br /> it is not impossible that only 1,100 copies would<br /> be printed, and the type then broken up.<br /> <br /> The next point arises under Section B. of the<br /> Same clause.<br /> <br /> A royalty is to be paid on the published price of<br /> all copies sold to America, 13 being reckoned as 12.<br /> <br /> About twenty years ago it was customary for all<br /> publishers to pay English authors a royalty on all<br /> Copies sold, and it was on this basis that the profits<br /> ‘quoted in the “Cost of Production” and “ Methods<br /> of Publishing ” issued by the Society were based.<br /> ‘The publishers, however, owing to their desire to<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> 161<br /> <br /> make larger profits, complained bitterly that they<br /> should be forced to pay royalty on copies that<br /> were not actually sold but given away, for they<br /> stated that the thirteenth copy was really given in<br /> with the twelve others. The authors, instead of<br /> meeting this position with a stiff back, gradually<br /> gave way to what appeared a reasonable argument,<br /> and the point in many cases has been yielded. It<br /> is hoped, however, that in consequence, they ob-<br /> tained higher royalties, as there was no real basis<br /> for the cutting down of 8 per cent. of their profits.<br /> <br /> The publishers’ appeal to the author that it<br /> was unfair that they should have to pay royalty on<br /> copies that were not sold, may, or may not, have<br /> been sound, but in the Clause referred to above,<br /> the publisher has reversed this process, and is<br /> asking the author to consent to a royalty payment<br /> on 13 as 12 when the books are not sold 13 as 12.<br /> It is true that many sales on the English market<br /> are made in this way, but at the lowest, from 10<br /> per cent. to 20 per cent. are not, so that the pub-<br /> lisher gains a small advantage. Butin the sale of<br /> books to the United States, they are never sold 13<br /> as 12. If, therefore—according to the publisher’s<br /> own argument—it is unfair for the author to<br /> demand a royalty on every copy from the publisher<br /> when the books are sold 13 as 12, it is unfair for<br /> the publisher to ask the author to receive a royalty<br /> on 13 as 12 when the books are not sold according<br /> to this calculation. In consequence authors should<br /> be careful to see in a clause dealing with sales to<br /> America that the reference to 13 as 12 is deleted.<br /> <br /> Section C of the same clause, again, is full of<br /> pitfalls. Who is to decide whether copies of the<br /> book are sold at a reduced rate. Frequently, when<br /> large quantities of the book are bought an extra<br /> discount is given to the purchaser. In fact, a case<br /> came before the Secretary in which a publisher<br /> claimed the payment of the lower royalty, because<br /> he had consented to make one of the largest sales<br /> of the book at what he was pleased to call a reduced<br /> rate. When asale is made to the Colonies it is<br /> generally made in sheets, and a reduced royalty<br /> is generally paid, but everything must depend<br /> even then upon the method of sale and the price<br /> the publisher obtains; on remainder sales the<br /> reduction in royalty is fair.<br /> <br /> In Section D of the same clause one or two<br /> points of serious interest to authors arise. In no<br /> circumstances should the author allow the pub-<br /> lisher to deai with serial or Continental rights.<br /> <br /> If no clause of this kind were inserted and the<br /> publisher received an offer for the book from a cor-<br /> respondent, or from someone who desired to use<br /> the serial rights, he would, if his business were<br /> conducted on proper lines, with due courtesy, com-<br /> municate direct with the author, who would be<br /> willing or unwilling to accept the proposal. If<br /> 162<br /> <br /> willing, he would gladly pay the ordinary agency<br /> charge of 10 per cent. to the publisher. It is<br /> true that the publisher cannot deal without the<br /> consent of the author, but then on the other<br /> hand the author is bound to pay the enormous<br /> charge of 50 per cent., which is utterly absurd,<br /> as agents are willing to undertake this kind of<br /> business for much more moderate charges. Sections<br /> E and F are comparatively unobjectionable.<br /> <br /> Clauses 5 and 7 must be taken together. They<br /> do not apply to the ordinary work of fiction,<br /> and should, therefore, be deleted, but in a con-<br /> tract for the sale of an educational or scientific<br /> work they are of the utmost importance, and it<br /> should not lie in the power of the publisher to<br /> demand the alteration or amendment of the work<br /> from the author, but it should be at the option of the<br /> author to amend or alter his work as the demands<br /> of the public or the evolution of his subject may<br /> require. He should be able, therefore, to re-edit<br /> the work at certain stated periods—after the sale of<br /> a given number of copies, or at the end of a given<br /> time. It is most important that the author should<br /> retain this control, and the publisher should’ be<br /> bound to accept such alteration or cancel the<br /> contract.<br /> <br /> Concerning Clause 6 little need be said, except<br /> to point out under this contract the amount<br /> allowed for corrections is low, and the author<br /> should, therefore, be exceedingly careful not to run<br /> up this item.<br /> <br /> Clause 8 may pass without comment. In Clause<br /> 9 the accounts should be rendered semi-annually.<br /> Under the arrangement put forward, if the book<br /> was issued at the end of January—not at all an<br /> unfavourable period at which to issue books—the<br /> publisher would retain the author’s money for<br /> nearly a year. This might be very unsatisfactory.<br /> In Clause 10 the stock and plates should be taken<br /> over ata valuation, and not at a fixed price, as<br /> they may be useless when the author desires to<br /> purchase them.<br /> <br /> Strong objection should be raised to Clause 11.<br /> Not only is arbitration as a rule more expensive<br /> for the author, but it saves the publisher from<br /> that publicity which he is often anxious to shun.<br /> Whereas, if the publisher has treated the author<br /> unfairly or unreasonably, the Public Courts are<br /> the best places in which to discuss the point, and<br /> the publicity which is given to such treatment will<br /> act as a warning to the other members of the<br /> publishing trade.<br /> <br /> Clause 12 should be deleted. The reasons for this<br /> were pointed out at the beginning of the article.<br /> <br /> Everyone should read exceedingly carefully the<br /> comments which have been made on this agree-<br /> ment, in case he may at any time have similar<br /> terms before him. For when a legal document<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> between two parties is signed, there is no further<br /> dispute possible, and it is unsatisfactory to throw<br /> yourself on the generosity of the other party.<br /> <br /> AGREEMENT,<br /> <br /> Memorandum of agreement made this<br /> between hereinafter termed the author of the<br /> one part, and (hereinafter termed the publisher of<br /> the other part). Whereby it is mutually agreed between<br /> the parties hereto, for themselves and their respective<br /> executors. administrators and assigns (or successors as the<br /> case may be) as follows :—<br /> <br /> 1. The publisher shall at his own expense and with due<br /> diligence produce and publish a work at present entitled<br /> “ ” by the author and use his best endeavours<br /> to sell the same.<br /> <br /> 2. The author guarantees to the publisher that the said<br /> work is in no way whatever a violation of any existing<br /> copyright, and that it contains nothing of a libellous or<br /> scandalous character, and that he will indemnify the pub-<br /> lisher from all suits, claims and proceedings, damages and<br /> costs which may be made,.taken, or incurred by or against<br /> him on the ground that the work is an infringement of<br /> copyright, or contains anything libellous or scandalous.<br /> <br /> 3. The publisher shall during the legal term of copyright<br /> have the exclusive right of producing and publishing the:<br /> work in England, the Colonies, and the United States of<br /> America. The publisher shall have the entire control of<br /> the publication, sale, and terms of sale of the book, and<br /> the author shall not during the continuance of this agree-<br /> ment (without the consent of the publisher) publish any<br /> abridgment, translation, or dramatised version of the work.<br /> <br /> 4, The publisher agrees to pay the author the following<br /> royalties ; that is to say :-—<br /> <br /> (a) A royalty of per cent. on the published price of<br /> all copies (13 being reckoned as 12) of the British edition<br /> sold, provided always that in the event of less than 1,000<br /> copies being sold no royalty whatever shall be paid, and<br /> that till the sales exceed 1,000 copies no advance on:<br /> account of royalties shall be made (13 copies to be reckoned<br /> as 12 throughout).<br /> <br /> (b) A royalty of on the published price of all copies.<br /> (13 being reckoned as 12) of the American edition,<br /> <br /> (c) In the event of the publisher disposing of copies or<br /> editions at a reduced rate for sale in the Colonies, or else-<br /> where, or as remainders, a royalty of per cent. of the:<br /> amount realised by such sale.<br /> <br /> (d) In the event of the publisher realising profits from<br /> the sale, with the consent of the author, of serial or con-<br /> tinental rights, or from claims for infringement of copy-<br /> right, a royalty of fifty per cent. of the net amount of such:<br /> profits remaining after deducting all expenses relating<br /> thereto.<br /> <br /> (e) No royalties shall be paid on any copies given away<br /> for review or other purposes.<br /> <br /> (£) The author shall be entitled to six gratuitous copies,<br /> and any further copies required at trade price.<br /> <br /> 5. The author agrees to revise the first, and, if necessary,.<br /> to edit and revise every subsequent edition of the work,<br /> and from time to time to supply any new matter that may<br /> be needful to keep the work up to date.<br /> <br /> 6. The author agrees that all costs of corrections and<br /> alterations in the proof sheets exceeding twenty per cent.<br /> of the cost of composition shall be deducted from the<br /> royalties payable to him.<br /> <br /> 7. In the event of the author neglecting to revise an<br /> edition after due notice shall have been given to him, or<br /> in the event of the author being unable to do so by reason<br /> of death or otherwise, the expense of revising and preparing”<br /> such future edition for press shall be borne by the author,.<br /> and shall be deducted from the royalties payable to him.<br /> <br /> day of<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> 8. During the continuance of this agreement the copy-<br /> right of the work shall be vested in the author, who may<br /> be registered as the proprietor thereof accordingly.<br /> <br /> 9. The publisher shall make up the account annually to<br /> December the thirty-first and deliver the same to the<br /> author within two months thereafter, and pay the balance<br /> due to the author on the same date.<br /> <br /> 10. If the publisher shall at the end of three years from<br /> the date of publication or at any time thereafter, give<br /> notice to the author that in his opinion the demand for the<br /> work has ceased, or if the publisher shall for six months<br /> after the work is out of print decline or, after due notice,<br /> neglect to publish a new edition, then and in either of such<br /> cases this agreement shall terminate, and on the determina-<br /> tion of this agreement in the above or any other manner,<br /> the right to print and publish the work shall revert to the<br /> author, and the author, if not then registered, shall be<br /> entitled to be registered as the proprietor thereof, and to<br /> purchase from the publisher forthwith the plates or moulds<br /> and engravings (if any) produced specially for the work<br /> at half cost of production, and whatever copies the pub-<br /> lisher may have on hand at cost of production and if the<br /> author does not within three months purchase and pay for<br /> the said plates or moulds, engravings and copies the pub-<br /> lisher may at any time thereafter dispose of such plates<br /> or moulds, engravings and copies, or melt the plates, paying<br /> to the author in lieu of royalties ten per cent. of the net<br /> proceeds of such sale, unless the publisher can prove from<br /> his books that the publication has resulted in a loss to him<br /> in which case he shall be liable for no such payment.<br /> <br /> 11. If any difference shall arise between the author and<br /> the publisher touching the meaning of this agreement, or<br /> the rights or liabilities of the parties thereunder, the same<br /> shall be referred to the arbitration of two persons (one to<br /> be named. by each party) or their umpire in accordance<br /> with the provisions of the Arbitration Act, 1889.<br /> <br /> 12. The term “publisher” throughout this agreement<br /> shall be deemed to include the person or persons or com-<br /> pany for the time being carrying on the business of the<br /> said and under as well its present as any future<br /> style, and the benefit of this agreement shall be transmissible<br /> accordingly.<br /> <br /> As witness the hands of the parties.<br /> <br /> —&gt;—<br /> <br /> LITERARY YEAR BOOK.*<br /> [Second Notice. |<br /> GENERAL REVIEW.<br /> <br /> &lt;6 HERE is nothing so difficult,” wrote Dr.<br /> <br /> Johnson, “as the art of making advice<br /> <br /> agreeable.” In the friendliest spirit, we<br /> offered, last year, a lengthy criticism of the eighth<br /> edition of this work, believing that, if advantage<br /> were taken of the hints we gave, the result would<br /> be profitable to the publishers and especially to the<br /> immense community to which a good “ Literary<br /> Year Book” would appeal, for there is no reason<br /> why authors and journalists should not have, year<br /> by year, as reliable a handbook as the Peerage<br /> possess in “ Dod” or the Clergy in “ Crockford.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> * «¢The Literary Year Book and Bookman’s Directory,<br /> 1905,” 9th annual volume. Routledge.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 163<br /> <br /> But, although the new edition of the “ Literary<br /> Year Book” has been sent us to review, it would<br /> appear that advice is not wanted, and that appro-<br /> bation only is desired, for whilst we gave the book<br /> a bucketful of the former last year, the publishers<br /> Sa been contented with using a mere tea-spoonful<br /> of it.<br /> <br /> With all deference we suggested that upwards of<br /> a dozen well-known authors whose names we<br /> mentioned might find a place in the 1905 edition.<br /> We cited the works they were best known by.<br /> Neither these authors, under the alphabetical list,<br /> nor their books, under the “new” Index of Titles,<br /> are to be found. The mistakes in London news-<br /> paper addresses which we pointed out remain.<br /> In the Calendar we pleaded that the English poet<br /> William Shenstone might have his birthday noted.<br /> We fail to find it in the new edition, although it is<br /> usually given as 18th November, 1714.<br /> <br /> On the other hand, our recommendations which<br /> have been adopted include the leaving out of the<br /> “Survey of Bookland,” and the signed Resumé of<br /> English literature in the preceding year. The<br /> suggestion that the book, in order to reduce its<br /> bulk, might be printed on thinner paper, has also<br /> been taken advantage of. But we certainly never<br /> suggested that the Index should be deleted.<br /> Strange to say, this is omitted in the 1905 edition,<br /> although a page headed ‘ Index to Advertisers ’ is<br /> retained! A better advertisement for the book<br /> itself would have been to have increased the<br /> copiousness of the former alphabetical lists of sub-<br /> jects at the end of the book, a table of contents at<br /> the beginning being of less use than were the six<br /> columns in smaller type affixed to former editions.<br /> <br /> Onr suggestion that the usefulness of the “ Year<br /> Book ” would be increased, if a Catalogue Raisonné,<br /> or list of books classified under Theology, History,<br /> Travel, Fiction, and so forth were included, has<br /> been adopted.<br /> <br /> InpEX oF TITLES.<br /> <br /> An “ Index of Titles” has also been incorporated.<br /> But we never anticipated, when recommending it,<br /> that books published over thirty years ago would<br /> be enumerated in such a catalogue, so as to form a<br /> supplement occupying 235 pages. If the compilers<br /> had borrowed a catalogue of titles, covering that<br /> period, from any of the large Public Libraries, it<br /> would have been far better than the supplement<br /> before us, which is anything but complete. In<br /> future years it is to be hoped that the ‘Index of<br /> Titles” will be confined to the books published<br /> during the preceding twelve months. The useful<br /> list of artists and book illustrators, which only<br /> occupied twelve pages, and the lists of literary<br /> Clubs (another four pages) can then again be<br /> included.<br /> 164 THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Oprtuary, 1904.<br /> <br /> In the Obituary section last year, we noted the<br /> omission of six names of writers of importance.<br /> <br /> On glancing through the list given this time, no<br /> fewer than seven names occur to us which ought to<br /> have beeninserted. They are as follows :—Charles<br /> Williams, the well-known journalist and war<br /> correspondent, who died February 9th ; Samuel<br /> Capper, author of “ Wanderings in War Time,” etc.<br /> (died, April 8th) ; Edwin Hodder, author of * Life<br /> of the VIIth. Earl of Shaftsbury,” ete. (died, March<br /> 1st); Julian Sturgis, the novelist and opera<br /> librettist (April 13th); W. F. Collier, LL.D.,<br /> author of Histories of Great Britain, Ireland,<br /> Rome, Greece, etc. (November 25th) ; Adeline<br /> Sergeant, the distinguished novelist (December<br /> 5th) ; and Norman Mac Coll, author of ‘Greek<br /> Sceptics from Pyrrho to Sextus,” etc., and editor of<br /> the Athenwum from 1869 to 1901 (December 15th).<br /> <br /> PERIODICAL PUBLICATIONS.<br /> <br /> Last year we pointed out that the list of periodi-<br /> cal publications needed more careful revision, and<br /> that the London addresses of the Belfast News<br /> Letter, Daily Dispatch, Newcastle Chronicle, Norfolk<br /> Chronicle, etc., had been changed. Yet the<br /> editor of the new “ Year Book” has not taken the<br /> trouble to put such matters right. The same old<br /> list, with very few changes, reappears. It begins<br /> with the Aberdeen Evening Gazette, Aberdeen Free<br /> Press, Aberdeen Journal, and Aberdeen We eekly<br /> News. This is an unfair proportion to give to the<br /> “Granite City,” considering that there is no men-<br /> tion of any Brighton paper, nor of such important<br /> organs as the Northern Whig, of Belfast, the great<br /> Presbyterian weekly the Witness, of Belfast, nor the<br /> old-established Cork Eaaminer. Surely these<br /> periodicals are of more importance to authors, as<br /> far as reviews are concerned, than the Alerandra<br /> Library of Complete Novels, price 1d. each, to<br /> which prominence is given. To the professional<br /> literary man, what, again, is the use of adver-<br /> tising the Alpine Journal, to which contributions<br /> are invited, and the words no payment are<br /> appended ? Although the Anglo-Russian is given<br /> five lines, the Anglo-Japanese Gazette (39, Seething<br /> Lane) is left out. Why occupy valuable space,<br /> moreover, by inserting an annnal like the Charities’<br /> Register and Digest, which is of no use to authors,<br /> or the Anthropological Institute Journal, price £1<br /> per annum? And if these are notified, why omit<br /> the quarterly Archwological Journal? In the name<br /> of common sense, what sane author would submit<br /> MSS. to the Army and Militia List, issued<br /> annually, price £1 1s. ? Surely, if this is inserted,<br /> the Army and Navy Chronicle, price 6d. monthly,<br /> should have been included. At all events, the<br /> <br /> defunct Naval and Military Magazine need not<br /> have been noted. ‘There seems to have been no<br /> method in choosing periodicals for this list, in-<br /> tended to be of service to writers. The Art<br /> Annuals, published once in twelve months, are<br /> noted, but the Art Decorator, an_ illustrated<br /> monthly, price 1s., is left out. ‘It is most im-<br /> portant,” says the introduction to this list of<br /> periodicals, “ to use discretion and judgment in the<br /> matter of submitting MSS.,” but neither discretion<br /> nor judgment seem to have been used in compiling<br /> this section. The Australian Handbook, a useful<br /> annual in its way, price 10s. 6d., isno more in need<br /> of outside literary contributions than is Kelly’s<br /> London Directory. Since motoring has become so<br /> much written about, it is difficult to understand<br /> why the Aufomotor Journal should have been for-<br /> gotten. The Bankers’ Magazine, price 1s. 6d.<br /> monthly, is mentioned, but the Weekly Bankers’<br /> Journal is omitted. Surely the Boudoir, published<br /> monthly, of which no mention is made, is of more<br /> service—especially to women writers—than the<br /> Botanical Gazette or the British Empire Year<br /> Book. Again, there is no mention of the Bur-<br /> lington Magazine, published on the first of the<br /> month, but the defunct British Realm and Animal<br /> Life ave given. Certain religious periodicals of little<br /> account are noted, but the Christian, published on<br /> Thursdays, which is a quarter of a century old<br /> and has a large circulation, is overlooked. The<br /> editor has been careful to notify two periodicals<br /> rejoicing in the title of Critic. But one gathers<br /> that he does not approve of the national pastime<br /> by his omission of Cricket, an old - established<br /> paper, and of the Cricket and Football Field,<br /> now in its eighteenth year. It is strange that<br /> while these periodicals are ignored, the Football<br /> Times, of Inverness, should be inserted! Of<br /> more service to writers than the latter paper<br /> would have been the inclusion of the Figaro and<br /> Irish Gentlewoman, a smart, if at times scurrilous,<br /> weekly, which solicits, nevertheless, outside contri-<br /> butions. Mr. C0. B. Fry—who has done, and is<br /> doing, much in a literary sense for healthy sport—<br /> surely will not bless the “Literary Year Book 2<br /> for disregarding his remarkably successful illus-<br /> trated monthly magazine. The compiler, however,<br /> appears to think that a halfpenny weekly produc-<br /> tion entitled Funny Cuts is of more importance.<br /> Mr. E. Ledger is no longer editor of the Mra.<br /> Whilst the Gas World Year Book is drawn atten-<br /> <br /> tion to, we note that the Geological Magazine, —<br /> <br /> issued monthly since 1864, is left out. Itis evident<br /> that the compiler is not a Scot, as he has omitted<br /> the periodicals known as (olf Iilustrated, Golfing,<br /> etc., published weekly. Under the heading of<br /> <br /> “ Home,” the somewhat exclusive quarterly, Home a<br /> <br /> Counties Magazine, is carefully recorded, but Home<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Words, a popular weekly, which has been in exist-<br /> ence twenty-five years and takes contributions, is<br /> omitted. ‘That, however, is of minor importance<br /> compared with the omission of the Illustrated<br /> Official Journal, published on Wednesdays, price 67.,<br /> which is of great use to writers on scientific sub-<br /> jects, recording, as it does, the latest patented<br /> inventions. Under “I” we note the omission of<br /> Trish Society, which has a special London letter,<br /> and is read all over Ireland. “Mrs, E. Mac-<br /> donald”’ no longer edits the Ladies’ Field. An-<br /> other injustice to Japan is the exclusion here of<br /> the Japanese Journal of Commerce, published both<br /> in Tokio and London. Although the Journal of<br /> the Ex-Libris Society is given, the more important<br /> Journal of Botany, British and Foreign, published<br /> since 1863, is left out. No doubt the #x-Libris<br /> Journal, of Plymouth, is admirable in its way, but<br /> surely the Journal of the Society of Arts does not<br /> deserve to be shelved. Ainy and Country, we<br /> believe, is no longer published, although it is given<br /> here. The “ Literary Year Book” (which the reader<br /> presumably possesses) is, of course, carefully in-<br /> cluded, but the quarterly magazine, known as<br /> Legal Literature, which has done good work since<br /> 1899, is regarded as of no account. After that, one<br /> can quite understand why the London Argus, a<br /> well - known weekly dealing with municipal life<br /> (8, New Bridge Street) is left out, but a German<br /> paper, the Londoner Anzeiger, is left in. With the<br /> ** M.’s”’ one comes to the musical papers, of which<br /> we gave a considerable list of omissions last year.<br /> As not one of those papers has been inserted in<br /> this list, it is waste of space to pursue this care-<br /> lessly drawn-up compilation any further.<br /> <br /> Before leaving this section, however, we would add<br /> that an improvement on the “1904 Year Book” is<br /> made in the short paragraphs attached to certain of<br /> the periodicals as a guide to the contributor.<br /> This, nevertheless, has been more systematically<br /> done in the Writer’s Year Book (price 1s.), in<br /> which, wherever possible, indications are given of<br /> the actual rate of payment for contributions, when<br /> payment is made, if a preliminary letter is required,<br /> whether the contributor is expected to send in an<br /> account, the day and hour when contributors are<br /> interviewed, and other useful information. But<br /> even in the Writer’s Year Book one vital matter is<br /> overlooked. It is of great importance to an author<br /> that publishers and editors should give information<br /> as to the approximate time they require for the<br /> reading of books and articles submitted to them.<br /> The irresponsible way in which this is done at<br /> present is often most unjust to the literary man.<br /> An editor who invites outside contributions, or a<br /> publisher who accepts manuscripts to read, over-<br /> looks the fact that he is in the same position as a<br /> person who receives goods on approval, and that<br /> <br /> 165<br /> <br /> he is under a moral (if not legal) obligation to<br /> return those goods without delay and in proper<br /> condition, should he decide not to buy them. The<br /> long waiting to which authors are unfairly sub-<br /> jected would not be tolerated by a publisher’s or<br /> editor’s tailor or bootmaker. Yet whereas coats or<br /> boots may not be depreciated in value by being<br /> kept, it often happens that articles not promptly<br /> returned lose their value, and the wrong is further<br /> aggravated when type-written sheets come back<br /> dog’s-eared and soiled, so that it is impossible for<br /> the author to submit them elsewhere. Literary<br /> men of experience may know those firms that are<br /> the greatest sinners in this respect and avoid them.<br /> Publishers of enterprise, therefore, who conduct<br /> their business on methodical lines, would find it<br /> to their advantage to state, approximately, the<br /> period of time they require to make up their minds<br /> whether to reject or accept MSS.<br /> <br /> A correspondent points out how carefully, in this<br /> 1905 Year Book,” the word editor has been<br /> printed ‘‘ editress,” to indicate a female editor, the<br /> only instance where the affix has not been altered<br /> being in the case where the rédacteuse is a<br /> “countess,” the “ess” in countess apparently<br /> sufficing for both substantives.<br /> <br /> ForEIGN PUBLISHERS.<br /> <br /> The same correspondent remarks that “ the list<br /> of Foreign Publishers is very incomplete.” It isa<br /> pity that Mr. David Nutt or Messrs. Dulau were<br /> not consulted on such a subject. For instance,<br /> under the heading “Switzerland” (p. 448), not a<br /> single publishing firm of Geneva or Neufchatel is<br /> mentioned ; whilst under “ Italy,” the publishing<br /> houses of Rome are overlooked.<br /> <br /> LIBRARIES.<br /> <br /> This section (commencing on p. 572) has been<br /> amplified, and now contains much valuable informa-<br /> tion. In place of eight pages in the “1904 Year<br /> Book,” it here occupies 32 pages, entries regarding<br /> the cathedral and college libraries, as well as pro-<br /> vincial collections, being most acceptable. It is to<br /> be hoped that the list of foreign libraries in the<br /> tenth edition of this “ Year Book” will be done<br /> more justice to in the same way. Paris—it is a<br /> truism to say—is better provided than London or<br /> any other city with great public libraries. Besides<br /> the Bibliothéque Nationale, there are four great<br /> libraries, each containing upwards of 120,000<br /> volumes. Particulars of the many valuable collec-<br /> tions belonging to various learned and _ scientific<br /> societies throughout France would be of interest<br /> and value. As regards Germany, no mention is<br /> made of the Royal public libraries of the great<br /> towns, nor of the renowned book collections at<br /> Dresden, Stuttgart, Darmstadt, Gotha, Leipzig,<br /> 166<br /> <br /> Gottingen and elsewhere. Of the many public<br /> libraries of Italy, there is not one word. This is<br /> not courteous either to Florence, Naples, Turin,<br /> Palermo, Rome, Milan, Venice, or Padua. Holland,<br /> as everyone knows, is a very “ booky” country,<br /> but it is invidious to mention the Royal Library<br /> of The Hague, and three other places, omitting<br /> Utrecht. Again, what about Belgium, with its<br /> magnificent libraries at Brussels, Ghent, and Liége ?<br /> Also, what about the libraries of Madrid, Lisbon,<br /> St. Petersburg, Moscow, Copenhagen, Stockholm,<br /> and Christiania? The deletion of the present<br /> “Index of Titles” padding should give plenty of<br /> space for such matters.<br /> <br /> Forrign ANNUALS.<br /> <br /> Writing from abroad, the same correspondent<br /> suggests that, in future, the title of each annual<br /> shoutd be given as published, and not be translated<br /> into English, when it is more difficult to recognise.<br /> This list, also, is sadly incomplete.<br /> <br /> Finally, it is not to be expected that any work of<br /> reference can be made perfect. Omissions must<br /> occur. Perhaps more allowance would have been<br /> made generally for the present edition of the<br /> “Literary Year Book” if it had not been<br /> announced with such a flourish of trampets. By<br /> the way it was advertised, writers expected at<br /> last to find that really reliable reference book they<br /> have so long desired to possess. Even as the shoe-<br /> maker is generally noted for wearing the worst<br /> ‘shoes, so, it appears, is the British author doomed<br /> to put up with a “ Year Book ” which falls short<br /> of what such a “year book” should be. But, accord-<br /> ing to Schiller, “ Hope is sent ¢0 the unfortunate.”<br /> As there are many unfortunate slips in the 1905<br /> Year Book,” it will perhaps comfort the publishers<br /> to know that we fervently hope, and bid them<br /> resolve, that the tenth edition may be an improve-<br /> ment on the ninth.<br /> <br /> A. R,<br /> <br /> __¢—&lt;—9-—__—_<br /> <br /> MAGAZINE CONTENTS.<br /> <br /> FEBRUARY, 1905.<br /> <br /> BLACKWOOD’S MAGAZINE.<br /> <br /> The Renascence of Sycophancy.<br /> Mrs. John Hunter, The Surgeon’s Wife. By Flora<br /> Masson.<br /> Two Singers.<br /> Musings Without Method :—<br /> 1. Of the Making of Historians.<br /> 2. Disraeli’s First and Last Novels.<br /> <br /> BooKMAN.<br /> <br /> Cervantes and His Musterpiece. By Major Martin<br /> Hume,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> The Hunting Ground of Don Quixote.<br /> <br /> By Henr.<br /> Bernard. j 7<br /> <br /> Book MONTHLY.<br /> Gladstone as Bookman.<br /> Ambnassadors of Letters.<br /> A Children’s Library.<br /> CHAMBERS’ JOURNAL,<br /> <br /> The Memory of an Old Young Author. By W. W. Fenn.<br /> <br /> CONTEMPORARY REVIEW.<br /> <br /> The Bankruptcy of Higher Criticism. By Dr. Emil<br /> Reich.<br /> <br /> Plutarch the Humane. By Countess Martinengo<br /> Cesaresco.<br /> <br /> Patriotism and Christianity. By Augustine Birrell.<br /> <br /> THE FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW.<br /> <br /> By Maurice Materlinck.<br /> By Horace B. Samuel.<br /> By J. Churton Collins.<br /> By John F.<br /> <br /> “ King Lear” in Paris.<br /> <br /> The Psychology of Disraeli.<br /> <br /> Greek at the Universities.<br /> <br /> French Life and the French Stage.<br /> Macdonald.<br /> <br /> THE INDEPENDENT REVIEW.<br /> How Long Halt Ye? By G. Lowes Dickinson.<br /> <br /> The Poetic Quality in Liberalism. By G. K. Chesterton.<br /> Side Lights on the Franciscans. By G. G. Coulton.<br /> <br /> MACMILLAN’S MAGAZINE.<br /> <br /> The Study of Colonial History at Oxford. By the Rey.<br /> Wm. Cresswell.<br /> <br /> “ Art and the Athlete.” By Martin Hardie.<br /> <br /> “ Sainte-Beuve.” By H. C. Medowall.<br /> <br /> MonrTH.<br /> <br /> By the Rev. John Gerrard.<br /> By Darley Dale.<br /> <br /> The Perogatives of Science.<br /> The Poems of William Nassington.<br /> <br /> MonTHLY REVIEW.<br /> <br /> The Papal Medals of the Italian Renaissance. By Earl<br /> Egerton of Tatton.<br /> <br /> Living Legends of the Fianna. By Lady Gregory.<br /> <br /> Counter Reformation Plots. By G. W. P.<br /> <br /> Religious Instruction in Primary Schools.<br /> Edward Bickersteth Otley.<br /> <br /> By the Rev.<br /> <br /> NATIONAL REVIEW.<br /> <br /> On the Proposal to Erect a Statue to Shakespeare in<br /> London. A Poem. By Alfred Austin.<br /> <br /> NINETEENTH CENTURY,<br /> <br /> Training the Youth of England. By General Lord<br /> Methuen.<br /> <br /> Compulsory Greek as a National Question.<br /> <br /> A Waning Glory of England. The Madrigal. By J. A.<br /> Fuller Maitland.<br /> <br /> PALL MALL MAGAZINE,<br /> Studies in Personality. The Lord Avebury and Mr, John<br /> Hare. By Herbert Vivian.<br /> TEMPLE BAR.<br /> Wordsworth in Somersel. By Miss Esther Hallam<br /> Moorhouse.<br /> <br /> There are no articles dealing with literary, dramatic or<br /> musical subjects in Cornhill, Longmans Magazine, or The<br /> World’s Work and Play.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Seca<br /> <br /> ek<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO THE PRODUCER<br /> OF BOOKS.<br /> <br /> oo<br /> <br /> ERE are a few standing rules to be observed in an<br /> agreement. There are four methods of dealing<br /> with literary property :—<br /> <br /> I. Selling it Outright.<br /> <br /> This is sometimes satisfactory, if a proper price can be<br /> obtained. But the transaction should be managed by a<br /> competent agent, or with the advice of the Secretary of<br /> the Society.<br /> <br /> Il. A Profit-Sharing Agreement (a bad form of<br /> agreement).<br /> <br /> In this case the following rules should be attended to:<br /> <br /> C1.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro-<br /> duction forms a part without the strictest investigation.<br /> <br /> (2.) Not to give the publisher the power of putting the<br /> profits into his own pocket by charging for advertisements<br /> in his own organs, or by charging exchange advertise-<br /> ments. Therefore keep control of the advertisements.<br /> <br /> (3.) Not to allow a special charge for “ office expenses,”<br /> unless the same allowance is made to the author.<br /> <br /> (4.) Not to give up American, Colonial, or Continental<br /> rights.<br /> <br /> (5.) Not to give up serial or translation rights.<br /> <br /> (6.) Not to bind yourself for future work to any publisher.<br /> As well bind yourself for the future to any one solicitor or<br /> doctor !<br /> <br /> III. The Royalty System.<br /> <br /> This is perhaps, with certain limitations, the best form<br /> of agreement. It is above all things necessary to know<br /> what the proposed royalty means to both sides, It is now<br /> possible for an author to ascertain approximately the<br /> truth. From time to time very important figures connected<br /> with royalties are published in Zhe Author.<br /> <br /> IY. A Commission Agreement.<br /> <br /> The main points are :—<br /> <br /> (1.) Be careful to obtain a fair cost of production.<br /> (2.) Keep control of the advertisements.<br /> <br /> (3.) Keep control of the sale price of the book.<br /> <br /> General.<br /> <br /> All other forms of agreement are combinations of the four<br /> above mentioned.<br /> <br /> Such combinations are generally disastrous to the author.<br /> <br /> Never sign any agreement without competent advice from<br /> the Secretary of the Society.<br /> <br /> Stamp all agreements with the Inland Revenue stamp.<br /> <br /> Avoid agreements by letter if possible.<br /> <br /> The main points which the Society has always demanded<br /> from the outset are :—<br /> <br /> (1.) That both sides shall know what an agreement<br /> means.<br /> <br /> (2.) The inspection of those account books which belong<br /> to the author. Weare advised that this is a right, in the<br /> nature of a common law right, which cannot be denied or<br /> withheld.<br /> <br /> (3.) Always avoid a transfer of copyright.<br /> <br /> ge<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS.<br /> <br /> eg<br /> EVER sign an agreement without submitting it to the<br /> Secretary of the Society of Authors or some com-<br /> petent legal authority.<br /> 2. It is well to be extremely careful in negotiating for<br /> the production of a play with anyone except an established<br /> manager.<br /> <br /> 167<br /> <br /> 3. There are three forms of dramatic contra ,<br /> in three or more acts :— Be<br /> <br /> (a.) Sale outright of the performing right. This<br /> is unsatisfactory. An author who enters into<br /> such a contract should stipulate in the contract<br /> for production of the piece by a certain date<br /> and for proper publication of his name on the<br /> play-bills,<br /> <br /> (b.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to<br /> perform on the basis of percentages on<br /> gross receipts. Percentages vary between 5<br /> and 15 per cent. An author should obtain a<br /> percentage on the sliding scale of g7oss receipts<br /> in preference to the American system. Should<br /> obtain a sum in advance of percentages. A fixed<br /> date on or before which the play should be<br /> performed.<br /> <br /> (c.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to<br /> perform on the basis of royalties (i.c., fixed<br /> nightly fees). This method should be always<br /> avoided except in cases where the fees are<br /> likely to be small or difficult to collect. The<br /> other safeguards set out under heading (0.) apply<br /> also in this case.<br /> <br /> 4, Plays in one act are often sold outright, but it is<br /> better to obtain a small nightly fee if possible, and a sum<br /> paid in advance of such fees in any event. It is extremely<br /> important that the amateur rights of one-act plays should<br /> be reserved.<br /> <br /> 5. Authors should remember that performing rights can<br /> be limited, and are usually limited, by town, country, and<br /> time. This is most important.<br /> <br /> 6. Authors should not assign performing rights, but<br /> should grant a licence to perform. The legal distinction is<br /> of great importance.<br /> <br /> 7. Authors should remember that performing rights in a<br /> play are distinct from literary copyright. A manager<br /> holding the performing right or licence to perform cannot<br /> print the book of the words.<br /> <br /> 8. Never forget that United States rights may be exceed-<br /> ingly valuable. ‘hey should never be included in English<br /> agreements without the author obtaining a substantial<br /> consideration.<br /> <br /> 9. Agreements for collaboration should be carefully<br /> drawn and executed before collaboration is commenced.<br /> <br /> 10. An author should remember that production of a play<br /> is highly speculative: that he runs a very great risk of<br /> delay and a breakdown in the fulfilment of his contract.<br /> He should therefore guard himself all the more carefully in<br /> the beginning.<br /> <br /> 11. An author must remember that the dramatic market<br /> is exceedingly limited, and that for a novice the first object<br /> is to obtain adequate publication.<br /> <br /> As these warnings must necessarily be incomplete, on<br /> account of the wide range of the subject of dramatic con-<br /> tracts, those authors desirous of further information<br /> are referred to the Secretary of the Society.<br /> <br /> 66<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.<br /> <br /> &lt;p<br /> <br /> ITTLE can be added to the warnings given for the<br /> assistance of producers of books and dramatic<br /> authors. It must, however, be pointed out that, as<br /> <br /> a rule, the musical publisher demands from the musical<br /> composer a transfer of fuller rights and less liberal finan-<br /> cial terms than those obtained for literary and dramatic<br /> property. The musical composer has very often the two<br /> rights to deal with—performing right and copyright. He<br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 168<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> should be especially careful therefore when entering into<br /> an agreement, and should take into part. cular consideration<br /> the warnings stated above.<br /> <br /> ———_+———_____—_<br /> <br /> HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> —-—— —<br /> <br /> 1, VERY member has a right toask for and to receive<br /> advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-<br /> lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his<br /> <br /> business or the administration of his property. The<br /> <br /> Secretary of the Society is a solicitor, but if there is any<br /> <br /> special reason the Secretary will refer the case to the<br /> <br /> Solicitors of the Society. Further, the Committee, if they<br /> <br /> deem it desirable, will obtain counsel’s opinion. All this<br /> <br /> without any cost to the member.<br /> <br /> 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright<br /> and publishers’ agreements do not fall within the experi-<br /> ence of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use<br /> the Society.<br /> <br /> 3. Send to the Office copies of past agreements and past<br /> accounts, with a copy of the book represented. The<br /> Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new<br /> or old, for inspection and note. The information thus<br /> obtained may prove invaluable.<br /> <br /> 4, Before signing any agreement whatever, send<br /> the document to the Society for examination.<br /> <br /> 5. Remember always that in belonging to the Society<br /> you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you<br /> are reaping no. benefit to yourself, and that you are<br /> advancing the best interests of your calling in promoting<br /> the independence of the writer, the dramatist, the composer.<br /> <br /> 6. The Committee have now arranged for the reception<br /> of members’ agreements and their preservation in a fire-<br /> proof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as<br /> confidential documents to be read only by the Secretary,<br /> who will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers:<br /> —(1) To read and advise upon agreements and to give<br /> advice concerning publishers. (2) To stamp agreements<br /> in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep<br /> agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to<br /> agreements. Fuller particulars of the Society’s work<br /> can be obtained in the Prospectus.<br /> <br /> 7. No contract should be entered into with a literary<br /> agent without the advice of the Secretary of the Society.<br /> Members are strongly advised not to accept without careful<br /> consideration the contracts with publishers submitted to<br /> them by literary agents, and are recommended to submit<br /> them for interpretation and explanation to the Secretary<br /> of the Society.<br /> <br /> 8. Many agents neglect to stamp agreements.<br /> must be done within fourteen days of first execution.<br /> Secretary will undertake it on behalf of members.<br /> <br /> This<br /> The<br /> <br /> 9. Some agents endeavour to prevent authors from<br /> referring matters to the Secretary of the Society; so<br /> do some publishers. Members can make their own<br /> deductions and act accordingly.<br /> <br /> 10. The subscription to the Society is £1 14s. per<br /> annum, or £10 10s for life membership.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.<br /> <br /> —1—~&lt;—+ —_<br /> <br /> HE Society undertakes to stamp copies of music on<br /> behalf of its members for the fee of 6d. per 100 or<br /> part of 100. The members’ stamps are kept in the<br /> <br /> Society’s safe. The musical publishers communicate direct<br /> with the Secretary, and the voucher is then forwarded to<br /> the members, who are thus saved much unnecessary trouble.<br /> <br /> Ce et Se<br /> <br /> THE READING BRANCH.<br /> <br /> oe<br /> <br /> EMBERS will greatly assist the Society in this<br /> branch of its work by informing young writers<br /> of its existence. Their MSS. can be read and<br /> <br /> treated as a composition is treated by a coach. The term<br /> MSS. includes not only works of fiction, but poetry<br /> and dramatic works, and when it is possible, under<br /> special arrangement, technical and scientific works. The<br /> Readers are writers of competence and experience. The<br /> fee is one guinea.<br /> <br /> —_—__——_-—&lt;&gt;—_2 —___—_.<br /> <br /> NOTICES.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> HE Editor of The Author begs to remind members of<br /> <br /> the Society that, although the paper is sent to them<br /> <br /> free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a<br /> <br /> very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great<br /> <br /> many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest<br /> 5s. 6d. subscription for the year.<br /> <br /> Communications for “The Author” should be addressed<br /> to the Offices of the Society, 39, Old Queen Street, Storey’s<br /> Gate, §.W., and should reach the Editor not later than the<br /> 21st of each month.<br /> <br /> All persons engaged in literary work of any kind,<br /> whether members of the Society or not, are invited to<br /> communicate to the Editor any points connected with their<br /> work which it would be advisable in the general interest to<br /> publish.<br /> <br /> Communications and letters are invited by the<br /> Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on<br /> no other subjects whatever. Every effort will be made to<br /> return articles which cannot be accepted.<br /> <br /> ——<br /> <br /> The Secretary of the Society begs to give notice<br /> that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post,<br /> and he requests members who do not receive an<br /> answer to important communications within two days to<br /> write to him without delay. All remittances should be<br /> crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery Lane, or be sent<br /> by registered letter only.<br /> <br /> Se ag ee<br /> <br /> LEGAL AND GENERAL LIFE ASSURANCE<br /> <br /> SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> 1<br /> <br /> ENSIONS to commence at any selected age,<br /> either with or without Life Assurance, can<br /> be obtained from this society.<br /> <br /> Full particulars can be obtained from the City<br /> Branch Manager, Legal and General Life Assurance<br /> Society, 158, Leadenhall Street, London, H.C.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> AUTHORITIES.<br /> ———+ —_<br /> <br /> A VERY interesting point has been decided in<br /> France, dealing with the subject of musical repro-<br /> duction. Correspondents writing in the English<br /> papers state that quite a crisis has occurred in the<br /> phonograph trade by a judgment given in a<br /> Parisian court, which has placed a talking machine<br /> in the same category as an orchestra, with a result<br /> that all the instruments contrived for the repro-<br /> duction of popular songs and airs for which<br /> copyright is unpaid, owing to the fear of in-<br /> fringement, must be, for the present at any rate,<br /> silent until a fresh adjustment takes place.<br /> <br /> In the case of Roosey v. White tried in the<br /> English courts some time ago, perforated rolls<br /> of paper were sold, reproducing certain songs<br /> in which the plaintiff had copyright. It was con-<br /> tended for the plaintiff that these rolls were sheets<br /> or music under the Copyright Act of 1842, and<br /> for the defendants that they were strictly part of a<br /> machine, and in consequence, not within the scope<br /> of the Copyright Acts.<br /> <br /> Mr. Justice Stirling held that the Act of 1842,<br /> fairly construed, did not prevent the defendants<br /> from making and selling these rolls, so far as they<br /> contained perforations, but in adding to them<br /> words taken from the plaintiff’s music sheets, for<br /> the purpose of indicating to the player on the<br /> instrument the pace and expression at and with<br /> which the music ought to be played, the defendants<br /> had gone beyond their rights, and he granted an<br /> injunction to restrain them from so doing. On<br /> appeal, this decision was affirmed as to perforations<br /> and reversed as to the words.<br /> <br /> On the point of mechanical reproduction, there-<br /> fore, the Paris courts and the British courts appear<br /> to be at variance.<br /> <br /> It would, no doubt, however, be quite a simple<br /> matter to stop the sale of mechanical reproductions<br /> in the English courts by an action for infringement<br /> of performing rights, not for infringement of copy-<br /> right. As, however, the performing rights in music<br /> are subject to peculiar modes of treatment, owing<br /> to the Whall Act, and owing to the fact that few<br /> composers ever reserve these rights of performance<br /> when selling the copyright, it is not at all likely<br /> that the question will ever arise ; though if the<br /> composer was as careful about his property as the<br /> dramatist, he could, no doubt, make a large income<br /> by obtaining a royalty on performances, and a<br /> fixed sum for the rights of mechanical repro-<br /> duction. We are glad again to have the oppor-<br /> tunity of calling the attention of composers to this<br /> point,<br /> <br /> 169<br /> <br /> TE second report of the Advanced Historical<br /> Teaching Fund and the third (interim report) is<br /> now before us. Wecommented on the importance<br /> of this Society when it was first started, and are<br /> glad to see that it has made steady progress.<br /> The present syllabus of lectures and work of the<br /> Fund requires an annual income of £250, and it<br /> is hoped that it will be possible, when the work<br /> meets with a more generous support, regularly to<br /> endow lectures.<br /> <br /> The members of the committee are the Richt<br /> Hon. James Bryce, M.P., Mr. W. A. 8. Hewins,<br /> Dr. G. W. Prothero, Dr. A. W. Ward, Mr. Sidney<br /> Webb, and Mr. H. R. Tedder. The last-mentioned<br /> gentleman is acting as Hon. Secretary and Treasurer.<br /> All subscriptions should be sent to him.<br /> <br /> The receipts for 1904 amounted to £525 13s. 81.<br /> The report states that the exposition and criticism<br /> of medizeval and Tudor sources by Mr. Hall and<br /> Mr. Leadam have been taken as starting points for<br /> courses given in the School, on “The Development<br /> of the Great Powers from the Close of the Middle<br /> Ages,” “ Economic History since 1485,” and “The<br /> Development of English Local Government from<br /> the 15th Century’; and they have been illustrated<br /> not only by these courses, but also by others on<br /> “Historical Geography,” and on “The History<br /> <br /> 0<br /> &gt;<br /> <br /> of Political Ideas in the Middle Ages and the<br /> Renaissance,” “The Monetary System in the<br /> Middle Ages,” and the “Elizabethan Poor Law.”<br /> <br /> Tt will be seen from this statement how important<br /> and how thorough is the work undertaken by the<br /> managers of the Fund, and what strong stimulus<br /> such work, properly undertaken, would be to a<br /> thorough knowledge of the deductions that may<br /> be made from a study of historical science.<br /> <br /> In the February number of The Author we pub-<br /> lished a letter from one of our members on “ Book<br /> Begging.” The same member has been kind<br /> enough to forward to the office a printed letter<br /> received from India. We omit the district and<br /> name of the writer. The letter may be perfectly<br /> bond fide, but the mere fact that such printed cir-<br /> culars are issued tends to show how the practice is<br /> growing, and, as our correspondent rightly says,<br /> “is fast becoming a real nuisance.” In the printed<br /> letter the writer asked for books to the value of<br /> £2. ‘The cost of passage to India must be added<br /> to this. If any other members of the Society have<br /> suffered from the same kind of complaint they<br /> might forward their experience to the Kditor.<br /> <br /> INDIA,<br /> Dated the , 1905.<br /> Sir,—I have the honour to inform you that,<br /> with a view to the advancement of scientific and<br />  <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> own behalf. ‘The pirate would thus secure the<br /> <br /> 170<br /> <br /> technical knowledge among the public and for behal<br /> supplying the needs of students whose poor cir- copyright in the United States for an unsatisfactory<br /> cumstances do not allow them to buy valuable translation and the position of the author of the<br /> books, I have established the “Free Scientific original would be worse than it was before the<br /> Library,” where any student or any other person passing of the amendment.<br /> can freely use any book for promoting his know-<br /> ledge in any line of life.<br /> The library has been so arranged as to give each<br /> <br /> person the kind of instruction he specially needs; LITERATURE AND LAW IN THE UNITED<br /> <br /> thus all those who may desire to avail themselves STATES. *<br /> of the branches of instruction while pursuing the oo<br /> regular work in their own profession have an o<br /> <br /> [Turrp ARTICLE.]<br /> <br /> excellent opportunity now. fo<br /> n from its readers, this \\ 71TH such alarming things happening in<br /> <br /> a<br /> <br /> Realising no subscriptio<br /> library depends entirely upon my scanty private our own publishing world at home<br /> income, which is hardly sufficient for its main- during the past year or 80, quarrels<br /> tenance in proper way so as to meet the beneficent between publishers and authors, and publishers and<br /> object for which it is established. booksellers, cannot be quite without interest for us.<br /> <br /> Under the circumstances I am led to most In America such quarrels have been much more<br /> humbly and respectfully appeal to your generosity numerous than with us, for America is not only a<br /> that you will be kind enough to help my project young nation still engaged in testing her institu-<br /> by making a gift to this library of your under- tions, she is, even in the matter of books, on their<br /> mentioned works, which will be very useful to the commercial side at least, more go-ahead than we<br /> students and to the community at large. are.<br /> <br /> Hoping my appeal may meet with your favour- Some of these quarrels, illustrating her own<br /> able consideration and that you may be pleased to trade methods, throw an interesting light upon<br /> <br /> direct your publishers or Kooksellers to send me ours. Many of them touch us directly, for they<br /> are an outcrop from that distressing period when<br /> <br /> the above books, -<br /> I have the honour to be, Sir, she gave to our work —little protection as she gives<br /> Your most obedient servant, now——practically no legal protection at all; when<br /> <br /> she flew the Jolly Roger, and was the pirate on the<br /> <br /> Secretary and Librarian. high seas of literature.<br /> Thus (taking the second group of cases first,<br /> <br /> On another page of The Author is printed the and dismissing them for good) her Act of Copyright<br /> Amendment to the United States Copyright Law dates from 1891. Mr. Barrie’s “ Little Minister”<br /> and the Report of the Committee on Patents to had the misfortune to be published here the year<br /> <br /> whom it was referred. before, and was duly pirated. Similarly, a good deal<br /> Little need be sal k suffered the same<br /> <br /> din addition to what has of Mr. Kipling’s earlier wor<br /> already been put forward in The Author on this fate, resulting in many quaint attempts on the part<br /> subject. of his publishers to get legal redress, notably the<br /> The Committee on Patents seem to have touched “pills and soap” (otherwise known as the “ literary<br /> the two vital points—contained in the letter from trade mark’) action of Seribners v. Putnams, in<br /> <br /> Mr. Solberg, the Register of Copyrights, and Mr. which Mr. Kipling’s side lost.<br /> Herbert Putnam, the Librarian of Congress, to the Such actions as these are some of the undesirable<br /> Committee. legacies bequeathed to us by the state of original<br /> Under Section 3 they consider that the lapse of sin in which the American copyright law remained<br /> twelve months should extend to all books published till the passage of the Chace Act of 1891. Under<br /> abroad, and under Section 4 they point out that that Act the English author may now obtain copy-<br /> owing to the wording of the amendment the inter- right in America by having his book set up 12<br /> pretation of the Act may beconfused. Onreading America, and by publishing there simultaneously<br /> <br /> the Bill carefully it would appear that the words<br /> referred to in that section might seriously invali- * Copyright Cases: A Summary of leading American<br /> <br /> date the benefit of the Act to all foreigners, a8 it Decisions on the Law of Copyright ey cn Literal<br /> ther with the Text of the<br /> <br /> would be possible for a pirate, looking out for the Property, from 1891 to 1903 ; toge<br /> and a Selection of Recent<br /> <br /> books of well known authors in France, Germany, pases oe. cope ee and Soret Beta<br /> her i : Jopyrig ecisions of the Courts of Grea! ritain :<br /> Italy, and other countries, to translate them In @ Canada. Compiled by Arthur 5,, Hamlin. Published for<br /> ight League by qa. P.<br /> <br /> hurried fashion, and bring them out before the ihe American Publishers’ Copyri<br /> authors had time to undertake the work on their Putnam’s Sons. 1904. $2.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THER AUTHOR. 11<br /> <br /> with the publication of itin England. This is still<br /> a considerable disability under which to labour ;<br /> and there has recently been a newspaper agitation<br /> for retaliatory measures—for laying America under<br /> similar disability with regard to us: that is, by<br /> obliging American authors to set up their books<br /> here if they desire to enjoy the benefit of English<br /> copyright Lat us not be led away by this attrac-<br /> tively downright attempt at settling the difficulty.<br /> The quarrel is not one between the English author<br /> and the American author. It is a quarrel between<br /> commercial men. Such quarrels frequently yield<br /> to the downright method of treatment, for in com-<br /> merce nobody’s feelings are considered, nobody’s<br /> word is taken for anything. Authorship is a<br /> different matter. The literary world flares up at<br /> the arrest of a Russian author, and talks as seriously<br /> about it as commercial people would abonta finan-<br /> cial loss. That is the difference. Authorship is<br /> aa international affair; an affair—let me get it<br /> out—for gentlemen, in which they should, and<br /> will, stand by each other, and ultimately combine<br /> to do the proper thing by each other all the world<br /> over. Matthew Arnold was right in attributing<br /> the combining of European men of letters under<br /> the Berne Convention to this sense which authors<br /> and educated people generally have of the proper<br /> treatment, internationally speaking, of literature<br /> and its makers. From American authors then we<br /> may expect some move to come. We may, at least,<br /> expect support for the case which English authors<br /> will shortly make to them, as foreshadowed in the<br /> February number of this journal. We do not yet<br /> know the precise form in which that case will be<br /> presented ; but “retaliation” will certainly not<br /> form part of it.<br /> <br /> Tur Ner Book AGREEMENT.<br /> <br /> Turning now to the subject of this article, the<br /> purely trade side of the book world as we find it<br /> represented in Mr. Hamlin’s compilation, the most<br /> notable case reported there is that which turned on<br /> the question as to whether publishers can compel<br /> booksellers to sell their publications at met prices ;<br /> whether they can legally enforce what we know<br /> here in England as the ‘Net Book Agreement.”<br /> <br /> The American Publishers’ Association (like the<br /> English Publishers’ Association) had for one of its<br /> objects the maintaining of the prices of books<br /> published by its several members. Combinations<br /> of this kind are often made necessary where large<br /> retailers of certain articles engage in such ruinous<br /> cutting of the prices of these articles as practically<br /> to drive the smaller retailers in the same trade out<br /> of business. The huge “department stores” of<br /> ‘New York are great sinners in this respect, and<br /> some of their methods have been, from time to<br /> time, imitated by our own stores at home. Books<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> are very attractive things, and the selling of books<br /> at prices even below cost is found to be a great<br /> inducement for getting people into a shop and<br /> then selling them profit-bearing articles, Probably<br /> the American “ Net Book Agreement” was aimed<br /> directly at this practice. Anyhow, Mr. Straus, the<br /> proprietor of one of these “department. stores,”<br /> took action for an injunction against the Pub-<br /> lishers’ Association, contending that it was a<br /> violation of the American law prohibiting such<br /> combinations. In other words, to obtain a ruling<br /> that he, Straus, could sell books at any price he<br /> liked. There were three trials. At the first,<br /> Straus was beaten on the ground that his complaint<br /> did not state a cause of action. The Appellate<br /> Division reversed this order, and the Court of<br /> Appeals affirmed the judgment of the Appelate<br /> Division by a divided Court. Parker, C.J., in a<br /> very interesting judgment told the Publishers?<br /> Association where it was wrong and how far it<br /> could go in maintaining the prices of books.<br /> <br /> The American Constitution, he said, did recog-<br /> nise the right of such an association to prescribe<br /> conditions under which certain books might be<br /> sold ; for the protection afforded by law. to books<br /> was a legal monop:ly for promoting progress in<br /> science and art. But what were these books ?<br /> Obviously they were such books as were thus pro-<br /> tected by law—in other words, books then enjoying<br /> copyright. There was the mistake of the Associa-<br /> tion. [t endeavoured to shut out of the bookselling<br /> business those who sold “ books ” below the prices<br /> named by it. No doubt its case was based on<br /> copyright books ; but in effect it made no distinc-<br /> tion between copyright bouks, the sale of which it<br /> might legally control, and uncopyrighted books,<br /> the sale of which it could no more control than it<br /> could control the sale of stationery or soap; for it<br /> declined to supply any books to dealers who sold<br /> copyrighted works below a stated price. Indeed,<br /> dealers who were even suspected of selling copy-<br /> righted books to those who resold them at less<br /> than their net prices could not obtain books on<br /> any terms from members of the Association. The<br /> combination, therefore, was so far illegal, and Mr.<br /> Straus won his case. The rules of the Association<br /> have, therefore, since the decision, been amended<br /> so as to restrict them to the case of copyright<br /> books only.<br /> <br /> REBINDING CHEAP EpITIons.<br /> <br /> A very interesting trade point which has been<br /> the subject of dispute between publishers and<br /> booksellers more than once here at home was<br /> settled in the case of Dodd.v. Smith. The ques-<br /> tion was: Ifa publisher has two separate editions<br /> of the same work, one bound in paper and selling,<br /> say, at one and sixpence, the other bound in cloth,<br />  <br /> <br /> 172<br /> <br /> selling at half-a-crown, may a bookseller, who has<br /> a stock of the eighteenpenny edition, take off the<br /> paper covers, bind in cloth, and sell at two shillings,<br /> thus bringing this two shilling cloth edition into<br /> competition with the publisher’s half-crown cloth<br /> edition ? This case was decided before the judg-<br /> ment was delivered in the Publishers’ Association<br /> y. Straus, so no guidance could be obtained<br /> from that ruling. The Court below held that the<br /> action of the bookseller could not be restrained,<br /> and the Supreme Court affirmed the decision. In<br /> an English case, which came under the writer’s<br /> personal notice some time ago, the bookseller was<br /> warned by the publisher that the practice was a<br /> contravention of the spirit, if not of the letter, of<br /> the Net Book Agreement, and the bookseller,<br /> after some correspondence, consented to see it in<br /> this light and withdrew his offending cheap cloth<br /> edition. I believe the English Booksellers’ and<br /> Publishers’ Association have frequently had similar<br /> cases to deal with, but, so far, none has become<br /> the subject of litigation. An action arising on the<br /> question would be interesting, for it would test the<br /> legality of our own “ Net Book” combination.<br /> <br /> ‘A similar case was that of Doan v. The American<br /> Book Company. Here the bookseller purchased<br /> from the publishers second-hand copies of various<br /> works, rebound, and sold them at a reduced price.<br /> The action was for infringement of copyright.<br /> Even publishers, like authors, seem to be under the<br /> impression that “infringement of copyright” is<br /> the only safe action in the defence of literary<br /> property. The publishers won, but Doan took the<br /> case to appeal. The Appeal Court held that there<br /> was no infringement, and reversed the judgment.<br /> It was unfair competition to rebind second-hand<br /> books so as to resemble the new ones, and sell them<br /> at a reduced price, but—that was another story.<br /> <br /> REPRINTING OLD EDITIONS.<br /> <br /> Readers of Darwin will remember that the<br /> original edition of the “ Origin of Species” fell out<br /> of copyright a few years ago, and that an English<br /> publisher put on the market, as against Darwin’s<br /> publisher, a cheap reprint of this work, without<br /> those additions to, and revisions of, the book<br /> subsequently made by Darwin, which still enjoyed<br /> copyright. Was that unfair competition ? The<br /> American Circuit Court of Missouri had a similar<br /> question put to it in the case of Webster&#039;s<br /> Dictionary, the original edition of which fell out<br /> of copyright, and was reprinted by a competing<br /> publisher without the subsequent additions. The<br /> Court held that it was unfair competition and<br /> granted an injunction.<br /> <br /> Wrona Use oF WASTE PAPER.<br /> <br /> When an author’s book meets with the unhappy<br /> fate of being sold as waste-paper, and the waste-<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> paper merchant, instead of either destroying the<br /> edition, or otherwise using it only as waste paper,<br /> allows it to get into the hands of booksellers, who<br /> bind and sell it—is that an infringement of copy-<br /> right? Yes, if the person suing is in possession of<br /> the copyright ; for such a person can impose<br /> restrictions upon the manner in which and the<br /> people to whom the work may be sold. But No,<br /> if it is only a case of breach of trade contract<br /> between one dealer and another.<br /> <br /> BANKRUPTCY.—WHAT IS A PERSONAL CONTRACT ?<br /> <br /> If a publisher die, or become bankrupt, having<br /> contracted with the owner of a copyright to publish<br /> for him in a certain manner or at a certain price,<br /> how far is the person into whose possession the<br /> work may come bound to carry out the terms of<br /> the original contract. This is a question of<br /> importance to many authors just now, and it was<br /> answered by the New York Supreme Court in the<br /> case of Murphy v. Christian Press Association much<br /> as the Court would answer it over here. The<br /> plaintiff, Murphy, acquired from the Catholic<br /> Publication Society a set of plates of a prayer book<br /> with permission to publish. It was agreed between<br /> the parties that the book should not be sold below<br /> a certain price. The Catholic Publication Society<br /> was dissolved, and the receiver sold other sets of<br /> the same plates to the Christian Press Association,<br /> who proceeded to sell under the stated rate, though,<br /> it appeared, they had knowledge of the contract.<br /> Held, at two trials, that though technically the<br /> original contract between Murphy and the Associa-<br /> tion was a personal one, it yet related to the use of<br /> property in a certain way and obliged all who<br /> might acquire that property, with notice of the<br /> agreement, to fulfil its conditions.<br /> <br /> CHARLES WEEKES.<br /> (To be continued.)<br /> <br /> ge<br /> <br /> UNITED STATES COPYRIGHT.<br /> <br /> a<br /> <br /> Aw Act ro AMEND SECTION FORTY-NINE HUNDRED ~<br /> <br /> AND FIFTY-TWO OF THE REVISED STATUTES.<br /> <br /> E it enacted by the Senate and House of a4<br /> Representatives of the United States of<br /> <br /> America in Congress assembled,<br /> That Section forty-nine hundred and fifty-two of<br /> <br /> the Revised Statutes be, and the same is, hereby<br /> <br /> amended so as to read as follows:<br /> <br /> Sec. 4952.<br /> musical composition, engraving, cut,<br /> photograph, or negative<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The author, inventor, designer, or ;<br /> proprietor of any book, map, chart, dramatic or<br /> <br /> thereof, or of a painting, —<br /> drawing, chromo, statue, statuary, and of models —<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> or designs intended to be perfected as works of the<br /> fine arts, and the executors, administrators, or<br /> assigns of any such person shall, upon complying<br /> with the provisions of this chapter, have the sole<br /> liberty of printing, reprinting, publishing, com-<br /> pleting, copying, executing, finishing and vending<br /> the same; and, in the case of a dramatic composi-<br /> tion, of publicly performing or representing it, or<br /> causing it to be performed or represented by<br /> others. And authors or their assigns shall have<br /> exclusive right to dramatise or translate any of<br /> their works for which copyright shall have been<br /> obtained under the laws of the United States.<br /> Whenever the author or proprietor of a book in<br /> a foreign language, which shall be published in a<br /> foreign country before the day of publication in<br /> this country, or his executors, administrators, or<br /> assigns, shall, within twelve months after the first<br /> nublication of such book in a foreign country<br /> obtain a copyright for a translation of such book<br /> in the English language, which shall be the first<br /> copyright in this country for a translation of such<br /> book, he and they shall have, during the term of<br /> such copyright, the sole liberty of printing, re-<br /> printing, publishing, vending, translating, and<br /> dramatising the said book, and, in the case of a<br /> dramatic composition, of publicly performing the<br /> same, or of causing it to be performed or repre-<br /> sented by others. Provided, That this Act shall<br /> only apply to a citizen or subject of a foreign State<br /> or nation when such foreign State or nation<br /> permits to citizens of the United States of America<br /> benefit of copyright on substantially the same basis<br /> as to tts own citizens.<br /> Passed the House of Representatives December<br /> 14th, 1904.<br /> Attest : A. McDowELL,<br /> Clerk.<br /> <br /> REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON PATENTS.<br /> <br /> The Committee on Patents, to whom was referred<br /> the Bill (H.R. 6487) for the amendment of Section<br /> 4952 of the Revised Statutes, recommended the<br /> said Billdo pass with the following amendment :<br /> Strike out the words “benefit of copyright on the<br /> same basis as is given to its citizens by this Act,”<br /> lines 1 and 2, page 3 of the printed Bill, and insert<br /> in lieu thereof the words “‘ benefit of copyright on<br /> substantially the same basis as to its own citizens.”<br /> <br /> The following letter is submitted in support of<br /> this favourable report :—<br /> <br /> Liprary OF ConGRESS, COPYRIGHT OFFICE,<br /> Wasuineton, D.C.,<br /> January 26th, 1905.<br /> Srr,—In compliance with your request of<br /> January 28rd for an expression of opinion from<br /> this office on House Bill 6487, to amend Section<br /> <br /> 173<br /> <br /> 4952 of the Revised Statutes, relating<br /> rights, I beg to report as follows :— p<br /> <br /> 1. That the purpose of this Bill appears to this<br /> office equitable and unobjectionable.<br /> <br /> 2. That the proviso passed by the House in the<br /> way of an amendment to the original bill would<br /> seem to require some slight alteration in order to<br /> bring its provisions into harmony with the Act of<br /> March 3rd, 1891. This alteration should be that<br /> in lines 1 and 2, on page 3, the words “ benefit of<br /> copyright on the same basis as is given to its<br /> citizens by this Act,” should be changed to read,<br /> “benefit of copyright on substantially the same<br /> basis as to its own citizens.”<br /> <br /> 3. The Bill provides for a period of one year<br /> within which to comply with the requirement that<br /> the work shall be typeset within the limits of the<br /> United States, but this term of twelve months is<br /> allowed only when the book is originally published<br /> in a foreign language. In equity there would seem<br /> to be no reason why the allowance should not<br /> equally extend to all books originally published<br /> abroad.<br /> <br /> 4, That the words in lines 16 and 17, page 2,<br /> reading, ‘“‘ which shall be the first copyright in this<br /> country for a translation of such book” would cause<br /> difficulty of construction, and, if construed literally,<br /> are calculated to nullify the benefit proposed by the<br /> Bill. They should, we think, be stricken out.<br /> Conflicting claims between translations entered for<br /> copyright would require to be settled by the Courts<br /> as other matters of dispute.<br /> <br /> This is not to object to the present Bill, but to<br /> suggest that it might go further with advantage.<br /> <br /> THORVALD SOLBERG,<br /> Register of Copyrights.<br /> <br /> HERBERT PUTNAM,<br /> Librarian of Congress.<br /> <br /> Approved and transmitted.<br /> <br /> Your Committee deem it inadvisable at this<br /> Session to enlarge the scope of this Bill to extend<br /> to all books originally published abroad. It is the<br /> purpose of your Committee to attempt a codifica-<br /> tion of the copyright laws at the next Session of<br /> Congress.<br /> <br /> to copy-<br /> <br /> —“~-<br /> <br /> ON A LITTLE OLD BOOK.<br /> <br /> ~~<br /> <br /> UMBER rooms hold these little volumes now ;<br /> the tops or the backs of book shelves where<br /> the old hymn-books are, the obsolete<br /> <br /> manuals of devotion, and the tattered school<br /> books ; some, as I have discovered, may be rescued<br /> from the penny or the twopenny box of the second-<br /> hand bookshop; a few are treasured. ‘T&#039;reasured,<br /> my little old book, though it may have known the<br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 172<br /> <br /> selling at half-a-crown, may a bookseller, who has<br /> a stock of the eighteenpenny edition, take off the<br /> paper covers, bind in cloth, and sell at two shillings,<br /> thus bringing this two shilling cloth edition into<br /> competition with the publisher&#039;s half-crown cloth<br /> edition ? This case was decided before the judg-<br /> ment was delivered in the Publishers’ Association<br /> y. Straus, so no guidance could be obtained<br /> from that ruling. The Court below held that the<br /> action of the bookseller could not be restrained,<br /> and the Supreme Court affirmed the decision. In<br /> an English case, which came under the writer’s<br /> personal notice some time ago, the bookseller was<br /> warned by the publisher that the practice was a<br /> contravention of the spirit, if not of the letter, of<br /> the Net Book Agreement, and the bookseller,<br /> after some correspondence, consented to see it in<br /> this light and withdrew his offending cheap cloth<br /> edition. I believe the English Booksellers’ and<br /> Publishers’ Association have frequently had similar<br /> cases to deal with, but, so far, none has become<br /> the subject of litigation. An action arising on the<br /> question would be interesting, for it would test the<br /> legality of our own “ Net Book” combination.<br /> <br /> ‘A similar case was that of Doan v. The American<br /> Book Company. Here the bookseller purchased<br /> from the publishers second-hand copies of various<br /> works, rebound, and sold them at a reduced price.<br /> The action was for infringement of copyright.<br /> Byen publishers, like authors, seem to be under the<br /> impression that “ infringement of copyright ” is<br /> the only safe action in the defence of literary<br /> property. The publishers won, but Doan took the<br /> case to appeal. The Appeal Court held that there<br /> was no infringement, and reversed the judgment.<br /> Tt was unfair competition to rebind second-hand<br /> books so as to resemble the new ones, and sell them<br /> at a reduced price, but—that was another story.<br /> <br /> REPRINTING OLD EDITIONS.<br /> <br /> Readers of Darwin will remember that the<br /> original edition of the “ Origin of Species” fell out<br /> of copyright a few years ago, and that an English<br /> publisher put on the market, as against Darwin’s<br /> publisher, a cheap reprint of this work, without<br /> those additions to, and revisions of, the book<br /> subsequently made by Darwin, which still enjoyed<br /> copyright. Was that unfair competition? The<br /> ‘American Circuit Court of Missouri had a similar<br /> question put to it in the case of Webster’s<br /> Dictionary, the original edition of which fell out<br /> of copyright, and was reprinted by @ competing<br /> publisher without the subsequent additions. The<br /> Court held that it was unfair competition and<br /> granted an injunction.<br /> <br /> Wrona Use or WASTE PAPER.<br /> <br /> When an author’s book meets with the unhappy<br /> fate of being sold as waste-paper, and the waste-<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> paper merchant, instead of either destroying the<br /> edition, or otherwise using it only as waste paper,<br /> allows it to get into the hands of booksellers, who<br /> bind and sell it—is that an infringement of copy-<br /> right ? Yes, if the person suing is in possession of<br /> the copyright ; for such a person can impose<br /> restrictions upon the manner in which and the<br /> people to whom the work may be sold. But No,<br /> if it is only a case of breach of trade contract<br /> between one dealer and another.<br /> <br /> BANKRUPTCY.—WHAT IS A PERSONAL CoNTRACT ?<br /> <br /> If a publisher die, or become bankrupt, having<br /> contracted with the owner of acopyright to publish<br /> for him in a certain manner or at a certain price,<br /> how far is the person into whose possession the<br /> work may come bound to carry out the terms of<br /> the original contract. This is a question of<br /> importance to many authors just now, and it was<br /> answered by the New York Supreme Court in the<br /> case of Murphy v. Christian Press Association much<br /> as the Court would answer it over here. The<br /> plaintiff, Murphy, acquired from the Catholic<br /> Publication Society a set of plates of a prayer book<br /> with permission to publish. It was agreed between<br /> the parties that the book should not be sold below<br /> a certain price. The Catholic Publication Society<br /> was dissolved, and the receiver sold other sets of<br /> the same plates to the Christian Press Association,<br /> who proceeded to sell under the stated rate, though,<br /> it appeared, they had knowledge of the contract.<br /> Held, at two trials, that though technically the<br /> original contract between Murphy and the Associa-<br /> tion was a personal one, it yet related to the use of<br /> property in a certain way and obliged all who<br /> might acquire that property, with notice of the<br /> agreement, to fulfil its conditions.<br /> <br /> CHARLES WEEKES.<br /> (To be continued.)<br /> <br /> 9g<br /> <br /> UNITED STATES COPYRIGHT.<br /> <br /> +<br /> <br /> An Act to AMEND SECTION FoRTY-NINE HUNDRED<br /> <br /> AND Firry-two OF THE REVISED STATUTES.<br /> E<br /> B Representatives of the United States of<br /> America in Congress assembled,<br /> <br /> That Section forty-nine hundred and fifty-two of<br /> the Revised Statutes be,and the same is, hereby.<br /> amended so as to read as follows:<br /> <br /> Sec, 4952. The author, inventor, designer, or<br /> proprietor of any book, map, chart, dramatic or<br /> musical composition, engraving, cut, print, or<br /> <br /> photograph, or negative thereof, or of a painting,<br /> drawing, chromo, statue, statuary, and of models<br /> <br /> it enacted by the Senate and House of<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> or designs intended to be perfected as works of the<br /> fine arts, and the executors, administrators, or<br /> assigns of any such person shall, upon complying<br /> with the provisions of this chapter, have the sole<br /> liberty of printing, reprinting, publishing, com-<br /> pleting, copying, executing, finishing and vending<br /> the same; and, in the case of a dramatic composi-<br /> tion, of publicly performing or representing it, or<br /> causing it to be performed or represented by<br /> others. And authors or their assigns shall have<br /> exclusive right to dramatise or translate any of<br /> their works for which copyright shall have been<br /> obtained under the laws of the United States.<br /> Whenever the author or proprietor of a book in<br /> a foreign language, which shall be published in a<br /> foreign country before the day of publication in<br /> this country, or his executors, administrators, or<br /> assigns, shall, within twelve months after the first<br /> publication of such book in a foreign country<br /> obtain a copyright for a translation of such book<br /> in the English language, which shall be the first<br /> copyright in this country for a translation of such<br /> book, he aud they shall have, during the term of<br /> such copyright, the sole liberty of printing, re-<br /> printing, publishing, vending, translating, and<br /> dramatising the said book, and, in the case of a<br /> dramatic composition, of publicly performing the<br /> same, or of causing it to be performed or repre-<br /> sented by others. Provided, That this Act shall<br /> only apply to a citizen or subject of a foreign State<br /> or nation when such foreign State or nation<br /> permits to citizens of the United States of America<br /> benefit of copyright on substantially the same basis<br /> as to its own citizens.<br /> Passed the House of Representatives December<br /> 14th, 1904.<br /> Attest : A. McDoweELt,<br /> Clerk.<br /> <br /> REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON PATENTS.<br /> <br /> The Committee on Patents, to whom was referred<br /> the Bill (H.R. 6487) for the amendment of Section<br /> 4952 of the Revised Statutes, recommended the<br /> said Bill do pass with the following amendment :<br /> Strike out the words “‘ benefit of copyright on the<br /> same basis as is given to its citizens by this Act,”<br /> lines 1 and 2, page 3 of the printed Bill, and insert<br /> in lieu thereof the words “‘ benefit of copyright on<br /> substantially the same basis as to its own citizens.”<br /> <br /> The following letter is submitted in support of<br /> this favourable report :—<br /> <br /> Liprary or Concress, CopyRIGHT OFFICE,<br /> Wasuineton, D.C.,<br /> January 26th, 1905.<br /> <br /> Sir,—In compliance with your request of<br /> <br /> January 23rd for an expression of opinion from<br /> this office on House Bill 6487, to amend Section<br /> <br /> 173<br /> <br /> Ke ts .<br /> <br /> a a“ aloe ees, relating to copy-<br /> : g port as follows :—<br /> <br /> 1. That the purpose of this Bill appears to this<br /> office equitable and unobjectionable.<br /> <br /> 2. That the proviso passed by the House in the<br /> way of an amendment to the original bill would<br /> seem to require some slight alteration in order to<br /> bring its provisions into harmony with the Act of<br /> March 3rd, 1891. This alteration should be that<br /> in lines 1 and 2, on page 3, the words “ benefit of<br /> copyright on the same basis as is given to its<br /> citizens by this Act,” should be changed to read,<br /> “benefit of copyright on substantially the same<br /> basis as to its own citizens.”<br /> <br /> 8. The Bill provides for a period of one year<br /> within which to comply with the requirement that<br /> the work shall be typeset within the limits of the<br /> United States, but this term of twelve months is<br /> allowed only when the book is originally published<br /> in a foreign language. In equity there would seem<br /> to be no reason why the allowance should not<br /> equally extend to all books originally published<br /> abroad.<br /> <br /> 4. That the words in lines 16 and 17, page 2,<br /> reading, “ which shall be the first copyright in this<br /> country for a translation of such book” would cause<br /> difficulty of construction, and, if construed literally,<br /> are calculated to nullify the benefit proposed by the<br /> Bill. They should, we think, be stricken out.<br /> Conflicting claims between translations entered for<br /> copyright would require to be settled by the Courts<br /> as other matters of dispute.<br /> <br /> This is not to object to the present Bill, but to<br /> suggest that it might go further with advantage.<br /> <br /> THORVALD SOLBERG,<br /> Register of Copyrights.<br /> <br /> HERBERT PUTNAM,<br /> Librarian of Congress.<br /> <br /> Approved and transmitted.<br /> <br /> Your Committee deem it inadvisable at this<br /> Session to enlarge the scope of this Bill to extend<br /> to all books originally published abroad. It is the<br /> purpose of your Committee to attempt a codifica-<br /> tion of the copyright laws at the next Session of<br /> Congress.<br /> <br /> &lt;&gt;<br /> <br /> ON A LITTLE OLD BOOK.<br /> <br /> ——1_—~&lt;&gt;e<br /> <br /> UMBER rooms hold these little volumes now ;<br /> the tops or the backs of book shelves where<br /> the old hymn-books are, the obsolete<br /> <br /> manuals of devotion, and the tattered school<br /> books ; some, as I have discovered, may be rescued<br /> from the penny or the twopenny box of the secoud-<br /> hand bookshop; a few are treasured. ‘Treasured,<br /> my little old book, though it may have known the<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 174<br /> <br /> lumber room in its day or the backmost recesses of<br /> the topmost shelf before the penny box yielded it<br /> to me—treasured at some time, whatever the<br /> vicissitudes through which it had passed !<br /> <br /> For narrow strips of stamp-paper (the mellow<br /> stamp-paper of the old red V ictorian stamp), applied<br /> with I know not what of tenderness and care, hold<br /> the covers in their place. Who fashioned the<br /> gentle bandages ? Who, with patience, loving<br /> kindness, and a straight eye, applied them? Senti-<br /> ment and the memory of some happy childhood are<br /> in every slender band. As I look at the little<br /> decrepit volume—time and hard times between<br /> them having dealt heavily even with its “ restora-<br /> tion” !—it seems to me right and fitting that the<br /> stamp-paper of which its props and ligaments are<br /> composed should be mid- Victorian. Neither the<br /> mauve borders of later Victoria, nor the “ pink”<br /> of early Edward would have provided quite the<br /> right mending. Sentiment was less rare in the<br /> latter half, even, of the nineteenth century, than in<br /> the age of the motor-car. Treasured, the Jittle old<br /> book !<br /> <br /> The book itself is mid-William IV. The title-<br /> page is missing. so that we find ourselves face to<br /> face with the preface, as we lift the loosened cover.<br /> <br /> “ In the simple title of ‘Rhymes for the Nursery’<br /> the pretensions of this little volume are fully<br /> explained,” says the preface humbly. “In the Vur-<br /> sery they are designed to circulate” (the “preten-<br /> sions” ?), “and within its sanctuary walls the writers<br /> claim shelter from the eye of criticism.” The<br /> writers—if their grammar, maybe, was a trifle<br /> shaky—were over-modest. The little book is in<br /> some ways a big book. The very spirit of the<br /> sheltered nursery and of child-life lies between the<br /> mended covers. “ Good Night ” holds it :<br /> <br /> “ Baby, baby, lay your head,<br /> On your pretty cradle-bed.”<br /> “Getting Up”:<br /> “ Baby, baby, ope your eye,<br /> For the sun is in the sky.”<br /> “Good Mamma,” “ What Clothes are Made Of,”<br /> “ Charles and the Animals””—most of all, perhaps,<br /> “The Sparrows” :<br /> “ Oh, dean, if you&#039;d eat a erwmd out of my hand,<br /> How happy and glad I should be!”<br /> <br /> To turn the mended pages is to be reminded of<br /> your own childhood. All its little yearnings are<br /> here, its griefs, its lessons, its encouragements, its<br /> pleasures. Do you remember your first cut finger ?<br /> Tf so, but more especially if not, let me read you<br /> a verse of “ The Cut.”<br /> <br /> “Well, what’s the matter? There’s a face !<br /> What! Has it cut a vein?<br /> <br /> And is it quite a shocking place ?<br /> Come, let us look again.”<br /> <br /> THER AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “Come, let us look again!” The inspiration is<br /> there, I think—the minuteness of the shocking<br /> place, showing you in a moment your chubby finger<br /> fearfully extended for a horrified inspection. Come,<br /> let us look again! Do you remember the distinc-<br /> tion the bandages lent you, the “ indulgences”<br /> you claimed for the wounded member, the exemp-<br /> tions, the care? Apropos, I remember a proud<br /> young friend of five, a little scar on whose forehead<br /> constituted his title to the airs he gave himself<br /> when the topic of accidents was broached. He<br /> had fallen against the nursery fender, and Ais head<br /> had been cut open. “Cut quite open.” For years<br /> I looked at him with awe, believing implicitly that —<br /> before the wound had been “ sewn up”? (impressive<br /> term in itself!) you could lift up half his head, as<br /> you lift the lid of a kettle or pot, and lookin. He<br /> had a right to his pride.<br /> <br /> “About Learning to Read” is another of the<br /> subjects which stir memories. The modest writers<br /> seem to have forgotten nothing and to have under-<br /> stood everything—qualifications indeed for the<br /> task they had set themselves. Did a pin or a pen,<br /> or maybe a knitting-needle, “point” for you? A<br /> pencil “pointed” for me, I remember, and I recall<br /> now the delight of the day when it was discovered<br /> that my teacher (herself!) had made little straggling<br /> lines under the letters and words, thus doing what<br /> was called (when I did it) “defacing your books!”<br /> <br /> Too modest, I say, were the writers. We<br /> a something, all of us, I fancy, about<br /> <br /> ies.<br /> <br /> “So, so, you are running away, Mr. Fly,<br /> But I&#039;ll come at you now if you don’t go too high ;<br /> There, then, I have caught you, you can’t get away:<br /> Never mind, my old fellow, I’m only in play.”<br /> <br /> “ Oh, Charles! cruel Charles ! you have hilled the<br /> <br /> pour fly,<br /> You have pinched him so hard, he is going to<br /> die<br /> <br /> Follows, “The Cruel Boy and the Kittens” :<br /> <br /> “What! go and see the kittens drown’d,<br /> On purpose, in the yard!”<br /> <br /> On purpose in the yard! Then there is<br /> <br /> “ Harriet ” :<br /> <br /> « What is it that makes little Harriet cry ?<br /> Come, then, let mainma wipe the tear from her eye:<br /> There—lay down your head on my bosom—that’s right,<br /> ‘And now tell mamma what’s the matter to-night.”<br /> <br /> Harriet hardly knew what made her cry, but :<br /> knew, with us all, what it is to need comforting.<br /> The tragedies of the nursery are the tragedies of<br /> the world in little. ‘The modest writers under-<br /> stood Harriet, and those who should read of<br /> her, from the days of William IV. to Edward VII.<br /> Not a child but would find himself somewhere.<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Says “ One Little Boy” :<br /> <br /> *“T&#039;m a little gentleman,<br /> Play and ride and dance I can :<br /> Very handsome clothes I wear,<br /> And Tf live on dainty fare :<br /> And whenever out I ride,<br /> I’ve a servant by my side.”<br /> <br /> Says “ Another Little Boy ”—a “ husbandman,”<br /> and, as I fear me, a prig:<br /> “ T&#039;ve a hearty appetite,<br /> <br /> And I soundly sleep at night.<br /> <br /> Down I lie content, and say,<br /> <br /> ‘T’ve been useful all the day :<br /> <br /> Id rather be a ploughboy than<br /> <br /> A useless little gentleman.’ ”<br /> <br /> For a prototype in the mid-William nursery<br /> ‘there are plenty to choose from: “Idle Mary”<br /> (“Oh, Mary, this will never do! This work is<br /> sadly done, my dear!”) ; “ Sleepy Harry” (‘TI do<br /> not like to go to bed”); ‘The Little Girl that<br /> could not Read”; “The Little Girl that Beat her<br /> Sister” —some fifty or sixty in all. However<br /> naughty the little Original Sinner, it is, ‘‘ Come, let<br /> us reason together,” as in the Good Book of all.<br /> <br /> “What ! ery when I wash you, not love to be clean !<br /> Then, go and be dirty, unfit to be seen :<br /> And till you leave off, and I see you have smiled,<br /> Tl not take the trouble to wash such a child.<br /> <br /> Suppose I should leave you now, just as you are,<br /> <br /> Do you think you&#039;d deserve a sweet kiss from papa,<br /> <br /> Or to sit on his knee, and learn pretty great A,<br /> <br /> With fingers that have not been wash’d all the day ?<br /> “ Ay, look at your fingers, you see it is so:<br /> <br /> Did you ever behold such a black little row ?<br /> <br /> And for once you may look at yourself in the glass :<br /> <br /> There’s a face to belong to a good little lass!<br /> <br /> Come, come then, I see yow’re beginning to clear,<br /> <br /> You won&#039;t be so foolish again, will you, dear?”<br /> <br /> As I read, and see picture after picture conjured<br /> up by the magic of the modest pens, I wonder less<br /> and less that the volume was ‘‘ treasured.” What<br /> upheaval, what series of deaths or disasters brought<br /> it from sheltered places to the common grave of<br /> the penny box? Who sat on whose lap in far-off<br /> days to hear it read? Who “clamped” it with<br /> stamp-paper, trimmed its frayed edges, nursed it ?<br /> I shall never know, but I know why these things<br /> were done, and by reason of it and (indirectly) of<br /> them, I should, if I were a publisher of children’s<br /> books, rummage in lumber rooms, top shelves, and<br /> the penny boxes, that (to paraphrase a notable<br /> saying) when I was offered a new book I might<br /> publish an old one.<br /> <br /> : RICHARD PRYCE.<br /> <br /> 175<br /> THE USE OF FICTION.<br /> <br /> +<br /> <br /> WAS sitting in my armchair one evening,<br /> <br /> at that time when the sky grows dusky and<br /> <br /> __ the street lamps are not lit; when the<br /> <br /> flickering firelight seems companionable and leads<br /> <br /> towards meditation. I was thinking of the words<br /> <br /> of a great modern novelist, in which he pointed<br /> <br /> out how much more potent a force than pulpit<br /> <br /> utterances was the novel, and in which he indi-<br /> <br /> cated future works would largely deal with human<br /> passion blended with religion.<br /> <br /> It is true under the present conditions of<br /> civilisation (conditions which we must hope for<br /> the honour and glory of humanity will not always<br /> exist) the great passions form the real foundations<br /> of life, and when blended with ideas of a religious<br /> tendency are strong factors in the well-being or<br /> otherwise of the social state. As civilisation is at<br /> present constituted they are as the foundation to<br /> the house or the roots to the tree; in the first<br /> instance giving strength and solidity to the upper<br /> stories which rise into the light and warmth of<br /> day, in the other furnishing sustenance to the<br /> aie to bring forth green leaves and golden<br /> ruit.<br /> <br /> As we walk through the streets the sun may<br /> shine on the windows of the houses and may light<br /> up the faces of happy men and women, of merry<br /> children, looking upon the comings and goings of<br /> the outside public. May we not think of these<br /> apartments and of the existence of those within<br /> them, and take some interest in it all, and yet not<br /> forget the humbler foundations and the humble<br /> workmen who made them? As we walk through<br /> the country lane may we not admire the beauty of<br /> the orchard, and if asked to do so, taste of the<br /> luscious apples? May we not do this and yet be<br /> mindful of the men who delved and covered the<br /> feeble roots with soil ; in due time to produce the<br /> tree with which and its products sight and taste<br /> are well pleased ?<br /> <br /> In other words, why should the future novel be<br /> all passion mixed with religion? Have we not<br /> even now a little too much of dismal scenes and<br /> just a little too much of that sort of sentiment<br /> which some may speak of as religious ?<br /> <br /> There is no doubt a great future for the novel.<br /> Sir Walter Scott spoke of himself and his novels as<br /> of aman who by opening a shutter let a little light<br /> into a dark room. The shutter has been opened a<br /> little wider since his day, but there has been super-<br /> imposed upon the white glass of the window many<br /> coloured glasses, mostly of various tints of red,<br /> which destroy the purity and truthfulness of the<br /> daylight which should stream in through the<br /> unstained panes.<br />  <br /> <br /> 176<br /> <br /> The novel of the future should deal with life as<br /> it is. Taking a few illustrations from a sister<br /> art, its sentiment should range from the poetic<br /> solemnity of a “ Beata Beatrix” to the charming<br /> simplicity, full of lurking humour in the eyes, of<br /> the “Parson’s Daughter.” Passion deeper than<br /> that of the “ Beata Beatrix,” if passion is present<br /> in that exquisite picture, could and should be<br /> depicted ; fun lighter even than the jocund mood<br /> which hides about the lips of the “ Parson’s<br /> Daughter,” as beautiful and as winsome as a<br /> painting can well be, should be found in the<br /> alluring pages of the coming fiction ; but only in<br /> rare quantities.<br /> <br /> And this passion, this sentiment, this humour<br /> should only be expressed through the book’s<br /> individualism—individuals, not types. The joke,<br /> the feeling, the intense emotion, come home with<br /> treble force, with far more subtle effect when they<br /> are portrayed in individual characters and not in<br /> types of human nature.<br /> <br /> Abounding in individualism, the novel becomes<br /> at once a live book, because it has life palpitating<br /> within its covers. What a wonderful thing is this ;<br /> what a mighty power trending towards good! I<br /> say, unhesitatingly, for good.<br /> <br /> Only for good would a genius who could create<br /> men and women for all time consent to work.<br /> His theme would be as high and as ideal in range<br /> as the finest poetry, and wide in range as<br /> humanity itself, for through its individualism it<br /> would appeal to brothers and sisters throughout<br /> the whole world.<br /> <br /> We may well ask to what use could this immense<br /> influence be put? Ah! what subject too low,<br /> what too high, for the pen of the novelist con-<br /> nected in any way with what concerns us spiritually<br /> or materially! In all well-ordered governments<br /> employment should be found for willing hands held<br /> out asking for it. In all well-governed cities and<br /> towns hotbeds of disease in the form of insanitary<br /> dwellings should never exist. This poverty, this<br /> hideous approach of death will surely be eradicated<br /> in the future through the inventive faculties of<br /> man. Movements in that direction have already<br /> been made. And the novelist by his descriptive<br /> powers will hasten them on.<br /> <br /> From the stars and their light coming down to<br /> us through eons of time, from the tiny diatoms, so<br /> very minute and yet so perfectly formed as to<br /> defy detection of fault, from all things great and<br /> small, the writer would seek for inspiration ; for all<br /> these things, in heaven or earth, are of the utmost<br /> importance to man, who must ever be the proper<br /> study of the master of fiction.<br /> <br /> Under the sway of the master science shall<br /> proclaim and perform its wonders. It shall no<br /> more be an exotic, a thing apart from our daily<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> lives. It shall ever progress in aiding labour, in<br /> alleviating, perhaps destroying pain. It shall<br /> make clear the truth of religion, so that all<br /> doubters will be silenced and eternal hope shall<br /> be indeed universal. Science and religion shall be<br /> the sweetness and the light of existence; they<br /> shall become twin affections of the heart.<br /> <br /> J. Harris BRIGHOUSE.<br /> <br /> THE ABUSE OF WORDS.<br /> <br /> “When I make a word do a lot of work... I always<br /> pay it extra,’’—Humpty-Dumpty.<br /> “ Adjectives you can do anything with.’’—Zd.<br /> <br /> T is to be feared that the line of conduct<br /> toward the parts of speech put forward by<br /> the above-mentioned authority in the former<br /> <br /> of the two quotations has but few to follow it at<br /> the present day. With the great mass of people,<br /> both when they speak and when they write, the<br /> tendency is to employ a certain number of words,<br /> either individually or in set phrases, over and over<br /> again rather than to use a variety. The mind of<br /> the average man seems to recall with pleasure, in<br /> connection with certain ideas, certain familiar<br /> words and to shrink from getting out of touch<br /> with an old association. It would be difficult to<br /> estimate in what proportions the limitation of the<br /> ordinary vocabulary is produced by (1) this pleasure<br /> in the old association ; and (2) laziness, want of<br /> exertion to supplement the deficiencies of ignorance.<br /> For it must be acknowledged that there is a con-<br /> siderable difference between the case of the lady<br /> who characterises everything that she likes as<br /> “nice,” and that of the male novelist who invari-<br /> ably dresses his heroine in a robe of “clinging<br /> material.” But the effect is the same, to lessen<br /> the number of words in common use, and to sub-<br /> stitute for the free issue of language a currency of<br /> the debased coin, as it has been called, of speech<br /> and literature. The adjective, of whose adapta-<br /> bility Alice’s philsopher-acquaintance on the other<br /> side of the looking-glass spoke, is the most abused,<br /> in this way, of all the parts of speech. It would<br /> appear that some nouns have come to suggest to<br /> the mind of the sluggard some particular epithet at<br /> once. The original association may have been<br /> most appropriate, most poetical; but by constant<br /> repetition the union must become, if one is at all<br /> fastidious, merely nauseating. Why should we,<br /> for instance, not be allowed to hear of any crowd<br /> but a “madding crowd,” any anthem but a “ peal-<br /> ing” one? (Gray&#039;s “Elegy” has, unhappily,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> M<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 177<br /> <br /> been a mine exceedingly well worked by the manu-<br /> facturers of clichés.) No doubt the constant<br /> epithet is of the most respectable antiquity, and<br /> was a great favourite with Homer. But quod licet<br /> Jovr non licet bovi ; and we do not live in an epic<br /> age, nor are we usually troubled by the exigencies<br /> of metre. With us there is no need ofa rule, One<br /> word, one epithet.<br /> <br /> It might be urged in defence of the stereotyped<br /> expression that it tends to imparta literary flavour.<br /> But there is little in this. What appreciation of<br /> literature does it show to associate, in season and<br /> out, certain phrases with certain ideas? We can<br /> but suspect, moreover, in a great number of cases,<br /> that the quoter is but half conscious of his quota-<br /> tions, since otherwise he would quote more, more<br /> widely—and, it may be added, more correctly. As<br /> it is, it matters nothing to him that the quotation<br /> is wrong or incomplete, as in the familiar (ah ! how<br /> familiar) ‘fresh fields and pastures new,” or<br /> “thick as leaves in Vallombrosa,” which in those<br /> forms, and not in their true forms, are part of the<br /> common currency of English speech. Cannot we<br /> express change of scene or the idea of multitude<br /> without mangling Milton? And really we can<br /> hardly suppose that any man hopes to raise the<br /> estimate of his talents by the aid of a hackneyed<br /> turn of speech. I cannot remember as a child<br /> thinking any better of my nurse because she was<br /> fond of talking about “ Patience on a monument.”<br /> Yet she was using the same device as very many<br /> speakers and writers—above all, leader-writers of<br /> a certain class, who know no means of pointing<br /> their arguments save with a quotation either<br /> from Dickens, from Shakespeare, or from the<br /> Bible.<br /> <br /> It is not, however, only the literary tag which<br /> annoys. There are hundreds, probably thousands,<br /> of other collocations of words in our language which<br /> the general mind cannot apparently avoid, and<br /> seems to regard it as indecent to vary. The<br /> resulting dialect—it is almost such—has been called<br /> **journalese,” though it is by no means limited to<br /> the newspapers. The diction of the minor writer<br /> both is affected by and reacts on common speech.<br /> To him every anniversary is an “auspicious occa-<br /> sion,” every entertainment a “ brilliant function.”<br /> Every marriage ceremony is a “very pretty wed-<br /> ding,” at every banquet the “festive board groans,”<br /> every host is “genial,” every actress and every<br /> coffin received “ floral tributes.” One cannot even<br /> be drowned without finding a “watery grave.” In<br /> descriptions of funerals most especially does such a<br /> writer revel in the trite. A very well-known<br /> “organ of public opinion ” (or perhaps I should say<br /> “advertising medium’’) once set up a record in its<br /> description of some great man’s burial by the<br /> number of times which it used the expression “the<br /> <br /> mournful corfége.” And cortége is now more than<br /> ever the stereotyped word for the procession which<br /> <br /> wends its way” to the cemetery, qualified by the<br /> epithet of “mournful” or “ funeral,” as you will.<br /> Nor do births escape the fate of marriages and<br /> deaths. Hard indeed is it for a son to come into<br /> the world without incurring the charge of being a<br /> “bouncing boy.” Daughters presumably never<br /> bounce. Their unfortunate brothers are almost<br /> invariably made to. Extreme youth can no more<br /> soften the heart of the relentless clicheur than can<br /> the years of the old man whose “ venerable head” he<br /> is so fond of describing, particularly when “bowed<br /> in sorrow.”<br /> <br /> It is a point which may be noticed that it is far<br /> more in expressions of praise than in those of cen-<br /> sure that the average man seems unable to escape<br /> the hackneyed word. He is in accord with Théo-<br /> phile Gauthier about the greater difficulty of<br /> expressing praise than blame. For he works his<br /> limited vocabulary of laudation very hard, whereas<br /> with words of disapproval he is seldom at a loss for<br /> variety. Herein he is evidently akin to the gentle-<br /> men famed for their ability to swear for half-an-<br /> hour without repeating themselves. One has only<br /> to study the wealth of epithets with which men are<br /> able to qualify the policy and the speeches of their<br /> political opponents, to be convinced of this. But<br /> such has been the case from the time of the early<br /> orators downward ; when they had called their own<br /> party “the good” they ceased to look further for a<br /> description of them, but they had a stock of elegant<br /> synonyms for their adversaries. Yet if we allow a<br /> certain greater richness in man’s vituperative power,<br /> compared with the resources of his praise, we still<br /> find the mass of undistinguished writers incapable of<br /> imparting variety to descriptions of the unpleasant<br /> or the disapproved. So it is that we get so often<br /> reiterated the conjunctions ‘‘ unutterable horror,”<br /> “unspeakable dread,” and the like. The saving in<br /> time and thought is, of course, great. The writer<br /> has brought himself to a point where progress is<br /> difficult. From the lumber-room of his mind he<br /> drags forth some well-worn, battered expression,<br /> assured that in the corresponding rooms in his<br /> readers’ minds are lying exact facsimiles. There<br /> can be no excuse for their not understanding him<br /> if he uses the expression ; and so he uses it. Is<br /> there any reason why he slould not? I know of<br /> none if his self-respect does not prevent him. So<br /> the question merely resolves itself into one of good<br /> taste. The last word suggests the tag which the<br /> bores might hasten to supply ; but in literature and<br /> in language the question of taste cannot be left out<br /> of dispute, for it is of their essence.<br /> <br /> PW.<br /> <br /> ee 9<br />  <br /> <br /> 178<br /> <br /> THE COMMISSION AGENT AND THE<br /> WRITER.<br /> <br /> —&lt;_<br /> <br /> HERE are a number of persons con<br /> nected with various branches of trade who<br /> make a more or less precarious living by<br /> <br /> introducing buyers to sellers, without attaching<br /> themselves to any particular firm or being con-<br /> stituted the recognised agents of any particular<br /> principals. To a certain extent, T believe,<br /> these go-betweens act in the disposal of literary<br /> wares, but whether there are many of them, or a<br /> large number of authors and editors who require<br /> their services, and value them, I do not know.<br /> Probably the Secretary of the Society of Authors<br /> could say more than most people on the subject,<br /> as the agent of this class, who of course<br /> does not work for love, is a little apt to claim<br /> commissions which the person whom he has had to<br /> do with has not formally agreed to pay, and<br /> disputes arise as to the nature of the employment<br /> after the work has been done. In literary matters,<br /> T take it, commission agents, acting as free-lances,<br /> in the employment of no one in particular, do not<br /> do much in the way of bringing the author in<br /> contact with the publisher, but rather in the selling<br /> of stories, articles and other matter suitable for<br /> magazines, to editors. Editors sometimes want<br /> articles on special subjects, or they can be per-<br /> suaded that they do, and the agent may be an<br /> ingenious man who can invent a want for the<br /> editor, and lay his hand upon the right man_ to<br /> satisfy it. There is no particular harm in this.<br /> Tt does not affect the weil-known writer, whose<br /> work may be in the hands of an agent already, or<br /> who knows pretty well what to do with his books<br /> when they are written. It rather affects those<br /> who can write, but do not always understand what is<br /> most likely to be accepted, or who is most likely to<br /> need it. It is no doubt useful to these to have<br /> someone to carry through business for them, to do<br /> which for themselves may not be a congenial task.<br /> <br /> The trouble, however, from what I hear, arises<br /> most frequently in this way. The agent approaches<br /> the author and tells him that he can place for him<br /> a story or an article or a series of articles on such<br /> and such a subject, but says nothing about any<br /> payment to himself for doing so. The author<br /> expects to be told with whom he is dealing, not<br /> only because he wishes to be sure that the money<br /> is safe, but because he likes to know in what class<br /> of publication his work is to appear. He therefore,<br /> after the arrangement has been initiated, deals<br /> directly with the editor, or does so through his<br /> usual agent if he has one. He assumes, and<br /> possibly his agent does the same, that the person<br /> who first applied to him was the agent of the<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> editor, and that he will look to the editor only for<br /> the remuneration for his services. his, however,<br /> does not always turn out to be the case. At some<br /> late period in the transaction, perbaps when the<br /> bargain has been arranged, or possibly after<br /> publication has taken place, the commission agent<br /> applies to the author for a percentage of the sum<br /> paid in respect of it. The author naturally denies<br /> that he has ever agreed to pay anything, but finds<br /> that the demand made is being persisted in. The<br /> position then becomes an awkward one. ‘That<br /> there has been no arrangement whatever to pay a<br /> commission may be clear to the author, but a<br /> service has been rendered, and a jury may take<br /> the view that there was an implied contract, if not<br /> an express one, to pay for it at some customary<br /> rate, as to which the plaintiff may bring evidence.<br /> In any case the author wishes to ac® fairly, and<br /> perhaps the agent may be a useful man whom it<br /> would be impolitic to offend.<br /> <br /> When this last has been said, no doubt, there<br /> remains but little which can be said on behalf of<br /> the agent. He has come to the author unsolicited,<br /> he has quite possibly represented himself as pur-<br /> chasing, or arranging for a purchase, on behalf of a<br /> principal, who eventually agrees to take what is<br /> sold and to pay, and if the agent says nothing<br /> about reward from the vendor, he has no right to<br /> expect it. An author who does not mind running<br /> the risk will resist him, and possibly will do so<br /> successfully. Another will pay to save himself the<br /> worry of litigation, with the danger of increasing<br /> his loss thereby. The only safe plan, therefore,<br /> for the writer who is approached by one of these<br /> hangers-on of literature is to have it made perfectly<br /> clear at the outset whether there is or is not to be<br /> a commission due from him if what is proposed is<br /> carried out. He may as well remember that in<br /> ordinary transactions of a commercial character<br /> where this kind of introduction of business takes<br /> place, it is perfectly well recognised that the agent<br /> is going to make all he can out of the deal, and<br /> that business men, unless they are very careless,<br /> make the whole thing plain, as a matter of course.<br /> They generally, moreover, recognise tacitly the fact<br /> that the man who introduced the business is going<br /> to make a profit out of both sides. ‘The question<br /> of secret commissions is a thorny one, but as a rule<br /> in a strictly business transaction the buyer makes<br /> up his mind as to what he will give “to cover<br /> everything,” and the seller is equally assured as to<br /> what he will take and as to how much he will pay<br /> in order to get it. If there is any obscurity as to<br /> <br /> where the profit of the person is to come from who<br /> has brought the parties together, in order to make<br /> what he can by doing so, the ordinary business<br /> man makes it clear by asking a question or by<br /> making a stipulation, and if he does not know with<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> a<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> + in a business-like manner.<br /> | to cases in which all the other parts of the contract<br /> + may be plainly stated between the writer and the<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> . whom he is dealing sufficiently well to be sure of<br /> _ his honesty, he takes care to have written or other<br /> - evidence to record what is arranged.<br /> <br /> These obser-<br /> yations only embody the advice which is given to<br /> writers pretty frequently in Zhe Author, that is,<br /> that they should make their business arrangements<br /> They refer, however,<br /> <br /> Editor, who have been brought into direct contact<br /> with one another, and in which the question of com-<br /> mission to the third person may well have been tem-<br /> porarily forgotten. The Editor, however, is quite<br /> likely to have remembered it, and to have told the<br /> agent clearly that from him nothing was to be<br /> expected. He says, in short, that the article, if<br /> published, will be paid for, but that the fee for the<br /> placing of it is to be obtained from the person who<br /> receives payment for it, and not from him who<br /> makes the payment. It would be interesting to<br /> know whether instances of this class of dispute are<br /> really of frequent occurrence, and what variety of<br /> circumstance introduces complication into them.<br /> E.<br /> <br /> ——————EE<br /> <br /> WHAT DOES THE NEWSPAPER PUBLIC<br /> WANT?<br /> <br /> sana a<br /> <br /> IXING, as I have occasion to do, with men<br /> <br /> and women of many sorts and conditions,<br /> <br /> T have been struck by hearing the remark<br /> <br /> made quite frequently of late years by high and<br /> low and rich and poor alike :<br /> <br /> “ Why don’t the papers give us more news and<br /> fewer ‘horrors ?’”<br /> <br /> The reply of the uninitiated generally is that<br /> there is no more news to give. The reply of the<br /> editor would of course be that the public wants the<br /> stuff. And these are the statements I wish to<br /> dispute.<br /> <br /> No believe, in the first place, that there is “no<br /> more news to give,” and that “the newspapers<br /> must fill their columns somehow,” is to believe<br /> what is wholly false, as all who have had to do<br /> with the editorial department of any great news-<br /> paper are aware. ‘The difficulty every editor of a<br /> “news” newspaper has to contend with is the<br /> problem of crowding news that would easily fill<br /> several columns into every single column he has at<br /> his disposal. “Every night day after day ”—as I<br /> heard an Irish editor say once—in the office of pro-<br /> bably every important daily paper published in the<br /> United Kingdom a quantity of interesting news<br /> already set up in type is at the last moment either<br /> omitted altogether, or condensed into a few lines<br /> of bare report, or “held over,” and yet space<br /> <br /> 179<br /> <br /> is found for half-a-dozen or more reports of what I<br /> hope I may be forgiven for speaking of as murders<br /> of no consequence, and suicides of no interest, and<br /> divorce cases that even the “ masses” we so often<br /> allude to in tones almost of contempt are for the<br /> most part not greatly interested in and would much<br /> sooner not trouble to read about if they were given<br /> the chance of reading anything else. The chance,<br /> however, they seldom get. The reason they so<br /> seldom get it is that certain editors have, pre-<br /> sumably from force of habit, apparently grown to<br /> believe implicitly that the only news the “man in<br /> the street” cares to read consists of details of every<br /> provincial murder and every petty suicide—I call<br /> them so merely to distinguish them from crimes<br /> rendered of general interest owing to some excep-<br /> tionally remarkable feature or circumstance con-<br /> nected with them—with the result that news that<br /> would in reality prove far more acceptable to the<br /> general public, including the ‘“ masses,” has of<br /> necessity to be crowded out.<br /> <br /> If the public wanted this stuff I should say by<br /> all means give it to it and let it wallow in it to its<br /> heart’s content, for a newspaper to succeed must of<br /> course give the public what it wants. I maintain,<br /> however—and I speak of what, from constant<br /> observation, I know to be the case—that though,<br /> naturally, almost everybody is interested in hearing<br /> or reading particulars of an exceptionally remark-<br /> able or sensational crime, very few nowadays in the<br /> least want to read report after report of crimes that<br /> are, so to speak, commonplace and of purely local<br /> interest.<br /> <br /> As an example of what I mean, take the follow-<br /> ing. This list is compiled from a single copy of a<br /> Sunday newspaper that has approximately six<br /> pages of advertisements and ten pages of news, etc.<br /> I have copied the headings word for word, and the<br /> amount of space occupied by letterpress of the sort<br /> I have referred to I have set out in. inches.<br /> <br /> Inches,<br /> Doctor&#039;s petition against his wife... 2 BP<br /> Surgeon’s tragic death ; Miller’s: horrible<br /> death ... a - Se cee 2<br /> Fruits of divorce (from Moscow) .-- : 23<br /> <br /> Young woman sentenced for killing sweet-<br /> heart ; Woman committed on a charge of<br /> manslaughter ; Alleged attempted murder — 6}<br /> <br /> Bermondsey man confesses to cutting his<br /> wife&#039;s throat... ae ae a oa.<br /> <br /> Clergyman’s wife sued in the Dublin Courts 16<br /> <br /> Sheffield man obtains a divorce —... eri<br /> Suicide from Yarmouth pier... ey oe)<br /> Yesterday’s law and police ... ae sie 0<br /> Assize trials... =. ie as LG<br /> <br /> Cyclist’s suicide Be Ss ies es<br /> Dismembered wife left in a railway station<br /> Girl’s shocking story ... ae Bae ce<br /> Sensational sequel to society divorce case ... )<br /> Hussar’s terrible death in a railway tunnel 33<br /> Prison-breaker king; Woman partner in |<br /> burglary shares his fate... sk oe<br />  <br /> <br /> 178<br /> <br /> THE COMMISSION AGENT AND THE<br /> WRITER.<br /> <br /> —_*<br /> <br /> HERE are a number of persons con-<br /> 1 nected with various branches of trade who<br /> make a more or less precarious living by<br /> introducing buyers to sellers, without attaching<br /> themselves to any particular firm or being con-<br /> stituted the recognised agents of any particular<br /> principals. To a certain extent, I believe,<br /> these go-betweens act in the disposal of literary<br /> wares, but whether there are many of them, or a<br /> large number of authors and editors who require<br /> their services, and value them, I do not know.<br /> Probably the Secretary of the Society of Authors<br /> could say more than most people on the subject,<br /> as the agent of this class, who of course<br /> does not work for love, is a little apt to claim<br /> commissions which the person whom he has had to<br /> do with has not formally agreed to pay, and<br /> disputes arise as to the nature of the employment<br /> after the work has been done. Tn literary matters,<br /> T take it, commission agents, acting as free-lances,<br /> in the employment of no one in particular, do not<br /> do much in the way of bringing the author in<br /> contact with the publisher, but rather in the selling<br /> of stories, articles and other matter suitable for<br /> magazines, to editors. Editors sometimes want<br /> articles on special subjects, or they can be per-<br /> suaded that they do, and the agent may be an<br /> ingenious man who can invent a want for the<br /> editor, and lay his hand upon the right man_ to<br /> satisfy it. There is no particular harm in this.<br /> It does not affect the weil-known writer, whose<br /> work may be in the hands of an agent already, or<br /> who knows pretty well what to do with his books<br /> when they are written. It rather affects those<br /> who can write, but do not always understand what is<br /> most likely to be accepted, or who is most likely to<br /> need it. It is no doubt useful to these to have<br /> someone to carry through business for them, to do<br /> which for themselves may not be a congenial task.<br /> The trouble, however, from what I hear, arises<br /> most frequently inthis way. The agent approaches<br /> the author and tells him that he can place for him<br /> a story or an article or a series of articles on such<br /> and such a subject, but says nothing about any<br /> payment to himself for doing so. The author<br /> expects to be told with whom he is dealing, not<br /> only because he wishes to be sure that the money<br /> is safe, but because he likes to know in what class<br /> of publication his work is to appear. He therefore,<br /> after the arrangement has been initiated, deals<br /> directly with the editor, or does so through his<br /> usual agent if he has one. He assumes, and<br /> possibly his agent does the same, that the person<br /> who first applied to him was the agent of the<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> editor, and that he will look to the editor only for<br /> the remuneration for his services. This, however,<br /> does not always turn out to be the case. At some<br /> late period in the transaction, perhaps when the<br /> bargain has been arranged, or possibly after<br /> publication has taken place, the commission agent<br /> applies to the author for a percentage of the sum<br /> <br /> paid in respect of it. The author naturally denies<br /> <br /> that he has ever agreed to pay anything, but finds<br /> <br /> that the demand made is being persisted in. The<br /> <br /> position then becomes an awkward one. That<br /> <br /> there has been no arrangement whatever to pay a<br /> <br /> commission may be clear to the author, but a<br /> <br /> service has been rendered, and a jury may take<br /> <br /> the view that there was an implied contract, if not<br /> an express one, to pay for it ab some customary<br /> <br /> rate, as to which the plaintiff may bring evidence.<br /> <br /> In any case the author wishes to act fairly, and<br /> perhaps the agent may be a useful man whom it<br /> would be impolitic to offend.<br /> <br /> When this last has been said, no doubt, there<br /> yemains but little which can be said on behalf of<br /> the agent. He has come to the author unsolicited,<br /> he has quite possibly represented himself as pur-<br /> chasing, or arranging for a purchase, on behalf of a<br /> principal, who eventually agrees to take what is<br /> gold and to pay, and if the agent says nothing<br /> about reward from the vendor, he has no right to<br /> expect it. An author who does not mind running<br /> the risk will resist him, and possibly will do so<br /> successfully. Another will pay to save himself the<br /> worry of litigation, with the danger of increasing<br /> his loss thereby. The only safe plan, therefore,<br /> for the writer who is approached by one of these<br /> hangers-on of literature is to have it made perfectly<br /> clear at the outset whether there is or is not to be<br /> a commission due from him if what is proposed is<br /> carried out. He may as well remember that in<br /> ordinary transactions of a commercial character<br /> where this kind of introduction of business takes<br /> place, it is perfectly well recognised that the agent<br /> is going to make all he can out of the deal, and<br /> that business men, unless they are very careless,<br /> make the whole thing plain, as a matter of course.<br /> They generally, moreover, recognise tacitly the fact<br /> that the man who introduced the business is going<br /> to make a profit out of both sides. ‘The question<br /> of secret commissions is a thorny one, but as a rule<br /> in a strictly business transaction the buyer makes<br /> up his mind as to what he will give “to cover<br /> everything,” and the seller is equally assured as 60<br /> what he will take and as to how much he will pay<br /> in order to get it. If there is any obscurity as b0<br /> where the profit of the person is to come from who<br /> has brought the parties together, in order to make<br /> what he can by doing so, the ordinary business<br /> man makes it clear by asking a question or ae<br /> making a stipulation, and if he does not know with”<br /> <br /> .<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> his honesty, he takes care to have written or other<br /> evidence to record what is arranged. ‘These obser-<br /> <br /> vations only embody the advice which is given to<br /> <br /> writers pretty frequently in Ze Author, that is,<br /> that they should make their business arrangements<br /> <br /> in a business-like manner. They refer, however,<br /> <br /> to cases in which all the other parts of the contract<br /> may be plainly stated between the writer and the<br /> Editor, who have been brought into direct contact<br /> with one another, and in which the question of com-<br /> mission to the third person may well have been tem-<br /> porarily forgotten. The Hditor, however, is quite<br /> likely to have remembered it, and to have told the<br /> agent clearly that from him nothing was to be<br /> expected. He says, in short, that the article, if<br /> published, will be paid for, but that the fee for the<br /> <br /> _ placing of it is to be obtained from the person who<br /> &#039; receives payment for it, and not from him who<br /> <br /> makes the payment. It would be interesting to<br /> know whether instances of this class of dispute are<br /> really of frequent occurrence, and what variety of<br /> circumstance introduces complication into them.<br /> E.<br /> <br /> —_—___+—~»—e—_—<br /> <br /> WHAT DOES THE NEWSPAPER PUBLIC<br /> WANT ?<br /> <br /> SL NE ae<br /> <br /> IXING, as I have occasion to do, with men<br /> <br /> and women of many sorts and conditions,<br /> <br /> I have been struck by hearing the remark<br /> <br /> made quite frequently of late years by high and<br /> low and rich and poor alike :<br /> <br /> “ Why don’t the papers give us more news and<br /> fewer ‘horrors ?’”<br /> <br /> The reply of the uninitiated generally is that<br /> there is no more news to give. The reply of the<br /> editor would of course be that the public wants the<br /> stuff. And these are the statements I wish to<br /> dispute.<br /> <br /> To believe, in the first place, that there is “ no<br /> more news to give,” and that “the newspapers<br /> must fill their columns somehow,” is to believe<br /> what is wholly false, as all who have had to do<br /> with the editorial department of any great news-<br /> paper are aware. ‘The difficulty every editor of a<br /> “news” newspaper has to contend with is the<br /> problem of crowding news that would easily fill<br /> several columns into every single column he has at<br /> his disposal. “Every night day after day ”—as I<br /> <br /> heard an Irish editor say once—in the office of pro-<br /> bably every important daily paper published in the<br /> United Kingdom a quantity of interesting news<br /> already set up in type is at the last moment either<br /> omitted altogether, or condensed into a few lines<br /> of bare report, or “held over,”<br /> <br /> and yet space<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> &#039; whom he is dealing sufficiently well to be sure of<br /> <br /> 179<br /> <br /> is found for half-a-dozen or more reports of what I<br /> hope I may be forgiven for speaking of as murders<br /> of no consequence, and suicides of no interest, and<br /> divorce cases that even the “masses” we so often<br /> allude to in tones almost of contempt are for the<br /> most part not greatly interested in and would much<br /> sooner not trouble to read about if they were given<br /> the chance of reading anything else. The chance,<br /> however, they seldom get. The reason they so<br /> seldom get it is that certain editors have, pre-<br /> sumably from force of habit, apparently grown to<br /> believe implicitly that the only news the “ man in<br /> the street’’ cares to read consists of details of every<br /> provincial murder and every petty suicide—I call<br /> them so merely to distinguish them from crimes<br /> rendered of general interest owing to some excep-<br /> tionally remarkable feature or circumstance con-<br /> nected with them—with the result that news that<br /> would in reality prove far more acceptable to the<br /> general public, including the ‘‘ masses,” has of<br /> necessity to be crowded out.<br /> <br /> If the public wanted this stuff I should say by<br /> all means give it to it and let it wallow in it to its<br /> heart’s content, for a newspaper to succeed must of<br /> course give the public what it wants. I maintain,<br /> however—and I speak of what, from constant<br /> observation, I know to be the case—that though,<br /> naturally, almost everybody is interested in hearing<br /> or reading particulars of an exceptionally remark-<br /> able or sensational crime, very few nowadays in the<br /> least want to read report after report of crimes that<br /> are, so to speak, commonplace and of purely local<br /> interest.<br /> <br /> As an example of what I mean, take the follow-<br /> ing. ‘This list is compiled from a single copy of a<br /> Sunday newspaper that has approximately six<br /> pages of advertisements and ten pages of news, etc.<br /> T have copied the headings word for word, and the<br /> amount of space occupied by letterpress of the sort<br /> T have referred to I have set out in, inches.<br /> <br /> Inches,<br /> <br /> Doctor’s petition against his wife 27<br /> <br /> Surgeon’s tragic death; M iller’s:<br /> death ... aoe = pee<br /> <br /> Fruits of divorce rom Moscow)<br /> <br /> horrible<br /> <br /> bo bo<br /> <br /> om<br /> <br /> Young woman sentenced for killing sweet-<br /> heart ; Woman committed on a charge of<br /> manslaughter ; Alleged attempted murder 63<br /> <br /> Bermondsey man confesses to cutting his<br /> wife&#039;s throat... ie ry oo eis<br /> <br /> Clergyman’s wife sued in the Dublin Courts 16<br /> <br /> Sheftield man obtains a divorce... Pee<br /> Suicide from Yarmouth pier... a ees<br /> Yesterday’s law and police ... ses re 90<br /> Assize trials... ee ai ee 1G<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> tyclist’s suicide ake He fas —<br /> Dismembered wife left in a railway station 24<br /> Girl’s shocking story ... ee tee ae<br /> Sensational sequel to society divorce case ... 1<br /> Hussar’s terrible death in a railway tunnel<br /> Prison-breaker king; Woman partner in |<br /> burglary shares his fate... as 8<br />  <br /> <br /> 180<br /> <br /> Inches.<br /> More stories from the divorce court (illus-<br /> trated with ten portraits) ... cos oe Oe<br /> Betrayed girl&#039;s distressing suicide at Liver-<br /> pool .<br /> War news—<br /> <br /> Massacre feared ; Awful scenes at Port<br /> Arthur ; Mine explosion causes 700<br /> easualties; A destructive shell;<br /> Steamers sunk ; Magazine explodes ;<br /> A charnel house ; Great conflagra-<br /> tions; Horrible scenes ; Tremendous<br /> losses; Plight of the wounded Soe<br /> <br /> Drama of love; Foreman and girl lover die<br /> together mee ne cs ae oad<br /> Attempted murder and suicide at Bethnal<br /> Green ... en aes we i po Os<br /> Mysterious murder : Woman _ shopkeeper<br /> killed near Glasgow : Bespattered with<br /> blood ... ce a eae a eos<br /> Leystone tragedy ae Be 1<br /> East-end crime : Accused committed on the<br /> capital charge — cee ra cc<br /> Englishman’s attempted murder and suicide<br /> at Calais ae os es oe: e<br /> Discredited confession of murder... =e<br /> Brief courtship ends in a young woman’s<br /> suicide cos ke ae SS<br /> Body exhumed...<br /> <br /> ot<br /> Ne<br /> <br /> Total ...<br /> (Ten yards two feet.)<br /> <br /> Now, can any man who is not influenced by<br /> tradition really believe that the British public as a<br /> body wants to read in any one day ten yards and<br /> two fect of this sort of thing, that it prefers read-<br /> ing such stuff to reading the columns of sound<br /> miscellaneous news of general interest that have<br /> been omitted to make place for it? Hardly any<br /> of the cases reported under the above headings<br /> differ materially in general detail from the hun-<br /> dreds of similar cases that occur year after year ;<br /> yet were you to hint to the editor that his paper<br /> would “ go” better if, say, five or six yards of this<br /> class of “literature” were to be omitted and its place<br /> filled with accurate miscellaneous news and brightly-<br /> written articles dealing with the brighter side of<br /> life, he would probably declare with emphasis that<br /> you were entirely mistaken.<br /> <br /> Bast TOZER.<br /> <br /> &lt;&gt; e--— ~———<br /> <br /> A UNIQUE LIBRARY.<br /> <br /> ——1—&lt;— + —_<br /> <br /> OOK-LOVERS may be interested to hear in<br /> <br /> Mr. Carleton Young’s own words, quoted<br /> <br /> : in the United States Ovitic, the origin of the<br /> unique library which is now becoming a literary<br /> monument of universal interest. “ I made a resolve<br /> that I would devote my life to forming a library<br /> which would be the most adequate tribute I could<br /> make to the Art of Literature. I proposed to<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> place under one roof in the beautiful city of<br /> Minneapolis, which I love, all the best books of the<br /> living writers of every country in the world, no<br /> matter in what language written. Each volume<br /> was to be inscribed by the author in a character-<br /> istic manner. If the writer were a poet, it would<br /> be desirable to have a poem written on the fly-leaf.<br /> A novelist should write of the manner he conceived<br /> his plot, or concerning the principal characters, of<br /> his romance; an historian something of the history<br /> he related; a biographer of the life of his subject ;<br /> a traveller of the lands he visited ; a theologian of<br /> the religion he advocated; a philosopher or<br /> scientist of the facts or theories he aad promul-<br /> gated, etc.” Such was the scheme of the well-<br /> known capitalist and bibliophile of America ; and<br /> as he has spared himself neither trouble or expense<br /> in the execution of this scheme—for he buys the<br /> most expensive copies of books, and sends them<br /> to the author with prepaid postage for return—the<br /> banks of the Mississippi will in time boast of an<br /> incomparable temple of literature.<br /> R. E. C.<br /> <br /> ——————_1—_&gt;_+—__<br /> <br /> AN INTERVIEW.<br /> <br /> — +<br /> <br /> AMES L’ESTRANGE, who has just risen to<br /> unlooked for fame by the publication of his<br /> first novel, is seated in an armchair by the<br /> <br /> fire, clad in a smoking coat, and smoking a cigarette.<br /> To him enters his old friend, Sypney MayTown.<br /> <br /> James L’Estrance.—Hullo, Syd, old man, just<br /> in time, come in.<br /> <br /> Sypyey Mayrown.—In time, why ? What for ?<br /> (Comes in and sits down.)<br /> <br /> J. L.—I am just expecting a scribbling cad<br /> from the Scorcher to interview me about this<br /> blessed old novel, and I don’t want to see him.<br /> <br /> 3. M.—Look here, my dear chap, if you are<br /> engaged (rises to go)<br /> <br /> J. U.—Don’t be a fool: sit down and make<br /> yourself comfortable. You afford a splendid<br /> excuse, now I won’t see him.<br /> <br /> S. M.—Very well, if you won&#039;t. What were<br /> you going to say to him? I suppose he would<br /> have begun by asking what you thought about<br /> your art.<br /> <br /> J. L.—I had prepared myself. (Stands with a<br /> cigarette in one hand and strikes an affected attitude.)<br /> «All art, my dear sir, is the first sign of that disease<br /> that marks the decay of civilisation.” What do<br /> you think of that ? Fresh, eh ?<br /> <br /> S. M.—Not bad; I do not think I have ever<br /> heard anything quite so foolish before. May I<br /> make a note of it ?<br /> <br /> J. L.—By all means.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Would you like to have —<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> cae<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> afew more? By the way, old chap, awfully sorry :<br /> have a cigarette (hands him the bor) and help<br /> yourself to sherry.<br /> <br /> S. M.—You would not give the Scorcher a<br /> glass, I suppose ?<br /> <br /> J. L.—What! give him sherry and a cigarette,<br /> the most comfortable chair, yours for instance ?<br /> It’s no use being commonplace. In my case he<br /> must stand at the door or quit.<br /> <br /> S. M.—But he would slate you.<br /> <br /> J. L.—You are an old fossil. Of course he<br /> would: that is the high road to success.<br /> <br /> S. M.—AIll right; now go on. How about<br /> your own art?<br /> J. L.—H’m (posing again and addressing<br /> <br /> amaginary “ Scorcher”). My own art is the most<br /> virulent form of that disease. Its followers the<br /> most degraded and corrupt of beings.<br /> <br /> S. M.—Stop a minute, old man (writes it down).<br /> ‘That last is not quite new. I believe I have seen<br /> it from the pen of some disappointed scribbler.<br /> <br /> J. L.—It must pass. If not absolutely fresh,<br /> it is at any rate opposed to the opinion of the<br /> glorious masses.<br /> <br /> 8. M.—How about critics ?<br /> <br /> J. L.—Critics are nothing but common para-<br /> sites.<br /> <br /> S. M.—That is strong ; your views are growing<br /> with popularity.<br /> <br /> J. L.—The popular man is always the best<br /> hated.<br /> <br /> S. M.—Quite epigrammatical. I suppose as a<br /> matter of fact you are really enamoured of your<br /> art and work hard at it.<br /> <br /> J. L.—Of course, but it won’t do to say so.<br /> You musn’t work hard at anything now-a-days if<br /> you want to succeed,<br /> <br /> 8S. M.—Genius must be spontancous, otherwise<br /> it is merely realistic. How did you make your<br /> first plot ?<br /> <br /> J. L.—I took it from Dickens.<br /> <br /> S. M.—That is not new in the least.<br /> <br /> J. L.—On the contrary, I am the first confessed<br /> plagiarist.<br /> <br /> S. M.—Your characters ?<br /> <br /> J. L.—Wilkie Collins.<br /> <br /> 8. M.—Your local colour ?<br /> <br /> J. L.—Onida.<br /> <br /> S. M.—Your poetry ?<br /> <br /> J. L.—Andrew Lang.<br /> <br /> 8. M.—Your obscurity ?<br /> <br /> J. L.—George Meredith.<br /> <br /> S. M.—Your quotations ?<br /> <br /> J. L.—Myself. That will do for the writing<br /> <br /> S. M.—For absolute stupidity it takes the cake.<br /> You will be asked where your originality comes in.<br /> J. L.—What shall I say to that ?<br /> <br /> 181<br /> <br /> 8. M.—I can’t think of anything dull enough.<br /> Surely you are not at a loss. © 7<br /> <br /> J. L.,—Originality—let me see--is the Brocken<br /> phantom of the pseudo-plagiarist.<br /> <br /> S. M.—That’s really very clever. It<br /> nothing and sounds very deep.<br /> <br /> J. L.—Stop a bit, Dll finish that by saying :<br /> “but plagiarism is the elysium of real genius.”<br /> <br /> S. M.—The Scorcher fellow I expect will<br /> be so confused by this time that he will change<br /> the subject. He will pass lightly on to your<br /> family and your relations and your domestic<br /> surroundings.<br /> <br /> J. L.—By that time I shall be getting awfully<br /> bored and shall turn airily round and say, “ You<br /> can go now.”<br /> <br /> S. M.—Yonu don’t get rid of these quill-drivers<br /> so lightly.<br /> <br /> J. L.—Oh, if he won’t go, I shall rise from my<br /> chair (r7ses), shall seize him by the scraff of the<br /> — (seizes imaginary person) and forcibly eject<br /> nim.<br /> <br /> S. M.—Well, old man, I have finished my<br /> cigarette, drunk my sherry, and been bored by<br /> your conversation, se I will say good-bye. (frets<br /> up from armchair and goes towards door.)<br /> <br /> J. L.—Good-bye. Awfully good of you to come<br /> and see me. You&#039;ll know what it all means when<br /> it comes out in the papers. I don’t think the<br /> scribbling cad will come now.<br /> <br /> (As S. M. goes out J. L. follows, watches him<br /> descending the stairs, and shouts after him): If you<br /> do see the writing ruffian coming up, tell him I’m<br /> not at home.<br /> <br /> S. M.—(Prom the ground floor, laughing) : You<br /> have entertained an angel unawares. I am the<br /> scribbling cad, the quill-driver, the Scorcher’s<br /> special. Look at my card on your table (archly).<br /> I shall know what it all means when I see it in the<br /> papers.<br /> <br /> J. L.—Here, Syd, stop you thief. Help!<br /> Murder! Fire! (/. L. returns disconsolate to his<br /> rooms, picks up card on which is written “ Mr.<br /> Sydney Maytown, ‘The Scorcher’? Office.’) Well,<br /> what a cunning old humbug. I really must take<br /> in the Scorcher.<br /> <br /> means<br /> <br /> AL B.C.<br /> <br /> &lt;&gt;<br /> <br /> CORRESPONDENCE.<br /> <br /> INCOME TAX FOR AUTHORS. .<br /> <br /> I,<br /> <br /> R. W. O. Hodges, whose opinion on the<br /> assessment of income-tax payable in<br /> respect of profit from authorship you<br /> <br /> published, intended as far I can judge from his<br />  <br /> <br /> 182<br /> <br /> words, to supply an answer to a practical question<br /> of law. He iliustrated a lucid exposition of the<br /> law by means of an analogy with a view to making<br /> his point clearer to laymen, and apparently Mrs.<br /> F, A. Steel’s sarcasm in her letter published in<br /> the last Author is directed against his analogy<br /> rather than against his law. If I am wrong I<br /> shall no doubt be corrected.<br /> <br /> Analogies are sometimes misleading even when<br /> handled by lawyers. Lord Jessel, when he was<br /> first Solicitor-General, had once, I believe, to re-<br /> quest the Court of Appeal to “ listen ” before they<br /> interrupted him with “ hasty analogies,” but I<br /> doubt if Mr. Hodges’ analogy was either hastily<br /> conceived or is likely to mislead.<br /> <br /> Mrs. Steel would, apparently, distinguish in the<br /> assessment of income-tax between a coachbuilder<br /> and an author, allowing in the case of the latter<br /> for an expenditure of brains, or “time, brains,<br /> health ” ; that is to say, she would make a deduc-<br /> tion on account of this latter kind of expenditure<br /> such as is made for more material expenditure in<br /> every case before profits are reckoned.<br /> <br /> At present the law is equal ; no deduction 18<br /> allowed for “brains” expended either by the<br /> author or by the coachbuilder, or by any other<br /> business man. Mr. Hodges would have been<br /> advising incorrectly had he suggested otherwise.<br /> <br /> Does Mrs. Steel consider that Mr. Hodges was<br /> called upon to express an opinion upon this, or to<br /> advocate some new principle to be introduced into<br /> income-tax assessment ? Could he have done so<br /> reasonably ? I take it that any such principle<br /> would apply equally ; or does Mrs. Steel intend to<br /> place authors alone among those who exhaust their<br /> brains, their inventive faculties, or their powers of<br /> observation, in their business ? Are business men,<br /> like authors, to be allowed to say, “ We have worn<br /> ourselves out with work over this scheme or that ;<br /> we shall never hit on such a brilliant idea again. ;<br /> we can use none of our material again; we have<br /> made many thousands of pounds, but you must<br /> deduct from our net profits, reckoned in the old<br /> way, a thousand or two for brain exhaustion and<br /> using of ideas?” Do authors as @ class write<br /> themselves out in the manner suggested very<br /> much more than other workers work themselves<br /> out 2? Is the instance (her own case) given by<br /> Mrs. Steel a typical one ?<br /> <br /> I will leave living authors out of the question.<br /> At what point in their lives were Dickens,<br /> Thackeray, Harrison Ainsworth, Bulwer Lytton,<br /> Dumas, Balzac (make the list longer, if you<br /> please, and assume that they lived in days of a<br /> shilling tax:in the pound) entitled to say, ‘ we<br /> put so much capital into this book and that, in<br /> the form of brains, that the State must make a<br /> return to us of income-tax over paid?” Take<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> at random a writer or two famous for one or<br /> a few books. Ought J. H. Shorthouse, or Tom<br /> Hughes, or Lewis Carroll, to have been enabled<br /> to say, ‘We wrote so well in the works. that<br /> have made our names household words, and have<br /> written so little since, that you must pay back to<br /> us all income-tax in respect of our works in con-<br /> sequence of the debilitated state to which we have<br /> reduced ourselves ?”” Ought they on the other hand<br /> to have been enabled to claim the exemption at the<br /> time when they first calculated their profits ? How<br /> would it have had to be done? Would the<br /> author of “John Inglesant” have been obliged<br /> to make a detailed statement, fortified by<br /> medical evidence, of the degree of cerebral<br /> impoverishment which he had suffered ? There<br /> seem to be practical difficulties in the way of<br /> any change in the present arrangements, and I<br /> submit that any alteration would at all events have<br /> to apply equally to the novelist and the coach-<br /> builder. The brain loss of the latter might be<br /> too trifling to be worth considering in many<br /> instances ; so also occasionally would be that. of<br /> the former, but both would have to be treated<br /> equally, and to be offered an allowance for any loss<br /> of brain proved to have taken place.<br /> <br /> At present they are treated equally in this, that<br /> the State does not attempt to ascertain an expendi-<br /> ture which would be, to say the least, difficult to<br /> assess justly and accurately.<br /> <br /> Tt says, in effect, “ Gentlemen and _ ladies,<br /> authors, coachbuilders, and others : If you make<br /> a tangible profit annually we must take a per-<br /> centage of it for State purposes, because we want<br /> ships, and abbreviated rifles, and other desirable<br /> things for States to possess, but we will allow<br /> for any tangible depreciation in your tangible<br /> capital, under what is known as Schedule D. If<br /> you choose to wear out your brains making money<br /> we must take a percentage of that money, we<br /> cannot allow for brain deterioration because we<br /> don’t know how to estimate it.<br /> suggestion to you, which we should not think of<br /> doing, we should point out that if you could<br /> manage to do with a little less money in the present,<br /> you will retain a little more brain for future use.”<br /> <br /> I may be entirely wrong, put I fancy Mr. Hodges’<br /> legal opinion was correct, and that his analogy was —<br /> <br /> correct also. I also believe that he neither intended<br /> <br /> nor expressed any comparison at which any author —<br /> <br /> (or coachbuilder) need take offence.<br /> E. A. ARMSTRONG.<br /> <br /> Ce a ae<br /> <br /> Il.<br /> <br /> Sir,—Mrs. Steel does not stand alone in ad- —<br /> miring Mr. Hodges’ comparison of the author and<br /> <br /> One element of, surprise,<br /> <br /> the coachbuilder.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> If we made a i 2<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> indeed, seems to have escaped her. It seemed to<br /> me that Mr. Hodges must have confused the<br /> character and functions of an author with those of<br /> a publisher. I do not know whether a coach-<br /> builder uses the designs of an artist. If he does,<br /> the comparison between him and the publisher is<br /> just. Hach of them reproduces an indefinite num-<br /> ber of copies of a work of art. He does thisin the<br /> way of business, pays away outgoings to various<br /> subordinate trades, varnish-makers or printers,<br /> ironmongers or bookbinders, allows for other ex-<br /> penses, and makes a certain profit, on which he<br /> pays income-tax.<br /> <br /> The likeness of either business to the operations<br /> of an author is lessobvious. In one point, indeed,<br /> Mrs. Steel sees difference where there is resemblance.<br /> The particular quart of varnish used in finishing<br /> one coach is irrevocably used up, just as are the<br /> particular words or ideas used in one book. Indeed,<br /> some critics will say that the author has the<br /> advantage here. But the more I allow the like-<br /> ness, the more bewildered I am by the duties<br /> which Mr. Hodges imposes upon me in respect of<br /> income-tax. ‘The coachbuilder, keeping proper<br /> books, knows exactly what his varnish costs him,<br /> and sets that off against his receipts for perfected<br /> coaches. But- how am I to estimate the cost of<br /> my words and ideas? How much, for example,<br /> has that last sentence cost me: and, if I received<br /> payment for this letter, how much should I deduct<br /> on account of it, to arrive ab my taxable income ?<br /> Mr. Hodges says :—“ The author is entitled to<br /> deduct any disbursement or expenses which he<br /> may have laid out or expended wholly or exclu-<br /> sively for the purposes of his vocation.” Since<br /> nothing is produced from nothing, and brain stuff<br /> requires renewal as regularly as a coachbuilder’s<br /> plant, and the butcher and baker have to be paid<br /> for this renewal, it is evident that I have expended<br /> something wholly or exclusively in the production<br /> of that particular sentence. I know that the<br /> law does not allow me to deduct anything for<br /> “maintenance’’ ; but my maintenance as a house-<br /> keeping, voting, taxable animal is one thing; the<br /> renewal of my literary stock-in-trade is another<br /> thing. Mr. Hodges makes the necessary calcula-<br /> tion less minute by allowing that the expenses need<br /> not necessarily be appropriated to any particular<br /> book or work; but even so, it seems to be my<br /> duty to keep very elaborate accounts, and I am<br /> threatened with the awkward consequence that my<br /> energies may be wholly absorbed in bookkeeping.<br /> Thus the calculation of my income for the purpose<br /> of taxation will extinguish my income altogether,<br /> and I shall be saved further trouble.<br /> <br /> Mr. Hodges, it is true, overlooks the cost of getting<br /> words or ideas, but of course he does not pretend to<br /> exhaust the subject. He gives only illustrations<br /> <br /> 183<br /> <br /> of a general principle, and confines himself to<br /> certain parts of our stock-in-trade—photographs, sta-<br /> tionery, typewriting, books, and travelling expenses.<br /> But even these more easily calculated particulars<br /> fill me with dread. I will take a notorious ex-<br /> ample. Macaulay received a gross sum of £8,000<br /> for the copyright of his History. If he had had<br /> Mr. Hodges’ opinion before him, he would have<br /> known that he ought to pay income-tax on his net<br /> receipts. But how was he to arrive at the net ?<br /> Think of the task of disentaneling his: book-<br /> buying accounts and his travelling expenses during<br /> the previous twenty years! Here, however, Mr.<br /> Hodges may afford relief —a relief, unhappily,<br /> which brings new pain. The expenses to be<br /> deducted must have been “incurred in the period<br /> for which the return is made.” This means, I<br /> suppose, that the average expenses of three years<br /> must be deducted from the average receipts. Let<br /> us suppose that Macaulay sold his copyright—I<br /> forget the real date—in 1855. His average income<br /> from this source, returned in the following year,<br /> was £2,666 13s. 4d.; and he would deduct his<br /> average expenditure on books and travelling during<br /> the last three years. But what about his ex-<br /> penses during the previous years of preparation ?<br /> A work like Macanlay’s History is not produced<br /> ab ovo in three years; and even if it were, the<br /> formation of the egg is a long and costly business.<br /> <br /> But, someone may say, Macaulay was always a<br /> writer by profession, a contributor to schedule D :<br /> each year he should have calculated his professional<br /> outgoings, and deducted them from his gross in-<br /> come. ‘The answer is just ; especially if we are<br /> agreed that an author’s calling is exactly com-<br /> parable with a coachbuilder’s, as steady and as<br /> uniform. But the analogy sometimes fails. I do<br /> not know whether Mrs. Steel was carefully<br /> balancing her annual accounts as author during<br /> the twenty-five years spent, as she explains, in<br /> buying materials for “ On the Face of the Waters” ;<br /> but I do know what was the case with Mr. Short-<br /> house. For more than twenty years he was<br /> elaborating “ John Inglesant,” and during this<br /> period he was certainly not a professional writer,<br /> and had no gross income as author from which to<br /> deduct the cost of ‘the material which he was<br /> putting into that book. When he began to draw<br /> an income from it, he could deduct only the<br /> average expenditure of the last three years.<br /> <br /> In one respect Mr. Hodges may bring us com-<br /> fort. When | wrote the article which formed the<br /> case submitted to him, I supposed, in my unbusiness-<br /> like way, that I was bound to return for income-<br /> tax the whole of the sums annually received as<br /> royalty. It was only the amount received by sales<br /> of copyrights about which I had doubts. I know<br /> now that I ought to deduct from my royalties the<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 184<br /> <br /> annual expenses of the trade of authorship. They<br /> are difficult to calculate, but I must brace myself to<br /> the task. I only fear, as I have said, that my<br /> income may disappear altogether in consequence.<br /> <br /> On the whole, the comparison with the coach-<br /> builder seems to land us in great difficulties. The<br /> mention of “John Inglesant” suggests to me<br /> another comparison, which I will venture to put<br /> forward, though it does involve the impertinence<br /> of going behind Mr. Hodges’ opinion.<br /> <br /> A doctor amuses himself for a long time by<br /> building a house. He makes it his hobby ; he is<br /> continually altering and embellishing it, he takes<br /> his friends to see it, profiting by their suggestions<br /> as well as by those of his own taste. Tt is talked<br /> about, and within a certain narrow circle wins a<br /> reputation for beauty and comfort. It is at last<br /> finished ; he either goes to live in it, or lets it,<br /> or sells it, getting in the last case a good price<br /> because of its reputation. If he lives in it or lets<br /> it, he begins o pay income-tax on the annual<br /> value, If he sells it, must he return the price,<br /> less expenses, under schedule D, as a speculative<br /> builder? The case of “John Inglesant ” seems<br /> to me closely analogous. If Mr. Shorthouse<br /> received royalties for it, he would pay income-tax<br /> on them; but if he sold the copyright, would the<br /> sum received really be professional income ?<br /> <br /> TT, A. LACEY.<br /> <br /> CopyRIGHT IN Puays.<br /> <br /> Sir,—Some few years ago I heard Sir Henry<br /> Irving (then “Mr. Irving”) in “ Charles the<br /> First,” by the late dramatist Wills. Considering<br /> the deplorable dearth of good plays nowadays, it<br /> seems to me a matter for regret that “Charles the<br /> First” has not been revived. It is probable that<br /> Sir Henry Irving has the manuscript in his<br /> keeping, and he appears to have sole performing<br /> right. I have applied to him to know if I could<br /> get a chance to read the play, but received a reply<br /> merely stating that it has not been published. It<br /> will be a great pity if the public never hears<br /> anything more of it. Therefore, T venture to ask<br /> if nothing can be done to bring it before us again.<br /> I remember an amusing incident which happened<br /> on the occasion of my hearing the play. I did<br /> not know, at that time, the author’s name, and I<br /> turned to a man sitting near me, and asked him<br /> if he could inform me who was the author.<br /> <br /> by Shakespeare #” Probably the gentleman had<br /> mixed his dates somewhat !<br /> <br /> E. Urwicr.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> He,<br /> hesitated for a moment, and then said, ‘‘ Isn’t it.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Tue REVIEWING SHAM.<br /> <br /> Sir,—Is it not time that reviewing should cease,<br /> inasmuch that it is a sham? Half the books<br /> noticed or reviewed are never read at all, being<br /> merely skimmed through, quoted from, condemned<br /> or praised, at the whim of the reviewer. Books<br /> have been frequently sent to me and I have been<br /> asked to review them. To have read conscien-<br /> tiously through each (taking only one bundle<br /> thereof as an example), and pronounced an honest<br /> opinion of the contents, would have taken me<br /> 365 days instead of 365 minutes, which is about<br /> the usual amount of time allotted by the ordinary<br /> reviewer to the same number of books, which<br /> I returned, with regrets that I had neither tame<br /> nor inclination to read them. I am not blaming<br /> the ordinary reviewer. This personage reviews for<br /> cash. He does it for a living, and the more<br /> books he gets through the larger is the income<br /> that he makes. Would it not be a much better<br /> plan, think you, for authors when they advertise<br /> their books to accompany same with an author&#039;s<br /> note stating the object and aim of the work, and<br /> <br /> leave it to the public to read it or not as it feels LS<br /> <br /> inclined, and form its own judgment thereon? If<br /> <br /> newspapers would afford space for such a note with |<br /> <br /> advertisements, and make a moderate charge<br /> much trouble would be saved, and the review-<br /> <br /> ing sham would be abolished. This would be a ~<br /> <br /> good job indeed. The excessive expense of sending<br /> out “ Copies to the Press” would end, and literature<br /> be given fair play all round.<br /> <br /> Believe me, yours very truly,<br /> <br /> FuoRENCE DIxie.<br /> Glen Stuart, N.B.<br /> <br /> —-~p— —<br /> <br /> Tue Humours oF Books AND THE WAYS OF<br /> PUBLISHERS.<br /> <br /> Sir,—I am writing a book under the above<br /> title. Both parts of the title will come in for<br /> treatment, and I shall be glad of any little help in<br /> the way of facts, fancies, and fragments under<br /> either. My experience of publishers has been some-_<br /> what extensive and rather mixed. My object will<br /> be to give an account of this experience, and par-<br /> ticularly of a case now in the hands of solicitors.<br /> I have appealed already and received some assist-<br /> ance. Iam quite sure that many of your readers —<br /> have some good stories to tell. Whatever their |<br /> <br /> nature be, I should like to receive them. May IT<br /> ask the favour of a bounteous reply and supply *<br /> <br /> Your obedient servant,<br /> J. P. SANDLANDS.<br /> Brigstock Vicarage, Thrapston.	https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/503/1905-03-01-The-Author-15-6.pdf	publications, The Author
504	https://historysoa.com/items/show/504	The Author, Vol. 15 Issue 07 (April 1905)	<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=%3Cem%3EThe+Author%3C%2Fem%3E%2C+Vol.+15+Issue+07+%28April+1905%29"><em>The Author</em>, Vol. 15 Issue 07 (April 1905)</a>											<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Publication">Publication</a>	1905-04-01-The-Author-15-7					185–216																		<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=89&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=15">15</a>											<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=76&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1905-04-01">1905-04-01</a>							7			19050401	Che HMuthbor.<br /> <br /> (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)<br /> <br /> FOUNDED BY SIR WALTER BESANT.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Vou. XV.—No. 7.<br /> <br /> TELEPHONE NUMBER :<br /> 374 VICTORIA.<br /> <br /> TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS :<br /> AUTORIDAD, LONDON.<br /> <br /> ———————<br /> NOTICES.<br /> <br /> ——— +<br /> <br /> OR the opinions expressed in papers that are<br /> <br /> KE signed or initialled the authors alone are<br /> <br /> responsible. None of the papers or para-<br /> <br /> graphs must be taken as expressing the opinion<br /> <br /> of the Committee unless such is especially stated<br /> to be the case.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> i THE Editor begs to inform members of the<br /> Authors’ Society and other readers of The Author<br /> ) #1) that the cases which are from time to time quoted<br /> “| in The Author are cases that have come before the<br /> ‘| notice or to the knowledge of the Secretary of the<br /> 6 Society, and that those members of the Society<br /> * who desire to have the names of the publishers<br /> <br /> ) concerned can obtain them on application.<br /> <br /> eG<br /> List of Members.<br /> <br /> THE List of Members of the Society of Authors<br /> published October, 1902, at the price of 6d., and<br /> the elections from October, 1902, to July, 1903, as<br /> a supplemental list, at the price of 2d., can now be<br /> obtained at the offices of the Society.<br /> <br /> They will be sold to members or associates of<br /> the Society only.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> —_— +<br /> <br /> The Pension Fund of the Society.<br /> <br /> Tue Trustees of the Pension Fund met at the<br /> Society’s Offices in February, 1904, and having<br /> gone carefully into the accounts of the fund,<br /> | decided to purchase £250 London and North<br /> Western 3% Debenture Stock. Accordingly, the<br /> Investments of the Pension Fund at present<br /> <br /> VoL. XV.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> APRIL ist, 1905.<br /> <br /> [Prick SIXPENCE.<br /> <br /> standing in the names of the Trustees are as<br /> <br /> follows.<br /> <br /> This is a statement of the actual stock; the<br /> money value can be easily worked out at the current<br /> price of the market :—<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> CongOls 25%. ee eae. £1000 0 0<br /> <br /> Whocaleioans: i ee 500 0 0<br /> Victorian Government 8 % Consoli-<br /> <br /> dated Inscribed Stock ............... 291 19 11<br /> <br /> War Ioan 4.6.0. ee... 201 9 3<br /> London and North Western 3 % Deben-<br /> <br /> EUG LOCK ec ge 250 0 0<br /> <br /> otal. 2.80356. £2,745 92<br /> <br /> Subscriptions from May, 1904. ey<br /> <br /> May 6,Shepherd,G. H. . : - 0 5 0<br /> <br /> June 24, Rumbold,<br /> <br /> GCB .<br /> July 27, Barnett, P. A. : :<br /> Nov. 9, Hollingsworth, Charles .<br /> 1905 Aas<br /> Jan. 12, Anonymous :<br /> <br /> Donations from May, 1904.<br /> <br /> Sir Horace, Bart.,<br /> <br /> May 16, Wynne, C. Whitworth D0. 0<br /> June 23, Kirmse, R. . ‘ 0 5 0<br /> June 23, Kirmse, Mrs. R. : - 055.0<br /> July 21, The Blackmore Memorial<br /> Committee : - 20 0 0<br /> Aug. 5, Walker, William S. 2 0 0<br /> Oct. 6, Hare, F. W. E., M.D. 110<br /> Oct. 6, Hardy, Harold : 010 0<br /> Oct. 20, Cameron, Mrs. Lovett 010 0<br /> Nov. 7, Benecke, Miss Ida . tL 1 0<br /> Noy. 11, Thomas, Mrs. Haig 2 2 0<br /> Noy. 24, Egbert, Henry 0 5 0<br /> 1905<br /> Jan. , Middlemas, Miss Jean 010 0<br /> Jan. , Bolton, Miss Anna 0 520<br /> Jan. 24, Barry, Miss Fanny . 0 5 O<br /> Jan. 27, Bencke, Albert 0-5. 0<br /> Jan. 28, Harcourt-Roe, Mrs. 010 O<br /> Feb. 18, French-Sheldon, Mrs. 010 0<br /> L020<br /> <br /> Feb. 21, Lyall, Sir Alfred, P.C.<br />  <br /> <br /> 184<br /> <br /> annual expenses of the trade of authorship. They<br /> are difficult to calculate, but I must brace myself to<br /> the task. I only fear, as I have said, that my<br /> income may disappear altogether in consequence.<br /> <br /> On the whole, the comparison with the coach-<br /> builder seems to land us in great difficulties. The<br /> mention of “John Inglesant” suggests to me<br /> another comparison, which I will venture to put<br /> forward, though it does involve the impertinence<br /> of going behind Mr. Hodges’ opinion.<br /> <br /> A doctor amuses himself for a long time by<br /> building a house. He makes it his hobby ; he is<br /> continually altering and embellishing it, he takes<br /> his friends to see it, profiting by their suggestions<br /> as well as by those of his own taste. It is talked<br /> about, and within a certain narrow circle wins a<br /> reputation for beauty and comfort. It is at last<br /> finished ; he either goes to live in it, or lets it,<br /> or sells it, getting in the last case a good price<br /> because of its reputation. If he lives in it or lets<br /> it, he begins o pay income-tax on the annual<br /> value. If he sells it, must he return the price,<br /> less expenses, under schedule D, as a speculative<br /> builder? The case of “John Inglesant ” seems<br /> to me closely analogous. If Mr. Shorthouse<br /> received royalties for it, he would pay income-tax<br /> on them; but if he sold the copyright, would the<br /> sum received really be professional income ?<br /> <br /> T, A. Lacey.<br /> <br /> CopyRiGHT IN PLAYS.<br /> <br /> Str,—Some few years ago I heard Sir Henry<br /> Irving (then “Mr. Irving”) in “ Charles the<br /> First,” by the late dramatist Wills. Considering<br /> the deplorable dearth of good plays nowadays, it<br /> seems to me a matter for regret that “Charles the<br /> First ” has not been revived. It is probable that<br /> Sir Henry Irving has_ the manuscript in his<br /> keeping, and he appears to have sole performing<br /> right. I have applied to him to know if I could<br /> get a chance to read the play, but received a reply<br /> merely stating that it has not been published. It<br /> will be a great pity if the public never hears<br /> anything more of it. Therefore, I venture to ask<br /> if nothing can be done to bring it before us again.<br /> I remember an amusing incident which happened<br /> on the occasion of my hearing the play. I did<br /> not know, at that time, the author’s name, and I<br /> turned to a man sitting near me, and asked him<br /> if he could inform me who was the author. He<br /> <br /> hesitated for a moment, and then said, ‘“ Isn’t it.<br /> <br /> by Shakespeare ?” Probably the gentleman had<br /> mixed his dates somewhat !<br /> E. URwick.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Tue REVIEWING SHAM.<br /> <br /> Sir,—lIs it not time that reviewing should cease,<br /> inasmuch that it is a sham? Half the books<br /> noticed or reviewed are never read at all, being<br /> merely skimmed through, quoted from, condemned<br /> or praised, at the whim of the reviewer. Books<br /> have been frequently sent to me and I have been<br /> asked to review them. To have read conscien-<br /> tiously through each (taking only one bundle<br /> thereof as an example), and pronounced an honest<br /> opinion of the contents, would have taken me<br /> 365 days instead of 365 minutes, which is about<br /> the usual amount of time allotted by the ordinary<br /> reviewer to the same number of books, which<br /> I returned, with regrets that I had neither time<br /> nor inclination to read them.<br /> the ordinary reviewer. This personage reviews for<br /> cash. He does it for a living, and the more<br /> books he gets through the larger is the income<br /> that he makes. Would it not be a much better<br /> plan, think you, for authors when they advertise<br /> their books to accompany same with an author&#039;s<br /> note stating the object and aim of the work, and<br /> leave it to the public to read it or not as it feels<br /> <br /> inclined, and form its own judgment thereon ? If — 7<br /> <br /> newspapers would afford space for such a note with<br /> advertisements, and make a moderate charge<br /> <br /> much trouble would be saved, and the review- .<br /> <br /> ing sham would be abolished. This would be a<br /> good job indeed. The excessive expense of sending<br /> out “ Copies to the Press” would end, and literature<br /> be given fair play all round.<br /> Believe me, yours very truly,<br /> FLORENCE DIXIE.<br /> Glen Stuart, N.B.<br /> <br /> —-~&lt;_+—<br /> Tur Humours oF Books AND THE WAYS OF<br /> PUBLISHERS.<br /> <br /> Sir,—I am writing a book under the above<br /> title. Both parts of the title will come in for<br /> <br /> treatment, and I shall be glad of any little help in —<br /> the way of facts, fancies, and fragments under<br /> <br /> either. My experience of publishers has been some-<br /> <br /> what extensive and rather mixed. My object will —<br /> <br /> be to give an account of this experience, and par-<br /> <br /> ticularly of a case now in the hands of solicitors.<br /> <br /> I have appealed already and received some assist-<br /> ance. I am quite sure that many of your readers<br /> have some good stories to tell.<br /> <br /> nature be, I should like to receive them. May I<br /> ask the favour of a bounteous reply and supply ?<br /> <br /> Your obedient servant,<br /> J. P. SANDLANDS.<br /> Brigstock Vicarage, Thrapston.<br /> <br /> Whatever their<br /> <br /> Iam not blaming<br /> <br /> eR RAED inl DAS a EL<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> if<br /> <br /> aid<br /> <br /> tdg<br /> <br /> aay<br /> <br /> Che Huthbor.<br /> <br /> (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)<br /> <br /> FOUNDED BY SIR WALTER BESANT.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Vou. XV.—No. 7.<br /> <br /> TELEPHONE NUMBER :<br /> 374 VICTORIA.<br /> <br /> TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS :<br /> AUTORIDAD, LONDON.<br /> <br /> —___§_+-— 2 —______<br /> NOTICES.<br /> <br /> +1<br /> <br /> OR the opinions expressed in papers that are<br /> K signed or initialled the authors alone are<br /> responsible. None of the papers or para-<br /> graphs must be taken as expressing the opinion<br /> of the Committee unless such is especially stated<br /> to be the case.<br /> <br /> Tue Editor begs to inform members of the<br /> Authors’ Society and other readers of 7he Author<br /> that the cases which are from time to time quoted<br /> in The Author are cases that have come before the<br /> notice or to the knowledge of the Secretary of the<br /> Society, and that those members of the Society<br /> who desire to have the names of the publishers<br /> concerned can obtain them on application.<br /> <br /> +<br /> List of Members.<br /> <br /> Tue List of Members of the Society of Authors<br /> published October, 1902, at the price of 6d., and<br /> the elections from October, 1902, to July, 1903, as<br /> a supplemental list, at the price of 2d., can now be<br /> obtained at the offices of the Society.<br /> <br /> They will be sold to members or associates of<br /> <br /> the Society only.<br /> ae<br /> <br /> The Pension Fund of the Society.<br /> <br /> Tue Trustees of the Pension Fund met at the<br /> Society’s Offices in February, 1904, and having<br /> gone carefully into the accounts of the fund,<br /> decided to purchase £250 London and North<br /> Western 3% Debenture Stock. Accordingly, the<br /> Investments of the Pension Fund at present<br /> <br /> Vou, XV.<br /> <br /> Aprin ist, 1905.<br /> <br /> [PRicE SIXPENCE.<br /> <br /> standing in the names of the Trustees are as<br /> <br /> follows.<br /> <br /> This is a statement of the actual stock; the<br /> money value can be easily worked out at the current<br /> price of the market :—<br /> <br /> COngOlS Pk o.oo. £1000 0 0<br /> Wocal Woans: -.6.4.. 6.650 ioe. 500 0 0<br /> <br /> Victorian Government 3 % Consoli-<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> dated Inscribed Stock ............... 291 19 11<br /> War loan ..2...5 0.02.40... 201 9 3<br /> London and North Western 8 % Deben-<br /> <br /> ture Stock (226. 250 0 0<br /> <br /> Opal) wees. £2,245, 9, 2<br /> Subscriptions from May, 1904. ‘eG<br /> May 6,Shepherd,G. H. . : 7 0.5 0<br /> June 24, Rumbold, Sir Horace, Bart.,<br /> G.C.B. : : : si 0<br /> July 27, Barnett, P. A. : ‘ / 010 0<br /> Noy. 9, Hollingsworth, Charles . 010 0<br /> 1905 | aah<br /> Jan. 12, Anonymous . : : . 0 2 6<br /> Donations from May, 1904.<br /> May 16, Wynne, C. Whitworth 5 0 0<br /> June 23, Kirmse, R. . ; 0 5 0<br /> June 23, Kirmse, Mrs. R. : - 70 6 0<br /> July 21,The Blackmore Memorial<br /> Committee é . 20,0 0<br /> Aug. 5, Walker, William 8. 2 0 0<br /> Oct. 6, Hare, F. W. E., M.D. bat 0<br /> Oct. 6, Hardy, Harold : 010 O<br /> Oct. 20, Cameron, Mrs. Lovett 010 0<br /> Nov. 7, Benecke, Miss Ida . 11&gt; 0<br /> Noy. 11, Thomas, Mrs. Haig 2 2 0<br /> Nov. 24, Egbert, Henry 0 5 0<br /> 1905<br /> Jan. , Middlemas, Miss Jean 010 O<br /> Jan. , Bolton, Miss Anna 0 5 0<br /> Jan. 24, Barry, Miss Fanny . 0 5 0<br /> Jan. 27, Bencke, Albert 0 5 0<br /> Jan. 28, Harcourt-Roe, Mrs. 010 O<br /> Feb. 18, French-Sheldon, Mrs. 010 0<br /> 10 0<br /> <br /> Feb. 21, Lyall, Sir Alfred, P.C.<br />  <br /> <br /> FROM THE COMMITTEE.<br /> <br /> ee<br /> FRBruary 20TH, 1905.<br /> <br /> MEETING of the Committee was held on<br /> Monday, February 20th, at 39, Old Queen<br /> — Street, Storey’s Gate, S.W.<br /> <br /> After the minutes of the previous meeting had<br /> been read and signed, the Chairman, Sir Henry<br /> Bergne, proposed a vote of thanks to Mr. Douglas<br /> Freshfield for the work he had done in conducting<br /> the affairs of the Society during the two years of<br /> his chairmanship, and for the attention and ability<br /> with which he had laboured for the best interests<br /> of the Society and its members. The vote of<br /> thanks was seconded by the Vice-chairman and<br /> carried unanimously.<br /> <br /> The election of Members and Associates followed.<br /> The number elected during the present year comes<br /> to forty-six. This is not so large as the number<br /> elected at the same period last year, which was a<br /> phenomenal year, as all members of the Society<br /> will perceive on perusal of the Report ; but the<br /> elections maintain the average of former years.<br /> <br /> The question of United States Copyright was<br /> again considered.<br /> <br /> The provisional date for the dinner was fixed for<br /> the beginning of May. Due notice will be sent to<br /> the members as the time draws nearer.<br /> <br /> FEBRUARY 27TH, 1905.<br /> <br /> A meeting of the Committee was held on<br /> Monday, February 27th, to enable the members to<br /> take into consideration some further points which<br /> had been placed before them dealing with the<br /> question of United States Copyright Law, and to<br /> determine the ultimate course to be adopted with<br /> regard to this issue.<br /> <br /> Note.—The amendment to the United States<br /> law, whereby a certain period of delay is granted<br /> in the case of a work published abroad ina foreign<br /> language, received the President’s signature on<br /> the 2nd of March. As the Act has thus passed.<br /> into law, the question whether any representation<br /> shall be made to the United States Government,<br /> with the view to a similar privilege being granted<br /> to works first published in England, is reserved<br /> for ulterior consideration.<br /> <br /> The text of the United States Act is given in<br /> another column.<br /> <br /> Five Members and Associates who had sent<br /> in their names between February 20th and<br /> February 27th, were duly elected.<br /> <br /> ——<br /> <br /> Cases.<br /> <br /> Srxce the last issue of the The Author ten cases<br /> have been before the Secretary. The members’<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> complaints were in three cases for accounts, in one<br /> case for money and accounts, in five cases for<br /> money, and in one case for the return of MS.<br /> Two of the cases in which the Secretary demanded<br /> money have been satisfactorily settled, but so far<br /> none of the others have been brought to a success-<br /> fal issue, owing to the fact that six of them have<br /> been placed in the Secretary’s hands only within<br /> the last week.<br /> <br /> One of the cases in which money and accounts<br /> were demanded, has been placed in the hands of<br /> the Society’s solicitors by the sanction of the<br /> Chairman, and it is probable that the Secretary will<br /> have to take the same course in one other case<br /> where money is due.<br /> <br /> ‘AIL the cases left open from the previous month<br /> have been settled, cheques having been received or<br /> the MSS. returned and forwarded to the members,<br /> To this statement, however, there is one exception,<br /> and here the matter hasbeen placed in the solicitors’<br /> hands with instructions to carry it through the<br /> Courts if necessary.<br /> <br /> It is satisfactory to report the successful issue of<br /> so many of the complaints which have been for-<br /> warded to the Society’s office.<br /> <br /> Mr. Grant Richards’ bankruptcy is still proceed-<br /> ing, but the business of winding up is necessarily<br /> slow. The debtor was to have come up for public<br /> examination at the beginning of March, but owing<br /> to his absence abroad his examination has been<br /> deferred till the 14th of this month.<br /> <br /> oo<br /> <br /> Elections.<br /> FEBRUARY 20TH.<br /> <br /> Dexter, Walter 40,Ommaney Road, New<br /> Cross, 8. E.<br /> 6, Christ. Church Place,<br /> <br /> Hampstead, N.W.<br /> <br /> Gray, Benjamin<br /> <br /> Lyall, the Right Hon.<br /> Sir Alfred, P.C.<br /> Lydston, G. F., M.D. 815-100, State Street,<br /> Chicago, Tll., U.S.A.<br /> Macdonald, R.<br /> <br /> Neele, Miss Ethel :<br /> Powell, Mrs.<br /> <br /> 23, Upper Addison<br /> Gardens, W.<br /> <br /> Herts.<br /> <br /> Ronald, Landon 118, Westbourne<br /> <br /> Terrace, Hyde Park, —<br /> <br /> Saunders, James<br /> Wolverhampton.<br /> <br /> Lomond, Hookwood,<br /> near Horley, Surrey-<br /> <br /> Shepherd, J. A.<br /> “The Spider ”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Harmer Green, Welwyn,<br /> <br /> W.<br /> 43, Powlett Street,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Abe<br /> <br /> 2<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> FEBRUARY 27TH.<br /> Langbridge, V. . . 95, Ebury Street, 8.W.<br /> Marshall, Mrs. Orde Caxton Hi&#039;all, West-<br /> minster, 8S.W.<br /> Great Baddow, Chelms-<br /> ford.<br /> Vernon, France.<br /> Sutton Vicarage, Dart-<br /> ford.<br /> <br /> Only one member does not desire the publication<br /> of his name or address.<br /> <br /> Maude, Aylmer<br /> <br /> Sherard, Robert . :<br /> Weekes, A.R.. :<br /> <br /> —_—__—__—_e——e___<br /> <br /> BOOKS PUBLISHED BY MEMBERS OF<br /> THE SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> —_— oe<br /> <br /> (In the following list we do not propose to give more<br /> than the titles, prices, publishers, etc., of the books<br /> enumerated, with, in special cases, such particulars as may<br /> serve to explain the scope and purpose of the work.<br /> Members are requested to forward information which will<br /> enable the Editor to supply such particulars.)<br /> <br /> BIOGRAPHY.<br /> <br /> CHATHAM. By FREDERIC HARRISON. 72 X 5}. 239 pp.<br /> Macmillan. 2s. 6d.<br /> <br /> COVENTRY PATMORE. By EDMUND GOSSE.<br /> 252 pp. Hodder &amp; Stoughton. 3s. 6d,<br /> <br /> THE LIFE STORY OF CHARLOTTE DE LA TREMOILLE,<br /> CouUNTESS OF DERBY. By Mary C. ROWSELL. 9 X 53.<br /> 188 pp. Kegan Paul. 63. n.<br /> <br /> THE KING IN EXILE. THE WANDERINGS OF CHARLES II.<br /> FROM JUNE, 1646 To JuLy, 1654. By Eva Scorr.<br /> 9 x 53. 524 pp. Constable. 16s. n.<br /> <br /> WHISTLER. By HALDANE MACFALL. 73<br /> Foulis. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> 72 X 52.<br /> <br /> x 4. 71 pp.<br /> <br /> CLASSICAL,<br /> <br /> THE TROJAN WOMEN OF EURIPIDES. Translated into<br /> English rhyming verse with Explanatory Notes. By<br /> GILBERT MuRRAY. 73 X 53. 94 pp. Allen. 2s.n.<br /> <br /> EDUCATIONAL.<br /> HAKLUYT?’s ENGLISH VOYAGES. Selected and Edited by<br /> <br /> E. E. Spricut, F,R.G.S. 74 x 5. 301 pp. Horace<br /> Marshall. 2s, 6d.<br /> FICTION.<br /> <br /> THE MARRIAGE OF WILLIAM ASHE. By Mrs. HUMPHRY<br /> Warp. 72 x 541. 506pp. Smith Elder. 6s.<br /> <br /> THe Kine’s SCAPEGOAT. By HAMILTON DRUMMOND,<br /> 7% &lt;x 5. 320 pp. Ward Lock. 6s,<br /> <br /> Bioomsspury. By C. F. Keary. 73 x 43, 552 pp.<br /> Nutt. 68.<br /> <br /> THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HoLMEsS. By A. CONAN<br /> Doyte. 74 x 5. 403 pp. Newnes. 6s,<br /> <br /> THE Rose BrocaDE. By Mrs. PHILIP CHAMPION DE<br /> CRESPIGNY. 73 x 5. 323 pp. Nash. 6s.<br /> <br /> BARHAM OF BELTANA. By W. E. Norris,<br /> 310 pp. Methuen. 6s.<br /> <br /> CONSTANCE West. By E. R. PUNSHON. 72 x 5. 304 pp.<br /> Lane. 6s,<br /> <br /> THE Sinver Key. By NELLIE K. BLISsErr.<br /> 286 pp. Chapman &amp; Hall. 6s.<br /> <br /> Laneparrow Hau. By THEODORA WILSON WILSON,<br /> 7% x 5. 399 pp. Harpers. 6s,<br /> <br /> CoMPRoMIsED, By GERTRUDE WARDEN AND H. E. Gorst.<br /> Cheap Edition. 84 x 54. 128pp. Greening. 6d,<br /> <br /> 7% x «#5.<br /> <br /> 74 x «5.<br /> <br /> 187<br /> <br /> “ WIDDICOMBE.” By M. P. WiILLcocks,<br /> <br /> ee as<br /> John Lane. ratte 208 BY,<br /> <br /> A DauGuHTer oF Kines. By KATHERINE TYNAN.<br /> i &lt;b, SIT pp. “Nash: ‘6s,<br /> <br /> Miss BADSworTtH,M.F.H. By Eyre Hussey. 8 x 5f<br /> 326 pp. Longmans. 6s, P<br /> <br /> THE Dryap. By Justin HuNTLY McCarruy, 72x 5.<br /> 320 pp. Methuen. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE SILveR PIN, By A. WILSON-BARRETT, 73 x 5.<br /> <br /> 320 pp. Ward Lock. 6s.<br /> <br /> SoME EMmoTIONS AND A MoRAL AND THE SINNER’S<br /> <br /> Comrepy. By JoHN OLIVER HOBBES. Cheap Edition,<br /> ts by 5. 199 pp. Unwin. Is. n.<br /> Sir CLAUDE MANNERLY. By E. C. Kenyon. 72 x 5.<br /> 364 pp. Ward Lock. 3s. 6d.<br /> A Doa’s Tate. By Mark Twain, (New Edition),<br /> 7% x 5}. 36 pp. Harper. 2s. n.<br /> FOLKLORE,<br /> <br /> SONGS OF THE VALIANT VOIVODE, AND OTHER STRANGE<br /> FOLKLORE, FOR THE FIrsT TIME COLLECTED FROM<br /> ROMANIAN PEASANTS AND SET FORTH IN ENGLISH.<br /> By Héléne Vacaresco. 8} x 53. 238 pp. Harper.<br /> 10s. 6d,<br /> <br /> THE SHADE OF THE BALKANS.<br /> GENCHO SLANLIKOFF AND E, J, DILLON,<br /> <br /> HISTORY.<br /> <br /> Earby DutcH AND ENGLISH VOYAGES TO SPITS-<br /> BERGEN IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. (Second<br /> Series, No. XI.), Edited by Str W. MARTIN CONWAY.<br /> 9 x 5%. 191 pp. The Hakluyt Society.<br /> <br /> THE FIGHT WITH FRANCE FOR NORTH AMERICA. By<br /> <br /> By HENRY BERNARD,<br /> David Nutt.<br /> <br /> A. G. BRADLEY. New Edition. 83 x 53. 400 pp.<br /> Constable. 3s. 6d. n.<br /> LITERARY.<br /> ADVENTURES AMONG Books. By ANDREW LANG. 8 x 54.<br /> 312 pp. Longmans. 6s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> JOHN BUNYAN AND THE PILGRIMS’ PRoGRESS. A Lecture<br /> delivered before the members of the Lincoln Diocesan<br /> Higher Reading Society at Lincoln, December 6th, 1904,<br /> by the Rv. C. E. Bonam. With a Preface by the Very<br /> REV. E. C. WICKHAMPTON, D.D., Dean of Lincoln.<br /> Small post. 8vo. S.P.C.K. 6d.<br /> <br /> LECTURES ON THE HISTORIANS OF BOHEMIA. Being the<br /> Ilchester Lectures (Oxford) for the year 1904. By the<br /> Count Lutzow. 8 x 5}. 120 pp. Frowde. 5s. n.<br /> <br /> MILITARY.<br /> <br /> THE OFFICER’S FIELD NoTE AND SKETCH BOOK AND<br /> RECONNAISSANCE AIDE-MiMOIRE. Tenth Edition. By<br /> Lizut-Con. E, Gunter, P.S.C. W. Clowes &amp; Sons.<br /> 6s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> NATURAL HISTORY.<br /> <br /> NATURAL HISTORY IN ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. By F. E,<br /> <br /> BEDDARD, F&#039;.R.S. 8 x 54. 310 pp. Constable. 6s. n.<br /> <br /> POLITICAL.<br /> IMPERIALISM: ITs Pricns; Irs VocATION. By EMIL<br /> Reicu, 7} xX 5. 177 pp. Hutchinson. 3s, 6d. n.<br /> SOCIOLOGY.<br /> SLAVERY: PICTURES FROM THE DEPTHS. By BART<br /> KENNEDY. 8 X 5, 367 pp. Treherne. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE CHILD SLAVES OF BRITAIN. By R. H. SHERARD,<br /> <br /> 8k x 62. 265 pp. Hurst and Blackett. 6s.<br /> THEOLOGY,<br /> <br /> THE VOICE OF THE FATHERS :<br /> Unanimity. By 8, F. A. CAULFIELD.<br /> Brown Langham. 3s. 6d.<br /> <br /> OBJECTIONS TO SPIRITUALISM.<br /> 7ix 5. 95pp. Spiritualist Alliance,<br /> <br /> Their Erudition and<br /> 74 x 5. 198 pp.<br /> <br /> By H. A. DALLAS,<br /> 1g. 0,<br />  <br /> <br /> 188<br /> <br /> TH MopDERN PILGRIMAGE, from Theology to Religion.<br /> By R. L, BREMNER. Constable &amp; Co.<br /> <br /> THE YOUNG PREACHER’S GUIDE. By the REV. GILBERT<br /> Monxs. 8} x 54. 514 pp. Stock. 7s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> TRAVEL.<br /> <br /> Crrims oF INDIA. By G.W. FORREST. 83 x 5}. 354 pp.<br /> Constable. 5s. n.<br /> <br /> THE WorRLD or To-Day. A Survey of the Lands and<br /> Peoples of the Globe as seen in Travel and Commerce.<br /> By A. R. Hope MONCRIEFF. Vol. I. 102 x 7.<br /> Gresham Publishing Company. 8s. n.<br /> <br /> In Pursuit or DutcrinEA. By HENRY BERNARD. Geo.<br /> Allen.<br /> <br /> ————————__+ +<br /> <br /> LITERARY, DRAMATIC, AND MUSICAL<br /> NOTES.<br /> <br /> ———<br /> <br /> R. G. H. PERRIS is engaged upon a work<br /> <br /> which will: be entitled “Russia on the<br /> <br /> Eve of Revolution.” It is founded upon<br /> <br /> personal observation of subterranean life in the<br /> <br /> country of the Ozar, and deals with the causes<br /> responsible for the present state of affairs.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Brown, Langham &amp; Co. are producing a<br /> new novel by Miss Myra Swan, author of “Ballast”<br /> and several other novels. The title of the present<br /> book is “ Ground Ivy.”<br /> <br /> Mr. William Greener, author of “A Secret<br /> Agent in Port Arthur” read the chapter missing<br /> from that book to members and friends of the<br /> Camera Club on March 23rd.<br /> <br /> Mr. Frederic Harrison’s life of “ Chatham,”<br /> which forms the concluding volume of Messrs. Mac-<br /> millan’s well-known series of “Twelve English<br /> Statesmen,” was published early in March. With<br /> William the Conqueror, Edward the First, and<br /> Cromwell, Mr. Harrison places Chatham as one of<br /> the four great creative statesmen produced by our<br /> country in eight centuries ; and shows how, by the<br /> creation of the Colonial system, Chatham became<br /> the founder of the British Empire, and how, for a<br /> century and a half, the development of our country<br /> has grown upon the imperial lines of Chatham’s<br /> ideals.<br /> <br /> His Majesty the King has been pleased to accept<br /> a copy of Mr. Mark Synge’s work “ To Lhassa<br /> at Last.”<br /> <br /> Mr. C. F. Keary has written a story, which Mr.<br /> David Nutt has published, under the title of<br /> “Bloomsbury.” ‘The scene is laid almost ex-<br /> clusively in the quarter of London which the<br /> title indicates. For contrast, however, it is<br /> <br /> peopled with a great variety of intellectual types<br /> suggestive of the sects and “isms” among which<br /> society is to-day partitioned.<br /> <br /> Mr. John Foster Fraser’s forthcoming book<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> “Canada as it is,” describes the dominion as he<br /> saw it from one side to the other.<br /> <br /> Mr. W. E. Norris’s new novel, which Messrs.<br /> Methuen &amp; Co. have published under the title of<br /> “ Barham of Beltana,” has for its hero a wealthy<br /> colonist, son of a convict, whose transportation to<br /> Van Diemen’s Land on a charge of embezzlement<br /> was apparently a miscarriage of justice.<br /> <br /> Mr. Edward Noble, whose novel, “ The Edge of<br /> Circumstance” published by Messrs. William<br /> Blackwood’s Sons, is now in its third impression,<br /> is publishing a new book, entitled “ Waves of Fate,”<br /> with the same firm. The work will be on the<br /> market in the course of a month or so.<br /> <br /> It has been proposed that a party of members of<br /> the British International Association of Journalists<br /> should make a tour through Bohemia, starting from<br /> London to Dresden. Mr. James Baker is arrang-<br /> ing the tour. His knowledge of Bohemia will be<br /> of great assistance to the party. It is proposed, if<br /> sufficient names are forthcoming, to start the trip,<br /> which will occupy about fourteen days, at the end<br /> of May or the beginning of June.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Hutchinson &amp; Co. have just published<br /> Mr. Carlton Dawe’s new book, “The Grand Duke.”<br /> The story narrates the adventures of an Englishman,<br /> who bears such a striking resemblance to the Grand<br /> Duke Boris, the Governor-General of Moscow, that,<br /> for the sake of a Russian girl, with whom he is in<br /> love, he actually goes to Moscow and personates<br /> the Governor-General.<br /> <br /> Mr. E. A. Reynolds Ball has just issued through<br /> Messrs. A. &amp; ©. Black, a new work entitled,<br /> “Rome: A Practical Guide to Rome. and its<br /> Environs.” The guide, which is published at the<br /> price of half-a-crown, describes in sufficient detail<br /> the principal objects of interest in Rome, and<br /> whilst mainly appealing to tourists who are only<br /> able to spend a few weeks in this city, does not<br /> neglect the interests of more leisured travellers,<br /> and, to some extent, those of residents and invalids.<br /> <br /> Mr. 8. R. Crockett has completed a new novel,<br /> entitled “Peden the Prophet,” which is running<br /> serially through The British Weekly.<br /> <br /> Mr. F. Howard Collins has compiled a guide for<br /> authors, editors, printers, correctors of the press,<br /> compositors and typists, entitled “ Author and<br /> Printer.” This work, which Mr. Henry Frowde<br /> is about to publish, is an attempt to codify the<br /> best typographical practices of the present day<br /> somewhat on the lines of a dictionary, and Mr. —<br /> Collins has had the assistance of many authors,<br /> editors, printers, and correctors of the press during<br /> the three years he has been engaged upon it.<br /> The book has also been approved by various trade<br /> associations, including the Executive Committee<br /> 2 the London Association of Correctors of the —<br /> <br /> Tess. -<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> id<br /> EE<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> A work of fiction called “ A Village Chronicle,”<br /> by Mrs. Katherine 8S. Macquoid, will be published<br /> before Easter by Messrs. Digby, Long &amp; Co. The<br /> book will be illustrated by Forestier.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Constable &amp; Co. have just issued a new<br /> work by Miss Marie Corelli, under the title of<br /> “Free Opinions Freely Expressed.’’ The opinions<br /> refer to certain phases of modern social life and<br /> conduct.<br /> <br /> Mr. Arthur Dillon, whose volume, “River<br /> Songs and other Poems,” appeared some years ago,<br /> will this month bring out in book form, a new<br /> comedy in verse, under the title of “The Greek<br /> Kalends.” Mr. Elkin Mathews is the publisher.<br /> <br /> Mr. T. Werner Laurie will publish shortly a<br /> travel book by Mrs. Katherine 8S. Macqnoid, entitled<br /> “Pictures in Umbria.” The work will be illus-<br /> trated with fifty drawings by Thomas R. Macquoid,<br /> R.I. The price will be six shillings net.<br /> <br /> There has been a considerable demand of late for<br /> “Old Days in Diplomacy,” the second edition of<br /> which isexhausted. The book contains much that<br /> is of special interest at this moment, on the first<br /> outbreak of Nihilism. Miss Montgomery Campbell<br /> is now engaged in preparing Sir Edward Disbrowe’s<br /> valuable collection of autograph letters from<br /> Royalties and statesmen for publication, as algo<br /> letters of Sir Herbert Taylor, secretary to<br /> George IV., William IV., and the Duke of York.<br /> <br /> ““Widdicombe” is the title of a novel from the<br /> pen of M. P. Willcocks, which Mr. John Lane pub-<br /> lished during the middle of last month. It is a<br /> story of agricultural life in Devon.<br /> <br /> Mr. Eyre Hussey’s new work entitled “Miss<br /> Badsworth, M.F.H.” which Messrs. Longmans<br /> published recently, sets forth the troubles of a<br /> philanthropic lady who finds herself confronted by<br /> the management of an estate, farm, and pack of<br /> foxhounds.<br /> <br /> Mr. Halliwell Sutcliffe has nearly finished his<br /> new book, “Red o’ the Feud,” which will be pub-<br /> lished by Mr. Werner Laurie. The author of<br /> “Through Sorrow’s Gates,” has returned to that<br /> wild atmosphere of the moor-feuds which seems<br /> to hold a special glamour for him.<br /> <br /> Mr. Harry Furniss has just written his first<br /> novel, a fantastic tale, which he has himself illus-<br /> trated. Messrs. Chapman and Hall will publish<br /> the work under the title of ““ Poverty Bay.”<br /> <br /> We understand from the United States Pub-<br /> lisher’s Weekly, that Messrs. Charles Scribner’s<br /> Sons are publishing a new story by Mr. E. W.<br /> Hornung, entitled “ Stingaree.”<br /> <br /> A second impression of Mr. Wilfrid Ward’s<br /> “Memoir of Aubrey de Vere” has been issued<br /> <br /> by Messrs. Longmans. The price of the work is<br /> <br /> 14s, net.<br /> Mr. Heinemann will shortly publish a work by<br /> <br /> 189<br /> <br /> Mr. Henry Norman, entitled “ Motors and Men,”<br /> in which the theoretical and practical studies of the<br /> motor-car and its destined influence are considered.<br /> The same publisher is issuing a new and revised<br /> edition of “ The Complete Indian Housekeeper and<br /> Cook,” by Mrs. Steel and G. Gardiner. The work<br /> —which is published in one volume at 6s.—<br /> specifies the duties of mistress and servants, the<br /> general management of the house, and contains<br /> practical recipes for cooking in all its branches,<br /> <br /> “Duke’s Son,” by Mr. Cosmo Hamilton, will<br /> also be published shortly by the same publisher.<br /> The story refers to the younger son of a peer, who,<br /> being obliged to resign his commission in a crack<br /> regiment for financial reasons, resorts to cheating<br /> at bridge as a profession. The success which he<br /> achieves in this direction is, however, only tem-<br /> porary, his marriage to a girl who helps him to<br /> fleece his friends giving rise to suspicions which<br /> eventually lead to his undoing.<br /> <br /> Professor Skeat, who has carried through, in<br /> successive volumes, his modernisation of the “ Can-<br /> terbury Tales,” has now accomplished the same<br /> service for Langland’s “ Vision of Piers Plowman,”<br /> which will shortly be issued as a volume in the<br /> King’s classics. It has been rendered line for line<br /> into modern English, the metre of the original<br /> being practically kept throughout. The “ Vision”<br /> deals with social problems of the fourteenth century,<br /> which were not wholly unlike our own.<br /> <br /> “ Agatha,” by Mrs. Humphry Ward and Mr,<br /> Louis N. Parker, to which we referred in our last<br /> issue, was produced at His Majesty’s Theatre,<br /> on the afternoon of March 7th. The play deals<br /> with Agatha’s refusal, and her subsequent<br /> retraction of this refusal to marry the man<br /> whom she loves, the reason for the refusal being<br /> that she has kept him ignorant of the fact<br /> that she is an illegitimate child, and the reason for<br /> its withdrawal being that her lover’s devotion is<br /> sufficiently strong not to be affected by the<br /> fact. Miss Viola Tree as Agatha, Mr. Dawson<br /> Milward as her lover, and Miss Lillah McCarthy<br /> as the unhappy mother, took the leading parts.<br /> <br /> «The Monkey’s Paw,” by Louis N. Parker and<br /> W. W. Jacobs, was produced at the Haymarket<br /> Theatre, on Saturday, March 4th, in front of<br /> ‘“‘ Beauty and the Barge.”<br /> <br /> Mr. Cyril Maude and Miss Bella Pateman share<br /> the main burdens of the piece, which presents a<br /> striking contrast to the one which it precedes.<br /> The story is fantastic and gruesome.<br /> <br /> “ Everybody’s Secret,” by Louis N. Parker and<br /> Captain Robert Marshall, was presented at the<br /> Haymarket Theatre, on the 14th of March.<br /> <br /> Adapted from M, Pierre Wolff’s “‘ Le Secret de<br /> Polichinelle,” the play deals with an alliance<br /> between the son of well-to-do parents and a<br />  <br /> <br /> 190<br /> <br /> flower girl, and shows how the lovable nature of<br /> the child of the marriage causes the son’s parents<br /> to forgive the parties to the union, The cast<br /> includes Mr. Cyril Maude and Miss Jessie Bateman.<br /> <br /> «The Three Daughters of M. Dupont,” trans-<br /> lated by Mr. St. John Hankin, was produced by<br /> the Stage Society on March 13th. The cast of<br /> the play—which is rather of a pessimistic nature<br /> —included Miss Ethel Irving and Mr. Charles V.<br /> France.<br /> <br /> 2 ee tS<br /> <br /> PARIS NOTES.<br /> <br /> —— +<br /> <br /> « CYUR la Pierre Blanche,” by Anatole France, is<br /> a yolume in three parts. It opens with a<br /> conversation between a group of Frenchmen<br /> <br /> who are passing the early part of the year in Rome.<br /> <br /> They meet, usually at the house of an Italian friend,<br /> <br /> and discuss the past, present, and future. Roman<br /> <br /> archeology, the question of race, colonial politics,<br /> the Russo-J apanese war, and religion are among the<br /> topics of their conversation. Nicole Langelier is<br /> induced by his friends to read them a story that he<br /> has been writing, entitled “Gallion.” It is the<br /> history of an interview between the Apostle Paul and<br /> the Pro-consul Gallion, together with a long and inte-<br /> resting discussion between Gallion and his friends.<br /> <br /> The third part of the book is taken up by another<br /> <br /> story, read aloud to the friends by Hippolyte<br /> <br /> Duiresne, and is supposed to be a prophetic dream.<br /> <br /> The author of the story wakes up one morning and<br /> <br /> finds himself in a Paris that is completely trans-<br /> <br /> formed. ‘The magnificent house near the Bois no<br /> longer exist, but there are smaller houses surrounded<br /> by gardens. Gradually he discovers that he is<br /> living in the year 220 of the European Federation.<br /> Feeling hungry, he wishes to enter a restaurant,<br /> but a man standing at the door asks him for his<br /> ticket, and as he has not one refers him to the house<br /> where people are employed. Another man conducts<br /> him to a great bakery, and he is obliged to watch<br /> the machinery at work for some hours before he is<br /> allowed to satisfy his hunger. It appears that<br /> under the new réyime the Federal Committee has<br /> appointed that there shall be six hours of work for<br /> everyone. Alcohol is abolished and war completely<br /> done away with. It was explained to Hippolyte<br /> that out of the capitalist régime the proletariat had<br /> grown, as during the last years of the old era there<br /> had been great disorder in the production of the<br /> various nations and wild competition. The working<br /> classes had been drawn together, and in this way<br /> had been able to demand and obtain higher wages<br /> and greater liberty. They had no doubt made<br /> great mistakes, but in the end had become a<br /> <br /> great power. ‘The words Liberty, Fraternity, and<br /> <br /> THER AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Equality were no longer used in their old sense,<br /> but the new watchword was “Harmony,” and<br /> the great ambition of the new Federation was<br /> that all people should work together for their<br /> mutual benefit. England refused to belong to<br /> the United States of Europe, but she was an<br /> ally. She had become socialistic, but still re-<br /> tained her king, lords, and even the wigs of her<br /> judges. Under the new dispensation in Europe<br /> there were no armies, but the frontiers were<br /> defended by electricity.<br /> <br /> The book is full of ideas expressed in the perfect<br /> style, and with the delicate veiled irony peculiar to<br /> Anatole France. There are home truths on every<br /> page. Speaking of the various races of mankind,<br /> it is proved that there are inferior and superior<br /> ones, and those which consider themselves superior<br /> have, of course, the right to massacre and oppress<br /> the others.<br /> <br /> ‘As regards the yellow peril, this seems to be<br /> traced to the invasion of China by the Christian<br /> missionaries and European merchants, thus proving<br /> to the Chinese that the white peril existed. The<br /> troubles of Pekin in 1901 were among the results<br /> of this, and in order to restore order five Powers<br /> covered with military glory signed a_ treaty in<br /> order to guarantee the integrity of China, while<br /> allowing the Powers to share her provinces. Russia<br /> then occupied Manchuria, so that Russia is now<br /> paying the price of the colonial politics of alk<br /> Burope, and expiating the crimes of all commercial<br /> and military Christianity.<br /> <br /> “Ta Lueur sur la Cime,” by Jacque Vontade, is<br /> a novel by the author of the well-known articles<br /> signed “ Fermina” in the Figaro.<br /> <br /> ‘As a psychological study the whole book is<br /> excellent: the characters introduced are so diverse,<br /> and at the same time each one lives and appears to<br /> stand as a type of the individuals which make up<br /> a certain set of modern society in France. There<br /> is the handsome, accomplished man of the world,<br /> agreeable and pleasant to everyone, bent on getting<br /> through life in the most delightful and luxurious<br /> way possible. His wife, a beautiful, clever woman,<br /> extremely self-centred, but capable of better things<br /> if she had been rightly influenced. Her illusions,<br /> disillusions, struggles and curiosities form the<br /> chief theme of the volume. There is also a woman<br /> of character, a fascinating, impetuous creature, who<br /> is a musician and an idealist. ‘A Swedish anarchist<br /> and a French journalist, who, by sheer force of wi<br /> and perseverance have attained a powerful position<br /> in the world, are among the other personages of<br /> the story. The book is written in a charmingly<br /> natural way, and there are man. excellent ideas<br /> expressed in the long harangues of Léonora BarozZl,<br /> the musician, and also of those of the Swedish<br /> anarchist. As a contrast to the two chief women<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> of the book the author introduces us to a woman<br /> with an English name, a cold, sarcastic, unsym-<br /> pathetic person. There are several minor characters,<br /> too, which are admirably well drawn.<br /> <br /> ‘“‘ Emancipées,” by Alphonse Georget, is the<br /> story of an artist who marries his model. The<br /> manners and customs of the world in which these<br /> people live is cleverly told—the ambition of the<br /> wife, her anxiety to shake off all that belonged to<br /> her former existence, the way in which she schemes<br /> to obtain money in order to buy furniture and<br /> dress, urging her husband on to work for the sole<br /> reason that she may spend. Her vulgarity and<br /> her jealousies are endured by the long-suffering<br /> husband. Various incidents are introduced which<br /> make the story more dramatic, until at last the<br /> wife leaves her husband, and he devotes himself<br /> from that time forth to his little daughter. The<br /> idea of the book is to show up the unscrupulous-<br /> ness of our times and the esteem that is often the<br /> reward bestowed upon people who can “make their<br /> way ”’ in the world by dishonest means.<br /> <br /> Among the new books are the following: “La<br /> Baignoire 9,” by Henri Lavedan. This is another<br /> collection of dialogues, most of which are amusing,<br /> some of them dramatic, and all witty.<br /> <br /> “Le Prisme,” by Paul and Victor Margueritte, is<br /> a study of the manners and customs of our times, a<br /> satire on the importance given to wealth and<br /> position. The prism is the deforming mirror of<br /> money into which Madame Urtrel is always look-<br /> ing. The authors have painted a faithful picture<br /> of life in its most commonplace aspects.<br /> <br /> “Les Trois Demoiselles,” by Georges de Peyre-<br /> brune, a volume containing three short novels—<br /> “Mariageen palanquin,” La Gardienne” and “ Gris-<br /> perle.”<br /> <br /> “Prisonniers marocains,” by M. Hugues Le Roux ;<br /> “Ta Cité ardente,” by M. H. Carton de Wiart ‘Le<br /> Calvaire d’un docteur,” by M. Johannes Gravier ;<br /> “Esclave,” by Gérard d’Houville.<br /> <br /> In the reviews among the most interesting<br /> articles are the studies of Roumania by M. A.<br /> Bellessort in the Revue des Deux Mondes ; another<br /> on the souvenirs of Alfred Mézitres ; and a scien-<br /> tific article by M. Dastre.<br /> <br /> In the Revue de Paris the letters of Richard<br /> Wagner to Mathilde Wesendonk, an article by<br /> Georges de la Salle on the warin the East ; and one<br /> by Maxime Leroy on the organisation of the<br /> working classes.<br /> <br /> In the Correspondant there is an article by M.<br /> de Lacombe comparing the controversies on the<br /> divinity of Christ in the time of Bossuet with<br /> those in our times.<br /> <br /> In the Nouvelle Revue M. Jules Delvaille writes<br /> on the moral crisis we are going through, and<br /> attributes it to our repugnance to ideas.<br /> <br /> 191<br /> <br /> “Les Ventres dorés,” by Emile Fabre, has been<br /> the success of the month in the theatrical world,<br /> The whole play is of great interest and extremely<br /> powerful ; the great theme is money, and how it can<br /> be made in these days. The Odéon Theatre hag<br /> not put on so strong a piece for some time.<br /> <br /> “Les Experts,” by M. Beniére, is a humoristic<br /> play on the question of accidents in factories, A<br /> workman treads on a piece of orange peel and<br /> breaks his leg. Four experts are called in to<br /> discuss the matter. The employer pays one<br /> hundred pounds, but when all the legal expenses<br /> and costs of the experts are paid the unfortunate<br /> victim only receives four pounds. M. Antoine<br /> has given several of these satires on legal points<br /> at his theatre with great success.<br /> <br /> “La Belle Marseillaise,” by Pierre Berton, is<br /> being played at the Ambigu. It is a piece in<br /> four acts, historical and dramatic. The scene is<br /> laid in the time of Napoleon. The Marquis de<br /> Tallemont has taken a restaurant in order to be<br /> able to conspire more easily against the Emperor.<br /> After an attempted murder he is believed to be<br /> dead, and his young widow alone knows that he<br /> is alive. She is in love with an aide-de-camp,<br /> whom she marries when the Marquis de Tallemont<br /> is killed in a duel. ALYS HALLARD.<br /> <br /> Or<br /> <br /> SPANISH NOTES.<br /> t+<br /> HE King of Spain’s forthcoming tour will<br /> afford England the opportunity of giving<br /> expression to the enfente cordiale between<br /> the countries.<br /> <br /> The prompt way in which King Alfonzo recently<br /> overcame the difficulties of the Cabinet resigning<br /> for the second time in about two months shows his<br /> power as a politician, and although Villaverde<br /> persists in the long prorogation of Parliament till<br /> May, which caused the resignation of General<br /> Azcarraga, the last Prime Minister, the King’s hopes<br /> for the success of the new Conservative Leader’s pro-<br /> gramme for the Reform of the Customs, the Coinage,<br /> and the Services will it is hoped be realized.<br /> <br /> The King’s deep interest in the welfare of his<br /> kingdom is seen in the prompt way he sent 2,500<br /> pesetas to be added to the prizes offered by the<br /> Imparcial for the best project for the regulation<br /> of the Budget, with regard to the army, navy, public<br /> education, and the ports.<br /> <br /> The cordiality felt for England in Madrid was<br /> particularly shown in the warm and festive<br /> character of the reception at the Royal Palace of<br /> Sir Arthur Nicholson, the new English Ambas-<br /> sador. The four semi-state carriages and a<br /> company of the Royal Horseguards were in waiting<br /> 192<br /> <br /> The staircase at the Palace was<br /> and after replying to the<br /> King’s gracious speech of welcome, Sir Arthur<br /> Nicholson paid his respects to HM. Queen<br /> Christina and her daughter and Dona Isabel. _<br /> <br /> The well-known writer Perez Galdos has just<br /> published Volume XXXVII. of his “ Episodios<br /> Nacionales,” and VI. of the fourth series, under<br /> the title of “ Arta Tettauen.”<br /> <br /> The recent death of the poet Gabriel Galan<br /> has caused universal regret, and the literary<br /> “Conference” given at Caceres in his honour,<br /> subsequent to the funeral ceremony, was SIg-<br /> nalised by the reading of several of his poems, a<br /> fine speech by Senor Ibarrola, his great friend,<br /> and a musical composition written for the occasion<br /> by Seftor Patricio Cabrera. :<br /> <br /> Don José Echegaray, the well-known Spanish<br /> dramatist, has now been appointed by the King<br /> to the Chair of Physics and Science at the Cen-<br /> tral University.<br /> <br /> The National Festival in honour of the famous<br /> poet held on the 18th and 19th of March, assumed<br /> such importance that a royal decree was published<br /> suspending the Law of Domenical Rest for the<br /> occasion, so that the Press could publish early on the<br /> Sunday morning the proceedings of the Saturday<br /> fanctions. His Majesty King Alfonzo at his express<br /> desire presided at the great concourse of the repre-<br /> sentatives of all the professors and societies of the<br /> country. Sefior don Silvela, the quondam Prime<br /> Minister, made the -first speech at the brilliant<br /> assembly in the Congress, and after an address<br /> from the Minister of Sweden, explaining the<br /> origin of the Nobel Prize, King Alfonzo himself<br /> handed the medal and diploma to the illustrious<br /> poet.<br /> <br /> A gala performance was given in the evening of<br /> Echegaray’s plays, “ El libro Talonario” and “ El<br /> gran Galeota,” after which the dramatist received<br /> the gifts sent by the corporations and the scientific<br /> societies of the provinces. On the second day<br /> of the ovation the Plaza de Oriente, facing the<br /> Royal Palace, was the scene of a great popular<br /> manifestation to the poet, and the procession<br /> passed through the city to the Prado, where it<br /> finally dispersed.<br /> <br /> The great assembly held that evening in the<br /> Atheneum was particularly interesting, for Sefor<br /> Ramon y Cajal spoke upon Science, Sefior Perez<br /> Goldés took up the parable for Literature, and<br /> Senor Moret, the president, closed the proceedings<br /> with a brilliant oration. It is to Senor Ramon y<br /> Cajal that Spain owes her present place of distinc-<br /> tion in the scientific world of Germany, for he has<br /> just received the gold medal commemorative of<br /> Hermann von Helmholtz, the great physiologist<br /> and physicist, So Spain has distinguished herself<br /> <br /> at the station.<br /> decorated with flowers,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THER AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> nobly this year in the great international contests<br /> in both science and poetry.<br /> <br /> The realm of Art has recently suffered a great<br /> loss in the death of the well-known painter, Manuel<br /> Yus. He was born in 1845, so he was still in<br /> possession of his artistic powers, and he died in<br /> Nuévalos, amid the charming scenes he has im-<br /> mortalized in his pictures, and the whole place<br /> followed him as mourners to his grave. His<br /> portrait of H.M. King Alfonzo and that of H.M,<br /> Queen Christina have been as much admired as hig<br /> typical peasant dances and village scenes.<br /> <br /> The Tri-Centenary Fétes of Don Quixote will<br /> evidently be both characteristic and picturesque.<br /> A royal decree has been sent to the Minister of<br /> Instruction and the Fine Arts, commanding that —<br /> (1) every centre of instruction shall mark the<br /> 8th May by some literary or artistic work, com-<br /> memorative of the centenary ; (2) the schools are<br /> all to send up their three best scholars, who, being<br /> poor, may have free opportunity of contending for<br /> the academical distinctions in their respective line<br /> of instruction to be conferred on one of each triad<br /> by the Minister of Education ; (3) that the reports<br /> and photographs of all the scholastic fétes be<br /> forwarded to the Minister of Education.<br /> <br /> The programme of the fétes in the Capitol<br /> include a battle of flowers, a grand meeting of<br /> delegates of foreign and national societies in the<br /> Congress, a military review, a national open-air<br /> fete, and a presentation of wreaths to the statue<br /> of Cervantes from foreign and Spanish literary<br /> societies. The congratulatory address from the<br /> English Society of Authors has met with due<br /> recognition in the Press and has been forwarded<br /> to the Royal Academy of Letters.<br /> <br /> In Valladolid the Society of Monuments is<br /> seeking to celebrate the approaching tri-centenary<br /> of “Don Quixote” by obtaining Cervantes’ house as<br /> a national possession.<br /> <br /> The increasing feeling against duelling is voiced<br /> by the publication in book form of the articles on<br /> the subject (“Contra el duelo”) by Baron de Albi<br /> in El Correo Catalan.<br /> <br /> “Bl Problemas agrario en Andalucia”<br /> erudite work by Don Juan Gallardo Lobato.<br /> <br /> « Bll sitio de Baler ” (“ The Siege of Baler”) is 8<br /> very powerful presentment of this period of the<br /> Cuban War, and as the author is Don Saturnino<br /> Martin Cerezo, the infantry captain in comma:<br /> at the disaster which so marked Spanish heroism,<br /> the book is of an especial, though painful, interest.<br /> <br /> The publication of a book which promises to<br /> become almost a classic in Spain is saddened by<br /> the death of the author. The title of the work,<br /> “Gran Diccionario de la Lengua Castellana<br /> autorizado con ejemplos de escritores antiguos ¥<br /> modernos,” shows the immense scope of the work<br /> <br /> is an<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> undertaken by Don Aniceto de Pagés. It seems<br /> that he had been editor of the ‘ Diccionario<br /> Enciclopedico Hispano-Americano.” He some-<br /> times said that albeit he might be immortalised as<br /> a poet in Catalonia, his great work, the dream of<br /> his life, the now published dictionary, would make<br /> ‘| him live as a writer in Castile and Spain. Echegaray<br /> <br /> - said the first sight of the book filled him with sur-<br /> prise, and then its erudition overwhelmed him<br /> almost to dismay. Valera, Pereda, and Pi.y Margall<br /> ‘© also express their admiration of the great work.<br /> Silvela, the former Conservative leader, is exciting<br /> | increasing interest in his lectures on Moral and<br /> &#039; Social Biology in the Atheneum. After discoursing<br /> «on the struggle of Good and Evil, Creation and<br /> ) Destruction, which is ever present in all philosophy,<br /> sociology, and religion, he said: “ We exist in an<br /> environment of ephemeral things, and yet every<br /> © one really /ives in the eternal relations which he<br /> » creates. We all know the love of man and woman,<br /> - but what is this love when not based on the sense<br /> - of eternal truths ?”<br /> <br /> Armando Palacio Valdés, the celebrated Spanish<br /> writer, known to England by such novels as<br /> 1° “Froth,” “The Grandee,” etc., has just sent for<br /> the English press a very philosophical article on<br /> “Art and her Schools,” which promises to excite as<br /> &#039; much interest as that on “The Decadence of Modern<br /> <br /> . Literature,” which I had the honour to translate<br /> © for the Introduction to Vol. XX. of “The Library<br /> |) of Famous Literature,” from the pen of the same<br /> (js author.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> RACHEL CHALLICE.<br /> —————_+—&lt;&gt;—e —_____<br /> <br /> UNITED STATES COPYRIGHT.<br /> <br /> I.<br /> <br /> “i! Tue American Pusiisuers’ Pornt or View.<br /> — ++<br /> <br /> To the Editor of the Standard.<br /> <br /> Smr,—I have read with interest from week to<br /> week the letters that have been addressed to the<br /> &#039; Standard from representative authors, in which are<br /> set forth various grounds of complaint concerning<br /> _the provisions and the working of the present<br /> &quot; American copyright statute. I may say at once,<br /> ‘1 writing as one who had some measure of responsi-<br /> Wide bility in securing the enactment of this statute<br /> /) and in maintaining it on the statute book against<br /> ey various later assaults and criticisms, that the<br /> “&gt; grievances of which our literary friends in England<br /> ‘7 © are making complaint are in my opinion substan-<br /> <br /> © tially well founded. The American copyright law<br /> © now in force contains incongruities and inconsis-<br /> 1 tencies, and in the interpretation of its provisions<br /> &#039;® the Courts find no little difficulty in arriving at<br /> “o* consistent decisions ; while in its application to<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 193<br /> <br /> literary conditions and publishing conditions on<br /> both sides of the Atlantic, it does work inconveni-<br /> ence and injustice to authors, American, English<br /> and Continental, and to the publishers who make<br /> investments in copyright material.<br /> <br /> I can but think, however, that while the injustice<br /> and disadvantage to authors whose works are pro-<br /> duced in languages other than English are manifest<br /> and do constitute a very considerable grievance, the<br /> difficulties obtaining at this time with the authors<br /> of England in connection with the American<br /> editions of their works, may more properly be<br /> described as an inconvenience than as a serious<br /> business disadvantage.<br /> <br /> I note among your recent correspondents the<br /> names of a number of distinguished authors who<br /> have, during the past decade, secured very large<br /> returns from the American sales of their books,<br /> returns which, according to the general under-<br /> standing of the book trade, are in not a few<br /> instances larger from their American readers than<br /> those that have come to them from readers in<br /> Great Britain. It is the case with some at least of<br /> these authors that their more noteworthy successes<br /> have been secured during the last ten years, so<br /> that they may not themselves have personal<br /> realisation of the differences between the condi-<br /> tions of to-day affecting English works reprinted<br /> in the United States, and those which obtained<br /> before the enactment of the law of 1891.<br /> <br /> I can but think that if a trustworthy comparison<br /> could be made of the amounts going over the<br /> Atlantic each year from American book-buyers<br /> to English authors, as recognition for the service<br /> rendered to them by these authors, could be com-<br /> pared with the similar payments made prior to<br /> 1891 by publishers who could secure through such<br /> payments no copyright control, there would bea more<br /> adequate recognition on the part of English authors<br /> of the service rendered to English literary workers<br /> by the law of 1891, defective and inadequate as<br /> the law certainly is.<br /> <br /> The grievances presented by your literary corre-<br /> spondents in regard tothe provisions of the American<br /> statute may be classified under four headings :<br /> <br /> 1. The requirement that books securing the protection of<br /> American copyright must be manufactured within the<br /> territory of the United States.<br /> <br /> 2. The requirement for such books that publication shall<br /> be made in the United States not later than the date of<br /> publication elsewhere.<br /> <br /> 3. The imposition of a duty on books imported into the<br /> United States (a condition which belongs, of course, to the<br /> tariff policy of the country and for which the copyright act<br /> can bear no responsibility).<br /> <br /> 4, The preference given, or rather proposed to be given,<br /> by the amendment to the copyright law that is now<br /> pending to works originating in language other than in<br /> English, in the matter of the certain time allowance with<br /> which the translation and manufacture of such works can<br />  <br /> <br /> 194<br /> <br /> be completed before the opportunity for securing copyright<br /> has lapsed. :<br /> <br /> 5, The fact that certain writers are not securing from the<br /> great American public the sales that they were depending<br /> upon, and the further annoyance that they find an increas-<br /> ing competition on the part of American writers for the<br /> favour of the English book-reading public, more part icularly<br /> of course, the readers of fiction.<br /> <br /> The manufacturing clause does not represent, as<br /> has sometimes been assumed in England, an<br /> expression of greed on the part of the American<br /> publishers. I may report, speaking with direct<br /> knowledge of the record, that the copyright Bill as<br /> first framed in 1887, under the direction of the<br /> Authors’ Copyright League and the Publishers’<br /> Copyright League, did not contain any such condi-<br /> tion, The view was accepted quite generally by<br /> the publishers, no less than by the authors, that a<br /> manufacturing requirement was not germane to a<br /> copyright statute, and ought not to be made a con-<br /> dition of copyright. It seemed to us that what-<br /> ever “protection” might be considered due to<br /> the book-manufacturing interests of the country<br /> ought to be provided for in the tariff and not to be<br /> confused with the question of copyright. We did<br /> what was practicable, during a contest lasting<br /> for some years to secure the enactment of the Bill<br /> as framed. After an experience of two years or<br /> more in presenting the matter to the attention of<br /> Congressional committees, and in conferences<br /> with the Typographical Unions and with certain<br /> other Unions that claimed a right to be heard<br /> in the matter, those of us who had charge of the<br /> pill in Washington were obliged to report to<br /> the Copyright Leagues that it was not going to be<br /> practicable to secure its enactment. But the<br /> representatives of the Typographical Unions said<br /> frankly that no copyright Bill should become law<br /> that did not provide for the manufacturing in this<br /> country of the books securing copyright protection,<br /> and it became evident to us that they were in a<br /> position to maintain their contention. It was<br /> finally concluded that, rather than abandon the<br /> attempt to secure some measure of international<br /> copyright, an attempt that represented more than<br /> half a century of effort, it was better to secure the<br /> enactment of a modified Bill.<br /> <br /> It is, unfortunately, the case that, under what I<br /> myself believe to be the necessarily demoralising<br /> influence of the protective system, our legislators<br /> are much more ready to listen to the views of the<br /> Labour Unions and of manufacturing interests<br /> generally than to contentions submitted on the<br /> part of authors and publishers. ‘The former claim<br /> to represent or to control hundreds of thousands of<br /> votes. The latter stand for but few votes, and are<br /> not in a position to influence that class of public<br /> opinion which controls legislation.<br /> <br /> It has been my experience in presenting in a<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> committee room in Congress arguments in behalf<br /> of copyright amendments to be told by the Chair-<br /> man of the Committee that he and his associates<br /> were “entirely in accord with my views.” A<br /> representative of a Typographical Union takes the.<br /> ground, however, that his Union “ does not believe<br /> in Mr. Putnam’s Bill, and that he, the typographer,<br /> is speaking for forty thousand votes.”<br /> <br /> The conclusion of the Chairman is, “ Mr.<br /> Putnam, we are in accord with you in this matter,<br /> but there is no advantage in presenting to the<br /> House from this Committee a Bill to which the<br /> Unions are opposed. You go outside and satisfy<br /> these representatives of the Unions and come back<br /> to us and we will pass your Bill.”<br /> <br /> This, I point out, is the kind of action that can<br /> be expected of legislators who have for years been<br /> maintaining at the expense of the community as a<br /> whole, a system of so-called “ protection” for the<br /> benefit of certain classes of manufacturers and of<br /> labourers.<br /> <br /> While it is the case that, if it had not been<br /> for this sharp antagonism of the typographers,<br /> the Bill would have been passed without the<br /> manufacturing clause, it is proper to record, as<br /> part of the history in the matter, that certain<br /> objections were presented which had nothing to<br /> do with the claims of the typographers.<br /> <br /> It was pointed out by representatives of the book<br /> trade who had knowledge of publishing conditions<br /> that these conditions and methods differ very<br /> materially on the two sides of the Atlantic.<br /> <br /> It was suggested that if the English publishers<br /> were placed in a position through the enactment of<br /> a Copyright Bill without a manufacturing condi-<br /> tion, to supply, as long as they found it convenient,.<br /> their own editions for the American market in<br /> place of arranging with an American publisher<br /> for the production of authorised American editions,<br /> they would quite naturally follow on this side the<br /> routine that prevails in Great Britain. They<br /> would secure for a first term of, say, twelve months.<br /> as large a sale as seemed to be practicable for the<br /> comparatively high-priced form of the original<br /> issue; and they would delay the supplying of the<br /> market, either<br /> <br /> making sale for the first issue. It is the case that —<br /> the requirements of the two markets differ very<br /> materially. The English publisher finds it to his —<br /> advantage to issue a first edition of a book at —<br /> thirty-six shillings,<br /> <br /> sixteen shillings, and to secure sale with the more<br /> pecunious buyers, of such supplies as can be dis-<br /> posed of at that price. A year later the same book<br /> may be published at ten shillings or seven shillings<br /> The American publisher finds that<br /> <br /> and sixpence.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> direct or through an American<br /> publisher, with a cheaper edition until they were<br /> sure that they had exhausted the possibilities of<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> or twenty-four shillings, OT<br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> he better meets the requirement of his public, and,<br /> therefore, better serves himself and his author, by<br /> printing at once an edition at the lowest price at<br /> which it can be afforded, suited for the widest<br /> possible sale and for the needs of the comparatively<br /> impecunious buyer.<br /> <br /> The publisher on this side makes his sale to a<br /> large public, securing on each copy sold a com-<br /> paratively small margin of profit. The English<br /> publisher, with a very differently situated public<br /> to deal with, finds a better advantage in securing,<br /> at least at the outset, a comparatively large profit<br /> from the circle of pecunious buyers. The im-<br /> pecunious buyer has to wait for a year or more for<br /> the cheaper form.<br /> <br /> If such a method had been attempted in the<br /> American market, the large mass of the book<br /> buyers, obliged to wait for a year or more for the<br /> books of English authors that they had heretofore<br /> been securing promptly, would unquestionably<br /> have brought to bear such a pressure of indignation<br /> upon Congress that the international provision of<br /> the copyright law would have been repealed within<br /> two years. It may be concluded, therefore, that<br /> the manufacturing clause affects the best but a<br /> portion, and, in my judgment, very much the<br /> smaller portion of the English books copyrighted<br /> in the United States. The larger number of such<br /> books would, even if there were no such American<br /> requirement, be reset in the form suited for the<br /> American market.<br /> <br /> The requirement of simultaneous publication<br /> involves, as stated, certain inconveniences. I may<br /> remind your readers, however, that this require-<br /> ment is not peculiar to the American law. It is<br /> also a condition of the British copyright statute.<br /> I may point out further that, as a matter of<br /> practice, there is at this time no essential difficulty<br /> in securing consideration in American publishing<br /> offices, well in advance of the day fixed for the<br /> publication of the book in Great Britain, for all<br /> books which are likely to prove of interest to<br /> American readers and to present any prospect of<br /> satisfactory returns to the authors from this market.<br /> <br /> The production of typewritten copies of a work<br /> of any commercial value is neither difficult nor<br /> expensive, and such typewritten copies can be<br /> submitted, and are submitted, from publishing<br /> office to publishing office on this side weeks or<br /> months in advance of the date fixed for publication<br /> in Great Britain.<br /> <br /> Books can also be submitted, and are submitted,<br /> in the form of advance proofs as fast as the<br /> material is put into type in Great Britain. An<br /> arrangement by cable for a publication date follows<br /> as a matter of routine.<br /> <br /> _ It does from time to time happen that a volume<br /> Supposed at first to be of little commercial import-<br /> <br /> 195<br /> <br /> ance, which fails, therefore, to secure favourable<br /> consideration from (more or less obtuse) publishers,<br /> proves later to possess vitality and commercial<br /> value, and that such evidence of its value takes<br /> shape after the opportunity has been passed of<br /> securing American copyright. The occasional loss<br /> of a copyright of value in this way constitutes,<br /> however, but a small offset to the substantial gains<br /> that are secured by the English writers of books<br /> that are suited to the interests of American<br /> readers and that secure from such interests a<br /> satisfactory return.<br /> <br /> One ground for the requirement of simultaneous<br /> publication has not occurred, as it naturally might<br /> not occur, to your literary correspondents. It is,<br /> of course, the manifest interest of the English<br /> author to secure for his American market the<br /> largest price possible. Such price can, however, be<br /> obtained only if at the time he makes the sale, he<br /> is in a position to assure the buyer that he controls<br /> such market and can dispose of the entire usufruct<br /> or possible profit belonging to such market. If,<br /> however, a term of twelve months, as is suggested<br /> by your correspondent, were allowed for the fulfilling<br /> on the part of English authors of the requirements<br /> of the American copyright, within which term of<br /> twelve months no unauthorised edition of the book<br /> could appear, the book would, during such term, be<br /> in an anomalous condition. Hither the English<br /> edition would, during such term, be allowed to<br /> come into the market while arrangements were<br /> pending for the proposed American edition, or<br /> during such term the importation of the English<br /> edition would be prohibited. In the latter case, the<br /> American reader, who sees promptly from week to<br /> week English reviews, would have an annoyance<br /> which would easily accumulate into an indignation,<br /> at not being able to secure at once books which<br /> were already in print in the English market. In<br /> the former case, the American market would be<br /> “ occupied ” to a greater or less extent, in advance<br /> of the production of the authorised American<br /> edition, by supplies coming over from the English<br /> publisher, who naturally would make sale of his<br /> own edition in any territory in which he had a<br /> legal right so to do. The English author would,<br /> therefore, not be able to guarantee to the American<br /> publisher, purchasing the copyright, any control of<br /> the American market. He would be obliged to<br /> admit that such market had doubtless already been<br /> more or less “occupied” by the English copies.<br /> The consideration therefore that he would secure<br /> (in the form either of a fixed price, or of a rate of<br /> royalty, or of an advance against royalty), would<br /> be lessened not only by the extent of any actual<br /> injury or interference that could be determined,<br /> but (as is always the case with a business risk) by<br /> the greater amount that would be required to<br />  <br /> <br /> 196<br /> <br /> “insure” against a larger interference than there<br /> might be actual evidence for. In my judgment,<br /> therefore, the English author, while securing a<br /> certain convenience in an additional time within<br /> which to make his bargain, would have a definite<br /> loss of net receipts, which would very much more<br /> than offset such convenience.<br /> <br /> ‘he difficulty on the part of authors of books<br /> originating in language other than in English, in<br /> meeting the requirements of the American law<br /> constitute, however, not an inconvenience, but an<br /> obstacle that is almost insurmountable. The<br /> records of the Copyright Office in Washington<br /> show that during the past decade the entries of<br /> authorised American editions of continental works<br /> have been so inconsiderable as to constitute<br /> practically no business under this heading. The<br /> authors on the Continent, and more particularly in<br /> Germany, are complaining, and complaining with<br /> justice, that the American law gives them copy-<br /> right in form, but not in fact. It may in the first<br /> place be borne in mind that the expectations on the<br /> part of these Continental authors, French and<br /> German, in regard to the possibility of returns<br /> from the American market were very much<br /> exaggerated. The experience of publishers show<br /> that it is by no means easy to interest American<br /> readers in books of a popular character (I am<br /> referring more particularly to fiction), which are<br /> written from the Continental point of view of social<br /> conditions, and which present relations and methods<br /> of thought that are foreign to American knowledge<br /> and sympathies. With the most perfect protection<br /> obtainable under any copyright law, the sales of<br /> American editions of Continental books would in<br /> any case be for years to come but inconsiderable.<br /> Under present conditions, however, it is true that<br /> such books cannot secure adequate attention in the<br /> publishing offices, and do not, therefore, have even<br /> a fair chance of comparison with or of fair com-<br /> petition with books of the same class coming from<br /> English and from American authors. The American<br /> publishers require to secure, in regard to Con-<br /> tinental works, the counsel of a rather special<br /> group of literary advisers. It would, as a rue, be<br /> undesirable, if not impracticable, to ask these<br /> advisers to pass upon German material in script,<br /> even if a duplicate script or typewritten copy could<br /> be secured from Germany in advance of the date<br /> fixed for the first publication of the book. The<br /> counsel of the adviser of the American publishing<br /> office must, as a rule, for foreign books, be given<br /> upon the material in print. After such counsel<br /> has been secured (and as above explained, the<br /> chances are at the best very much adverse to the<br /> prospect that the publisher will be tempted to make<br /> the investment), it is necessary, if the work is<br /> accepted, to secure the services of a translator, and<br /> <br /> THER AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> to allow the necessary time for the translation. It<br /> is only when this translation has been completed,<br /> that the work of the German author is in a position<br /> to be placed in the American market in competition<br /> with the similar work from his English or American<br /> competitor. The amendment now pending in<br /> Congress simply provides that, for the purpose of<br /> securing this necessary time for the consideration<br /> of the Continental work and for the production of<br /> the translation, a book originating in language<br /> other than in English shall, if copyrighted in this<br /> country within a term of twelve months and in<br /> advance of the production of any unauthorised<br /> edition, secure the full protection. The law as at<br /> present worded gives protection in the case of a<br /> book which has been published abroad before being<br /> issued in this country, only to the particular trans-<br /> lation that has been copyrighted, leaving the<br /> original free to the “ appropriation” of any<br /> unauthorised reprinter who may desire to take it<br /> up. Such a lack of copyright protection con-<br /> stitutes, of necessity, 4 large additional ground for<br /> the general unwillingness of the American pub-<br /> lisher to invest in Continental material. What I<br /> want to make clear is, however, that the amend-<br /> ment, if it should become law, will not give to the<br /> Continental author any “advantage” over his<br /> English rival, but will at best fall short of placing<br /> his book on as favourable a basis for consideration<br /> as that now available for the similar English work.<br /> It is the fact that with a certain group of<br /> English authors, as with similar groups of the<br /> American authors, the returns from the American<br /> market have been smaller, and are from year to<br /> year smaller, than these authors would like to be<br /> able to depend upon. Such a complaint reminds<br /> one of the grievance that came up in the boarding-<br /> house of Mrs. Todgers. “There never was a joint<br /> that could yield as much gravy as the young<br /> gentlemen expects.” Before the enactment of the<br /> law of 1891, the mass of English fiction of what<br /> may be called the “third” or “ fourth grade”<br /> which came into print for American readers with-<br /> out the necessity of any payment to the authors,<br /> constituted a very serious hindrance to the publica-<br /> tion and sale of American fiction of the same<br /> rade, It is undoubtedly true that since the law of<br /> 1891, the American writers, who address them-<br /> selves to the wider popular circles, circles whose<br /> literary standard is not very high, have secured a<br /> fuller measure of consideration in the publishing<br /> offices, and much more substantial successes with<br /> the public at large, than was possible when their<br /> books had to compete with literary productions<br /> that had not been paid for.<br /> It is quite possible also that the development of<br /> this class of writing on our side of the Atlantic<br /> <br /> (and the market for fiction is, | may say, in an<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 197<br /> <br /> overcrowded and unsatisfactory condition), has,<br /> since the enactment of the law, stood in the way<br /> of the production of American editions of a large<br /> number of perfectly reputable English novels which<br /> are deserving of coming into print, but which do<br /> not possess what the publishers call a ‘‘ commanding<br /> interest.” There is, in fact, more than enough<br /> of such material produced on both sides of the<br /> Atlantic, and, to put it frankly, there is no present<br /> need as far as the literary wants of American<br /> readers are concerned, for any large additions to<br /> the mass. It is doubtless true, therefore, that the<br /> literary agents who have such books to dispose of,<br /> have been obliged to advise a number of their<br /> English authors that it was not practicable to<br /> secure from the American market the rates of<br /> royalty and the cash advances for which these<br /> authors were hoping. The authors of the first<br /> class, however (I am still using the term in the<br /> publishing or commercial sense), whose books are<br /> fitted to secure a world-wide reputation and which<br /> possess a commanding interest, have a larger<br /> assured market in the United States than had ever<br /> before been possible, and, as suggested, this market<br /> is, in the case of a number of books, sufficiently<br /> remunerative to produce larger returns than could<br /> be secured from the same books on the other side<br /> of the Atlantic.<br /> <br /> There is also, as ought naturally to be the case,<br /> an increasing sale in Great Britain for the works of<br /> American authors, and particularly of American<br /> writers of fiction which possesses (to use the pub-<br /> lishing phrase before quoted) a ‘“ commanding<br /> interest.” These writers belong (speaking still<br /> from the point of view of the publishing office) to<br /> what may be called the first group. It is, how-<br /> ever, the experience of American publishers that it<br /> is by no means easy to secure the favourable atten-<br /> tion of English book-buyers, and particularly of<br /> English readers of fiction, for American books of<br /> the lesser degree of importance, using the term<br /> “importance” either in the literary sense or as<br /> expressing the quality which secures a popular<br /> appreciation. From my own knowledge of condi-<br /> tions on both sides of the Atlantic, I doubt whether<br /> there is any adequate evidence for the statement<br /> that American books are being “dumped” in<br /> large quantities on the English market, or that<br /> the English market is being “swamped” or even<br /> interfered with to any material extent by such<br /> importations.<br /> <br /> The interest on the part of English readers of<br /> American books is increasing, and ought to increase,<br /> but the increase is very much slower than had<br /> been hoped for, and by no means rapid enough to<br /> meet the very general expectation on the part of<br /> American writers that they were going to secure<br /> large transatlantic returns.<br /> <br /> The imposition of a tariff duty on books (and I<br /> may add, although not directly pertaining to the<br /> present discussion, the similar duty on works of<br /> art) which has come into force under our Dingley<br /> system of protection is in my judgment an inex-<br /> cusable barbarism. Such duties are not required<br /> as income for the treasury. They are certainly not<br /> asked for on the part either of the American pub-<br /> lishers or of American authors. They are the result<br /> of the contention of the Labour Unions and of cer-<br /> tain manufacturing concerns that they are entitled<br /> to their share of the spoils of the public treasury,<br /> spoils which, under a protective system, are divided<br /> not with regard to the interests of the community,<br /> but in proportion to the greed of the claimants and<br /> to the effectiveness of their organisation. The duty<br /> on the materialsrequired for the production of books<br /> is, of course, a still more serious burden upon the<br /> higher educational interests of the community than<br /> is the duty on the books themselves. Such duties<br /> cause an unnecessary increase in the cost of<br /> nineteen twentieths of the books sold in this<br /> market, while the duty on the books themselves<br /> affect the selling price only of the remaining<br /> twentieth.<br /> <br /> According to my understanding, however, the<br /> inevitable tendency of the system of “ protection ”<br /> that originated with the taxes of the Civil War,<br /> and has been retained with steadily increasing<br /> rates, and irrespective of the requirements of the<br /> national income, shows an increasing disregard on<br /> the part of the legislators for the interests of the<br /> consumer. Under the protective system, legisla-<br /> tion is dictated and controlled by well organised<br /> business interests that secure, or that believe they<br /> secure, a direct advantage to themselves through<br /> the shaping of legislation.<br /> <br /> I may add that the Authors’ Copyright League<br /> and the Publishers’ Copyright League have now in<br /> train a plan for the revision of the American copy-<br /> right statute by means of a commission to be<br /> appointed for the purpose under an act of Congress.<br /> We believe that through the labours of such a<br /> commission composed of experts, who shall be<br /> allowed the necessary time for the collection of<br /> information and for the sifting of opinions, it<br /> ought to prove practicable to secure a more con-<br /> sistent and satisfactory copyright measure than<br /> that which is now on the statute book. It is<br /> intended that this commission shall comprise from<br /> eleven to thirteen members, and shall include, in<br /> addition to representatives from both Houses of<br /> Congress, representatives of the authors, the artists,<br /> the publishers, the book manufacturing interests<br /> and the other interests that have a direct concern<br /> with copyright, or that, under the present system,<br /> have established a claim to be heard in connection<br /> with copyright.<br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> 198<br /> <br /> We should be glad to learn that, by the time we<br /> have in train a satisfactory revision of the American<br /> statute, steps are being taken to secure for Great<br /> Britain also a more consistent and effective law<br /> than that which now controls copyright for the<br /> British Empire. :<br /> <br /> I am in accord with your correspondents in the<br /> conclusion that the United States could have no<br /> legitimate ground for complaint,or for criticism, if<br /> Great Britain might decide to place upon American<br /> books a duty similar to that which is imposed on<br /> this side on English books ; or if the British copy-<br /> right law might be so modified as to impose a<br /> manufacturing restriction similar to that in force<br /> on this side. The only question that Englishmen<br /> have to consider in regard to such a radical change<br /> from the present British policy, is whether the<br /> change would be likely to prove of any direct<br /> service to English readers or to English authors<br /> and publishers. : 5<br /> <br /> My apology for the length of this report is the<br /> fact that it naturally takes longer to give informa-<br /> tion in regard to the matters complained of than<br /> to state the complaint.<br /> <br /> Trusting that the suggestions here submitted<br /> may prove of some service in connection with the<br /> interesting discussion that has taken shape in your<br /> columns, I am,<br /> <br /> Yours faithfully,<br /> Gro. HAvEN PUTNAM.<br /> <br /> The American Publishers’<br /> Copyright League,<br /> 27 and 29, West 23rd Street,<br /> New York.<br /> <br /> TE<br /> <br /> An Act to AMEND Section ForTy-NINE HUNDRED<br /> AND FIFTY-TWO OF THE REVISED STATUTES.<br /> <br /> E it enacted by the Senate and House of<br /> Representatives of the United States of<br /> America in Congress assembled,<br /> <br /> That Section forty-nine hundred and fifty-two of<br /> the Revised Statutes be, and the same is hereby,<br /> amended so as to read as follows :<br /> <br /> Sec. 4952. The author, inventor, designer, or<br /> proprietor of any book, map, chart, dramatic or<br /> musical composition, engraving, cut, print, or<br /> photograph, or negative thereof, or of a painting,<br /> drawing, chromo, statue, statuary, and of models<br /> or designs intended to be perfected as works of the<br /> fine arts, and the executors, administrators, or<br /> assigns of any such person shall, upon complying<br /> with the provisions of this chapter have the sole<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> liberty of printing, reprinting, publishing, com-<br /> pleting, copying, executing, finishing, and vending<br /> the same; and, in the case of a dramatic compo-<br /> sition, of publicly performing or representing it, or<br /> causing it to be performed or represented by<br /> others. And authors or their assigns shall have<br /> exclusive right to dramatize or translate any of<br /> their works for which copyright shall have been<br /> obtained under the laws of the United States.<br /> Whenever the author or proprietor of a book in<br /> a foreign language, which shall be published in a<br /> foreign country before the day of publication in<br /> this country, or his executors, administrators, or<br /> assigns, shall deposit one complete copy of the<br /> same, including all maps and other illustrations, in<br /> the Library of Congress, Washington, District of<br /> Columbia, within thirty days after the first pub-<br /> lication of such book in a foreign country, and<br /> shall insert in such copy, and in all copies of such<br /> book sold or distributed in the United States, on<br /> the title page or the page immediately following, a<br /> notice of the reservation of copyright in the name<br /> of the proprietor, together with the true date of<br /> first publication of such book, in the following<br /> words : ‘‘ Published , nineteen hundred and<br /> Privilege of copyright in the United<br /> States reserved under the Act approved :<br /> nineteen hundred and five, by ,” and shall<br /> within twelve months after the first publication of<br /> such book in a foreign country, file the title of such<br /> book and deposit two copies of it in the original lan-<br /> guage or, at his option, of a translation of it in the<br /> English language, printed from type set within the<br /> limits of the United States, or from plates made<br /> therefrom, containing a notice of copyright, as<br /> provided by the copyright laws now in force, he<br /> and they shall have during the term of twenty-eight<br /> years from the date of recording the title of the<br /> book or the English translation of it, as provided<br /> for above, the sole liberty of printing, reprinting,<br /> publishing, vending, translating and dramatizing<br /> the said book ; Provided, That this Act shall only<br /> apply to a citizen or subject of a foreign State or<br /> nation when such foreign State or nation permits to<br /> citizens of the United States of America the benefit<br /> of copyright on substantially the same basis as to<br /> its own citizens.<br /> Approved, March 8rd, 1905.<br /> <br /> The amendment printed above is a copy of the<br /> text as it was signed by the President.<br /> <br /> It will be seen that this differs considerably<br /> from the draft printed in the last number of The<br /> Author, which appeared to be inadequate on @<br /> good many points. The redraft is by Mr. Thor-<br /> vald Solberg, the registrar of Copyrights of the<br /> Library of Congress, and was undertaken upon<br /> the request of the Senator in charge of the Bill.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 199<br /> <br /> Members who desire to compare the two should<br /> refer to the last number of The Author.<br /> <br /> They will see that to protect the foreign author<br /> securely during the interim period of twelve<br /> months this Bill now requires that one copy of the<br /> original book—not necessarily printed in the<br /> United States—shall be lodged within thirty days<br /> after the first publication, at the Library of Congress<br /> with certain notices printed in it. In the letter of<br /> explanation which Mr. Solberg has written to the<br /> Society, he states that this will give complete<br /> warning to persons interested to keep their hands<br /> off such literary property during the interim<br /> period of twelve months. He further shows that<br /> the deposit within the thirty days will save the<br /> foreign author from the embarrassment of the pro-<br /> vision of the present law requiring the copy to be<br /> deposited on or before the day of publication.<br /> <br /> Further the amendment effects the protection<br /> of the foreign author without it being absolutely<br /> essential for him to publish a translation of his<br /> book. The author is allowed during the interim<br /> term of twelve months to deposit American made<br /> copies either of his original work or of a translation<br /> of it. Protection is given against infringement,<br /> during the interim term of copyright, and during<br /> this term of twelve months the foreign author is<br /> allowed free access to the American market. His<br /> book can be exported to the United States ; intro-<br /> duced into that country and sold without payment<br /> of any duty.<br /> <br /> Mr. Solberg continues: “This privilege of<br /> importation should give the author an opportunity<br /> to demonstrate such a market for his book as to<br /> justify refabrication of it in the United States.<br /> If, therefore, the foreigner reproduces his original<br /> work, complying with the statutory formalities<br /> now in force in regard to filing title, depositing<br /> two copies of the American type-set book and<br /> printing notice, he then secures not only possible<br /> protection for forty-two years, but the absolute<br /> reservation of the right of translation for the same<br /> period of time.”<br /> <br /> We must thank Mr. Solberg very heartily for<br /> his kindness in putting before the Society this full<br /> information.<br /> <br /> &lt;p 4 —-<br /> <br /> MAGAZINE CONTENTS.<br /> <br /> So<br /> MARCH, 1905.<br /> <br /> BLACKWOOD’s MAGAZINE,<br /> <br /> At the University.<br /> <br /> Claverhouse in Literature. By Michael Barrington.<br /> <br /> A Plea for the Abolition of All Learning. By Marcator<br /> Anglicanus,<br /> <br /> BOoOKMAN.<br /> Benjamin Disracli. By Thomas Seccombe,<br /> <br /> 300K MonTHLY.<br /> Lubbock on Books. By J. M.<br /> What Greater Britain Reads.<br /> Harrison Ainsworth as the Real Father of the English<br /> ‘Penny Dreadful.” By Archibald Sparke.<br /> <br /> CONTEMPORARY REVIEW.<br /> Shall We put the Clock Back in Biblical Criticism. A<br /> Remonstrance. By Canon Cheyne.<br /> Science and Education. By Sir Edward Fry.<br /> Early Friends of Robert Browning. By W. Hall Griffin.<br /> <br /> THE FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW.<br /> <br /> Ibsen in His Letters. By William Archer.<br /> <br /> A Forgotten Soldier Poet. By May Bateman.<br /> <br /> Was Bacon a Poet? By George Stronach,<br /> <br /> Eugene Fromentin. By C. G. Compton.<br /> <br /> Harrison Ainsworth. By Francis Gribble.<br /> <br /> French Life and the French Stage.<br /> Macdonald.<br /> <br /> THE INDEPENDENT REVIEW.<br /> <br /> A Levantine Messiah. By H. N. Brailsford.<br /> <br /> Watts and National Art. By Laurence Binyon.<br /> <br /> A Farm School in the Transvaal. By An English<br /> Teacher.<br /> <br /> Myers’ Posthumous Writings. By Arthur Sidgwick.<br /> <br /> By John F,<br /> <br /> LONGMAN’S MAGAZINE.<br /> <br /> At the Sign of the Ship: United States Copyright. By<br /> <br /> Andrew Lang.<br /> MACMILLAN’S MAGAZINE.<br /> <br /> The Profession of Art. By Lewis F. Day.<br /> <br /> The Fellow Workers of Voltaire: Dierdot. By S. G.<br /> Tallentyre.<br /> <br /> MontH.<br /> <br /> The Scientific Frontier. By The Rev. John Gerard.<br /> <br /> The Battle of the Schools in Belgium. By Pierre<br /> Verhaegen.<br /> <br /> MonTHLY REVIEW.<br /> Edward Burne Jones. By Julia Cartwright,<br /> <br /> NATIONAL REVIEW.<br /> Street Music. By Miss Virginia Stephen.<br /> <br /> NINETEENTH CENTURY,<br /> <br /> George Frederick Watts: From the Utmost to the<br /> Highest. By Sir W. B. Richmond, K.C.B.<br /> The Experiment of Impressionism.<br /> <br /> Burne Jones, Bart.<br /> Greek Mysteries and the Gospel Narrative. By Slade<br /> Butler.<br /> <br /> By Sir Philip<br /> <br /> PALL MALL MAGAZINE.<br /> <br /> Personalities of the Paris Press. By Charles Dawbarn.<br /> Some Popular Novels and Why they are Popular. By<br /> <br /> James Douglas.<br /> TEMPLE BAR.<br /> <br /> From South to North Spain. By Miss H. H. Colvill.<br /> <br /> Wor.p’s WorK,<br /> An American Artist : John W. Alexander. By Charles<br /> H. Caffin.<br /> <br /> There are no articles dealing with literary, dramatic or<br /> musical subjects in Cornhill or Chambers’ Journal,<br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> 200<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO THE PRODUCER<br /> OF BOOKS.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> ERE are a few standing rules to be observed in an<br /> agreement. There are four methods of dealing<br /> with literary property :—<br /> <br /> I. Selling it Outright.<br /> <br /> This is sometimes satisfactory, if a proper price can be<br /> obtained. But the transaction should be managed by a<br /> competent agent, or with the advice of the Secretary of<br /> the Society.<br /> <br /> Il. A Profit-Sharing Agreement (a bad form of<br /> agreement).<br /> <br /> In this case the following rules should be attended to:<br /> <br /> (1.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro-<br /> duction forms a part without the strictest investigation.<br /> <br /> (2.) Not to give the publisher the power of putting the<br /> profits into his own pocket by charging for advertisements<br /> in his own organs, or by charging exchange advertise-<br /> ments. Therefore keep control of the advertisements.<br /> <br /> (8.) Not to allow a special charge for “ office expenses,”<br /> unless the same allowance is made to the author.<br /> <br /> (4.) Not to give up American, Colonial, or Continental<br /> rights.<br /> <br /> (5.) Not to give up serial or translation rights.<br /> <br /> (6.) Not to bind yourself for future work to any publisher.<br /> As well bind yourself for the future to any one solicitor or<br /> doctor !<br /> <br /> III. The Royalty System.<br /> <br /> This is perhaps, with certain limitations, the best form<br /> of agreement. It is above all things necessary to know<br /> what the proposed royalty means to both sides. It is now<br /> possible for an author to ascertain approximately the<br /> truth. From time to time very important figures connected<br /> with royalties are published in Zhe Author.<br /> <br /> IV. A Commission Agreement.<br /> <br /> The main points are :—<br /> <br /> (1.) Be careful to obtain a fair cost of production.<br /> (2.) Keep control of the advertisements.<br /> <br /> (3.) Keep control of the sale price of the book,<br /> <br /> General.<br /> <br /> All other forms of agreement are combinations of the four<br /> above mentioned.<br /> <br /> Such combinations are generally disastrous to the author,<br /> <br /> Never sign any agreement without competent advice from<br /> the Secretary of the Society.<br /> <br /> Stamp all agreements with the Inland Revenue stamp.<br /> <br /> Avoid agreements by letter if possible.<br /> <br /> The main points which the Society has always demanded<br /> from the outset are :-—<br /> <br /> (1.) That both sides shall know what an agreement<br /> means.<br /> <br /> (2.) The inspection of those account books which belong<br /> tothe author. We are advised that this is a right, in the<br /> nature of a common law right, which cannot be denied or<br /> withheld.<br /> <br /> (3.) Always avoid a transfer of copyright.<br /> <br /> —__+—_2—____—_-<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS.<br /> <br /> Lge<br /> EVER sign an agreement without submitting it to the<br /> Secretary of the Society of Authors or some com-<br /> petent legal authority.<br /> 2. It is well to be extremely careful in negotiating for<br /> the production of a play with anyone except an established<br /> manager,<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> 3. There are three forms of dramatic contract for plays<br /> in three or more acts :—<br /> <br /> (a.) Sale outright of the performing right. This<br /> is unsatisfactory. An author who enters into<br /> such a contract should stipulate in the contract<br /> for production of the piece by a certain date<br /> and for proper publication of his name on the<br /> play-bills.<br /> <br /> (b.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to<br /> perform on the basis of percentages on<br /> gross receipts. Percentages vary between 5<br /> and 15 per cent. An author should obtain a<br /> percentage on the sliding scale of gross receipts<br /> in preference to the American system. Should<br /> obtain a sum inadvance of percentages. A fixed<br /> date on or before which the play should be<br /> performed.<br /> <br /> (c.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to<br /> perform on the basis of royalties («.c., fixed<br /> nightly fees). This method should be always<br /> avoided except in cases where the fees are<br /> likely to be small or difficult to collect. The<br /> other safeguards set out under heading (0.) apply<br /> also in this case.<br /> <br /> 4, Plays in one act are often sold outright, but it is<br /> better to obtain a small nightly fee if possible, and a sum<br /> paid in advance of such fees in any event. It is extremely<br /> important that the amateur rights of one-act plays should<br /> be reserved.<br /> <br /> 5, Authors should remember that performing rights can<br /> be limited, and are usually limited, by town, country, and<br /> time. This is most important.<br /> <br /> 6. Authors should not assign performing rights, but<br /> should grant a licence to perform. The legal distinction is<br /> of great importance.<br /> <br /> 7. Authors should remember that performing rights in a<br /> play are distinct from literary copyright. A manager<br /> holding the performing right or licence to perform cannot<br /> print the book of the words.<br /> <br /> 8. Never forget that United States rights may be exceed-<br /> ingly valuable. ‘hey should never be included in English<br /> agreements without the author obtaining a substantial<br /> consideration.<br /> <br /> 9. Agreements for collaboration should be carefully<br /> drawn and executed before collaboration is commenced.<br /> <br /> 10. An author should remember that production of a play<br /> is highly speculative: that he runs a very great risk of<br /> delay and a breakdown in the fulfilment of his contract.<br /> He should therefore guard himself all the more carefully in<br /> the beginning.<br /> <br /> 11. An author must remember that the dramatic market<br /> is exceedingly limited, and that for a novice the first object<br /> is to obtain adequate publication.<br /> <br /> As these warnings must necessarily be incomplete, om<br /> account of the wide range of the subject of dramatic con-<br /> tracts, those authors desirous of further information<br /> are referred to the Secretary of the Society.<br /> <br /> —_————_1—_—_e—__—_<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.<br /> <br /> —»—— + ——<br /> <br /> ITTLE can be added to the warnings given for the<br /> assistance of producers of books and dramatic<br /> authors. It must, however, be pointed out that,. as<br /> <br /> a rule, the musical publisher demands from the musical<br /> composer a transfer of fuller rights and less liberal finan-<br /> cial terms than those obtained for literary and dramatic<br /> property. The musical composer has very often the two<br /> <br /> rights to deal with—performing right and copyright. He<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> should be especially careful therefore when entering into<br /> an agreement, and should take into part. cular consideration<br /> the warnings stated above.<br /> <br /> i<br /> <br /> HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> es<br /> <br /> i VERY member has a right toask for and to receive<br /> BK advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-<br /> lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his<br /> business or the administration of his property. The<br /> Secretary of the Society is a solicitor, but if there is any<br /> special reason the Secretary will refer the case to the<br /> Solicitors of the Society. Further, the Committee, if they<br /> deem it desirable, will obtain counsel’s opinion. All this<br /> without any cost to the member.<br /> <br /> 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright<br /> and publishers’ agreements do not fall within the experi-<br /> ence of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use<br /> the Society.<br /> <br /> 3. Send to the Office copies of past agreements and past<br /> accounts, with a copy of the book represented. The<br /> Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new<br /> or old, for inspection and note. The information thus<br /> obtained may prove invaluable.<br /> <br /> 4. Before signing any agreement whatever, send<br /> the document to the Society for examination.<br /> <br /> 5. Remember always that in belonging to the Society<br /> you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you<br /> are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are<br /> advancing the best interests of your calling in promoting<br /> the independence of the writer, the dramatist, the composer.<br /> <br /> 6. The Committee have now arranged for the reception<br /> of members’ agreements and their preservation in a fire-<br /> proof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as<br /> confidential documents to be read only by the Secretary,<br /> who will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers:<br /> —(1) To read and advise upon agreements and to give<br /> advice concerning publishers. (2) To stamp agreements<br /> in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep<br /> agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to<br /> agreements. Fuller particulars of the Society’s work<br /> can be obtained in the Prospectus.<br /> <br /> 7. No contract should be entered into with a literary<br /> agent without the advice of the Secretary of the Society.<br /> Members are strongly advised not to accept without careful<br /> consideration the contracts with publishers submitted to<br /> them by literary agents, and are recommended to submit<br /> them for interpretation and explanation to the Secretary<br /> of the Society.<br /> <br /> This<br /> The<br /> <br /> 8. Many agents neglect to stamp agreements,<br /> must be done within fourteen days of first execution,<br /> Secretary will undertake it on behalf of members,<br /> <br /> 9. Some agents endeavour to prevent authors from<br /> referring matters to the Secretary of the Society; so<br /> do some publishers. Members can make their own<br /> deductions and act accordingly.<br /> <br /> _10, The subscription to the Society is’&quot;£4 41s. per<br /> annum, or £10 10s for life membership.<br /> <br /> 201<br /> TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.<br /> <br /> TS Society undertakes to stamp copies of music on<br /> behalf of its members for the fee of 6d. per 100 or<br /> part of 100. The members’ stamps are kept in the<br /> Society’s safe. The musical publishers communicate direct<br /> with the Secretary, and the voucher is then forwarded to<br /> the members, who are thus saved much unnecessary trouble.<br /> <br /> ——$_+~—<br /> THE READING BRANCH.<br /> <br /> —+~o +<br /> <br /> EMBERS will greatly assist the Society in this<br /> branch of its work by informing young writers<br /> of its existence. Their MSS. can be read and<br /> <br /> treated as a composition is treated by a coach. ‘The term<br /> MSS. includes not only works of fiction, but poetry<br /> and dramatic works, and when it is possible, under<br /> special arrangement, technical and scientific works. The<br /> Readers are writers of competence and experience. The<br /> fee is one guinea.<br /> <br /> ++ ____<br /> NOTICES.<br /> <br /> —_1+—<br /> <br /> HE Editor of Zhe Author begs to remind members of<br /> <br /> the Society that, although the paper is sent to them<br /> <br /> free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a<br /> <br /> very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great<br /> <br /> many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest<br /> 5s. 6d. subscription for the year.<br /> <br /> Communications for “The Author” should be addressed<br /> to the Offices of the Society, 39, Old Queen Street, Storey’s<br /> Gate, S.W., and should reach the Editor not later than the<br /> 21st of each month.<br /> <br /> All persons engaged in literary work of any kind,<br /> whether members of the Society or not, are invited to<br /> communicate to the Editor any points connected with their<br /> work which it would be advisable in the general interest to<br /> publish.<br /> <br /> Communications and letters are invited by the<br /> Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on<br /> no other subjects whatever. Hvery effort will be made to<br /> return articles which cannot be accepted.<br /> <br /> —1~&lt; +.<br /> <br /> The Secretary of the Society begs to give notice<br /> that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post,<br /> and he requests members who do not receive an<br /> answer to important communications within two days to<br /> write to him without delay. All remittances should be<br /> crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery Lane, or be sent<br /> by registered letter only.<br /> <br /> Oe<br /> <br /> LEGAL AND GENERAL LIFE ASSURANCE<br /> SOCIETY.<br /> a<br /> <br /> Dae to commence at any selected age,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> either with or without Life Assurance, can<br /> be obtained from this society.<br /> Full particulars can be obtained from the City<br /> Branch Manager, Legal and General Life Assurance<br /> Society, 158, Leadenhall Street, London, E.C.<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> 200<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO THE PRODUCER<br /> OF BOOKS.<br /> <br /> — to<br /> <br /> ERE are a few standing rules to be observed in an<br /> agreement. There are four methods of dealing<br /> with literary property :—<br /> <br /> I. Selling it Outright.<br /> <br /> This is sometimes satisfactory, if a proper price can be<br /> obtained. But the transaction should be managed by a<br /> competent agent, or with the advice of the Secretary of<br /> the Society.<br /> <br /> ll. A Profit-Sharing Agreement (a bad form of<br /> agreement).<br /> <br /> In this case the following rules should be attended to:<br /> <br /> (1.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro-<br /> duction forms a part without the strictest investigation.<br /> <br /> (2.) Not to give the publisher the power of putting the<br /> profits into his own pocket by charging for advertisements<br /> in his own organs, or by charging exchange advertise-<br /> ments. Therefore keep control of the advertisements.<br /> <br /> (3.) Not to allow a special charge for “ office expenses,”<br /> unless the same allowance is made to the author.<br /> <br /> (4.) Not to give up American, Colonial, or Continental<br /> rights.<br /> <br /> (5.) Not to give up serial or translation rights.<br /> <br /> (6.) Not to bind yourself for future work to any publisher.<br /> As well bind yourself for the future to any one solicitor or<br /> doctor !<br /> <br /> III. The Royalty System.<br /> <br /> This is perhaps, with certain limitations, the best form<br /> of agreement. It is above all things necessary to know<br /> what the proposed royalty means to both sides. It is now<br /> possible for an author to ascertain approximately the<br /> truth. From time to time very important figures connected<br /> with royalties are published in Zhe Author.<br /> <br /> IVY. A Commission Agreement.<br /> <br /> The main points are :—<br /> <br /> (1.) Be careful to obtain a fair cost of production.<br /> (2.) Keep control of the advertisements.<br /> <br /> (3.) Keep control of the sale price of the book.<br /> <br /> General.<br /> <br /> All other. forms of agreement are combinations of the four<br /> above mentioned.<br /> <br /> Such combinations are generally disastrous to the author.<br /> <br /> Never sign any agreement without competent advice from<br /> the Secretary of the Society.<br /> <br /> Stamp all agreements with the Inland Revenue stamp.<br /> <br /> Avoid agreements by letter if possible.<br /> <br /> The main points which the Society has always demanded<br /> from the outset are :—<br /> <br /> C1.) That both sides shall know what an agreement<br /> means.<br /> <br /> (2.) The inspection of those account books which belong<br /> to the author. We are advised that this is a right, in the<br /> nature of a common law right, which cannot be denied or<br /> withheld.<br /> <br /> (3.) Always avoid a transfer of copyright.<br /> <br /> ————_+——_+____-<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS.<br /> <br /> Se<br /> EVER sign an agreement without submitting it to the<br /> Secretary of the Society of Authors or some com-<br /> __ petent legal authority.<br /> 2. It is well to be extremely careful in negotiating for<br /> <br /> the production of a play with anyone except an established<br /> manager,<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> 3. There are three forms of dramatic contract for plays<br /> in three or more acts :—<br /> <br /> (a.) Sale outright of the performing right. This<br /> is unsatisfactory. An author who enters into<br /> such a contract should stipulate in the contract<br /> for production of the piece by a certain date<br /> and for proper publication of his name on the<br /> play-bills.<br /> <br /> (b.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to<br /> perform on the basis of percentages on<br /> gross receipts. Percentages vary between 5<br /> and 15 per cent. An author should obtain a<br /> percentage on the sliding scale of gross receipts<br /> in preference to the American system. Should<br /> obtain a sum in advance of percentages. A fixed<br /> date on or before which the play should be<br /> performed.<br /> <br /> (c.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to<br /> perform on the basis of royalties (i.¢., fixed<br /> nightly fees). This method should be always<br /> avoided except in cases where the fees are<br /> likely to be small or difficult to collect. The<br /> other safeguards set out under heading (0.) apply<br /> also in this case.<br /> <br /> 4. Plays in one act are often sold outright, but it is<br /> better to obtain a small nightly fee if possible, and a sum<br /> paid in advance of such fees in any event. It is extremely<br /> important that the amateur rights of one-act plays should<br /> be reserved.<br /> <br /> 5. Authors should remember that performing rights can<br /> be limited, and are usually limited, by town, country, and<br /> time. This is most important.<br /> <br /> 6. Authors should not assign performing rights, but<br /> should grant a licence to perform. The legal distinction is<br /> of great importance.<br /> <br /> 7. Authors should remember that performing rights in a<br /> play are distinct from literary copyright. A manager<br /> holding the performing right or licence to perform cannot<br /> print the book of the words.<br /> <br /> 8. Never forget that United States rights may be exceed-<br /> ingly valuable. ‘hey should never be included in English<br /> agreements without the author obtaining a substantial<br /> consideration.<br /> <br /> 9. Agreements for collaboration should be carefully<br /> drawn and executed before collaboration is commenced.<br /> <br /> 10. An author should remember that production of a play<br /> is highly speculative: that he runs a very great risk of<br /> delay and a breakdown in the fulfilment of his contract.<br /> He should therefore guard himself all the more carefully in<br /> the beginning.<br /> <br /> 11. An author must remember that the dramatic market<br /> is exceedingly limited, and that for a novice the first object<br /> is to obtain adequate publication.<br /> <br /> As these warnings must necessarily be incomplete, 0B<br /> account of the wide range of the subject of dramatic con-<br /> tracts, those authors desirous of further information<br /> are referred to the Secretary of the Society.<br /> <br /> ——__—_.——_—___&lt;_<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.<br /> <br /> —_.— 1 —<br /> <br /> ITTLE can be added to the warnings given for the<br /> assistance of producers of books and dramatic<br /> authors. It must, however, be pointed out that,. a8<br /> <br /> a rule, the musical publisher demands from the music<br /> <br /> composer a transfer of fuller rights and less liberal finan-<br /> cial terms than those obtained for literary and dramatic<br /> property. The musical composer has very often the two<br /> rights to deal with—performing right and copyright. He<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> should be especially careful therefore when entering into<br /> an agreement, and should take into part. cular consideration<br /> the warnings stated above.<br /> <br /> Oo<br /> <br /> HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> i<br /> <br /> 1, VERY member has a right toask for and to receive<br /> advice upon his agreements, his choice of a” pub-<br /> lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his<br /> <br /> business or the administration of his property. The<br /> <br /> Secretary of the Society is a solicitor, but if there is any<br /> <br /> special reason the Secretary will refer the case to the<br /> <br /> Solicitors of the Society. Further, the Committee, if they<br /> <br /> deem it desirable, will obtain counsel’s opinion. All this<br /> <br /> without any cost to the member.<br /> <br /> 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright<br /> and publishers’ agreements do not fall within the experi-<br /> ence of ordinarysolicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use<br /> the Society.<br /> <br /> 3. Send to the Office copies of past agreements and past<br /> accounts, with a copy of the book represented. The<br /> Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new<br /> or old, for inspection and note. The information thus<br /> obtained may prove invaluable.<br /> <br /> 4. Before signing any agreement whatever, send<br /> the document to the Society for examination.<br /> <br /> 5. Remember always that in belonging to the Society<br /> you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you<br /> are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are<br /> advancing the best interests of your calling in promoting<br /> the independence of the writer, the dramatist, the composer.<br /> <br /> 6. The Committee have now arranged for the reception<br /> of members’ agreements and their preservation in a fire-<br /> proof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as<br /> confidential documents to be read only by the Secretary,<br /> who will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers:<br /> —(1) To read and advise upon agreements and to give<br /> advice concerning publishers. (2) To stamp agreements<br /> in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep<br /> agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to<br /> agreements. Fuller particulars of the Society’s work<br /> can be obtained in the Prospectus.<br /> <br /> 7. No contract should be entered into with a literary<br /> agent without the advice of the Secretary of the Society.<br /> Members are strongly advised not to accept without careful<br /> consideration the contracts with publishers submitted to<br /> them by literary agents, and are recommended to submit<br /> them for interpretation and explanation to the Secretary<br /> of the Society.<br /> <br /> 8. Many agents neglect to stamp agreements. This<br /> must be done within fourteen days of first execution. The<br /> Secretary will undertake it on behalf of members.<br /> <br /> 9. Some agents endeavour to prevent authors from<br /> referring matters to the Secretary of the Society; so<br /> do some publishers. Members can make their own<br /> deductions and act accordingly.<br /> <br /> 10. The subscription to the Society is&#039;&quot;£1 4s. per<br /> annum, or £10 10s for life membership.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> 201<br /> TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.<br /> <br /> she: Society undertakes to stamp copies of music on<br /> behalf of its members for the fee of 6d. per 100 or<br /> part of 100. The members’ stamps are kept in the<br /> Society’s safe. The musical publishers communicate direct<br /> with the Secretary, and the voucher is then forwarded to<br /> the members, who are thus saved much unnecessary trouble.<br /> <br /> —_—_+—~@—.+—____<br /> THE READING BRANCH.<br /> <br /> —_t——» —_<br /> <br /> EMBERS will greatly assist the Society in this<br /> branch of its work by informing young writers<br /> of its existence. Their MSS. can be read and<br /> <br /> treated as a composition is treated by a coach. The term<br /> MSS. includes not only works of fiction, but poetry<br /> and dramatic works, and when it is possible, under<br /> special arrangement, technical and scientific works. The<br /> Readers are writers of competence and experience, The<br /> fee is one guinea,<br /> <br /> —————+—_—_+<br /> <br /> NOTICES.<br /> <br /> +<br /> <br /> HE Editor of Zhe Author begs to remind members of<br /> <br /> the Society that, although the paper is sent to them<br /> <br /> free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a<br /> <br /> very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great<br /> <br /> many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest<br /> 5s. 6d. subscription for the year.<br /> <br /> Communications for “The Author” should be addressed<br /> to the Offices of the Society, 39, Old Queen Street, Storey’s<br /> Gate, S.W., and should reach the Editor not later than the<br /> 21st of each month.<br /> <br /> All persons engaged in literary work of any kind,<br /> whether members of the Society or not, are invited to<br /> communicate to the Editor any points connected with their<br /> work which it would be advisable in the general interest to<br /> publish.<br /> <br /> Communications and letters are invited by the<br /> Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on<br /> no other subjects whatever, Every effort will be made to<br /> return articles which cannot be accepted.<br /> <br /> St<br /> <br /> The Secretary of the Society begs to give notice<br /> that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post,<br /> and he requests members who do not receive an<br /> answer to important communications within two days to<br /> write to him without delay. All remittances should be<br /> crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery Lane, or be sent<br /> by registered letter only.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> LEGAL AND GENERAL LIFE ASSURANCE<br /> SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> — 4<br /> <br /> ENSIONS to commence at any selected age,<br /> P either with or without Life Assurance, can<br /> be obtained from this society.<br /> Full particulars can be obtained from the City<br /> Branch Manager, Legal and General Life Assurance<br /> Society, 158, Leadenhall Street, London, H.C.<br />  <br /> <br /> 202<br /> AUTHORITIES.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> In recognition of the work the Society has<br /> done in copyright matters, Mr. George Haven<br /> Putnam has forwarded to the office the original of<br /> the letter which, in a curtailed form, appeared in<br /> the Slandard. He thought that the members of<br /> the Society might like to have before them a full<br /> statement of his opinion on the subject of the<br /> amendment to the United States Copyright Law.<br /> <br /> We have much pleasure in carrying out Mr.<br /> Putnam’s wishes, even though the session has<br /> closed. There are many points of interest dealt<br /> with in the letter, and it is possible that many<br /> may not have had the opportunity to study the<br /> communication which appeared in the Standard.<br /> <br /> Russta remains one of the few countries in<br /> Europe that stands outside the Bern Convention,<br /> and no copyright treaties exist with the Russian<br /> Government.<br /> <br /> It is interesting, therefore, to find that in the<br /> Treaty which has just been arranged between<br /> Germany and that country there is a clause<br /> referring to copyright property. By this clause,<br /> the Russian Government binds itself “ within<br /> three years from the date of the Treaty to enter<br /> into conference with Germany for the conclusion<br /> of a convention for the reciprocal protection of the<br /> rights of authors in Germany and Russia, in works<br /> of Art, Literature and Photographs.” Whether<br /> such efforts will come to anything it is impossible<br /> to say, but it is, ab any rate, a step in the right<br /> direction.<br /> <br /> The main reason why Russia is at present unable<br /> to enter into any Treaty consists in the fact that its<br /> internal copyright law is in a chaotic state. It would<br /> be necessary for the Russian Government to take<br /> this matter into consideration before they could<br /> bind themselves by any firm arrangement with<br /> another country ; but the fact that the Russians are<br /> willing to enter into a conference with Germany<br /> has aroused the wrath of their allies the French,<br /> and justly so, as the following statement will<br /> show :—<br /> <br /> We learn from the Echo de Paris that in 1904,<br /> 2,800 theatrical pieces were represented in Russia<br /> under the protection of the Society of Dramatic<br /> Authors. Of these, 500 alone were essentially<br /> Russian ; 218 were German, and the rest, about<br /> 2,000 in number, were French. It is quite clear,<br /> then, that the French have a sound cause for<br /> complaint. The same paper states that for every<br /> nine volumes published in Russia, three are<br /> Russian, six are French.<br /> <br /> It is to be hoped that if Germany is able to make<br /> some arrangement with the Russian Government,<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> other European countries will do so also, and that<br /> finally, Russia will join the Bern Convention.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Tus annual meeting of the Royal Literary<br /> Fund was held at the society’s rooms in Adelphi<br /> Terrace on March 8th.<br /> <br /> The report showed that during the year 1904<br /> £2,680 was granted to 33 applicants.<br /> <br /> Mr. Edmund Gosse, who took the chair, in pro-<br /> posing the adoption of the report, made some ex-<br /> ceedingly interesting remarks on the purposes of<br /> the fund. He stated that the managers of the<br /> fund were trying to correct as far as they could,<br /> and in strict relation to literary merit, the injus-<br /> tices of fate and accident. No one need consider<br /> it an indignity to accept the help of the fund. He<br /> pointed out that it was too commonly supposed<br /> that there was no method of drawing attention to<br /> a case save that of a direct appeal from the author<br /> who wanted help. That was not so. In the<br /> majority of instances it was from the report of<br /> others that the council learnt of those misfortunes<br /> which appealed most vividly to its sympathies.<br /> ok it was that friends could most practically<br /> <br /> elp.<br /> <br /> What.Mr. Gosse stated in his remarks applies<br /> with equal force to the Pension Fund of the<br /> Society of Authors.<br /> <br /> It often occurs that those who are most in need<br /> of assistance retire from the publicity of a per-<br /> sonal appeal. It is essential, therefore, that their<br /> friends should take the matter up and give the<br /> assistance that their more intimate knowledge<br /> affords. All the details of the cases which come<br /> before both the Royal Literary Fund and the<br /> Society’s Pension Fund are treated in the strictest<br /> confidence, and where the aim and object of both<br /> funds is to help the most worthy, it would be a<br /> pity if, at any time, those aims and objects were<br /> turned aside owing to the lack of reliable<br /> information.<br /> <br /> We would, therefore, strongly urge those who<br /> know, to give their assistance to the management<br /> of the two funds who want to know.<br /> <br /> —_—_—_———__+—&gt;_ +<br /> <br /> F. R. DALDY.<br /> <br /> ot -<br /> <br /> HAVE been asked to write a short account of<br /> Mr. F. R. Daldy for The Author, and I gladly<br /> avail myself of the opportunity of placing on<br /> <br /> record some account, inadequate though I. fear it 2<br /> may be, of one with whom I had worked on very<br /> close terms for nearly thirty years, and for whom L<br /> had a very genuine regard and respect.<br /> some years<br /> <br /> For before I knew him, and<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> continuously to the end of his life, Mr. Daldy’s<br /> energies were devoted mainly to the cause of copy-<br /> right, and there has been no one, during the past<br /> quarter of a century, to whom that cause owes so<br /> much as to him, and this doubtless is the reason<br /> why the Editor of 7he Author desires to pay some<br /> tribute to his memory.<br /> <br /> His latter years, in this connection, were so<br /> intimately associated with the Copyright Association<br /> that it is impossible to give any account of them<br /> without a brief mention of that body.<br /> <br /> In 1870 the need of a new Copyright Bill was<br /> urgently felt ; the Act of 1842 had been found to<br /> be inadequate to the needs of the craft of letters,<br /> which had undergone a rapid development in the<br /> intervening period. Not only did the authors<br /> require fuller protection and advantages at home,<br /> but the growing needs and aspirations of the<br /> Colonies had raised difficulties and complications<br /> which did not exist in 1842.<br /> <br /> In 1870 there were no Authors’ Society and<br /> Publishers’ Association to devote themselves<br /> exclusively to the affairs of these two classes<br /> respectively, so authors and publishers combined<br /> in 1872 to form an association to “ watch over the<br /> general interests of owners of copyright property,<br /> and to obtain early information of all measures<br /> affecting copyright property, and as opportunity<br /> offers to suggest and promote improvements in<br /> existing copyright laws.”<br /> <br /> Lord Stanhope, a veteran who had done mach to<br /> bring about the Act of 1842, was the first chair-<br /> man, and among the original members who took<br /> an active part in the proceedings were Lord<br /> Houghton, Lord Lytton, Sir Arthur Helps, Sir<br /> Charles Trevelyan, Dr. William Smith, Robert<br /> Browning, Wilkie Collins, Anthony Trollope, J.<br /> A. Froude, and Henry Reeve, while the publishers<br /> were represented by the late Thomas Longman,<br /> George Bentley, Alexander Macmillan, my father,<br /> and others.<br /> <br /> Mr. Daldy was appointed honorary secretary, a<br /> post which he held till the time of his death, which<br /> occurred only a day or two after he had attended<br /> a meeting of the Association in my house last<br /> month,<br /> <br /> For the past thirty years the relations of the<br /> Imperial Government with Canada have given rise<br /> to the chief difficulties which have beset the<br /> preparation and passing of a new Copyright Act,<br /> and in many of the negotiations which have<br /> passed between the Mother Country and the<br /> Colony, Mr. Daldy has acted as the principal go-<br /> between. He paid three visits to the Dominion<br /> “between 1872 and 1894 on behalf of the Copyright<br /> Association, for the express purpose of carrying on<br /> the negotiations, or settling some point which<br /> had arisen on emergency, and on nine different<br /> <br /> 203<br /> <br /> occasions he crossed the Atlantic on similar<br /> errands. He was in close touch with successive<br /> officials of the Colonial Office, the Board of Trade,<br /> the Canadian Executive, and other departments<br /> responsible for some part of the transactions, and I<br /> am sure Lord Thring would bear testimony to the<br /> unwearying and valuable service rendered by him<br /> in the preparation of the Bill which passed the<br /> House of Lords in 1900.<br /> <br /> Mr. Daldy was indeed a mine of information in<br /> all that concerns copyright; not only had he<br /> studied all the books and State papers (in them-<br /> selves a voluminous mass) dealing with the subject,<br /> but having been in personal touch with all that<br /> was passing for many years, he was acquainted<br /> with the views of all the influential men, and could<br /> at once give an account of every turn and phase<br /> of the complicated negotiations which have taken<br /> place. I have often been surprised by the ease<br /> and readiness with which he could unravel the<br /> tangled skein in which some point or other calling<br /> for discussion, was involved.<br /> <br /> His methods were those of suaviter in modo<br /> rather than fortiter in re, and placed as he was, his<br /> success was doubtless in a great measure due to<br /> this fact. Inever heard an ill-natured or impatient<br /> word from him, in circumstances which might try<br /> the temper of any man, and I never knew him<br /> spare himself when he was called upon to assist in<br /> promoting the interests of copyright holders.<br /> <br /> In 1897 the members of the Copyright Associa-<br /> tion subscribed to present him with a service of<br /> plate in recognition of the valuable aid which he<br /> had rendered to the cause—practically gratuitously,<br /> for except.the payment of his expenses in going to<br /> Canada, he received no remuneration for his work.<br /> <br /> The gift, together with an address signed by a<br /> large number of leading authors and publishers,<br /> was formally presented to him by Lord Avebury.<br /> <br /> Mr. Daldy claimed descent from the famous<br /> Aldine family, after which his house at Belvedere<br /> was named. At the time of his death he was<br /> within a few months of completing his eightieth<br /> <br /> ear.<br /> <br /> ? Copyright owners have lost a staunch and true<br /> ally in Francis Daldy, and I do not see at present<br /> how the special position which he occupied is to be<br /> adequately filled.<br /> <br /> JouN Murray.<br /> <br /> I should like to add to the above tribute a few<br /> words referring to Mr. Daldy’s services to the cause<br /> of International Copyright.<br /> <br /> At the time of the negotiation of the Bern<br /> Convention, Mr. Daldy supplied the British Dele-<br /> gates with the most complete information in regard<br /> to the complicated matters under discussion. He<br /> <br /> was present at Bern throughout the negotiations,<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> 204<br /> <br /> and it is not too much to say that the successful<br /> result was in great part due to the complete know-<br /> ledge of the subject which he placed unreservedly<br /> at the disposal of the British delegates.<br /> <br /> For a long period of years all those who had<br /> been officially connected with the question of<br /> International Copyright have learnt to rely upon<br /> Mr. Daldy’s knowledge and experience, which<br /> have always been given with perfect sincerity and<br /> single-mindedness. He has sought no reward nor<br /> public acknowledgment of the services thus<br /> rendered—services which were given gratuitously,<br /> and even enthusiastically, to promote the cause<br /> which he had at heart. His place will not readily<br /> be filled.<br /> <br /> H. G. Berane.<br /> <br /> —_____—_—&gt;__—__<br /> <br /> UNITED STATES NOTES.<br /> <br /> — 1 —_<br /> <br /> ISCUSSION seems to be in the literary<br /> atmosphere of America just now. Mr.<br /> Howells’s half-serious attack upon the<br /> <br /> International Copyright Act at the end of last<br /> year was naturally not allowed to pass, his con-<br /> tentions being riddled through and through by<br /> Mr. Putnam and Mr. George Platt Brett, not to<br /> speak of various leader-writers in the literary<br /> journals. One of these last, not content with<br /> confuting the rash novelist and reproving him<br /> for the manner in which he had raised “this<br /> buried subject of discussion,” proceeded to advo-<br /> cate an amendment of the law in favour of the<br /> further protection of English and Continental<br /> authors. It was pointed out that the double<br /> type-setting provision was inserted at the bidding<br /> of mere class-interests, and that the case of trans-<br /> lated works was still unsatisfactory.<br /> <br /> Then the question of the ethics of book-selling<br /> has been on the carpet. A correspondent of the<br /> Publishers’ Weekly put the purely business view<br /> point with refreshing vigour, inveighing especially<br /> against the impolicy of recommending books to<br /> customers on any ground but that of their recorded<br /> sales. One fears that he may be right ; but his<br /> conclusion that he would prefer the epitaph ‘‘ Here<br /> lies a successful bookseller” to the proposed “ He<br /> died an honest man” is surely a shade too cynical.<br /> <br /> Again, we have Mr. Charles Leonard Moore in<br /> the Dial making a venomous onslaught upon the<br /> American literary instinct, which he finds expressed<br /> in the formula “to live better and save more,”<br /> taken from an insurance prospectus. According to<br /> this writer, it is all the fault of women, commer-<br /> cialism, and the absence of outside pressure that<br /> things are so bad with our people. ‘The result is<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> that members become college professors, and so “ dry<br /> up and blow away,” whilst “ poets are driven into<br /> business and artists into exile.” This is indicting<br /> a nation with a vengeance. But, as yet, we haye<br /> seen no reply to it. =<br /> <br /> The very latest hare to be started is the condition<br /> of poetry—is there a “slump” in it, and, if so, why ?<br /> This, of course, began on your side with the poet<br /> Laureate’s address. Here it has been set on foot<br /> by that vivacious periodical, the Critic, which, by<br /> the bye, has amalgamated with the Boston Literary<br /> World. As in most symposiums, the issues became<br /> rather confused, some contributors taking into con-<br /> sideration poetry, both classic and contemporary,<br /> others only the latter ; whilst to some the criterion<br /> of health is sales, to others quality also. One is<br /> glad to find on the side of those who deny the<br /> slump Messrs. Houghton, Miffin &amp; Co. and Mr,<br /> Richard G. Badger. Mr. Clinton Scollard gives up<br /> the puzzle set him by the editor ; but most of the<br /> others are dogmatic enough. Amongst the slum-<br /> pers, Mr. Maurice F. Egan puts down the débddcle<br /> to the decay of the art of home reading, the con-<br /> ventionality and academicism of the poets, and<br /> the lack of seriousness of the press. There is<br /> no doubt something in the first two causes, but the<br /> last, which is insisted upon by Mr. Cale Young Rice,<br /> but is best put by Robert Underwood Johnson, is<br /> to our thinking, the most cogent reason. Com-<br /> petent criticism of verse is badly needed in America.<br /> Not that this is sufficient to call poetry into being,<br /> if it be true that the spirit of the age is against it,<br /> and that the “gradual sophistication of the young”<br /> destroys the taste for it.<br /> <br /> One comment dropped in the course of the dis-<br /> cussion arrides us not a little. After the mournful<br /> statement that style in prose counts for almost<br /> nothing to-day, Mr. William C. Wilkinson proceeds +<br /> “When I was a youth, successful business men<br /> deferred to authors. Authors nowadays are apt to<br /> defer to successful business men.” We confess we<br /> should enjoy the experience of being deferred to by<br /> a successful business man ; but we have our doubts<br /> as to whether there was ever author who sayoured<br /> this particular morsel.<br /> <br /> The short story competition in connection with<br /> Collier’s Weekly, the awards in which}were announced<br /> a short time since, presented some features of<br /> interest. Mrs. Wharton, Margaret Deland, and<br /> Mr. Alden were among the prize-winners ; but a<br /> good proportion of the nine were unknown names.<br /> Senator Lodge disagreed with his colleagues, Mr.<br /> White and Mr. Page, as to the adjudication of the<br /> first two prizes, holding that Mrs. Wharton’s “The<br /> Best Man” to be by far the best composition sent<br /> in. The fact that only four writers wrote “what<br /> might be called foreign stories” was, in Mr. White&#039;s<br /> view, “the most hopeful thing for real literature<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Qo ed OS<br /> <br /> pepe CD<br /> <br /> oq<br /> eE<br /> <br /> if<br /> <br /> 16<br /> toh<br /> 199<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> in America. (We may remark parenthetically<br /> that “a foreign book” figured at the top of the<br /> “biggest sellers” last month).<br /> <br /> Other features of the competition were the com-<br /> plete absence of civil war stories or Indian fighting<br /> tales, and the comparative rarity of historical<br /> setting of any kind. Modernity, in fact, largely<br /> prevailed. The judges encountered two auto-<br /> mobiles, a battleship, a big prairie-type engine, a<br /> pianola, a police scandal, a freak-woman reporter ;<br /> besides innumerable trained nurses, five o’clock<br /> commuters’ trains, and telephone buzzers.<br /> <br /> The favourite locale was New York, the desert<br /> west of the Rockies coming next, followed by New<br /> England and California. There was one war story,<br /> placed in the Philippines, whilst J apan and Alaska<br /> were the theatre of action in single tales.<br /> <br /> There is not much to record of the literary pro-<br /> ducts of the present year so far as it has gone yet.<br /> The highest native “big seller,’ Mr. Thomas<br /> Dixon’s “The Clansman,” is a story of the South<br /> during the Reconstruction period.” It has slight<br /> literary merit and is full of anachronisms, but<br /> contains some good chapters dealing with the<br /> conspiracy of the Ku Klux Klan.<br /> <br /> Much superior as literature is another Recon-<br /> struction tale, Emerson Hough’s “The Law of the<br /> Land.” It is curious as being the work of a<br /> northerner.<br /> <br /> “ Bethany,” a novel of Georgian life just pre-<br /> vious to the Civil War and touching upon it in its<br /> early stage, has the merit of sincerity and some<br /> pictorial power. The author, in this case, Thomas<br /> E. Watson, hails from the south,<br /> <br /> Burton E. Stevenson’s “ The Marathon<br /> Mystery,” is a capital detective story, though the<br /> accuracy of its dialect has been impugned.<br /> <br /> “ Cabbages and Kings,” by O. Henry, a book of<br /> Central American short stories, has humour and<br /> spirit, as well as an excellent background.<br /> <br /> A notable book announced for immediate publi-<br /> cation by McClurg is the autobiography of the<br /> late Theodore Thomas, the musician.<br /> <br /> “The Self-made Man” is not yet disposed of ;<br /> “His Wife’s Letters to Her Son” is the latest<br /> pendant promised to Mr. Lorimer’s work.<br /> <br /> Mr. G. W. Winkley has published “Personal<br /> Reminiscences of John Brown, the hero,” with an<br /> introduction by Frank B. Sauborn.<br /> <br /> The new edition, for which Mr. Herbert M.<br /> Lloyd is responsible, of Lewis Morgan’s “ League<br /> of the Ho-de-no-saunee or Troquois,” is an excel-<br /> lent reprint of aninvaluable work. It has personal<br /> reminiscences of Morgan by Charles T. Porter, his<br /> <br /> 08 collaborator, and embodies his own corrections.<br /> oM Morgan’s ethnological investigations are well<br /> i known, and _ their<br /> ‘976 over-estimated.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> importance can scarcely be<br /> <br /> 205<br /> <br /> William Canfield’s “Tegends of the Troquois”<br /> has a more purely literary interest. But both<br /> books deserve more than a specialist’s public,<br /> <br /> The latest complete exposition of “The Monroe<br /> Doctrine” comes from T. B. Edgington, of the<br /> Memphis Bar. He illustrates its most recent<br /> phases, as seen in the Venezuela Boundary Case<br /> and the Panama Canal Treaty.<br /> <br /> There have appeared two volumes of Professor<br /> G. Santyana’s “The Life of Reason ” ; vol. xi. of<br /> Dr. Reuben Thwaite’s « Early Western Travels,”<br /> containing Part I. of Faux’s “ Memorable Days in<br /> America ” (1819-20) ; and vol. xxi. of “The<br /> Philippine Islands,” edited by Emma H. Blair<br /> and James A. Robertson.<br /> <br /> Mr. T. Nelson Page in “The Negro ”<br /> great racial question calm consideration.<br /> <br /> “The Future of Road Making in America” is a<br /> symposium on an important subject by Archer B.<br /> Hulbert and others, published by the Clark<br /> Company.<br /> <br /> Mr. Henry James has consented to a kind of<br /> informal interview during his visit to America,<br /> He has been much written about of late as a<br /> matter of course.<br /> <br /> The obituary list of 1905 already includes<br /> Theodore Thomas, the creator of modern American<br /> music, whose best work was done at Chicago, but<br /> was begun at New York ; John White Chadwick,<br /> the biographer of Channing and Theodore Parker ;<br /> L. Clarke Davis, father of Richard Harding Davis,<br /> and some time editor of the Ledger ; Alpheus<br /> Spring Packarel, many years Professor at Brown<br /> University, and author of some 400 scientific<br /> monographs, many of them of international repu-<br /> tation ; and William Cowper-Prime, vice-president<br /> of the New York Metropolitan Museum, whose<br /> fine collection of wood engravings is destined for<br /> Princeton. Nor must we omit General Lewis<br /> Wallace, best known as the author of “ Ben Hur,”<br /> but who also wrote, amongst other works, “The<br /> Fair God,” a fine Mexican story, and a life of<br /> President Benjamin Harrison, a veteran of the<br /> Mexican and Civil Wars. He was some time<br /> United States Minister to Turkey.<br /> <br /> gives the<br /> <br /> Oo<br /> <br /> AUTHORS AND THE STAGE SOCIETY,<br /> <br /> —— 1+ —<br /> <br /> HOSE members of the Society of Authors,<br /> fe whose ambitions lie in the direction of play<br /> writing would do well to bear in mind the<br /> <br /> use which they may make of the Stage Society.<br /> One of the great difficulties which beset the path<br /> of the new dramatist is the impossibility of getting<br /> his plays produced. This is not entirely the fault<br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> 204<br /> <br /> and it is not too much to say that the successful<br /> result was in great part due to the complete know-<br /> ledge of the subject which he placed unreservedly<br /> at the disposal of the British delegates.<br /> <br /> For a long period of years all those who had<br /> been officially connected with the question of<br /> International Copyright have learnt to rely upon<br /> Mr. Daldy’s knowledge and experience, which<br /> have always been given with perfect sincerity and<br /> single-mindedness. He has sought no reward nor<br /> public acknowledgment of the services thus<br /> rendered—services which were given gratuitously,<br /> and even enthusiastically, to promote the cause<br /> which he had at heart. His place will not readily<br /> be filled.<br /> <br /> H. G. BERGNE.<br /> <br /> —__—_—_—_—_——_1—__+—___——_<br /> <br /> UNITED STATES NOTES.<br /> <br /> —_1—~&gt;—+—_<br /> <br /> ISCUSSION seems to be in the literary<br /> atmosphere of America just now. Mr.<br /> Howells’s half-serious attack upon the<br /> <br /> International Copyright Act at the end of last<br /> rear was naturally not allowed to pass, his con-<br /> tentions being riddled through and through by<br /> Mr. Putnam and Mr. George Platt Brett, not to<br /> speak of various leader-writers in the literary<br /> journals. One of these last, not content with<br /> confuting the rash novelist and reproving him<br /> for the manner in which he had raised “this<br /> buried subject of discussion,” proceeded to advo-<br /> cate an amendment of the law in favour of the<br /> further protection of English and Continental<br /> authors. It was pointed out that the double<br /> type-setting provision was inserted at the bidding<br /> of mere class-interests, and that the case of trans-<br /> lated works was still unsatisfactory.<br /> <br /> Then the question of the ethics of book-selling<br /> has been on the carpet. A correspondent of the<br /> Publishers’ Weekly put the purely business view<br /> point with refreshing vigour, inveighing especially<br /> against the impolicy of recommending books to<br /> customers on any ground but that of their recorded<br /> sales. One fears that he may be right ; but his<br /> conclusion that he would prefer the epitaph ‘“ Here<br /> lies a successful bookseller ” to the proposed ‘“ He<br /> died an honest man” is surely a shade too cynical.<br /> <br /> Again, we have Mr. Charles Leonard Moore in<br /> the Dial making a venomous onslaught upon the<br /> American literary instinct, which he finds expressed<br /> in the formula “to live better and save more,”<br /> taken from an insurance prospectus. According to<br /> this writer, it is all the fault of women, commer-<br /> cialism, and the absence of outside pressure that<br /> things are so bad with our people, The result is<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> that members become college professors, and so “dry<br /> up and blow away,” whilst “poets are driven into<br /> business and artists into exile.” This is indicting<br /> a nation with a vengeance. But, as yet, we have<br /> seen no reply to it. ee<br /> <br /> The very latest hare to be started is the condition<br /> of poetry—is there a “slump” in it, and, if so, why ?<br /> This, of course, began on your side with the poet<br /> Laureate’s address. Here it has been set on foot<br /> by that vivacious periodical, the Critic, which, by<br /> the bye, has amalgamated with the Boston Literary<br /> World. As in most symposiums, the issues became<br /> rather confused, some contributors taking into con-<br /> sideration poetry, both classic and contemporary,<br /> others only the latter ; whilst to some the criterion<br /> of health is sales, to others quality also. One is<br /> glad to find on the side of those who deny the<br /> slump Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin &amp; Co. and Mr,<br /> Richard G. Badger. Mr. Clinton Scollard gives up<br /> the puzzle set him by the editor ; but most of the<br /> others are dogmatic enough. Amongst the slum-<br /> pers, Mr. Maurice F. Egan puts down the débacle<br /> to the decay of the art of home reading, the con-<br /> ventionality and academicism of the poets, and<br /> the lack of seriousness of the press. There is<br /> no doubt something in the first two causes, but the<br /> last, which is insisted upon by Mr. Cale Young Rice,<br /> but is best put by Robert Underwood Johnson, is<br /> to our thinking, the most cogent reason. Com-<br /> petent criticism of verse is badly needed in America.<br /> Not that this is sufficient to call poetry into being,<br /> if it be true that the spirit of the age is against it,<br /> and that the “gradual sophistication of the young”<br /> destroys the taste for it.<br /> <br /> One comment dropped in the course of the dis-<br /> cussion arrides us not a little. After the mournful<br /> statement that style in prose counts for almost<br /> nothing to-day, Mr. William C. Wilkinson proceeds :<br /> “ When I was a youth, successful business men<br /> deferred to authors. Authors nowadays are apt to<br /> defer to successful business men.” We confess we<br /> should enjoy the experience of being deferred to by<br /> a successful business man ; but we have our doubts<br /> as to whether there was ever author who savoured<br /> this particular morsel.<br /> <br /> The short story competition in connection with<br /> Obilier’s Weekly, the awards in whichiwere announced<br /> a short time since, presented some features of<br /> <br /> interest. Mrs. Wharton, Margaret Deland, and<br /> <br /> Mr. Alden were among the prize-winners ; but a<br /> good proportion of the nine were unknown names.<br /> Senator Lodge disagreed with his colleagues, Mr.<br /> White and Mr. Page, as to the adjudication of the<br /> first two prizes, holding that Mrs. Wharton’s “The<br /> Best Man” to be by far the best composition sent<br /> in. The fact that only four writers wrote “what<br /> might be called foreign stories” was, in Mr. White’s<br /> view, “the most hopeful thing for real literature<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> epntrnioneeR Ro wins<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> in America. (We may remark parenthetically<br /> that “a foreign book” figured at the top of the<br /> “biggest sellers ” last month).<br /> <br /> Other features of the competition were the com-<br /> plete absence of civil war stories or Indian fighting<br /> tales, and the comparative rari ty of historical<br /> setting of any kind. Modernity, in fact, largely<br /> pevailed. The judges encountered two auto-<br /> mobiles, a battleship, a big prairie-type engine, a<br /> pianola, a police scandal, a freak-woman reporter ;<br /> besides innumerable trained nurses, five o’clock<br /> commuters’ trains, and telephone buzzers.<br /> <br /> The favourite Jocale was New York, the desert<br /> west of the Rockies coming next, followed by New<br /> England and California. There was one war story,<br /> placed in the Philippines, whilst J apan and Alaska<br /> were the theatre of action in single tales.<br /> <br /> There is not much to record of the literary pro-<br /> ducts of the present year so far as it has gone yet,<br /> The highest native “big seller,” Mr. Thomas<br /> Dixon’s “The Clansman,” is a story of the South<br /> during the Reconstruction period. It has slight<br /> literary merit and is full of anachronisms, but<br /> contains some good chapters dealing with the<br /> conspiracy of the Ku Klux Klan.<br /> <br /> Much superior as literature is another Recon-<br /> struction tale, Emerson Hough’s “The Law of the<br /> Land.” It is curious as being the work of a<br /> northerner.<br /> <br /> “ Bethany,” a novel of Georgian life just pre-<br /> vious to the Civil War and touching upon it in its<br /> early stage, has the merit of sincerity and some<br /> pictorial power. The author, in this case, Thomas<br /> KE. Watson, hails from the south.<br /> <br /> Burton EE. Stevenson’s “ The Marathon<br /> Mystery,” is a capital detective story, though the<br /> accuracy of its dialect has been impugned.<br /> <br /> “ Cabbages and Kings,” by O. Henry, a book of<br /> Central American short stories, has humour and<br /> Spirit, as well as an excellent background.<br /> <br /> A notable book announced for immediate publi-<br /> cation by McClurg is the autobiography of the<br /> late Theodore Thomas, the musician.<br /> <br /> “The Self-made Man” is not yet disposed of ;<br /> “His Wife’s Letters to Her Son” is the latest<br /> pendant promised to Mr. Lorimer’s work.<br /> <br /> Mr. G. W. Winkley has published “Personal<br /> Reminiscences of John Brown, the hero,” with an<br /> introduction by Frank B. Sauborn,<br /> <br /> The new edition, for which Mr. Herbert M.<br /> Lloyd is responsible, of Lewis Morgan’s “ League<br /> of the Ho-de-no-saunee or Troquois,” is an excel-<br /> lent reprint of aninvaluable work. It has personal<br /> reminiscences of Morgan by Charles T. Porter, his<br /> collaborator, and embodies hig own corrections.<br /> Morgan’s ethnological investigations are well<br /> known, and _ their importance can scarcely be<br /> over-estimated.<br /> <br /> 205<br /> <br /> William Canfield’s « Legends of the Troquois”<br /> has a more purely literary interest, But both<br /> books deserve more than a Specialist’s public.<br /> <br /> The latest complete exposition of “The Monroe<br /> Doctrine” comes from T. B, Edgington, of the<br /> Memphis Bar. He illustrates its most recent<br /> phases, as seen in the Venezuela Boundary Case<br /> and the Panama Canal Treaty.<br /> <br /> There have appeared two volumes of Professor<br /> G. Santyana’s “The Life of Reason” ; vol. xi. of<br /> Dr. Reuben Thwaite’s « Early Western Travels,”<br /> containing Part I. of Faux’s “ Memorable Days in<br /> America ” (1819-20) ; and vol. xxi. of « The<br /> Philippine Islands,” edited by Emma H. Blair<br /> and James A. Robertson.<br /> <br /> Mr. T. Nelson Page in “&#039;The Negro” gives the<br /> great racial question calm consideration.<br /> <br /> “The Future of Road Making in America” is a<br /> symposium on an important subject by Archer B.<br /> Hulbert and others, published by the Clark<br /> Company.<br /> <br /> Mr. Henry James has consented to a kind of<br /> informal interview during his visit to America.<br /> He has been much written about of late as a<br /> matter of course.<br /> <br /> The obituary list of 1905 already includes<br /> Theodore Thomas, the creator of modern American<br /> music, whose best work was done at Chicago, but<br /> was begun at New York ; John White Chadwick,<br /> the biographer of Channing and Theodore Parker ;<br /> L. Clarke Davis, father of Richard Harding Davis,<br /> and some time editor of the Ledger ; Alpheus<br /> Spring Packarel, many years Professor at Brown<br /> University, and author of some 400 scientific<br /> monographs, many of them of international repu-<br /> tation ; and William Cowper-Prime, vice-president<br /> of the New York Metropolitan Museum, whose<br /> fine collection of wood engravings is destined for<br /> Princeton. Nor must we omit General Lewis<br /> Wallace, best known as the author of “ Ben Hur,”<br /> but who also wrote, amongst other works, “The<br /> Fair God,” a fine Mexican story, and a life of<br /> President Benjamin Harrison, a veteran of the<br /> Mexican and Civil Wars. He was some time<br /> United States Minister to Turkey.<br /> <br /> ——_+~&gt;—-<br /> <br /> AUTHORS AND THE STAGE SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> ——<br /> <br /> HOSE members of the Society of Authors,<br /> T whose ambitions lie in the direction of play<br /> writing would do well to bear in mind the<br /> <br /> use which they may make of the Stage Society.<br /> One of the great difficulties which beset the path<br /> of the new dramatist is the impossibility of getting<br /> his plays produced. This is not entirely the fault<br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> 206<br /> <br /> of the theatrical managers. The work of the<br /> beginner, even when most promising, is apt to be<br /> unsuited for obtaining solid financial success In the<br /> theatre. In play-writing, experience—especially the<br /> experience gained from an actual production—<br /> counts for so much. And if the beginner<br /> cannot get a production, how is he to get experi-<br /> ence? This is where the Stage Society can be of<br /> assistance to him. For the Stage Society does not<br /> exist to make profits but to foster and encourage<br /> drama. It gives performances of the best examples<br /> of the contemporary Continental stage in order to<br /> give its members an opportunity of seeing works<br /> of artistic value which would otherwise never see<br /> the light in a London theatre. And it also gives<br /> performances of the work of English writers who<br /> thave not hitherto had plays produced and to whom<br /> the practical instruction in technique to be learned<br /> from a production will be of value. During the<br /> -six years of its existence the Society has produced<br /> thirty plays, and of these nearly a third have been<br /> the work of English dramatists who had not<br /> previously had a play produced.<br /> <br /> It is impossible for those who have not had<br /> <br /> -experience of dramatic writing to understand the<br /> fall value which this opportunity of seeing his work<br /> performed under proper stage conditions by a<br /> picked professional cast may be to the young play-<br /> wright. To watch one’s own play day after day<br /> through rehearsal, to realise with growing clearness<br /> -where the dialogue is weak or strong, which are the<br /> the situations which “ get across the foot-lights,”<br /> -and why they do s0, is a training in the art of play-<br /> writing such as nothing else can give. Much may<br /> be gained by a careful study of good models—<br /> Ibsen, Sudermann, Brieux, Hauptman, Augier and<br /> the younger Dumas—much by constant attendance<br /> at theatres and a critical examination of the plays<br /> presented, and the way they get their effects. But<br /> nothing is quite so instructive as the discipline of<br /> watching the performances of one’s own play.<br /> ‘Owing to the cost of production, and to some<br /> extent also to the timidity of the ordinary<br /> manager where the work of a beginner is con-<br /> cerned, this discipline for the new playwright is<br /> practically unattainable in London at any of the<br /> regular theatres. It can be gained at a Stage<br /> Society production, and authors who wish to work<br /> for ne theatre would do well to bear the fact in<br /> mind.<br /> <br /> The office of the Stage Society is 9, Arundel<br /> Street, Strand, W.C., and plays should be addressed<br /> to the Hon. Librarian. All plays sent in are sure<br /> of careful consideration by the Council, and if they<br /> decide to produce a play the whole cost is borne by<br /> the Society. It is not necessary to be a member of<br /> the Society to have a play considered or performed,<br /> but all persons who are interested in the higher<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> drama, and wish to show their interest in a<br /> practical way, would do well to join. The subserip-<br /> tion of one guinea gives one seat at each of the<br /> Society’s productions, usually five in the year, and<br /> the entrance fee isone guinea. Further particulars<br /> and forms of application for membership may be<br /> obtained from the Secretary at 9, Arundel Street.<br /> <br /> ——_1——_ +<br /> <br /> CANADIAN POSTAL RATES.<br /> <br /> st<br /> <br /> AST year some articles appeared in The<br /> Author on the question of Colonial postage,<br /> with special reference to the introduction of<br /> <br /> United States magazines into Canada. These<br /> articles produced one or two questions in the<br /> <br /> House of Commons, but the answer of the Post- —<br /> <br /> master-General was not encouraging.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> At the time the Committee wrote to the Society 4<br /> <br /> of Authors in Canada and asked them to do what<br /> they could to assist the movement, and the<br /> Canadian Society has just forwarded the following<br /> resolution which has been passed by their Executive<br /> Committee :<br /> <br /> “That we, the Executive Committee of the<br /> Canadian Society of Authors, would respectfully<br /> urge upon the Postmaster-General of Great Britain<br /> the desirability of considering the question of @<br /> cheaper postal rate on newspapers and periodicals<br /> between Great Britain and the Colonies. During<br /> the last fifteen years United States periodicals have<br /> almost entirely displaced British periodicals in this<br /> market, owing to the low rate of postage charged<br /> by the United States Government. The influence<br /> on this country once exercised by British periodicals<br /> has been displaced by an influence which cannot be<br /> said to be in the interests of Imperial understand-<br /> ing and solidarity, and is hostile to the extension<br /> of British trade throughout the Colonies.”<br /> <br /> The Canadian Authors’ Society is still in its<br /> infancy, but, no doubt, will be able to accomplish<br /> vigorous work on behalf of the authors of the<br /> Dominion if it continues as it has begun.<br /> <br /> Prof. Goldwin Smith is the honorary president<br /> of the Society, the Honble. G. W. Ross is the<br /> president. The treasurer is Mr. J. A. Cooper, the<br /> editor of the Canadian Magazine. :<br /> <br /> That the Canadians do not desire the matter<br /> lie idle is evident from the following article whi<br /> appeared in the Zoronto Globe :—<br /> <br /> IMPERIAL AND AMERICAN POSTAGE.<br /> <br /> Sir George Drummond started an interesting discussion<br /> in the Senate a few days ago by moving a resolution to call<br /> the attention of the Government to the discrimination<br /> favour of American and against British periodicals 1<br /> Canada, and to affirm the principle that postal charges ©<br /> <br /> bs<br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> periodicals within the Empire should be lower than those<br /> on matter passing between it and any foreign country. Sir<br /> George gave specific instances of glaring discrimination,<br /> and pointed out the inevitable political and commercial<br /> effect of the impetus thus given to the importation of<br /> American literature and advertisements.<br /> <br /> Asa matter of fact, many magazines are sent from the<br /> United States into Canada as freight, and are distributed<br /> nere by agents, the country receiving little or no revenue<br /> from their circulation. It would be easy to make these<br /> dutiable, and go some way toward equalising conditions as<br /> between British and American magazine publishers. Those<br /> sent into this country by mail pay no postage to our<br /> Government, being carried free under the postal convention<br /> of 1875. To cancel this convention and put the country<br /> under the international postal union would considerably<br /> reduce the annual deficit of the post office department,<br /> which at present handles an immense volume of foreign<br /> periodical literature at the expense of Canada.<br /> <br /> All who took part in the debate on Sir George’s resolu-<br /> tion—Senator Scott, Sir Mackenzie Bowell, and Sir Richard<br /> Cartwright—agreed with the mover in his attitude, depre-<br /> cated the advantage afforded to the American publisher<br /> over his British competitors, and regretted the persistence<br /> of the British Government in refusing to aid in removing<br /> the discrimination against the latter. Canadians have no<br /> objection to receiving United States magazines at a cheap<br /> tate, but they would like to get British magazines of the<br /> same classes at no greater cost. It certainly does not tend<br /> to promote either Imperial feeling or British trade in<br /> Canada to have British periodicals handicapped in their<br /> circulation while American magazines with their advertise-<br /> ments are freely distributed at our expense. The Canadian<br /> Government, which forced on ocean penny postage, should<br /> be equal to finding a remedy that would be at once popular<br /> and effective.<br /> <br /> —_———_+——_2—_______<br /> <br /> BUTTER, MUSIC, AND COPYRIGHT.<br /> <br /> — +<br /> <br /> UNDRY startling reflections are suggested<br /> by the last speech from the Throne. “A<br /> Bill,” said that speech, “ will be introduced<br /> for amending the law for the prevention of the<br /> adulteration of butter.” Good: butter should<br /> certainly not be adulterated. Our masses should<br /> have good butter—or what does civilisation amount<br /> to? We are all agreed as to this; and the Bill<br /> will be passed without opposition. But then<br /> comes in the parodox: Why make a law to prevent<br /> people stealing a part of our butter, and make no<br /> law to prevent other people stealing the whole of<br /> it? You reply that such a law already exists.<br /> Butter, you point out, is well looked after, well<br /> understood. Our millions use it—or something<br /> like it—every day. Butter is quite safe. It<br /> cannot be stolen.<br /> <br /> That depends. If you permit people to steal<br /> from a man his power of purchasing butter, you<br /> permit them to steal his butter ag certainly as if<br /> they took it directly away from him in firkins or<br /> pound packages. The only difference is that, in<br /> the latter case, the theft is removed a single step<br /> from the direct taking. Mark thatstep. For that<br /> <br /> 207<br /> <br /> single step, so easy to understand—the pun was<br /> not intentional—itself so easy to remove, one<br /> would also think, makes, when it comes to practice,<br /> the most profound difference for practical politics,<br /> becomes an insuperable barrier.<br /> <br /> A casual observer, watching our legislature at<br /> work, would miss the point. He would say that<br /> the manifest object of our legislature was not to<br /> prevent acts of stealing generally, but only the<br /> stealing of particular things in a particular way ;<br /> since it does not prevent the same things being<br /> stolen if they are stolen in a roundabout way.<br /> Music, for example, may thus be the means of<br /> butter being stolen, and bread and butter.<br /> <br /> I have no excessive sense of the importance of<br /> music ; I am only an ordinary lover of it. But<br /> music afforded to me a very interesting case of<br /> this curious anomaly in our midst: that as a<br /> practical and highly-civilised nation we seem quite<br /> unable to get over that step which divides the<br /> direct stealing of our butter from the indirect<br /> stealing of it by way of music.<br /> <br /> As the case#of music illustrated this more and<br /> more for mefI began, some years ago, to be more<br /> and more fnterested in music and music-stealers.<br /> I began some time in the last century, but I shall<br /> not go further back than the year 1902. In that<br /> year, certain music publishers and others interested<br /> in music, by dint of tremendous efforts, managed<br /> to get a sort of Bill passed to prevent people<br /> stealing music, to put an end to the music-pirate.<br /> And an end to him I thought had been put when<br /> the Bill passed into law. But, as ill-luck or<br /> incompetence had it, the Bill omitted to include<br /> certain provisions which rendered it practically<br /> nugatory as a remedial measure. After all the<br /> trouble involved this was fiasco indeed. The<br /> stealing of music went on just as before; and the<br /> gentlemen interested in music—a noble Earl as<br /> their leader—put their heads together once again.<br /> Next year, 1903, they introduced another Bill<br /> which got as far as its second reading in the Lower<br /> House, and there expired of suffocation in the way<br /> we are used to seeing Bills expire. Not to be<br /> daunted, these gentlemen tried yet another Bill<br /> last year. A sort of remnant of it survived many<br /> a stormy passage till it got as far as the ‘‘ Report”<br /> stage, when it also was talked out. Its promoters<br /> had the consolation of knowing that, even had it<br /> passed, it would have been almost as useless as the<br /> Act of 1902. They finally relinquished altogether<br /> the hope of getting a private measure passed, and<br /> invoked the aid of the Government. Just before<br /> the present House met, it was, therefore, rumoured<br /> that the Home Office was to take the case of<br /> music-stealers into its charge. The House meets,<br /> plunges into the sea of fiscal, Irish, and other<br /> controversies, and we hear no more of music. The<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 208<br /> <br /> Government has to look after more important<br /> things, including its own precious existence,’ yet<br /> not forgetting even butter. gos<br /> <br /> That, up to the present, is the case for music, In<br /> which, as I said, I am not overwhelmingly<br /> interested. It only illustrates what a practical<br /> and highly-civilised nation we are. Butter—<br /> everybody’s need, the poor man’s especially—no<br /> part of it must be stolen from us. But music—<br /> one step aside from butter—resists all attempts to<br /> deal with it, to prevent people stealing it.<br /> <br /> ‘And if that is the case with music, what is likely<br /> to be the case with the whole law of Copyright<br /> in which I am greatly interested, of which music<br /> and the care of it forms only a single but significant<br /> item? To speak of it as affording any hope of<br /> present amendment seems absurd. Yet the fact of<br /> its embracing the whole subject of the due regu-<br /> lation of literary and artistic property, the fact of<br /> its largeness and importance, might lead one to<br /> imagine that it would have its vastly greater<br /> claims publicly recognised.<br /> <br /> Vain idea! The Publishers’ Association, the<br /> Copyright Association, the Authors’ Society, the<br /> majority of authors themselves, and, lastly, the<br /> very gentlemen most likely to gain by its present<br /> inadequacy, to lose by its amendment, the lawyers,<br /> all are practically unanimous in desiring its<br /> amendment. We need not go into further details.<br /> We may take it that these individuals and associ-<br /> ations represent all the important interests con-<br /> cerned. ‘They include men of such distinguished<br /> names, men of such light and leading in the world,<br /> that not only are they not likely to be wrong in<br /> their desire, but, being right, it is inconceivable<br /> that such men should have now been agitating to<br /> get a reform of copyright for more than ten years<br /> and should up to the present have got absolutely<br /> nothing.<br /> <br /> Lord Thring’s Bill recasting the whole law<br /> passed the House of Lords in 1899 and 1900. It<br /> was then sent to the Colonies for their assent,<br /> recasting, as it also did, our relations with them.<br /> Australia expressed her approval of it. Canada—<br /> our never-never land for copyright purposes—was<br /> still demurring when we last heard of it. It had<br /> been mentioned in the Speech from the Throne at<br /> the opening of Parliament in 1901. It has not<br /> been mentioned since. It appears to have expired<br /> of senile decay.<br /> <br /> Meantime, the world outside passes us by. Other<br /> nations codify their law. Little countries like Den-<br /> mark and Sweden make a step forward. Even<br /> Russia—Russia, mark you !—talks about copyright<br /> reform. Our Parliament alone, including within<br /> it several distinguished authors, the Premier<br /> himself amongst them, says nothing, does nothing.<br /> Now and then, once a year or so, to show that we<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> are still alive, an author will burst out sporadically<br /> and start some side-issue—should we retaliate on<br /> America for her treatment of us? and so forth—<br /> like a red-herring across the trail. This consoles<br /> us. And, of course, we always have the consolation<br /> of knowing that we are a practical and highly-<br /> civilised nation.<br /> W.<br /> <br /> ——_——_0—&gt;_+—___——_-<br /> <br /> NOTES ON AGREEMENTS.<br /> <br /> —1—~&gt;— + —<br /> <br /> Il.<br /> To THE PUBLISHER.<br /> <br /> That in consideration of your bearing the whole<br /> of the expenses in producing and publishing the<br /> novel written by me and _ provisionally entitled<br /> <br /> , I hereby convey to you the copyright<br /> and all rights in the said novel, and further I agree<br /> to give to you the first refusal of the next ten new and<br /> original novels I may write suitable for publication in<br /> volume form on the following terms :—<br /> <br /> 1. A royalty of ten per cent. on the trade selling price of<br /> all copies sold of the English edition, thirteen copies count-<br /> ing as twelve.<br /> <br /> 2. A royalty of one penny per copy on all sales of the<br /> Colonial edition, thirteen copies counting as twelve.<br /> <br /> 3. Ten per cent. on any sum received for the foreign<br /> rights.<br /> <br /> 4. Ten per cent. on any sum received for the American<br /> copyright with simultaneous publication.<br /> <br /> 5. In the event of any cheaper editions being published<br /> a royalty of five per cent. on the trade selling price<br /> thirteen copies counting as twelve.<br /> <br /> 6. No royalties shall be paid on any copies given away<br /> for review or other purposes.<br /> <br /> 7. In the event of the publisher disposing of copies or<br /> editions of the said novels as remainders, a royalty of five<br /> per cent. of the net amount received.<br /> <br /> 8. I guarantee to you that the said novels shall be in no<br /> way whatever violations of any existing copyrights, and<br /> that they shall contain nothing of a libellous or scandalous<br /> character, and that I will indemnify you from all suits,<br /> claims and proceedings, damages and costs which may be<br /> made, taken or incurred by or against you on the ground<br /> that the said novels are infringements of copyrights, or<br /> contain anything libellous or scandalous,<br /> <br /> From the AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> The agreement printed above will prove to all<br /> those who are versed in the usual arrangements<br /> made for the sale and purchase of literary property,<br /> the ignorance of an author of the possible value of<br /> what he is selling when he endeavours to find a<br /> publisher for his book.<br /> <br /> It is only fair to preface the following remarks<br /> by stating that in the open market the buyer will<br /> always buy as cheaply as possible, and that, there-<br /> fore, the publisher, if he be so inclined, can enter into<br /> any agreement—even the one set out above—if he<br /> can find an author willing to affix his signature.<br /> But a serious cause for complaint would arise<br /> <br /> should the publisher, before purchasing the work<br /> from the author at a ridiculously low figure, mis-<br /> represent or misdirect the author as to the value<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> Sook<br /> <br /> 3 py ee<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> of what he is selling, or lead him to suppose that<br /> an agreement which he would not otherwise make<br /> is an ordinary form of contract. There is no such<br /> evidence in the present case. The agreement has<br /> been printed in the hope that its details may reach<br /> those who have not yet written a book, but intend<br /> uo do 0, or those who have written a book and are<br /> about to enter into an arrangement for its<br /> production.<br /> <br /> However bad and however worthless an author’s<br /> first book may be, he should under no circum-<br /> stances bind himself to a publisher for a series of<br /> books under any contract, good or bad. If the<br /> book is bad and worthless, it is fair that the pub-<br /> lisher should make a contract by which he should<br /> protect himself from the chance of loss, for this is<br /> merely ordinary business caution. If any pub-<br /> lisher cares to issue from his house bad and worth-<br /> less books as a business man, there is no reason<br /> why he should lose by the transaction, but the<br /> one book should stand or fall by itself. The first<br /> book, however, with the bad contract is frequently<br /> neither bad nor worthless ; it catches the public<br /> taste and has a considerable sale. In consequence<br /> the publisher reaps a share of the profits far larger<br /> than the author’s. The book referred to in the<br /> present agreement can hardly be worthless,<br /> otherwise the publisher would not have con-<br /> sented to undertake all the cost of production.<br /> The business man does not rashly throw his money<br /> away.<br /> <br /> For a book which, presumably, at the lowest<br /> estimate is passable, the present agreement cannot<br /> be said to be satisfactory.<br /> <br /> Ten per cent. is to be paid on the ¢rade selling<br /> price of all copies sold, 13 copies counting as<br /> 12. Everyone who has-any dealings with literary<br /> property is aware that royalties, however small,<br /> frum whatever house they issue, are always paid on<br /> the published price of the book. The difference<br /> between the two stands at the ratio of about seven<br /> to twelve, or nearly fifty per cent. difference, so<br /> that if the author is paid on the /rade selling price<br /> he would get about fifty per cent. less than if he<br /> were paid on the published price of the book.<br /> The royalty is small and inadequate if paid on the<br /> published price. It is absurdly insufficient when<br /> paid on the trade selling price.<br /> <br /> On the Colonial sales a royalty of 1d. per copy<br /> is paid. This, again, is an exceedingly low<br /> royalty. The ordinary payment, when Colonial<br /> sales are made is 8d. or 4d. on every copy in<br /> sheets. One penny per copy would make the<br /> agreement between twenty-five per cent. and<br /> thirty-three and one-third per cent. lower than the<br /> usual payment.<br /> <br /> For the foreign rights the author is to receive<br /> ten per cent. Over and over again it has been<br /> <br /> 209<br /> <br /> necessary to point out in The Author that these<br /> rights should not lie with the publisher, but<br /> should be under the control of the author.<br /> <br /> Again, in Clause 5 the royalty in the case of a<br /> cheaper edition is paid on the trade selling price,<br /> 13 copies counted as 12. The same remarks<br /> passed with regard to Clause 1 refer to this<br /> clause also, Five per cent. is an absurdly low<br /> royalty in any event; and again, it is paid on<br /> the trade selling price, which makes it almost<br /> mfinitesimal.<br /> <br /> In Clause 6 no royalty is paid on copies given<br /> away for review or other purposes. No one desires<br /> a publisher to pay royalties on copies given away<br /> for review, but it is certainly advisable to have<br /> some closer definition of the two words “other<br /> purposes.”<br /> <br /> As a reward for this brilliant contract, and the<br /> sums that may accrue to the author therefrom, he<br /> is bound to indemnify the publisher in an ex-<br /> ceedingly liberal clause—Clause 8—from infringe-<br /> ment of copyright and libellous and scandalous<br /> matter.<br /> <br /> If the one book had a large sale the author<br /> would obtain no benefit, not even a royalty rising<br /> with its circulation, but this is not the only fault.<br /> The author is bound for ten books at the same<br /> price.<br /> <br /> It has come to our notice from time to time<br /> that some publishers have bound authors to them<br /> for two, or even three books, and it has been<br /> pointed out frequently what a severe tax this is<br /> upon the author—either when the contract is made<br /> on the same terms as the original contract, as in<br /> this case, or when, as sometimes occurs, the pub-<br /> lisher is to have only the option of publication of<br /> the next two or three books. It has also been<br /> shown that such an agreement is not a smart bit<br /> of business from the publisher’s point of view,<br /> for as soon as the tax is recognised by the<br /> author, and the contract at an end, he leaves<br /> the publisher. Whereas, if there had been no<br /> such clause, and the author had met with fair<br /> treatment, he would of a surety go back to the<br /> same publisher.<br /> <br /> No contract, with the exception of the present,<br /> has come before the Society by which the publisher<br /> has bound the author for ten books. If the<br /> author is bound toa publisher under an increasing<br /> royalty, or an improved agreement, there might be<br /> some temptation to enter into such a contract,<br /> although constant experience at the Society’s<br /> office would show what a heavy burden this is on<br /> the author’s powers; but the contract printed<br /> above, from the author’s point of view, wholly<br /> unsatisfactory for a first book by itself, becomes<br /> ludicrously impossible to contemplate for a series<br /> of ten. No author could make a living wage out<br />  <br /> <br /> 210<br /> <br /> of an arrangement which would bring him in such<br /> a paltry return.<br /> <br /> No words are strong enough to condemn such<br /> a disadvantageous contract from the author’s<br /> <br /> standpoint.<br /> Gee.<br /> <br /> ———_- &gt; + —___<br /> <br /> THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.<br /> <br /> 1<br /> <br /> TPNHE Librarian of Congress at Washington<br /> has issued his annual circular setting<br /> forth the amount of business done in<br /> <br /> 1904. The increase, year by year, has been steady<br /> <br /> and continued, and it must be satisfactory to the<br /> <br /> office to find that the fees collected exceed the<br /> expenditure on salaries. The fees received during<br /> the past year amount to 75,520 dollars, and the total<br /> paid in salaries to 72,531 dollars. Not only this ;<br /> but the value of the property which the United<br /> <br /> States obtains in books, maps, and other filed<br /> <br /> matter is increasingly valuable.<br /> <br /> The total number of entries during the past<br /> year were 106,577 ; books, volumes and pamphlets<br /> number 16,690; periodicals 21,041 ; and musical<br /> compbsitions 28,740.<br /> <br /> It will be seen, therefore, that musical composi-<br /> tions yield the highest total. This may be accounted<br /> for by the fact that musical compositions need<br /> not be lithographed in the United States. The<br /> publishers, therefore, taking advantage of the<br /> reciprocity, obtain copyright to a larger extent.<br /> <br /> The largest number of entries during one day<br /> occurred on January 2nd, when 4,031 titles were<br /> registered ; the smallest number on a day in June,<br /> when only 107 titles were recorded. The increase<br /> <br /> n the total of entries over those of 1908 is 7,141.<br /> <br /> The most satisfactory point which the foreign<br /> writer should note is the smoothness with which<br /> <br /> he office undertakes its enormous task. It makes<br /> no unworthy boast in stating that at 4.30 p.m. on<br /> January 3rd, 1905, all applications received during<br /> 1904 were acted upon, all registrations made, all<br /> certificates mailed.<br /> <br /> To give some idea of the extensive labour<br /> involved in carrying out this enormons work, the<br /> number of letters received at the office during the<br /> past year was 85,365—87,000 of these contained<br /> remittances—and the number of mailed matter<br /> despatched from the office was 133,244 letters.<br /> <br /> Again, these figures show an increase on the<br /> 1903 mailed matter by 7,607 letters received, and<br /> by 19,000 letters despatched.<br /> <br /> —— +<br /> <br /> THER AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> LITERATURE AND LAW IN THE UNITED<br /> STATES. *<br /> <br /> 1<br /> <br /> [ConcLUDED. ]<br /> <br /> HE recent decision of a Paris Court that<br /> phonographs infringe the musical author’s<br /> rights makes every case that has been tried<br /> <br /> either here or in America of interest. Phonographs<br /> are of so recent introduction that we have to look for<br /> previous decisions to cases analogous to them. In<br /> our case of Boosey v. Whight it was decided that a<br /> perforated musical scroll was not a “ copy” within<br /> the meaning of the Act. This followed the earlier<br /> American decision of Kennedy v. IcTammany to<br /> the same effect. Phonographs themselves then<br /> came up for judgment in the American case of<br /> Stern v. Rosey (1901), in which the defendant took<br /> two copyright songs, and had them sung into a<br /> phonograph in the usual way, thereby obtaining a<br /> “‘ master-record ” from which other records were<br /> then made. The Appeal Court held that such a<br /> record did not constitute a “copy,” basing its<br /> judgment on the fact that the marks upon the wax<br /> cylinders could not be read by the human eye, nor<br /> utilised in any way except as part of the mechanism<br /> of the phonograph.<br /> <br /> But, observe, that in such cases as these a Court<br /> is strictly confined to answering the question : Is<br /> or is not the copy alleged a “copy” within the<br /> meaning of the Act? Or, in other words, can<br /> redress be obtained by invoking the copyright law<br /> against infringers of this kind? since it cannot<br /> reasonably be contended that the rights of the<br /> composers of music are not to some extent<br /> encroached upon by means of these mechanical<br /> instruments. Indeed, the learned American judges<br /> in giving their decision felt it necessary to invoke<br /> the judgments in the previous analogous cases<br /> to support their view that there was no infringe-<br /> ment.<br /> <br /> In the German Statute, of 1901, especial cogni-<br /> sance is taken by that up-to-date people of phono-<br /> graphs, and it is provided that reproduction by<br /> means of them shall noé be held to be an infringe-<br /> ment of the right of reproduction provided that<br /> the reproduction do not as regards “strength and<br /> duration, tone and tempo, resemble a personal per-<br /> formance.” Observe the reasonableness of the<br /> German method of dealing with copyright, and<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> * Copyright Cases: A Summary of leading American<br /> Decisions on the Law of Copyright and on Literary<br /> Property, from 1891 to 1903 ; together with the Text of the<br /> United States Copyright Statute, and a Selection of Recent<br /> Copyright Decisions of the Courts of Great Britain and<br /> Canada. Compiled by Arthur 8. Hamlin. Published for<br /> the American Publishers’ Copyright League by G. P.<br /> Putnam’s Sons. 1904. $2.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> bt,<br /> a<br /> P<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 211<br /> <br /> how very little is left by it to the wltima ratio of<br /> the law. For the German Statute provides that<br /> the communication of the essential contents of a<br /> work is an infringement: This covers everything.<br /> Then come its exceptions, amongst which are placed<br /> phonographs. Such mechanical means of repro-<br /> duction it excepts because they cannot, in its<br /> opinion, resemble a personal performance. But these<br /> fast-moving times, we shortly find, get in front,<br /> even of Germany. What about the pianola ? Does<br /> it not resemble a “ personal performance”? It<br /> certainly creates a contentious something betwixt<br /> and between, not quite mechanical, not quite<br /> personal.<br /> <br /> Now with us there are two definite rights open<br /> to infringement: (1) the copyright ; and (2) the<br /> performing right. We have seen that a perforated<br /> musical scroll is not a “copy.” We cannot get<br /> any redress at law by pleading that a copyright<br /> has been infringed in this way. Well, then, can we<br /> not get redress by pleading that performing right<br /> is infringed? We come back to the Germans,<br /> who say that mechanical reproduction is to be<br /> excepted from their general rule, that any method<br /> which reproduces the essential spirit of a work is an<br /> infringement. Why ? Because “as regards strength<br /> and duration of tone and tempo” it does not<br /> resemble a personal performance. But there is,<br /> lastly, our new friend the pianola! It seems to<br /> fulfil all these conditions, certainly strength<br /> is not lacking to it. Is it not a ‘ personal per-<br /> formance ?”<br /> <br /> The fact is, what we want, what inventive<br /> brains are gradually driving us towards, is a<br /> copyright law which makes any means by which<br /> the substance or the spirit of any literary, artistic,<br /> musical, dramatic or other copyright work is repro-<br /> duced, an infringement of the author’s right.<br /> Until we get this law, aimed at protecting the<br /> substance or the spirit of the work, we shall have<br /> no peace, but be up to our necks, as we now are, in<br /> arguments about mechanics.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Ishall stop here. Mr. Hamlin’s admirable book<br /> seems, to at least a student of copyright, worthy of<br /> even a more unconscionably long notice than I<br /> have given it, for I find that, all said and done, I<br /> have only touched the leading cases in it. I have<br /> left untouched a large body of by-path cases, many<br /> of them of great interest to the student. I have<br /> not even mentioned the “ Decisions of the Treasury<br /> Department on Questions of Importation,” reveal-<br /> ing such interesting facts as that English music<br /> need not be set up in the United States in order<br /> to enjoy copyright ; and that a book, set up in the<br /> United States, may be printed elsewhere from<br /> plates [also made elsewhere? ] and yet enjoy<br /> <br /> copyright there. Nor have I touched the great<br /> questions hanging on the copyright in and impor-<br /> tation into America of foreign classics—other than<br /> English ; which would have to form the subject of<br /> a special article all to itself. For light on these-<br /> subjects, students and business men must go to<br /> Mr. Hamlin’s book.<br /> <br /> One question, however, I must not leave un-<br /> answered. ‘The courteous Editor of The Author<br /> asks me to express an opinion as to whether our<br /> Society should publish decennially, or at least quin-<br /> quennially, a compilation similar to Mr. Hamlin’s<br /> American one (whether for sale at a nominal price<br /> to “authors” or for free distribution amongst<br /> them) which would, like his, afford them an easy<br /> means of reference to what has been done in the<br /> way of copyright litigation during the preceding<br /> five or ten years.<br /> <br /> If it were a simple question of publishing such<br /> a book, or publishing none at all, [ should be dis-<br /> tinctly in favour of publishing one. Yet there<br /> would be certain objections to such a publication.<br /> The chief one is the expense it would involve<br /> falling upon a single year of the Society’s finances.<br /> The second one is almost as important: it is the<br /> inevitable tendency of cases which occurred ten,<br /> or even five, years ago to become stale and unprofit-<br /> able after such a lapse of time. This would to<br /> some extent militate against the sale of such a<br /> book supposing it to be offered for sale. There<br /> are other less striking objections with which I<br /> shall not deal at present.<br /> <br /> But these two chief objections I would propose<br /> to remove entirely by the publication, not of a<br /> book, but of a four or eight-page pamphlet, not to<br /> be published every tenth or fifth year, but every<br /> year. This, in my opinion, has everything to be<br /> said for it—very little to be said against it. It<br /> would be inexpensive ; its contents would be fresh;<br /> if it failed of support (though indeed it might well<br /> be given away to “ authors”), well, then, the experi-<br /> ment would not be repeated, and very little would<br /> have been lost. Also, the yearly parts could be<br /> bound, if desired. Not only do I see no objection to<br /> the publication of such a pamphlet, which would<br /> carefully condense, under clear titles of the actual<br /> questions at issue, the cases decided during the<br /> year, with the Society’s comments upon them, but<br /> T believe such a pamphlet would be of immense<br /> assistance to all engaged in literary or artistic<br /> work ; would enhance the value, by assisting the<br /> objects of the Society; and would, lastly, by keep-<br /> ing the subject of copyright continually before<br /> our eyes and the eyes of the public, tend to become<br /> a weighty factor in our getting at last that for<br /> which we all look so anxiously—a reform of our<br /> copyright law.<br /> <br /> CHARLES WEEKES.<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 212<br /> <br /> MUSICAL COPYRIGHT.<br /> <br /> ——<br /> <br /> R. SOUSA, in a letter to Zhe Times, is<br /> justly indignant at the unauthorised sales<br /> of copyright musical pieces which daily<br /> <br /> occur in the streets of London and other large<br /> towns, and we are thoroughly in accord with him<br /> so far as his indignation is levelled against<br /> the present legislation that exists in England.<br /> M. Messager, the author of “ Veronique” has also<br /> made a complaint on the same lines in the same<br /> paper.<br /> <br /> The question of musical copyright and the laws<br /> dealing with the subject have been so fully dis-<br /> cussed in Zhe Author that there is no need to<br /> repeat the points on which the present Acts are<br /> inadequate; but whatever righteous indignation<br /> Mr. Sousa may show he is clearly at fault when he<br /> comes to discuss the question of the Bern Con-<br /> vention and the United States Declaration. He<br /> suggests that Great Britain does not fulfil the<br /> terms of her Agreement as far as foreigners are<br /> concerned.<br /> <br /> It is a pity that the article which appeared in<br /> the Law Journal dealing with the same subject<br /> was not printed in Zhe Times also, in order that<br /> the fallacy of Mr. Sousa’s arguments might be<br /> made evident. Inthe Law Journal it is clearly<br /> pointed out that under the Bern Convention the<br /> rights granted to foreigners are the same rights as<br /> are granted to natives, and there is no doubt what-<br /> ever that inadequate as these rights are, the<br /> foreigners obtain exactly the same protection as<br /> English composers. ‘he complaints that have<br /> been raised by the two gentlemen named have been<br /> raised with an equally loud cry on former occasions<br /> by all musical composers natives of this country.<br /> This is so far as the Bern Convention is concerned,<br /> but Mr. Sousa refers to the Agreement between the<br /> United States upon terms of International Copy-<br /> right with the countries comprising the Bern<br /> Convention, including Great Britain. Every one<br /> who has studied the question of copyright knows<br /> that there is no formal agreement.<br /> <br /> United States rights are granted by a Declara-<br /> tion of the President to citizens of a country that<br /> “permits to citizens of the United States the<br /> benefit of copyright on substantially the same<br /> basis as its own citizens.” The Proclamation of<br /> the United States President has declared England<br /> to be such a country. When, however, Mr. Sousa<br /> goes further and talks of reciprocity as existing<br /> between England and the United States, he rather<br /> oversteps the mark.<br /> <br /> After the letters that have appeared in The<br /> <br /> Standard there is no need to raise the point<br /> again.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THER AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> While, however, it is clear that Mr. Sousa’s<br /> impression—that England is treating foreigners<br /> unfairly—is unfounded, we do not in any way desire<br /> to commend the present Copyright Acts as they<br /> exist. Let Mr. Sousa cancel the declaration of his<br /> President and his last state would be worse than<br /> the present.<br /> <br /> The Society has for many years been endeayvour-<br /> ing to bring about alterations, and has, on one or<br /> two occasions, obtained a certain limit of success.<br /> It is hoped that the time is not far distant when<br /> not only the British author, the British artist,<br /> the British dramatist, and the British musical com-<br /> poser will have no complaint, but that the foreigner<br /> also, who obtains advantage of our existing laws,<br /> will find them adequate.<br /> <br /> ee<br /> <br /> THE PRODUCT OF THE INTELLECT.<br /> <br /> —1+~&gt; +<br /> <br /> BRIEF account of the origin of this most<br /> valuable work will form the best introduc-<br /> tion to our notice of it.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Podesta and Scotti had acquired from the<br /> authors, A. Aroztegui and F. Pizano, two plays,<br /> “ Julian Giménez” and “Nobleza Criolla.” A<br /> certain Don Luis Anselmi thereafter produced two<br /> plays entitled, “ Julian Giménoz,” and “ Nobleza<br /> de un Criollo.” Podesta and Scotti brought an<br /> action against him for infringement of copyright,<br /> and alleged that the titles were but specimens of<br /> the species of piracy that existed in every part of<br /> Anselmi’s plays, in which the works had been<br /> very slightly altered, though in a manner by which<br /> they had been ridiculously marred. Anselmi as-<br /> serted that the works were not his, but from the<br /> pen of a “young man,” Juan J. Garay—who was<br /> not forthcoming. He also declined to submit the<br /> text of these two plays to the court. He had pre-<br /> viously refused the payment of the 10 per cent.<br /> royalties on the gross receipts, which Messrs.<br /> <br /> Podesté and Scotti had claimed ; declaring them- —<br /> <br /> selves contented to accept this customary Spanish<br /> dramatic author’s royalty without making further<br /> claims for compensation.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The cause was tried, in the first instance, before on<br /> <br /> Dr. Ernesto Quesada, who gave sentence for the<br /> plaintiffs, with costs. Subsequently, this sentence<br /> was quashed, on technical grounds, by a superior<br /> court, but an appeal allowed. Pending this appeal<br /> <br /> Dr. Ernesto Quesada has published his judgment =<br /> —which forms the first and most important part .<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Dr. Ernesto Quesada.<br /> <br /> pp. xvi., 496.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “La Propriedad Intellectual en :<br /> el derecho Argentino.” Buenos Aires. J, Menedez, 8<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> of the work—together with a mass of documents<br /> in support of the sentence.<br /> <br /> The learned judge has had the courtesy to send<br /> us a copy of his book, and we have no hesitation<br /> in saying that no more luminous, valuable, or sug-<br /> gestive work on literary piracy has ever been laid<br /> before us. That the judge’s sentence is lucid and<br /> masterly is but a small part of its merit. With an<br /> intellectual insight, too often conspicuous by its<br /> absence in legal declarations, Dr. Quesada unfolds<br /> widely elemental views of the essential nature of<br /> property, and of the logical essence of proprietor-<br /> ship and of its rights in the case of intellectual<br /> productions. His theses are such that we shall not<br /> be surprised if his work becomes, among Southern<br /> American jurists, the classical authority on copy-<br /> right and piracy.<br /> <br /> The valuable nature of his conclusions will be<br /> more fully appreciated when it is mentioned that<br /> the Argentine Republic has no statute law ruling<br /> copyright. Nothing daunted by this, Dr. Quesada<br /> lays down the doctrine that literary property is<br /> implied by Article 17 of the Constitution—that in<br /> the application of the civil law to civil delinquen-<br /> cies affecting copyright, the dispositions of the<br /> Constitution must be interpreted in an extensive,<br /> and not ina restrictive sense—and that the absence<br /> of statute must not be interpreted to mean that no<br /> rights exist, because their existence is involved in<br /> the terms of the Constitution, whose articles<br /> cannot be set aside. He further appeals to the<br /> Convention of Montevideo, to which the Argentine<br /> Republic is a signatory, with the consequence that<br /> its provisions now have legal force in the Republic.<br /> And he then continues :<br /> <br /> “Liberty of intellectual theft has two conse-<br /> quences. It propagates, generally, by means of<br /> detestable translations, an unwholesome literature<br /> of an inferior character, not alone perfectly inade-<br /> quate to raise the national intelligence, but inade-<br /> quate even to maintain it at its present level. And<br /> it prevents national productions in the way of arts<br /> and letters from meeting with support and oppor-<br /> tunities of development ; because they are crushed<br /> in the competition with the foreign matter of the<br /> kind above mentioned.”<br /> <br /> Equally deserving of attention is another passage,<br /> for which the Argentine Society of Authors tendered<br /> their special thanks to Dr. Quesada, acknow-<br /> ledging the service that he had done the cause of<br /> ‘literature.<br /> <br /> “When a man has passed sleepless nights in con-<br /> ceiving and shaping a piece for the theatre, and has<br /> brought his work to a successful result, it is an<br /> indefensible action for some scribbler to snatch the<br /> fruits of his labour in some underhand way, by<br /> <br /> ‘Inaking pro pane lucrando a travesty of his work in<br /> <br /> which it is barely disguised. It is impossible to<br /> <br /> 218<br /> <br /> leave actions of this kind unpunished ; it is indis-<br /> pensable that the law should strike with implacable<br /> rigour all persons guilty of similar proceedings,<br /> placing them in the same category as highwaymen<br /> who rob the traveller of his money and laugh at<br /> his expostulations, under the impression that no<br /> power exists which can punish them.”<br /> <br /> Whilst expressing our admiration for the insight<br /> that abounds in Dr. Quesada’s judgment, we should<br /> be doing his work an injustice did we not add that<br /> the appendix contains a mass of matter whose<br /> interest is second only to the actual sentence which<br /> it is adduced to support. Here we find various<br /> appreciations of Dr. Quesada’s judgment, expressed<br /> in influential quarters ; and then under the head<br /> of “General Bibliography,” a vast and carefully<br /> digested mass of documents that cover the whole of<br /> the law of the Republic, bearing in any way upon<br /> the subject under dispute, together with’a collection<br /> of cases of a similar character.<br /> <br /> In a word this is an addition to the literature of<br /> copyright of primary importance ; and one that will<br /> be found equally valuable to the legist, and to the<br /> student of the wider questions which are involved<br /> in the conception of intellectual property.<br /> <br /> —_———_—__&gt;—__—_.<br /> <br /> INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT.*<br /> <br /> —+<br /> <br /> VERYONE who is interested in international<br /> publication and copyright—whether his<br /> point of view is commercial, literary, or<br /> <br /> social—naturally often feels the need of some<br /> handy volume which will furnish him with the<br /> main facts of the home, colonial, and international<br /> enactments of the various countries which have<br /> legislated on copyright. Professor Réthlisberger,<br /> of Bern, in his littie manual above named, of<br /> which the second edition is lying before us, has<br /> compiled exactly the sort of work which was<br /> wanted to meet these requirements. Here are set<br /> forth all the principal enactments of the various<br /> legislations, thus gathered into a repertoire that<br /> amply furnishes all the information that will be in<br /> any ordinary circumstances required, and indeed<br /> in most cases sufficient to spare the enquirer the<br /> trouble of consulting any more extensive work,<br /> Anyone with Professor Réthlisberger’s book in his<br /> hands will have need to turn to official documents<br /> and lengthy legal treatises only where troublesome<br /> minutize are involved, or when a necessity arises<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> * Ernst Rothlisberger. ‘ Gesetze iiber das Urheberrecht<br /> in allen Liindern nebst den darauf beziiglichen Inter-<br /> nationalen Vertrigen und die Bestimmungen tiber das<br /> Verlagsrecht.” Zweite Auflage, Leipzig. G, Hedeler, 8°.<br />  <br /> <br /> 914<br /> <br /> for bringing matters under the jurisdiction of the<br /> courts.<br /> <br /> In the earlier part of the work the legal enact-<br /> ments of the various countries of the world are<br /> arranged under the name of the States placed in<br /> alphabetical order. After this follow various<br /> international conventions; _ first, that of Bern,<br /> and then that of Montevideo, each one of which<br /> comprises a considerable number of different States,<br /> and then the particular conventions between<br /> various pairs of countries. Thus the British<br /> author can at a glance learn from the book with<br /> which States Great Britain is treaty bound, what<br /> are the exact terms on which copyright can be<br /> secured in the United States, and that the only<br /> other direct convention affecting Great Britain is<br /> the particular convention (1893) with Austria-<br /> Hungary. Indirect obligations which might arise<br /> between different countries will be also seen to bea<br /> more complicated matter. Thus England is by<br /> the Bern Convention bound up with Italy. Italy<br /> has conventions with Mexico, Montenegro, and<br /> Paraguay. A delicate problem might in conse-<br /> quence arise respecting the status in these<br /> dominions of an Italian translation of an English<br /> work. Great Britain is bound by no copyright<br /> treaty with the Union of Montevideo. But France,<br /> to which Great Britain is bound by the Bern Con-<br /> vention, has given her adhesion to the South<br /> American Union of Montevideo. How would that<br /> affect English translations of French works, made<br /> in London, if introduced into the States signatory<br /> to the Montevideo Convention ? Professor Roth-<br /> lisberger’s little work can, of course, only reveal<br /> the possibilities of these complications. In reality,<br /> no satisfactory solution of them will be found until<br /> the whole world is united in one uniform and all-<br /> embracing agreement.<br /> <br /> The various statutes of different countries,<br /> with their extraordinarily different provisions,<br /> present interesting phenomena—often revealing<br /> characteristic features. The Turkish Empire<br /> allows an author the imposing privilege of a copy-<br /> right (transferable to his heirs and assigns), which<br /> lasts four years—if the work is of large size. It<br /> must contain not less than 800 pages, nor less<br /> than thirty-five lines on a page. Great Britain<br /> alone enjoys a complicated method of calculating<br /> the duration of copyright, based upon alternatives,<br /> and capable of vying in inconvenience with her<br /> “weights and measures.” France, Germany, and<br /> Spain are by far more liberal in the protection<br /> accorded intellectual work ; Spain the most liberal<br /> of all. And Guatemala sets the whole world an<br /> example of equity in her enactment, “ The right of<br /> literary property is not time-bound : on the death<br /> of the author it passes to his heirs.” It is sad to<br /> - effect that more prominent States have not yet<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> discovered that the labour of a man’s brain is<br /> entitled at least to rank as high as the labour of his<br /> hands. But the work abounds with instances of<br /> that peculiar pusillanimity or superstition of the<br /> legal mind which seems to be incapable of looking<br /> beyond what has once been set down in a statute.<br /> <br /> Should Professor Réthlisberger’s work reach a<br /> third edition, which we sincerely hope that it may,<br /> we would suggest that its value would be enhanced<br /> by the mention of leading works in which further<br /> information can be found if desired. A complete<br /> legal bibliography would be equally out of place<br /> and impossible in a manual. But we think that<br /> under the heading of each state, a brief reference:<br /> to one or two authorities, such as is to be found at<br /> at the conclusion of the articles of a high-class<br /> encyclopedia, would, without adding much to the<br /> length of the book, render its usefulness still more<br /> universal.<br /> <br /> oo<br /> <br /> THE DICTIONARY OF MUSIC AND<br /> MUSICIANS.*<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> T is twenty-six years since the first monthly<br /> instalment of Sir George Grove’s “ Dictionary<br /> of Music and Musicians” appeared, and the<br /> <br /> fact that it came out in monthly parts caused<br /> many more musicians and amateurs to buy it than<br /> would otherwise have been the case. By issuing<br /> the revised edition of that remarkable work im<br /> volume form only, we fear Messrs. Macmillan will<br /> appeal to a smaller public of purchasers than did<br /> Sir George. This is to be regretted, because as &amp;<br /> work of reference the new edition, judging by the<br /> first volume just published, is a great improvement<br /> on its predecessor. Without tampering with the<br /> <br /> masterly notices of Beethoven and other great<br /> composers of the original issue, glaring omissions, —<br /> such as the biography of Bononcini, Handel&#039;s —<br /> rival, have been corrected. The present edition oe<br /> contains a most interesting article on acoustics —<br /> which should never have been omitted from the |<br /> first issues ; and Bach, Berlioz, Brahms, and Chopin, —<br /> inadequately treated in the first edition, are noW —<br /> as is their due, dealt with at greater length. |<br /> The editor in his preface states that the average<br /> country organist will not find his name in the new<br /> edition more than in the old. Every editor of @<br /> book of this kind is bound to meet with com-—<br /> plaints of omission and of inadequate treatment.<br /> But, if the remaining volumes are edited with the<br /> care and diligence of the first, even the most —<br /> captious critic ought to be satisfied. No one —<br /> really interested in music should be without such<br /> a<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> * “Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians,” edited — :<br /> by Fuller Maitland. Macmillan &amp; Co. :<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Foe<br /> RS<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> awork of reference. But what is of special interest<br /> to members of the Society—both musical com-<br /> posers and authors—is the article dealing with<br /> musical copyright. Six columns have been devoted<br /> to this subject, and the difficulties surrounding<br /> musical publication are clearly explained.<br /> <br /> The rights of the composer are more complicated<br /> than the rights of the author, owing to the fact<br /> that he holds the performing right as well as the<br /> right of publication ; and more complicated than<br /> the rights of the dramatist, for, although the<br /> dramatist owns both the right of publication and<br /> the right of performance, the former is not very<br /> often used, and the latter is more easily dealt with<br /> owing to the fact that there are fewer people who<br /> are able to conduct a dramatic performance than<br /> there are able to play a piece of music on a piano<br /> or some other instrument. These two rights—the<br /> copyright, that is, the right of duplicating copies<br /> and the performing right—are clearly and definitely<br /> separated. In order to obtain copyright in music<br /> it is essential that it must be original, but the<br /> courts have interpreted the word “ original” in a<br /> wide sense. As in the infringement of literary<br /> copyright everything must depend upon the<br /> particular facts of each case, so here to quote<br /> all the leading cases in order to convey a fair idea<br /> of the decisions would have been impossible, the<br /> necessary explanation is therefore somewhat cur-<br /> tailed. The author of the article maintains that<br /> publication before performance does not deprive<br /> the composer or his assigns of the performing<br /> right. We agree with him in adopting this view<br /> of the case, and think this is the proper interpre-<br /> tation of the law, but some writers on the subject<br /> have doubted this.<br /> <br /> Although the book is dated 1904, it is difficult<br /> to know the exact dates on which the different<br /> articles went to press. In referring to inter-<br /> national copyright, no mention is made of<br /> Denmark and Sweden’s adhesion to the Bern<br /> Convention. The omission of Sweden is, perhaps,<br /> excusable, as it only joined in August, 1904, but<br /> Denmark should certainly have been included<br /> among the countries named.<br /> <br /> The author refers to the decision in the courts<br /> which declared that the manufacture and sale of<br /> instruments for the mechanical reproduction of<br /> copyright airs is not a breach of musical copyright.<br /> This decision is clearly correct. ‘The infringement<br /> was, without doubt, an infringement of the per-<br /> forming right, and if musicians and composers<br /> took the same care of preserving their performing<br /> rights that dramatists do, they could, no doubt,<br /> make a considerable income, but many are very<br /> indifferent in this matter, and freely assign to the<br /> publisher what they ought to retain themselves, and<br /> the publisher, more intent on the reproduction<br /> <br /> 215<br /> <br /> of the copyright than on the preservation of the<br /> performing rights, takes little interest in the issue.<br /> <br /> There is one advantage that musical composers<br /> obtain with regard to reproduction in the United<br /> States, namely, the fact that the copies to be sent<br /> to the Library of Congress in accordance with the<br /> United States Act, need not be printed in the<br /> United States. This must have been an uninten-<br /> tional omission on the part of the Government of<br /> that country, as it has clung so tenaciously ever<br /> since the Act was passed to what it erroneously<br /> considers to be the protection of the printing<br /> trade.<br /> <br /> The second part of the article refers to the<br /> infringement of musical rights. The infringe-<br /> ment of copyright follows the same lines as the<br /> infringement of literary copyright, but the infringe-<br /> ment of performing right, owing to the facts<br /> which we have already mentioned, has especial<br /> legislation. For the benefit of the public anyone<br /> is entitled to perform a piece unless a notice<br /> specially reserving the right is printed on every<br /> copy published. ‘he statutes necessary to carry<br /> out this regulation are fully explained.<br /> <br /> Finally, the article deals with the Musical<br /> Summary Proceedings Act, 1902, and explains<br /> how those desirous of acting under that inadequate<br /> statute should carry out their intention.<br /> <br /> G. HT,<br /> ee<br /> SENOR MANUEL GARCIA, C.V.O.<br /> <br /> T is appropriate that the Centenary of Sefor<br /> Manuel Garcia should have occurred in 1905<br /> at the time of the celebration of the Ter-<br /> <br /> centenary of Cervantes, “ Don Quixote,” and when<br /> Spain is congratulating herself that her veteran<br /> dramatist, Echegaray, shares with the Provengal<br /> poet, Mistral, the last Nobel prize for literature,<br /> <br /> So much has the success of Sefior Garcia as a<br /> teacher of singing been drawn attention to by the<br /> press, that it is fitting to note, in these columns,<br /> that the maestro, who has been a member of the<br /> Society of Authors for some years, owes not a<br /> little of his distinction to the power of the pen.<br /> <br /> It was his treatise entitled “Mémoire sur la<br /> Voix Humaine” (afterwards given in London<br /> as ‘“¢ Physiological Observations on the Human<br /> Voice’) presented to the French Institut in<br /> 1840, which brought him the formal congratu-<br /> lations of the Académie, and was the foundation<br /> of most of the later investigations into the vocal<br /> organ.<br /> <br /> His international reputation, as the most famous<br /> teacher of song of our own time and the generation<br /> preceding our own, was, moreover, considerably<br /> enhanced by the publication of his “ Traité complet<br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> 914<br /> <br /> for bringing matters under the jurisdiction of the<br /> courts.<br /> <br /> In the earlier part of the work the legal enact-<br /> ments of the various countries of the world are<br /> arranged under the name of the States placed in<br /> alphabetical order. After this follow various<br /> international conventions; first, that of Bern,<br /> and then that of Montevideo, each one of which<br /> comprises a considerable number of different States,<br /> and then the particular conventions between<br /> various pairs of countries. Thus the British<br /> author can at a glance learn from the book with<br /> which States Great Britain is treaty bound, what<br /> are the exact terms on which copyright can be<br /> secured in the United States, and that the only<br /> other direct convention affecting Great Britain is<br /> the particular convention (1883) with Austria-<br /> Hungary. Indirect obligations which might arise<br /> between different countries will be also seen to bea<br /> more complicated matter. Thus England is by<br /> the Bern Convention bound up with Italy. Italy<br /> has conventions with Mexico, Montenegro, and<br /> Paraguay. A delicate problem might in conse-<br /> quence arise respecting the status in these<br /> dominions of an Italian translation of an English<br /> work. Great Britain is bound by no copyright<br /> treaty with the Union of Montevideo. But France,<br /> to which Great Britain is bound by the Bern Con-<br /> vention, has given her adhesion to the South<br /> American Union of Montevideo. How would that<br /> affect English translations of French works, made<br /> in London, if introduced into the States signatory<br /> to the Montevideo Convention ? Professor Réth-<br /> lisberger’s little work can, of course, only reveal<br /> the possibilities of these complications. In reality,<br /> no satisfactory solution of them will be found until<br /> the whole world is united in one uniform and all-<br /> embracing agreement.<br /> <br /> The various statutes of different countries,<br /> with their extraordinarily different provisions,<br /> present interesting phenomena—often revealing<br /> characteristic features. The Turkish Empire<br /> allows an author the imposing privilege of a copy-<br /> right (transferable to his heirs and assigns), which<br /> lasts four years—if the work is of large size. It<br /> must contain not less than 800 pages, nor less<br /> than thirty-five lines on a page. Great Britain<br /> alone enjoys a complicated method of calculating<br /> the duration of copyright, based upon alternatives,<br /> and capable of vying in inconvenience with her<br /> “weights and measures.” France, Germany, and<br /> Spain are by far more liberal in the protection<br /> accorded intellectual work ; Spain the most liberal<br /> of all. And Guatemala sets the whole world an<br /> example of equity in her enactment, “ The right of<br /> literary property is not time-bound : on the death<br /> of the author it passes to his heirs.” It is sad to<br /> - eflect that more prominent States have not yet<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> discovered that the labour of a man’s brain ig:<br /> entitled at least to rank as high as the labour of his<br /> hands. But the work abounds with instances of<br /> that peculiar pusillanimity or superstition of the<br /> legal mind which seems to be incapable of looking<br /> beyond what has once been set down in a statute,<br /> <br /> Should Professor Réthlisberger’s work reach a<br /> third edition, which we sincerely hope that it may,<br /> we would suggest that its value would be enhanced<br /> by the mention of leading works in which further<br /> information can be found if desired. A complete<br /> legal bibliography would be equally out of place<br /> and impossible in a manual. But we think that<br /> under the heading of each state, a brief reference:<br /> to one or two authorities, such as is to be found at<br /> at the conclusion of the articles of a high-class.<br /> encyclopedia, would, without adding much to the<br /> length of the book, render its usefulness still more<br /> <br /> universal.<br /> ————_—_ + ——_-—__—__—<br /> <br /> THE DICTIONARY OF MUSIC AND<br /> MUSICIANS.*<br /> <br /> +<br /> <br /> T is twenty-six years since the first monthly<br /> instalment of Sir George Grove’s “ Dictionary<br /> of Music and Musicians” appeared, and the<br /> <br /> fact that it came out in monthly parts caused<br /> many more musicians and amateurs to buy it tham<br /> would otherwise have been the case. By issuing<br /> the revised edition of that remarkable work im<br /> volume form only, we fear Messrs. Macmillan will<br /> appeal to a smaller public of purchasers than did<br /> Sir George. This is to be regretted, because as &amp;<br /> work of reference the new edition, judging by the<br /> first volume just published, is a great improvement<br /> on its predecessor. Without tampering with the<br /> masterly notices of Beethoven and other great<br /> composers of the original issue, glaring omissions,<br /> such as the biography of Bononcini, Handel’s<br /> rival, have been corrected. The present edition<br /> contains a most interesting article on acoustics<br /> which should never have been omitted from the<br /> first issues ; and Bach, Berlioz, Brahms, and Chopin,<br /> inadequately treated in the first edition, are now<br /> as is their due, dealt with at greater length. -<br /> <br /> The editor in his preface states that the average<br /> country organist will not find his name in the new<br /> edition more than in the old. Every editor of @<br /> book of this kind is bound to meet with com-<br /> plaints of omission and of inadequate treatment.<br /> But, if the remaining volumes are edited with the<br /> care and diligence of the first, even the most<br /> captious critic ought to be satisfied. No one<br /> really interested in music should be without such<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> * “@rove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians,” edited<br /> by Fuller Maitland, Macmillan &amp; Co.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> iy<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THER AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> a work ofreference. But what is of special interest<br /> to members of the Society—both musical com-<br /> posers and authors—is the article dealing with<br /> musical copyright. Six columns have been devoted<br /> to this subject, and the difficulties surrounding<br /> musical publication are clearly explained.<br /> <br /> The rights of the composer are more complicated<br /> than the rights of the author, owing to the fact<br /> that he holds the performing right as well as the<br /> right of publication ; and more complicated than<br /> the rights of the dramatist, for, although the<br /> dramatist owns both the right of publication and<br /> the right of performance, the former is not very<br /> often used, and the latter is more easily dealt with<br /> owing to the fact that there are fewer people who<br /> are able to conduct a dramatic performance than<br /> there are able to play a piece of music on a piano<br /> or some other instrument. These two rights—the<br /> copyright, that is, the right of duplicating copies<br /> and the performing right—are ciearly and definitely<br /> separated. In order to obtain copyright in music<br /> it is essential that it must be original, but the<br /> courts have interpreted the word “ original” in a<br /> wide sense. As in the infringement of literary<br /> copyright everything must depend upon the<br /> particular facts of each case, so here to quote<br /> all the leading cases in order to convey a fair idea<br /> of the decisions would have been impossible, the<br /> necessary explanation is therefore somewhat cur-<br /> tailed. The author of the article maintains that<br /> publication before performance does not deprive<br /> the composer or his assigns of the performing<br /> right. We agree with him in adopting this view<br /> of the case, and think this is the proper interpre-<br /> tation of the law, but some writers on the subject<br /> have doubted this.<br /> <br /> Although the book is dated 1904, it is difficult<br /> to know the exact dates on which the different<br /> articles went to press. In referring to inter-<br /> national copyright, no mention is made of<br /> Denmark and Sweden’s adhesion to the Bern<br /> Convention. The omission of Sweden is, perhaps,<br /> excusable, as it only joined in August, 1904, but<br /> Denmark should certainly have been included<br /> among the countries named.<br /> <br /> The author refers to the decision in the courts<br /> which declared that the manufacture and sale of<br /> instruments for the mechanical reproduction of<br /> copyright airs is not a breach of musical copyright.<br /> This decision is clearly correct. The infringement<br /> was, without doubt, an infringement of the per-<br /> forming right, and if musicians and composers<br /> took the same care of preserving their performing<br /> rights that dramatists do, they could, no doubt,<br /> make a considerable income, but many are very<br /> indifferent in this matter, and freely assign to the<br /> publisher what they ought to retain themselves, and<br /> the publisher, more intent on the reproduction<br /> <br /> 215<br /> <br /> of the copyright than on the preservation of the<br /> performing rights, takes little interest in the issue.<br /> <br /> There is one advantage that musical composers<br /> obtain with regard to reproduction in the United<br /> States, namely, the fact that the copies to be sent<br /> to the Library of Congress in accordance with the<br /> United States Act, need not be printed in the<br /> United States. This must have been an uninten-<br /> tional omission on the part of the Government of<br /> that country, as it has clung so tenaciously ever<br /> since the Act was passed to what it erroneously<br /> considers to be the protection of the printing<br /> trade.<br /> <br /> The second part of the article refers to the<br /> infringement of musical rights. The infringe-<br /> ment of copyright follows the same lines as the<br /> infringement of literary copyright, but the infringe-<br /> ment of performing right, owing to the facts<br /> which we have already mentioned, has especial<br /> legislation. For the benefit of the public anyone<br /> is entitled to perform a piece unless a_ notice<br /> specially reserving the right is printed on every<br /> copy published. ‘he statutes necessary to carry<br /> out this regulation are fully explained.<br /> <br /> Finally, the article deals with the Musical<br /> Summary Proceedings Act, 1902, and explains<br /> how those desirous of acting under that inadequate<br /> statute should carry out their intention.<br /> <br /> G. der.<br /> <br /> a eee ae<br /> <br /> SENOR MANUEL GARCIA, C.Y.O.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> T is appropriate that the Centenary of Senor<br /> Manuel Garcia should have occurred in 1905<br /> at the time of the celebration of the Ter-<br /> <br /> centenary of Cervantes, “‘ Don Quixote,’ and when<br /> Spain is congratulating herself that her veteran<br /> dramatist, Echegaray, shares with the Proyengal<br /> poet, Mistral, the last Nobel prize for literature.<br /> <br /> So much has the success of Sefior Garcia as a<br /> teacher of singing been drawn attention to by the<br /> press, that it is fitting to note, in these columns,<br /> that the maestro, who has been a member of the<br /> Society of Authors for some years, owes not a<br /> little of his distinction to the power of the pen.<br /> <br /> It was his treatise entitled ‘‘Mémoire sur la<br /> Voix Humaine” (afterwards given in London<br /> as ‘ Physiological Observations on the Human<br /> Voice’’) presented to the French Institut in<br /> 1840, which brought him the formal congratu-<br /> lations of the Académie, and was the foundation<br /> of most of the later investigations into the vocal<br /> organ.<br /> <br /> His international reputation, as the most famous<br /> teacher of song of our own time and the generation<br /> preceding our own, was, moreover, considerably<br /> enhanced by the publication of his ‘ Traite complet<br />  <br /> <br /> 216<br /> <br /> de PArt du Chant,” which was translated into<br /> English and nearly every other European language.<br /> <br /> It is easy to understand why, if a giant of<br /> physique—such as the Russian exhibited daily at<br /> one of the London music halls—is attractive to the<br /> multitude, a giant of longevity, of the intellectual<br /> distinction of Manuel Garcia, should be so exceed-<br /> ingly interesting. That the sovereigns of Spain,<br /> England, and Germany have bestowed honours on<br /> him when giving their congratulations was to be<br /> expected.<br /> <br /> To Englishmen of the present day it seems<br /> incredible that we have, living amongst us, in<br /> good mental and physical health, a naturalised<br /> compatriot, who was born in the year of Trafalgar,<br /> when Pitt and Fox were living and George Ill.<br /> was King. Garcia was ten years of age when<br /> Waterloo was fought, fourteen when Queen Victoria<br /> was born, nineteen when Byron and twenty-seven<br /> when Scott died. Consequently, when he feels<br /> inclined, he can talk about Keats, Shelley, Charles<br /> Lamb, Tom Hood, Edgar Allan Poe, Wordsworth,<br /> Sam Rogers, de Quincey, Thackeray, Dickens, and<br /> other of his long since departed contemporaries, as<br /> if they lived but yesterday.<br /> <br /> To the musician of to-day, who shakes the hand<br /> of the illustrious maestro, that hand appears to<br /> be a connecting link that is even more wonderful,<br /> for Manuel Garcia was born at Zafra (not<br /> Madrid, as stated by Grove) in the year when<br /> Beethoven’s only opera, “ Fidelio,” and the great<br /> “‘ Eroica” symphony were first produced at Vienna.<br /> Haydn was then living. Garcia came into the<br /> world before either Balfe or Wallace, who seem, to<br /> the musician of to-day, to have lived in almost<br /> antediluvian times. Think of it! He was senior to<br /> Mendelssohn, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, Thalberg,<br /> and that other great teacher of singing, Lamperti,<br /> who lived to a good old age, but went over to the<br /> majority thirteen years since.<br /> <br /> When Verdi and Wagner were born, Garcia was<br /> already eight years old. He was eleven when<br /> Sir William Sterndale Bennett came into the<br /> world. Consequently, he was a good deal older<br /> than Gounod, and was already fifteen when his<br /> most famous pupil, Jenny Lind, drew her first<br /> breath. She died eighteen years ago at the age<br /> of sixty-seven. Then, Garcia was seventeen when<br /> Sims Reeves was born.<br /> <br /> When one thinks of the interesting volumes of<br /> reminiscences which have been given to the world<br /> by comparatively minor musicians, the hope is that<br /> this famous centenarian, whilst his memory is still<br /> active, will not omit to record his impressions of<br /> and correspondence with the great ones of the<br /> artistic world whom he has met. The distinguished<br /> son ought to have much interesting matter to tell<br /> the world concerning that extraordinary singer,<br /> <br /> THER AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> his father, Emmanuel Garcia, who was born in<br /> 1775. To the veteran whom King Edward has<br /> recently honoured, his father’s recollections of<br /> Mozart, Haydn, Cherubini, Paganini, Auber, and<br /> the great singers of the eighteenth century, must<br /> be familiar. And, if the centenarian himself is<br /> now disinclined to undertake the labour of writing<br /> an autobiography, his grandson, who is well<br /> known as a singer, would doubtless readily act<br /> as amanuensis,<br /> ALGERNON Ross.<br /> <br /> CORRESPONDENCE.<br /> <br /> ——&gt;— + —<br /> <br /> PUBLISHERS’ DELAYS.<br /> <br /> Sir,—I think it will help to interest your<br /> readers, and to emphasise the importance of what<br /> you are always urging, if I mention three “ tricks”<br /> which have just been played on me :—<br /> <br /> 1. After a promise to publish immediately, and<br /> urgent letters requesting the MS. at once, a pub-<br /> lisher delays the publication for many months.<br /> Nowadays a book runs the risk of being not the<br /> best expression of the author&#039;s views if it is delayed<br /> even three months.<br /> <br /> 2. Owing to the author’s usual six presentation<br /> copies being taken for granted, the publisher<br /> refuses to supply them.<br /> <br /> 3. “Advance on royalties,” assumed by the<br /> author to have its usual sense of advance on receipt<br /> of MS., or on passing of proofs, or on publication,<br /> is interpreted as meaning “ (?) advance when books<br /> are made up ”—which is nearly a year, in this case,<br /> after receipt of MS., and nearly six months after<br /> publication.<br /> <br /> Moral.—Never tolerate a general agreement.<br /> Insist that every detail, however commonplace<br /> and obvious, shall be down in black and white.<br /> Do not lead the publishers into temptation.<br /> <br /> E. M.<br /> <br /> Wis’ “ CHARLES THE First.”<br /> <br /> Sir,—Sir Henry Irving must have forgotten that<br /> “ Qharles the First” was published (by Blackwood, I<br /> think,) when it was first produced at the Lyceum,<br /> I had a copy but have mislaid it. It is Wills<br /> <br /> “ Olivia ” I am hoping some day to see in print.<br /> 8. M. Fox.	https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/504/1905-04-01-The-Author-15-7.pdf	publications, The Author
505	https://historysoa.com/items/show/505	The Author, Vol. 15 Issue 08 (May 1905)	<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=%3Cem%3EThe+Author%3C%2Fem%3E%2C+Vol.+15+Issue+08+%28May+1905%29"><em>The Author</em>, Vol. 15 Issue 08 (May 1905)</a>											<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Publication">Publication</a>	1905-05-01-The-Author-15-8					217–248																		<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=89&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=15">15</a>											<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=76&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1905-05-01">1905-05-01</a>							8			19050501	Che Huthor.<br /> <br /> (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)<br /> <br /> FOUNDED BY SIR<br /> <br /> WALTER BESANT.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Vou. XV.—No. 8.<br /> <br /> May ist, 1905.<br /> <br /> [Prick SIXPENCE.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> TELEPHONE NUMBER :<br /> 374 VICTORIA.<br /> <br /> TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS :<br /> AUTORIDAD, LONDON.<br /> <br /> ————_—~&lt;+-—<br /> <br /> NOTICES.<br /> <br /> ta<br /> <br /> OR the opinions expressed in papers that are<br /> RK signed or initialled the authors alone are<br /> responsible. None of the papers or para-<br /> graphs must be taken as expressing the opinion<br /> of the Committee unless such is especially stated<br /> to be the case.<br /> <br /> Tue Editor begs to inform members of the<br /> Authors’ Society and other readers of The Author<br /> that the cases which are from time to time quoted<br /> in The Author are cases that have come before the<br /> notice or to the knowledge of the Secretary of the<br /> Society, and that those members of the Society<br /> who desire to have the names of the publishers<br /> concerned can obtain them on application.<br /> <br /> +<br /> <br /> List of Members.<br /> <br /> Tux List of Members of the Society of Authors<br /> published October, 1902, at the price of 6d., and<br /> the elections from October, 1902, to July, 1903, as<br /> a supplemental list, at the price of 2d., can now be<br /> obtained at the offices of the Society.<br /> <br /> They will be sold to members or associates of<br /> the Society only.<br /> <br /> Set tae oe ee<br /> <br /> The Pension Fund of the Society.<br /> <br /> THE Trustees of the Pension Fund met at the<br /> Society’s Offices in February, 1904, and having<br /> gone carefully into the accounts of the fund,<br /> decided to purchase £250 London and North<br /> Western 3% Debenture Stock. Accordingly, the<br /> Mvestments of the Pension Fund at present<br /> <br /> Vou. XV.<br /> <br /> ,<br /> <br /> standing in the names of the Trustees are as<br /> follows.<br /> <br /> This is a statement of the actual stock; the<br /> money value can be easily worked out at the current<br /> price of the market :—<br /> <br /> Consols 24% £1000 0 0<br /> EO AOE ee es 500 0 0<br /> Victorian Government 3 % Consoli-<br /> <br /> dated Inscribed Stock ............... 291 19 14<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Waroan 201. 9 3<br /> <br /> London and North Western 3 % Deben-<br /> LOte StOCK 3 6, 250 0 0<br /> Total: oe £2,243 9 2<br /> <br /> Subscriptions, 1905.<br /> &amp; is. ad.<br /> Jan. 12, Anonymous . 0 2 6<br /> Donations, 1905. a<br /> Jan. , Middlemas, Miss Jean 010 0<br /> Jan. , Bolton, Miss Anna : - 0-5 6<br /> Jan. 24, Barry, Miss Fanny . : - 07 6 0<br /> Jan. 27, Bencke, Albert : : - 0 5 6<br /> Jan. 28, Harcourt-Roe, Mrs. . . 010 0<br /> Feb. 18, French-Sheldon, Mrs. . +0 10 0<br /> Feb. 21, Lyall, Sir Alfred, P.C. . . tf 0 0<br /> Mar. 28, Kirmse, Mrs. : - 010 0<br /> April19, Hornung, E. W. . : “25 0 6<br /> ————&quot; o&gt; —_____—__<br /> COMMITTEE NOTES.<br /> Bie<br /> <br /> HE April meeting of the committee was held<br /> at the offices of the society on the 8rd ult.,<br /> at four o’clock ; Sir Henry Bergne was in the<br /> <br /> chair. The agenda comprised a large number of<br /> matters and the sitting lasted over two hours.<br /> After the minutes of the last meeting had been<br /> read and approved, the members and associates<br /> whose names were before the committee were<br /> elected. The total number of elections during the<br /> year amounts to 74. The number elected at the<br /> April meeting was 23. The list is printed below.<br /> The committee then considered two cases against<br />  <br /> <br /> 18 THE<br /> <br /> the same publisher who, for certain reasons of his<br /> own, had withheld from authors payments shown<br /> to be due on his accounts. As the authors could<br /> not obtain a settlement they invoked the assistance<br /> of the society in order to enforce their demands.<br /> In the first case the matter had to be adjourned.<br /> It was necessary for the committee to be more<br /> fully informed respecting the exact terms of the<br /> agreement before they could come to a decision.<br /> The member, unfortunately, is resident abroad. In<br /> the second case, the committee decided to com-<br /> mence action if the author would undertake to bear<br /> a third of the expenses. This he has undertaken<br /> to do.<br /> <br /> Some months ago a judgment was obtained on<br /> behalf of one of the members of the society against<br /> a travelling theatrical manager. The solicitors of<br /> the society have, on one or two similar occasions,<br /> experienced great difficulty in making the judg-<br /> ment debtor pay. The member in this case com-<br /> plained that the judgment had only been partially<br /> satisfied, and he seemed to get no further. The<br /> committee decided to instruct the solicitors to<br /> exhaust all legal methods with a view to obtaining<br /> the amount still due, and it is hoped that, with<br /> renewed activity, the member and the judgement<br /> will be satisfied.<br /> <br /> The next case before the committee arose out of<br /> the difficulty of an author, who had paid for the<br /> production of his work, to possess himseif of his<br /> property, when the publisher became bankrupt.<br /> The binder claimed a general lien on the stock.<br /> The committee discussed the question very fully,<br /> but adjourned the matter, in order that they might<br /> gain fuller information which would enable them<br /> to decide whether or not action could be taken<br /> with advantage.<br /> <br /> The question of United States copyright was<br /> again brought forward. As the Amending Billhad<br /> passed into law at the end of the session, before it<br /> had been possible to make any satisfactory protest,<br /> the committee decided to adjourn the question until<br /> a fitting opportunity should arise. It has been<br /> reported that at the next session of congress a<br /> consolidation in the United States Copyright Laws<br /> will be taken in hand. If this information is<br /> correct, it is possible that an opportunity will then<br /> arise for taking action. In the meantime, any<br /> movement will be carefully watched. ‘The com-<br /> mittee are in a position to receive the fullest infor-<br /> mation from the most reliable sources.<br /> <br /> ‘The chairman reported that the secretary of the<br /> society had been offered the solicitorship in Eng-<br /> land of the famous French Society “la Société des<br /> Gens de Lettres,” and that as the position was<br /> practically honorary, he had sanctioned tle secre-<br /> tary’s acceptance of it. The committee approved<br /> the course the chairman had adopted.<br /> <br /> AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> A question of international copyright was<br /> placed before the committee, arising from the<br /> adherence of Sweden to the Bern Convention of<br /> 1886. Sweden has signed the Convention, but not<br /> the additional Act of Paris of 1896. Article 7 of<br /> the Bern Convention of 1886 runs as follows :—<br /> <br /> “ Articles from newspapers or periodicals published in<br /> any of the countries of the Union, may be reproduced in<br /> original or in translation in the other countries of the<br /> Union, unless the authors or publishers have expressly<br /> forbidden it. For periodicals it is sufficient if the prohi-<br /> bition is made in a general manner at the beginning of each<br /> number of the periodical.<br /> <br /> This prohibition cannot in any case apply to articles of<br /> political discussion, or to the reproduction of news of the<br /> day, or current topics.”<br /> <br /> This Article was altered by the Additional Act<br /> of Paris of 1896, so as to run :—<br /> <br /> “Serial stories, including tales, published in the news-<br /> papers or periodicals of one of the countries of the Union,<br /> may not be reproduced, in original or in translation, in the<br /> other countries, without the sanction of the authors or<br /> their lawful representative.<br /> <br /> This stipulation shall apply equally to other articles in<br /> newspapers or periodicals, when the authors or editors<br /> shall have expressly declared in the newspaper or periodical<br /> itself in which they shall have been published, that the<br /> right of reproduction is prohibited.<br /> <br /> In case of periodicals it shall suffice if such prohibition<br /> be indicated in general terms at the beginning of each<br /> number.<br /> <br /> In the absence of prohibition, such articles may be re-<br /> produced on condition that the source is acknowledged.<br /> <br /> In any case, the prohibition shall not apply to articles on<br /> political questions, to the news of the day, or to miscel-<br /> laneous information.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> It will thus be seen that in those countries which<br /> have not signed the Additional Act of Paris, works<br /> which have not the notice “ All Rights Reserved”<br /> printed either generally in the periodical, or pat-<br /> ticularly with the article, may be reproduced with-<br /> out the consent of the author. The society&#039;s<br /> correspondent in Sweden has brought before the<br /> notice of the committee the fact that Swedish<br /> newspapers have taken advantage of this, and in<br /> consequence, the committee desire to impress upon<br /> all members of the society who desire to maintain<br /> their market in Sweden, the importance of having<br /> the notice printed with the serial use of short<br /> stories, essays, &amp;c. ‘They also decided to issue a<br /> letter to the editors of the important magazines,<br /> periodicals, and newspapers, pointing out the diffi-<br /> culties that might arise if no notice were printed,<br /> owing to the fact that Norway and Sweden had —<br /> joined the Bern Convention without signing the<br /> Additional Act of Paris.<br /> <br /> The question of Canadian Copyright was further<br /> discussed.<br /> <br /> Readers of Zhe Author may remember that im<br /> the March issue, it was reported that the com mittee<br /> had decided to place the papers relating to a claim<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ’<br />  <br /> <br /> Pee Son Caen een<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> of one of the members of the society in the hands<br /> of a German lawyer. They have now decided to<br /> carry the case through the German courts if neces-<br /> sary. It is hoped, however, that the publisher will<br /> make some reasonable offer of settlement without<br /> this step being necessary.<br /> <br /> The Secretary reported that the chairman had<br /> sanctioned three county court cases, two of which,<br /> however, had not gone into court, one because the<br /> member, at the last moment, refused to commence<br /> action. (This is a difficulty which arises from time<br /> to time, and-sometimes with serious consequences to<br /> the society on account of its loss of prestige). The<br /> other owing to the fact that the publisher said the<br /> debt before the summons was issued.<br /> <br /> The third action is in the course of settlement.<br /> <br /> eg<br /> <br /> Cases,<br /> <br /> Since the last issue of The Author, although the<br /> business before the Committee has been heavy, the<br /> cases which have passed through the secretary’s<br /> hands have been but few.<br /> <br /> There have been two questions concerning<br /> contracts for publication between authors and<br /> publishers. One of these has been satisfactorily<br /> settled. The other may take some time, for the<br /> member involved resides in Australia. There have<br /> been two cases in which members have desired the<br /> return of their MSS. In both cases the MSS.<br /> have been returned by the editors and forwarded<br /> to the members. Three cases where money due to<br /> authors has been in arrears. In one of these the<br /> money has been paid in full; in another the secretary<br /> has received part payment; in the third no answer<br /> has been obtained owing to the fact that it has<br /> been impossible to find any trace of the debtor.<br /> There has been one case of accounts which has<br /> been satisfactorily settled. This makes eight cases<br /> in all during the month.<br /> <br /> All the matters in hand before April have been<br /> <br /> _ cleared up with one exception, which is still in the<br /> <br /> hands of the society’s solicitors for advice, and one<br /> case where money is due. The chairman of the<br /> society has given leave to place the latter in the<br /> solicitors’ hands in order to enforce the members’<br /> rights. It will be a county court case. One of<br /> the county court cases referred to as unsettled in<br /> last month’s statement is now ended. The<br /> magazine paid the amount due before the issue<br /> <br /> of the summons.<br /> —_—t—&gt; +<br /> <br /> April Elections,<br /> Bayliss, Miss Ellen .<br /> Blackmore, Gecffrey , Sander-<br /> Sander-<br /> <br /> “ Glenwood,”<br /> stead load,<br /> <br /> stead, Surrey.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Collins, J. Hawksworth .<br /> Cunynghame Francis, J.<br /> de M.<br /> Davies, A. T.<br /> Dryden, Miss ‘<br /> <br /> Farrer, Reginald .<br /> <br /> Hills, Miss Katherine<br /> <br /> Tmeson, W. E.<br /> James, J. Barnard ‘<br /> <br /> Jebb, Richard<br /> <br /> Kay, Richard<br /> <br /> Kindler, Mrs. : :<br /> <br /> Langan, The Rev.<br /> Thomas, D.D.<br /> <br /> Maxwell, W. B. . .<br /> <br /> y Rackham, Arthur. ;<br /> <br /> Robson, A. W. Mayo,<br /> DAS: : : :<br /> <br /> Sanders, Miss E. K.<br /> <br /> Scheu, Mrs. (Chris<br /> Sewell)<br /> <br /> Sewell, Mrs. (Christobel<br /> Hulbert) . : :<br /> <br /> Talbot, Miss L. Agnes .<br /> <br /> Worsley, Miss Alice.<br /> Weale, G. L. Putnam<br /> <br /> 219<br /> <br /> The Glebe, Cranbrook<br /> School, Kent.<br /> 12, Lincoln<br /> Chelsea, S.W.<br /> <br /> Avon House, Kenysham,<br /> near Bristol.<br /> Kingsfield, Bradford-<br /> on-Avon, Wilts.<br /> <br /> 50, Ennismore Gardens,<br /> Ingleborough, Lan-<br /> caster.<br /> <br /> 11, Collingham Place,<br /> Kensington, S.W.<br /> <br /> Street,<br /> <br /> Clevedale, Downend,<br /> Gloucestershire.<br /> <br /> The Higher Grange,<br /> Ellesmere.<br /> <br /> Berrington Priory, II-<br /> minster, Somerset.<br /> <br /> 420, Lonsdale Street,<br /> Melbourne, Australia.<br /> <br /> Abbeylara, Granard,<br /> Treland.<br /> <br /> Lichfield House, Rich-<br /> mond, Surrey.<br /> <br /> 3, Primrose Hill Studios,<br /> Fitzroy Road, N.W.<br /> <br /> 8, Park Crescent, W.<br /> <br /> Park House, Curzon<br /> <br /> Park, Chester.<br /> <br /> Towerhurst, Leigh<br /> Woods, Clifton, Bris-<br /> tol.<br /> <br /> The Fourth House, The<br /> Stourport Road, Wrib-<br /> benhall, near Bewdley.<br /> todney Lodge, Clifton.<br /> <br /> Two of the members elected in April do not<br /> desire either their names or addresses published.<br /> <br /> ie<br /> <br /> BOOKS PUBLISHED BY MEMBERS OF<br /> THE SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> —_+—~—-_—_<br /> <br /> (In the following list we do not propose to give more<br /> than the titles, prices, publishers, etc., of the books<br /> enumerated, with, in special cases, such particulars as may<br /> serve to explain the scope and purpose of the work.<br /> Members are requested to forward information which will<br /> enable the Editor to supply such particulars.)<br /> <br /> ART.<br /> <br /> sy DuDLEY Hratn,<br /> <br /> 208. Tl.<br /> <br /> MINTATURES, 101 x 74. 320 pp.<br /> <br /> Methuen.<br />  <br /> <br /> 220<br /> <br /> BOOKS OF REFERENCE,<br /> <br /> Tue STATESMAN’S YEAR Book, 1905. Edited by J.<br /> Scort KnLTie, LL.D. 74 x 43. 142 pp. Macmillan.<br /> 10s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> AurHorR AND Printer. A Guide for Authors, Editors,<br /> Printers, Correctors of the Press, Compositors and<br /> Typists. With full list of abbreviations. By F.<br /> Howarpb CoLLins. 74 X 5.° 408 pp. Frowde. 5s,<br /> <br /> EDUCATIONAL.<br /> <br /> Tun STORY OF THE ENGLISH PEOPLE. A Simple Intro-<br /> ductory Historical Reader. By JOHN FINNEMORE.<br /> 7x 43. 167 pp. Blackie. 1s. 6d.<br /> <br /> FICTION.<br /> <br /> QuEER LaDy Jupas. By “Rita.” 72 x 43. 345 pp.<br /> Hutchinson. 6s.<br /> <br /> A Frontier Mystery. By BERTRAM MITFORD.<br /> 72 x 5. 307 pp. White. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE YOUNGEST Miss BrowN. By FLORENCE WARDEN.<br /> 72x 5, 320 pp. Chatto &amp; Windus. 6s.<br /> <br /> A Sporter oF Men. By RicHARD MARSH. 72 xX «5.<br /> 306 pp. Chatto &amp; Windus. 6s.<br /> <br /> SoRREL-Tor. By E. CRAWFORD (Mrs. J. A. Crawford).<br /> 73 x 5. 351 pp. Drane. 6s.<br /> <br /> CAPTAIN BALAAM OF THE “ CORMORANT,” AND OTHER<br /> Sea ComepiEs. By Morney ROBERTS. 73 X 5.<br /> 228 pp. Nash. 3s. 6d.<br /> <br /> Li TING oF LONDON AND OTHER STORIES. By Gro. R.<br /> Sims. 64 x 33. 222pp. Chatto &amp; Windus. 1s. 6d.<br /> THE OLD CANTONMENT. By B. M. CROKER, 7] x 5.<br /> <br /> 294 pp. Methuen. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE GOLDEN Poon. By R. AUSTIN FREEMAN. 7} X 5.<br /> 341 pp. Cassell. 6s.<br /> <br /> Aw INSTINCTIVE CRIMINAL. By GILBERT COLERIDGE.<br /> 74x 56. Treherne. 6s.<br /> <br /> DUKE’s Son. By Cosmo HAMILTON. 7} x 5. 279 pp.<br /> Heinemann. 6s.<br /> <br /> MonarcH, THE Big BEAR OF TaLLAc. By ERNEST<br /> THOMPSON SETON. 73 x 6. 214 pp. Constable. 5s. n.<br /> <br /> Grounp Ivy. By Myra Swan, 73 X 5. 332 pp.<br /> Brown, Langham. 6s.<br /> <br /> HEARTS OF WALES. By ALLEN Rate. 7} x 5. 347 pp.<br /> Hutchinson. 6s.<br /> <br /> A CouRrER oF FortunE. By A. W. MARCHMONT.<br /> 73 x 5. 384 pp. Ward Lock. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE Master MumMMeR. By E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM.<br /> <br /> . 7% x5. 815 pp. Ward Lock. 6s.<br /> <br /> A Liypsay’s Love. By CHARLES LOWE.<br /> 420 pp. Werner Laurie. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE MANITOBAN. By H. H. BAsHForD. Lane. 6s.<br /> <br /> 8 x 5h.<br /> <br /> A Town ROMANCE, OR ON LONDON STONES. By Cc. C.<br /> ANDREWS (“CARL SWERDNA”). 73 X 5. 397 pp.<br /> <br /> Messrs. James Clarke. Cheaper edition, 2s.<br /> <br /> HISTORY.<br /> <br /> Tuer CHURCH IN MapRas; being the history of the<br /> Ecclesiastical and Missionary action of the East India<br /> Company in the Presidency of Madras in the 17th<br /> and 18th centuries, chiefly from the company’s own<br /> records preserved at the India Office. By the Ray.<br /> FRANK PENNY, LL.M., late Chaplain His Majesty’s<br /> Indian Service (Madras Establishment). 33 illustrations,<br /> demy 8vo. 9 x 6. 700 pp. including index. Smith,<br /> Elder &amp; Co. 21s. n.<br /> <br /> MEDICAL.<br /> <br /> Tur Foop Inspectors’ Hanppook. By F. VACHER.<br /> 4th Edition. Illustrated. 73 x 5. 231 pp. The<br /> Sanitary Publishing Co. 3s. 6d.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> MISCELLANEOUS.<br /> CHANGE FOR A HALFPENNY; being the Prospectus of the<br /> <br /> Napolio Syndicate. By E. V. Lucas and C. L. GRAVES.<br /> 81 x 64. Alston Rivers. 1s. n.<br /> <br /> POETRY.<br /> <br /> PENTHESILEA. By LAURENCE BINYON. 7} X 5. 63 pp.<br /> Constable. 3s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> POLITICAL.<br /> <br /> RACIAL SUPREMACY. Being Studies in Imperialism. By<br /> J.G. GopARD. 8 x 54. 323 pp. Edinburgh: Morton;<br /> London: Simpkin. 6s.<br /> <br /> STUDIES IN COLONIAL PATRIOTISM. By RICHARD JEBB.<br /> 9 x 58. 336pp. Arnold. 12s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> REPRINTS.<br /> <br /> THe WoRKS OF CHARLES AND Mary Lame. Vol. vi.<br /> Letters 1796—1820; Vol. vii. Letters 1821—1834.<br /> Edited by E. V.Lucas. 9 x 6. 1,025 pp. Methuen,<br /> 7s. 6d. each vol.<br /> <br /> SCIENCE.<br /> <br /> A StTuDENT’s TEXT Book oF ZooLoGy. By A. SEDGWICK.<br /> <br /> Vol. Il. 94 x 6}. 705 pp. Sonnenschien. 21s.<br /> <br /> SOCIOLOGY.<br /> <br /> A PECULIAR PEOPLE, THE DouKHOBORS. By AYLMER<br /> MaupeE. 8} xX 5%. 388 pp. Constable. 6s. n.<br /> <br /> A MopErN Utopia. By H. G. WELLS. 7} x 5}. 393 pp.<br /> Chapman &amp; Hall. 7s. 6d.<br /> <br /> SPORT.<br /> <br /> An AnGurr&#039;s Hours. By BH. Tf.<br /> 8i x 54. 264 pp. Macmillan. 63.<br /> <br /> SHERINGHAM.<br /> <br /> THEOLOGY,<br /> <br /> THE BIBLE IN MopEeRN ENe@uisH. Old Testament,<br /> Four Vols. Introduction and Critical Notes (2nd<br /> Edition). 214+187+245+346 pp. New Testament in<br /> Modern English with some Critical Notes. One Vol.<br /> (8rd Edition of the Gospels and Seventh of St. Paul&#039;s<br /> <br /> Epistles translated afresh), 255 pp. By FERRAR<br /> FENTON, F.R.A.S. 73 x 5. Partridge.<br /> <br /> THE TRIAL OF JESUS. By G1ovANNI Rosapi. Trans-<br /> lated from the third Italian edition. Edited by Dr.<br /> Emin Reicw. 73 x 54. 342 pp. Hutchinson. 6s. 0.<br /> <br /> THe CHRIST IN THE TEACHER. Four Addresses given<br /> in the Chapel of Keble College, Oxford, January 14th.<br /> and 15th, 1905. By J. HUNTLEY SKRINE. 7} X 43.<br /> 46 pp. Simpkin, Marshall. 1s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> —————_—_o ro —_—<br /> <br /> LITERARY, DRAMATIC, AND MUSICAL<br /> NOTES.<br /> <br /> — &gt;<br /> <br /> E understand that the annual dinner of the<br /> London Shakespeare League will be held<br /> on the 6th of May.<br /> <br /> honorary secretary to the-dinner, at the price<br /> of 8s. 6d. to members and their guests and<br /> 10s. 6d. to non-members. All enquiries concerning<br /> <br /> Tickets may be —<br /> obtained of Mrs. Gomme, who is acting a8<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> ¢) the dinner should be made of Mrs.<br /> © 24, Dorset Square, N. W.<br /> <br /> “The Irish Bee Guide,’ by the Rev. J. C.<br /> ‘| Digges is a new book on bees and bee-keeping,<br /> containing 150 illustrations. It can be obtained,<br /> in“a paper cover, for 2s, nett, and in art linen for<br /> /© 3s. nett, from Messrs. Simpkin, Marshall &amp; Co.,<br /> «i in London; and Eason &amp; Son, Ltd., Dublin.<br /> <br /> Mr. J. M. Stuart Young is accumulating material<br /> o| for a new negro novel.<br /> <br /> Mr. Fisher Unwin has recently published a new<br /> work by Mr. Barry Pain, entitled ‘‘ The Memoirs of<br /> Constantine Dix.” The book narrates the career<br /> of a professional thief who keeps three banking<br /> © accounts as well as houses in Bloomsbury and<br /> Brighton, and is, moreover, a philanthropist<br /> v2 greatly interested in the reclamation of the lower<br /> &gt; classes.<br /> <br /> “The Double Rose,” by J. W. Boulding, is the<br /> <br /> 29 title of a play, originally performed at the Adelphi<br /> i= Theatre, which Messrs. Jarrold &amp; Son, have now<br /> we issued at the price of 1s. The play is of historical<br /> ‘ai interest, dealing with the fortunes of the houses of<br /> of York and Lancaster.<br /> <br /> : ““Marjorie’s Mistake” is the title selected by<br /> * Miss Bertha M. M. Miniken (author of “Where<br /> ) the Ways Part,” “Through Life’s Rough Way,”<br /> .* “An English Wife,” etc.) for her new novel,<br /> 6 dealing with life in the south west of England,<br /> “© mainly. It will be issued about May 18th, by Mr.<br /> ») George A. Morton, Edinburgh.<br /> <br /> ; “The Young Preacher’s Guide,” by the Rev.<br /> 1) Gilbert Monks, with a preface by the Archdeacon<br /> _1- of London, which was published recently by Mr.<br /> 19 Elliot Stock, is divided into two parts, the first part<br /> * dealing with the preparation of the sermon, andthe<br /> © second part with the mode of delivery.<br /> <br /> t Messrs. Simpkin, Marshall &amp; Co., have recently<br /> “a: published a work entitled “Darwinian Fallacies,”<br /> % by John Scouller. As its title indicates, Mr.<br /> © Scouller’s book is mainly devoted to an exposure of<br /> “19 what, in his opinion, are the fallacies inherent in<br /> 4%) Mr. Darwin’s theory of evolution. He has, how-<br /> ¥ ever, in addition, given a demonstration of those<br /> <br /> szomme, at<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “principles which, he considers, will bring the.<br /> <br /> ef doctrines of modern science into complete harmony<br /> 10) with the teachings of Christ.<br /> <br /> a Rennie Rennison, the author of “ George’s<br /> o&gt; Georgina,” has written another novel ‘“ Mixed<br /> ) Relationships,” which Messrs. Simpkin, Marshall<br /> ¥ + &amp; Co. published in April. The story is one of<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> &gt; recent times, the Jocale changing from the worsted<br /> <br /> 2) districts of Yorkshire to the cotton districts of<br /> <br /> “® Lancashire ; mill life—as viewed by the manager<br /> <br /> “rather than the operative—is to a certain extent<br /> <br /> &#039; discussed.<br /> <br /> ‘The “Minor Masters of the Old British School<br /> of Painting” is the title of a work by George H.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 221<br /> <br /> Shepherd, which contains the name, birthplace,<br /> date of birth and death, and branch of art of over<br /> one hundred artists. It is published by Messrs.<br /> Shepherd Bros., 27 King Street, St. James’s,<br /> <br /> Messrs. J. B. Lippincott Co. have recently<br /> published a work entitled “The Diseases of<br /> Society ” by G. Frank Lydston, M.D. The special<br /> object of Dr. Lydston has been to indicate the<br /> origin, development, and influence of the anarchist,<br /> criminal and sexual pervert, and that class of<br /> offenders against the moral law who frequently do<br /> not fall under the ban of criminal or civil law.<br /> <br /> Mrs. F. E. Penny, whose last year’s novel “&#039;The<br /> Sanyasi ” is now in a second edition, is publishing<br /> through Messrs. Chatto and Windus another novel<br /> called “Dilys.” It is a South Indian romance, in<br /> which some typical old soldiers of the East India<br /> Company, pensioners living in the cantonment<br /> bazaars, play a part.<br /> <br /> The sale of the first edition of Mr. Howard<br /> Collins’s “ Author and Printer, a Guide for Authors,<br /> Editors, Printers, Correctors of the Press, Com-<br /> positors and Typists” (Henry Frowde) was so<br /> satisfactory that within five days of publication<br /> the second edition—or rather impression, as there<br /> will be no alteration in it—was put in the hands of<br /> the printers, the Oxford University Press, and it is<br /> hoped will soon be ready for sale. That the work<br /> is of practical use, may be gathered from the fact<br /> that in one of the largest printing establishments<br /> in the provinces--employing nearly a thousand<br /> hands—-the compositors have requisitioned the<br /> principals to adopt and use it all through the<br /> works.<br /> <br /> Mademoiselle Helene Vacaresco has published<br /> with Harper Bros., London and New York, “Songs<br /> of the Valiant Voivode,” collected from Roumanian<br /> peasants. The author states in her preface that<br /> she has wandered through Roumania from village<br /> to village and gathered the strange stories that<br /> grow there like flowers in the country. The tales<br /> are drawn from Latin, Dacian and Asiatic sources,<br /> while the mysticism of the Slavonic race may<br /> sometimes be traced in them.<br /> <br /> Mr. Morton has recently published a new novel<br /> by Mr. Robert Aitken, author of ‘‘ Windfalls.”<br /> The title of the work is ‘The Redding Straik.”<br /> <br /> The Early English Text Society is now bringing<br /> out Part II. of Mrs. Mary L. Banks’ edition of the<br /> ‘“Alphabetum Narrationum” formerly attributed<br /> to Etienne de Besancon. Part III. will contain<br /> glossary and notes and is to come out later.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Smith, Elder have had to go to press with<br /> a third impression of Mrs. Humphry Ward’s novel,<br /> “The Marriage of William Ashe,” with a fifth<br /> impression of ‘ Peter’s Mother,” by Mrs. H. de la<br /> Pasture ; and with a fifth and thoroughly revised<br /> edition of Mr. Sidney Lee’s “ Life of Shakespeare.”<br />  <br /> <br /> 222<br /> <br /> The scene of “The Dryad,” by Justin Huntley<br /> M‘Carthy, is Athens, but not the classic Athens,<br /> nor the Athens of to-day, which have often found<br /> their chroniclers. Mr. M‘Carthy has chosen the<br /> dawn of the fourteenth century, when Greece was<br /> governed by splendid French adventurers, whose<br /> courts were centres of wealth and chivalry. Messrs.<br /> Methuen &amp; Co., are the publishers of this work.<br /> <br /> The same firm have also issued “ Miniatures,” by<br /> Dudley Heath, a history of the Art of Miniature<br /> Painting from its earliest origin and development in<br /> the I!luminated Manuscript under Byzantine, Carlo-<br /> vingian, Celtic, and Saxon influences, and in the<br /> French, Flemish, and Italian schools of the<br /> fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, showing the<br /> growth of realistic expression in the Miniature,<br /> and tracing its subsequent history as an indepen-<br /> dent art of portraiture “in little” down to the<br /> present day.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Constable &amp; Co. have recently published,<br /> at the price of 6s., a book by Mr. Aylmer Maude,<br /> entitled “A Peculiar People: the Doukhobors.”<br /> The work, which contains seventeen illustrations,<br /> is a history and description of the remarkable<br /> Russian peasant sect, more than 7,000 of whom<br /> have settled in Canada, and whose virtues and<br /> eccentricities have attracted much attention.<br /> <br /> “ Alice-Sit-by-the-Fire,”’ by J. M. Barrie was<br /> produced at the Duke of York’s theatre, on<br /> Wednesday, April 5th. The piece, which is<br /> whimsical in tone, shows how an extremely young<br /> lady, applied her knowledge of human nature—<br /> derived from five visits to the theatre—to an<br /> entirely innocent action of everyday life, with un-<br /> fortunate results, which are not set right till the<br /> fall of the curtain. The caste included Miss Ellen<br /> Terry, Miss Irene Vanbrugh and Mr. Aubrey<br /> Smith.<br /> <br /> An original farcical comedy in three acts entitled<br /> “Daniel Dibsey,” by George Blagrove, , will be<br /> produced at the Royal Albert Theatre, on Monday<br /> evening, May Ist.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> —__—_—_+—&lt;——__—_.<br /> <br /> PARIS NOTES.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> HE name of Jules Verne has for years past<br /> been a household word in many countries.<br /> His books have been translated into most<br /> languages, including Arabic and Japanese. It<br /> appears that he commenced his literary career by<br /> publishing in a review some stories imitated from<br /> those of Edgar Poe. One of them, “ Un Drame<br /> dans les Airs,” attracted attention and, encouraged<br /> by his success, he at once commenced a novel.<br /> M. Hetzel was so convinced of his talent that<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> he advised him not to depart from the style he had<br /> adopted, and offered to sign a contract with him —<br /> <br /> for two novels a year. ‘This was agreed upon, and<br /> <br /> Jules Verne from that time forth produced the two<br /> <br /> books annually. In spite of the Revolution, the<br /> Franco-German War, and all other outside events,<br /> <br /> the work was accomplished scrupulously. He was<br /> <br /> a most conscientious author, and the despair of his<br /> <br /> printers, as he sometimes revised and corrected ‘<br /> passages nine or ten times before finally approving ae<br /> them. Strange as it may seem, the writer of such —— #&#039;&quot;<br /> adventurous stories was not a traveller. He wrote<br /> <br /> most of his books at his home in Amiens, and his _<br /> <br /> longest journey was probably an excursion in his aff<br /> yacht to the Mediterranean and the English Channel, at<br /> He owned a planisphere on which he had com<br /> menced to trace the voyages of all the heroes of hi piel<br /> books. He had a well-filled library, and quantiti<br /> of journals of travel and scientific publications 0<br /> all kinds, both French and foreign.<br /> <br /> M. Adolphe Brisson tells us that “ Twenty tho<br /> sand Leagues under the Sea” was suggested to hi<br /> by George Sand in one of her letters to him.<br /> <br /> “T hope,” she writes, “that you will soon take<br /> us down into the depths of the sea, and that yo<br /> will let your personages travel in a diving apparat<br /> which with all your science and imagination yo<br /> will be able to improve for the occasion. . .<br /> Thanks a thousand times for the happy moments<br /> I have spent with your books in the midst of my<br /> troubles.”<br /> <br /> Some critics in France declare that Jules Ve<br /> had the gift of second sight. He prophesied<br /> admirably, fifty or twenty-five years ahead, about<br /> many of the most marvellous scientific inventions.<br /> Before there were any railways he affirmed that<br /> voyage round the world would require eighty da<br /> and at present it requires seventy-five. At about<br /> the same time his Captain Nemo goes down into<br /> the depths of the sea in his submarine boat, and<br /> in another of his books, “‘ Robur le Conquérant,<br /> we have the conquest of the air for travelli<br /> purposes.<br /> <br /> In an article on the works of Jules Verne, :<br /> Rzewuski says : “He shows us in his marvellow<br /> series of paradoxical studies how interesting @<br /> picturesque this modern world is, in spite of all<br /> vulgarities and injustices, and how many<br /> elements of beauty, originality and activity<br /> manifested, changing every day the aspect of ti<br /> <br /> lobe.”<br /> <br /> M. Adolphe Brisson considers that there is som<br /> thing more than this in the books of J ules Ver&#039;<br /> “ By taking his young readers into all parts of<br /> world,” he says, ‘he awakens their intelligence<br /> showing them something of life, and he gives the<br /> an idea of the relativity of things, which in 108<br /> is the source of all wisdom and kindliness.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> ogo) teaches his readers that in every climate and conntry<br /> oi} the eternal terrestrial comedy is always being played,<br /> and that everywhere mankind aspires to a happier<br /> fature of justice and love, to some far-off ideal<br /> which may be chimerical like that of Captain<br /> Hatteras, but the prestige of which we cannot<br /> (se entively abolish. For forty years Jules Verne has<br /> os¢ been more than a savant, vulgarising his science<br /> &#039; a0) for the younger generation. He has been a novelist<br /> ow who at the same time was an idealist.”<br /> I He led an extremely simple life. He was an<br /> ise early riser, and had finished the greater part of his<br /> ‘ysh day’s work before luncheon. In the afternoon he<br /> ses read, and then went to do his duty as a citizen,<br /> 640) for as a member of the Municipal Council of Amiens<br /> se he took a keen interest in public matters. Twice<br /> »ow &amp; &amp; week he accompanied his wife to the theatre, and<br /> ) ed: the other evenings he usually retired early.<br /> ‘1. His long list of books are too well known for<br /> ‘mec comment. At the time of his death he had a book<br /> | @ in preparation entitled “ L’{nvasion de la Mer,”<br /> » ofl the subject of which occurred to him on seeing<br /> » 9d; the crumbling of the cliffs of Normandy and of<br /> seo those between Dover and Folkestone when on a<br /> i998&quot; recent yachting excursion.<br /> oo: A subscription is being raised for a monnu-<br /> iaoa ment to Jules Verne by his young readers and<br /> us admirers.<br /> i? “ Le Serpent Noir,” by Paul Adam, is one of the<br /> ,joeP strongest and, at‘thesame time, most delicate of this<br /> oMmauthor’s novels. The scene is laid in Brittany<br /> oo: and the story is essentially modern. A doctor<br /> » es{ has discovered a marvellous serum, but has no<br /> -&lt;0@ money to spend on the necessary publicity for<br /> sls making the most of his discovery. The serpent<br /> “iit enters his paradise in the form of a certain man<br /> oly who is always on the look-out for commercial<br /> |i enterprises. By specious arguments he endeavours<br /> ‘7 ® to persuade the doctor into a divorce in order to<br /> “%8@ marry a wealthy young widow. The great interest<br /> | of the book lies in the psychology of the chief<br /> ‘a characters. The devotion and self-sacrifice of the<br /> ¥wife, the utter unscrupulousness of the financial<br /> ‘onS schemer, and the struggles of the scientist and<br /> “i husband. In the end the doctor realises the base-<br /> » “9sness of the other man’s arguments, and appreciates<br /> eithe devotion and abnegation of his wife. ‘The<br /> wy dénouement is a triumph over the individualism<br /> ‘which tramples ruthlessly over all obstacles in its<br /> Yes way.<br /> __ Among the new books are: “ Le Millionnaire,”<br /> -Tby J. H. Rosny; “La Conquérante,” by Georges<br /> aeohast , “ L?Impossible,” by Jean de la Brete ;<br /> al me *Drames de l’Histoire,” by M. le Comte Fleury ;<br /> “1 * La Société francaise du XVI° au XX° Siécles,”’<br /> y M. Victor du Bled ; “ Bonaparte et Moreau,”<br /> «yoy M. Picard ; “Memoires du Comte de Ram-<br /> /Miputeau,” published by his grandson; “ Sophistes<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 223<br /> <br /> francais et la Reévolution européenne,” by M.<br /> Th. Funck-Brentano ; “Le Pape et l’Empereur<br /> (1804—1815),” by M. Henri Welschinger ; “ Au<br /> Service de lAllemagne,” by M. Maurice Barrés ;<br /> “Une Année de Politique Extérieure,” by M.<br /> René Moulin ; “Quatre Cents ans de Concordat,”<br /> by M. Bandrillart.<br /> <br /> In the reviews M. Emile Ollivier writes in<br /> favour of the “Concordat ” in the Correspondant.<br /> <br /> In the Nouvelle Revue Gilbert Stenger writes on<br /> “Le Clergé sous le Consulat.”<br /> <br /> The Marquis de Ségur publishes in the Revue des<br /> Deur-Mondes “ lies Années de Jeunesse de Julie<br /> de Lespinasse,” and M. Pierre Leroy Beaulieu<br /> examines “ La Situation et les Perspectives écono-<br /> miques de la Chine.”<br /> <br /> The Revue de Paris continues the publication of<br /> Wagner’s letters from Paris and from Vienna.<br /> <br /> In the theatrical world we have had “ Scarron,”<br /> by Catulle Mendeés, a great success at the Théatre<br /> dela Gaité ; “L’Age d’aimer,” a comedy in four<br /> acts, by Pierre Wolff, at the Gymnase; “Le<br /> Meilleur Parti,” by Maurice Maindron, a piece<br /> in four acts, at the Théatre Antoine.<br /> <br /> La Duse has had the triumphs of the month at<br /> the Nouveau Théatre.<br /> <br /> Madame Sarah Bernhardt, after “ Angelo,” has<br /> been giving a series of performances of ‘ Esther.”<br /> <br /> “ Monsieur Piégois,” by Alfred Capus, is another<br /> success for the author of “ La Veine.”<br /> <br /> ALYS HALLArp.<br /> <br /> SPANISH NOTES.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> HE recent catastrophe of the bursting of the<br /> reservoir in Madrid has plunged the city in<br /> mourning. Senor Vadillo, the Minister of<br /> <br /> Works, will institute a searching inquiry into the<br /> reason of the disaster, as it has been said that it was<br /> preceded by many ominous signs. However, amid<br /> all the tragic scenes of the disaster, the fact that<br /> the young sovereign, in company with the Prince<br /> of Asturias, hastened in his motor-car to give his<br /> personal assistance to the rescue of those sub-<br /> merged in the ruins, and subsequently visited the<br /> sufferers in the hospitals, and added his royal<br /> mother’s and sister’s names to his liberal donations<br /> on their behalf, has been a ray of sunshine in the<br /> panic and gloom which has pervaded the city, _<br /> <br /> A catastrophe often gives rise to reforms, and in<br /> this case the well-known engineer Don Carlos<br /> Santamaria was appointed to present plans for the<br /> new reservoir which is so urgently required in<br /> Madrid.<br />  <br /> <br /> 224<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> It was thought that the national disaster of the<br /> bursting reservoir might have led to the postpone-<br /> ment of the royal visit to Valencia, but the King<br /> rightly decided that a delay would cause a great<br /> deal of expense to the city when the preparations<br /> were so far advanced. Moreover, it was not only<br /> in such fétes as the beautiful battle of flowers, etc.,<br /> that the Valencians did honour to their sovereign,<br /> but they had begged his Majesty to lay the first<br /> stone of the lighthouse on the dike to the north<br /> of the harbour ; and it was a great satisfaction to<br /> Don José Canalejas, the eminent politician, who<br /> has combined with General Pando and Don Ramon<br /> Castro in the institution of thirty-six perfectly<br /> sanitary houses at a moderate rent for workmen,<br /> to show the successful result of the labours to the<br /> king.<br /> <br /> Don Benito Galdos is generally associated with<br /> the historical romances which have become classics<br /> in Spanish literature, but his comedy Realidad<br /> marked him as a dramatist some time ago, and<br /> the judgment recorded by the well-known critic,<br /> Leopold Alas, who came from Oviedo on purpose<br /> to be present at the performance, set the seal to<br /> its success. So it was with great interest that<br /> it was heard that a new play from the pen of<br /> “dear Don Benito,” as he is generally styled in<br /> Madrid, was to be performed.<br /> <br /> The drama shows the power of the great writer<br /> to set forth the small details as well as the ruling<br /> passions of life ; and it is thus that the play, which<br /> takes its name from the heroine, “ Barbara,” never<br /> ceases to interest the audience, although her crimes<br /> naturally savour of Sicilian life in the nineteenth<br /> century, in which epoch it is laid. The story goes<br /> that the lady, in desperation at her husband&#039;s<br /> prutalities, managed to compass his death, and<br /> although the fact of the murder of this governor of<br /> Syracuse was known to the deputy Horace and two<br /> others, they all preserved silence in the hope that<br /> Barbara would marry the murdered man’s brother,<br /> who had returned from the East with a great<br /> fortune. The heroine’s love for Leonardo, an<br /> unpractical mystic, was a serious barrier to this<br /> plan, but the obstacle was removed by the plotters<br /> accusing the unhappy man of the murder of<br /> Barbara’s husband, and after a powerful scene<br /> between the two lovers, Leonardo suffers the result<br /> of the crime of his beloved, while she ultimately<br /> marries the rich man from the East. It is only<br /> the acute suffering of Barbara which seems to<br /> counterbalance in any way such “triumphs of the<br /> wicked,” and it requires the pen of a genius, with<br /> very powerful acting, to show that such triumphs<br /> are not synonymous with happiness.<br /> <br /> The present illness of Don Juan Valera, the well-<br /> known writer, is evoking much sympathy and<br /> interest in the social as well as the literary<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> world, where the veteran author is a well-known<br /> figure. ‘ Pepita Jiménez” was one of his books,<br /> which had an immense influence in society.<br /> When an illustrious lady, who was known for her<br /> worldliness once complained to the author that<br /> she could not put the work into the hands of her<br /> daughters, who were two veritable angels, the<br /> author replied: ‘‘I have not written the book,<br /> madam, for daughters such as, yours, but for<br /> mothers such as you are.” Valera has always had<br /> a contempt for politics, and when some years ago<br /> Canovas and Castelar were using their opposing<br /> influences with regard to the Restoration, Valera<br /> remarked that Canovas was stimulated in the<br /> struggle by the clever speeches directed by Castelar<br /> against his scheme, and that Castelar’s eloquence<br /> would never have reached such perfection had it<br /> not been brought to bear against such a powerful<br /> opponent, without whom he would have been like<br /> a fiddler with no audience. When approached by<br /> America to write a treatise on the reason of the<br /> decadence of Spain, Valera refused the offer,<br /> lucrative as it would have been. “No,” he<br /> replied, “ you ask me to write a satire on my<br /> mother. I have no pen with which to do it, and<br /> if I had, it would pierce my heart.” Valera was<br /> taken ill whilst engaged on a scientific work on<br /> Cervantes, and it will be a loss to the literary out-<br /> put of this season, so filled with tributes to the<br /> seventeenth century author, if it cannot celebrate<br /> the result of a student of such renown on the<br /> subject.<br /> <br /> It is interesting to note the stride now made by<br /> woman in Spain in literature. “Mis Flores”<br /> (My Flowers) is the title of a book just published<br /> by a poetess of the name of Concha Espina de<br /> Serna, and in the prologue from the pen of<br /> Enrique Menendez Pelayo, the writer says: “These<br /> verses are the spontaneous outcome of a woman&#039;s<br /> <br /> sensible, tender, loving, and ductile mind, swayed —<br /> by the breeze of life, and responding like a sensitive —<br /> <br /> plant to the emotions of the spirit.” Ricardo<br /> Leon, moreover, remarks that this authoress has<br /> <br /> the gift of Andersen for seeing stories in the —<br /> commonplace things of life, so that an old clock, a _<br /> <br /> table, or a girl reading at a window, assumes &amp;<br /> new interest under the magic power of her pen.<br /> <br /> “To posible,” now placed on the boards ab —<br /> Madrid, shows that Linares Rivas has by Ro ~<br /> <br /> means exhausted his versatility.<br /> <br /> Eusebio Blasco’s last volume of verses entitled —<br /> “ Poesias Festicas” has just been published, and as —<br /> one of the critics says, “ He is, indeed, a poet, and |<br /> <br /> moreover, a modern human poet, who idealises the<br /> things of every-day life in a way unknown to the<br /> uneducated. His style is untrammelled by being<br /> <br /> that of any particular school, and it has am<br /> <br /> attraction peculiar to itself.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> -against 2,072 new editions for 1903.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 225<br /> <br /> The ovation just accorded to Luis Morote shows<br /> that the Spaniards are very ready to give tribute<br /> to intelligence and pluck, and if I gave the names<br /> of all the celebrities assembled to do honour to<br /> the writer on his return from Russia, it would take<br /> two columns of print ; and the fact of Canalejas,<br /> the well-known democratic and liberal monarchist,<br /> making a speech in favour of the guest of the<br /> evening, shows the broad-minded nature of the<br /> assembly. The journalist’s accounts of his inter-<br /> views with Tolstoi, Gorky, ete., were listened to<br /> with the deepest interest, and as he told in simple<br /> language the story of his efforts in pursuit of his<br /> profession, it was felt that the Socialist only spoke<br /> the truth when he declared that whereas Valencia<br /> is his country, his life lay in the Spanish Press.<br /> <br /> RAcHEL CHALLICE.<br /> <br /> $$? &gt; —_______<br /> <br /> UNITED STATES BOOK PRODUCTION<br /> IN 1904.<br /> <br /> ——+<br /> <br /> (Reproduced from the United States Publishers’<br /> Weekly.)<br /> <br /> HE number of books recorded by The<br /> Publishers’ Weekly in 1904, through its<br /> “Weekly Record of New Publications,”<br /> <br /> was 8,291. The new editions of standard works,<br /> <br /> and the additions to series are included in this<br /> <br /> total, of which 6,971 are new books and 1,320<br /> <br /> new editions. The whole number of books put on<br /> <br /> record in 1904 by the Weekly exceeded the number<br /> for 1903 by 426, when the total was 7,865. The<br /> <br /> table shows 1,178 more new books than in 1903,<br /> <br /> when the figures were only 5,793, and 752 less<br /> <br /> new editions ; that is, 1,520 new editions for 1904<br /> <br /> The in-<br /> <br /> creased proportion of new books over all previous<br /> <br /> years illustrates in a marked degree the steady,<br /> <br /> normal growth of the publishing business in a<br /> <br /> year—a Presidential year—when great things were<br /> <br /> not looked for. The analytical table, dividing the<br /> year’s output into twenty classes, betrays few<br /> notable changes. Fiction keeps its old place at<br /> the head of the list, with one of the largest majori-<br /> ties it has had in many years. Theology and<br /> <br /> Religion, which in 1903 lost its position as the<br /> <br /> second in number to Fiction, regained it in 1904,<br /> <br /> being followed closely by Literature and Collected<br /> <br /> Works, Education and Law. Juvenile books were<br /> <br /> not as abundant as in 1903, Poetry and the Drama<br /> <br /> -and Biography both taking a step above this class.<br /> <br /> Physical and Mathematical Science moved to a<br /> <br /> position above History, while Description, etc.,<br /> <br /> fell two steps lower than it has usually held.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> TABLE No, 1.<br /> CLASSES.<br /> Fiction ... oe se ae oe a S16 644 | 1,007 $14<br /> Theology and Religion ee 233 280 | 7B de<br /> Literature and Collected Works 8| 331] 644] 538<br /> Education = &lt; a Db]. 721 6991 36<br /> Law se re i i 98 | 606 | s<br /> Poetry and the Drama ao 25) 530 | 8<br /> Biography, Correspondence ... 45 | 416 21<br /> Be 42/ 408] 11<br /> land Mathematical Science 245 322 | 52<br /> Bae oe ote is 7 315 42<br /> Political and Social Science See 12 297 | 39<br /> Medicine, Hygiene... aes 97 186 92<br /> Fine Arts: Illus. Gift Books 13 230 23<br /> Description, Geography, Travel 25 215 | 25<br /> Jseful Arts ae ae 26] 144) 3)<br /> sand Amusements 16 110 4<br /> Works of Reference 17 87 1<br /> Domestic¢ and Rural 15) 72) 8<br /> Philosophy ae 8| 54] 4<br /> Humour and Satire 4) 6] | 4<br /> Totals 9,793 | 2,072 | 6,971 | 1,320<br /> 2,072 | 1,320 |<br /> 7,865<br /> <br /> | $,291 |<br /> |<br /> <br /> There was little Philosophy in the year’s make-up,<br /> and even less Humour. Out of the whole total<br /> of 8,291 books recorded, 3,750 were received at<br /> this office, against 3,549 of 1903, being an increase<br /> of 201. The balance represents titles gathered<br /> from copyright entries, from information sent<br /> by publishers, and in various other ways. ‘There<br /> were of these 4,541 against 4,316 of the same<br /> class in 1903, an increase of 225. Table No. 1<br /> gives in classes the figures, approximately, of the<br /> book production in this country in 1904, with<br /> those of 1903 for comparison.<br /> <br /> Table No. 2 attempts to show the number of<br /> books manufactured in the United States in 1904—<br /> first, those by American authors ; second, those by<br /> English or other foreign authors made in this<br /> country according to the demands of copyright<br /> law; and third, the books in English imported<br /> bound or in sheets, these three classes comprising<br /> the book production of the United States in<br /> 1904. The first and second classes are almost<br /> all copyright books. This table, like the former,<br /> scarcely claims to be exactly correct, as it is<br /> impossible always to trace the history of a<br /> work, from its author to its final publication.<br /> The table shows 5,978 books by American authors<br /> against 5,621 of 1903 ; 1,288 books by English or<br /> other foreign authors (made here), against 1,356<br /> of 1903; and 1,025 books or sheets imported,<br /> against 888 of 1903. The reprints were, as usual,<br /> the largest in fiction, amounting to 491, far less,<br /> however, than in several years previous, when<br /> almost double that number of English or other<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 226<br /> <br /> foreign novels were reprinted. The most evident<br /> fact demonstrated by this table is the great number<br /> of books by American authors published in 1904<br /> in all classes of literature.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> TaBLe No. 2.<br /> <br /> CLASSES.<br /> <br /> Fiction .... os a<br /> Theology and Religion... ee<br /> Literature and Collected Works<br /> Education : ee Si<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Law es ae oN<br /> <br /> Poetry and the Drama... ane 68<br /> Biography, Correspondence, «Xe. 121<br /> Juvenile ... ave os a tes 35<br /> Physical and Mathematical Science... 79<br /> History... oe Ses, aes a 75<br /> Political and Social Science ... 51<br /> Medicine, Hygiene aS oe 13<br /> Fine Arts: Illus. Gift Books 94<br /> Description, Geography, Tra vel 75<br /> Useful Arts a Fon a 36<br /> Sports and Amusements is<br /> Works of Reference 8<br /> Domestic and Rural 4<br /> Philosophy ae 13<br /> Humour and Satire 1<br /> <br /> Totals<br /> <br /> Oo<br /> <br /> RUSSIA AND POLAND: THEIR AUTHORS<br /> AND THEIR COPYRIGHT LAW.<br /> <br /> —_——+—<br /> <br /> § Russia had given birth to such eminent poets<br /> as Puschkin, Lermontoff, and Kryloff, such<br /> dramatists as Griboedoff and Gogol, such<br /> <br /> novelists as Dostoyevsky, Turgenief, and Nekrasoff,<br /> in the first part of the past century, it was natural<br /> to believe that after such splendid promise the<br /> future should bring even more eminent authors<br /> to the knowledge of mankind, but the result of<br /> these expectations was rather disappointing.<br /> To-day there is neither poet nor dramatist of any<br /> exceptional merit, and the novelists and short story<br /> writers are not so numerous as the huge develop-<br /> ment of. literature gave a right to expect.<br /> <br /> Outside the writers best known to the English<br /> public, Tolstoy, Tschechof, Korolenko, and Gorky,<br /> there are only a few who merit special mention :<br /> H. Jasynsky and the well-known war correspon-<br /> dent, Nemyrovytz-Datschenko, and perhaps Mrs.<br /> Nadejda Vladimirovna Yakovlef, better known<br /> ‘ander her nom de plume of “ Lanskaya,” who is the<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> authoress of an excellent novel translated into<br /> many European languages, “ Obrusyteli.” There<br /> is algo the humourist Leykin, who in his excellent<br /> sketches gives, very well indeed, satirical and comic<br /> pictures of various classes in Russian society.<br /> <br /> The development of the Russian press at the<br /> end of the last century and in the present one<br /> has been very great, when we consider the<br /> colossal number of the illiterate in Russia. Over<br /> 700 periodicals have been issued, and out of<br /> these over 100 dailies, which command a large<br /> sale. Out of about one hundred millions of<br /> people* who can speak Russian, no more than<br /> twenty millions can be taken into account as<br /> readers of books and newspapers. The develop-<br /> ment of the press was helped by the cheap postal<br /> rates, and there are newspapers published and sent<br /> post free for a year for the sum of 8s. 6d., the<br /> postal payment being taken monthly, 20 per cent.<br /> of the subscription price for dailies, and even less:<br /> for other periodicals.<br /> <br /> Such an enormous journalistic output followed<br /> by large demands for books, without an adequate<br /> supply of original works, created the necessity of<br /> translating the work of foreign authors. The first<br /> in the field, of course, were the Polish novelists<br /> and playwrights whose writings were adapted;<br /> practically there is not a single Polish novelist,<br /> playwright, or short story writer worth mentioning,<br /> whose works were not published in the Russian<br /> papers or in book form. Next came the adaptation<br /> of the works of French and English authors, and<br /> these are translated and published in Russia, not<br /> only in single volumes, but in complete editions,<br /> accompanied sometimes by copies of the original<br /> illustrations which appeared in the English edition.<br /> The most popular English author in Russia at<br /> present is Mr. Jerome K. Jerome, whose books are:<br /> issued in Russia immediately after their produc-<br /> tion in England, often by several publishers.<br /> <br /> With the production of plays by foreign authors<br /> the same practice obtains. The Government<br /> stage is the first to set the example of pirating<br /> operas, comic operas and plays, without dreaming<br /> of paying any royalty ; of course, this malpractice<br /> is imitated by others. :<br /> <br /> But while in the case of the novelist the name<br /> of the author remains in the Russian adaptation,<br /> the adaptor or rather the translator of the play<br /> often omits to mention the name of its author, or<br /> the language from which he has taken it.<br /> Occasionally he may make some alteration to<br /> avoid detection, and will pose as an original play-<br /> wright.<br /> <br /> os<br /> <br /> ee<br /> <br /> * Out of a total of 125,680,682 persons living, in Russia,<br /> only 55,667,469 axe really Russians according to official<br /> statistical returns from census of 1897 just published.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Lately, on the same principle, a good many<br /> scientific works have been published at very low<br /> prices to popularise science.<br /> <br /> A society called “the Union ” formerly existed,<br /> composed of authors and journalists, whose aims<br /> were similar to those of the members of our<br /> * Authors’ Society,” but for political reasons it<br /> was closed last year by the Government. *The<br /> existing copyright law does not materially protect<br /> authors, as it is very difficult to prove plagiarism<br /> or infringement of copyright. According to the<br /> law, one sheet, equal to sixteen pages of an<br /> ordinary-sized book, can be quoted without in-<br /> fringement of copyright, and as no special size of<br /> type has been settled upon as legal, even this law<br /> may entail much controversy. Articles and short<br /> stories can, of course, be borrowed legally ; trans-<br /> lation from foreign languages is sanctioned by law<br /> even of books and publications issued in Russia in<br /> the numerous languages of the various peoples<br /> conquered by the Russian nation. Only in the<br /> republication of original books more than one<br /> sheet is forbidden ; the performance of plays as<br /> long as they are not published in book form can be<br /> forbidden, if the original language in which the<br /> play was written is used.<br /> <br /> Knowing that the author of “Madame Sans<br /> Géne” + had taken all strict precautions when the<br /> play was produced in Paris to prevent any Russian<br /> theatrical managers from obtaining copies of the<br /> work, M. Korsch, the richest theatrical owner in<br /> Russia, travelled specially to Paris. Finding the<br /> price asked for the right of performing the play in<br /> Russia too high, and having been refused a copy<br /> of the work by the prompter (although he offered a<br /> thousand francs for it), the disappointed purchaser<br /> attended the theatre during a few performances,<br /> wrote down the play, and afterwards produced it<br /> in Moscow. Usually foreign operas and plays for<br /> the Imperial stage are bought from prompters ; the<br /> musical scores of “the Geisha” were bought from<br /> a touring company in Austria for a few pounds.<br /> When the Government leads the way in dishonour-<br /> able transactions, no wonder that its imitators are<br /> equally unscrupulous.<br /> <br /> Notwithstanding this unenviable condition of<br /> affairs in Russian Poland, owing to the strict<br /> censorship which rules there, Polish literature is<br /> prospering, and may justly claim the third place,<br /> after English and French, in European literature.<br /> Not only does the number, but the quality, of its<br /> authors give it this right.<br /> <br /> Unfortunately the world at large knows little of<br /> <br /> *<br /> <br /> .A book on Russian copyright law was published<br /> some years ago by an eminent lawyer, Spasovitch.<br /> <br /> t+ The English version is called, I think, “ Duchess of<br /> Dantzig,”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 227<br /> <br /> the rank which Polish authors have attained in<br /> the sphere of letters, for, with the exception of all<br /> the works of Sienkiewicz, one novel of Glowacki,<br /> and two novels of Miss Rodziewicz, nothing has<br /> been translated into English. Two novels of an<br /> eminent author are at this moment in course of<br /> publication.<br /> <br /> The yearly output of Polish books is over two<br /> thousand, and is considerably above a million of<br /> copies. There are over five hundred Polish periodi-<br /> cals, of which eleven daily papers and ninety-two<br /> weeklies and monthlies are published in Warsaw<br /> alone. In the United States, seven dailies and<br /> forty-three weeklies are published ; in Brazil three<br /> weeklies, two in Paris, one in Switzerland, and one<br /> in Italy ; all the rest are issued in provincial towns<br /> of Russian, Ausfrian, and German Poland. If it is<br /> said that the figures quoted are not large for a<br /> nation of over thirty millions of people, out of<br /> which twenty millions are in Russia, three millions<br /> in America, and the remainder divided between<br /> Austrian and German Poland, let the political<br /> situation be remembered, especially the fact that<br /> in nine provinces of Russian Poland no Polish<br /> publications are allowed, that even in Warsaw<br /> there was a time when permission for new publica-<br /> tions was refused by the Government, and that<br /> even now this is difficult to obtain; then it will<br /> be conceded that the results are astonishing. The<br /> development of Polish literature under such<br /> depressing circumstances is wonderful. Its many<br /> shades are well represented ; history and fiction<br /> have authors of standard va&#039;ue as well as the<br /> largest number of representatives.<br /> <br /> Towards the end of the third quarter of the last<br /> century, between 1870 and 1900, the output of<br /> Polish fiction was not only meagre in quantity,<br /> but in value, for some of the greatest novelists,<br /> like Joseph Korzeniowski, had died; Kaczkowski<br /> was silent ; Kraszewski (the father of the novel in<br /> Poland, who had written more than 750 volumes<br /> of romances, poetry, and history) was in exile ;<br /> Sigismund Milkowski, another great writer of fic-<br /> tion, though still alive, had been forced to live<br /> in Switzerland, for he was a member of the late<br /> National Government of 1863. At this moment<br /> the first book of Henry K. Sienkiewicz, the<br /> author of “Quo Vadis,” appeared, and simul-<br /> taneously those of Alexander Glowacki, the Polish<br /> Dickens, Clemens Junosza Szaniawski, the writer<br /> who has faithfully described the nobility of the<br /> country as well as the country Jews in Poland,<br /> and Adolf Dygasinski, an excellent novelist, whose<br /> special art consisted in describing the heroism of<br /> animals, and who is unique in the world’s literature.<br /> Historical novels were represented in addition to<br /> the above by Adam Krechowiecki and T. Jeske-<br /> Choinski, all of them standard authors, whose<br />  <br /> <br /> 228<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> works were translated into many foreign languages,<br /> especially Russian and German. If we do not<br /> reckon Sienkiewicz, only one novel, the last of<br /> Alexander Glowacki’s, ‘‘The Pharaoh and the<br /> Priest,’ has been published in the English language<br /> and appeared in America three years ago ; all the<br /> others are unknown to the British public. At the<br /> same time, Mrs. Elize Orzeszko began to write.<br /> Some of her best novels, as “ Eli Makower” and<br /> “ Meir Ezofowicz,” are mainly concerned with<br /> descriptions of Jewish society. The subject is<br /> treated without prejudice and with great talent.<br /> <br /> The number of ladies who are novelists is very<br /> large, but two names merit special mention: Mrs.<br /> Gabriel Snieszko-Zapolska, the Polish George Sand,<br /> and Miss Mary Rodziewicz, whose novels ‘‘ Anima<br /> Vilis” and “ Distaff” are known to the English<br /> public, having been brought out*in English by<br /> a London publisher.<br /> <br /> The appearance of so many first-class stars on<br /> the Polish literary horizon had its effect on the<br /> previously large output of French novels, and the<br /> development of the literary movement was followed<br /> by an increasing demand of unprecedented strength,<br /> The end of the last century was marked not only<br /> by the appearance of a very large number of<br /> authors, but by their extraordinary talent, so that<br /> were one asked to name the greatest novelist in<br /> Poland, it would be impossible to select one from a<br /> dozen whose genius is pre-eminent. Dombrowski’s<br /> novel “ Death” is a masterpiece of its kind. Un-<br /> fortunately his other works suffer by comparison,<br /> and he will be celebrated as the author of one<br /> book.<br /> <br /> Waclaw Gasiorowski has written a whole series<br /> of novels from the time of Napoleon, two of which,<br /> one dealing with a descendant of the Stuarts and<br /> another called “‘ Countess Walewska ” (the mother<br /> of the Prime Minister of Napoleon III.), are in<br /> course of publication in London. The Polish<br /> Manchester “‘ Lodz” has been immortalised by<br /> Wladislaw Rejmont as “The Promised Land.”<br /> The Government, by sending Waclaw Sieroszewski<br /> to Siberia, unwittingly gave to that region a Polish<br /> Kipling, who discovered unknown nations in that<br /> vast country and depicted them with great talent<br /> in his novels and stories. Stefan Zeromski is the<br /> Polish Gorky, except that he has no personal<br /> experience of slum life. With the addition of the<br /> names of Baron Weyssenhoff and Casimir Glinski<br /> and Tetmajer, the list of great Polish authors may<br /> be complete.<br /> <br /> The most popular author of all is of course<br /> Sienkiewicz, but not as the author of ‘Quo<br /> Vadis,” but of “With Fire and Sword” and<br /> other historical novels which were found in the<br /> houses of the poorest peasants, and are the best<br /> defence against the Germanisation and Russification<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> of Poles. In this respect Sienkiewicz stands alone ;<br /> his work is partly shared by Alexander Glowacki,<br /> some of whose books are very popular among the<br /> working classes in the towns of Poland.<br /> <br /> One peculiar fact should be noted, viz., that all<br /> the leading novelists belong to the very oldest noble<br /> families of Poland, and in other branches of litera-<br /> ture the same class is conspicuous among the chief<br /> authors. History mostly dealing with national<br /> events is a very popular study in Poland, and the<br /> number of writers is extensive. The authors most<br /> widely known are ‘Tadeusz Korzon, Szymon<br /> Askenazy, Oswald Balzer, and Alexander Briickner.<br /> Essayists and critics are also numerous, Julian<br /> Klaczko, who is not only well known in Poland,<br /> but also in France, where his work on Pope<br /> Julius IJ. won him Continental fame, deserves<br /> special mention. Dr. Matlakowski’s work on<br /> Shakespeare belongs to the best of its kind in world<br /> literature, and most able studies may be found on<br /> Tennyson as reviewed by Dr. Swiecicki, Byron<br /> and Shelley by Matuszewski, French literature by<br /> Wladyslaw Jablonowski, Polish poets by Ferdi-<br /> nand Hoesick.<br /> <br /> All the English leading authors are not only<br /> well known to the reading public in Poland, but<br /> their works are discussed in periodicals and hand-<br /> books of literature, while many have their merits<br /> reviewed in essays, even such modern writers as.<br /> Hall Caine, Kipling, Hardy, and others.<br /> <br /> An excellent book on England was written:<br /> by Tadeusz Smarzewski entitled “Holidays in<br /> England.” It is by far the best study of life and<br /> manners in this country which has appeared in<br /> Poland; its judgment is sound, and the author&#039;s.<br /> appreciation is correct.<br /> <br /> Poetry also has many representatives, the<br /> leaders being Mrs. Konopnicka (also a very gifted<br /> short-story writer), Miss Jadwiga Luszczewska,.<br /> and Miss Terpilowska, whose poem ‘ Borys,” being<br /> unfortunately banned by the censor, is little<br /> known, but is a work of rare merit. As it dealt<br /> with the history of Rome, it was supposed to<br /> affect the Tzardom injuriously, and was therefore<br /> forbidden. Among the men the chief poets are<br /> A, Lange, K. Glinski, Arthur Uppman, Kasprowicz,<br /> and others. As arule short poems are the more<br /> numerous.<br /> <br /> Comedy is in course of revival.<br /> <br /> has many gifted authors who deal generally with<br /> local subjects. Of these the principal are Feldman,<br /> Jaroszynski, Kisielewski, Swietochowski, K. Zaleski,<br /> and Wyspianski.<br /> <br /> There is not a subject which has not been dealt<br /> with by distinguished authors. Even the cats<br /> found a historian in M. Jacques de Vermond<br /> Leonard, a Polish writer with a foreign name.<br /> <br /> In former —<br /> years Poland had her Moliére in Fredro ; now she —<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> The statement made in the Evho de Paris con-<br /> cerning the predominance of French literature in<br /> Russia caused me to look up statistics relating to<br /> foreign books published in Poland. The catalogue<br /> of Messrs. Gebethner and Wolff (large Polish pub-<br /> lishers) gives 1138 works, of which 222 are trans-<br /> lations. This makes two in ten to be foreign,<br /> more than half of which are English, a little less<br /> than a quarter French, the remainder being trans-<br /> lations from Spanish, Italian, Scandinavian,<br /> Russian, or other languages. The majority of<br /> foreign books are not novels, but publications<br /> for children or scientific works.<br /> <br /> Polish literature is very poor in popular scientific<br /> books or those which deal with trades of all kinds,<br /> as well as manufacturers’ manuals. In Poland<br /> there are more than 600 booksellers and above<br /> 100 publishers; over 2,000 works are published<br /> by the authors themselves, and given to Messrs.<br /> Gebethner and Wolff or any other leading book-<br /> seller (who also publishes on his own account) for<br /> sale on commission. The method of dealing between<br /> authors and publishers is exceedingly primitive:<br /> no agreement is made, but the author receives a<br /> certain amount of money in advance, gives a<br /> receipt for it in which he says that he has sold his<br /> book, or an edition of it, for such a price. The<br /> number of copies in an edition is usually limited,<br /> but no one can control the number the publisher<br /> may choose to issue. The publisher gives no<br /> written agreement to the author, but after five<br /> years from the publication of the work the author<br /> may legally sell it for the issue of a second edition<br /> to another publisher.<br /> <br /> The majority of authors are not professional<br /> writers ; they are landowners or have other means<br /> of living. Those who earn their bread by their pen<br /> are few, unless they work as journalists. Mr.<br /> Barrie’s two novels brought him larger profits than<br /> all Sienkiewicz’s works put together yielded to him,<br /> or indeed the combined publications of any vther<br /> five leading Polish novelists. With the exception<br /> of Sienkiewicz, no author would refuse £500 for a<br /> novel, most would accept £200 with pleasure, while<br /> the majority would sell their book for from £30 to<br /> £50. Ifan author is fortunate enough to secure the<br /> publication of his novel serially in a daily paper in<br /> Austrian or German Poland, and simultaneously in<br /> a Warsaw daily, he may hope to make from £150<br /> to £200 in addition to what the publisher will<br /> pay. Many authors after aserial run are unable to<br /> find a publisher. With the exception of one daily,<br /> the Warsaw Courier, in most publications there<br /> is usually one original novel by a Polish author<br /> and one foreign one, generally an English one, as at<br /> the present time outside England there are not<br /> Many great novelists on the Continent. A trans-<br /> lator is only paid from £5 to £10 for his work ;<br /> <br /> 229<br /> <br /> such novels, even of the best authors, are gel-<br /> dom published in book form. At the present<br /> moment “The Prodigal Son” is published by a<br /> Warsaw weekly, and a Warsaw daily is about to<br /> give serially “The Return of Sherlock Holmes.”<br /> Some of Kipling’s short stories are published in<br /> Lemberg. In book form I have seen the works of<br /> J. M. Barrie, T. Hall Caine, Sir Arthur Conan<br /> Doyle, H. Rider Haggard, A nthony Hope Hawkins,<br /> E. Hornung, Marion Crawford, Rudyard Kipling,<br /> Sir Gilbert Parker, and Mrs. Humphrey Ward.<br /> <br /> In Poland one may find many reference books.<br /> This is not the case in Russia. “The only Russian<br /> encyclopedia is about to be issued by Messrs.<br /> Brockhaus in Leipzig, but the Poles possess not<br /> only many general encyclopedias, but different ones<br /> on special subjects, as education, agriculture,<br /> Church, ete., and also many dictionaries of the<br /> Polish language, while the Russians have only one,<br /> and this was edited by a Pole, Dr. Baudoin de<br /> Courtenay, who is also editor of the new dictionary<br /> of the Polish language. Poland can also boast of<br /> the largest encyclopedia in the world, far larger<br /> than that published by the Zimes. The publica-<br /> tion of this work began in 1890, and up to the<br /> present forty-five volumes have been brought out,<br /> yet practically only a little over half the work has<br /> been achieved. The most wonderful fact is that<br /> the book is now published without a publisher!<br /> The Polish Harmsworth, Mr. Granowski, who<br /> from £20 made a fortune of £50,000 in a few<br /> years by the publication of various periodicals<br /> and farthing (not halfpenny) dailies, seeing that<br /> the encyclopedia did not pay, made a gift of<br /> it to the editors, who continue its publication. The<br /> work itself will be of great value, but owing to the<br /> lack of capital, with about 4,000 subscribers, the<br /> illustrations are scarce, and most of the contributors<br /> write for the credit of helping such a splendid pub-<br /> lication to a successful end. The work not only<br /> surpasses any other encyclopedia in the world, but<br /> has many original articles by 300 of the best Polish<br /> specialist authors.<br /> <br /> The Poles have in addition to this a good<br /> “ Literary Year-book,” in which not only the names<br /> and addresses of authors, periodicals, and publishers<br /> are given, but also those of the corps de ballet.<br /> The editor probably had heard something of the<br /> criticism of the Routledge Year-book, and to avoid<br /> a similar notice gave more than was wanted. One<br /> valuable fact given in the book is the particulars of<br /> all Polish libraries. A Polish weekly is published<br /> in St. Petersburg, but, being a pro-Government<br /> paper, is despised by the Poles. Unfortunately it<br /> is a masterpiece of editorship, and is read by all who<br /> desire reliable information as to what is going on<br /> in Poland and in the world. Really the Kraj is<br /> the best edited weekly paper in the world, being<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> 228<br /> <br /> works were translated into many foreign languages,<br /> especially Russian and German. If we do not<br /> reckon Sienkiewicz, only one novel, the last of<br /> Alexander Glowacki’s, “The Pharaoh and the<br /> Priest,’ has been published in the English language<br /> and appeared in America three years ago ; all the<br /> others are unknown to the British public. At the<br /> same time, Mrs. Elize Orzeszko began to write.<br /> Some of her best novels, as “ Eli Makower ” and<br /> “ Meir Ezofowicz,” are mainly concerned with<br /> descriptions of Jewish society. ‘The subject is<br /> treated without prejudice and with great talent.<br /> <br /> The number of ladies who are novelists is very<br /> large, but two names merit special mention : Mrs.<br /> Gabriel Snieszko-Zapolska, the Polish George Sand,<br /> and Miss Mary Rodziewicz, whose novels ‘‘ Anima<br /> Vilis” and “Distaff” are known to the English<br /> public, having been brought out* in English by<br /> a London publisher.<br /> <br /> The appearance of so many first-class stars on<br /> the Polish literary horizon had its effect on the<br /> previously large output of French novels, and the<br /> development of the literary movement was followed<br /> by an increasing demand of unprecedented strength.<br /> The end of the last century was marked not only<br /> <br /> by the appearance of a very large number of<br /> <br /> authors, but by their extraordinary talent, so that<br /> were one asked to name the greatest novelist in<br /> Poland, it would be impossible to select one from a<br /> dozen whose genius is pre-eminent. Dombrowski’s<br /> novel “ Death” is a masterpiece of its kind. Un-<br /> fortunately his other works suffer by comparison,<br /> and he will be celebrated as the author of one<br /> book.<br /> <br /> Waclaw Gasiorowski has written a whole series<br /> of novels from the time of Napoleon, two of which,<br /> one dealing with a descendant of the Stuarts and<br /> another called “ Countess Walewska ” (the mother<br /> of the Prime Minister of Napoleon III.), are in<br /> course of publication in London. The Polish<br /> Manchester “Lodz” has been immortalised by<br /> Wladislaw Rejmont as “The Promised Land.”<br /> The Government, by sending Waclaw Sieroszewski<br /> to Siberia, unwittingly gave to that region a Polish<br /> Kipling, who discovered unknown nations in that<br /> vast country and depicted them with great talent<br /> in his novels and stories. Stefan Zeromski is the<br /> Polish Gorky, except that he has no personal<br /> experience of slum life. With the addition of the<br /> names of Baron Weyssenhoff and Casimir Glinski<br /> and Tetmajer, the list of great Polish authors may<br /> be complete.<br /> <br /> The most popular author of all is of course<br /> Sienkiewicz, but not as the author of “Quo<br /> Vadis,” but of “With Fire and Sword” and<br /> other historical novels which were found in the<br /> houses of the poorest peasants, and are the best<br /> defence against the Germanisation and Russification<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> of Poles. In this respect Sienkiewicz stands alone ;<br /> his work is partly shared by Alexander Glowacki,<br /> some of whose books are very popular among the<br /> working classes in the towns of Poland.<br /> <br /> One peculiar fact should be noted, viz., that all<br /> the leading novelists belong to the very oldest noble<br /> families of Poland, and in other branches of litera-<br /> ture the same class is conspicuous among the chief<br /> authors. History mostly dealing with national<br /> events is a very popular study in Poland, and the<br /> number of writers is extensive. The authors most<br /> widely known are Tadeusz Korzon, Szymon<br /> Askenazy, Oswald Balzer, and Alexander Briickner,<br /> Essayists and critics are also numerous. Julian<br /> Klaczko, who is not only well known in Poland,<br /> but also in France, where his work on Pope<br /> Julius IJ. won him Continental fame, deserves<br /> special mention. Dr. Matlakowski’s work on<br /> Shakespeare belongs to the best of its kind in world<br /> literature, and most able studies may be found on<br /> Tennyson as reviewed by Dr. Swiecicki, Byron<br /> and Shelley by Matuszewski, French literature by<br /> Wladyslaw Jablonowski, Polish poets by Ferdi-<br /> nand Hoesick.<br /> <br /> All the English leading authors are not only<br /> well known to the reading public in Poland, but<br /> their works are discussed in periodicals and hand-<br /> books of literature, while many have their merits<br /> reviewed in essays, even such modern writers as<br /> Hall Caine, Kipling, Hardy, and others.<br /> <br /> An excellent book on England was written<br /> by Tadeusz Smarzewski entitled “Holidays in<br /> England.” It is by far the best study of life and<br /> manners in this country which has appeared in<br /> Poland; its judgment is sound, and the author&#039;s.<br /> appreciation is correct.<br /> <br /> Poetry also has many representatives, the-<br /> leaders being Mrs. Konopnicka (also a very gifted<br /> short-story writer), Miss Jadwiga Luszczewska,<br /> and Miss Terpilowska, whose poem “ Borys,” being<br /> unfortunately banned by the censor, is little<br /> known, but is a work of rare merit. As it dealt<br /> with the history of Rome, it was supposed to<br /> affect the Tzardom injuriously, and was therefore<br /> forbidden. Among the men the chief poets are<br /> A, Lange, K. Glinski, Arthur Uppman, Kasprowicz,<br /> <br /> and others. As arule short poems are the more<br /> <br /> numerous.<br /> <br /> Comedy is in course of revival. In former<br /> <br /> years Poland had her Moliére in Fredro ; now she<br /> <br /> has many gifted authors who deal generally with |<br /> local subjects. Of these the principal are Feldman, ©<br /> <br /> Jaroszynski, Kisielewski, Swietochowski, K. Zaleski,<br /> and Wyspianski.<br /> <br /> There is not a subject which has not been dealt<br /> with by distinguished authors. Even the cats<br /> found a historian in M. Jacques de Vermond<br /> Leonard, a Polish writer with a foreign name.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> The statement made in the Evho de Paris con-<br /> cerning the predominance of French literature in<br /> Russia caused me to look up statistics relating to<br /> foreign books published in Poland. The catalogue<br /> of Messrs. Gebethner and Wolff (large Polish pub-<br /> lishers) gives 1138 works, of which 222 are trans-<br /> lations. This makes two in ten to be foreign,<br /> more than half of which are English, a little less<br /> than a quarter French, the remainder being trans-<br /> lations from Spanish, Italian, Scandinavian,<br /> Russian, or other languages. The majority of<br /> foreign books are not novels, but publications<br /> for children or scientific works.<br /> <br /> Polish literature is very poor in popular scientific<br /> books or those which deal with trades of all kinds,<br /> as well as manufacturers’ manuals. In Poland<br /> there are more than 600 booksellers and above<br /> 100 publishers; over 2,000 works are published<br /> by the authors themselves, and given to Messrs.<br /> Gebethner and Wolff or any other leading book-<br /> seller (who also publishes on his own account) for<br /> sale on commission. The method of dealing between<br /> authors and publishers is exceedingly primitive :<br /> no agreement is made, but the author receives a<br /> certain amount of money in advance, gives a<br /> receipt for it in which he says that he has sold his<br /> book, or an edition of it, for such a price. The<br /> number of copies in an edition is usually limited,<br /> but no one can control the number the publisher<br /> may choose to issue. The publisher gives no<br /> written agreement to the author, but after five<br /> years from the publication of the work the author<br /> may legally sell it for the issue of a second edition<br /> to another publisher.<br /> <br /> The majority of authors are not professional<br /> writers ; they are landowners or have other means<br /> of living. ‘Those who earn their bread by their pen<br /> are few, unless they work as journalists. Mr.<br /> Barrie’s two novels brought him larger profits than<br /> all Sienkiewicz’s works put together yielded to him,<br /> or indeed the combined publications of any other<br /> five leading Polish novelists. With the exception<br /> of Sienkiewicz, no author would refuse £500 for a<br /> novel, most would accept £200 with pleasure, while<br /> the majority would sell their book for from £30 to<br /> £50. Ifan author is fortunate enough to secure the<br /> publication of his novel serially in a daily paper in<br /> Austrian or German Poland, and simultaneously in<br /> a Warsaw daily, he may hope to make from £150<br /> to £200 in addition to what the publisher will<br /> pay. Many authors after aserial run are unable to<br /> find a publisher. With the exception of one daily,<br /> the Warsaw Courier, in most publications there<br /> is usually one original novel by a Polish author<br /> and one foreign one, generally an English one, as at<br /> the present time outside England there are not<br /> Many great novelists on the Continent. A trans-<br /> lator is only paid from £5 to £10 for his work ;<br /> <br /> 229<br /> <br /> such novels, even of the best authors, are sel-<br /> dom published in book form. At the present<br /> moment “The Prodigal Son” ig published by a<br /> Warsaw weekly, and a Warsaw daily is about to<br /> give serially “The Return of Sherlock Holmes.”<br /> Some of Kipling’s short. stories are published in<br /> Lemberg. In book form T have seen the works of<br /> J. M. Barrie, T. Hall Caine, Sir Arthur Conan<br /> Doyle, H. Rider Haggard, Anthony Hope Hawkins,<br /> E. Hornung, Marion Crawford, Rudyard Kipling,<br /> Sir Gilbert Parker, and Mrs. Humphrey Ward.<br /> <br /> In Poland one may find many reference books.<br /> This is not the case in Russia, &quot;The only Russian<br /> encyclopedia is about to be issued by Messrs.<br /> Brockhaus in Leipzig, but the Poles possess not<br /> only many general encyclopedias, but different ones<br /> on special subjects, as education, agriculture,<br /> Church, etc., and also many dictionaries of the<br /> Polish language, while the Russians have only one,<br /> and this was edited by a Pole, Dr. Baudoin de<br /> Courtenay, who is also editor of the new dictionary<br /> of the Polish language. Poland can also boast of<br /> the largest encyclopedia in the world, far larger<br /> than that published by the Zimes. The publica-<br /> tion of this work began in 1890, and up to the<br /> present forty-five volumes have been brought out,<br /> yet practically only a little over half the work has<br /> been achieved. The most wonderful fact is that<br /> the book is now published without a publisher !<br /> The Polish Harmsworth, Mr. Granowski, who<br /> from £20 made a fortune of £50,000 in a few<br /> years by the publication of various periodicals<br /> and farthing (not halfpenny) dailies, seeing that<br /> the encyclopedia did not pay, made a gift of<br /> it to the editors, who continue its publication. The<br /> work itself will be of great value, but owing to the<br /> Jack of capital, with about 4,000 subscribers, the<br /> illustrations are scarce, and most of the contributors<br /> write for the credit of helping such a splendid pub-<br /> lication to a successful end. The work not only<br /> surpasses any other encyclopedia in the world, but<br /> has many original articles by 300 of the best Polish<br /> specialist authors.<br /> <br /> The Poles have in addition to this a good<br /> “ Literary Year-book,” in which not only the names<br /> and addresses of authors, periodicals, and publishers<br /> are given, but also those of the corps de ballet.<br /> The editor probably had heard something of the<br /> criticism of the Routledge Year-book, and to avoid<br /> a similar notice gave more than was wanted. One<br /> valuable fact given in the book is the particulars of<br /> all Polish libraries. A Polish weekly is published<br /> in St. Petersburg, but, being a pro-Government<br /> paper, is despised by the Poles. Unfortunately it<br /> is a masterpiece of editorship, and is read by all who<br /> desire reliable information as to what is going on<br /> in Poland and in the world. Really the Kraj is<br /> the best edited weekly paper in the world, being<br /> 230<br /> <br /> a kind of weekly Review of Reviews, with the best<br /> bits of other papers, in addition to contributions<br /> of some 200 correspondents from all parts of the<br /> world, and good literary original articles.<br /> <br /> « ALMAR.”<br /> <br /> +—~&lt;&gt;_ -—__-<br /> <br /> IMPERIAL POSTAL CHARGES.<br /> <br /> ——<br /> <br /> INCE the short article that appeared in the last<br /> number of Ze Author on Canadian Postal<br /> Rates was written, the report of the debate in<br /> <br /> the Canadian Senate has come to hand from our<br /> Canadian correspondent. We have taken the<br /> liberty of reprinting Sir George Drummond’s<br /> speech as it puts forward much more clearly and<br /> lucidly than we could attempt to do, the exact<br /> position of Canada as regards the United States<br /> and as regards Great Britain.<br /> <br /> It is hoped that the action of Canada will once<br /> again arouse some interest in this discussion in<br /> Parliament.<br /> <br /> The resolution proposed was : ‘“‘ That the atten-<br /> tion of the government be directed to the local,<br /> foreign and imperial postal charges, with the view<br /> of remedying certain ‘inequalities therein, and the<br /> Senate affirms the principle that the conveyance of<br /> letters, newspapers, books, periodicals, &amp;c., should<br /> be at a lower scale of charges within the empire<br /> than at the time ruling with any foreign country.”<br /> <br /> Sir George Drummond spoke as follows :<br /> <br /> “In rising to propose this resolution I have to ask<br /> the indulgence of honourable members while I sub-<br /> mit some facts and figures bearing on the case. I<br /> desire to draw the attention of this House to one<br /> or two of the existing charges between this country<br /> and the United States and the United Kingdom,<br /> and to show, if itis possible to do so—as I think you<br /> will agree it is—that there are very wide and serious<br /> discrepancies in the rates current as between these<br /> countries. In Canada two cents per ounce is the<br /> present rate for the conveyance of letters all over<br /> the continent, both in this country and in the<br /> United States, while to England and the empire<br /> two cents covers only half an ounce; in other<br /> words, the rate is double that charged on letters to<br /> the United States. My resolution calls for an ex-<br /> pression of the opinion of this honourable House<br /> that the rates within the empire should be lower<br /> than those at the time ruling with any foreign<br /> country. The same discrepancy exists with<br /> regard to post cards. In Canada and to the<br /> United States they are conveyed for one cent each,<br /> while to England and the empire generally, the<br /> rate is two cents, again double. But the most<br /> serious discrepancy occurs in the postage rates for<br /> newspapers, magazines, and periodicals, which<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Canada conveys to England at the rate of half cent<br /> per pound, while the rate from England to Canada<br /> is no less than eight cents per pound, and the rate<br /> from the United States to Canada is one cent per<br /> pound. It is difficuit to imagine on what principle<br /> the imperial government proceeds in charging a<br /> rate of eight cents per pound. It is in itself a<br /> monstrous rate, equivalent to $175 per ton, or<br /> say £36 per ton. In these days of cheap convey-<br /> ance such a rate is absolutely unjustifiable. It is<br /> quite true that mails from the United Kingdom<br /> have to cross the ocean, but it is equally true that<br /> the cost of conveyance across the ocean is much<br /> less than land conveyance, and if you take the<br /> extent of the United States and of Canada itself, if a<br /> rate of one cent per pound covers the cost of the<br /> land carriage, there is certainly something seriously<br /> wrong in charging eight cents per pound for con-<br /> veying the mails across the ocean. But I shall<br /> proceed to show that this rate, which the Post-<br /> master-General of England iniagines is a source of<br /> revenue, is evaded in substance and in fact. I am<br /> rather amused, and you will be I have no doubt, at<br /> the following remark of the Postmaster-General<br /> in the 49th report of the Post Office Department<br /> in 1903, the last bearing any reference to the<br /> subject. The Postmaster-General says :—<br /> <br /> “In reference to representations from the Cana-<br /> dian Post Office, I have agreed to accept news-<br /> papers and other periodicals from Canada for<br /> delivery in the United Kingdom prepaid only, at<br /> the Canadian domestic rates of postage. I regret<br /> that I have been unable to recommend to your<br /> Lordship the adoption of these very low rates in<br /> the reverse direction. I am of opinion that any<br /> rate of postage adopted for Canada must be eventu-<br /> ally applied to all other parts of the British Empire<br /> and I do not see any present justification for so<br /> wide and costly an extension of this unremunerative<br /> post.<br /> <br /> I have already said that I really believe that<br /> instead of the rate being unremunerative, it is such<br /> an exaggerated rate that, as in all such cases, it is<br /> sure to be evaded, and evaded it is. An institution<br /> called the American News Company, doing business<br /> in New York, imports all this literature by express<br /> at two dollars per hundred pounds to New York,<br /> that is two cents a pound, and then posting it by<br /> the United States post at one cent a pound, delivers _<br /> it in Canada for three cents a pound, so that the<br /> Postmaster-General is to this extent cheated out of<br /> his revenue. Probably, if he reduced the rate to<br /> three cents, he would command the business and —<br /> make a handsome profit, but he charges eight cents —<br /> a pound and kills the goose that lays the golden<br /> eco,<br /> I ask this honourable House to consider the<br /> effect of this prohibitive rate, as compared with<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> the rate charged by the United States, on the<br /> Canadian bookseller and distributors. The Cana-<br /> dian bookseller has this before him: If he accepts<br /> an order for a subscription for an English magazine<br /> or illustrated paper, he is in the first place charged<br /> eight cents a pound by the British Post Office, and<br /> then he has to pay to the Canadian Post Office<br /> one cent a pound in addition for the purpose of<br /> having his wares distributed, unless, indeed, he and<br /> the subscriber happen to be in&#039;the same city, when<br /> he can do it by hand without the intervention of<br /> the post office. So he has to compete with an<br /> institution which can do business for three cents<br /> a pound, while if he employs the legitimate post<br /> office facilities, the postage on his wares amounts<br /> to nine cents a pound. Now that is a very serious<br /> thing. You ask, probably, as it occurred to<br /> me, cannot the Canadian bookseller evade the<br /> English Post Office in the same way that the<br /> United States bookseller does ? but he is met by<br /> the express company, which is, so far as I know,<br /> a United States institution ; while they carry such<br /> wares to New York for two dollars per hundred<br /> pounds, they charge four dollars to Montreal, and<br /> a proportionately high rate to other parts of the<br /> Dominion. Altogether, it appears to me that this<br /> rate is destructive to the business of the Canadian<br /> bookseller. It affects other classes also. I call<br /> every member of this House to witness, if he has<br /> not observed for himself, that the supply of read-<br /> ing matter of alight character is almost entirely<br /> monopolized by United States publishers, and the<br /> majority of English papers and magazines which<br /> come into this country are reprints coming from<br /> the United States and filled with United States<br /> advertisements. A Canadian magazine is almost<br /> an impossibility. Canada is flooded with United<br /> States literature and Canadian manufacturers are<br /> met with the free distribution of the advertisements<br /> of United States wares. This outrageous condi-<br /> tion of things is productive of many serious con-<br /> sequences. The United States magazine comes in<br /> filled with advertisements of the United States<br /> wares illustrated freely and distributed gratis,<br /> because out of the one cent a pound charged for<br /> the conveyance by post, the Canadian Post Office<br /> gets nothing. The charge of one cent a pound<br /> goes entirely to the United States government. If<br /> the publisher of a magazine in this country, with<br /> a limited circulation, struggling with the opposi-<br /> tion so improperly created by the flooding of the<br /> country with United States literature, has to im-<br /> port materials of any kind, type plates, prints or<br /> process plates, which are now so common, he is<br /> charged duty on them, but if a book is made up<br /> and printed on United States paper it comes in<br /> free. An arrangement made with the United<br /> States for the conveyance of this literature seems<br /> <br /> 231<br /> <br /> a very easy thing. It seems fair to say to this<br /> country, as no doubt they do, if you will exchange<br /> rates with ourselves, we will carry all your maga-<br /> zines that you may send to us, and you will carry<br /> all we can supply to you; but in working it out,<br /> look at the discrepancy which results. The num-<br /> ber of publications, including newspapers, maga-<br /> zines and periodicals of all kinds, published in the<br /> United States, according to the census of 1900<br /> was 22,072, of magazines monthly and quarterly<br /> 8,181 ; while the total number of publications in<br /> Canada is 1,227, of magazines, 169, so in entering<br /> into an arrangement of that kind we have to<br /> consider this difference.<br /> <br /> In addition, I have looked up some facts<br /> with regard to some of the magazines which<br /> circulate in this country. I am_ not going<br /> to trouble the House with details or statistics<br /> of the whole or even any considerable number<br /> of them. I will take only two. One magazine<br /> weighs 14 ounces, and is carried, as above<br /> stated, for seven-eighths of one cent to all parts<br /> of Canada. It contains 159 pages of reading<br /> matter and 106 of advertisements, on which there<br /> are 303 advertisements. Another magazine weighs<br /> 19 ounces, is carried for one and three-sixteenths<br /> cents, contains 112 pages of reading matter and<br /> 183 pages of advertisements, on which are pub-<br /> lished 457 separate advertisements. The more<br /> popular of the English magazines are now printed<br /> in the United States, and while they do not have<br /> anything like the number of advertisements to<br /> which I have alluded, they still have a fair pro-<br /> portion of United States advertisements. As<br /> against that we have nothing to offset, no quid pro<br /> guo, and I must say that it appears to me the<br /> manufacturers and producers in this country have<br /> a reasonable cause for complaint when they see the<br /> advertisement of rival wares to their own distri-<br /> buted at the expense of our government gratis,<br /> while if they, on their side, attempt to distribute<br /> advertisements or catalogues, they have to pay to<br /> their own government two cents per ounce. The<br /> difference is very material, but if they are satisfied<br /> with it, I have nothing more to say. A strong<br /> representation made to England, backed by the<br /> weight of this Senate, might probably fortify the<br /> hands of our government in dealing with this<br /> question, and do infinite good. I have no cog-<br /> nizance of the representations which have been<br /> made to the British Post Office on the subject, but<br /> the inference is very plain that if we are willing to<br /> carry our magazines and literature of that kind<br /> to England for one-half cent per pound, as against<br /> the eight cents per pound charged by the imperial<br /> government, our government is not to blame.<br /> I. have, in my resolution, made this statement,<br /> that—<br /> 232 THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> The Senate affirms the principle that the con-<br /> veyance of letters, newspapers, books, periodicals,<br /> &amp;e., should be at a lower scale of charges within<br /> the empire than at the time ruling with any foreign<br /> country.’<br /> <br /> Does that require any long argument? To my<br /> mind, it does not. This country has already shown<br /> how it stands by its preferential tariff, which, while<br /> I have always maintained it was rather a crude<br /> method of settling the difficulty, at least showed<br /> what the feeling of this country was, and I know<br /> that the country was behind the Government when<br /> it established that preference. It shows that the<br /> doctrine that there should be a preference within<br /> the bounds of the empire was the practically<br /> unanimous sense of this country ; not only so, but<br /> we led the way in the policy of reprisals adminis-<br /> tered to a powerful European government, a policy<br /> which was, in 1867, inaugurated by Bismarck him-<br /> self, when the German government had to deal<br /> with other countries. He put it in the most<br /> specific shape that resorting to reprisals, as he<br /> termed it, was the only way of dealing with foreign<br /> countries which discriminated against the exports<br /> of Germany. I am not going to deal with the<br /> general imperial question, but this I will say, that<br /> imperial sentiment, which is the deliberate policy<br /> of this country as affirmed, is the strongest and<br /> most effective bond of union in the empire.”<br /> <br /> Hon. Mr. Scott—‘ Hear, hear.”<br /> <br /> Hon. Sir George Drummond—“ And that in<br /> dealing with it in the miserable haggling way the<br /> British post office does, they are trifling with an<br /> important factor in the spread of imperial feeling<br /> and sympathy.<br /> <br /> The facts above stated prove that the present<br /> rates are in their operations unjust, partial, and<br /> prejudicial to the interests of several classes of our<br /> fellow citizens :—<br /> <br /> Ist. To the booksellers and distributors of<br /> literature who are sacrificed in favour of American<br /> organisations having the same business ends ;<br /> <br /> 2nd. To our manufacturers and producers who<br /> find the wares of their rivals in the United States<br /> advertised broadcast and distributed at the expense<br /> of the government of Canada ;<br /> <br /> 3rd. To the British publishers who have to meet<br /> the competition in this market of literature arti-<br /> ficially cheapened at the expense of the American<br /> and Canadian governments ;<br /> <br /> 4th. To the literary men and publishers of our<br /> own country, who have to maintain an unequal<br /> struggle against a flood of foreign productions ;<br /> <br /> Finally. In regard to the motion I have placed<br /> on record and hope to obtain the acceptance of by<br /> this honourable House, the imperial note with<br /> which it concludes is, I think, in strict accord with<br /> the present policy and practice of this country.<br /> <br /> Every one of my hearers knows that our rela-<br /> tions with the motherland and other portions of<br /> the empire are largely governed by sentiment.<br /> The debates now going on in England are almost<br /> entirely taken up with this subject, and the col-<br /> lateral one of retaliation.<br /> <br /> Now in this country we are in both subjects in<br /> advance of the parent state, we are in the fore-<br /> front in the practical adoption of a preferential<br /> tariff. We have shown the way to a policy of<br /> reprisal in our tariff relations with a great Euro-<br /> pean power, and I cannot conceive that any<br /> reasonable objection can exist to the terms of my<br /> motion.<br /> <br /> The party debates now running their course in<br /> Great Britain, centre on the proposal to give a<br /> fiscal preference within the bounds of the empire.<br /> Both sides recognise the value of the imperial<br /> sentiment evinced by the colonies, or affect to do<br /> so, but while one party advocates a tariff preference<br /> as a means of fostering this bond of union, by the<br /> consolidating influence of mutual interest, the<br /> other scouts any such step as a needless sacrifice,<br /> preferring to leave things to their own course.<br /> Indeed, the leader airily waves aside all such pro-<br /> posals as ‘ squalid bonds.’<br /> <br /> Needless to say the latter view is not the view<br /> held in this country, but having made our prefer-<br /> ence and maintained it for years, having shown the<br /> practical value of the principle, even at some con-<br /> siderable sacrifices, we wait the answer of the<br /> mother country without excitement or haste.<br /> <br /> Now, I have nothing to say about the quality of<br /> the supplies we receive ; there are good, bad and<br /> indifferent examples, with, I am prepared to say,<br /> a preponderance of the best; but it is not Cana-<br /> dian nor is it English in tone, temper or tendency,<br /> occasionally very much the reverse, and generally<br /> and quite naturally, exhibiting a spirit of propa-<br /> gandism of American ideas and influences.<br /> <br /> The extent to which this supply has monopolised<br /> our market is largely due to the absurd, even<br /> monstrous, exactions of the English post office. I<br /> thank God that the good sense of our people has<br /> hitherto resisted and kept them immune to in-<br /> fluences of this kind, but I cannot believe that any<br /> statesman ean regard with indifference the continu-<br /> ance of this condition of things. ‘ Continual<br /> dropping wears the stone’ is a very old and a very<br /> true saying.<br /> <br /> You will observe that I do not advocate any<br /> exclusion of American reading-matter, but I do<br /> most earnestly protest against the practical ex-<br /> clusion—so far as prices can exclude—of the<br /> literature and news of our own country by postal<br /> regulations and imposts which are not justifiable,<br /> and which benefit the revenues of neither our own<br /> nor the mother country.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> i<br /> ‘<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 4<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> dg<br /> slag 4<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 233<br /> <br /> MR. GRANT RICHARDS’<br /> <br /> os<br /> <br /> UMMARY of the debtor’s statement of affairs<br /> at 17th January, 1905, date of receiving<br /> <br /> BANKRUPTCY.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> preparation for his autumn productions was greatly<br /> In arrear, and that to supply the necessary funds<br /> he borrowed £8,000 of the creditors, now treated<br /> as fully secured, on charges covering the series of<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> order :— books entitled “The World’s -Classics ” ; the<br /> Gross LIABILITIES. | Expected to rank | SSETS istimate<br /> liabilities. (As stated and estimated by debtor.) for dividend. | (As stated ee ee by debtor.) pres<br /> La | | a |<br /> £ sll d. fc sd. ee)<br /> 44,301 | 0 | 8 | 368 Creditors unsecured... .| 44,301 | 0 | 8 | Stock-in-trade Ae ee STi 0 0<br /> 8,000 | 0 | 0 | 2 Creditors fully | bo | (Estimated cost £23,000.) :<br /> Lo secured £8,000 0 0 | Trade fixtures, fittings, utensils,<br /> | | | Estimated | &amp;e. ee 150} 0 | 0<br /> fed value of Copyright and publishing rights | 12,514 | 4 | 6<br /> I securities... 16,920 10 8 | Lease of Smartt’s Building ~ 700] 0/0<br /> | ——_——_ | Shares in a company ete 200/010<br /> Surplus, to 1,004 Book debts— pet<br /> contra £8,920 10 8 | Good .--£6,994 6 10 |<br /> | — Doubtful 1,285 19 10<br /> | 1 Liability on 3 Bad 108-12: 1<br /> | Bills discounted SS<br /> other than (Charged to fully secured<br /> | debtor’s own | creditors. )<br /> be | acceptances for | | Estimated surplus from securities |<br /> 620 | 0 | Oj cvalue cc. £620 0 0 | | held by creditors fully secured 8,920 |10 | 8<br /> a | ————_— |_|<br /> Of which it is expected will | 41,195 |15 | 2<br /> rank se i 250} 0 | 0 | Deduct Creditors for distrainable |<br /> } | rent, and for preferential rates,<br /> 3 Creditors for rent, | &amp;ce., per contra ... 213 | 0 | 6<br /> 213 | 0 | 6) rates, &amp;e. | es<br /> bo = | 40,982 |14 | 8<br /> | | | Deducted contra. | Deficiency 3,568 | 6 | 0<br /> ie i | a nee<br /> eee | 1} 2 | £44,551 | 0 | 8 44,551 | 0|8<br /> | | |<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> OBSERVATIONS.<br /> <br /> 1. The receiving order was made on the petition<br /> of creditors, the act of bankruptcy being notice by<br /> the debtor at a meeting of his creditors on the 10th<br /> November, 1904, that he had suspended, or was<br /> about to suspend, payment of his debts.<br /> <br /> 2. The debtor states :—<br /> <br /> (i) That from 1888 to 1890 he was employed by<br /> a firm of publishers, and between 1890 and 1896<br /> was on the staff of The Review of Reviews ; that in<br /> 1897, with £1,400 borrowed of a firm of bankers<br /> and a friend, and since repaid, he commenced to<br /> trade as a publisher at 9, Henrietta Street,<br /> Covent Garden, W.C., and that from time to time,<br /> as the necessities of the business demanded, fur-<br /> ther sums were advanced to him by friends and<br /> others, some of whom are now creditors of the<br /> estate.<br /> <br /> Gi) That the business grew very rapidly, the net<br /> profits since its establishment amounting to nearly<br /> £19,000 ; that in February, 1904, he was taken<br /> seriously ill, and for four months was unable to<br /> attend to business ; that on returning he found his<br /> sales had considerably decreased, and the work of<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> leases of 2, Park Crescent, and 48, Leicester Square ;<br /> two life policies, and the book debts, and an<br /> accommodation bill for £1,000.<br /> <br /> (iii) That his illness caused certain firms to<br /> restrict his credit, and his expezses having been<br /> greatly increased by the rent of a new warehouse<br /> and a larger staff, he was unable in October, 1904,<br /> to meet his engagements ; that he then consulted<br /> his principal creditors, but owing to their inability<br /> to agree as to the proper course to be adopted, and<br /> to the mortgagees having obtained the appoint-<br /> ment of a receiver, negotiations for an arrange-<br /> ment broke down, and these proceedings were taken.<br /> <br /> 3. The debtor attributes his failure and insol-<br /> vency to his want of capital, over-trading, loss of<br /> profits owing to illness during the season of 1904,<br /> the refusal of his largest unsecured creditors to<br /> consent to a moratorium of sufficient length to<br /> enable him to recover his position, and household<br /> and personal expenditure, which, although ap-<br /> parently warranted by the profits, proved to be too<br /> heavy a draft on working capital. The debtor’s<br /> deficiency account is inaccurate, but he has under-<br /> taken to amend it.<br />  <br /> <br /> 234<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 4. The usual books of account have been produced.<br /> Many entries in the cash book require further and<br /> better explanation, which the debtor has been<br /> required to furnish.<br /> <br /> 5. The unsecured liabilities include £6,916 in<br /> respect of money lent; £11,259 for printing ;<br /> £10,913 for binding ; £4,713 for paper ; £1,576<br /> for other trade supplies and expenses ; £5,048 for<br /> royalties due to authors; £1,220 for household<br /> accounts; £2,000 due to the trustees of the<br /> debtor’s marriage settlement, and £685 for sun-<br /> dries. A number of the creditors claim general<br /> and special liens over stock in their hands for<br /> binding and printing, and these liens are now<br /> under investigation by the trustee.<br /> <br /> 6. The debtor has been adjudged bankrupt.<br /> <br /> 7. The Official Receiver will be glad to receive<br /> from creditors any information respecting the<br /> debtor and his affairs.<br /> <br /> 8. The first meeting of creditors was held on<br /> the Ist February, 1905. Mr. A. H. Moncrieff, of<br /> 19, Ludgate Hill, E.C., accountant and trade valuer,<br /> was appointed trustee, with a committee of<br /> inspection.<br /> <br /> Ecerton 8S. GREY,<br /> Official Receiver.<br /> <br /> —_—____—__+—~&gt;—_<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> FOREIGN PRESS-CUTTING AGENCIES.<br /> aes<br /> A USTRIA-HUNGARY.<br /> Concordiaplaz.<br /> <br /> BeLaium.—Bruxelles, European Press, 3, Place<br /> Royale.<br /> <br /> DrnmaRK.—Copenhagen, On Dit, Hobrogade, 13.<br /> <br /> France.—Paris, Le Courrier de la Presse, 21,<br /> Boulevard, Montmartre.<br /> <br /> GermAny.—Berlin, Berliner —_Litterarische<br /> Bureau, 127, Wilhelmstrasse, 8.W., 48.<br /> Hotianp.—Amsterdam, Handels<br /> Bureau Marcurius, Steenmeyer et Cie.<br /> <br /> Norway.—Christiania, Norske Argus, 21, Pruss-<br /> engade. :<br /> <br /> Sparn.—Madrid, Prensa de Madrid, 28, Calle de<br /> Serrano.<br /> <br /> SweEDEN.—Stockholm, Argus, Mlle.<br /> Andreson Observator, 5, Hamngaten.<br /> <br /> SwiTzERLAND.—Geneva, Agence de coupures de<br /> journeaux, case Stand 57.<br /> <br /> Unrrep States.—New York, American press<br /> information bureau, World Building, 61, Park Row.<br /> <br /> Vienna, Observer,<br /> <br /> Informatie<br /> <br /> A. IL.<br /> <br /> ~—_+____—-<br /> <br /> MAGAZINE CONTENTS.<br /> 1<br /> BLACKWooD’s MAGAZINE.<br /> The Kingdom of Bath. By J. H. Lobban.<br /> <br /> The Scottish Religious Revolution. By Andrew Lang.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Book MONTHLY.<br /> <br /> 3y W. P. Ryan.<br /> CHAMBERS’ JOURNAL.<br /> The Grammarian of York.<br /> <br /> On Tavas’ Hill.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> CONTEMPORARY REVIEW.<br /> <br /> The Bankruptcy of Higher Criticism, IT.<br /> Reich.<br /> <br /> The Reconstruction of Belief. Py W. H. Mallock.<br /> <br /> Liberal Chnrchmen and “The Reproach of Christ.”<br /> By A. W. Hutton.<br /> <br /> Parliamentary Reporting : A Reply. By A. P. Nicholson,<br /> <br /> CORNHILL MAGAZINE.<br /> <br /> Autor d’Evelina: Some Unpublished Letters of Fanny<br /> Burney’s. By Walter Frith.<br /> <br /> Reprints and Their Readers. By Joseph Shaylor.<br /> <br /> Compulsory Classics. By the Hon. John Collier.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> By Dr. Emit<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Sa ee OE<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Schools and Colleges: A Dialogue. By Magister<br /> Artium.<br /> <br /> Mr. G. B. Shaw and the British Public. By Stephen<br /> Gwynn.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Maxim Gorky and the Russian Revolt. By R. L.<br /> <br /> Japanese Poetry. By T. C. Balet and L. Defrance.<br /> <br /> The Poetry of Thomas Moore. By Arthur Symons.<br /> <br /> Sir Thomas Lawrance’s Love Affairs By J. B. Firth,<br /> <br /> INDEPENDENT REVIEW.<br /> <br /> The Tragedies of Voltaire. By G. 8. Strachey.<br /> <br /> Stanzas to Tolstoy. By Herbert Trench.<br /> <br /> “ De Profundis.” By G. Lowes Dickinson.<br /> <br /> The Appeal to the First Six Centuries.<br /> Huntley Skrine.<br /> <br /> Caidan. By E. M. Forster.<br /> <br /> MACMILLAN’S MAGAZINE.<br /> <br /> Matthew Arnold as a Critic. By H. H. Dodwell.<br /> <br /> The Fellow Workers of Voltaire. By 8. G. Tallentyre-<br /> II.—D. Alembert.<br /> <br /> Ruskin at Hawarden. By W. Sinclair.<br /> <br /> The Ladder of Education. By Geo. Bourne.<br /> <br /> MONTH.<br /> <br /> Freethought. By the Rev. John Gerrard.<br /> “ De Profundis.” By M. D. Petre.<br /> MONTHLY REVIEW.<br /> <br /> Beethoven. By Arthur Symons,<br /> <br /> Popular Songs of Old Canada. By Geo. Stewart.<br /> <br /> The Later Bourbons. By G. W. P.<br /> <br /> Sainte-Beuve. By Ferdinand Brunetiere.<br /> <br /> NINETEENTH CENTURY,<br /> <br /> Musical Hours. By H.M. the Queen of Roumania<br /> (Carmen Sylvia).<br /> <br /> The Heart of the Mikado. By Suyemutsu.<br /> <br /> The Commemoration of Shakespeare. By Sidney Lee.<br /> <br /> The Public as Seen from the Stage. By Gertrude<br /> Kingston.<br /> <br /> The Luminists. By Arthur Nicholson.<br /> <br /> ‘An Artists’ Love Story. By Eliza Priestley.<br /> <br /> The Art of Classical Quotation. By J. H. C, Welldon.<br /> <br /> TEMPLE BAR.<br /> Hans Christian Andersen. By Arthur L. Salmon.<br /> The Last of Les Jeunes. By Laurence Jerrold.<br /> WorRLp’s WORK.<br /> <br /> Commerce in Literature and Music.<br /> Standing.<br /> <br /> There are no articles dealing with literary, dramatic or<br /> musical subjects in the Bookman, Longman’s Magazine,<br /> National Review, or Pall Mall Magazine. ‘<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> By John<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> By Perey Cross<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 2<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO THE PRODUCER<br /> OF BOOKS.<br /> <br /> 3 —<br /> <br /> ERE are a few standing rules to be observed in an<br /> H agreement. There are four methods of dealing<br /> with literary property :—<br /> <br /> I. Selling it Outright.<br /> <br /> This is sometimes satisfactory, if a@ proper price can be<br /> obtained. But the transaction should be managed by a<br /> competent agent, or with the advice of the Secretary of<br /> the Society,<br /> <br /> IJ. A Profit-Sharing Agreement (a bad form of<br /> agreement),<br /> <br /> In this case the following rules should be attended to:<br /> <br /> C1.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro-<br /> duction forms a part without the strictest investigation.<br /> <br /> (2.) Not to give the publisher the power of putting the<br /> profits into his own pocket by charging for advertisements<br /> in his own organs, or by charging exchange advertise-<br /> ments. Therefore keep control of the advertisements.<br /> <br /> (3.) Not to allow a special charge for “ office expenses,”<br /> unless the same allowance is made to the author.<br /> <br /> (4.) Not to give up American, Colonial, or Continental<br /> rights.<br /> <br /> (5.) Not to give up serial or translation rights.<br /> <br /> (6.) Not to bind yourself for future work to any publisher.<br /> As well bind yourself for the future to any one solicitor or<br /> doctor !<br /> <br /> III. The Royalty System.<br /> <br /> This is perhaps, with certain limitations, the best form<br /> of agreement. It is above all things necessary to know<br /> what the proposed royalty means to both sides. It is now<br /> possible for an author to ascertain approximately the<br /> trnth. From time to time very important figures connected<br /> with royalties are published in Zhe Author.<br /> <br /> IY. A Commission Agreement.<br /> <br /> The main points are :—<br /> <br /> (1.). Be careful to obtain a fair cost of production.<br /> (2.) Keep control of the advertisements.<br /> <br /> (3.) Keep control of the sale price of the book.<br /> <br /> General.<br /> <br /> All other forms of agreement are combinations of the four<br /> above mentioned.<br /> <br /> Such combinations are generally disastrous to the author.<br /> <br /> Never sign any agreement without competent advice from<br /> the Seezetary of the Society.<br /> <br /> Stamp all agreements with the Inland Revenue stamp.<br /> <br /> Avoid agreements by letter if possible.<br /> <br /> The main points which the Society has always demanded<br /> from the outset are :—<br /> <br /> C1.) That both sides shall know what an agreement<br /> means.<br /> <br /> (2.) The inspection of those account books which belong<br /> to the author. We are advised that this is a right, in the<br /> nature of a common law right, which cannot be denied or<br /> withheld.<br /> <br /> (3.) Always avoid a transfer of copyright.<br /> <br /> a<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS.<br /> <br /> Se<br /> EVER sign an agreement without submitting it to the<br /> Secretary of the Society of Authors or some com-<br /> petent legal authority.<br /> 2. [t is well to be extremely careful in negotiating for<br /> the production of a play with anyone except an established<br /> manager.<br /> <br /> 235<br /> <br /> 3. There are three forms of dr<br /> in three or more acts :—<br /> <br /> a i * . :<br /> <br /> (4.) vo the Pesformiing right. This<br /> a cane So ie ww who enters into<br /> f act sh stipulate in the contract<br /> for production of the piece by a certain date<br /> and for proper publication of his name on the<br /> play-bills,<br /> <br /> (2.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to<br /> perform on the basis of percentages on<br /> toss receipts. Percentages vary between 5<br /> and 15 per cent. An author should obtain a<br /> percentage on the sliding scale of gross receipts<br /> in preference to the American system. Should<br /> obtain a sum in advance of percentages. A fixed<br /> date on or before which the play should be<br /> performed.<br /> <br /> (¢.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to<br /> perform on the basis of royalties (i.e., fixed<br /> nightly fees). ‘his method should be always<br /> avoided except in cases where the fees are<br /> ey to be small or difficult to collect. The<br /> other safeguards set out under heading (0, oly<br /> also in this case. oo<br /> <br /> 4. Plays in one act are often sold outright, but it is<br /> better to obtain a small nightly fee if possible, and a sum<br /> paid in advance of such fees in any event, It is extremely<br /> important that the amateur rights of one-act plays should<br /> be reserved.<br /> <br /> 5. Authors should remember that performing rights can<br /> be limited, and are usually limited, by town, country, and<br /> time. This is most important.<br /> <br /> 6. Authors should not assign performing rights, but<br /> should grant a licence to perform. ‘I&#039;he legal distinction is<br /> of great importance.<br /> <br /> 7. Authors should remember that performing rights in a<br /> play are distinct from literary copyright. A manager<br /> holding the performing right or licence to perform cannot<br /> print the book of the words.<br /> <br /> 8. Never forget that United States rights may be exceed-<br /> ingly valuable. hey should never be included in English<br /> agreements without the author obtaining a substantial<br /> consideration.<br /> <br /> 9. Agreements for collaboration should be carefully<br /> drawn and executed before collaboration is commenced.<br /> <br /> 10. An author should remember that production of a play<br /> is highly speculative: that he runs a very great risk of<br /> delay and a breakdown in the fulfilment of his contract.<br /> He should therefore guard himself all the more carefully in<br /> the beginning.<br /> <br /> 11. An author must remember that the dramatic market<br /> is exceedingly limited, and that for a novice the first object<br /> is to obtain adequate publication.<br /> <br /> As these warnings must necessarily be incomplete, on<br /> account of the wide range of the subject of dramatic con-<br /> tracts, those authors desirous of further information<br /> are referred to the Secretary of the Society.<br /> <br /> amatic contract for plays<br /> <br /> ee ee<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.<br /> <br /> 5 eae<br /> <br /> ITTLE can be added to the warnings given for the<br /> assistance of producers of books and dramatic<br /> authors. It must, however, be pointed out that, as<br /> <br /> a rule, the musical publisher demands from the musical<br /> composer a transfer of fuller rights and less liberal finan-<br /> cial terms than those obtained for literary and dramatic<br /> property. ‘he musical composer has very often the two<br /> rights to deal with—performing right and copyright. He<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 236<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> should be especially careful therefore when entering into<br /> an agreement,and should take into part.cular consideration<br /> the warnings stated above.<br /> <br /> 1<br /> <br /> HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> --—&lt;&gt;— + —<br /> <br /> 1, VIERY member has a right toask for and to receive<br /> K advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-<br /> lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his<br /> business or the administration of his property. The<br /> Secretary of the Society is a solicitor, but if there is any<br /> special reason the Secretary will refer the case to the<br /> Solicitors of the Society. Further, the Committee, if they<br /> deem it desirable, will obtain counsel&#039;s opinion. All this<br /> without any cost to the member.<br /> <br /> 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright<br /> and publishers’ agreements do not fall within the experi-<br /> ence of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use<br /> the Society.<br /> <br /> 3. Send to the Office copies of past agreements and past<br /> accounts, with a copy of the book represented. The<br /> Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new<br /> or old, for inspection and note. The information thus<br /> obtained may prove invaluable.<br /> <br /> 4. Before signing any agreement whatever, send<br /> the document to the Society for examination.<br /> <br /> 5. Remember always that in belonging to the Society<br /> you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you<br /> are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are<br /> advancing the best interests of your calling in promoting<br /> the independence of the writer, the dramatist, the composer.<br /> <br /> 6. The Committee have now arranged for the reception<br /> of members’ agreements and their preservation in a fire-<br /> proof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as<br /> confidential documents to be read only by the Secretary,<br /> who will keep the key of thesafe. ‘The Society now offers :<br /> —(1) To read and advise upon agreements and to give<br /> advice concerning publishers. (2) To stamp agreements<br /> in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep<br /> agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to<br /> agreements. Fuller particulars of the Society’s work<br /> can be obtained in the Prospectus.<br /> <br /> 7. No contract should be entered into with a literary<br /> agent without the advice of the Secretary of the Society.<br /> Members are strongly advised not to accept without careful<br /> consideration the contracts with publishers submitted to<br /> them by literary agents, and are recommended to submit<br /> them for interpretation and explanation to the Secretary<br /> of the Society.<br /> <br /> This<br /> The<br /> <br /> 8. Many agents neglect to stamp agreements.<br /> must be done within fourteen days of first execution.<br /> Secretary will undertake it on behalf of members.<br /> <br /> 9. Some agents endeavour to prevent authors from<br /> referring matters to the Secretary of the Society ; so<br /> do some publishers. Members can make their own<br /> deductions and act accordingly.<br /> <br /> 10. The subscription to the Society is £1 1s. per<br /> annum, or £10 10s for life membership.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.<br /> <br /> —+— +<br /> <br /> HE Society undertakes to stamp copies of music on<br /> behalf of its members for the fee of 6d. per 100 or<br /> part of 100. The members’ stamps are kept in the<br /> <br /> Society’s safe. The musical publishers communicate direct<br /> with the Secretary, and the voucher is then forwarded to<br /> the members, who are thus saved much unnecessary trouble.<br /> <br /> 1 +-_____-<br /> <br /> THE READING BRANCH.<br /> <br /> —+——» —<br /> <br /> EMBERS will greatly assist the Society in this<br /> branch of its work by informing young writers<br /> of its existence. Their MSS. can be read and<br /> <br /> treated as a composition is treated by a coach. The term<br /> MSS. includes not only works of fiction, but poetry<br /> and dramatic works, and when it is possible, under<br /> special arrangement, technical and scientific works. The<br /> Readers are writers of competence and experience. The<br /> fee is one guinea.<br /> <br /> Bg<br /> <br /> NOTICES.<br /> <br /> =<br /> <br /> HE Editor of Zhe Author begs to remind members of<br /> <br /> a the Society that, although the paper is sent to them<br /> <br /> free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a<br /> <br /> very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great<br /> <br /> many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest<br /> 5s. 6d. subscription for the year.<br /> <br /> Communications for “The Author” should be addressed<br /> to the Offices of the Society, 39, Old Queen Street, Storey’s<br /> Gate, S.W., and should reach the Editor not later than the<br /> 2ist of each month.<br /> <br /> All persons engaged in literary work of any kind,<br /> whether members of the Society or not, are invited to<br /> communicate to the Editor any points connected with their<br /> work which it would be advisable in the general interest to<br /> publish.<br /> <br /> Communications and letters are invited by the<br /> Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on<br /> no other subjects whatever. very effort will be made to<br /> return articles which cannot be accepted.<br /> <br /> — 1+<br /> <br /> The Secretary of the Society begs to give notice<br /> that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post,<br /> and he requests members who do not receive an<br /> answer to important communications within two days to<br /> write to him without delay. All remittances should be<br /> crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery Lane, or be sent<br /> by registered letter only.<br /> <br /> ——_—_——_+—&gt;—_+___——_-<br /> <br /> LEGAL AND GENERAL LIFE ASSURANCE 2<br /> <br /> SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> — +<br /> <br /> ENSIONS to commence at any selected age,<br /> either with or without Life Assurance, can<br /> be obtained from this society.<br /> <br /> Full particulars can be obtained from the City —<br /> <br /> Branch Manager, Legal and General Life Assurance<br /> Society, 158, Leadenhall Street, London, B.C.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> a<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> AUTHORITIES.<br /> <br /> — +<br /> <br /> THE Dinner of the society has been fixed for<br /> May 16th, at the Hotel Cecil. Members will by<br /> now have received notice to this effect.<br /> <br /> As this is the twenty-first anniversary of the<br /> incorporation of the society, it is hoped that there<br /> will be a good attendance in order to celebrate the<br /> event.<br /> <br /> The first beginnings of the society took place in<br /> September, 1883, when a small company of fifteen<br /> men met in Mr. Scoones’ chambers in Garrick<br /> Street in order to form an association for the<br /> protection of literary property. The society was<br /> actually incorporated on June 30th, 1884, so that<br /> on June 30th, of this year it will have been in<br /> existence in its incorporated form for twenty-one<br /> years.<br /> <br /> It is unnecessary to put before the members the<br /> steady growth of the society and its constant<br /> increase. The larger its membership the ereater<br /> the power possessed by the society not only in<br /> moral force; but also in those very necessary<br /> sinews of war, capital and subscriptions.<br /> <br /> In 1892 the society numbered 870 members. It<br /> has now almost doubled that number and is still<br /> steadily increasing.<br /> <br /> The aim of the founders of the society will,<br /> however, not have been completed, until all those<br /> who write, whether composers, dramatists, or<br /> authors, technical or otherwise—whether they<br /> adopt writing as a sole means of livelihood or as<br /> a means of supplementing their income—have<br /> joined its ranks. This would mean a membership<br /> of not less than 3,000. We appeal to the good<br /> fellowship of those who write, and to that esprit des<br /> corps which ought to exist, amongst those who<br /> adopt the art of letters, as amongst the followers of<br /> any other art or profession.<br /> <br /> We hope that long before the society reaches its<br /> jubilee this by no means improbable dream will<br /> have become an actual reality.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> During the last three months we have had<br /> reason to comment on some exceedingly bad agree-<br /> ments which have been submitted to authors.<br /> The fact presents itself that on many occasions<br /> authors come to the society after they have<br /> entered into their agreements, and after they have<br /> bound themselves to accept unreasonable terms.<br /> <br /> There is no excuse for members of the society who<br /> get into this difficulty, for not only are warnings<br /> printed every month in “ 7e Author,” explaining<br /> some of the many difficulties, but these warn-<br /> ings are constantly repeated in different forms in<br /> ‘articles which appear in the columns of this<br /> <br /> paper.<br /> <br /> 237<br /> <br /> There is, however, some difficulty in reaching<br /> the younger field of authors. It not infrequently<br /> happens that those young in authorship are<br /> ignorant of the society’s existence. Even when<br /> they have produced their first book it is almost<br /> impossible to find out their address. Publishers<br /> do not make it an invariable rule to forward letters<br /> addressed to their care.<br /> <br /> We must therefore request members to insist<br /> that their friends whom they hear of in the<br /> springtime of authorship, should join the society.<br /> <br /> ON another page we publish some interesting<br /> details of the Book Market, taken from the United<br /> States Publishers’ Weekly. During the past year<br /> the output of books has largely increased. During<br /> the same period in England also the activity in<br /> the Book Market has been considerable. ‘One<br /> point in the list is especially interesting—the<br /> statement of those books in English and foreign<br /> languages manufactured in the United States, and<br /> particulars of those works of English authors im-<br /> ported in editions. Of the latter there were 1,025.<br /> It is quite possible if the Government of the United<br /> States had joined the Berne Convention, or had<br /> thought fit to rescind the printing clause or simul-<br /> taneous publication, that these books imported in<br /> sheets might have been actually produced by the<br /> printers of the United States. When once the<br /> copyright is lost it is useless going to the expense<br /> of printing across the water, and it is cheaper to.<br /> introduce sheets.<br /> <br /> REFERRING to the authority printed in the<br /> April number of Zhe Author on the question of<br /> Russian piracy, a Polish member is kind enough<br /> to send us the following paragraph :—<br /> <br /> “In the last Author the statement made in<br /> the French paper, Lcho de Paris, was repeated oe<br /> that out of every nine books published in Russia<br /> six are French; this is far from correct. In the<br /> months of March and April, 1904, 298 books and<br /> pamphlets were published in Russia, of which<br /> 30 were translations from English authors (four<br /> books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and one by<br /> Jerome K. Jerome, etc.) 25 from German, 21 from<br /> different European languages—Polish, Italian,<br /> Scandinavian, Spanish, etc.—and only 17 from<br /> French. Thus in all, 93 books were of foreign<br /> origin, or more than three out of every ten<br /> published in Russia and more than one in ten was<br /> English. These statistics applied to the whole<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> year of 1904 will give exactly the same figures.<br /> In periodicals, English authors also lead, followed<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 238<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> German and Polish and then only by French<br /> The most popular novelist in Russia is<br /> <br /> by<br /> authors. 1<br /> not a Frenchman but Mr. Jerome K. Jerome.<br /> <br /> Next to him stands Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. One<br /> reason that fewer French works are translated into<br /> Russian than English and German is that publica-<br /> tions in these languages generally embrace not<br /> only novels but books on scientific subjects, and in<br /> this field the French are not regarded as authorities;<br /> another explanation may be found in the fact that<br /> a great part of the Russian reading public can<br /> read French authors in the original, therefore the<br /> demand for Russian translations is comparatively<br /> small.<br /> <br /> “What the Echo de Paris says regarding plays is<br /> more correct, although I do not know where the<br /> 2ussian found five hundred essentially Russian<br /> plays, and he omits to mention the number of<br /> English, Polish, and Italian plays which are also<br /> in the Russian repertoire. Is it necessary to look<br /> for them among French plays, or those essentially<br /> Russian ?”<br /> <br /> So much has been written in the papers during<br /> the month of April about Hans Christian Andersen<br /> and his position in the world of literature that<br /> the repetition of his life work is superfluous.<br /> We think, however, it is our bounden duty to<br /> insert a paragraph drawing attention once again<br /> to the fact that April 2nd, 1905, was the centenary<br /> of the birth of the great story teller.<br /> <br /> There is no writer of fairy tales possessed of the<br /> same poetic instinct. There is no writer of fairy<br /> tales who has been able to write with such deep<br /> insight into human nature.<br /> <br /> There is hardly a story which has not two<br /> meanings—its conscious meaning and its sub-<br /> conscious meaning. As in the parables of old so in<br /> these stories. Those who desire to remain ignorant<br /> of their hidden beauty can read them with infinite<br /> delight merely as children’s fairy tales, but those<br /> who search for truth can find the beautiful reality<br /> beneath. To the latter class of readers Hans<br /> Andersen’s stories will always be a valued treasure<br /> house. It is needless to quote examples, but some<br /> of the most self-evident are stories like “The<br /> Emperor’s New Clothes” or “The Ugly Duckling”<br /> or ‘The Snow Queen.”<br /> <br /> From whatever source he may have obtained his<br /> suggestions he still possessed a power in his treat-<br /> ment, entirely his own, and entirely beautiful. In<br /> the same way as Shakespeare was a plagiarist<br /> Hans Andersen was a plagiarist, but plagiarism in<br /> the hands of a genius is one of the greatest proofs<br /> of originality.<br /> <br /> Hans Andersen’s special appeal to future genera-<br /> tions will be made through his fairy tales.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE GENERAL MEETING.<br /> <br /> oe<br /> <br /> HE meeting of the council (the shareholders)<br /> of the Society of Authors, was held at<br /> 20, Hanover Square, on March 30th, at<br /> 3.45, to consider and to pass the annual report.<br /> <br /> After the meeting of the council, the general<br /> meeting of the members of the society was held,<br /> when the following members were present :—<br /> <br /> A. W. « Beckett, the Hon. Mr. Justice Ameer<br /> Ali, Harold Avery, Mrs. Ada 8. Ballin, J. Tyrrell<br /> Baylee, the Rev. F. W. Bamford, Miss Clementina<br /> Black, R. Warwick Bond, C. E. Buckland, Miss<br /> Rachel Challice, Miss E. E. Charlton, Miss Ellen<br /> Collett, Miss Marian Roalfe Cox, Basil Field,<br /> R. Austin Freeman, Miss Hain Friswell, Walter<br /> M. Gallichan (“Geoffrey Mortimer”), Hubert Haes,<br /> C. Gasquoine Hartley (Mrs. W. Gallichan), Eyre<br /> Hussey, the Rev. H. N. Hutchinson, C. T. Jacobi,<br /> A. M. Jasienski, Mrs. Lechmere, the Right Hon.<br /> Sir Alfred Lyall, P.C., Miss M. M. Macpherson,<br /> Aylmer Maude, Miss Jean Middlemass, Miss K. L,<br /> Montgomery, W. Booth Pearsall, Mrs. Romanes,<br /> Charles Weekes, and J. H. Yoxall.<br /> <br /> Sir Henry Bergne, the chairman for 1905,<br /> opened the proceedings by proposing that, as<br /> usual, the report, which had been circulated to<br /> members of the society, should be taken as<br /> read.<br /> <br /> He then proceeded to comment on the most<br /> salient items. He thought the members might<br /> congratulate themselves on the satisfactory position<br /> of the society, for during the past year 233<br /> members had been elected. This was the largest<br /> number of elections during any year with the<br /> exception of 1892 and 1893, when the elections<br /> totalled 260 and 246 respectively. The present<br /> membership of the society had reached the high<br /> figure of 1630. Sir Henry next dealt with the<br /> subject of copyright, and stated how fully the<br /> committee realised its importance to members of<br /> the society; that it had been impossible with any<br /> advantage to bring forward the question of<br /> domestic copyright during the past year, and that<br /> even if a favourable opportunity occurred, there<br /> were many great difficulties surrounding its dis-<br /> cussion, especially those connected with the position<br /> of the self-governing colonies.<br /> <br /> Turning to international copyright, he con-<br /> gratulated Sweden on its recent adhesion to the<br /> Bern Convention. ‘The list of countries which<br /> are now signatories to the Convention is as<br /> follows :—<br /> <br /> Great Britain, France, Belgium, Germany,<br /> Spain, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Italy, Switzer-<br /> land, Japan, Luxembourg, Tunis, Haiti, and<br /> Monaco.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> The society had, through the government, en-<br /> deavoured to persuade Roumania to join the Con-<br /> vention, but, unfortunately, without success.<br /> <br /> He regretted that one country whose market was<br /> of vast importance to English authors, was as yet<br /> outside the Convention. He referred, of course, to<br /> the United States. In this case, as in the case of<br /> domestic copyright, Sir Henry pointed out the<br /> many difficulties that had to be met, and explained<br /> that the committee earnestly desired to place the<br /> members’ interests prominently forward with a view<br /> to a solution of the problem whenever an oppor-<br /> tunity should arise. He considered that the<br /> gradual education of public feeling in the United<br /> <br /> States might, however, prove a surer means to a_<br /> <br /> change in the present United States law than any<br /> representations from this side, and he certainly<br /> thougbt it would be highly inexpedient that any<br /> steps should be taken which could possibly provoke<br /> international controversy on the subject.<br /> <br /> Turning to the domestic affairs of the society<br /> he drew attention to the fact that the memorial to<br /> Sir Walter Besant had been placed on the<br /> Embankment.<br /> <br /> Finally, he dealt with the question of the society’s<br /> finances, and explained that the heavy expenses<br /> attending the loss of the action of Aftlalo v.<br /> Lawrence and Bullen, had made severe inroads on<br /> the society’s resources, but he was glad to announce<br /> that the matter had been met without the sacrifice<br /> of any of the society’s investments. He drew<br /> attention to the sum of £512 due to the society’s<br /> Solicitors. Of this amount £200 had already been<br /> paid, and it was hoped to pay a further instalment<br /> before the expiration of the year 1905. It had<br /> been necessary for the accountants to obtain an<br /> approximate estimate of the solicitors’ charges to<br /> the end of 1904, but as a matter of fact the bills<br /> for that year had not yet been delivered and would,<br /> probably, not be delivered till the autumn. It<br /> might, therefore, fairly be stated that this unex-<br /> pected strain on the society’s resources had been<br /> met without any serious inconvenience, and ex-<br /> pressed the hope that it might, ere long, be wiped<br /> out altogether, when the society would be financially<br /> _ stronger than ever.<br /> <br /> In confirmation of this statement he showed<br /> that although the balance against the society<br /> appeared in the balance sheet at £862, yet this<br /> was in reality covered, as the liabilities—legacy<br /> account £450, and life membership account<br /> <br /> £615—existed for the accountant’s purposes and<br /> could not be recognised as actual liabilities.<br /> <br /> He paid a well deserved tribute to the zeal and<br /> ability of his predecessor, Mr. Douglas Freshfield,<br /> for the manner in which he had conducted the<br /> affairs of the society during his two years of<br /> office.<br /> <br /> 239<br /> <br /> Finally, he mentioned that in the case of the<br /> bankruptcy of Mr. Grant Richards, through the<br /> action of the society, an author’s representative—<br /> Mr. Aylmer Maude—had been appointed to the<br /> committee of inspection. This was the first time<br /> that the position of 7&#039;he Author had been recognised<br /> In a question of this kind, and he congratulated<br /> the society on the event. He concluded by asking<br /> for any comments or suggestions from the members,<br /> which he stated would be carefully considered by<br /> the committee. :<br /> <br /> As no one desired to make any comments, he<br /> proceeded to the next matter on the agenda—the<br /> election by the members of the society of their<br /> representative to the pension fund committee.<br /> Mrs. Alec Tweedie, who withdrew under the rules<br /> of the fund, submitted her name for re-election,<br /> <br /> and was unanimously re-elected.<br /> <br /> Mr. A. W. a Beckett proposed a vote of thanks<br /> to the chairman, pointing out how important it<br /> was for the society to have as its representative,<br /> one so intimately acquainted with Copyright and<br /> international affairs.<br /> <br /> The vote was carried unanimously and the pro-<br /> ceedings terminated.<br /> <br /> ee<br /> <br /> UNITED STATES COPYRIGHT.<br /> <br /> 4<br /> <br /> T the beginning of the year there was a con-<br /> siderable stir among those interested in<br /> copyright property, owing to the fact that<br /> <br /> the United States proposed to pass an amendment<br /> to the Copyright Act, giving foreigners a delay of<br /> twelve months in which they might secure copy-<br /> right for translations. This produced a series of<br /> letters in The Standard from English authors on<br /> the present position of United States copyright as<br /> far as it dealt with the works of English writers.<br /> This correspondence again gave rise to considerable<br /> discussion in publishing circles and among those<br /> allied trades that were interested in the production<br /> of books in the United States.<br /> <br /> Mr. William Heinemann, the English publisher,<br /> happened to be in the United States at the time,<br /> and he was overwhelmed with questions, discussions<br /> and arguments in connection with the whole con-<br /> troversy. He explained to Mr. George Haven<br /> Putnam and other publishers that Great Britain<br /> naturally resented the unreasonable treatment<br /> English authors had received in the matter, and<br /> pointed out the lack of real reciprocity between<br /> the two nations.<br /> <br /> He was referred by the publishers to the heads<br /> of the typographical unions, which really could<br /> do more to push forward fair reciprocity than<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 240<br /> <br /> anyone else in the United States. At present<br /> the dread on their part of losing the printing<br /> business stood in the way of reform. There<br /> are over four hundred typographical unions in<br /> the United States, the most important lying<br /> in New York and Philadelphia. Mr. Heine-<br /> man commenced his negotiations by entering into<br /> communication with typographical Union No. 6,<br /> which is the New York typographical union, and<br /> endeavoured to demonstrate that he, as well as<br /> they, were desirous of making money, and that<br /> their present attitude was against his and their<br /> best interests.<br /> <br /> After he had gone into the matter in some<br /> detail with the heads of Union No. 6, it was<br /> decided to hold a meeting and call together the<br /> representatives of all those trade combinations in-<br /> terested. Accordingly, on March 2nd a meeting<br /> was held at the Aldine Association, at which the<br /> following gentlemen were present: Mr. Scott<br /> (Century), President American Publishers’ Asso-<br /> ciation, in the chair; Mr. George Haven Putnam ;<br /> Mr. Charles Scribner ; Mr. Sullivan, International<br /> Typographical Union, Washington ; Mr. Donnelly,<br /> Typographical Union No. 6; Mr. Jackson, Typo-<br /> graphical Union No. 6; Mr. William Green,<br /> President Typothete, City of New York; Mr. 8.<br /> H. Eggers, chairman executive committee, Typo-<br /> thete; Mr. H. V. Boyar, recording secretary,<br /> Typothete ; Mr. William Heinemann.<br /> <br /> Mr. Scott opened the proceedings. He stated<br /> they had met to discuss certain proposals which<br /> had been made to them with regard to the obtain-<br /> ing of American copyright on English books and<br /> he would ask Mr. Heinemann to outline the plan.<br /> <br /> Mr. Heinemann said that he found on arriving<br /> in New York a good deal of curiosity with regard<br /> to the apparent indignation of English authors<br /> as expressed in a recent correspondence in<br /> the Standard. It would appear that under the<br /> amendment concerning copyright in translations<br /> which passed congress on February 28th, foreign<br /> authors would be at an advantage over English<br /> authors inasmuch as they would have twelve<br /> months grace before a copyright need be completed.<br /> As a matter of fact the amendment as passed gave<br /> only a very moderate sort of protection, although<br /> in its original form it certainly would have seemed<br /> as if it favoured continental authors over English<br /> authors. Mr. Heinemann expressed an opinion<br /> that, if a provisional copyright could be obtained<br /> by entering a work at Washington, with the option<br /> of completing the copyright within a period of<br /> say two or three months, that would be a very<br /> helpful measure and one which would certainly<br /> reduce the feeling of injustice that many English<br /> authors and publishers cherish at the present<br /> moment.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Mr. Putnam, who had been instrumental in<br /> getting most copyright acts passed in the United<br /> States, suggested that the only means of obtaining<br /> such a measure of relief would be by enlisting the<br /> co-operation of the typographers of America and<br /> he suggested that as Mr. Heinemann was in America<br /> at the present moment that he might advantage-<br /> ously meet the representatives of the different<br /> typographical unions and see what reception they<br /> would give to such a plan.<br /> <br /> Mr. Heinemann thereupon wrote to typo-<br /> graphical union No. 6, requesting a representative<br /> of that Union to meet him, and after meeting first<br /> Mr. Jackson of typographical union No. 6, and<br /> then Mr. Jackson again, and also Mr. Donnelly,<br /> representing the typographical No. 6, it was<br /> thought well to call a meeting representing all the<br /> interests at stake and ask Mr. Heinemann to out-<br /> line the suggestion which he had originally made<br /> to Mr. Putnam.<br /> <br /> The present meeting was the outcome of this<br /> invitation, and Mr. Heinemann wished to empha-<br /> size the fact that this meeting was an entirely<br /> informal one and that none of those present were<br /> in any way able to pledge their Associations, so he<br /> also, although vice-president of the publishers’<br /> association of Great Britain and Ireland, spoke in<br /> his private capacity and with no mandate from<br /> the publishers’ association of Great Britain and<br /> Ireland.<br /> <br /> Mr. Heinemann pointed out that his wish would<br /> be that a copyright could be applied for in America<br /> in the same way that a patent was applied for—on<br /> specification with a period of say to or three months<br /> to complete the copyright. He pointed out that<br /> the typographers of America could only benefit by<br /> supporting this proposal and, in order to show it,<br /> developed the theory that whereas books, the sale<br /> of which was quite assured, would always be copy-<br /> right in America, those commanding only a limited<br /> sale or exceedingly expensive in manufacture<br /> would always be manufactured in the country of<br /> their origin as they are now—so that the only<br /> books which it was necessary to discuss in this<br /> relation were those which had a moderate success<br /> assured (not sufficient to warrant two independent<br /> settings) and experimental books. Of the latter a<br /> few might, if Mr. Heinemann’s suggestion was<br /> adopted, be lost to American printers, but he had<br /> found only a very small number, and a decreasing<br /> one, of such books which were experimentally<br /> published in England and had proved sufficiently<br /> attractive to be reprinted unauthoritatively in<br /> America. There remained then the large number<br /> of books which were set with no view to American<br /> copyright under the present manufacturin<br /> clause. These generally published in Englan<br /> <br /> with no reference to the American edition were<br /> <br /> LEELA RE RI<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> :<br /> i<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 241<br /> <br /> usually under the present arrangement, imported<br /> either in sheets or in the shape of English<br /> plates, whereas in many cases it would be worth<br /> while to take out American copyright after<br /> the market had been tested in England, could<br /> in the firsst instance a provisional copyright be<br /> obtained. This then was what Mr. Heinemann<br /> asked for, aud he dwelt on the fact that it would<br /> constantly enable the English publishers to bring<br /> out a book at the psychological moment, which<br /> under present conditions was frequently lost<br /> through the delay in taking out American Copy-<br /> right. Most frequently this was the case, of<br /> course, in the rush of Christmas business, when it<br /> very often happened American copyright had to<br /> be sacrificed in order to place the book on the<br /> market in time for the season’s sales. Mr. Heine-<br /> mann contended that a great deal of type-setting<br /> would be acquired by American printers, and a<br /> great advantage given at the same time to English<br /> authors and publishers by the adoption of his<br /> suggestion. ~<br /> <br /> Mr. Scribner suggested that it would be quite<br /> necessary, if such an amendment were proposed to<br /> the copyright act, that some provision should be<br /> made for the supply of the English edition during<br /> the interim period, and he thought that the words<br /> “with the consent of the owner of the copyright ”<br /> should be added to the section of the present copy-<br /> right Act permitting the importation of two copies<br /> of any book for use but not for sale.<br /> <br /> Mr. Putnam drew a comparison to the present<br /> proposal with the proposal which now had become<br /> a law concerning the rights of translation, and he<br /> was not sure whether the period that ought to be<br /> allowed should not be thirty daysrather than longer.<br /> A general discussion ensued in which it seemed to<br /> be generally agreed that the period of sixty days<br /> was the most practical period.<br /> <br /> In conclusion Mr. Scott, on behalf the American<br /> publishers, intimated that they would support<br /> such a measure, provided a proper means could be<br /> found to regulate the importation of the English<br /> edition during the period between application and<br /> completion of copyright.<br /> <br /> Mr. Sullivan, on behalf of the typographical<br /> unions, intimated that the typographers would<br /> equally support such a measure, which was bound<br /> to bring printing into the country, and which<br /> would foster the good feeling and business relations<br /> between English publishers and authors and<br /> American publishers and printers, so long as no<br /> attempt was made to place the English edition on<br /> the market in the interim period and then try to<br /> obtain American copyright. It would be necessary<br /> to make quite clear that the measure was asked in<br /> order to give the fullest possible latitude to those<br /> wishing to obtain copyright without the risk of<br /> <br /> infringing the manufacturing clause to which they<br /> always would most jealously adhere.<br /> <br /> Mr. Green, on behalf of the typothete, agreed<br /> with Mr. Sullivan, and Mr. Heinemann, in con-<br /> clusion, assured the meeting that it had:never been<br /> his intention to ask for. this present measure<br /> with a view to circumventing the manufacturing<br /> clause, irksome as it was and always would be to<br /> English publishers and authors.<br /> <br /> —_—————+ += —<br /> <br /> ROBBING PETER TO PAY OUT PAUL.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> HE Music Publishers’ Association on Friday,<br /> 7th April, unanimously agreed, as a protest<br /> against musical piracy, to issue no further<br /> <br /> new works by composers, to make no more con-<br /> tracts with executive musicians to exploit such<br /> publications, and to cease advertising the pieces<br /> already on their hands.<br /> <br /> This, assuredly, is a very drastic measure.<br /> Because certain tatterdemalions have made them-<br /> selves obnoxious by hawking about cheap and nasty<br /> reprints of copyright music, it is monstrous to turn<br /> round and smite the innocent composer by way of<br /> expressing disapproval of the law or conduct of the<br /> gutter-merchant.<br /> <br /> Mr. Carnegie has stated that Great Britain is<br /> not organised for commerce. With greater truth,<br /> he might have said that it is not organised for art.<br /> So taken up are composers in evolving harmonious<br /> effects from combinations of notes that they seem<br /> to give no thought to the value of social combina-<br /> tions for the protection of their business interests.<br /> <br /> Unfortunately, musicians have no Sir Walter<br /> Besant amongst them. Sir Arthur Sullivan, had<br /> he been alive now, would surely have taken up the<br /> cudgels on their behalf, not alone because of his<br /> sympathy with his professional brethren, but also<br /> on account of the pride he took in the dignity of his<br /> calling. To judge by the comments one hears, Sir<br /> Arthur, had he now been with us, would have<br /> resented the helm of the musical ship being taken<br /> possession of by the tradesman. The composer of<br /> the “Golden Legend” at this juncture seems to<br /> exemplify in the minds of a good many people the<br /> personage of whom the Waterloo veteran, Daddy<br /> Brewster, was so fond of saying, “ By Gosh! It<br /> wouldn’t ha’ done for the Dook ; the Dook would<br /> ha’ had a word to say over that!”<br /> <br /> There is no question here of the writer having<br /> any private axe to grind. THe is on friendly terms<br /> with several music publishers. In his limited<br /> dealings with them he has been satisfied with the<br /> results. The question of these lines being written<br /> <br /> <br /> &#039; 242<br /> <br /> with any hostile intent against music publishers as<br /> a body may consequently be dismissed, together<br /> svith the idea which certain composers entertain,<br /> that, because they have come off second best in<br /> their dealings with publishers, the latter have an<br /> individual spite against them. Again, it must not<br /> be thought that the writer sides with Mr. Caldwell<br /> or approves of the tricks of the pirates. The point<br /> is that if wholesale infringements of copyright are<br /> grossly unfair to publishers, there is no reason to<br /> be unjust to the creators and originators of the<br /> works in question.<br /> <br /> A big meeting was recently engineered by the<br /> publishers at Queen’s Hall. At it much was said<br /> about the crusade against the music-pirates being<br /> mainly in the interests of the composer. It was<br /> necessary to emphasise this in order to create<br /> public sympathy. But does anyone imagine that<br /> the publishers, if they had not been primarily<br /> affected by the pirates, would have incurred the<br /> expense of organising a monster gathering simply<br /> to draw benevolent attention to the grievances of<br /> composers ? If so, the most credulous should be<br /> undeceived by the unanimous agreement now come<br /> to by the Publishers’ Association to stop summarily<br /> the sale of any new works. What with the devilish<br /> tricks of the pirate king on the one hand, and the<br /> deep schemes of Associated Publishers on the<br /> other, it would appear that the unenviable Briton,<br /> who happens to live by composing music is, at the<br /> present time, between the devil and the deep sea.<br /> Hitherto, nothing has prevented his casting his<br /> bread upon the waters of the deep sea on the<br /> chance of its being returned to him after many<br /> days in the guise of royalties. Now even this<br /> small consolation is ruthlessly taken from him.<br /> <br /> Composers themselves have a right to inquire<br /> whether the trade received the sanction of the<br /> heads of the musical profession before discharging<br /> such a bomb-shell in their midst.<br /> <br /> Have Composers BEEN CONSULTED ?<br /> <br /> Can it be possible that the trade have been<br /> counselled by musicians as a body to place this<br /> Mount Ossa of their (the latter’s) unpublished<br /> works upon the Mount Pelion of the pirates in<br /> order to enable the publishers to scale the heavens<br /> of their business with more facility ? Robert Adam,<br /> the Scots writer, many years ago, maintained that<br /> “we show wisdom by decent conformity to social<br /> etiquette.” If there is no “ Dook” to say a word for<br /> composers, the Publishers’ Association would have<br /> shown wisdom, when announcing to the world their<br /> decrees regarding what they intended to do with<br /> the brain productions of musicians, if they had been<br /> able to preface the display of their own names by<br /> stating that the resolution come to had been<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> recommended by Sir Hubert Parry, Sir Alexander<br /> Mackenzie, Sir Frederick Bridge, Sir Villiers<br /> Stanford, Sir Edward Elgar, Dr. Cowen, Dr.<br /> Prout, Dr. Cummings, Dr. José, Dr. Culwick,<br /> Messrs. Macfarren, Algernon Ashton, German,<br /> Hamish McCunn, Tosti, Stephen Adams, Lionel<br /> Monckton, Sidney Jones, Leslie Stuart, and other<br /> distinguished men, who, in reality, ought to steer<br /> the ship of music in this country. Had this<br /> been done, it would have given to the manifesto<br /> what Dr. Johnson calls ‘‘ the true effect of genuine<br /> politeness.” Yet it is scarcely to be believed that<br /> composers as a body would have voted in favour of<br /> this resolution. If, thoughtlessly, individual musi-<br /> cians, on being assured that all the others have<br /> sanctioned the step taken, have agreed to it, it<br /> would appear that the recent valiant talk at Birm-<br /> ingham and elsewhere, about the coming school<br /> of British composers, has been naught save a vain<br /> flow of idle words.<br /> <br /> Assuming that the firms constituting the Music<br /> Publishers’ Association are able to do as they please<br /> with the composers, the instinct of self-preservation<br /> should impel the latter to cultivate more of the<br /> spirit of self-help which the late Samuel Smiles<br /> declared ‘‘ constitutes the true source of national<br /> vigour and strength.” It is futile for the com-<br /> poser, whose source of income can be cut off at any<br /> time by the fiat of the Publishers’ Association, to<br /> cry out that “nothing can be done against the<br /> publishers.” It were better for him if he remem-<br /> bered how Beethoven altered the pious inscription<br /> put by Moscheles at the end of his arrangement of<br /> “Fidelio.” It was “Finale, WITH GOD’s HELP.”<br /> To this Beethoven added “O man, help thyself.”<br /> This is precisely what the publishers are doing.<br /> Being men of business, they are helping them-<br /> selves. If the rank and file of composers were<br /> more wide-awake, they would do the like. They<br /> will not realise that limited liability business<br /> houses are not philanthropic institutions. The<br /> business man is in trade to make money, and indi-<br /> viduals born with the money-making gift take<br /> advantage of every circumstance to that end.<br /> <br /> When Cecil Rhodes arrived at Kimberley and<br /> witnessed hundreds of competitive miners engaged<br /> in extracting carboniferous gems from the earth,<br /> he realised that, under such circumstances, the<br /> supply would soon exceed the demand. It was<br /> evident to him that, as soon as the gems were no<br /> longer precious, they would go out of fashion and<br /> the mining community would suffer. What did<br /> he do? He persuaded the many competitive firms<br /> to combine as certain of the publishing houses<br /> have combined. Then some of the mines were<br /> closed down, even as, at the present time, the<br /> publishers have drastically stopped the output of<br /> new music. By thus controlling the market the<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> prices of Kimberley diamonds were raised, and Mr.<br /> Rhodes, together with his associates, realised<br /> enormous fortunes. In doing this they inflicted no<br /> sufferings on dead diamonds ; but the clever com-<br /> poser happens to be a living creature. If his<br /> activities are stopped, mental and physical distress<br /> follows.<br /> <br /> An apt parallel in regard. to the stoppage of<br /> artistic output obtains to-day in Paris. According<br /> to Frances Keyser, “it is an open secret that the<br /> Autumn Salon is, in a great measure, manceuvred<br /> by the picture dealers.” The Rue Laffitte virtually<br /> controls the output of the artist. From among<br /> the hundreds of talented and obscure painters<br /> living in garrets called studios, one is selected by<br /> the fraternity of dealers, who possesses the qualities<br /> of originality and prolificacy. A couple of fur-<br /> coated delegates visit the poor artist and make a<br /> bid for all his work. The canvasses which have<br /> been accumulating in his garret after rejection by<br /> everyone to whom they have been shown, are will-<br /> ingly sold. A contract to buy up prospectively at<br /> a price all pictures the artist can paint is gladly<br /> entered into. The dealers next proceed to make a<br /> market for these productions. Invitations are sent<br /> to a select circle of amateurs to view privately the<br /> new “impressionist ” paintings. Public curiosity<br /> is aroused by paragraphs in the newspapers. Next,<br /> one of these much talked about pictures is included<br /> in a collection offered at a fashionable auction.<br /> The dealers bid against each other. They buy the<br /> picture at a high price, dividing the loss amongst<br /> themselves. Such tactics are pursued until a<br /> genuine bidder intervenes, and a huge profit is<br /> made. The syndicate, who possess all the pictures<br /> by the same artist, then proceed to reap their<br /> harvest. “This,” says Frances Keyser in her<br /> article, “ Parisians of Paris,” published in Zhe<br /> King some months ago, “has occurred with the<br /> unfortunate and talented Dutch painter, Jongkind,<br /> with Sisley and others, who died in poverty whilst<br /> the Rue Laffitte filled its coffers.”<br /> <br /> I cite these examples with no hostile spirit<br /> towards any person in the music trade, but merely<br /> to emphasise how, in business, it is to the interest<br /> of composers to look after themselves. It takes<br /> two to make a bargain. If it is to the advantage<br /> of dealers or publishers to get the control of the<br /> output of certain composers, and shut down the<br /> market as regards all the others, it is equally the<br /> concern of the creators of musical works to take<br /> care that no such injustice to the profession as<br /> a body can possibly happen. From the stand-<br /> <br /> point of the tradesman who is in business to<br /> make money, and therefore to buy at the lowest<br /> possible price and sell at the highest figure, he<br /> is perfectly justified in taking advantage of cir-<br /> cumstances to make a corner in any commodity,<br /> <br /> 243<br /> <br /> whether it be wheat or music. If his conscience<br /> is troubled he has merely to repeat mentally the<br /> dictum of Diogenes that ‘ No man is wronged but<br /> by himself.” I maintain that the composer is<br /> being wronged at the present time by himself. If<br /> his leaders are asleep and utter no protest against<br /> the publishers for arrogating to themselves the<br /> right of vetoing the creations of the musical mind<br /> being made public, those adversely affected may<br /> well exclaim with old Daddy Brewster, “It<br /> wouldn’t ha’ done for the Dook! No, by Jimini!<br /> the Dook would ha’ had a word there.”<br /> <br /> Some years ago Sir Walter Besant gave a<br /> dinner at the Saville Club. It was attended by<br /> Sir Hubert Parry, Sir Villiers Stanford, Sir Alex-<br /> ander Mackenzie, and other stars of the musical<br /> firmament. Amongst the guests, if I mistake not,<br /> was the Secretary of the Incorporated Society of<br /> Authors. For the enlightenment of musicians I<br /> beg to be permitted to note here that he is a<br /> solicitor, who, for thirteen years, has devoted him-<br /> self to the study of intricate questions of copyright,<br /> and the way they affect producers of literary,<br /> pictorial, dramatic, or musical works.<br /> <br /> Seeing how much writers and dramatists had<br /> benefitted by the work of the Society of Authors,<br /> Sir Walter Besant was anxious that the aid given<br /> to creators of literary, pictorial and dramatic<br /> works should be extended to musical composers.<br /> In the course of his duties with the members of<br /> the Authors’ Society, the Secretary had noticed<br /> not one but many agreements between composers<br /> and publishers—for a few musical composers are<br /> members—which showed that most musicians<br /> lacked even a rudimentary knowledge of business<br /> whatever their artistic abilities might be. It was<br /> apparent that certain composers were unable to<br /> protect their own interests, because they failed to<br /> understand the wording of the documents they<br /> signed, and the legal effect of many of the<br /> technical phrases.<br /> <br /> The outcome of that meeting at the Saville Club<br /> was the formation of a music sub-committee in<br /> <br /> connection with the Incorporated Society of /<br /> <br /> Authors. Its purpose was, before composers had<br /> their works published, to advise them in an expert<br /> manner, so that, while they made the best bargain<br /> possible, their interests should be legally pro-<br /> tected. In addition the Society undertook to<br /> check and sign, on behalf of composers, all copies<br /> printed by publishers before they were offered for<br /> sale. In cases of infringement of copyright the<br /> machinery of the Society was also placed at the<br /> disposal of musicians. Surely there was some<br /> practical advantage to be derived by the musical<br /> community from such a proposal.<br /> <br /> Yet, the fact remains that, whilst the sub-<br /> committees dealing with Literary Copyright, Art<br /> <br /> <br /> 244<br /> <br /> _ and Drama have done good work and prosper, the<br /> | Society being strongly supported by many in these<br /> branches of art, the sub-committee on music has<br /> died through lack of interest or inability to under-<br /> stand its importance. That this should have<br /> happened seems strange, when it is difficult, at<br /> the present time, to meet a musical composer who<br /> has not some sort of grievance or dissatisfaction<br /> with regard to his published works which weighs<br /> heavily on his mind. It would appear that whilst<br /> the soul of the musician organises his brain and<br /> fingers to give shape to the most artistic dreams<br /> imaginable, he is so obsessed by these dreams that<br /> he wilfully disregards the desirability of collective<br /> organisation with his fellows in order that, when<br /> it comes to negotiating matters of business which<br /> affect the pocket, he may be regarded as belonging<br /> to a strong instead of a disunited and weak<br /> community.<br /> <br /> MusicaL ORGANISATIONS.<br /> <br /> I shall perhaps be answered that the Union of<br /> Graduates in Music, the Musical Association, The<br /> Incorporated Society of Musicians, the Musicians’<br /> Company, and the Orchestral Association already<br /> provide all the necessary organisation. Do<br /> they ?<br /> <br /> Those institutions, indeed, command respect.<br /> First, the “ Union of Graduates” worthily upholds<br /> the dignity of all who have taken University<br /> degrees and, under the energetic leadership of<br /> Mr. Southgate, exposes anyone who lays claim in<br /> public to bogus honours. Secondly, the learned<br /> “Musical Association,” which devotes its attention<br /> to the reading, discussing and publication of<br /> addresses dealing with the history, principles and<br /> criticism of music, is a dignified body which has<br /> done, unostentatiously, good work. ‘Thirdly, the<br /> “Incorporated Society of Musicians,” with its two<br /> thousand members, provides valuable opportunities<br /> for social intercourse between qualified professional<br /> musicians. It maintains an orphanage, gets re-<br /> ductions from railway companies and at hotels for<br /> its members, conducts excellent examinations<br /> throughout the Kingdom, advocates the registra-<br /> tion of all bond fide music teachers, and has made<br /> itself indispensable in many ways to those who<br /> belong to it. Fourthly, the Musicians’ Company,<br /> especially of late, has accomplished a good deal in<br /> promoting the cause of music by holding an<br /> exhibition of priceless manuscripts and ancient<br /> instruments, supplementing these by a series of<br /> lectures at Fishmongers’ Hall. It also bestows<br /> yearly a coveted reward alternately on the best<br /> student of the Royal Academy of Music, Royal<br /> College, and Guildhall School. Lastly, the<br /> “Orchestral Association”? busies itself with the<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> affairs of orchestral musicians, and is a very<br /> useful body,<br /> <br /> But the executive of none of these organisations<br /> has taken up the work of giving legal advice to<br /> composers regarding questions of musical copy-<br /> right, the drawing up of mutual business-like<br /> agreements with publishers, or of obtaining redress<br /> when the rights of composers have been infringed.<br /> To carry out such work successfully requires special<br /> knowledge and proper legal machinery, and none<br /> of the societies in question possesses among its<br /> officers an expert in the laws of copyright and<br /> cognate matters whose chief duty it is to advise<br /> individual members of the organisations alluded<br /> to.<br /> This fact seems to strike home to not a few<br /> musicians at the present time, when the Pub-<br /> lishers’ Association have decided to do as they<br /> please with composers. The want of legal pro-<br /> tection against street piracy is, of course, a matter<br /> calling for remedy. For the grievance to be re-<br /> dressed by the publishers making a scapegoat of<br /> the guiltless composer shows that the chief need<br /> of the latter is his lack of a business knowledge of<br /> how to take care of himself. It is as bad as if a<br /> bank manager, because a burglar pilfered the safe,<br /> turned round and gave his senior partner a black<br /> eye<br /> <br /> Surely, if forcible measures had to be taken, the<br /> first people to have been asked about it should<br /> <br /> have been the composers. Perhaps it was not<br /> to the interests of publishers to ask for such per-<br /> mission, music trade houses being run with the<br /> object of making money and not as benevolent<br /> institutions. Creators of literary, dramatic and<br /> other, works of commercial value have already<br /> found that out. Until those producers protected<br /> themselves, tradesmen had a tendency to take the<br /> affairs of the artist into their own hands and do<br /> with them as they pleased. There are other ways<br /> of amending copyright laws than by taking away<br /> the bread and butter from the composer.<br /> <br /> How Composers CAN REMEDY THEIR GRIEVANCE.<br /> <br /> To establish a new and representative society to<br /> deal with this matter is out of the question at a<br /> time when taxation and local rates press more<br /> severely on the composer of average merit and<br /> ability than on almost any other class, he having<br /> to keep up appearances, codite que covite.<br /> <br /> To expect the most prominent men in_ the<br /> musical world, whose time is fully oceupied, to<br /> worry over the business and legal affairs of their<br /> less fortunate brethren is unreasonable, and advice<br /> on such subjects is of little use unless it is given<br /> by an expert.<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THER AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> What is wanted is that a representative of a<br /> responsible office, acquainted with business routine,<br /> <br /> who understands the requirements and views of<br /> <br /> composers and has their confidence, should be<br /> available for consultation at stated hours.<br /> <br /> The office of the Incorporated Society of Authors<br /> is always available for that purpose, whether<br /> it is supported by a musical sub-committee or<br /> not, and its exceptional knowledge of copyright<br /> law could be utilised by the musical community.<br /> They would then find themselves able to give<br /> expression to their wishes in a collective way, as<br /> they ought to be given at the present time, so<br /> that their rights, as a body, could neither be played<br /> with nor ignored.<br /> <br /> Perhaps the most practical step would be for the<br /> leading composers again to come together, and<br /> asking the Society once more to elect the musical<br /> sub-committee to joinina body as members. They<br /> would by this means not only strengthen the<br /> position of themselves and other members of their<br /> profession, but they would possess a united strength<br /> which they do not now.<br /> <br /> ALGERNON SIDNEY.<br /> <br /> $&lt; —e_____<br /> <br /> REVIEWS AND REVIEWERS.<br /> ae<br /> <br /> T seems as if it were becoming the fashion<br /> for women writers to attack the reviewers.<br /> We have been made acquainted with Miss<br /> Marie Corelli’s opinion of the latter folk: they<br /> are venial or incompetent, or both. Last year in<br /> a weekly paper appeared a series of articles in<br /> which the novelist who hides her identity under<br /> the pseudonym of “ Rita,” to quote the title,<br /> “exposes critics.’ Even more aggressive is Lady<br /> Florence Dixie, who has delivered herself of an<br /> onslaught in the March number of Zhe Author<br /> on what she calls “The Reviewing Sham.”<br /> Lady Florence Dixie asks if it is not time that<br /> reviewing should cease, inasmuch as it is a<br /> sham. She assures us half the books noticed are<br /> never read, “being merely skimmed through,<br /> quoted from, condemned or praised, at the whim<br /> of the reviewer.” She tells of a bundle of books<br /> sent her for review, which she returned, having<br /> neither time nor inclination to read them: ‘To<br /> have read conscientiously through each and pro-<br /> nounced an honest opinion of the contents would<br /> have taken me three hundred and sixty-five days<br /> instead of three hundred and sixty-five minutes,<br /> which is about the usual time allotted by the<br /> ordinary reviewer to the same number of books.”<br /> <br /> 245<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> _ Now, in the name of Truth—with a capital T,<br /> just out of her well—how has she made this<br /> calculation? Is it based upon fact? or is it a<br /> guess inspired by prejudice? And who, in her<br /> opinion is the ordinary reviewer? Is it Mr.<br /> Andrew Lang, or Mr. M. H. Spielmann, or the<br /> writer of notices for a small provincial newspaper ?<br /> Really I cannot help thinking we have some right<br /> to expect further disclosures.<br /> <br /> But Lady Florence Dixie excels herself when<br /> she continues : “I am not blaming the ordinary<br /> reviewer. ‘This personage reviews for cash.” How<br /> true! But why stop here? Why not tell us that<br /> the novelist writes novels for money, and the<br /> dramatist plays, and that the poet and even the<br /> poetess write verses without being averse to<br /> the receipt of mundane reward? But perhaps<br /> Lady Florence Dixie would prefer that only those<br /> who possess a competence should be permitted to<br /> pursue the literary calling.<br /> <br /> Does the reviewer ‘“‘scamp” books? I am<br /> inclined to think the man who writes for a<br /> high-class paper does not do so. This is an age<br /> of specialists, and books are sent to writers versed<br /> in the different subjects. A book on Dickens is<br /> sent to an authority on the life and writings of<br /> that novelist, who does not require to read every<br /> line of the volume to discover its merits and<br /> defects. Much old material will be included, and<br /> he will naturally pass by the letters and quotations<br /> with which he is familiar. Remember, too, the<br /> reviewer&#039;s business is with books. He reads<br /> quickly : some would say with incredible rapidity.<br /> It is a matter of training. The child spells his<br /> words, the lad reads a word at a glance, the critic<br /> sentences. In the case of novels the reviewer, by<br /> long practice, detects “padding” and can quickly<br /> arrive at the conclusion whether or no the book be<br /> worthy of serious consideration. If the book be<br /> valuable it will not be ignored. He has to peruse<br /> so much trash that a story above the average is<br /> read with avidity. It is an axiom that the<br /> reviewer is anxious to discover and proclaim<br /> talent, if only for the selfish reason that it<br /> redounds to his credit. He has the advantage<br /> over the publisher’s reader that it is not his<br /> business to consider whether it will sell.<br /> <br /> “Rita” complains, and with justice, of the<br /> reviewer who fills the space allotted to him with<br /> a list of misprints. ‘The man who does this<br /> irritates the reader, for he is so occupied with the<br /> compilation of the catalogue of trifling errors that<br /> he forgets to say anything worth hearing about<br /> the book. I think this class of reviewing is<br /> <br /> dying, as I trust is that which devotes itself<br /> chiefly to falling foul of the author’s preface to<br /> the exclusion of a discussion of the merits of the<br /> work.<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 246<br /> <br /> Belated criticism is another of “ Rita’s” griev-<br /> ances. But all books cannot be noticed at once, if<br /> for no other reason than that of the limitations of<br /> space; and, if a review have any value, it will<br /> secure the desired effect even a month or two after<br /> the issue of the work. I have said, ‘if a review<br /> have any value,” because “ Rita” holds it valueless.<br /> “Does it not stand to reason that an author is<br /> quite aware of his own merits as of his own limita-<br /> tions ?”’ she asks. Well, I think there are few who<br /> will agree with her Some readers are excellent<br /> judges of their books, but as a guide for my<br /> reading I would rather follow the critic than the<br /> author. But ‘ Rita’ goes on to tell us that the<br /> author could never be laudatory, because the book<br /> written that seemed as perfect in accomplishment<br /> as it seemed in inspiration would never be written<br /> by any possessor of genius, “ for genius means that<br /> sublime discontent with achievement which praise<br /> cannot satisfy or blame discourage.” I fear I do<br /> not number any geniuses among my friends, but<br /> when any writer has proved he is the possessor of<br /> genius I will be guided by him as to the merits<br /> of his books. In the meantime I will pin my<br /> faith to the critics, as, I think, most readers<br /> will do.<br /> <br /> Much has been said concerning the effect of<br /> advertisements upon the reviewing columns.<br /> “Rita” assures us that an editor who receives a<br /> large and steady income from a firm of publishers<br /> takes good care that the books issued by that<br /> firm are tenderly handled by his staff. Perhaps<br /> there may be such editors. My experience as a<br /> reviewer is comparatively small, but so far I can<br /> say I have never been asked to judge a book<br /> gently because the publisher’s advertisement<br /> appeared in the paper, nor have I ever been<br /> handed a book to “cut up”; and, though I<br /> number among my acquaintance many critics, I<br /> cannot find one who has met with either practice.<br /> <br /> Reviewers are no longer, if indeed they ever<br /> were, the men who have failed in literature and<br /> art. ‘To attack reviewers is practically to indite<br /> the entire literary calling, for to-day the majority<br /> of writers are critics. There is the great man of<br /> letters who steps down into the arena to praise<br /> some book that has delighted him; there is the<br /> author-reviewer, who maybe is only an occasional<br /> critic ; and there is the journalist-reviewer. But<br /> there are few who live by reviewing alone. There-<br /> fore, when I read the attack of an author upon<br /> critics, I always want to know what papers he<br /> has been reading, Take the quarterlies, the best<br /> class of monthlies and weeklies: Zhe Mortnightly,<br /> Contemporary, Nineteenth Century, Speaker, Spec-<br /> tator, etc.; the great dailies: Z%mes, Chroniele,<br /> Telegraph, News, Morning Post, Standard. It is<br /> difficult to find fault with the vast majority of<br /> <br /> - aims.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> reviews in these organs. An individual critic may<br /> be too easily pleased or too severe, but he writes<br /> to the best of his judgment. Those who complain<br /> forget that the literary editors would not tolerate<br /> dishonest reviewers on their staff. They will not<br /> send a book to a critic, who is a personal friend or<br /> enemy of the author, nor will they hand a work to<br /> a man who is notoriously out of sympathy with its<br /> Of course, when a man on a minor journal<br /> has to take all literature for his field, there may be<br /> cause for complaint ; for, though he may be an<br /> excellent judge of some class of work, he may not<br /> be able to form an opinion of any value concern-<br /> ing another. But, just as one does not derive<br /> one’s opinion of current fiction from the novels of<br /> Mr. or Miss Dash, so it is distinctly unfair to<br /> point to “ The Blankshire Herald” as a typical<br /> critical journal. I believe, however, that criticism<br /> is more honest in England than in any other<br /> country in the world, and the critic less likely to<br /> give expression to personal dislike of the author.<br /> Reviewers, being human, have likes and dislikes<br /> for different schools of writings, as every man of<br /> letters has his literary prejudices. To expect a<br /> reviewer to have tastes so catholic as to be in<br /> sympathy with all works of literature is to ask for<br /> the unattainable.<br /> Lewis MELvVILLE.<br /> <br /> 1+<br /> <br /> “ K NEW BOOK FOR AUTHORS AND<br /> <br /> PRINTERS.*<br /> <br /> —_—<br /> <br /> R. HOWARD COLLINS has certainly done<br /> <br /> | \ this job extraordinarily well—so well, that<br /> there is really nothing to be said about it<br /> <br /> except to recommend his book unconditionally to<br /> all authors and printers, journalists and typists,<br /> proof-readers and compositors. In the matter of<br /> technical treatises authors have been half spoiled<br /> and half starved. Dictionaries, encyclopedias and<br /> gazetteers have been heaped on them ; imper-<br /> tinences about style and grammar come in a con-<br /> stant stream from people who cannot write to<br /> people who can ; but a codification of typographic<br /> usage has hitherto been lacking, except in Mr. —<br /> Hart’s little pamphlet, which was not in the<br /> general market. As to the ordinary school text-<br /> books of English composition (some of them<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> * « Author and Printer: A Guide for Authors, Editors,<br /> Printers, Correctorsof the Press, Compositors, and Typists.””<br /> With full list of abbreviations. An attempt to codify the<br /> best typographical practices of the present day. By F.<br /> Howard Collins, author of “ An Epitome of the Synthetic<br /> Philosophy of Herbert Spencer.’ (London, Edinburgh,<br /> Glasgow, New York, and Toronto: Henry Frowde, 1905).<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 247<br /> <br /> actually in use at the universities), and the catch-<br /> penny guides to correct punctuation and the like,<br /> most of them would set every purchaser ridicu-<br /> lously and disastrously wrong if it were humanly<br /> possible to remember—or indeed in any real sense<br /> tc read—their ignorant and arid lessons. What<br /> was wanted was a man with literary faculty enough<br /> to write a bearable book, with judgment and common<br /> sense enough to hold the balance between usage<br /> and logic, with that rather special technical sense<br /> which enables a man to see the importance of<br /> apparently little and dry tidinesses, with an en-<br /> lightenéd appetite for socially useful work, and<br /> with means and leisure to devote himself to it. In<br /> short, a man in a million. Fortunately, he has<br /> been found; and his name is Howard Collins.<br /> <br /> The book is well planned technically. It is not<br /> a heavy shelf book of reference, useless to nomadic<br /> authors. It weighs only fifteen ounces, fits in the<br /> jacxet pocket, and yet contains éver four hundred<br /> well packed pages, more legible without spectacles<br /> than most dictionaries. In form it is a dictionary<br /> and literary encyclopedia, set in double columns.<br /> If you write “beleiveable,” and it strikes you as<br /> not looking all you expected, you turn the word<br /> up and find “believable—nof -able.”’ If you are<br /> in a difficulty about punctuation, or do not know<br /> how to mark corrections in your proof, you turn<br /> up Proofs or Punctuation, as the case may be, and<br /> find as many rules on these subjects as anyone can<br /> safely claim authority for. There are blank pages<br /> at the end of each letter to supply new references,<br /> or make good omissions, if you can find any. The<br /> price is five shillings.<br /> <br /> It is impossible to give a complete list of all the<br /> headings under which the references fall, for Mr.<br /> Collins has employed that elusive gift of the born<br /> indexer, an imaginative divination, often apparently<br /> whimsical, of the puzzles presented by the prepara-<br /> tion of books for the press, so that he helps you not<br /> only in your rational difficulties (which experience<br /> soon provides for), but in those addleheadednesses<br /> which often paralyze an author without rhyme or<br /> reason, Just as Roget’s Thesaurus is valuable<br /> because Roget was an oddity, so is Mr. Collins,<br /> too, in that sense, an oddity who knows that the<br /> right station for a lifebuoy is not always the most<br /> obvious place for falling into the water.<br /> <br /> As I began writing for the printer thirty years<br /> ago, [have not approached Mr. Collins’s book in<br /> the spirit of a learner; yet the first thing my eye<br /> lit on was something I had never noticed before:<br /> namely, that I have never in my life spelt M‘Gregor<br /> according to usage, always using the apostrophe<br /> instead of the turned comma, which, it appears, is<br /> right in O&#039;Neill. I say “according to usage”,<br /> because in this, as in many other matters, there<br /> is neither right nor wrong. If there were, I could<br /> <br /> have argued the case out for myself. Usage in<br /> printing is like etiquette: it is mostly a matter af<br /> usage, not of morals or manners. The thing to<br /> be done is not important ; but it is highly impor-<br /> tant that everybody should do it, and be able to<br /> depend on everybody else doing it in the same<br /> way. In matters where reason enters, Mr. Collins<br /> does not hesitate to vote with the reasonable<br /> minority against the thoughtless majority. Take<br /> for example the usage as to whether inverted<br /> commas should follow or precede stops. In a<br /> sentence in which a quotation occurs there can be<br /> no question that it is simply a logical error to<br /> place stops belonging to the main sentence within<br /> the quotation marks instead of after them. But<br /> the contrary usage is so common that I have<br /> hardly ever had my copy accurately followed in<br /> this respect. Mr. Collins prescribes the correct<br /> way, following the careful usage of the few and not<br /> the thoughtless usage of the many.<br /> <br /> I do not praise Mr. Collins’s rules because they<br /> are invariably my own. ‘They are not. Every<br /> writer of dramatic dialogue soon finds that usages<br /> founded on the art of the essayist and historian<br /> defeat his attempts to convey a vivid impression<br /> of excited speech: for instance, that a torrent of<br /> questions and explanations cannot be represented<br /> by the stately series of separate sentences into<br /> which an inquiry into the characteristics of Marcus<br /> Aurelius can be broken. Yet even here I find that on<br /> the points at issue, Mr. Collins qualifies his rule so<br /> as to provide for me. Then again, every author<br /> with an eye for the appearance of a page of type<br /> (if any such there be) must by this time have<br /> several artistic quarrels with usages which have<br /> grown up during the period of desolating Philis-<br /> tinism which separates Caslon from Morris.<br /> <br /> Ever since Morris awakened our artistic con-<br /> science to the fact that a book has to be looked at<br /> as well as read, and that the most enchanting<br /> poem or absorbing story in the world may be made<br /> into a disgusting spectacle by vile manufacture<br /> and base materials, or, even more effectually, by<br /> elaborate and costly snobbishness, certain typo-<br /> graphical practices which are rational enough<br /> (however unnecessary), have become less and less<br /> bearable. Jor instance, inverted commas and<br /> apostrophes are so ruinous to the appearance of a<br /> printed page that people with cultivated eyes will<br /> finally refuse to buy editions in which The Merchant<br /> of Venice is printed ‘he Merchant of Venice’’;<br /> and don’ts and won’ts and haven’ts and: didn’ts (all<br /> quite harmless, pretty, and characteristic without<br /> the apostrophe) are peppered all over the page.<br /> Since Morris’s death the finest books produced in<br /> England, as far as I know, are the Ashendene<br /> Press books of Mr. Hornby, and the Doves Press<br /> books of Cobden Sanderson and Emery Walker.<br />  <br /> <br /> 248<br /> <br /> But why did the Doves Press begin with a Latin<br /> Text to shew the noble type it designed on the<br /> lines of Jensen? And why did it go on to the<br /> Doves Bible now in progress ? No doubt because<br /> Latin and Scripture do not require the pepper pot.<br /> <br /> Mr. Collins leavesall this out of account. He even<br /> prints his title page in at least six different types,<br /> an outrage for which Morris would have slain him<br /> where he stood. But whilst I note the omission I<br /> do not blame it : on the contrary, I highly applaud<br /> the judgment and resolution with which Mr.<br /> Collins has resisted the enormous temptation to<br /> give a helping hand to pet reforms under the<br /> pretext of codifying usage. But he has not made<br /> the necessary rule an excuse for countenancing the<br /> slipshod abandonment of old usages, which are<br /> both handsome and correct. He insists on the<br /> use of z instead of s in the termination ize. He<br /> points out that £ should follow the pounds figure<br /> instead of preceding it. Both these usages are<br /> traditional as well as correct.<br /> <br /> Yet Mr. Collins is human enough to commit<br /> one crime. The blood-curdling vulgarism of pro-<br /> gramme for program is expressly prescribed by him.<br /> I must really send him a telegramme containing<br /> an appropriate epigramme on the point.<br /> <br /> G. B.S.<br /> <br /> 0 —— 0<br /> <br /> CORRESPONDENCE.<br /> <br /> —1-—~—<br /> Tar ExtRAVAGANT DINNER.<br /> <br /> Srr,—It may be remembered how, in the spring<br /> of 1899, considerable dissatisfaction was expressed<br /> inthe columns of Zhe Author anent what was then<br /> regarded as the excessive cost of tickets for the<br /> Society’s annual dinner. I imagine such objec-<br /> tions will be renewed more forcibly, and with even<br /> greater reason, this year, when the coming of age<br /> of our popular combine is to be celebrated.<br /> <br /> It certainly seems to me, as it may occur to<br /> some fellow-members, that for so noteworthy an<br /> event reduction rather than increase in price would<br /> have been desirable. Thus the great army of<br /> scribes to whom half a guinea, with trimmings,<br /> is a distinct consideration might find it both con-<br /> venient and comfortable to attend in force so<br /> pleasant a function. I fear the price for many<br /> must prove prohibitive. Is it too late to hope that<br /> the cry of the less affluent penman be heard and<br /> suitably answered ?<br /> <br /> Authors’ Club, S.W.<br /> <br /> —— 9 ——<br /> <br /> Oup Birp.<br /> <br /> WantTED—— !<br /> <br /> Sir,—When reading 7he Author I have often<br /> been struck by the want of something, which<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> may have occurred to other readers, though<br /> I have never seen any allusion made to it. We<br /> have the most interesting ‘“ Paris Notes,” from<br /> time to time we have the “ American Notes,” or<br /> “Cape Notes,” and latterly there have been the<br /> equally interesting ‘‘ Notes from Spain ;” but how<br /> does it come to pass that there are never any<br /> “Notes from Germany”? We surely owe a debt<br /> of gratitude to Germany for her literature, as well<br /> as for her deep scientific and philosophic research,<br /> and it is a matter of some surprise that no allusion<br /> should ever be made in the pages of The Author<br /> to the productions of modern German literature.<br /> Is there no member of the Society who could con-<br /> tribute a monthly paper on the subject, similar to.<br /> the French and Spanish papers which we already<br /> have? One of our highest aims should surely be<br /> to become more international—wider in our views.<br /> and opinions, and two of the strongest forces.<br /> towards the attainment of this end must ever be<br /> science and art. These know no limitations of<br /> race, and although literature—expressing itself as.<br /> it does through the medium of language—must<br /> be at a slight disadvantage in comparison with<br /> the other arts, yet in these days of rapid trans-<br /> lations even that barrier has been practically<br /> removed.<br /> <br /> There is one other form of literature upon which a<br /> competent paper would surely be welcome, though<br /> probably far more difficult to obtain, and that is<br /> the literature of modern Japan; not the old<br /> romances or living impressionist lyrics to which,<br /> for instance, B. H. Chamberlain and Lafeadio<br /> Hearn allude, and which they sometimes quote, but<br /> the war literature, the expression of the sentiments<br /> of an artistic people, with whom loyalty is nothing<br /> short of a religion. This were surely worth having,<br /> could we but obtain a reliable account of it, since<br /> in no other way can we, who have slowly evolved<br /> our civilization through centuries of experiment<br /> and failure, hope in the remotest degree to. enter<br /> into the feelings of a nation new-born from<br /> medigvalism, a child-prodigy amongst the grey-<br /> beards of the west—a true people of the Rising<br /> Sun. And by this entering into the heart and<br /> thought, the very soul of other nations, we join in<br /> and help to advance that great work for which so<br /> <br /> many are striving nowadays, the unifying of the<br /> <br /> nations. Not only every international congress,<br /> <br /> arbitration, or commission of enquiry, not alone —<br /> <br /> every welcome to some foreign soverign, shall help<br /> 5 2<br /> <br /> towards this end, but—though more silently, it<br /> <br /> may be even more efficiently—the deepening of<br /> individual interest in the thoughts and ideals of<br /> other nations, the realisation of the deep underlying<br /> unity which is ours by virtue of a common<br /> humanity.<br /> <br /> M. Twycross.	https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/505/1905-05-01-The-Author-15-8.pdf	publications, The Author
506	https://historysoa.com/items/show/506	The Author, Vol. 15 Issue 09 (June 1905)	<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=%3Cem%3EThe+Author%3C%2Fem%3E%2C+Vol.+15+Issue+09+%28June+1905%29"><em>The Author</em>, Vol. 15 Issue 09 (June 1905)</a>											<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Publication">Publication</a>	1905-06-01-The-Author-15-9					249–280																		<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=89&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=15">15</a>											<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=76&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1905-06-01">1905-06-01</a>							9			19050601	Che Euthor.<br /> <br /> (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)<br /> <br /> FOUNDED BY SIR<br /> <br /> WALTER BESANT.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> JUNE 1st, 1905.<br /> <br /> [Prick SIXPENCE.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Vou. XV.—No. 9.<br /> <br /> TELEPHONE NuMBER :<br /> 374 VICTORIA.<br /> <br /> TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS :<br /> AUTORIDAD, LONDON.<br /> <br /> —_§_-—&lt;—_e<br /> <br /> NOTICES.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> OR the opinions expressed in papers that are<br /> signed or initialled the authors alone are<br /> responsible. None of the papers or para-<br /> <br /> graphs must be taken as expressing the opinion<br /> of the Committee unless such is especially stated<br /> to be the case.<br /> <br /> Tue Editor begs to inform members of the<br /> Authors’ Society and other readers of 7he Author<br /> that the cases which are from time to time quoted<br /> in The Author are cases that have come before the<br /> notice or to the knowledge of the Secretary of the<br /> Society, and that those members of the Society<br /> who desire to have the names of the publishers<br /> concerned can obtain them on application.<br /> <br /> ——+-&gt;+——<br /> <br /> List of Members.<br /> <br /> Tue List of Members of the Society of Authors<br /> published October, 1902, at the price of 6d., and<br /> the elections from October, 1902, to July, 1903, as<br /> a supplemental list, at the price of 2d., can now be<br /> obtained at the offices of the Society.<br /> <br /> They will be sold to members or associates of<br /> the Society only.<br /> <br /> —1—~<br /> <br /> The Pension Fund of the Society.<br /> <br /> Tue Trustees of the Pension Fund met at the<br /> Society’s Offices in April, 1905, and having gone<br /> carefully into the accounts of the fund, decided to<br /> invest a further sum of £230. When the purchase<br /> <br /> Vou. XV.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> is complete the amount will be added to the<br /> investments at present standing in the names of<br /> the Trustees, which are as follows.<br /> <br /> This is a statement of the actual stock; the<br /> money value can be easily worked out at the current<br /> price of the market :—<br /> <br /> ON ae £1000 0 0<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> teal boeken 500 0 0<br /> Victorian Government 3 % Consoli-<br /> dated Inscribed Stock ............... 291 19 11<br /> War Doan 201 9 3<br /> London and North Western 3 % Deben-<br /> bare Siecle 250 0 0<br /> Motels. £2,243 9. 2<br /> Subscriptions, 1905.<br /> £8. d.<br /> Jan. 12, Anonymous . : : 70 276<br /> Donations, 1905.<br /> Jan. Middlemas, Miss Jean 010 0<br /> Jan. Bolton, Miss Anna 0 5 0<br /> Jan. 24, Barry, Miss Fanny . 0 5 0<br /> Jan. 27, Bencke, Albert 0.5.0<br /> Jan. 28, Harcourt-Roe, Mrs. 010 0<br /> Feb. 18, French-Sheldon, Mrs. 010 O<br /> Feb. 21, Lyall, Sir Alfred, P.C. 1 0 9<br /> Mar. 28, Kirmse, Mrs. 010 0<br /> April19, Hornung, H. W. . . 25.0 0<br /> May 7, Wynne, C. Whitworth . 5 0.0<br /> May 16, Alsing, Mrs. J. E. : ? Y<br /> <br /> May 17, Anonymous .<br /> <br /> — se<br /> <br /> COMMITTEE NOTES.<br /> <br /> +<br /> <br /> HE committee of the society met at 389,<br /> Old Queen Street, on Monday, the 8th day<br /> of May, with heavy agenda for their<br /> <br /> consideration.<br /> After the minutes had been signed, the first<br /> matter dealt with was the election of members and<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 250<br /> <br /> associates. ‘Twenty-five new members and asso-<br /> ciates were elected, making the total for the current<br /> year ninety-nine. The list is printed below. Then<br /> followed the discussion of a difficult question<br /> between a member of the society and a publisher.<br /> The secretary read a long report of the case which<br /> had been received from the solicitors, who had gone<br /> very carefully into all the papers and details.<br /> After full and serious consideration the committee<br /> decided they were unable to take the matter up,<br /> put were willing to accept, subject to the member&#039;s<br /> consent, the suggestion put forward by the pub-<br /> lisher, to appoint an arbitrator to settle the division<br /> of profits.<br /> <br /> The question of the general lien which the<br /> binders claimed on stock in their possession,<br /> brought forward at the last meeting, was further<br /> considered. A dispute arising out of Mr. Grant<br /> Richards’ bankruptcy, between a member of the<br /> society and the trustee, was also discussed. The<br /> secretary read the documents and the solicitors’<br /> opinion upon the point, but as the questions in-<br /> volved were difficult and complicated the com-<br /> mittee decided to obtain counsel’s opinion, and to<br /> reconsider the case when this opinion came to<br /> hand. Another curious matter dealing with the<br /> right of an author to the publication of his name<br /> was carefully considered, and a long report of the<br /> solicitors was read to the committee, who decided<br /> from the information before them that it would be<br /> impossible for them to take action, but that if the<br /> member was willing to take counsel’s opinion, they<br /> would then reconsider the case.<br /> <br /> It has been the habit for the chairman for the<br /> current year to take the chair at the general<br /> meetings, although it often occurred that the<br /> questions dealt with in the report had arisen<br /> during the chairmanship of his predecessor. It<br /> was decided, therefore, that although the election<br /> of the chairman should be made at the customary<br /> time, that is, during the first month of the year, it<br /> should not take effect till after the general<br /> meeting.<br /> <br /> The appointment of correspondents in Canada<br /> and Sweden was discussed. ‘The secretary was<br /> instructed to make full inquiries with a view to<br /> appointing suitable representatives.<br /> <br /> The committee decided that the chairman of<br /> the committee should, on behalf of the society,<br /> sign the petition of the Music Defence League, in<br /> the hope of inducing the Government to pass an<br /> Act to stop the present musical piracy.<br /> <br /> There were various other matters of minor<br /> importance before the committee, but no further<br /> contentious work. The meeting lasted for two<br /> hours.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Cases.<br /> <br /> Five new cases have been in the secretary’s<br /> hands during the past month. The number is<br /> very small. ‘This should be taken as a good omen.<br /> Three were for money due, one for the return of a<br /> MS., and one related to a question of infringement<br /> of copyright. The money has been paid in one<br /> case. In the other two cases it turned out, on<br /> demand being made, that one paper was in<br /> bankruptcy, and that for the other a receiver for<br /> the debenture holders had been appointed. It<br /> will be impossible, therefore, to bring these cases<br /> to any satisfactory conclusion at present until the<br /> liabilities have been clearly set forth. In the<br /> matter dealing with MS., the MS. has been returned<br /> and forwarded to the author. The question of<br /> infringement of copyright is still in course of<br /> negotiation.<br /> <br /> ‘All the cases open from former months have<br /> been closed with the exception of a question of<br /> contract, where the member resides in Australia.<br /> Owing to the difficulty of obtaining information,<br /> this matter must necessarily be delayed.<br /> <br /> Mr. Grant Richards’ bankruptcy is still moving<br /> forward, but the progress is slow. The trustee<br /> at one time expected to be able to sell the business<br /> as a whole, but it would appear that the negotia-<br /> tions have fallen through, and there is considerable<br /> difficulty in arranging for the transfer of each<br /> book separately.<br /> <br /> “he society, through its secretary and solicitors,<br /> is doing everything it can on behalf of its<br /> members.<br /> <br /> —-——+—<br /> <br /> May Elections.<br /> <br /> Alsing, Mrs. J. E. The Cottage, Kopling,<br /> Sweden.<br /> <br /> 45, West End Avenue,<br /> Harrogate.<br /> <br /> c/o E. Marlay Carolin,<br /> Esq., Assistant Loco.<br /> Superintendent,<br /> 0.8. A. Railway, Volks-<br /> rust, Transvaal,<br /> <br /> 81, Westbourne Ter-.<br /> race, W.<br /> <br /> 6, Boundary Road,<br /> Hampstead, N.W.<br /> <br /> Heberton Hall, Leiston,<br /> Suffolk.<br /> <br /> Braithwaite, Miss Alice<br /> <br /> Carolin, Mrs.<br /> <br /> De la Rue, E. A. .<br /> <br /> Donaldson, 8. H. (Sid-<br /> ney Hunter)<br /> Doughty, Miss Gertrude<br /> <br /> Essex, John Ridgwell .<br /> <br /> Gordon, Major Evans,<br /> M.P.<br /> <br /> Gibson, Miss L. V.<br /> <br /> 4, Chelsea Embank-<br /> ment, S.W.<br /> 9, Gray’s Inn<br /> <br /> W.C<br /> <br /> oe<br /> <br /> Square,<br /> <br /> Griffith, Miss Lucy G.<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> Grylls, A. C. Glynn<br /> Inglefield, H. B. .<br /> Latham, Edward .<br /> <br /> Lobley, Prof. J. Logan,<br /> F.R.G.S.<br /> <br /> Masefield, J. E. (J. M.)<br /> <br /> Mosely, Miss Ettie I.<br /> Peacey, Howard<br /> <br /> Russell, Lady .<br /> Synge, Miss M. B.<br /> Tanner, James T. :<br /> Taylor, The Rev. R. H.,<br /> <br /> D.D.<br /> Underwood, F. J. .<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> 117, Elgin Avenue, W.<br /> 24, Cadogan Place, S.W.<br /> 61, Friends Road,<br /> <br /> Croydon.<br /> <br /> 36, Palace Street,<br /> Buckingham Gate,<br /> S.W.<br /> <br /> 1, Diamond Terrace,<br /> Greenwich.<br /> <br /> Gloucester House, Kew.<br /> <br /> Rydal Mount, Meads,<br /> Eastbourne.<br /> <br /> South Woodfield Park,<br /> Reading.<br /> <br /> 15, St. Loo Mansions,<br /> Chelsea, 8.W.<br /> <br /> Savoy Mansions, W.C.<br /> <br /> Goddington _ Rectory,<br /> Bicester.<br /> <br /> Three of the members elected in May do not<br /> desire either their names or their addresses to be<br /> <br /> printed.<br /> <br /> —+-—&lt;&gt;— + —__<br /> <br /> WE regret that in the last issue of The Author<br /> <br /> Mrs.<br /> <br /> Christobel Hulbert<br /> <br /> Sewell’s pseudonym,<br /> <br /> “ Chris Sewell,” was, in error, attached to Mrs.<br /> Charles Scheu’s name, also published in that issue.<br /> <br /> ——_—?+———___<br /> <br /> BOOKS PUBLISHED BY MEMBERS OF<br /> THE SOCIETY.<br /> ——+<br /> <br /> (In the following list we do not propose to give more<br /> than the titles, prices, publishers, etc., of the books<br /> enumerated, with, in special cases, such particulars as may<br /> serve to explain the scope and purpose of the work.<br /> Members are requested to forward information which will<br /> enable the Editor to supply such particulars.)<br /> <br /> ARCH AOLOGY.<br /> <br /> EHNASYA. By W. M. FLINDERS PETRIE.<br /> <br /> With Chapter,<br /> <br /> By C. T. CUNELLY, M.A. Twenth-sixth Memoir of the<br /> Egypt Exploration Fund. Roman EHNASYA (Herakleo-<br /> <br /> polis Magna).<br /> Ehnasya.<br /> <br /> Plates and Text.<br /> By W. M. FLINDERS PETRIE.<br /> <br /> Supplementary to<br /> 12 x 10,<br /> <br /> 41 + 15 pp. Plates. Offices of the Egypt Exploration<br /> BIOGRAPHY.<br /> <br /> Fund.<br /> <br /> JoHN KNox AND THE REFORMATION.<br /> Longmans.<br /> <br /> Lane. 93 x 6.<br /> <br /> 281 pp.<br /> <br /> By ANDREW<br /> 10s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> DIARY AND LETTERS OF MADAME D’ ARBLAY (1778—1840),<br /> <br /> as Edited by her niece, CHARLOTTE BARRETT.<br /> a Preface and Notes by AUSTIN DoBsoNn.<br /> 524 pp. Macmillan.<br /> <br /> VOL V. 9 x bE.<br /> <br /> A Lire of WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.<br /> 8 x 54. 495 pp. Smith, Elder. 7s. 6d.<br /> <br /> Fifth Edition.<br /> <br /> NApoLeon: THE First PHASE,<br /> <br /> With<br /> In Six Vols.<br /> <br /> 10s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> By SIDNEY LEE.<br /> <br /> Some Chapters on the<br /> <br /> Boyhood and Youth of Bonaparte, 1769—1793. By<br /> OscaR BROWNING. 8%<br /> 10s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> x BS; Lane.<br /> <br /> 315 pp.<br /> <br /> 251<br /> CLASSICAL,<br /> <br /> HARVARD LECTURES ON THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING.<br /> By JoHN EpwIn Sanpys, Litt.D. 7 x 5, 212 pp.<br /> Cambridge University Press. 4s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> DRAMA,<br /> <br /> Mrs. DANE’S DEFENCE. By HENRY ARTHUR JONES.<br /> 63 x 48. 127 pp. Macmillan. 2s. 6d.<br /> <br /> INDISCRETIONS. By Cosmo HAMILTON. 7% x 5. 268 pp.<br /> <br /> Treherne. 1s.<br /> THE GREEK KALENDS: a Comedy in Verse. By ARTHUR<br /> DILLON. 64 x 5. 123 pp. Mathews. 3s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> EDUCATIONAL.<br /> <br /> STORIES FROM THE NORTHERN SaAGAs. Selected from<br /> various translations, and Edited by A. F, MAgor and<br /> K. E, SpercHr, With a Preface by the late Pror.<br /> YorK POWELL. Second Edition. Revised and Enlarged.<br /> 73 x 5. 282 pp. Marshall. 2s. 6d.<br /> <br /> GIPsy STORIES (112 pp.) THE STORIES OF ANTONIO AND<br /> BENEDICT MOL (120 pp.). FRom Borrow’s BIBLES IN<br /> SPAIN; HAWTHORNE’S TANGLEWOOD TALES; THE<br /> GOLDEN FLEECE, &amp;¢. (English School Texts), Edited<br /> by W. H. D. Roose, Litt.D. 63 x 4}. Blackie.<br /> 8d. each.<br /> <br /> FICTION.<br /> <br /> THE REDDING STRAIK. By RoBERT AITKEN. 7} x 5.<br /> 324 pp. Edinburgh: Morton ; London: Simpkin, Marshall.<br /> 6s.<br /> <br /> Dorset Dear. By M. E. FRANcts (Mrs. Francis Blundell).<br /> 8 x 5}. 332 pp. Longmans. 6s.<br /> <br /> GrorRGE EASTMONT: WANDERER. By JoHN LAW.<br /> 73 x 5. 243 pp. Burns &amp; Oates. 3s. 6d.<br /> <br /> THE ErRRoR oF Her Ways. By FRANK BARRETT.<br /> 7% x 5. 321 pp. Chatto &amp; Windus. 6s.<br /> <br /> RosE OF THE WORLD. By AGNES AND EGERTON CASTLE.<br /> 7% x 5. 379 pp. Smith, Elder. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE PHANTOM ToRPEDO Boats. By ALLEN UPWARD.<br /> <br /> 7} x 5. 326 pp. Chatto &amp; Windus. 6s.<br /> <br /> MIXED RELATIONSHIPS. By RENNIE RENNISON. 7} x 5.<br /> 381 pp. Simpkin, Marshall. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE Hint. A Romance of Friendship. By H. A. VACHELL.<br /> 8 x 5. 319pp. Murray. 6s.<br /> <br /> MARIAN SAx. By E. MARIA ALBENESI. 72 x 5, 370 pp.<br /> Hurst &amp; Blackett. 6s.<br /> <br /> WAVES OF Fate, By E. NoBLE. 72<br /> Blackwood. 6s.<br /> <br /> MARJORIE’s MistaAKE. By BertTHA M. M. MINIKEN.<br /> 74 x 4%. 424 pp. Edinburgh: Morton; London:<br /> Simpkin, Marshall. 6s.<br /> <br /> STINGAREE. By HE. W, HORNUNG.<br /> Chatto &amp; Windus. 6s,<br /> <br /> THE FRIENDSHIPS OF VERONICA.<br /> 7% x 5. 296 pp. Rivers. 6s.<br /> THE PRIDE OF Mrs. BRUNELLE, By ARTHUR H. HOLMES,<br /> <br /> 74 x 5, 312 pp. Burleigh. 6s.<br /> <br /> LITERARY.<br /> <br /> Freely Expressed on certain phases of<br /> By MARIE CORELLI.<br /> <br /> x 6, 3846 pp.<br /> <br /> Te x 43. 324 pp.<br /> <br /> By THOMAS COBB.<br /> <br /> FREE OPINIONS.<br /> Modern Social Life and Conduct.<br /> 7% x 5. 353 pp. Constable. 6s.<br /> <br /> AUCASSIN AND NICOLETE. Done into English, By<br /> ANDREW LANG. 8 x 54. 91 pp. Routledge. 3s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> MISCELLANEOUS,<br /> A HANpDBOOK of FREE STANDING GYMNASTICS. By<br /> E. ADAIR ROBERTS. 10 X 7}. 138 pp. Sherratt &amp;<br /> <br /> Hughes. 3s. 6d. n.<br /> THE STAMP FrEenp’s Kalb.<br /> 28 pen and ink sketches by the Author,<br /> <br /> 2s, 6d.<br /> <br /> By W. E. Imeson. With<br /> Horace Cox.<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 252<br /> <br /> PHILOSOPHY.<br /> THE PRINCIPLES OF Hprepiry. By G. ARCHDALL REID,<br /> ‘M.B. 9 x 53. 359pp. Chapman &amp; Hall. 12s. 6d. n.<br /> POEMS. ‘+<br /> <br /> PEACE AND OTHER Poems. By A. C. BENSON, 7<br /> <br /> x 44.<br /> Lane. 5%. n.<br /> <br /> THE DANCE OF OLIVES. By ARTHUR MAQUARIE.<br /> 63 x 4. Dent. 4s. n.<br /> POLITICAL.<br /> Russia IN REVOLUTION. By G. H. Perris. 9 x 53.<br /> 359 pp. Chapman &amp; Hall. 10s. 6d. n.<br /> REPRINTS.<br /> <br /> Kine RicHarp III. (The Red Letter Shakespeare).<br /> <br /> 6} x 38. 173 pp. Blackie. 1s. 6d, n.<br /> SPORT.<br /> <br /> FIsHING IN DERBYSHIRE AND AROUND. By W. M.<br /> GALLICHAN (Geoffrey Mortimer). 74 x 5. 184 pp.<br /> Robinson. 3s, 6d. n.<br /> <br /> THEOLOGY,<br /> <br /> St. JoHNn: The Revised Version. Edited with Notes for<br /> the Use of Schools. By the Ruv. A. CARR, M.A. 8vo.<br /> <br /> Sv. MATTHEW : The Revised Version. Edited with Notes<br /> for the Use of Schools. By the Rev. A. CARR, M.A. With<br /> three maps. Cambridge University Press. ls. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> TOPOGRAPHY.<br /> <br /> Lonpon Town. By EprIc VREDENBURG. Illustrated<br /> with 40 views in colour and black and white (photo-<br /> graphs). 9} x 7}. 29 pp. Raphael Tuck. 1s. n.<br /> <br /> A GARDEN OF EDEN: Kempton Park once upon a time.<br /> By EpirH A. BARNETT. 7$ x 5. 147 pp. Constable,<br /> 5s, 0.<br /> <br /> TRAVEL.<br /> <br /> By JOHN FosTER FRASER. 8 x 53.<br /> <br /> 6s.<br /> <br /> CANADA AS IT IS.<br /> 303 pp. Cassell.<br /> <br /> —__—_———_e—&gt;__—__—_<br /> <br /> LITERARY, DRAMATIC, AND MUSICAL<br /> NOTES.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> \ | R. MURRAY is publishing “The British<br /> hs Trade Year Book,” edited by Mr. J. Holt<br /> <br /> Schooling. The aim of the work is to<br /> show in a thorough and lucid fashion the course<br /> of British trade in each important section, and<br /> more broadly the average yearly results during<br /> each successive decade.<br /> <br /> Mr. G. W. Forrest, O.I.E., is engaged on the<br /> Life of Field-Marshall Sir Neville Chamberlain,<br /> who was one of the “Illustrious Brotherhood of<br /> the Punjaub,” and who, at the time of the mutiny,<br /> kept a personal diary and wrote home very full<br /> and interesting letters. The work will be published<br /> by Messrs. Blackwood.<br /> <br /> Mr. Richard Bagot has now finished a new<br /> novel entitled “The Passport,” which will. be<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> eden in book form in Great Britain and the<br /> nited States in the early autumn of this year.<br /> <br /> Mr. Justin Huntley McCarthy is engaged on a<br /> novel which will be ready for publication in the<br /> autumn of this year or in the spring of 1906.<br /> <br /> “The Conflict of Owen Prytherch” is the title<br /> of a novel dealing with modern Welsh life, which<br /> Mr. Walter M. Gallichan is publishing shortly<br /> through Mr. George Morton. The story, which<br /> deals with the experiences of a Welsh Noncon-<br /> formist minister who is too “advanced” for his<br /> flock, contains a reference to the religious revival<br /> in Wales.<br /> <br /> A new novel by Sydney C. Grier will appear in<br /> The Graphic as a serial, prior to its publication in<br /> book form.<br /> <br /> A third edition of “How the Steam Engine<br /> Works,” by Randal McDonnell, has been issued at<br /> the price of 2s. 6d. Copies can be obtained from<br /> Messrs. Sealy, Bryers and Walker, and Messrs.<br /> M. H. Gill &amp; Son, of Middle Abbey Street, Dublin,<br /> and O’Connell Street, Dublin, respectively. In a<br /> preface to the work, the author states that his aim<br /> has been to give a clear and concise account of the<br /> steam engine, and one free from all unnecessary<br /> detail.<br /> <br /> “ Qccasional Verses ” is the title of a collection<br /> of poems by E. Urwick reprinted from London and<br /> provincial journals. They are mainly of a humorous<br /> character, though one referring to the death of<br /> President McKinley reveals the serious side of the<br /> writer’s art.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Longmans, Green &amp; Co. have recently<br /> published in 2 vols. a work by Dr. F. E. Hare,<br /> entitled ‘Common Humoral Factor of Disease.”<br /> The work is described as a deductive investi-<br /> gation into the primary causation, meaning,<br /> mechanism and rational treatment, preventive and<br /> curative, of the paroxysmal neuroses (migraine,<br /> asthma, epilepsy, etc.), gout, high blood pressure,<br /> circulatory, venal and other degenerations.<br /> <br /> The same publishers have also published poems<br /> by E. Nesbit, under the title of “ The Rainbow<br /> and the Rose.”<br /> <br /> Messrs. Constable’s list of forthcoming books<br /> includes “Extinct Animals,” by Prof. E. Ray<br /> Lankester. The work is the substance of a course<br /> of lectures which Prof. Lankester delivered at the<br /> Royal Institution to a juvenile audience during<br /> the Christmas season.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Methuen published last month, at the<br /> price of 2s. 6d. net, “ An English Church History<br /> for Children,” by Miss Mary E. Shipley, with a<br /> preface by the Bishop of Gloucester. |<br /> <br /> They have also published a re-issue of Mr.<br /> Baring Gould’s “Strange Survivals and Super-<br /> stitions,” at the same price. :<br /> <br /> Miss Netta Syrett’s novel, “‘ The Day’s Journey, .<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> recently published by Messrs. Chapman &amp; Hall, is<br /> a story of temperament, revealing the effect of<br /> disillusionment after marriage, and the gradual<br /> working towards reconciliation which ultimately is<br /> effected.<br /> <br /> _ We are informed that Mr. Poultney Bigelow<br /> has been appointed by the Boston University to<br /> ‘act as their delegate at the International Congress<br /> called by the King of the Belgians to discuss<br /> matters of Colonial expansion. The Congress<br /> meets on September 25th, 1905.<br /> <br /> ‘““A Child of the Shore,” which some of the<br /> papers have erroneously described as the first<br /> work of a new writer, is, in fact, by the author of<br /> the play “The Waters of Bitterness ” (produced by<br /> the Stage Society two years ago), and of “Verses<br /> for Granny,” ete. The frontispiece to the work is<br /> from a statuette of the author’s.<br /> <br /> Mr. Egerton Castle’s new book, “Rose of the<br /> World,” which was published in England early<br /> last month,has already gone through two editions<br /> in America, where it was published on April 10th.<br /> <br /> “Zelia” is the title of a story by Miss Etta<br /> Buchanan Bennett, author of “A Scottish Blue<br /> Bell.” The price is 3s. 6d., and the publishers<br /> Messrs. Jarrold &amp; Sons. It is a straightforward<br /> story of an old-fashioned kind, with a plain record<br /> of loves and hates. The scene is laid first in the<br /> Southern States of America and then in England.<br /> <br /> Mr. Anthony Hope, lecturing at the Queen’s<br /> Square Club on May 9th, compared the classic<br /> with the modern novel, and stated that what struck<br /> <br /> him most in the latter was the tendency towards .<br /> <br /> working philosophy into the story. Whilst the<br /> great writers of former days gave expression to<br /> their philosophy in explanations and asides, the<br /> modern method was to use the characters of the<br /> story in order to achieve this object. Hitherto,<br /> the main question had been what happened. In<br /> the new-style story, however, that point was of<br /> secondary importance, the real question being why<br /> did it happen ? or ought it to have happened at all ?<br /> <br /> Mrs. Craigie (‘John Oliver Hobbes”) will<br /> deliver a lecture on “Plato and Dante,” under<br /> the auspices of the Dante Society, on June 7th,<br /> at 3.30. Sir Theodore Martin, K.C.B., president<br /> of the society, will take the chair.<br /> <br /> “The Stamp Fiend’s Raid,” by W. E. Imeson,<br /> has been published by Messrs. Horace Cox at the<br /> price of 2s. 6d. The work—which contains 28 pen<br /> and ink sketches by the author—is an inoffensive<br /> skit on many of the hobbies of the day, chiefly<br /> philately. It is written on popular lines, with a<br /> view to interest equally the general reader and<br /> those collectors whose pursuits are introduced.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Blackwood have published “ Elizabeth<br /> Grey,” by E. M. Green, which is the journal of an<br /> author written in a Somerset farmhouse.<br /> <br /> 253<br /> Mr. Thomas Burleigh has recently publishe<br /> novel by Mr. Arthur H. Holmes, ander tik ne<br /> <br /> “The Pride of Mrs. Brunelle.”<br /> <br /> : Messrs. Chapman &amp; Hall have recently pub-<br /> lished, atthe price of 12s. 6d. net, Dr. G. Archdall<br /> Reid’s new work, “The Principles of Heredity.”<br /> Whilst the work ig designed to supply the want of<br /> a text-book on the subject, the author expresses<br /> the hope that it may not be found lacking in<br /> general interest to the professional biologist and<br /> general reader.<br /> <br /> Mr. John Jackson has published, through Messrs.<br /> Kegan Paul &amp; Co., a work dealing with “ Ambi-<br /> dexterity.” Specimens of ambidextral writing and<br /> drawings are given in the book, which contains an<br /> introduction by Major-General Baden-Powell. The<br /> price is 6s. net.<br /> <br /> Mrs. Katherine 8. Macquoid’s novel, “A Village<br /> Chronicle,” recently published by Messrs. Digby,<br /> Long &amp; Co., is a record of joys and sorrows,<br /> comedies and tragedies of the inhabitants in a<br /> well-cared-for English village. The volume con-<br /> tains four full-page illustrations by Forestier.<br /> <br /> Mr. Oscar Browning’s work, «“N apoleon, the<br /> First Phase,” published by Mr. John Lane, deals<br /> with the youth and upbringing of the Emperor. |<br /> <br /> “The Friendships of Veronica” is the title of<br /> Mr. Thomas Cobb’s latest. novel, published by Mr,<br /> Alston Rivers. The story, whilst not entirely<br /> political, relies for its plot on an election campaign.<br /> <br /> In her new book, entitled “ It’s a Way They have<br /> in the Army,” Lady Helen Forbes has drawn a<br /> picture of regimental social life in India, which,<br /> though not always pleasing, may provide the<br /> public with food for thought. Messrs. Duckworth<br /> &amp; Co. are the publishers.<br /> <br /> The sixth and concluding volume of Macmillan’s<br /> Madame D’Arblay’s “Diary and Letters, 1778—<br /> 1840,” will shortly be issued. It contains a lengthy<br /> postscript to Mr. Dobson’s preface in Volume [.<br /> explaining the principle of the edition. It also<br /> includes a Bibliography of the previous issues, a<br /> long Appendix on Rear-Admiral James Burney,<br /> and an Appendix on the recently published letters<br /> regarding “ Kvelina.” The volume is illustrated<br /> by photogravure portraits of Mrs. Crewe, Chateau-<br /> briand, Mme. de Staél, and Dr. Burney, and has<br /> also photographs of Madame D’Arblay’s house in<br /> Bolton Street, Piccadilly ; of Rogers’s house in<br /> St. James’s Place ; of Walcot Church, Bath, where<br /> Madame D’Arblay is buried, and of the memorial<br /> tablet to her in that church. A full general index<br /> terminates the volume.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner &amp; Co.<br /> are projecting a new series, the “ Dryden Library,”<br /> in eighteen-penny cloth volumes and two shillings<br /> leather. The first issue will be a selection of fifty<br /> pieces from the “Collected Poems” of Austin<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 254<br /> <br /> Dobson, and it will include a photogravure frontis-<br /> piece reproducing a pen-and-ink drawing by the<br /> late George H. Boughton, R.A.<br /> <br /> The Rev. G. W. Allen, Vicar of St. James’s,<br /> Bradford, and author of “The Mission of Evil,”<br /> “Wonderful Words and Works” (Skeffington), is<br /> editing a new quarterly magazine, called 7&#039;he<br /> Seeker, devoted to the search for God and the<br /> true self, The magazine will deal with the deeper<br /> spiritual apprehension of religion, and will include<br /> piblical interpretation, the relation of doctrine to<br /> life, the influence of thought on health and power,<br /> and why it is that Christianity has so little effect<br /> on the world. The first number has just been<br /> issued. It contains 28 pages, which will in future<br /> numbers be increased to 32. The subscription is<br /> Qs. 6d. a year, post free. The publisher is<br /> Mr. Philip Wellby.<br /> <br /> Mr. Sydney Grundy’s play, “ Business is Business”<br /> (adapted from M. Octave Mirbeau’s “ Les Affaires<br /> sont les Affaires”), was produced at His Majesty’s<br /> Theatre on May 13th. The main character in the<br /> piece is a modern financier, whose success in<br /> business has been achieved by methods which<br /> cause him to be loathed by his children. After<br /> driving his daughter from home for having<br /> frustrated his attempt to arrange a marriage<br /> between her and the son of a poverty-stricken<br /> earl, the financier learns of the death of his son,<br /> whom he adored. This last blow shatters all<br /> his ambitions and causes him to break down<br /> completely. The caste includes Mr. Beerbohm<br /> Tree and Miss Viola Tree.<br /> <br /> Mr. Louis N. Parker’s one-act play, entitled<br /> “The Creole,” was produced on the afternoon of<br /> May 6th., at the Haymarket Theatre, in front of<br /> Capt. Marshall’s play, “ Everybody’s Secret.” Mr.<br /> Parker’s piece deals with the domestic life of<br /> Napoleon Bonaparte, and shows how an estrange-<br /> ment between Napoleon and his wife, Joséphine,<br /> was terminated through the instrumentality of the<br /> daughter. Mr. Cyril Maude appeared as Napoleon,<br /> and Miss Alice Crawford as Jos¢phine.<br /> <br /> “Daniel Dibsey.” A farcical comedy. By<br /> George Blagrove. Was produced at the Royal<br /> Albert Hall Theatre on May 1st, before a crowded<br /> audience.<br /> <br /> 9<br /> <br /> PARIS NOTES.<br /> <br /> —— 9 —<br /> <br /> HE third volume of “ 1815 : La Seconde Abdi-<br /> cation: La Terreur Blanche,” by Henry<br /> Houssaye, is one of the most interesting of<br /> <br /> recent books. The author has the great gift of<br /> knowing exactly what to omit, the art of selection.<br /> The subject he has taken is a huge one, and the<br /> amount of historical documents which must have<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> been studied for such a work must certainly have<br /> been enormous, and yet there is not a word too<br /> much in this volume. After reading it carefully<br /> from the first chapter to the last, a book of nearly<br /> six hundred pages, one has a remarkably clear idea<br /> of the period of history depicted, of the questions<br /> of the day, of the motives which actuated other<br /> European nations and of the terrible struggles, the<br /> individual ambitions and jealousies, and finally the<br /> heroic reaction of the French nation. It would be<br /> difficult to find any book giving in so few words so<br /> faithful an account of all that the whole nation<br /> endured during the period between the second<br /> abdication of Napoleon and the treaty of peace<br /> when “kings crept out again to feel the sun.”<br /> The whole story is given of Napoleon’s return to<br /> Paris after Waterloo, of the opinion in France, the<br /> intrigues of Fouché, of La Fayette’s speech to the<br /> Chamber, of Napoleon’s various messages and final<br /> abdication. ‘Then comes the departure of Napoleon<br /> to La Malmaison and the return of King Louis<br /> XVIII., the occupation of Paris by the Allied<br /> Armies and Napoleon’s decision to leave for<br /> America, the treachery of Fouché, the confidence<br /> of Napoleon in the English, and the ignoble story<br /> of the Bellerophon, St. Helena, and Hudson Lowe.<br /> The final chapters of the book are styled by the<br /> author “Crucified France.” In one part he treats<br /> of the exigencies of the Allies, and we have @<br /> picture of France occupied by the English, Prus-<br /> sians, Austrians, Russians, Dutch, Belgians,<br /> Bavarians, and Spanish, so that in fifty-eight<br /> departments the French were supplying the enemy<br /> with money and provisions. Lord Castlereagh esti-<br /> mated that this occupation cost France 1,750,000<br /> francs a day. For the English army alone the<br /> city of Paris had to provide 114,000 lbs. of bread<br /> a day, 76,000 lbs. of meat, about 30,000 pints of<br /> wine, etc. Wellington was finally indignant at the<br /> abuses of the Allies, and he wrote to Castlereagh<br /> to request that the sovereigns should be told that<br /> the oppression must cease and that the troops must<br /> not be allowed to pillage and destroy for the pure<br /> pleasure of it. Finally, after the treaty of peace<br /> was signed and the enormous indemnity agreed<br /> upon, France was in the most pitiable condition.<br /> With justifiable pride the author concludes :<br /> <br /> “ When a country can resist so many times similar ©<br /> <br /> catastrophies, when it can triumph over such @<br /> <br /> crisis, it must be that it possesses miraculous —<br /> vitality and inconceivable reserves of strength and<br /> <br /> energy. How can one have any doubts with<br /> <br /> regard to the destinies of a nation which for tea<br /> <br /> centuries has gone from one resurrection 0<br /> another resurrection ?” After reading this book<br /> <br /> one is not surprised that the author should lay<br /> down his pen with “a stronger and more ardent<br /> <br /> faith in the fortunes of France.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> The Napoleonic era is always a favourite period,<br /> and M. Gilbert Stenger’s series of books has had<br /> great success. The whole work is entitled<br /> “Histoire de la Société francaise pendant le<br /> Consulat.” The first volume was “ La Renaissance<br /> de la France,” the second “ Aristocrates et républi-<br /> cains ; les emigrés et les complots ; les hommes<br /> du Consulat.” The volume just recently published<br /> is entitled “ Bonaparte. Sa Famille. Le Monde et<br /> les Salons.” It is, perhaps, the most interesting<br /> of the three, and shows Napoleon in a light which<br /> will surprise many readers. The first chapter<br /> treats of his childhood, his early education and his<br /> life until the age of seventeen. We read of his<br /> studious habits, his poverty and pride, his devotion<br /> to his family, and his great ambition. We have,<br /> too, the story of Joséphine, and of her marriage<br /> with Napoleon.<br /> <br /> The next part of the book is taken up with an<br /> account of each member of the Bonaparte family,<br /> and the third part is devoted to an account of the<br /> society of that period, each chapter treating of the<br /> various sdlons, including those of Madame<br /> Récamier, Madame de Stael, Madame de Genlis,<br /> Madame de Houdetot, the Marquise deCondorcet, the<br /> Duchesse de Luynes, and the Marquise de Custine.<br /> It is a book which gives an excellent idea of the<br /> social life of the times, serving as a key to much<br /> that seems complex in modern French society.<br /> One sees the difference between the old salons and<br /> the new ones, and one learns to understand better<br /> the line of demarcation which Napoleon was so<br /> anxious to efface. There are two more volumes<br /> yet to appear before M. Stenger will have accom-<br /> plished his task.<br /> <br /> Another book by Pierre Loti, dedicated to his<br /> companions on the Redoutable, and entitled<br /> “La Troisieme Jeunesse de Madame Prune.” It<br /> was written three years ago, before the Russo-<br /> Japanese war had commenced. It describes<br /> another journey to Japan, to the city of Madame<br /> Chrysanthéme. Fifteen years in the history of<br /> most nations do not count in the same way as that<br /> period has counted in Japan. It is one long series<br /> of surprises and regrets for the poet who had<br /> formerly sung of the mystery and charm of the<br /> extreme Orient.<br /> <br /> Instead of the picturesque junks there were now<br /> boats of all kinds, such as one might see at the<br /> Havre, or at Portsmouth. Instead of the “mantle<br /> of verdure covering the rocks and giving to the<br /> bay the charm of Eden, a road bordered with<br /> manufactories and coal stores.” High up on the<br /> mountain, letters ten yards long, an American<br /> system of advertisement for some alimentary pro-<br /> duct! Fifteen years ago, the author tells us, there<br /> <br /> were no drunkards in Japan except the European<br /> At present the Japanese sailors have<br /> <br /> Sailors.<br /> <br /> 255<br /> <br /> adopted Western customs and—alcoholic beverages.<br /> The tea-rooms are dirty and smell of absinthe 5 one<br /> may enter without taking off one’s shoes, and<br /> instead of cushions to sit upon there are chairs<br /> placed around tables, and there are rows of bottles<br /> containing whisky, brandy, and pale ale.<br /> <br /> The whole book has the charm of description, the<br /> melancholy poetry peculiar to Pierre Loti, but the<br /> things described now seem to have lost much of<br /> their charm. The practical West has invaded the<br /> East and sweptaway much of the mystery and poetry.<br /> Yokohama, with its electric wires everywhere, is,<br /> we are told, like an immense spider’s web, a<br /> mascarade a faire pitieé. Everything is changed,<br /> ‘‘ Kuropeanised,” and in despair when a yellow-<br /> faced journalist with a black coat and tall hat<br /> attempts to interview Loti he escapes to his ship,<br /> ne voulant plus rien savoir de ce Japon-la. He<br /> managed to find some spots, however, which were<br /> still charming, and he lingers over these. Itisa<br /> volume of impressions, a series of word-pictures<br /> given in the style that makes all Pierre Loti’s<br /> works so fascinating.<br /> <br /> “La Beauté d’Alcias,” by Jean Bertheroy, a<br /> book which takes us away from all that is prosaic<br /> and gives us a picture of life in an antique setting.<br /> The secret of the success of this author is the way<br /> in which he can give us warmth and life in these<br /> stories of the past instead of merely cold, colourless<br /> sketches. Doris, the daughter of the perfumer,<br /> Alexandre, loves a Grecian youth named Alcias.<br /> He is an athlete and the most handsome of young<br /> men. The whole story turns on the girl’s deep<br /> love for him. After one of his great athletic<br /> victories he returns blind. The anguish of Doris<br /> is terrible, for, with her intense love of beauty, she<br /> is heart-broken that Alcias should lose his eyesight.<br /> She persuades him to allow her to take him to<br /> Epidaure and to beseech Péan, the son of Apollo, to<br /> have mercy on him. They join the procession of<br /> pilgrims and climb the holy mountain where so<br /> many miracles have been performed. The terrible<br /> part for the young girl is to feel that the grace of<br /> their gods has not touched her lover; he has no<br /> faith, and has only consented to the pilgrimage in<br /> order to please her. Her attempts to convince him<br /> are most touching. The miracle finally is accom-<br /> plished, and Alcias, while asleep in the temple, is<br /> roused by the glory of the sunrise, opens his eyes,<br /> and to the joy and amazement of himself and of<br /> Doris his sight immediately returns. The great<br /> charm of the book is its life. Such colouring and<br /> atmosphere arerarely obtained in stories of this kind.<br /> <br /> Among other new books are the following : —<br /> “Hommes nouveaux,” by G. Fanton; “ Les<br /> Revenantes,” by Champol ; “ La Grande Aventure,”<br /> by Georges Labruycre; “ Fatale Méprise,” by<br /> Henri Barande.<br /> <br /> <br /> 256 THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> “Les Derniéres Années de Chateaubriand,” by<br /> M. Edmond Biré ; “ Victor Hugo &amp; Guernsey,” by<br /> M. Paul Stapfer.<br /> <br /> “Age d’aimer,” by M. Pierre Wolff, has been<br /> a great success for Mme. Réjane at the Gymnase<br /> Theatre, and at the Thédtre Antoine; “Le<br /> Meilleur Parti,” by M. Maurice Maindron.<br /> <br /> Auys HALLARD.<br /> <br /> ——-——_—_<br /> <br /> THE DON QUIXOTE FETES IN MADRID,<br /> <br /> —_-—&lt;— +<br /> <br /> T has been worth while coming to Spain to see<br /> how the whole country has been permeated<br /> with the desire to do honour to Cervantes<br /> <br /> and his ‘*Don Quixote.” In the capital itself<br /> the tri-centenary of the publication of the great<br /> Spanish classic has been celebrated with so much<br /> enthusiasm by the chief centres of art, science,<br /> education, music, literature, the army, and the<br /> church and the stage, that could Cervantes himself<br /> have returned to the city where he died in want<br /> and neglect three hundred years ago, he would have<br /> thought it was one of those dreams of his imagina-<br /> tion which so often played him false. For the past<br /> week the Puerta del Sol has resounded with the<br /> <br /> cries of the vendors of programmes of the fétes,<br /> ~ with flaring coloured pictures of “The Knight of<br /> the Sad Countenance ” and some of his adventures ;<br /> special stamps bearing the portrait of Cervantes<br /> and the “‘ windmill scene’ of “ Don Quixote” have<br /> been issued for use in Spain for the fourteen days<br /> of the centenary celebration. ‘The fétes were pre-<br /> faced by ten lectures from the leading literary<br /> Spaniards of the day on the origin and the different<br /> aspects of ‘‘ Don Quixote” and its relation to science,<br /> politics, art, poetry, music and metaphysics. It is<br /> difficult to do justice to the flood of eloquence which<br /> emanated from the Chair of the Atheneeum on each<br /> of these occasions. The attention accorded to Sefior<br /> Navarro Ledesma, the well-known writer on Cer-<br /> vantes, was very marked, and impatient signs<br /> of displeasure met any cough or sound which<br /> threatened to impede the hearing of the sonorous<br /> voice of the speaker, which, with the regularity and<br /> rapidity of an express train, gave unintermittent<br /> expression for an hour and a half to the rush of<br /> ideas on the subject ; and every evening saw the<br /> same large attendance to the other lectures of equal<br /> celebrity. Art added her tribute to the inaugura-<br /> tion of the fétes by an exhibition in the Crystal<br /> Palace of the Park of Madrid of the pictures painted<br /> for the “Don Quixote” competition; and the<br /> Marquesa de Villahermosa celebrated the occasion<br /> <br /> by presenting the Society of Artists with a mag-<br /> nificent silver trophy. The exhibition of literary<br /> objects of interest relating to Cervantes and his<br /> works was opened by King Alfonzo and Queen<br /> Maria Christina on Saturday, the 6th of May, at the<br /> Biblioteca Nacional. As he grows to manhood,<br /> the young King’s resemblance to the well-known<br /> Velasquez portrait of his ancestor, Philip IV., is<br /> so marked that it almost seems as if he had walked<br /> out of the frame of the picture at the museum in<br /> the Prado.<br /> <br /> When the Wednesday preceding the commence-<br /> ment of the fétes brought no sign of help from<br /> my co-delegate of the Authors’ Society, who lives<br /> in Madrid, it seemed time to commence opera-<br /> tions on my own behalf. So, armed with an<br /> article which had appeared in a Spanish newspaper<br /> of that morning publishing my qualifications, I<br /> repaired to the Ministry of Public Education and<br /> the Fine Arts. There I saw the minister himself,<br /> and through his influence and that of the celebrated<br /> Spanish authoress, Sefiora Pardo Bazan, to whom<br /> the Marquis de Villobabar in London had written<br /> on my behalf, tickets soon arrived for every one of<br /> the fétes ; and as my countryman’s promise of a<br /> ticket for the function at the Royal Academy came<br /> to naught, I was glad to receive three for the same<br /> occasion. On Sunday, May 7th, military bands<br /> paraded the city from early morning, and in the<br /> <br /> afternoon the battle of flowers took place in the<br /> <br /> beautiful Boulevard of the Castellana. The bitter<br /> east wind did not prevent crowds of people filling<br /> <br /> every available space under the trees, whilst ticket- ]<br /> <br /> holders had seats in the gaily decorated boxes<br /> <br /> erected down the centre of the drive which formed —<br /> <br /> the course. ‘he Royal Pavilion, gracefully fes-<br /> <br /> tooned with flowers, was the chief seat of warfure<br /> during the afternoon, for from thence the King —<br /> launched his floral missiles with unintermittent —<br /> energy for an hour and a half; and it was here<br /> that the shouts of laughter were loudest as the —<br /> carriages filed by. Scenes from ‘Don Quixote”<br /> were, of course, the prevailing features of the festive —<br /> <br /> cars—“ The Watch of the Arms,” ‘‘ The Marriage<br /> of Camacho,” “‘ The Lepanto Prison,” being among —<br /> the most successful of the realistic representations ; —<br /> <br /> and the “Crowning of Cervantes” by a flying<br /> figure of Fate met with loud acclamations of<br /> delight.<br /> <br /> The military torchlight procession commenced<br /> at ten o’clock that night, and to give more force<br /> to the lights borne by the troops the street lamps<br /> were extinguished. The view from the War Office<br /> of the glittering bands of soldiers, passing from the<br /> Prado into the street of the Alcali, was very<br /> striking ; and the regiments formed a wide, moving<br /> line of light as they marched down the Alcalé on<br /> their way to the Royal Palace. The place of<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> honour in the procession was occupied by a white<br /> effigy of Cervantes, backed with an illuminated<br /> presentment of his book, “Don Quixote,” and<br /> topped with a large lamp of varying hues, which<br /> cast weird shadows on the rich tapestries hung<br /> from the windows of grandees’ houses on the route.<br /> <br /> Monday was the day of the state function at the<br /> Royal Academy, and that of the coronation of the<br /> Cervantes statue by the deputations and delegates<br /> _ of all the literary and educational societies inte-<br /> <br /> * rested in the centenary. It was only then that I<br /> sd heard my co-delegate had retired from action. For<br /> “ij the moment I shrank from publicly presenting the<br /> _ wreath which I had that morning purchased as the<br /> tribute of the Authors’ Society. But it seemed a<br /> pity that its glistening laurel wreaths and red, blue<br /> and white streamers, bearing the inscription in<br /> gold letters, “To Cervantes, from the Society of<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> oO<br /> ai English Authors,” should be wasted. So when the<br /> ml) time came! left my friends in the carriage, whichtook<br /> ‘g@ up its position as near as possible to the course of the<br /> procession,and tacked myselfon tosome young people.<br /> <br /> wo) = For as the Spaniards still mostly class women<br /> ,* “with children and idiots,” I thought I could thus,<br /> without exciting any resentment, meekly make my<br /> way to the statue facing the Houses of Parliament,<br /> » decked with the gorgeous canopy of state occasions,<br /> is, and the boxes filled with the Royal Family,<br /> grandees, diplomats, &amp;c., and there I deposited the<br /> tribute of the Society of English Authors. This<br /> 62 coronation of the Cervantes statue function followed<br /> of) the Royal Academy festival, when the discourse on<br /> J* “Don Quixote,” written for the occasion by Juan<br /> s¥ Valera, was read aloud by Sefior Pidal, as the author<br /> died a month ago when he had not quite finished<br /> the task to which he had been deputed by the<br /> learned society. The reading of the posthumous<br /> | pamphlet was followed by the King signing a<br /> decree for the erection of a monument to the<br /> memory of Cervantes.<br /> The Cervantes tri-centenary week was theoccasion<br /> * ‘cof a great gathering - from Catalonia, Galicia,<br /> me? Valencia, &amp;c., of the Orfeones (Societies of Orpheus),<br /> + ae and therespective bright-coloured capsofthe musical<br /> ‘mh unions and the sweet strains of their music added<br /> “b@ much to the cheerfulness of the city during the<br /> “9)&gt; fétes. But their great festival in the bull ring of<br /> ‘elf Madrid was not a great success. The vast arena,<br /> ‘which reminds one so much of pictures of the<br /> ose ancient Amphitheatre of Rome, was lighted for the<br /> / ‘| first time with electric lights, which failed to reveal<br /> | of the beauty of the decorations, as they did not act<br /> &#039; ley well, and there was such a want of organisation in<br /> of the proceedings that it was midnight before half of<br /> «| od the programme was over. However, the “ Gloriaa<br /> ‘n@@t Espafia ” and the “ Gloria d Cervantes ” were worth<br /> ‘so hearing in their perfect rendering by the well-<br /> ‘&quot;bet modulated voices of the massed choirs under their<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 257<br /> <br /> respective banners beneath the countless pennons<br /> strung from side to side of the creat cireus open to<br /> the deep blue sky ; and the King waved his cap in<br /> enthusiastic appreciation of the performance. The<br /> commemorative funeral service to Cervantes was<br /> certainly a triumph in realism. The dim-lighted<br /> church of San Jeronimo was draped with purple,<br /> and the catafalque was surmounted with the<br /> author’s books and surrounded by candles.<br /> Ministers, officers, diplomats and grandees assembled<br /> in full uniform in honour to the obsequies, and the<br /> King came in state to the service. The funeral<br /> oration was preached by the Bishop of San Luis de<br /> Potosi in Mexico, who came over especially for the<br /> occasion. a<br /> <br /> The final function of the gala performance at ~<br /> the Royal Theatre was a splendid exhibition of the<br /> gorgeous uniforms and the jewels and _toilettes<br /> which grace society in Spain; and the well-<br /> rendered scenes from “Don Quixote” of “The<br /> Watch of the Arms,” “The Convicts,” and “ The<br /> Knight of the Mirrors” were followed by an<br /> apotheosis to the great author to the music of<br /> Sefores Fernandez, Shaw and Maestro Caballero ;<br /> and the King and all the brilliant assembly were<br /> loud in their applause of this spectacular expres-<br /> sion of “Gloria to Cervantes.”<br /> <br /> Space forbids more than these notes of the “ Don<br /> Quixote” fétes this month, but I hope next time to<br /> give a short account of the glimpse I had into the<br /> literary life of Madrid, and to tell of the kindness<br /> I received from such Spanish celebrities as Silvela,<br /> Moret, Pando y Valle, Blasco Ibafiez, Palacio<br /> Valdés, &amp;c., and I must not conclude without say-<br /> ing that I was much pleased at being presented by<br /> the Minister of Instruction and the Fine Arts with<br /> the official bronze medal of the Cervantes Centenary<br /> with a kind address of appreciation.<br /> <br /> RacHEL CHALLICE.<br /> i<br /> <br /> AN AUTHOR’S RIGHT TO HIS WORK.<br /> ee<br /> <br /> (Statement of the case reprinted from the United States<br /> Publisher&#039;s Weekly.)<br /> <br /> UDGE McCALL, of the Supreme Court<br /> Special Term, handed down a decision in<br /> the suit brought by Basil Jones against<br /> <br /> the American Law Book Company, to restrain<br /> the defendants from publishing an article entitled<br /> “Army and Navy,” in the second volume of<br /> their “ Cyclopsedia of Law and Procedure,” except<br /> under the plaintiff’s name. It appears that<br /> the American Law Book Company of New York<br /> City, in order to attract attention to its cyclopedia,<br /> caused articles written by young law writers to be<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 256<br /> <br /> «Tes Derniéres Années de Chateaubriand,” by<br /> M. Edmond Biré ; “ Victor Hugo &amp; Guernsey,” by<br /> M. Paul Stapfer.<br /> <br /> “L’Age d’aimer,” by M. Pierre Wolff, has been<br /> a great success for Mme. Réjane at the Gymnase<br /> Theatre, and at the Thédtre Antoine; “ Le<br /> Meilleur Parti,’ by M. Maurice Maindron.<br /> <br /> Atys HALLARD.<br /> <br /> ———1-——_o_—_—__-<br /> <br /> THE DON QUIXOTE FETES IN MADRID.<br /> <br /> ——&gt; +<br /> <br /> T has been worth while coming to Spain to see<br /> I how the whole country has been permeated<br /> with the desire to do honour to Cervantes<br /> <br /> and his ‘‘Don Quixote.” In the capital itself<br /> the tri-centenary of the publication of the great<br /> Spanish classic has been celebrated with so much<br /> enthusiasm by the chief centres of art, science,<br /> education, music, literature, the army, and the<br /> church and the stage, that could Cervantes himself<br /> have returned to the city where he died in want<br /> and neglect three hundred years ago, he would have<br /> thought it was one of those dreams of his imagina-<br /> tion which so often played him false. For the past<br /> week the Puerta del Sol has resounded with the<br /> cries of the vendors of programmes of the fétes,<br /> * with flaring coloured pictures of “The Knight of<br /> the Sad Countenance ”’ and some of his adventures ;<br /> special stamps bearing the portrait of Cervantes<br /> and the ‘‘ windmill scene ” of “ Don Quixote” have<br /> been issued for use in Spain for the fourteen days<br /> of the centenary celebration. The fétes were pre-<br /> faced by ten lectures from the leading literary<br /> Spaniards of the day on the origin and the different<br /> aspects of ‘‘ Don Quixote” and its relation to science,<br /> politics, art, poetry, music and metaphysics. It is<br /> difficult to do justice to the flood of eloquence which<br /> emanated from the Chair of the Athenzeum on each<br /> of these occasions. The attention accorded to Sefior<br /> Navarro Ledesma, the well-known writer on Cer-<br /> vantes, was very marked, and impatient signs<br /> of displeasure met any cough or sound which<br /> threatened to impede the hearing of the sonorous<br /> voice of the speaker, which, with the regularity and<br /> rapidity of an express train, gave unintermittent<br /> expression for an hour and a half to the rush of<br /> ideas on the subject; and every evening saw the<br /> same large attendance to the other lectures of equal<br /> celebrity. Art added her tribute to the inaugura-<br /> tion of the fétes by an exhibition in the Crystal<br /> Palace of the Park of Madrid of the pictures painted<br /> for the “Don Quixote” competition; and the<br /> Marquesa de Villahermosa celebrated the occasion<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> by presenting the Society of Artists with a mag-<br /> nificent silver trophy. The exhibition of literary<br /> objects of interest relating to Cervantes and his<br /> works was opened by King Alfonzo and Queen<br /> Maria Christina on Saturday, the 6th of May, at the<br /> Biblioteca Nacional. As he grows to manhood,<br /> the young King’s resemblance to the well-known<br /> Velasquez portrait of his ancestor, Philip IV., is<br /> so marked that it almost seems as if he had walked<br /> out of the frame of the picture at the museum in<br /> the Prado.<br /> <br /> When the Wednesday preceding the commence-<br /> ment of the fétes brought no sign of help from<br /> my co-delegate of the Authors’ Society, who lives<br /> in Madrid, it seemed time to commence opera-<br /> tions on my own behalf. So, armed with an<br /> article which had appeared in a Spanish newspaper<br /> of that morning publishing my qualifications, I<br /> repaired to the Ministry of Public Education and<br /> the Fine Arts. There I saw the minister himself,<br /> and through his influence and that of the celebrated<br /> Spanish authoress, Sefiora Pardo Bazan, to whom<br /> the Marquis de Villobabar in London had written<br /> on my behalf, tickets soon arrived for every one of<br /> the fétes ; and as my countryman’s promise of a<br /> ticket for the function at the Royal Academy came<br /> to naught, I was glad to receive three for the same<br /> occasion. On Sunday, May 7th, military bands —<br /> paraded the city from early morning, and in the<br /> afternoon the battle of flowers took place in the<br /> beautiful Boulevard of the Castellana. The bitter<br /> east wind did not prevent crowds of people filling<br /> every available space under the trees, whilst ticket-<br /> holders had seats in the gaily decorated boxes<br /> erected down the centre of the drive which formed<br /> the course. The Royal Pavilion, gracefully fes-<br /> tooned with flowers, was the chief seat of warfare _<br /> during the afternoon, for from thence the King —<br /> launched his floral missiles with unintermittent<br /> energy for an hour and a half; and it was here<br /> that the shouts of langhter were loudest as the<br /> carriages filed by. Scenes from “Don Quixote”<br /> were, of course, the prevailing features of the festive<br /> cars—“ The Watch of the Arms,” “‘ The Marriage<br /> of Camacho,” ‘The Lepanto Prison,” being among<br /> the most successful of the realistic representations ;<br /> and the “Crowning of Cervantes” by a flying<br /> figure of Fate met with loud acclamations of<br /> delight.<br /> <br /> The military torchlight procession commenced<br /> at ten o’clock that night, and to give more force<br /> to the lights borne by the troops the street lamps<br /> were extinguished. he view from the War Office<br /> of the glittering bands of soldiers, passing from the:<br /> Prado into the street of the Alcald, was very<br /> striking ; and the regiments formed a wide, moving<br /> line of light as they marched down the Alcalé om<br /> their way to the Royal Palace. The place of<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> honour in the procession was occupied by a white<br /> effigy of Cervantes, backed with an illuminated<br /> presentment of his book, “Don Quixote,” and<br /> topped with a large lamp of varying hues, which<br /> cast weird shadows on the rich tapestries hung<br /> from the windows of grandees’ houses on the route.<br /> Monday was the day of the state function at the<br /> q Royal Academy, and that of the coronation of the<br /> ne) Cervantes statue by the deputations and delegates<br /> +0 of all the literary and educational societies inte-<br /> = rested in the centenary. It was only then that I<br /> 1 —sciheard my co-delegate had retired from action. For<br /> 1) the moment I shrank from publicly presenting the<br /> wreath which I had that morning purchased as the<br /> tribute of the Authors’ Society. But it seemed a<br /> pity that its glistening laurel wreaths and red, blue<br /> and white streamers, bearing the inscription in<br /> gold letters, “To Cervantes, from the Society of<br /> English Authors,” should be wasted. So when the<br /> ai time came] left my friends in the carriage, which took<br /> up its position as near as possible to the course of the<br /> procession,and tacked myselfon tosome young people.<br /> oo For as the Spaniards. still mostly class women<br /> 7 “with children and idiots,” [ thought I could thus,<br /> without exciting any resentment, meekly make my<br /> way to the statue facing the Houses of Parliament,<br /> decked with the gorgeous canopy of state occasions,<br /> _ and the boxes filled with the Royal Family,<br /> grandees, diplomats, &amp;c., and there I deposited the<br /> tribute of the Society of English Authors. This<br /> coronation of the Cervantes statue function followed<br /> the Royal Academy festival, when the discourse on<br /> “ Don Quixote,” written for the occasion by Juan<br /> Valera, was read aloud, by Sefior Pidal, as the author<br /> died a month ago when he had not quite finished<br /> the task to which he had been deputed by the<br /> learned society. The reading of the posthumous<br /> ‘185 pamphlet was followed by the King signing a<br /> woe decree for the erection of a monument to the<br /> &quot;6 memory of Cervantes.<br /> iT The Cervantes tri-centenary week was the occasion<br /> &#039; 4 of a great gathering from Catalonia, Galicia,<br /> ole” Valencia, &amp;c., of the Orfeones (Societies of Orpheus),<br /> ba and therespective bright-coloured capsof the musical<br /> ia) unions and the sweet strains of their music added<br /> ‘se much to the cheerfulness of the city during the<br /> / fétes. But their great festival in the bull ring of<br /> &#039; Madrid was not a great success. The vast arena,<br /> which reminds one so much of pictures of the<br /> S ncient Amphitheatre of Rome, was lighted for the<br /> &#039; &#039;*« first time with electric lights, which failed to reveal<br /> Jd of the beauty of the decorations, as they did not act<br /> Je. well, and there was such a want of organisation in<br /> _ 90 the proceedings that it was midnight before half of<br /> oc the programme was over. However, the “ Gloriaa<br /> Espafia ” and the “ Gloriad Cervantes ” were worth<br /> earing in their perfect rendering by the well-<br /> odulated voices of the massed choirs under their<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1698<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 257<br /> <br /> respective banners beneath the countless pennons<br /> strung from side to side of the great circus open to<br /> the deep blue sky ; and the King waved his cap in<br /> enthusiastic appreciation of the performance. ‘The<br /> commemorative funeral service to Cervantes was<br /> certainly a triumph in realism. The dim-lighted<br /> church of San Jeronimo was draped with purple,<br /> and the catafalque was surmounted with the<br /> author’s books and surrounded by candles,<br /> Ministers, officers, diplomats and grandees assembled<br /> in full uniform in honour to the obsequies, and the<br /> King came in state to the service. The funeral<br /> oration was preached by the Bishop of San Luis de<br /> Potosi in Mexico, who came over especially for the<br /> occasion.<br /> <br /> The final function of the gala performance at<br /> the Royal Theatre was a splendid exhibition of the<br /> gorgeous uniforms and the jewels and _ toilettes<br /> which grace society in Spain; and the well-<br /> rendered scenes from “ Don Quixote” of “The<br /> Watch of the Arms,” “The Convicts,” and “ The<br /> Knight of the Mirrors” were followed by an<br /> apotheosis to the great author to the music of<br /> Sefores Fernandez, Shaw and Maestro Caballero ;<br /> and the King and all the brilliant assembly were<br /> loud in their applause of this spectacular expres-<br /> sion of “Gloria to Cervantes.”<br /> <br /> Space forbids more than these notes of the “ Don<br /> Quixote” fétes this month, but I hope next time to<br /> give a short account of the glimpse I had into the<br /> literary life of Madrid, and to tell of the kindness<br /> I received from such Spanish celebrities as Silvela,<br /> Moret, Pando y Valle, Blasco Ibafiez, Palacio<br /> Valdés, &amp;c., and I must not conclude without say-<br /> ing that I was much pleased at being presented by<br /> the Minister of Instruction and the Fine Arts with<br /> the official bronze medal of the Cervantes Centenary<br /> with a kind address of appreciation.<br /> <br /> RacHEL CHALLICE.<br /> Or<br /> <br /> AN AUTHOR’S RIGHT TO HIS WORK.<br /> a<br /> <br /> (Statement of the case reprinted from the United States<br /> Publisher&#039;s Weekly.)<br /> <br /> UDGE MoCALL, of the Supreme Court<br /> Special Term, handed down a decision in<br /> the suit brought by Basil Jones against<br /> <br /> the American Law Book Company, to restrain<br /> the defendants from publishing an article entitled<br /> “Army and Navy,” in the second volume of<br /> their “ Cyclopedia of Law and Procedure,” except<br /> under the plaintiff&#039;s name. It appears that<br /> the American Law Book Company of New York<br /> City, in order to attract attention to its cyclopadia,<br /> caused articles written by young law writers to be<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 258<br /> <br /> nominally “edited” by famous judges and jurists,<br /> and then published such articles without giving<br /> credit to the real author, but under the name of<br /> the distinguished gentleman who looked over the<br /> proofs.<br /> <br /> Judge McCall in effect holds that both usage<br /> and inherent right gave an author the right to<br /> have his literary production published under no<br /> name other than his own. The court’s opinion is<br /> as follows: “This is an action on the equity side<br /> of the court in which the relief sought is an injunc-<br /> tion against the defendant, restraining it from<br /> publishing an article entitled ‘Army and Navy,’<br /> found in yol. II. of defendant’s publication entitled<br /> ‘Cyclopedia of Law and Procedure,’ except under<br /> the plaintiffs name. The said article, it is claimed,<br /> was prepared and written by the plaintiff while<br /> under contract with the defendant to do work of<br /> this precise nature, and the grounds upon which<br /> the plaintiff asserts he is entitled to the relief<br /> prayed for are: First. That a custom or usage<br /> in the publication of law encyclopedias was a part<br /> of the contract entered into as between the parties<br /> herein, and as such gave plaintiff a contractual<br /> right to have his article published under his name.<br /> Second. That irrespective of any custom or usage,<br /> the right of an author to the public credit of his<br /> work and to the publication of his name in con-<br /> nection therewith is inherent and resides in him<br /> until waived or surrendered. It may be accepted<br /> that the right to literary property is as sacred as<br /> that of any other species of property, and as has<br /> been forcibly said : ‘The rights of authors in respect<br /> to their unpublished works have been so frequently<br /> and elaborately considered and carefully adjudi-<br /> cated by the courts of this country and England,<br /> and are now so well understood, that in considering<br /> first publications there can be no doubt. The<br /> author of a literary work or composition has by<br /> law a right to the first publication of it. He has<br /> a right to determine whether it shall be published<br /> or not, and if published, when, where, by whom and<br /> in what form.’ These rights were vouchsafed to<br /> authors at common law and statute has in nowise<br /> impaired them. What is true as general proposi-<br /> tions is not at all altered by the fact that the crea-<br /> tion of a man’s genius or mind may have developed<br /> while he was in the general employ of another.<br /> ‘For a man’s intellectual productions are peculiarly<br /> his own, and he will not be deemed to have parted<br /> with his right and transferred it to his employer<br /> unless a valid agreement to that effect is adduced’<br /> (Boucicault v. Fox, 5 Blatchford, U.S., p. 95).<br /> There is nothing in the contract before the court<br /> out of which can be spelled any such waiver, It<br /> is true that he stipulated that whatever he pro-<br /> duced should be submitted to a process of editing,<br /> but it would be a wide stretch of the imagination<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> that would work out of that proposition a sale or<br /> waiver of his rights to ownership to or credit for<br /> the results of his labour. The case is replete with<br /> evidence of a custom developed almost into usage<br /> of the right of this particular class of writers to<br /> have their productions published under their names.<br /> This defendant’s published volumes teem with such<br /> instances, and this particular author, plaintiff<br /> herein, has his first article published under his<br /> name. ‘That he wrote a letter of thanks to the<br /> representative of the publisher for so doing is<br /> rather a proof of his understanding of proprieties,<br /> and it would be absurd to treat it as an expression<br /> of any views that he was treated in any other<br /> manner than he had a perfect right to expect. Some<br /> proof has been offered that this particular article is<br /> not solely the work of the plaintiff. That may or<br /> may not be true, but to protect a person under<br /> such circumstances the law does not require thatit =<br /> should be his exclusive work. The work maybe ©.<br /> the result of the labours of one or many actingin =<br /> co-operation. Whatever may be the case, the right =<br /> is substantially the same and equally entitled to<br /> protection of the court (Z&#039;rench v. Maguire, vol. LY. ei<br /> How Pr., p. 479). Upon all the facts I believe the — pat<br /> plaintiff has made a complete case and is entitled =~ o<br /> to the relief he prays for. Decree and findingst0 ©<br /> be submitted accordingly.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> CoMMENTS.<br /> <br /> The case quoted has been reprinted from the<br /> United States Publisher’s Weekly. It is of com<br /> siderable interest to authors on both sides of th<br /> water; but we regret to say that the evidence<br /> out in the report of the case is meagre and unsatis<br /> factory, first, because the actual terms of the con-<br /> tract have not been printed, and, secondly, because<br /> the evidence adduced in support of the alleged<br /> custom has not been quoted. ‘The report, however<br /> if we understand it correctly, is of a decisio<br /> delivered in a court of first instance, and is pre-<br /> sumably subject to review upon appeal, in whicl<br /> case we may have the opportunity of reading<br /> further discussion of the subject.<br /> <br /> With regard to the custom, Judge McCall m<br /> have had a question of fact only to decide, and<br /> may take it that if there was evidence upon wh<br /> he could reasonably found his decision as to<br /> the court of appeal will not be able to inter<br /> with it. The judges in such a case would exp<br /> their views upon it, and possibly might hint t<br /> their finding would not be the same, but t<br /> would not disturb it. The wording of his judgm<br /> is rather peculiar. The claim of the plaintiff,<br /> he quotes it, is based upon a “ custom or usage<br /> the publication of law cyclopwdias.” If by this<br /> are to understand that law cyclopzdias stand u<br /> a different footing from that of other cyclope<br /> literature in the United States, they must be very<br /> much more numerous there than they are in this<br /> country, or it would hardly be possible to establish<br /> the existence of a custom with regard to the signing<br /> of the articles in them. In England it would be<br /> difficult to assert that a custom existed regulating<br /> the publication of law cyclopedias although customs<br /> relating to cyclopzedias generally or to the publi-<br /> cation of articles with names appended to them<br /> might conceivably be proved.<br /> <br /> Perhaps the most curious “ custom” however, if<br /> it can be called one, which the case shows, consists<br /> in the publisher employing a lawyer, learned pre-<br /> sumably but not famous, to write an article, and<br /> then having it read over and edited by a legal<br /> luminary, famous, but possibly not learned, and<br /> signed by the latter who apparently acquiesces in<br /> the arrangement. Whatever effect American<br /> cyclopedic enterprise may have had in this<br /> country, it has hardly yet, as far as we are aware,<br /> arrived at this point. We can imagine an excellent<br /> article on Marine Insurance, for example, being<br /> written by a young practitioner in the Admiralty<br /> Court, but we can hardly picture the President of<br /> the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division, or<br /> one of the gentlemen who practice within the bar<br /> before him, appending his name to it. Honesty,<br /> 9%, we hope, would not need the fear of exposure and<br /> <br /> ridicule to support it in prompting a refusal.<br /> That an editor publishing an article with a name<br /> attached to it should use the name of the true<br /> author of the work is a custom which has nothing<br /> _ Surprising about it. We could prove such a usage<br /> =) in this country, but it would not be one peculiar to<br /> | law cyclopedias. Judge McCall, by the way, talks<br /> * of “a custom almost developed into usage,” a<br /> distinction of terms which, as far as we are aware,<br /> ‘om @ is not recognised in England either in law courts<br /> 1 © or in ordinary “usage.” —<br /> “s —_-‘ Turning to the portions of the judgment which<br /> | 199 seem to deal more exclusively with the legal aspect<br /> oi) 1 of the case, the absence of information as to the<br /> “09% precise terms in which Mr. Basil Jones contracted<br /> With the American Law Book Company leaves us<br /> ‘ila little perplexed as to what the finding really is.<br /> 200 Does it amount to this, that the author, even if he<br /> #/@ sells his copyright, has the absolute right to have<br /> | his name appended to his article whether the editor<br /> ishes it or not. Apparently Judge McCall so<br /> olds, on the strength of the custom which he<br /> nds to exist, so that if the editor wished to publish<br /> cyclopzedia entirely composed of unsigned articles,<br /> € could not do so without the consent of all their<br /> authors. This goes along way beyond the right<br /> of the author to have no other name but his own<br /> am employed.<br /> i With regard to the use of another name than<br /> hat of the author, should such a case arise in<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 259<br /> <br /> England, we have little doubt that the remedy<br /> could be found. Such a deception would be a<br /> fraud upon the public; it might be a source of<br /> damage to the real author, and it might be a source<br /> of damage to the author whose name was used. It<br /> certainly would give rise to so much scandal that<br /> no publisher could afford to risk the possible<br /> discredit and loss attaching to methods such as<br /> those described, and no self-respecting editor would<br /> condescend to such an artifice in order to attain<br /> the doubtless desirable use of a well-known name<br /> for advertising purposes. The feelings of the well-<br /> known personage, whether lawyer or not, who<br /> discovered that his editing of an article entailed his<br /> being made known to the world as its author<br /> would probably in the first instance be expressed in<br /> private, but in plain terms, to the editor. What<br /> his feelings would be when he learnt that the<br /> transaction was coming into court for review (in<br /> the case of a lawyer) before his brother lawyers<br /> we can hardly imagine, but certainly the publisher<br /> and editor of the cyclopedia would get but scant<br /> support from the scandalised celebrity.<br /> <br /> Many legal writers receive considerable assistance<br /> from friends, generally junior to themselves collabo-<br /> rating withthem. This, however, is quite a different<br /> matter, and in legal text books, as in medical and<br /> other professional works, whatever indebtedness<br /> there may be to others is always frankly and<br /> cordially acknowledged in the preface or otherwise.<br /> In conclusion we would warmly congratulate Mr.<br /> <br /> 3asil Jones upon his success, and recommend the<br /> study of the case to the readers of the American<br /> Law Book Company’s publications.<br /> <br /> i 9<br /> <br /> LITERARY AGENTS,<br /> <br /> —t-——+- —-<br /> <br /> N opinion often expressed, but only in part<br /> true, is that a literary agent is invaluable<br /> to the man who has made his name, but of<br /> <br /> very little use to the beginner. Now, asa beginner<br /> —one of some years standing, yet still a beginner<br /> so far as the English Press is concerned—I am<br /> convinced that a literary agent of the proper sort<br /> would be of immense assistance both to the writer<br /> and to editors. ‘There are many men and women,<br /> whose duties take them to the uttermost parts of<br /> the world, who, if they keep their eyes and ears<br /> open and possess some little skill in the scribbler’s<br /> craft, could furnish matter which editors would be<br /> glad to take. They are, however, prevented from<br /> disposing of their literary wares by their ignorance<br /> of the proper market. :<br /> The writer who lives in England may acquire,<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 260<br /> <br /> by the judicious expendittire of a few pence weekly<br /> at the railway bookstall, a wide and very thorough<br /> knowledge of the style of work required by the<br /> various monthly and weekly periodicals ; but those<br /> whose lives are spent in distant lands may have<br /> never heard of the papers most anxious to get the<br /> very thing which they are able to produce.<br /> <br /> Time and money are other and vital considera-<br /> tions. A man in China or Peru may write an<br /> article on some topic which is of pressing interest<br /> at the moment, but if it has to travel to and fro—<br /> when each journey means a month’s delay—until<br /> it has found its proper goal, the opportunity will<br /> have passed and the article be valueless.<br /> <br /> Now what is required by such a man is an agent<br /> who is an expert in the requirements of the monthly<br /> and weekly Press, and who for a matter of a couple<br /> of shillings, to cover postage, etc., would dispose of<br /> short stories and articles short and long, reserving<br /> to himself the right to return such as he considers<br /> unsaleable (but making no charge beyond actual<br /> expenses for doing so), and making his profit out<br /> of a percentage on all money received by him from<br /> publishers. There may be such agents, but one<br /> does not hear much about them, and the little one<br /> does sometimes hear is not, to their credit. Yet it<br /> appears to me that such a business could be run<br /> honestly and yet profitably.<br /> <br /> Some years ago, at the close of a short visit to<br /> England and before returning to my duties many<br /> thousand miles away, I applied to several literary<br /> agents whose advertisements I had noticed in<br /> various literary papers, for I had a small collection<br /> of articles and stories which I had written in exile,<br /> and I hoped by disposing of them to add materially<br /> to an utterly inadequate income. One firm replied<br /> that they did not undertake small matter of that<br /> description as it was not sufficiently profitable :<br /> another offered to buy outright any they approved<br /> of at one pound a thousand words, which, if my<br /> work was good, meant that they would give one-<br /> half of what it was worth, besides which I should<br /> never be able to discover my real value in the<br /> literary market. A third firm offered to try and<br /> <br /> dispose of my work for a payment in advance of<br /> five pounds for every half-dozen articles or stories,<br /> taking no percentage on receipts. This plan<br /> appeared to me to offer them no inducement to<br /> dispose of my work. Finally I left England<br /> without having effected anything and disposed of<br /> my manuscripts to papers abroad.<br /> <br /> The ideal agent for the beginner would be one<br /> who would make his profit by taking a percentage<br /> on sums received. He would have classified and<br /> tabulated the monthly and weekly — periodicals<br /> somewhat in this manner. The two main classes<br /> would be “illustrated” and “ unillustrated,” and<br /> these would be subdivided into sections according<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> to the class of work they require: topical, personal,.<br /> anecdotal, religious, philosophical, scientific, and:<br /> soon. Further sub-divisions as to style might be<br /> necessary, such as short and crisp, solid, humorous,<br /> literary, etc. The names of the papers would<br /> appear under the class-heads, and a paper might<br /> appear under various classes. The heads of the<br /> firm could decide in a few minutes, by skimming<br /> through the article, which class or classes it would<br /> suit, and they would mark it accordingly, say,<br /> ‘1 B. 3,” which might mean “ Not illustrated—<br /> personal—humorous.”” A clerk could then send it<br /> the round of the papers classed under that head.<br /> A quick reader could class from fifty to sixty<br /> manuscripts a day averaging two thousand words.<br /> and worth anything from fifty to a hundred and<br /> fifty pounds.<br /> <br /> Such an agency would supply “a_ long-felt<br /> want,” and if some firm of undoubted integrity<br /> were to take up such business there can be little-<br /> doubt that they would find it immensely profitable:<br /> once they became known.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “sige range RE<br /> <br /> Henry FRANCIS.<br /> <br /> a<br /> <br /> AUTHORS AND INCOME TAX.<br /> <br /> += ——<br /> <br /> N one of the past issues of Zhe Author there =<br /> appeared an article under the above heading, —_ 1!<br /> containing a case put before counsel for his =<br /> <br /> opinion by the Committee of Management of the =<br /> Society (summarised in the five questions with, —<br /> which it concluded) and counsel’s opinion on the<br /> case, with a reference to the Act under which income<br /> tax is levied, and his answers to those questions. —<br /> <br /> It is not here the intention to dispute the<br /> correctness of counsel’s opinion, but, assuming that,.<br /> to show the absurdity and insufficiency of the law<br /> in so far as it relates to the levying of income tax.<br /> on payments made for literary work, to show what<br /> should be the underlying principle which would<br /> place the question whether any such. payment<br /> should be regarded as capital or income beyond all.<br /> doubt, and finally, to suggest that there be intro-<br /> duced into any new Copyright Act a definition 0<br /> what constitutes capital and what income<br /> payments made for literary. work.<br /> <br /> ‘According to counsel, all payments, whether fo<br /> copyright or “minor” rights, are to be treated 1<br /> exactly the same way; they are all to be lumped<br /> together as income from which the expens<br /> incurred for the earning thereof are to be deducted<br /> in calculating the amount.on which income tax 1<br /> payable. Under “minor” rights. are specifie<br /> serial rights, rights of translation, right. of drama:<br /> tisation, There is “etc.” added, but it is difficult<br /> to conceive what. rights.are.included thereunder. —<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Taking this as correct, then, the Government<br /> regards all payments for literary work, whether for<br /> copyright, serial rights, rights of translation or<br /> right of dramatisation in one light ; it is all income:<br /> thence it follows that, from the Government point<br /> of view, there is no such thing as capital in pay-<br /> ment for literary work.<br /> <br /> Now, no one, I think, will dispute that the value<br /> of a land freehold is capital. A freehold is a<br /> property from which income can be derived from<br /> leasing or hiring it out, from letting someone else<br /> have the use of it to enjoy or to derive a profit<br /> from. Now a literary work, a musical work, a<br /> sculpture, a picture, an invention, or any other<br /> work of the imagination ig really an intellectual<br /> d freehold; and that it is this is acknowledged by the<br /> <br /> } copyright or patent granted for it as a matter of<br /> justice. Every such work is a portion of the<br /> domain of the intellect reclaimed for mankind,<br /> and, as such, the universal freehold of the person<br /> acquiring it (rightly of limited duration). That<br /> being the case, it follows that payments for the<br /> copyright of literary works are really payments<br /> made for the purchase of freeholds, of properties<br /> from which profit is expected to be derived from<br /> if letting others have the enjoyment of their contents;<br /> ij thus, then, the value of an intellectual freehold, a<br /> © _ Copyright, is capital as much as is the value of<br /> .@ a land freehold.<br /> <br /> A literary work being an intellectual product,<br /> and not immoveable like land, is the author’s<br /> freehold for the whole surface of the earth ; his<br /> one creation is capable of being dressed in the<br /> garb of every nation into which the inhabitants of<br /> the earth divide themselves ; but it is still one<br /> and the same production, in whatever national<br /> garb, #.¢., language, it may be clothed. Therefore,<br /> then, an author has, in justice, as many copyrights<br /> as there are nationalities. From this it follows<br /> that when he sells a right of translation into any<br /> language he sells the freehold in one of the other<br /> countries than the native one; he sells a copyright<br /> which exists because mankind is divided into<br /> different nationalities ; and, as he sells a copyright<br /> <br /> + when selling a right of translation, any payment<br /> 1) for a right of translation is also capital.<br /> <br /> A literary production, besides being capable of<br /> changing its dress, is also capable of altering its<br /> 6) form without altering its essence; it may be<br /> “ist transformed from some other form into a drama,<br /> o &amp; or froma drama into some other form. In whatever<br /> <br /> ‘ig form the work may originally exist, the right of<br /> “oe% transforming his own production is as much the<br /> ilat right of the originator of the work as is that to it<br /> © in its original form ; and, when a literary work is<br /> transformed, it is not the original work that is<br /> »iialtered on the original site, as would be the case if<br /> “7 e8the work were standing on the earth, but the old<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> 261<br /> <br /> form is left existing and the new one created<br /> without interfering with it. A new portion of<br /> Intellectual domain is reclaimed—a new copyright<br /> is created. The right of dramatisation, or vice versa,<br /> is thus the right to a freehold or copyright, a right<br /> from which a profit can be made in an entirely<br /> different way from the original form of the<br /> work. The right of dramatisation is, in justice,<br /> as extensive as the copyright of the work in its<br /> original form; it is universal, and carries with it<br /> the right of translating the drama into every<br /> language. When, therefore, a writer sells the<br /> right of dramatisation he sells the right to create<br /> a copyright in a new form of hig work, and, that<br /> being so, what is paid for the right of dramatisa-<br /> tion is also capital.<br /> <br /> When a writer sells serial rights, whether for one<br /> country, one language, or more, he sells the right<br /> to use his property in a specific manner or for a.<br /> specific period. When that purpose has been<br /> carried out, or when that time has elapsed, he has<br /> made a profit from having thus sold a limited use<br /> of his property, but the freehold or copyright is<br /> still his to sell. Having, thus, still in his own<br /> possession the copyright, by utilising which only<br /> can a profit be made, what he receives for the use<br /> of his copyright in the form of serial rights in one<br /> or more languages or countries is income and not<br /> capital.<br /> <br /> Tncome tax is a tax upon one’s income, As it is<br /> levied yearly, the inference is that it is a tax upon<br /> the income obtained during the year for which it<br /> is levied. But whether it is go or not, that is what<br /> it should be, as it is called income tax and is levied<br /> yearly ; and, therefore, the income obtained during<br /> any one year should not be taken into consideration<br /> in any other year when the assessment for income<br /> tax is being made, because one’s income may in-<br /> crease or decrease, and an annual income tax can<br /> take notice only of the income of the year for which<br /> it is levied. The object of an income tax is to be a<br /> tax proportional to one’s income, to take cognisance<br /> of any increase or decrease therein, so that it may<br /> remain proportional, and, therefore, to calculate<br /> an annual income tax on a three-year or any other<br /> than an annual basis, is not only to depart from<br /> the very purpose for which an income taxis levied,<br /> but also to make the term a misnomer and what is<br /> done under it an act of injustice.<br /> <br /> In accordance with what is stated above, the<br /> questions propounded to counsel should, then, be<br /> answered as follows :— :<br /> <br /> (1) The sum received by an author in respect of<br /> a work of which he retains the copyright should,<br /> in all cases, be considered as income.<br /> <br /> (2) The sum received on the sale of a copyright<br /> is always to be considered as capital. “A lump<br /> payment for such minor [?] rights as serial use,<br /> 262<br /> <br /> right of translation, dramatisation ”” is income to<br /> the extent of that portion of it which is paid for<br /> serial rights, whether for one country or the whole<br /> world ; the balance, being that portion paid for the<br /> right of translation and or of dramatisation, is<br /> capital, whether the former includes the right of<br /> translation into one language or into more ; the<br /> right of dramatisation carries with it the right<br /> of translating the drama throughout the world.<br /> <br /> (3) It can make no difference in an author’s<br /> liability to pay income tax in what manner payment<br /> is received for the copyright, a right of translation,<br /> or the right of dramatisation, whether “ (a) by a<br /> lump sum in full discharge ; (6) by a share of the<br /> profits ; (c) by a royalty ; (d) by a sum in advance<br /> of royalty”; because payment for all these rights is<br /> capital. With regard to payment “(e) by a lump<br /> sum on sale of serial use to a magazine, periodical,<br /> or paper,” it must be divided, as stated above,<br /> into payment for serial use, which is income, and<br /> payment for any other right or rights, which is<br /> capital, income tax being leviable only on the former.<br /> <br /> (4) An author has (in justice) the right to<br /> make deductions for expenses incurred in his<br /> literary work “ (a) directly, as railway journeys,<br /> purchase of books, purchase of photographs,<br /> stationery, typewriting, etc.; (4) indirectly, for<br /> rental of portion of his house as office.”<br /> <br /> (5) The amount received in any one year by an<br /> author for his literary work has no right to be<br /> calculated on a three-year basis when the assess-<br /> ment for income tax is being made. The income<br /> tax, being levied yearly, is a tax upon the income<br /> obtained during each one year, and, therefore, each<br /> year’s income is quite independent, the object of<br /> an income tax being the levying of a tax propor-<br /> tional to the income.<br /> <br /> Husert Hazs.<br /> <br /> —_—_———_-—&gt;——__—_<br /> <br /> A NEW MARKET FOR ENGLISH BOOKS<br /> AND PUBLICATIONS.<br /> <br /> ee oot ee<br /> <br /> HE introduction of a postal order service<br /> <br /> between Russia and England opens a new<br /> <br /> and a great market for the output of English<br /> literature.<br /> <br /> Till last October it was impossible to send small<br /> amounts of money from Russia to England; thus<br /> the Tsar’s subjects were obliged to buy books from<br /> local booksellers only. ‘There was scant attention<br /> paid to the wants of customers, and the vendor<br /> had no catalogues of English publications ; the only<br /> catalogues obtainable were published by German<br /> booksellers, such as Messrs. Brockhaus &amp; Co., of<br /> London and Leipzig.<br /> <br /> Notwithstanding the slight difference in value<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> between a shilling and a German mark—the mark<br /> being counted at 50 kopecks (real value 46), and<br /> the shilling at 60 kopecks (real value 47)—the six-<br /> shilling book was usually sold at 7s. 114d., and it<br /> was necessary for the customer to wait a month to<br /> obtain his book or to pay an additional 2s. for<br /> postage. As for cheap editions, their existence was<br /> unknown to the general public on this account.<br /> English books being difficult and costly to buy,<br /> the Tauchnitz edition of English authors was<br /> generally sought for, unless the purchasers could<br /> afford to pay the higher price. For this reason”<br /> the sale was small. The introduction of the<br /> postal order system between Russia and the<br /> United States has brought American literature on<br /> the market, and such publications as Success,<br /> Frank Leslie’s Monthly, Harper&#039;s Weekly, Every-<br /> body’s, and scores of other magazines may be<br /> found everywhere, subscribed for directly by<br /> the public through various American agencies.<br /> But still much time is lost in transit, and all<br /> advertisers are not honest. Some people have<br /> given orders to unprincipled -traders, or there has<br /> been a difficulty where the Post Office has altered<br /> the name in the Postal Order Exchange Office, and<br /> after payment was made no books or magazines<br /> were sent to the purchaser. ‘This naturally<br /> deterred many from giving orders.<br /> <br /> The Polish and Russian booksellers publish<br /> regularly a list of various English magazines,<br /> <br /> which, notwithstanding the fact that it is issued<br /> <br /> from rival houses, is practically the same list. :<br /> The selection seems to have been compiled by<br /> Messrs. George Routledge or their “ Literary Year-<br /> <br /> Book” editor, and how fanciful is the arrangement |<br /> <br /> of prices the following extract will show :—<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Annual Subscription,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Roubles. £<br /> 6d. Weeklies—<br /> Black and White... ee Oe 2<br /> Country Life on ut 2e 2<br /> Graphic eee oe a. | 20 2<br /> Queen... en os ve) 2<br /> 1d, Weeklies—<br /> Golden Penny 6°50 0<br /> Tit-bits As ee 6°20 O41<br /> Penny Illustrated ... eee 5:50 0<br /> Good Wordsand Leisure Hour 6:0 0<br /> <br /> 6d. Magazines—<br /> <br /> Cassell’s Family | 10°50 1<br /> <br /> Family Herald Bee ae 90 0<br /> <br /> Pearson’s Mag. ne 6°40 0<br /> <br /> Windsor Mag. ve ee 50 0<br /> 1s, Magazines—<br /> <br /> Cornhill a a 9°75 1<br /> <br /> Macmillan ... ae oe 9-0 0<br /> 2s. 6d. Reviews and Mags.—<br /> <br /> Blackwood ... &lt;e aed pee 2<br /> <br /> Fortnightly ... tae ot ee 2<br /> <br /> Nineteenth Century eal 48 2<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> It is only natural that most people will prefer to<br /> pay to Grumiau, Hanson, or any other American<br /> agency, 15s. for Country Life than to a Warsaw or<br /> St. Petersburg bookseller £2 12s. 1d., or for<br /> Pearson’s Magazine 7s. 6d. instead of 19s. 64d. ;<br /> and to have the right to buy the best American<br /> dollar-and-a-half book post free for 2s. 6/., rather<br /> than to give a local bookseller for the same book<br /> 8s. to 10s.<br /> <br /> There are few people in Poland or Russia who<br /> can speak English, bus many can read English and<br /> understand what they read, and they will seize<br /> very gladly an opportunity of buying English<br /> books and publications at a reasonable price if<br /> they can be sure of receiving them quickly and in<br /> proper order,<br /> <br /> At present publications and books are ordered<br /> from London in the following manner :—The<br /> Polish or Russian bookseller sends the order to his<br /> agent in Leipzig ; he, through Messrs. Brockhaus<br /> or any other German house, sends it to London,<br /> whence, once a week, the parcel is sent to Leipzig ;<br /> but previous to this all the advertisements are<br /> torn out by the Germans to save the weight.<br /> From Leipzig the agent sends the publications to<br /> the bookseller, who receives them at the censor’s<br /> office and then posts them to the customer, who<br /> thus receives a copy which has already been spoiled<br /> by German hands. Should he protest against<br /> this destruction of his property, he is told that it<br /> was torn at the censor’s office, but this is untrue.<br /> Most of the magazines which the censor knows do<br /> not contain articles on Russia or of a socialistic or<br /> immoral description he will pass without look-<br /> ing at. Some years ago a novel by Mr. Max<br /> Pemberton, I think in the Pearson or some such<br /> magazine, treating of Nihilists, passed the censor’s<br /> office, as he did not suspect the magazine would<br /> publish a tale dealing with such matters.<br /> <br /> Of course, The Clarion, Free Russia, J ustice, can<br /> under no circumstances pass the censor’s office,<br /> and various reviews may often be cut in half by<br /> his scissors. Books of the type of “The Woman<br /> who Did ” have not always passed under his favour-<br /> able criticism, but there are thousands of books<br /> with which the censor would not interfere.<br /> <br /> Now, then, is the opportunity for the introduc-<br /> tion of English literature. The literature of France<br /> has an enormous sale, not only in book-form, but<br /> also as periodicals. It is mostly directly sub-<br /> scribed for by customers from Paris, notwithstand-<br /> ing the fact that the French books and publications<br /> are everywhere on sale, and the price is reasonable,<br /> owing tothe competition of a few French booksellers<br /> who in Warsaw, St. Petersburg, and other towns,<br /> opened shops, and have cut down the price of books.<br /> <br /> It only remains to state what kind of books are<br /> likely to command a sale.<br /> <br /> 263<br /> <br /> First, owing to the large number of English<br /> governesses who live not only in Warsaw, but<br /> everywhere in the provinces, all kinds of children’s<br /> books and publications for the young people of<br /> both sexes will meet with a ready sale ; secondly,<br /> novels and magazines, especially cheap novels ;<br /> then illustrated high-class papers. There is no<br /> restaurant or café where you will not find Black<br /> and White, the Graphic, or the Illustrated London<br /> News, which, with the Cornhill Magazine and Family<br /> Herald, are now universally popular. These five<br /> publications most probably have a larger sale in<br /> Russia than all other publications put together,<br /> even including the Review of Reviews.<br /> <br /> It would be difficult to start an English book-<br /> seller’s shop in St. Petersburg or Warsaw, but if a<br /> reliable English bookseller would take the trouble to<br /> publish a catalogue of well-selected publications and<br /> a catalogue of cheap English half-crown and six-<br /> penny books, even including in the catalogue<br /> scientific or literary books at an expensive figure,<br /> and would advertise the list in a few Russian and<br /> Polish papers, as Novy Mir, Kraj, Petersburgskye<br /> Vedomosty, in St. Petersburg, and Kurjer Warszaw-<br /> ski, Slowo, Gazeta Polska, Tygodnik Llustrowany,<br /> in Warsaw, in a few weeks he would see a splendid<br /> result from his advertisement. Customers would<br /> come in large numbers, and notwithstanding that<br /> the local booksellers would expect to improve their<br /> own trade, he would make a profitable and ever-<br /> increasing business.<br /> <br /> Many French publishers spend a good deal of<br /> money in advertisements in Russia every December,<br /> and certainly they reap great profits thereby. Now<br /> it is a question whether the English booksellers<br /> will seize the opportunity or will leave it to the<br /> Americans. Before the introduction of the postal<br /> order system there was no practical use in<br /> advertising, but now the whole position is<br /> altered.<br /> <br /> If English publishers were only to send their<br /> catalogues regularly to the principal newspapers<br /> and booksellers, or even their publications on<br /> commission or approval, as the Germans do to<br /> booksellers of standing and repute like Gebethner<br /> and Wolf, Wende &amp; Co., J. Fisher, M. Borkowski,<br /> and I. Hoesick, in Warsaw, or N. Kimmel in<br /> Riga, and M. O. Wolf, Ltd., in St. Petersburg, it<br /> would help to a certain extent to push forward the<br /> sale of books and publications ; but advertisements<br /> in local papers are more likely to serve the<br /> purpose, even though the booksellers, a very<br /> conservative class, seeing business escaping from<br /> their hands, would also try to push their sales for-<br /> ward. Austrian or German Poland has no market<br /> for French or English books. Few people know<br /> English or French, and English governesses are<br /> scarce. The introduction of cheap English books<br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> 264<br /> <br /> on the market would prevent their being adapted,<br /> translated into Polish or Russian, and pirated, as<br /> is now so often the case.<br /> <br /> “ ALMAR.”<br /> <br /> ——_—_—__+—&gt;—_+-—___—__<br /> <br /> FOREIGN PRESS-CUTTING AGENCIES.<br /> <br /> — +<br /> <br /> USTRIA-HUNGARY. Vienna, Observer,<br /> Concordiaplaz.<br /> Bupaprst.—Fygielo, 8, Nyar Ut.<br /> <br /> BreLGrum.—Bruxelles, European Press, 3, Place<br /> Royale.<br /> <br /> DENMARK.—Copenhagen, On Dit, Hobrogade, 13.<br /> <br /> Francr.—Paris, Le Courrier de la Presse, 21,<br /> Boulevard, Montmartre.<br /> <br /> GrerMANy.—Berlin, Berliner Litterarische<br /> Bureau, 127, Wilhelmstrasse, 8.W., 48.<br /> <br /> Hoiuanp.—Amsterdam, Handels<br /> Bureau Marcurius, Steenmeyer et Cie.<br /> <br /> Iraty.—Milano, Eco della Stampa.<br /> <br /> Mex1co.— Mexico, Camacho David, 8, Apartado<br /> postal, 37.<br /> <br /> Norway.—Christiania, Norske Argus, 21, Pruss-<br /> engade.<br /> <br /> Russta.—St. Petersburg, Université Populaire,<br /> 17, Nadezhdinskaja.<br /> <br /> Sparn.—Madrid, Prensa de Madrid, 28, Calle de<br /> Serrano.<br /> <br /> Swepen.—Stockholm, Argus, Mille. A. L.<br /> Andreson Observator, 5, Hamngaten.<br /> <br /> SwITzERLAND.—Geneva, Agence de coupures de<br /> journeaux, case Stand 57, and Argus Suisse de la<br /> Presse, Rue de Mont Blanc.<br /> <br /> Unrrep States.—New York, American Press<br /> Information Bureau, World Building, 61, Park Row.<br /> <br /> Informatie<br /> <br /> ———__+—_+____—_-<br /> <br /> MAGAZINE CONTENTS.<br /> <br /> + —<br /> <br /> BOOKMAN.<br /> <br /> Frederick von Schiller. By Elizabeth Lee.<br /> More Wampum. By Y. Y.<br /> <br /> Book MONTHLY.<br /> <br /> “To Be Continued,” or The Gentle Art and Craft of<br /> Writing Serial Stories. By Ernest Treeton.<br /> <br /> CHAMBERS’ JOURNAL.<br /> <br /> Social Pioneers of Science. By T. H. 8. Escott.<br /> A Journey with Sir Walter Scott in 1815. By A. Francis<br /> Steuart.<br /> CONTEMPORARY REVIEW.<br /> <br /> Hans Christian Andersen. By George Brandes.<br /> Has the Clock Stopped in Bible Criticism. By the Rev.<br /> Canon Cheyne.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> The New Trend of Russian Thought. By the Count<br /> S. C. de Soissons. .<br /> <br /> Church Reform in Russia: Witte versus Pabedonosteff.<br /> By Laicus.<br /> <br /> The Scientists and Common Sense. By Professor E,<br /> Armitage.<br /> <br /> The Interpretation of Nature. By Professor C. Lloyd<br /> Morgan.<br /> <br /> FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW.<br /> <br /> The Real Chrysanthemum. By Ethel M. M. McKenna,<br /> <br /> The Calling of the Actor. By H. B. Irving.<br /> <br /> A Valuation of Mr. Stephen Phillips.<br /> Wodehouse.<br /> <br /> Journalism New and Old. By Edward Dicey, C.B.<br /> <br /> By E. A,<br /> <br /> Dramatic Thoughts —Retrospective—Anticipative. By<br /> <br /> Sir Squire Bancroft.<br /> <br /> A Causerie on Current Continental Literature. By<br /> S. W.<br /> <br /> The Irish University Question. By Stephen Gwynn.<br /> <br /> INDEPENDENT REVIEW.<br /> <br /> The So-called Science of Sociology. By H. G. Wells.<br /> <br /> The State and Secondary Education. By T. J. Mac-<br /> namara.<br /> <br /> “ Mere Technique”: An Answer by Simon Bussy.<br /> <br /> The Optimism of Browning and Meredith. By A. C,<br /> Pigou.<br /> <br /> Mr. Henry James and His Public. By Desmond<br /> MacCarthy.<br /> <br /> LONGMAN’S MAGAZINE.<br /> <br /> Sydney Smith. By the Rev. Canon Vaughan,<br /> The Demeter of Cnidos. By St. John Lucas.<br /> <br /> MACMILLAN’S MAGAZINE,<br /> <br /> Western Influence on Japanese Character,<br /> Moyna.<br /> <br /> The Quest of the Dactyl.<br /> <br /> The Fellow Workers of Voltaire : I1I.—Galiani. By<br /> 8, J. Tallentyre.<br /> <br /> By E. G. T.<br /> <br /> MONTHLY REVIEW.<br /> <br /> Music as a Factor in Everyday Life.<br /> Somervell.<br /> Walter Savage Landor. By Walter Sichell<br /> <br /> NINETEENTH CENTURY.<br /> <br /> The After Dinner Oratory of America.<br /> Crilly.<br /> <br /> What is the Raison D’Etre of Pictures. By H. Heath-<br /> cote Statham.<br /> <br /> Some Noticeable Books. By Walter Frewen Lord.<br /> <br /> Church and State in France. By Comte de Castellane.<br /> <br /> By Daniel<br /> <br /> PALL MALL MAGAZINE<br /> <br /> Real Conversations Recorded. By William Archer!<br /> J. Churton Collins.<br /> <br /> TEMPLE BAR.<br /> <br /> Nine Letters from Edward Fitzgerald to Mrs. Kemble.<br /> A God-Daughter of Warren Hastings.<br /> <br /> Grier.<br /> UNIVERSITY REVIEW.<br /> <br /> The University Movement: Introductory Note.<br /> Right Hon. James Bryce. |<br /> Shakespeare and Stoicism. By Professor Sonneschien.<br /> <br /> There are no articles dealing with literary, dramatic oF<br /> <br /> musical subjects in the Cornhill Magazine or The World&#039;s<br /> Work.<br /> <br /> By the<br /> <br /> &lt;&lt;<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> By Arthur<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> By Sydney G. —<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO THE PRODUCERS<br /> OF BOOKS.<br /> <br /> oe<br /> <br /> ERE are a few standing rules to be observed in an<br /> agreement. There are four methods of dealing<br /> with literary property :—<br /> <br /> I. Selling it Outright.<br /> <br /> This is sometimes satisfactory, if a proper price can be<br /> obtained. But the transaction should be managed by a<br /> competent agent, or with the advice of the Secretary of<br /> the Society.<br /> <br /> II. A Profit-Sharing Agreement (a bad form of<br /> agreement).<br /> <br /> In this case the following rules should be attended to:<br /> <br /> (1.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro-<br /> duction forms a part without the strictest investigation.<br /> <br /> (2.) Not to give the publisher the power of putting the<br /> profits into his own pocket by charging for advertisements<br /> in his own organs, or by charging exchange advertise-<br /> ments. Therefore keep control of the advertisements.<br /> <br /> (3.) Not to allow a special charge for ‘office expenses,”<br /> unless the same allowance is made to the author,<br /> <br /> (4.) Not to give up American, Colonial, or Continental<br /> rights.<br /> <br /> (5.) Not to give up serial or translation rights.<br /> <br /> (6.) Not to bind yourself for future work to any publisher.<br /> As well bind yourself for the future to any one solicitor or<br /> doctor !<br /> <br /> III. The Royalty System.<br /> <br /> This is perhaps, with certain limitations, the best form<br /> of agreement. It is above all things necessary to know<br /> what the proposed royalty means to both sides. It is now<br /> possible for an author to ascertain approximately the<br /> truth. From time to time very important figures connected<br /> with royalties are published in Zhe Author.<br /> <br /> IY. A Commission Agreement.<br /> <br /> The main points are :—<br /> <br /> (1.) Be careful to obtain a fair cost of production.<br /> (2.) Keep control of the advertisements.<br /> <br /> (3.) Keep control of the sale price of the book.<br /> <br /> General.<br /> <br /> All other forms of agreement are combinations of the four<br /> above mentioned.<br /> <br /> Such combinations are generally disastrous to the author,<br /> <br /> Never sign any agreement without competent advice from<br /> the Secretary of the Society.<br /> <br /> Stamp all agreements with the Inland Revenue stamp.<br /> <br /> Avoid agreements by letter if possible.<br /> <br /> The main points which the Society has always demanded<br /> from the outset are :—<br /> <br /> C1.) That both sides shall know what an agreement<br /> means.<br /> <br /> (2.) The inspection of those account books which belong<br /> to the author. We are advised that this.is a right, in the<br /> nature of a common law right, which cannot be denied or<br /> withheld.<br /> <br /> (3.) Always avoid a transfer of copyright.<br /> <br /> —___+—_+—&lt;&gt;—e —___—_<br /> WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS.<br /> <br /> ge<br /> N | EVER sign an agreement without submitting it to the<br /> Secretary of the Society of Authors or some com-<br /> petent legal authority.<br /> 2. {t is well to be extremely careful in negotiating for<br /> the production of a play with anyone except an established<br /> manager.<br /> <br /> 265<br /> <br /> ; 3. There are three forms of dramatic contr:<br /> in three or more acts :—<br /> <br /> (a.) Sale outright of the performing right. This<br /> IS unsatisfactory. An author who enters into<br /> such a contract should stipulate in the contract<br /> for production of the piece by a certain date<br /> and for proper publication of his name on the<br /> play-bills.<br /> <br /> ().) Sale of performing right or of a licence to<br /> perform on the basis of percentages on<br /> gross receipts. Percentages vary between 5<br /> and 15 per cent. An author should obtain a<br /> percentage on the sliding scale of gross receipts<br /> in preference to the American system. Should<br /> obtain a sum in advance of percentages. A fixed<br /> date on or before which the play should be<br /> performed.<br /> <br /> (¢.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to<br /> perform on the basis of royalties (i.c., fixed<br /> nightly fees). This method should be always<br /> avoided except in cases where the fees are<br /> ae? to be small or difficult to collect. The<br /> other safeguards set out under heading (8.) ¢<br /> also in this case. aide<br /> <br /> 4. Plays in one act are often sold outright, but it is<br /> better to obtain a small nightly fee if possible, and a sum<br /> paid in advance of such fees in any event. It is extremely<br /> important that the amateur rights of one-act plays should<br /> be reserved.<br /> <br /> 5. Authors should remember that performing rights’ can<br /> be limited, and are usually limited, by town, country, and<br /> time. This is most important.<br /> <br /> 6. Authors should not assign performing rights, but<br /> should grant a licence to perform. The legal distinction is<br /> of great importance.<br /> <br /> 7, Authors should remember that performing rights in a<br /> play are distinct from literary copyright. A manager<br /> holding the performing right or licence to perform cannot<br /> print the book of the words.<br /> <br /> 8. Never forget that United States rights may be exceed-<br /> ingly valuable. ‘’hey should never be included in English<br /> agreements without the author obtaining a substantial<br /> consideration.<br /> <br /> 9. Agreements for collaboration should be carefully<br /> drawn and executed before collaboration is commenced.<br /> <br /> 10, An author should remember that production of a play<br /> is highly speculative : that he runs a very great risk of<br /> delay and a breakdown in the fulfilment of his contract.<br /> He should therefore guard himself all the more carefully in<br /> the beginning.<br /> <br /> 11, An author must remember that the dramatic market<br /> is exceedingly limited, and that for a novice the first object<br /> is to obtain adequate publication.<br /> <br /> As these warnings must necessarily be incomplete, on<br /> account of the wide range of the subject of dramatic con-<br /> tracts, those authors desirous of further information<br /> are referred to the Secretary of the Society.<br /> <br /> act for plays<br /> <br /> ——____ +<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.<br /> eps<br /> <br /> ITYLE can be added to the warnings given for the<br /> assistance of producers of books and dramatic<br /> authors. It must, however, be pointed out that, as<br /> <br /> a rule, the musical publisher demands from the musical<br /> composer a transfer of fuller rights and less liberal finan-<br /> cial terms than those obtained for literary and dramatic<br /> property. The musical composer has very often the two<br /> rights to deal with—performing right and copyright. He<br />  <br /> <br /> 266<br /> <br /> should be especially careful therefore when entering into<br /> an agreement, and should take into particular consideration<br /> the warnings stated above.<br /> <br /> o&gt; —<br /> <br /> HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> —_e<br /> <br /> I. VERY member has a right toask for and to receive<br /> advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-<br /> lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his<br /> <br /> business or the administration of his property. The<br /> <br /> Secretary of the Society is a solicitor, but if there is any<br /> <br /> special reason the Secretary will refer the case to the<br /> <br /> Solicitors of the Society. Further, the Committee, if they<br /> <br /> deem it desirable, will obtain counsel’s opinion. All this<br /> <br /> without any cost to the member.<br /> <br /> 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright<br /> and publishers’ agreements do not fall within the experi-<br /> ence of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use<br /> the Society.<br /> <br /> 3. Send to the Office copies of past agreements and past<br /> accounts, with a copy of the book represented. The<br /> Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new<br /> or old, for inspection and note. The information thus<br /> obtained may prove invaluable.<br /> <br /> 4. Before signing any agreement whatever, send<br /> the document to the Society for examination.<br /> <br /> 5. Remember always that in belonging to the Society<br /> you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you<br /> are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are<br /> advancing the best interests of your calling in promoting<br /> the independence of the writer, the dramatist, the composer.<br /> <br /> 6. The Committee have now arranged for the reception<br /> of members’ agreements and their preservation in a fire-<br /> proof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as<br /> confidential documents to be read only by the Secretary,<br /> who will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers :<br /> —(1) To read and advise upon agreements and to give<br /> advice concerning publishers. (2) To stamp agreements<br /> in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep<br /> agreements. (4) T&#039;o enforce payments due according to<br /> agreements. Fuller particulars of the Society’s work<br /> can be obtained in the Prospectus.<br /> <br /> 7. No contract should be entered into with a literary<br /> agent without the advice of the Secretary of the Society.<br /> Members are strongly advised not to accept without careful<br /> consideration the contracts with publishers submitted to<br /> them by literary agents, and are recommended to submit<br /> them for interpretation and explanation to the Secretary<br /> of the Society.<br /> <br /> This<br /> The<br /> <br /> 8. Many agents neglect to stamp agreements.<br /> must be done within fourteen days of first execution.<br /> Secretary will undertake it on behalf of members.<br /> <br /> 9. Some agents endeavour to prevent authors from<br /> referring matters to the Secretary of the Society; so<br /> do some publishers. Members can make their own<br /> deductions and act accordingly.<br /> <br /> 10. The subscription to the Society is £1 1s. per<br /> annum, or £10 10s for life membership.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.<br /> <br /> &gt;<br /> <br /> HE Society undertakes to stamp copies of music on<br /> behalf of its members for the fee of 6d. per 100 or<br /> part of 100. The members’ stamps are kept in the<br /> <br /> Society’s safe. The musical publishers communicate direct<br /> with the Secretary, and the voucher is then forwarded to<br /> the members, who are thus saved much unnecessary trouble.<br /> <br /> o—~D&gt;<br /> <br /> THE READING BRANCH.<br /> <br /> —e<br /> <br /> EMBERS will greatly assist the Society in this<br /> branch of its work by informing young writers<br /> of its existence. Their MSS. can be read and<br /> <br /> treated as a composition is treated by a coach, ‘he term<br /> MSS. includes not only works of fiction, but poetry<br /> and dramatic works, and when it is possible, under<br /> special arrangement, technical and scientific works. The<br /> Readers are writers of competence and experience. The<br /> fee is one guinea.<br /> <br /> &lt;&gt;<br /> <br /> NOTICES.<br /> <br /> ge<br /> <br /> HE Editor of Zhe Author begs to remind members of<br /> <br /> the Society that, although the paper is sent to them<br /> <br /> free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a<br /> <br /> very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great<br /> <br /> many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest<br /> 5s. 6d. subscription for the year.<br /> <br /> Communications for “The Author” should be addressed<br /> to the Offices of the Society, 39, Old Queen Street, Storey’s<br /> Gate, S.W., and should reach the Editor not later than the<br /> 21st of each month.<br /> <br /> All persons engaged in literary work of any kind,<br /> whether members of the Society or not, are invited to<br /> communicate to the Editor any points connected with their<br /> work which it would be advisable in the general interest to<br /> publish.<br /> <br /> Communications and letters are invited by the<br /> Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on<br /> no other subjects whatever. Every effort will be made to<br /> return articles which cannot be accepted.<br /> <br /> &gt;<br /> <br /> The Secretary of the Society begs to give notice<br /> that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post,<br /> and he requests members who do not receive an<br /> answer to important communications within two days to<br /> write to him without delay. All remittances should be<br /> crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery Lane, or be sent<br /> by registered letter only.<br /> <br /> OO<br /> <br /> LEGAL AND GENERAL LIFE ASSURANCE<br /> SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> a<br /> <br /> ENSIONS to commence at any selected age,<br /> either with or without Life Assurance, can —<br /> be obtained from this society. :<br /> <br /> Full particulars can be obtained from the City<br /> Branch Manager, Legal and General Life Assurance _<br /> Society, 158, Leadenhall Street, London, E.C,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> AUTHORITIES.<br /> <br /> —— 4<br /> HE Manchester Guardian has paid the society<br /> the compliment of writing a leader upon it<br /> on the occasion of its twenty-first birthday.<br /> The article is not merely laudatory, but shows<br /> an accurate grasp of the work that the society<br /> undertakes. It says:<br /> <br /> “The Society of Authors is more akin to a Trade Union.<br /> It aims at dealing with all questions affecting literary<br /> property, either as regards copyright or the commercial<br /> relation between authors and publishers.”<br /> <br /> This article has roused some remarks from a<br /> contributor to The Sphere, who writes over the<br /> initials “C. K.8.” With his expressed opinion<br /> on Mr. Kipling or Mr. Barrie’s work, however<br /> erroneous, we do not desire to deal, nor with his<br /> suggestion that literature is divorced from the<br /> drama ; but the following paragraph needs some<br /> explanation :<br /> <br /> ‘When Sir Walter Besant spoke of literature he really<br /> only thought of fiction, which is the least important factor<br /> of our literature to-day. Our best literature, our poetry—<br /> which the illiterate man in the street calls ‘‘ minor” because<br /> he thinks that Tennyson was the last of the poets—our<br /> history, our biography, and our criticism are none of them<br /> helped in the least by the Society of Authors or by the<br /> literary agent.<br /> <br /> The opening statement is entirely erroneous, as<br /> anyone who was an intimate friend of Sir Walter’s<br /> for many years could readily have informed the<br /> writer. But the latter part of the paragraph is<br /> altogether misleading, and, taking the mildest<br /> view, shows an absolute ignorance of the work of<br /> the Society. As a writer in The Academy phrases<br /> it when dealing with the matter :<br /> <br /> “Tt is no part of the functions of the Society of Authors<br /> to ‘help literature,’ whether good, bad, or indifferent. It<br /> exists to define and protect literary property, which is<br /> quite another matter. Does the writer mean that the<br /> Society refuses to admit poets, biographers, and critics to<br /> membership? Or that it takes the guineas of poets,<br /> biographers, and critics, but denies to them privileges<br /> which it accords to its other members? Or what does he<br /> <br /> mean? We have a strong suspicion that he has been<br /> : &gt; é ;<br /> using at random words which mean nothing at all.’<br /> <br /> But a further point: biographers, poets, essayists,<br /> critics, historians, all make contracts for the pub-<br /> lication of their works either with editors or<br /> publishers. It is of the utmost importance, since,<br /> according to the view of “0. K.8.,” they cannot<br /> make money by their work, that they should lose<br /> as little as possible. To attain thisend the Society<br /> can and does give most valuable assistance.<br /> <br /> But consider for a moment, is this statement of<br /> the commercial value true? Surely in a great<br /> many cases it is utterly untrue, although it may<br /> be for the benefit of both publishers and editors to<br /> persuade these biographers, poets, and critics that<br /> their labours must be financially unsuccessful.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 267<br /> <br /> Ir appears that a question has been raised in<br /> Italy concerning the reproduction of music by<br /> gramophones and phonographs. The information<br /> before us shows that such reproduction has been<br /> held not to be an infringement of copyright.<br /> <br /> France, we know—always the most forward<br /> country where copyright legislation is concerned —<br /> has held such reproductions to be an infringement<br /> of copyright. The English Courts have held that<br /> the stamped cylinder was not an infringement of<br /> copyright ; but, surely, the reproduction of music<br /> by this means, as we have pointed out in Zhe<br /> Author on former occasions, is an infringement of<br /> performing rights. Unfortunately, owing to the<br /> lax way in which music composers deal with their<br /> performing rights and owing to the control which<br /> publishers have obtained over musical property,<br /> these rights are seldom turned to account.<br /> Thereby much valuable property is lost.<br /> <br /> The matter is one of serious importance, when<br /> we take into consideration the fact that composers<br /> in England are unable, as a general rule, to live<br /> by the product of their compositions only, but are<br /> bound to teach or obtain some other appointment<br /> in order to gain a livelihood. Publishers have<br /> sneered at the French method of collecting royalties<br /> on performing rights. This is not surprising to<br /> those who have knowledge of the method by which<br /> they obtain control of the composer’s property in<br /> England and the means they use to market the<br /> same.<br /> <br /> We have received an interesting and amusing<br /> letter from the manager of one of the leading<br /> music-publishing houses in London, whose ire has<br /> been roused by the article that appeared in the<br /> last issue of Zhe Author. ‘The publisher sets out<br /> in glowing language what he and other publishers<br /> have done for composers in the matter of securing<br /> sound copyright legislation. It is very interesting<br /> to see the trade posing as the saviour of the com-<br /> poser. This will deceive no one who has any<br /> knowledge of music publishing. The composers<br /> at the present time are in a much worse way than<br /> the authors. As a matter of fact, there are very<br /> few in a position to make, and there is no combina-<br /> tion strong enough to insist on the making of<br /> agreements which will prevent the copyright and<br /> performing rights being transferred to the pub-<br /> lishers. In consequence, all these statements about<br /> the energetic and generous action of the publishers<br /> are not for the benefit of the composers, but for the<br /> benefit of the trade. Our correspondent concludes<br /> his letter by saying ‘‘ we have been fighting for<br /> the cause of copyright alone and unaided for five<br /> years, consequently we are unable to feel the<br /> respect and veneration for Mr. Algernon Sidney’s<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 268<br /> <br /> Society of Authors which we might otherwise<br /> have oeen disposed to entertain.”<br /> <br /> As we have already pointed out, this struggle for<br /> reasonable copyright legislation is at present for<br /> the benefit of publishers only, to enable themselves<br /> to market and safeguard their own property.<br /> <br /> It is clear that our correspondent, though he<br /> may have some knowledge of his own business, is<br /> in woeful ignorance of the methods of the society, of<br /> what it has done and is willing to do for composers.<br /> <br /> Composers should strike at the root of the evil.<br /> At the present time it is not so much a matter of<br /> importance to them that these works, the outcome<br /> of their brains, in the possession of the publisher,<br /> should be protected for the benefit of the publisher,<br /> as that they should strive for better agreements<br /> and for more effective control and management of<br /> their own property. If they obtained this, then<br /> the copyright question would be to them one<br /> worth fighting for, and the society is anxious to<br /> show them what methods they should employ in<br /> order to obtain a more satisfactory position.<br /> <br /> We must take it as a compliment, therefore, that<br /> our correspondent is unable to feel respect and<br /> veneration for the Society or its work. This<br /> expression of opinion was frequently in the<br /> mouths of the book publishers when the Society<br /> was first started. Music publication has to pass<br /> through the same phase of evolution.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> A RATHER curious case of re-issue has come<br /> under our notice. Hight or nine years ago Sir<br /> Herbert Maxwell and Mr. F. G. Aflalo jointly<br /> edited half a dozen volumes for Messrs. Lawrence<br /> and Bullen, under the name of ‘ The Anglers’<br /> Library.” After the reconstruction of that firm,<br /> Mr. Bullen, it appears, sold the rights in the library<br /> to Messrs. Routledge, who are reissuing it in a new<br /> binding and at a lower price than originally.<br /> Neither of the editors has in any way resented<br /> this, but the transaction is somewhat complicated<br /> by the fact that the Press has with one accord<br /> accepted these as entirely new books, apparently<br /> forgetting that they reviewed the originals (not a<br /> line having been altered) many years ago. ‘This,<br /> in the case of technical books, in which the very<br /> latest information is always desirable, might have<br /> two results equally distressing to the original<br /> editors and contributors. In the first place, the<br /> <br /> angling public might think itself hoodwinked into.<br /> <br /> buying old books as new. In the second, the<br /> angling writers who contributed to this library<br /> may justly deprecate their stale information of nine<br /> years ago being reviewed as if it had been written<br /> within the year. Such results would obviously be<br /> grossly unfair to the editors, who had no intimation<br /> of the proposed re-issue.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> THE COMING OF AGE.<br /> <br /> —-— +<br /> Tue Soctety’s Work.<br /> <br /> a twenty-first anniversary of the incorpora-<br /> tion of the Society of Authors takes place<br /> on June 30th.<br /> <br /> It is not unfitting, therefore, that at its coming<br /> of age, a short retrospect of its aims and the work<br /> that it has done should be placed before the present<br /> members.<br /> <br /> The first meeting recorded in the books took<br /> place at a private house in Kensington on the 28th<br /> day of September, 1883, where the following<br /> gentlemen assembled with a view to making<br /> arrangements for its foundation.<br /> <br /> Sir Walter Besant (then Mr. Walter Besant), in<br /> the chair, Ulick Ralph Burke, A. Egmont Hake,<br /> Prof. Fleeming Jenkin, the Rev. W. J. Loftie,<br /> Wilfrid Meynell, 8S. G. C. Middlemore, J. Henry<br /> Middleton, Walter Herries Pollock, W. R. S.<br /> Ralston, W. Baptiste Scoones. Tristram Valentine<br /> acted as honorary secretary.<br /> <br /> The next recorded meeting occurred on the 18th<br /> day of February, 1884, in a room lent by Mr.<br /> Baptiste Scoones, and at that meeting, the first real<br /> meeting of the society, sixty-eight members were<br /> elected.<br /> <br /> In May of the same year Lord Tennyson accepted<br /> the presidency of the society, and Sir Walter<br /> Besant was elected chairman of the committee.<br /> <br /> In those days the society was composed of a<br /> president, vice-presidents, fellows and associates.<br /> This arrangement, under the present constitution,<br /> has been varied. There is a president and council,<br /> members and associates. The managing committee<br /> is elected from the members of the council, and in<br /> the hands of the managing committee the work<br /> of the society lies.<br /> <br /> The following is the first list of vice-presidents,<br /> which was afterwards much enlarged :<br /> <br /> R. D. Blackmore, Lord Crewe, R. G. Egerton-<br /> Warburton, F.S.A., Prof. Michael Foster, General<br /> Sir Frederick F. Goldsmid, His Eminence Cardinal<br /> Manning, Hon. Sir Henry Parkes, Sir William<br /> Frederick Pollock, Charles Reade, George Augustus<br /> Sala, Sir Henry Thompson, Canon Tristram, The<br /> <br /> Rev. Henry White and Miss Charlotte M. Yonge. —<br /> <br /> So that from the very first, with Lord Tennyson as<br /> president “and a representative list of the vice-<br /> presidents, the society reveived the substantial<br /> support of the literary profession.<br /> <br /> One of the first matters to engage the attention<br /> of the committee was the draft of a Memorandum<br /> and Articles of Association. When this was settled<br /> a Board of Trade licence under the Companies’ Acts<br /> was procured. The incorporation took place, as<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> y<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> already stated, on the 30th of June, 1884. In the<br /> same year the Lord Mayor of London (Sir Robert<br /> Fowler) invited the infant society to dinner at the<br /> Mansion House.<br /> <br /> In the early days of the society, meetings were<br /> held every week in order to get the work into<br /> shape, but it was soon found that weekly meetings<br /> were unnecessary. Since then, the committee<br /> have been called together once a month except in<br /> cases demanding immediate action, when they have<br /> met more frequently.<br /> <br /> On the death of the first president, Lord<br /> Tennyson, Mr. George Meredith was elected to<br /> fill the position, which he still occupies. Sir<br /> Walter Besant as the first chairman of the com-<br /> mittee was succeeded by Sir Frederick Pollock,<br /> father of the present baronet. Sir Frederick<br /> Pollock resigned the position in January 1888, and<br /> Sir Walter Besant was re-elected and held the post<br /> till November 1892. At that date he resigned<br /> with the full idea that the society was then able to<br /> stand by itself, and in order that those who desired<br /> to detract from the society’s work, might not, as<br /> was constantly their custom, state that the society<br /> was Besant’s Society. On his retirement, and till<br /> his death, Sir Walter Besant continued to act as<br /> Editor of The Author, and was aconstant attendant<br /> at the committee meetings, giving in both capacities<br /> a great deal of his valuable time to the general<br /> welfare.<br /> <br /> Sir Frederick Pollock, the present baronet,<br /> succeeded Sir Walter Besant. Then followed Sir<br /> Martin Conway, H. Rider Haggard, Anthony Hope<br /> Hawkins, Douglas Freshfield, and lastly, Sir Henry<br /> Bergne.<br /> <br /> These are the names of those who have so<br /> unselfishly given both time and money to help their<br /> follow workers, and to protect the property of their<br /> fellow authors. No one can appreciate how heavy<br /> and laborious is the work of chairman of the com-<br /> mittee, except those who have gone through the mill.<br /> Members of the committee may find the work a<br /> serious call on their time, but the comparison is as<br /> the chastisement with whips to the chastisement<br /> inflicted with scorpions.<br /> <br /> Dramatic authors and writers of books on all<br /> subjects, technical as well as essentially literary,<br /> were included as the first members of the society.<br /> The Memorandum and Articles of Association, how-<br /> ever, were drafted on wider lines in order to give<br /> the society scope—in the event of its success—for<br /> the protection of other kinds of copyright property.<br /> Since those early days its field has been somewhat<br /> widened. Now it deals with the works of musical<br /> <br /> composers and musical copyright, also artistic copy-<br /> right so far as refers to the illustration of books,<br /> for the artistic copyright of book illustrators is very<br /> closely joined to literary copyright.<br /> <br /> At present,<br /> <br /> 269<br /> <br /> therefore, the society embraces four distinct classes,<br /> dramatic authors, authors of books, musical com-<br /> posers, and book illustrators.<br /> <br /> In the early days of the society, according to the<br /> old records, it appears that the committee were<br /> immediately overwhelmed with work, for many<br /> complaints were forthcoming, and much discontent<br /> was abroad, the copyright laws also were in a dis-<br /> graceful condition. There were many claims on<br /> the resources of the society, which at that time<br /> were very limited. In fact, in order to fight one<br /> or two actions, a special subscription was pro-<br /> posed, to which the members willingly con-<br /> tributed. Once or twice the balance at the bank<br /> ran perilously low. But the founders never<br /> despaired of the society’s ultimate success.<br /> <br /> To relate the early struggles of the society is<br /> not the purport of the present article. The record<br /> of unselfish labour on its behalf undertaken by<br /> many men of letters, and especially by Sir Walter<br /> Besant, is long. Instances of financial support, in<br /> addition to valuable time, freely and generously<br /> given, were many.<br /> <br /> To show in what manner and with what success<br /> the society has exerted itself to carry into effect<br /> the purposes of its original programme is the more<br /> immediate purpose of this paper. And here it<br /> may be convenient to record first what has been<br /> done for the consolidation and amendment of the<br /> law of domestic copyright and for the promotion<br /> of international copyright.<br /> <br /> The question of American copyright was one of<br /> the first to occupy the attention of the society.<br /> From the moment of its foundation the society<br /> threw all its weight and influence (by no means so<br /> great then as now) into obtaining a friendly<br /> understanding with American authors, and those<br /> other Americans who were interested in the passing<br /> of an equitable copyright law. New copyright<br /> legislation was obtained in America in 1891. As<br /> everyone knows, this law leaves much to be<br /> desired. ‘The society is still in constant touch<br /> with the promoters of equitable legislation in the<br /> United States, and will avail itself of every oppor-<br /> tunity to obtain a more generous legislation. To<br /> proceed with caution is, however, necessary. A<br /> false move might prove fatal.<br /> <br /> In the direction of the consolidation of domestic<br /> copyright, the society has been able to act more<br /> directly, and with important results. There<br /> existed no difference of opinion as to the unsatis-<br /> factory state of the law, and no need for hesitation.<br /> A copyright committee was appointed ; numerous<br /> meetings were held; other bodies interested in<br /> copyright were consulted, and finally a new copy-<br /> right law was drafted under counsel’s care. This<br /> was a full consolidating and amending bill, dealing<br /> with copyright property, literary, dramatic, artistic<br />  <br /> <br /> 270<br /> <br /> and musical. To bring it before Parliament<br /> ultimately proved impossible, but it was found<br /> useful to have such a bill ready. Subsequent<br /> events have, it is true, demonstrated this bill to<br /> have been cumbersome and inadequate. The<br /> action of the society was, however, at the time<br /> sound, and beneficial to authors.<br /> <br /> In 1891, after the passing of the new United<br /> States law, the society found itself in a position to<br /> take a further step. Lord Monkswell brought<br /> forward a bill that had been drafted by the society.<br /> This bill reached a second reading in the House of<br /> Lords, but was not taken further. In 1896, a new<br /> copyright law committee was formed. This com-<br /> mittee, persuaded that the time for a consolidating<br /> Act had not yet arrived, decided to draft a small<br /> amending Dilf. This bill was drafted by counsel,<br /> and was, after much expense and labour, agreed<br /> upon in its final shape.<br /> <br /> Of this bill Lord Monkswell, always indefatig-<br /> able in questions of copyright, and ever willing to<br /> assist the efforts of the society, took charge. The<br /> pill passed its third reading in the House of<br /> Lords on the 23rd of July, 1897. In the autumn<br /> of the same year a consolidating bill was brought<br /> forward by the Copyright Association. The latter<br /> bill and the bill of the society ran concurrently<br /> at the beginning of 1898. Finally, however, the<br /> whole question was taken up upon a new basis. A<br /> bill was drafted by Lord Thring separating literary<br /> from artistic copyright. This bill was carefully<br /> studied by the members of the Copyright and<br /> Dramatic Committees of the society, and a number<br /> of valuable suggestions regarding it were offered,<br /> and the bill passed through the House of Lords.<br /> It was also adopted by the Government, but was<br /> finally put aside. In 1900, owing no doubt, in a<br /> great measure, to the persistent action of the<br /> society, the Government made a public declaration<br /> of an intention to take up the question of copy-<br /> right. It must be added with regret that since<br /> this declaration nothing in the shape of a draft bill<br /> has appeared from the Government offices, but the<br /> above record will suffice to show how perseveringly<br /> the society has laboured for the amelioration of<br /> domestic copyright. It need hardly be said that<br /> the expenses have been heavy, whilst the members<br /> of the committee and others have generously made<br /> ungrudging sacrifices in order to forward the<br /> interests of their fellows of the craft.<br /> <br /> Colonial copyright has, during the same period,<br /> presented serious difficulties. In this direction<br /> <br /> the importance of the society’s action can hardly<br /> be over-estimated. The committee of the society<br /> were the first body to perceive that the colonial<br /> position formed one of the chief impediments in<br /> the way of new copyright legislation on the part<br /> To put the matter on a more<br /> <br /> of the Government,<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> satisfactory basis became immediately one of the<br /> society&#039;s foremost aims. At one time Mr, Hall<br /> Caine was appointed delegate of the society during<br /> a visit which he paid to Canada. Subsequently,<br /> in 1899, the secretary of the society visited the<br /> Dominion. The persevering efforts of the society<br /> to solve the complex difficulties which existed<br /> were rewarded with some success when the<br /> Canadian Parliament in 1900 passed an Act<br /> embodying the ideas for which the society had<br /> been so long contending.<br /> <br /> Respecting international copyright, it may<br /> suffice to say that all its bearings, ramifications,<br /> and modifications have the society’s constant<br /> attention, and only last year the society endea-<br /> voured to obtain the accession of another country,<br /> Roumania, to the convention. The society is in<br /> touch with those interested in copyright property in<br /> France, Germany, Italy and other countries. All<br /> changes in the domestic or international copyright<br /> laws of different countries are carefully watched<br /> both from the domestic and international point of<br /> view. The information at the society’s disposal<br /> is kept strictly up to date, and everything of<br /> importance is duly chronicled in the pages of Zhe<br /> Author.<br /> <br /> To sum up, the society has done everything that<br /> it is possible to do in the way of procuring more<br /> liberal legislation in America. It has helped to<br /> bring about satisfactory legislation in Canada.<br /> Its perseverance has forced the question of the<br /> improvement of domestic legislation upon the<br /> English Government, and it is in constant touch<br /> with other countries on all questions relating to<br /> international copyright. On these grounds alone the<br /> society has a right to claim that such results<br /> merit the support of all members of the literary<br /> profession.<br /> <br /> The next point demanding consideration is<br /> what the society has done to maintain, define, and<br /> bela literary, dramatic, and musical property at<br /> 10me.<br /> <br /> It has, in the first place, published technical<br /> works on a number of questions of primary import-<br /> ance to authors. These works contain accurate<br /> information previously nowhere to be found.<br /> During the earlier years of the society’s existence,<br /> much time was devoted to the collection and due<br /> arrangement of a mass of statistics now embodied<br /> in these works. The publication of these books<br /> though a small undertaking when compared with<br /> the more important enterprises in which the society<br /> has been engaged, is one of serious moment to<br /> authors. Sir Walter Besant was the soul of this<br /> department of the society’s work. His time and<br /> labour were given without hesitation, and without<br /> prospect of return. His practical mind grasped<br /> and his mathematical talent enabled him to make<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> plain what particulars were to be investigated,<br /> and how the results of the investigations could<br /> be lucidly presented. In both he was ably<br /> seconded by Mr. Squire Sprigge, whose name is<br /> associated with “The Cost of Production” and<br /> “Methods of Publication.”<br /> <br /> As copyright law is one of the most intricate<br /> and difficult laws to elucidate, so copyright<br /> property is one of the most difficult proper-<br /> ties to market to the best advantage. In conse-<br /> quence, members of the society are constantly<br /> seeking advice and assistance. The record of the<br /> reports for the past ten or fifteen years will show<br /> the enormons amount of money the society has<br /> spent in legal advice year by year, its annual bill<br /> with its solicitors amounting to about £300. The<br /> assistance the society must have given by this<br /> expenditure is easily gauged. The excellence of<br /> its solicitors, owing to constant practice in the<br /> special subject, must also be of very great benefit<br /> to the members.<br /> <br /> We should like to point out as an obifer dictum<br /> that all writers, dramatists, composers who are not<br /> members of the society, should hasten to join when<br /> they see a statement of this kind, for every legal<br /> opinion taken, every case fought, must benefit them<br /> as a body and bring them, indirectly, assistance.<br /> It is not fair, therefore, that they should increase<br /> their income from the subscriptions of their more<br /> generous fellow-craftsmen.<br /> <br /> An ordinary opinion upon an agreement would<br /> cost a writer from one guinea to three guineas.<br /> To obtain such an opinion is one of the commonest<br /> ways by which members make use of the society.<br /> A member can obtain opinions on as many agree-<br /> ments as he likes during the year for the fee of<br /> £1 1s. only, in addition to any other legal advice<br /> he may require on copyright questions. The<br /> benefit that must accrue to the member is clear,<br /> therefore, from this most sordid point of view. It<br /> would have been unnecessary to touch upon this<br /> point had it not been so frequently overlooked.<br /> <br /> The society has also, on several occasions,<br /> obtained opinions from counsel at great expense,<br /> and the record of the cases taken in hand during<br /> the past four years is as follows :—<br /> <br /> I. EL IT.<br /> 1901. 102 cases: 4 County Court. 5 High Court,<br /> <br /> 1902. 146 cases: 10 County Court. 8 High Court.<br /> <br /> 1903. 127 cases: 9 County Court. 4 High Court.<br /> 1904. 112 cases: 8 High Court, 6 High Court.<br /> <br /> No. 1 refers to those cases and disputes, in<br /> which the Secretary acts as between a member and<br /> the editor, publisher, or other delinquent ; No. 2 to<br /> those cases taken through the County Court ; No.<br /> 3 to High Court cases.<br /> <br /> Besides this list, again, there are many matters<br /> which, placed in the hands of the society’s solicitors,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 271<br /> <br /> are settled without being brought into Court—in<br /> fact, it may be stated that out of three cases placed<br /> in the solicitors’ hands for settlement only one<br /> will go to trial. It is not to the advantage of a<br /> trade defendant to obtain the publicity of a court<br /> of law. :<br /> <br /> _This record then may, on the whole, be con-<br /> sidered an honourable record of the society in<br /> carrying on the work of its founders. The society<br /> has been accused of being a bitter enemy to pub-<br /> lishers, editors and others. This, as Sir Walter<br /> Besant so often repeated, is not really the case ; but<br /> the members of the society when they have got a<br /> case which should be fought must be prepared to<br /> fight it, as the very vitality of the society must lie<br /> in its fighting strength. The general knowledge<br /> of this fact is the surest means of obtaining satis-<br /> faction for the author and fair dealing from the<br /> publisher.<br /> <br /> It is possible that at no distant date the time<br /> may arrive when the society will have no need to<br /> put this quality into practice; but although the<br /> society numbers fully 1,600 members, it is still far<br /> from the ideal laid before it by Sir Walter Besant<br /> and those others interested. It should have a<br /> membership of at least 3,000, and in proportion as.<br /> the society becomes more and more the association<br /> of all British authors and copyright holders, the<br /> more rapidly will it be able to accomplish the<br /> objects which it has set before itself.<br /> <br /> oe gg ge<br /> <br /> THE ANNUAL DINNER.<br /> Oe ‘<br /> <br /> PFVYE annual dinner of the Incorporated Society<br /> of Authors took place on Tuesday, May 16th,<br /> at the Hotel Cecil, more than a hundred and<br /> <br /> fifty members and guests being present. The fact<br /> that the society was completing the twenty-first<br /> year since its incorporation, and was consequently<br /> celebrating its coming of age, added special interest<br /> to the occasion, and was a subject of frequent<br /> allusion in the speeches. These followed closely<br /> upon the conclusion of the last course, when the<br /> chairman, Sir Henry Bergne, K.C.B., K.C.M.G.,<br /> proposed briefly the usual loyal toasts, followed<br /> by the permission to smoke, of which many of<br /> those present, not exclusively male members of the<br /> company, proceeded to avail themselves.<br /> <br /> In proposing the toast of the Incorporated<br /> Society of Authors, the chairman made reference<br /> to the twenty-one years which had elapsed since<br /> Sir Walter Besant had founded it, and inaugu-<br /> rated the policy afterwards followed during his<br /> lifetime and since his regretted death. In dealing<br /> with the objects of the society and indicating the<br />  <br /> <br /> 272<br /> <br /> extent and manner in which these were being<br /> carried out, Sir Henry Bergne spoke first of the<br /> defence of literary property, conducted by the<br /> society throughout its existence. A defence which<br /> members were aware could be effected far better<br /> by combination and co-operation than by the<br /> isolated efforts of individuals. In carrying out<br /> this defence of literary property, the society had<br /> been taken in one of its actions to the House of<br /> Lords, with the result that at least a doubtful<br /> point of law had been settled. Secondly, in the<br /> Amendment and Consolidation of the Domestic<br /> Law of Copyright, the society had made and was<br /> continuing to make efforts on behalf of authors,<br /> and if not much had been actually achieved, a bill<br /> had been drafted, and the amendment of the<br /> existing law had been promised in a Speech from<br /> the Throne. Further progress, however, had been<br /> delayed by the difficulty of combining domestic<br /> with colonial law upon the subject. Possibly the<br /> best mode of dealing with that difficulty might lie<br /> in cordial consultation and co-operation with the<br /> great self-governing Colonies on the subject of<br /> Copyright, and he was not without hope that some<br /> progress in that direction might shortly be made.<br /> The first Government to succeed in passing a<br /> satisfactory Copyright Act would earn the lasting<br /> gratitude of authors. In the promotion of Inter-<br /> national Copyright, satisfactory advance had been<br /> made. Since the foundation of the society the<br /> International Copyright Convention of Berne and<br /> the additional Act of Paris had been signed,<br /> and a separate Convention concluded with Austria-<br /> Hungary. In speaking of this the chairman<br /> referred to the recent accession of Japan to the<br /> International Copyright Union. With regard to<br /> the recognition of the rights of British authors in<br /> America, good progress had also been made. This<br /> made a really good record in regard to International<br /> Copyright. Sir Henry Bergne expressed cordial<br /> appreciation of the co-operation and assistance of<br /> the Copyright Association, saying that wisdom,<br /> like water, took the form of the vessel into which it<br /> was poured, and that if, indeed, the wisdom of the<br /> Society of Authors differed sometimes in form from<br /> that of the Copyright Association it was at least<br /> certain that the endeavour of both societies had been<br /> directed to protect all the legal rights of intellectual<br /> property. He called attention, while upon this<br /> topic, to the presence of Mr. John Murray, who<br /> was seated near him on his right, and paid a<br /> ‘tribute of regret to the memory of Mr. John Daldy.<br /> <br /> In conclusion, he urged that the society had<br /> much left to do; and he specified three main<br /> objects for its efforts, namely : first, the securing<br /> of domestie copyright legislation ; second, the<br /> -obtaining of a more satisfactory position for authors<br /> with regard to their rights in the United States ;<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> and third, the obtaining of fresh accessions to the<br /> International Copyright Union.<br /> <br /> After the toast of the society had been duly<br /> honoured, Sir A. Conan Doyle, replying in a<br /> vigorous speech, expressed his regret that Sir<br /> Walter Besant had not survived to see the coming<br /> of age of the society, which in its younger days<br /> had had so much opposition to face and so few<br /> friends. It had ever fought the cause of the<br /> weaker brother against the oppressor, or still<br /> more so, that of the weaker sister. It had not,<br /> however, as some might think, to protect the fool<br /> from his folly, because the fool was so self-satisfied<br /> a person that he felt no desire to be enrolled as a<br /> member ; it was rather for the assistance of those<br /> handicapped by want of experience that the society<br /> existed. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle desired to say<br /> no word against publishers as a class, but referred<br /> to them as a profession, for which no qualification or<br /> licence was required before admission, and alluded<br /> humorously to the popularity due to Napoleon<br /> among authors for having once had a German<br /> publisher shot. In conclusion, he referred to the<br /> fact that all classes of writers were benefited by<br /> the society’s efforts, and appealed to members to<br /> support the pension fund.<br /> <br /> Mr. Egerton Castle next rose to propose the<br /> health of the “ Guests of the Society,” comparing<br /> them to the friends and neighbours assembled to<br /> do honour to a promising youth attaining his<br /> majority. He contrasted the position of author-<br /> ship in modern days with that which it once<br /> occupied, and referred to the man of intellect as<br /> recognising, in the words of Sheffield, that<br /> <br /> “Of all the arts in which the wise excel,<br /> Nature’s chief masterpiece is writing well.”<br /> <br /> Among the guests Mr. Castle first made reference<br /> to Sir Richard Henn Collins, the Master of the<br /> Rolls, whom he described as a ripe classical scholar,<br /> holder of every high university honour, chairman<br /> of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, arbitra-<br /> tor on the Venezuelan Boundary Commission, and<br /> the editor of “Smith’s Leading Cases,” with which<br /> he, Mr. Castle, confessed himself only acquainted in<br /> the metrical form known as “ Leading Cases<br /> done into English,” by Sir Frederick Pollock.<br /> Enumerating other distinguished men present,<br /> Mr. Egerton Castle named Mr. Fletcher Moul-<br /> ton, K.C., M.P., who, he said, had been defined<br /> as a rare example of the mathematical mind<br /> triumphant, and to whose connection with patent<br /> law, a kindred subject to copyright, he made<br /> special reference ; he also called attention to the<br /> presence of Mr. John Tweedy, the president of<br /> the Royal College of Surgeons ; of Sir Henry<br /> Howorth, K.C.1.E., whom he described as<br /> <br /> &lt;P<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 5<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 273<br /> <br /> an antiquary, a lawyer, a politician, and a dis-<br /> tinguished raconteur; of Mr. John Murray, the<br /> representative of the fourth generation of the<br /> great publishing house, a fifth generation of which,<br /> he mentioned, was now growing up. Mr. Castle<br /> referred to Mr. Murray as himself a scholar, a<br /> man of the highest culture, a past president of the<br /> Publisher’s Association, and a man of letters, and<br /> observed that no doubt many present would grate-<br /> fully acknowledge the invaluable intellectual help<br /> which he always so generously afforded to authors<br /> in the production of their books ; if all firms of<br /> publishers, he added, resembled that of John<br /> Murray in their methods, there would never have<br /> arisen any need for a Society of Authors. Among<br /> foreign guests by whose presence the society was<br /> honoured, Mr. Castle named Monsieur E. Pettileau,<br /> representing the Société des gens de Lettres,<br /> which suggested and formed the model upon<br /> which the Society of Authors was founded, and<br /> Mr. Hugenet, editor of La Chronique, the only<br /> French paper published in London, an instructor<br /> at Greenwich Naval College, an officer, a journalist,<br /> anda novelist. To the presence of these two gentle-<br /> men he referred as a contribution by the Society<br /> of Authors to the promotion of the entente cordiale<br /> destined to have such lasting and beneficent effect<br /> upon the peaceful progress of the world.<br /> <br /> Sir Richard Henn Collins, in replying on behalf<br /> of the guests, declared that he found it difficult not<br /> only to represent those whose distinguished names<br /> had been enumerated, but also to distinguish the<br /> large number of other guests unnamed among<br /> those present, and to do this without consultation<br /> and without hope of remuneration and reward,<br /> His real difficulty, however, lay, he said, not in<br /> voicing the thanks of his male guests, but of the<br /> ladies also. He humorously described himself as<br /> deeply impressed by the collective power of author-<br /> ship around him, which he averred inspired him<br /> with a sense of awe, and made him feel that the<br /> guests should have been provided at the door<br /> with slippers like worshippers entering a mosque.<br /> For the large output of printed matter for which<br /> judges were mainly responsible he disclaimed the<br /> title of “ literature,” but he was able to assert that<br /> judges and lawyers were much addicted to the<br /> study of novels. With regard to these he described<br /> the domain of fiction as having been conquered by<br /> lady novelists, who now no longer should be<br /> described, as they had been by Sir Arthur Conan<br /> Doyle, as the “ weaker sisters.” On the contrary<br /> he himself would predict that some day men would<br /> adopt feminine pseudonyms when publishing<br /> novels. He congratulated the society upon its<br /> <br /> attitude towards litigation and upon the satisfac-<br /> tion with which it viewed having obtained a<br /> binding decision in the House of Lords.<br /> <br /> Mr. A. W. A’Beckett, in conclusion, proposed<br /> the health of the chairman, and alluding to his<br /> own position as acting chairman of the committee<br /> of management, declared that with Sir Henry<br /> Bergne it had become a sinecure, as the chairman<br /> was never away. He also referred to the changed<br /> position of modern journalism in relation to litera-<br /> ture, making special allusion to distinguished<br /> literary men, members of the society, who were<br /> also journalists. The day was past when journalism<br /> could be described as the Cinderella of literature<br /> or as the grave of literary ambition.<br /> <br /> After the health ofthe chairman had been drunk<br /> with enthusiasm, and Sir Henry Bergne had briefly<br /> replied, an adjournment was made to another room,<br /> where the rest of the evening was spent.<br /> <br /> —_—_—t_—e—<br /> <br /> SOME REFLECTIONS ON CRITICISM.<br /> <br /> DES<br /> e VERY now and then—perhaps twice in the<br /> year—lI have noticed that the magazines<br /> and papers take it into their heads to dis-<br /> cuss the art and practice of reviewing. For some<br /> abstruse reason the public is supposed to enjoy<br /> these dissertations. Possibly, in the interests of<br /> fair play, they like to see the critics subjected to<br /> a taste of that discipline which they mete out to<br /> others : possibly, too, they enjoy getting a glimpse<br /> of the inner workings of journalism. I find, in<br /> most of these articles, a consensus of opinion as to<br /> the uselessness of Press notices (which 1s somewhat<br /> disturbing), and an equally strong conviction that<br /> the British public cannot do without its daily<br /> allotment of criticism (which is reassuring). For<br /> my own part, I like reading reviews. When I<br /> pick up a daily paper I generally turn to them<br /> as soon as I have satisfied myself that nothing<br /> very startling has happened in the world of<br /> politics or of sport. But then it must be admitted<br /> that I do not suffer myself to be influenced<br /> by what I read—to any great extent. [ have<br /> given up buying modern books: I do not even<br /> belong to a circulating library; but I probably<br /> read as many new novels in the course of the year<br /> as most people. The fact is—to be quite candid<br /> —I am myself one of the despised band of critics ;<br /> which may, or may not, make my opinion the more<br /> valuable on some disputed points.<br /> <br /> As a guide to purchasers, I dare say that reviews<br /> are useful enough. As a means of inducing the<br /> general public to buy, I believe them to be prac-<br /> tically useless. If we suppose that a man has<br /> already made up his mind to form a library of<br /> modern writers, it is conceivable that a good review<br /> might induce him to add a certain book to his<br /> collection ; but there are few indeed who are bitten<br /> with this mania. The mass of readers have to be<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 274<br /> <br /> bullied, so to speak, into buying a book—they must<br /> run up against the name at every turn until it<br /> strikes them with an air of familiarity ; in most<br /> cases, even then, they will content themselves with<br /> borrowing the work from a more generous neigh-<br /> bour. Of course, I will allow that there may still<br /> be a considerable number who order books from<br /> their libraries on the strength of a flattering notice<br /> that happens to catch their eye, but these are<br /> chiefly ladies, exiled in the country, and the books<br /> they look for are lives of eminent men, reminis-<br /> cences (with plenty of anecdote), or, more rarely,<br /> a novel by some favourite author. It is very<br /> seldom indeed that they can be induced to venture<br /> upon a work by a new hand. Probably a series of<br /> favourable reviews (say even as many as twenty)<br /> scattered among what are generally considered the<br /> best papers, would not sell more than a very small<br /> edition of a new book by an unknown writer. The<br /> case of well-known authors is different. So long<br /> as the fact of their having produced a new work is<br /> given sufficient prominence, it matters little to<br /> their sales whether the reviews are good or bad.<br /> And as theirs are the only books (except in the<br /> rarest instances) that ever receive notices of a<br /> really useful length in any important paper, it<br /> must be admitted that reviewing does not exercise<br /> so great an influence, either for good or evil, upon<br /> an author’s career, as the world is apt to suppose. *<br /> <br /> I am speaking here of reviews properly so called<br /> —that is to say, reviews of a reasonable length,<br /> which may be defined as something over half a<br /> column in most papers. I suppose everyone is<br /> agreed that the short notices so liberally scattered<br /> about in many journals are almost entirely worth-<br /> less, except possibly for the purpose of quotation<br /> in publishers’ advertisements. Here, with the aid<br /> of judicious /acune, they often make a brave show<br /> enough. But in their original position they are<br /> not much regarded. In the eye of the public a<br /> short notice is evidence of mediocrity, at the best ;<br /> and, be it never so laudatory, it cannot hope to<br /> attract more than one or two casual purchasers.<br /> Not many people read these cursory comments at<br /> all: the few who do (with the exception of the<br /> author himself and the friends to whom he proudly<br /> displays them) read them merely in the hope of<br /> finding a touch of smart sarcasm. They are not<br /> infrequently well repaid for their trouble. Some-<br /> times it is possible to put quite a lot of venom into<br /> a few lines ; and when a hard-worked reviewer<br /> takes up a volume towards the end of a long day’s<br /> work, and finds himself with very little space to<br /> spare, this method certainly gives a quick and<br /> satisfactory finish to his labours. Many worthy<br /> books suffer because of the sins of their forerunners.<br /> And it is always easier to blame than to praise—<br /> when space is at a premium.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> If short notices were entirely abolished, it is<br /> possible that good reviews might be of some value<br /> to the struggling author. But that would mean,<br /> of course, immensely increased labour in the matter<br /> of selection. As things stand, even now, the<br /> process of weeding out unworthy books is an<br /> extremely difficult one : it would become formid-<br /> able indeed (to a conscientious man) if a second<br /> and a third revision had to be undertaken in<br /> addition to the first. And then, there is always<br /> the personal equation of the selector to be con-<br /> sidered. Who is to attempt the ungrateful task ?<br /> Is the editor to go through the vanloads of new<br /> volumes delivered at his office personally, in order<br /> to separate the tares from the wheat, or is he to<br /> delegate this work to the reviewers themselves ?<br /> It is certain that very few editors could find time<br /> for this extra labour, in itself sufficient to occupy<br /> an able-bodied man pretty thoroughly. In most<br /> cases, at present, some member of the editorial<br /> staff settles, approximately, the amount of space<br /> to be allotted to each volume; but his ruling is<br /> commonly determined by matters quite foreign to<br /> the merit of the book submitted to him. Probably<br /> he is very much pressed for time ; he has a thousand<br /> other things to occupy his attention, and a very<br /> cursory glance at a new book has to determine its<br /> fate. If by an unknown writer, there must<br /> generally be something out of the common in its<br /> scheme, or it must bear the imprint of a good<br /> publishing house, in order to gain admission to his<br /> list at all.<br /> <br /> Sometimes, however, the reviewer has to do his<br /> own weeding. A parcel is sent out to him, with<br /> instructions to notice only such books as are worthy<br /> of remark. This practice, I have always thought,<br /> is alittle bit rough upon the reviewer, who feels the<br /> weight of added responsibility, and, in addition,<br /> is only too well aware that he is paid by the column.<br /> If he reads a book carefully from start to finish,<br /> and reluctantly finds it unworthy of discussion, he<br /> has an unpleasant feeling that he has wasted his<br /> time. Besides, it is undeniably easier to review a<br /> thoroughly bad book than a moderately good one.<br /> Most men, I fancy, enjoy writing a really severe<br /> critique, when they can assure themselves of the<br /> justice of their cause. I make no doubt that<br /> Macaulay enjoyed composing his onslaught on<br /> ‘Satan’ Montgomery more than his other contri-<br /> butions to the Edinburgh Review. Similarly,<br /> there is a certain gusto in Lowell&#039;s attack on Pro-<br /> fessor Masson’s ‘“ Milton,” which differentiates it,<br /> pleasantly enough, from his essay on Keats. Most<br /> reviewers, if they got the chance, would take the<br /> brightest and the dullest of their batch, and leave<br /> those that do not seem particularly interesting at<br /> first sight. This would be well enough, no doubt,<br /> <br /> from the reader’s point of view, but hardly from the<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THER AUTHOR. 275<br /> <br /> author’s. The brightest does not always mean<br /> the best. There is such a thing as solid worth,<br /> and it is not always very fascinating on a casual<br /> acquaintance.<br /> <br /> 1 apologise for uttering a commonplace when<br /> I say that the chief agent of the booksellers is<br /> the talkative lady who advises her friends to get<br /> the last book that has happened to catch her fancy.<br /> Conversation is the great factor in popularity, to<br /> an author; if he can get himself talked about at<br /> afternoon teas he is not far from success. It sounds<br /> degrading, but it is none the less true. And for<br /> that reason I take it that personal paragraphs are<br /> of more value to him than the best reviews.<br /> Somehow or other he must contrive to get his<br /> name known. When you come to consider it, sell-<br /> ing books is very much like selling mustard, or<br /> cocoa, or any other of the luxuries (or necessaries)<br /> of life. The public goes to the name it has heard<br /> of before ; and the oftener that name is repeated<br /> in the Press (in any connection or phrase) so much<br /> the better for its owner. It is true that authors<br /> do not, as yet, employ all the methods of advertise-<br /> ment used by manufacturers of soap and pickles.<br /> They say it would be beneath the dignity of a<br /> noble profession. But time will show. Methods<br /> of attracting attention have been used lately that<br /> would have astonished our fathers considerably ; it<br /> is not improbable that the hoardings of the future<br /> will be covered with pictorial recommendations to<br /> buy the immortal works of our descendants. &lt;A<br /> few of the bolder spirits have inaugurated this new<br /> departure already.<br /> <br /> I am reluctant to enter into a debate here as<br /> to the competency, or the conscientiousness, of<br /> reviewers. Perhaps | am not altogether an<br /> unbiased critic of the tribe, and my opinion may<br /> not be worth much, but I will state my conviction<br /> that the common book-reviewer generally knows<br /> quite as much of his business as the musical and<br /> artistic critics do of theirs. This may not be a<br /> fulsome compliment, but it would not become me<br /> to say more. As to his conscientiousness, I<br /> believe him, in the main, to be sufficiently honest.<br /> “Log-rolling,” about which we used to hear so<br /> much some years since, is a moribund form of<br /> amusement, if not actually extinct. Frankly, I do<br /> not suppose that there were ever many reviewers<br /> who conspired together, of malice prepense, to<br /> puff each other’s wares. But, obviously, the per-<br /> sonal element must play its part in reviewing, as<br /> in other things. You may say that a critic should<br /> strenuously refuse to receive a book for review that<br /> chanced to be written by any personal friend—still<br /> more by an enemy—of his own. I can only reply<br /> <br /> that such a critic would have to live a very secluded<br /> life, or else to be content with very little work. Of<br /> course, most men will try to say something nice<br /> <br /> about a friend’s book—unless it is very bad : per-<br /> haps some of the less conscientious among us will<br /> even impart a trifle of personal animosity into a<br /> critique of an enemy’s book—especially if it be<br /> very good. But I fancy that there are not many<br /> critics who suffer their judgment to be warped to<br /> any great degree in this latter direction. We err,<br /> if at all, rather in the direction of undue kindliness.<br /> The critic is no longer the author’s natural enemy,<br /> as he was in the days of Pope, and Swift, and<br /> Sterne—who were never tired of having a fling at<br /> that “‘ most tormenting form of cant.” It is seldom<br /> now that you shall see an incompetent scribbler<br /> handled as he deserves. Perhaps we are afraid;<br /> perhaps we are more humane than our progenitors ;<br /> perhaps—and I fancy this is the most likely<br /> hypothesis—the critic is now almost invariably<br /> himself an author, and has a not unnatural<br /> sympathy with his victim.<br /> <br /> EK. H. Lacon Watson.<br /> <br /> ee se<br /> <br /> IF ONLY!<br /> <br /> aces<br /> By Onz wHo Dipn’t.<br /> <br /> ‘“ HAVE always said you were the coming<br /> man,” declared Ardale, with animation,<br /> “ and now you have come, my dear Lessing,<br /> no one rejoices in your good fortune more than I.”<br /> <br /> “Thank you,” said the man with a tired face<br /> who sat opposite to him, rolling a cigarette between<br /> thin, nervous fingers.<br /> <br /> “Only the other day,” pursued Ardale com-<br /> placently, “I was talking with Grantley about<br /> your stuff. He had just come across your first<br /> book and was effusing over it. Said he had never<br /> read such a first book. I told him that I had<br /> prognosticated your ultimate success from it,<br /> twenty-five years ago. You know I always boast<br /> that I discovered you.”<br /> <br /> “Yes,” said Lessing wearily. His face looked<br /> wan in the firelight, and his lips were strangely set.<br /> <br /> “One is always proud of having discovered<br /> genius before the great dunder-headed public<br /> realises it,” Ardale went on, warming with his<br /> subject. “Lord! what a time it takes to get<br /> anything into the common skull! I knew when<br /> I read your remarkable first book, that you’d get<br /> right there some day, sure enough; but it has<br /> taken the British public five-and-twenty years to<br /> recognise you.”<br /> <br /> He smiled in satisfaction at his own superior<br /> judgment, and flipped the ash from his cigarette<br /> as if it were vulgar opinion.<br />  <br /> <br /> 276<br /> <br /> “You knew twenty-five years ago that I&#039;d ‘ get<br /> there’ ; did you ?” said Lessing slowly.<br /> <br /> “JT did, by Jove!” declared the critic.<br /> <br /> “Then why the devil didn’t you say so, then?”<br /> demanded Lessing, with sudden fierceness. His<br /> friend gasped.<br /> <br /> “« My dear chap ’”’—he began.<br /> <br /> “Why didn’t you say so in print when I was<br /> fighting the uphill fight, longing and praying for<br /> the spark to set my name afire? What made you<br /> write columns about the men whose reputations<br /> were already established, who needed no aid to<br /> sell their thirty thousand copies? What?”<br /> <br /> “JT don’t remember ”—Ardale began to stammer.<br /> The content on his face had given way to a look<br /> of discomfiture.<br /> <br /> “No, you don’t; but I do. I remember well<br /> the time you were reviewing for the Daily Post,<br /> and I envied, with all my heart, your position on<br /> the staff of that important paper. I envied your<br /> power and those upon whom you bestowed it. I<br /> knew who wrote the notice of my first book in its<br /> columns. It was little more than a paragraph of<br /> commonplaces about ‘merit,’ ‘promise,’ and so<br /> forth, tucked away in a corner ignominiously as if<br /> to avoid the public eye. I knew, also, who wrote<br /> the two columns of pseudo-criticism and fulsome<br /> adulation that Sir Potter Patterson’s last novel<br /> received in the same issue. It was a silly, con-<br /> ventional pot-boiler, as you were well aware, but<br /> you treated it to an enthusiastic gush of applause<br /> that was read with an equally enthusiastic gush<br /> of acceptance from one end of England to another.<br /> Why did you do it? You knew the book was<br /> rot.”<br /> <br /> “My dear Lessing, how the deuce can I tell you<br /> now why I did idiotic things twenty-five years ago !<br /> A boy like that—let me see—not more than six or<br /> seven and twenty—I s<br /> <br /> “You were no boy, Ardale. You held a<br /> responsible post as critic on a leading paper, and<br /> you were qualified for it. I’m not saying a word<br /> against your lack of ability. You had ability and<br /> knew your business. You knew then, as well as<br /> you know now, a good thing when you saw it. Why<br /> could you not say so then, as you say itnow ? Why<br /> could you not give me acolumn of support then,<br /> when I needed it a thousand times more than I need<br /> it now? You gave me two in the Pioneer last<br /> week. It was waste of time and space. Hveryone<br /> reads my books, they no longer need advertisement.”<br /> <br /> “But, my dear man, that has nothing to do<br /> with the case. What editor do you suppose would<br /> afford a column to a young and unknown writer,<br /> however great his merits ? Don’t you know better<br /> than that ? Pray, be reasonable.’’<br /> <br /> “J am reasonable, and my common sense tells<br /> me that it is senseless to ‘ gild refined gold and<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> paint the lily’; that there is no earthly use in<br /> writing pages of gush about the work of an author<br /> whom everyone reads and judges for himself ;<br /> that it is worse than useless, it is degrading<br /> and abominable, to eulogise feeble work because<br /> the author of it has made a name; and that it is<br /> drivelling idiocy to write, as so many of you do,<br /> reams of abuse against some author you agree to<br /> despise. Your columns of vituperation against<br /> Ball Mayne’s last novel, a few weeks back, were<br /> <br /> as unnecessary and uncalled for as your adulation —<br /> <br /> of me.”<br /> <br /> “Upon my word, Lessing, you are in a strange<br /> mood to-day. What makes you so devilishly<br /> cornery ? Most men do not resent adulation, and<br /> as for Ball Mayne, he’s such a prig and self-<br /> advertising charlatan that a<br /> <br /> “You find it advisable to help advertise him by<br /> quoting yards of his stuff and exciting the curiosity<br /> of the public to know what has incurred your<br /> wrath! Really, Ardale, it surprises me that the<br /> absurdity of this does not strike any man with a<br /> sense of humour.”<br /> <br /> “Would you never, then, warn the public<br /> against rot?” demanded the critic testily.<br /> <br /> Lessing laughed. “Warn! Did you ever see<br /> a fence with ‘ Caution’ on it that you did not long<br /> to climb? Surely you, a man of the world, know<br /> the irresistible attraction of a warning. Every<br /> man Jack who read your savage onslaught the<br /> other day will have resolved, swr-le-champ, to read<br /> Mayne’s book, either to refute or agree with you.<br /> It’s human nature. ‘&#039;There’s only one way to treat<br /> bad work—ignoreit. Or, better still, zive it the same<br /> kind of faint praise and patronage you gave my<br /> first book. That will help it to die comfortably !”<br /> <br /> “Tt is all very well,” said Ardale impatiently,<br /> “to talk in that strain, as if we poor servants of<br /> the Press had any voice in the matter. But you<br /> must be perfectly aware of the fact that we havn&#039;t,<br /> that we are the slaves of demand and of the men<br /> who employ us. The public like to read about its<br /> celebrities and notorieties. How can space be<br /> spared for new men whom nobody knows, or cares,<br /> anything about ?”<br /> <br /> “It is the manifest duty of the Press to make<br /> the public ‘know and care,’ to hail fresh talent<br /> when it appears. How else can it be discovered ?<br /> The critic’s function is to lead and guide opinion,<br /> not follow weakly in its train. Instead of that<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> now-a-days, in England, at least, there’s a con- —<br /> <br /> spiracy against the new man, whatever his poten-<br /> tiality. He has to wrest his laurels from an<br /> unwilling Press, and if he has pluck and genius to<br /> succeed it isin the face of every obstacle the mind<br /> of man can devise. Whether this results most<br /> <br /> from ignorance, cowardice, jealousy or snobbery<br /> I can’t pretend to determine.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> .and I can’t have it.<br /> <br /> orange.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> ‘Your candour is refreshing,” said Ardale, with<br /> <br /> tight lips, “ but you forget vi<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “‘T forget nothing. I only know, and I convict<br /> you out of your own mouth, that when I was a<br /> youth and showed, as you admit, distinct talent,<br /> you gave me no encouragement whatever ; you<br /> slowed me down, crushed me back, wasted my best<br /> years—you and your damned crew—when half a<br /> column of good, strong arresting criticism would<br /> have called attention to my work and given me<br /> my chance. Shall I tell you what I thought then ;<br /> what I think now? It is that you are all cowards—<br /> shrinking pitiful cowards! You dare not give an<br /> independent verdict until the world has applauded ;<br /> <br /> you are afraid to let your voices be heard above<br /> <br /> the crowd. Can you deny it?”<br /> <br /> Ardale was silent a few minutes. Then he<br /> spoke, gently, as if arguing with an angry and<br /> unreasonable chiid.<br /> <br /> “T can’t understand you, Lessing ; for the life of<br /> me, I can’t. If you were some callow youth just<br /> starting on a literary career, full of bumption and<br /> resentful of criticism, your attitude would be<br /> natural enough. We all think, at that period,<br /> that the world is conspiring against our marvellous<br /> genius. But you—you who have ‘arrived,’ the<br /> man of the hour, the talk of Europe—I’ll be hanged<br /> if I can see what you have to complain of. A<br /> great name, a great fortune, a great future—what<br /> more can you want ?”’<br /> <br /> “JT want,” said Lessing slowly, “life, faith,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> enthusiasm. I want youth.”<br /> <br /> Ardale smiled.<br /> <br /> “Oh well, we all want that, when we’ve lost it.<br /> But it isn’t in the market.”<br /> <br /> “No; it isn’t in the market. It’s all I want,<br /> What I have, I don’t eare<br /> about. Under this flap,” he laid his hand upon<br /> his writing desk, ‘I have proofs of a new novel<br /> <br /> -and the last chapters of a serial ; I have requests<br /> <br /> for stories from several editors, on my own terms ;<br /> I have letters from foreign translators begging for<br /> right to translate my works ; I have offers from<br /> <br /> &#039; publishers that would make a young author&#039;s<br /> <br /> blood dance. I am getting royalties on all the<br /> books I ever wrote, and my plays are bringing me<br /> in seventy pounds a week. My income is fifteen<br /> thousand a year, and if I had time, or power, to<br /> write more words a day, I could double it. But<br /> what is the use of it all tome? I want nothing,<br /> need nothing, but peace and quietness.”<br /> <br /> “Oh come now,” protested Ardale.<br /> <br /> “T take little or no interest in my work. Some-<br /> times I hate it, and I know it is not so good as it<br /> was. I am wrung out, in fact, dry as an old<br /> And when I think of the days when one-<br /> <br /> hundredth part of what the world lavishes upon<br /> ‘me now would have made me deliriously happy—<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 277<br /> <br /> more than happy—would have opened heaven’s<br /> gates for me on earth—when I think of this, the<br /> horrible irony of it eats into my very sonl. I want<br /> to stand up before my fellows and curse this<br /> damnable ‘scheme of things entire’ that ‘either<br /> gives a stomach and no food,’ or food and no<br /> appetite. It enrages me!”<br /> <br /> “No good getting enraged,” counselled Ardale,<br /> with a fatuous smile; “console yourself with the<br /> reflection that all the younger men envy you your<br /> good fortune.’’ :<br /> <br /> “Console myself!” cried Lessing, “It is the<br /> thought of them that stings and lacerates me.<br /> Are you prepared to listen to a short story of real<br /> life, or will it bore you ?”<br /> <br /> “Go on,” said Ardale, watching him anxiously.<br /> “You are always interesting, even when you&#039;re<br /> serious and truthful. Most men aren’t. Go on.”<br /> <br /> Lessing rose and poured some brandy into a<br /> glass. Ardale had begun to notice that his face<br /> was ash-coloured.<br /> <br /> “Help yourself,’ he said, drinking the spirit<br /> raw. “I forget the duties of hospitality in the<br /> ardour of this discussion.”<br /> <br /> He seated himself again, paused a few moments,<br /> and then began his story.<br /> <br /> “Twenty-five years ago,” he began, “I was full<br /> of ambition and enthusiasm. Moreover, I was in<br /> <br /> love—in the way one loves at twenty-two. There<br /> wasn’t any other girl in the Cosmos. But her<br /> <br /> people were in a good position and they were kind<br /> to me, trusted me. It was impossible to requite<br /> that kindness and confidence by a cool request<br /> that they would endow me with their only daughter<br /> and a sufficient income to keep us both. And<br /> my income was nothing a year, with occasional<br /> accidental windfalls. So I kept quiet and the girl<br /> and I were—friends.”<br /> <br /> He drew a long breath.<br /> a little uneasily.<br /> <br /> “Tt was at that time,” Lessing continued, “I<br /> put all my hopes, longings, even prayers, into the<br /> novel which you said just now was a remarkable<br /> first book ; from which you deduced my future<br /> success. It was remarkable. Crudeand unfinished,<br /> it yet had something in it that will never be in<br /> my work again. I could write nothing so power-<br /> fal and convincing now, though I have learnt all<br /> the tricks—to make much out of little. Well, it<br /> came out. The girl was enchanted, excited. 1<br /> was in a burning fever of anticipation. ‘The reviews<br /> were all flattering, in that little easy, careless,<br /> patronising way which the young writer knows so<br /> well and finds so hard to bear. They were all nice,<br /> in fact, but they didn’t matter. They impressed<br /> nobody, least of all the most important persons—<br /> the autocrats and rulers of the market, those<br /> gigantic middlemen, the distributors upon whose<br /> <br /> Ardale shifted his seat<br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> 278<br /> <br /> will and whim we rise or sink. So my ‘promising’<br /> first book sank, buried under the heap of others<br /> that came out with it, Sir Potter Patterson’s silly<br /> pot-boiler atop. You, and others like you, might<br /> have saved it, might have run me, at least, into<br /> a second edition upon a wave of enthusiasm. But<br /> you dared not. I was a new man, and you<br /> distrusted your own discrimination too much.”<br /> <br /> “You do us an injustice, Lessing; we spoke<br /> well of the book, you admit that,” declared Ardale<br /> in a wounded tone.<br /> <br /> “JT admit that you poured a little stream of<br /> tepid praise upon it, while you exhausted all the<br /> complimentary adjectives in the language upon the<br /> work ofa well-known writer. Don’t be a humbug,<br /> Ardale. You know as well as I do that a certain<br /> sort of feeble praise damns a book more than any<br /> slating can. But to return to mystory. I was to<br /> receive a royalty of 10 per cent. on copies sold and<br /> £25 onaccount. I got the £25—and that was all.<br /> Then I began to debate with myself whether rat<br /> poison or the Thames offered the best mode of<br /> escape from a world that had no use for me.”<br /> <br /> “ Surely, it didn’t go as far as that with you!”<br /> said Ardale, shocked.<br /> <br /> “Just as far as that—the thought—but no<br /> farther. 1 accepted a post as war correspondent<br /> to a moribund paper, on very low terms. Some<br /> months later the girl wrote me a sweet, friendly<br /> letter asking advice. A nice man she rather liked,<br /> and her parents liked very much, had proposed to<br /> her. She did not wish to marry him, but she<br /> respected him, and might love him in time.<br /> Would I counsel her what to do. She knew I<br /> would understand and not think her horrid for<br /> writing. She would never be happy again if I<br /> thought her horrid. It was a pathetic little note,<br /> and tore me all to pieces. Of course I knew what<br /> she meant. There was no help for me. I wrote<br /> back and advised her to marry the nice man.”<br /> <br /> “You were a fool!” said Ardale with pleasure.<br /> lt gave him great satisfaction to return his friend’s<br /> candour.<br /> <br /> “T was—a proud fool. I ought to have told<br /> her the truth and left the matter with her. But<br /> you must remember I saw no prospects whatever<br /> of being able to keep a wife. The choice did not<br /> seem to lie between being a fool ora sensible man,<br /> but between being a rogue or a man of honour.<br /> So she married her nice man.”<br /> <br /> “ And you?”<br /> <br /> “J married, three years later, a writer, as you<br /> know. She was a journalist when we met, and we<br /> were excellent friends. But our wedded life wasn’t<br /> bliss. We did not often agree; we earned very<br /> little between us, and she hadn’t the remotest<br /> notion of engineering a frugal menage. We faced<br /> the sordid struggle, however, with some courage<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> for awhile. My second and third books came out,<br /> and each time we hoped afresh for the spark to fire<br /> it, the advertising puff that would give us some<br /> hold on the future. We even dared to have a<br /> child. But the books died and the child died,<br /> My wife lost heart—and faith in me. She left me<br /> for a bachelor existence, and I was not sorry. Since<br /> then I have lived alone. Five years ago she died.”<br /> <br /> “And now you are going to marry the most<br /> charming womanin London. Everyone raves of the<br /> <br /> beauty and goodness of Lady Evelyn. The masculine _<br /> <br /> half of society envies you like the devil!”<br /> <br /> “Tt is true,” said Lessing, “that Lady Evelyn is<br /> charming. I think her the most perfect woman I<br /> ey ever met. But I am not going to marry<br /> <br /> er.”<br /> <br /> “Not!”<br /> <br /> Ardale laid both hands on the arms of his chair,<br /> and looked as if about to spring up in surprise.<br /> *« You are not going to marry her, after having the<br /> engagement announced in all the society papers!<br /> In Heaven’s name, why not ?”<br /> <br /> “Because,” replied Lessing, with quiet emphasis,<br /> “Tam not going to marry at all.” He paused,<br /> then went on, with some apparent effort :<br /> <br /> “T am dying.”<br /> <br /> “Good God !”<br /> <br /> The two men stared into each other’s eyes<br /> speechlessly. In Ardale’s face a ghastly horror<br /> appeared, but Lessing’s bore no expression of dread<br /> or panic. His eyes were dark with feeling, his<br /> face pale, but he was quite calm.<br /> <br /> “You don’t mean it,”’ Ardale breathed.<br /> <br /> ‘‘T do. To-day I have had the third verdict on<br /> my case. All three specialists are in accord,<br /> They wrap up the death sentence with infinite<br /> tact and assure me, in the most genial and cheerful<br /> manner that, with care and luck, I may live quite<br /> a time—perhaps even a year !<br /> <br /> “Jt is horrible! horrible!” exclaimed Ardale,<br /> in sharp agony. ‘“ Just when you have made your<br /> name—when you have everything at your feet—I<br /> can’t believe it—I won’t.”<br /> <br /> The man of the world was thrown off his ©<br /> <br /> balance, tears stood in his eyes, and he trembled.<br /> <br /> ‘Tt is true, nevertheless.”<br /> <br /> “ T have known men under the same verdict go on<br /> gaily into old age. Specialists often err. They<br /> are cocksure of necessity to preserve their reputa-<br /> tion. You&#039;ll live, Lessing, you must.”<br /> <br /> “ Why should 1?” asked Lessing, ‘since &#039;ve<br /> <br /> no desire for life.”<br /> <br /> “‘ No desire!” echoed Ardale faintly.<br /> <br /> “Not the least. I’m too tired to enjoy it, to<br /> care about it. Pain has worn me out lately.<br /> Don’t look so tragic, Ardale. You must not<br /> frighten me, you know. A person with acute<br /> heart disease must be soothed, calmed, and told<br /> <br /> *<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 979<br /> <br /> lies about himself. You have no tact, man, or you<br /> would not look at me with such eyes.”<br /> <br /> j {His smile was whimsical; neither sad nor<br /> frightened, but a trifle nervous. For some time<br /> Ardale could not utter a word.<br /> <br /> Then he rose and held out his hand.<br /> <br /> “Tm sorry, Lessing,” he said in a voice that<br /> shook painfully. ‘‘ Forgive me for what I did not<br /> do, for the cowardice of which you so justly<br /> accuse me. But how should I know that you<br /> if only a<br /> <br /> “Tf only!” echoed Lessing.<br /> <br /> And the broken phrase, the most tragic in our<br /> language, melted like a twilight ghost into the<br /> silence of the room as Ardale went out with<br /> bowed head.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> se ee<br /> <br /> STORIES OF AUTHORS’ LOVES.*<br /> — 1<br /> N writing “Stories of Authors’ Loves” Clara<br /> I E. Lauchlin has set herself no easy task.<br /> Perhaps such a subject is best treated lightly<br /> and sympathetically, without probing much below<br /> the surface, or “violating the fine reticences of<br /> life.” Even authors may be allowed some privacy,<br /> some plot of holy ground where&#039;the public may not<br /> penetrate, where the intellectual man of science<br /> may not tear up the flowers with the questionable<br /> desire of seeing how they grow, or exhume long-<br /> buried bones of contention.<br /> <br /> The book contains much pleasant reading,<br /> though but little is added to the information<br /> already before the public to explain the motives or<br /> elucidate the mental development of those with<br /> whom the author deals. The style is easy and<br /> colloquial, almost too easy at times: for we are<br /> told tbat Byron was a “ preternaturally sensitive<br /> little chap,” and that his ancestors were a “ mixed<br /> lot.” By such phrases as these his subsequent<br /> lapses from virtue and general eccentricities are<br /> explained and condoned.<br /> <br /> Nowadays it is the fashion to whitewash every<br /> black sheep, but why should poor Lady Byron be<br /> dismissed with a few wordsof complacent ridicule for<br /> resenting his treatment of her; and Byron’s actions<br /> be gently alluded to as “very vexatious”? No early<br /> Victorian admirer could have said more for him.<br /> <br /> Shelley, on his side, might resent the playful<br /> raillery against his passions—such treatment re-<br /> minds us of a patronising Elder patting an excitable<br /> little boy on the head to calm him ;—with equal right<br /> he might object to the assumption that he was a<br /> child full of childishness up to the last hour of his<br /> life.<br /> <br /> But as the author states that “God only smiled<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> * “Stories of Authors’ Loves,” by Clara E, Lauchlin.<br /> Published by Isbister &amp; Co., London,<br /> <br /> patiently” on his blasphemy because he was so young:<br /> it is not for man—or woman—to take him seriously.<br /> <br /> Keats does not fare much better for another<br /> reason. His love was not ideal enough to save<br /> him from the tortures of jealousy, and, there-<br /> fore, loving in a low form, he was bound to be<br /> tormented where another would have found content.<br /> <br /> The tragedy of the Carlyles can hardly be dealt<br /> with adequately in a book which is intentionally<br /> superficial. ‘Therefore it is not surprising to find<br /> but a few pages devoted to their story.<br /> <br /> Love is the mainspring of the volume: it is<br /> natural, therefore, to find not only everything<br /> focussed on this point, but the character regarded<br /> as incomplete where that feeling is lacking or latent.<br /> Whilst acknowledging the truth of this view in<br /> the main, it does not quite reconcile us to the<br /> lofty pity extended to George Eliot’s earlier years<br /> any more than to the entire espousal of Byron’s<br /> cause on the plea that he had an early ideal in<br /> Thyrza, which led. him to find all other women<br /> who attracted him—and there were many—want-<br /> ing and unworthy of his fidelity.<br /> <br /> Surely the subjects under the author’s pen would<br /> infinitely prefer their original shortcomings left<br /> in all their bitterness and incompleteness : for they<br /> would then gain in strength what they Jost in<br /> sweetness. ‘The lack of strength is the principal<br /> fault in this book.<br /> <br /> The real success of the author lies in her de-<br /> scription of wedded bliss unmarred by storms or<br /> complications, though deferred by hard fate or<br /> obdurate fathers.<br /> <br /> The story of the Brownings affords an oppor-<br /> tunity for some charming writing and a real<br /> insight into a woman’s mind. ‘The Tennysons,<br /> too, have a graceful tribute to their love story,<br /> and a few lines at the close describing the wife<br /> who made his life so complete are worthy of<br /> quotation.<br /> <br /> “ Serene and sweet she walked by his side for<br /> more than forty years, quickening his insight,<br /> strengthening his faith, fulfiling his every heart’s<br /> desire : and when the eventide was come,<br /> <br /> “&lt;«Pwilight and evening bell,<br /> And after that the dark.’<br /> <br /> “She was still there, nor let go his hand until he<br /> put it in that of the pilot himself, when he had<br /> crossed the bar.”<br /> <br /> Other lives, not so fortunate, figure in these<br /> pages. Dickens, Thackeray, and poor Charles<br /> Lamb, who renounced so much for a different sort<br /> of love. The book has a wide range and aims<br /> high, but lacks the strength and breadth of a<br /> serious study for serious people. It would be an<br /> excellent book for girls if it were a little more<br /> bracing, but here also it fails. Whilst fall of high<br /> ideals and the praise of true love as distinct from<br />  <br /> <br /> 278<br /> <br /> will and whim we rise or sink. So my ‘promising’<br /> first book sank, buried under the heap of others<br /> that came out with it, Sir Potter Patterson’s silly<br /> pot-boiler atop. You, and others like you, might<br /> have saved it, might have run me, at least, into<br /> a second edition upon a wave of enthusiasm. But<br /> you dared not. I was a new man, and you<br /> distrusted your own discrimination too much.”<br /> <br /> “You do us an injustice, Lessing ; we spoke<br /> well of the book, you admit that,” declared Ardale<br /> in a wounded tone.<br /> <br /> “JT admit that you poured a little stream of<br /> tepid praise upon it, while you exhausted all the<br /> complimentary adjectives in the language upon the<br /> work ofa well-known writer. Don’t be a humbug,<br /> Ardale. You know as well as I do that a certain<br /> sort of feeble praise damns a book more than any<br /> slating can. But to return to mystory. I was to<br /> receive a royalty of 10 per cent. on copies sold and<br /> £25 onaccount. I got the £25—and that was all.<br /> Then I began to debate with myself whether rat<br /> poison or the Thames offered the best mode of<br /> escape from a world that had no use for me.”<br /> <br /> “ Surely, it didn’t go as far as that with you!”<br /> said Ardale, shocked. &#039;<br /> <br /> “Just as far as that—the thonght—but no<br /> farther. 1 accepted a post as war correspondent<br /> to a moribund paper, on very low terms. Some<br /> months later the girl wrote me a sweet, friendly<br /> letter asking advice. A nice man she rather liked,<br /> and her parents liked very much, had proposed to<br /> her. She did not wish to marry him, but she<br /> respected him, and might love him in time.<br /> Would I counsel her what to do. She knew I<br /> would understand and not think her horrid for<br /> writing. She would never be happy again if I<br /> thought her horrid. It was a pathetic little note,<br /> and tore me all to pieces. Of course I knew what<br /> she meant. There was no help for me. I wrote<br /> back and advised her to marry the nice man.”<br /> <br /> “You were a fool!” said Ardale with pleasure.<br /> lt gave him great satisfaction to return his friend’s<br /> candour.<br /> <br /> ““T was—a proud fool. I ought to have told<br /> her the truth and left the matter with her. But<br /> you must remember I saw no prospects whatever<br /> of being able to keep a wife. The choice did not<br /> seem to lie between being a fool ora sensible man,<br /> but between being a rogue or a man of honour.<br /> So she married her nice man.”<br /> <br /> “And you?”<br /> <br /> “TI married, three years later, a writer, as you<br /> know. She was a journalist when we met, and we<br /> were excellent friends. But our wedded life wasn’t<br /> bliss. We did not often agree; we earned very<br /> little between us, and she hadn’t the remotest<br /> notion of engineering a frugal menage. We faced<br /> the sordid struggle, however, with some courage<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> for awhile. My second and third books came out,<br /> and each time we hoped afresh for the spark to fire<br /> it, the advertising puff that would give us some<br /> hold on the future. We even dared to have a<br /> child. But the books died and the child died,<br /> My wife lost heart—and faith in me. She left me<br /> for a bachelor existence, and I was not sorry. Since<br /> then I have lived alone. Five years ago she died.”<br /> <br /> “And now you are going to marry the most<br /> charming womanin London. Everyone raves of the<br /> beauty and goodness of Lady Evelyn. The masculine<br /> half of society envies you like the devil!”<br /> <br /> “Tt is true,” said Lessing, “ that Lady Evelyn is<br /> <br /> charming. I think her the most perfect woman I<br /> have ever met. But I am not going to marry<br /> her.”<br /> <br /> “Not!”<br /> <br /> Ardale laid both hands on the arms of his chair,<br /> and looked as if about to spring up in surprise.<br /> «You are not going to marry her, after having the<br /> engagement announced in all the society papers!<br /> In Heaven’s name, why not?”<br /> <br /> “ Because,” replied Lessing, with quiet emphasis,<br /> “Tam not going to marry at all.” He paused,<br /> then went on, with some apparent effort :<br /> <br /> “T am dying.”<br /> <br /> “Good God!”<br /> <br /> The two men stared into each other’s eyes<br /> speechlessly. In Ardale’s face a ghastly horror<br /> appeared, but Lessing’s bore no expression of dread<br /> or panic. His eyes were dark with feeling, his<br /> face pale, but he was quite calm.<br /> <br /> “ You don’t mean it,” Ardale breathed.<br /> <br /> ‘‘T do. To-day I have had the third verdict on<br /> my case. All three specialists are in accord,<br /> They wrap up the death sentence with infinite<br /> tact and assure me, in the most genial and cheerful<br /> manner that, with care and luck, I may live quite<br /> a time—perhaps even a year !<br /> <br /> “Tt is horrible! horrible!” exclaimed Ardale,<br /> in sharp agony. ‘Just when you have made your<br /> name—when you have everything at your feet—I<br /> can’t believe it—I won’t.”<br /> <br /> The man of the world was thrown off his ~<br /> <br /> balance, tears stood in his eyes, and he trembled.<br /> <br /> ‘“‘ Tt is true, nevertheless.”<br /> <br /> «“ T have known men under the same verdict go on<br /> gaily into old age. Specialists often err. They<br /> are cocksure of necessity to preserve their reputa-<br /> tion. You&#039;ll live, Lessing, you must.”<br /> <br /> no desire for life.”<br /> <br /> “No desire!” echoed Ardale faintly.<br /> <br /> “Not the least. I’m too tired to enjoy it, to<br /> care about it. Pain has worn me out lately.<br /> Don’t look so tragic, Ardale. You must not<br /> <br /> frighten me, you know. A person with acute<br /> heart disease must be soothed, calmed, and told —<br /> <br /> *<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 4<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ee ee eee<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “Why should 1?” asked Lessing, “since I&#039;ve | | é<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> lies about himself. You have no tact, man, or you<br /> would not look at me with such eyes.”<br /> <br /> f tHis smile was whimsical; neither sad nor<br /> frightened, but a trifle nervous. For some time<br /> Ardale could not utter a word.<br /> <br /> Then he rose and held out his hand.<br /> <br /> “Tm sorry, Lessing,’ he said in a voice that<br /> shook painfully. ‘‘ Forgive me for what I did not<br /> do, for the cowardice of which you so justly<br /> accuse me. But how should I know that you<br /> if only u<br /> <br /> “Tf only!” echoed Lessing.<br /> <br /> And the broken phrase, the most tragic in our<br /> language, melted like a twilight ghost into the<br /> silence of the room as Ardale went out with<br /> bowed head.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ————_—__—&gt;—_+-—___—-<br /> <br /> STORIES OF AUTHORS’<br /> <br /> ee<br /> N writing “Stories of Authors’ Loves” Clara<br /> E. Lauchlin has set herself no easy task.<br /> Perhaps such a subject is best treated lightly<br /> and sympathetically, without probing much below<br /> the surface, or “violating the fine reticences of<br /> life.” Even authors may be allowed some privacy,<br /> some plot of holy ground wherethe public may not<br /> penetrate, where the intellectual man of science<br /> may not tear up the flowers with the questionable<br /> desire of seeing how they grow, or exhume long-<br /> buried bones of contention.<br /> <br /> The book contains much pleasant reading,<br /> though but little is added to the information<br /> already before the public to explain the motives or<br /> elucidate the mental development of those with<br /> whom the author deals. The style is easy and<br /> colloquial, almost too easy at times: for we are<br /> told that Byron was a “ preternaturally sensitive<br /> little chap,” and that his ancestors were a “ mixed<br /> lot.” By such phrases as these his subsequent<br /> lapses from virtue and general eccentricities are<br /> explained and condoned.<br /> <br /> Nowadays it is the fashion to whitewash every<br /> black sheep, but why should poor Lady Byron be<br /> dismissed with a few words of complacent ridicule for<br /> resenting his treatment of her ; and Byron’s actions<br /> be gently alluded to as ‘‘very vexatious”? No early<br /> Victorian admirer could have said more for him.<br /> <br /> Shelley, on his side, might resent the playful<br /> raillery against his passions—such treatment re-<br /> minds us of a patronising Elder patting an excitable<br /> little boy on the head to calm him ;—with equal right<br /> he might object to the assumption that he was a<br /> child full of childishness up to the last hour of his<br /> life.<br /> <br /> But as the author states that “ God only smiled<br /> <br /> LOVES.*<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> *“ Stories of Authors’ Loves,” by Clara E. Lauchlin,<br /> Published by Isbister &amp; Co., London,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 279<br /> <br /> patiently” on his blasphemy because he was so young,<br /> it is not for man—or woman—to take him seriously.<br /> <br /> Keats does not fare much better for another<br /> reason. His love was not ideal enough to save<br /> him from the tortures of jealousy, and, there-<br /> fore, loving in a low form, he was bound to be<br /> tormented where another would have found content.<br /> <br /> The tragedy of the Carlyles can hardly be dealt<br /> with adequately in a book which is intentionally<br /> superficial, ‘Therefore it is not surprising to find<br /> but a few pages devoted to their story.<br /> <br /> Love is the mainspring of the volume: it is<br /> natural, therefore, to find not only everything<br /> focussed on this point, but the character regarded<br /> as incomplete where that feeling is lacking or latent.<br /> Whilst acknowledging the truth of this view in<br /> the main, it does not quite reconcile us to the<br /> lofty pity extended to George Eliot’s earlier years<br /> any more than to the entire espousal of Byron’s<br /> cause on the plea that he had an early ideal in<br /> Thyrza, which led. him to find all other women<br /> who attracted him—and there were many—want-<br /> ing and unworthy of his fidelity.<br /> <br /> Surely the subjects under the author’s pen would<br /> infinitely prefer their original shortcomings left<br /> in all their bitterness and incompleteness : for they<br /> would then gain in strength what they Jost in<br /> sweetness. ‘The lack of strength is the principal<br /> fault in this book.<br /> <br /> The real success of the author lies in her de-<br /> scription of wedded bliss unmarred by storms or<br /> complications, though deferred by hard fate or<br /> obdurate fathers.<br /> <br /> The story of the Brownings affords an oppor-<br /> tunity for some charming writing and a real<br /> insight into a woman’s mind. The Tennysons,<br /> too, have a graceful tribute to their love story,<br /> and a few lines at the close describing the wife<br /> who made his life so complete are worthy of<br /> quotation.<br /> <br /> “ Serene and sweet she walked by his side for<br /> more than forty years, quickening his insight,<br /> strengthening his faith, fulfiling his every heart’s<br /> desire : and when the eventide was come,<br /> <br /> “* Twilight and evening bell,<br /> And after that the dark.’<br /> <br /> “She was still there, nor let go his hand until he<br /> put it in that of the pilot himself, when he had<br /> crossed the bar.”<br /> <br /> Other lives, not so fortunate, figure in these<br /> pages. Dickens, Thackeray, and poor Charles<br /> Lamb, who renounced so much for a different sort<br /> of love. The book has a wide range and aims<br /> high, but lacks the strength and breadth of a<br /> serious study for serious people. It would be an<br /> excellent book for girls if it were a little more<br /> bracing, but here also it fails. Whilst full of high<br /> ideals and the praise of true love as distinct from<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 280<br /> <br /> expediency, or the “second best,” it is uncon-<br /> vincing, and leaves an impression of sweet senti-<br /> ments wanting tone. The idea is there, but the<br /> vigour is lacking.<br /> <br /> ——— +<br /> <br /> CORRESPONDENCE.<br /> <br /> —t——+ ——<br /> <br /> Is “AuTHor” A PROPER DESCRIPTION ?<br /> <br /> Srr,— In signing some legal papers recently I<br /> was surprised to have it objected by the solicitor<br /> then present that the term author was no proper<br /> “description.” “Journalist” and “ editor” he<br /> allowed were admissible, but not “author.” In<br /> fine, faute de mieux, there I was, reduced to brand-<br /> ing myself as “of no occupation.” I wish to ask,<br /> sir, whether the being reduced to so extenuated a<br /> condition does not, in duly qualified opinion,<br /> literally constitute a reductio ad absurdum. As<br /> a class, it seems to me, authors must be up to<br /> something ; and, if so, that something should be<br /> describable. Indeed, have they not, like Cowley’s<br /> wise man, “all the works of God and Nature under<br /> consideration,” and so more business than a first<br /> minister:of State? Can it be, then, that there is<br /> no name for so comprehensive an occupation as<br /> this ; and that, contrary to the rule, a man may<br /> be veritably in the midst of the most important<br /> affairs, and yet nominally ‘of no occupation ”<br /> at all?<br /> <br /> Shakespeare in his will describes himself briefly<br /> asa “gent.” That is not bad ; but too general to<br /> serve as a precedent here. ‘Thoreau, to make a.<br /> skip, experienced more difficulty in the matter<br /> “T don’t know”—he wrote in answer to a circular<br /> —‘T don’t know whether mine is a profession or<br /> a trade, or what not. ... It is not one, but<br /> legion. . . . My steadiest employment, if such it<br /> can be called, is to keep myself at the top of my<br /> condition, and ready for whatever may turn up in<br /> heaven or earth.” Consulting ‘‘ Who’s Who,” I<br /> find much the same uncertainty. Some writers call<br /> themselves writers, some authors, some men of<br /> letters, some novelists, some critics, some poets ;<br /> and, of course, there is a heavy percentage of the<br /> legitimate “ journalist ” and “editor,” with possibly<br /> a stray essayist, philosopher, or publicist thrown<br /> in. But, apart from too fine a specialization, the<br /> question is, what should be the accredited and<br /> authentic designation of a person who writes, not<br /> for any paper or magazine, nor exclusively in any<br /> way, but, in general, publishing a book every now<br /> and again? Further, the mere publishing of a<br /> book only makes one half an author (which is<br /> worse than none). Unless the public ratifies the<br /> <br /> title, it has a savour of presumption to appropriate<br /> There seems something<br /> <br /> it without more ado.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> spurious about the “author” who, for all the<br /> reading world knows of him, is none. Yet what<br /> is such a one to call himself meanwhile ?—author-<br /> prospective, author-presumptive ?<br /> <br /> Norman ALLISTON.<br /> —-—~&lt;&gt; +<br /> SatomE: A REMINISCENCE.<br /> Sir,—The belated performance of Oscar Wilde’s<br /> <br /> play must have recalled forcibly to the minds of<br /> <br /> many of us the events of a certain evening just<br /> thirteen years ago when the inaugural dinner of the<br /> Authors’ Club was held at its first home, 17,<br /> St. James’ Place.<br /> <br /> Unless I am much mistaken the ban of the<br /> censor had been issued against Salomé that very<br /> afternoon.<br /> still smarted under the prohibition when he joined<br /> us on that memorable night in June. Those who<br /> listened to his speech on that occasion can scarcely<br /> have doubted this, or have been deceived by the<br /> “J don’t care” with which the dramatist announced<br /> the fact, as he waved his cigarette in the air with<br /> seeming indifference to a decision which, you may<br /> depend upon it, was very keenly felt.<br /> <br /> To-day, as things have gone, one is tempted to<br /> reflect how it might have been more wise and<br /> kindly to have still accepted the examiner’s inter-<br /> dict and withheld Salomé from the boards<br /> <br /> altogether. OLD Brrp.<br /> <br /> — +<br /> <br /> REVIEWING EXTRAORDINARY.<br /> <br /> Dear Srr,—May I draw your attention to an<br /> innovation in the matter of reviewing which con-<br /> stitutes, I consider, a dangerous abuse? In a<br /> review: of my book, “The Child Slaves of<br /> Britain,” which appeared in the Daily News on<br /> the 8th of April, the following sentence occurs +<br /> “But in his summary he singularly enough<br /> announces that ‘the real root of slavery m<br /> England rests in the free ingress of aliens.’”<br /> The passage I have italicised was put im<br /> inverted commas as though a quotation from<br /> my book. The reviewer next proceeded to show<br /> <br /> its inanity. I at once wrote to the editor to say —<br /> that no such passage occurred anywhere in my<br /> book, that it was entirely opposed to my own —<br /> <br /> views on the question, that I considered it absurd<br /> and imbecile, and I asked him to be so good as to<br /> insert my disclaimer. To tell the public that my<br /> book was based on such a theory was to discredit<br /> the book and injure its chances.<br /> the Daily News took no notice of my letter and<br /> inserted no rectification.<br /> <br /> Yours faithfully, Ropert SHERARD.<br /> <br /> At any rate, the gifted writer thereof<br /> <br /> The editor of —<br /> <br /> Is this fair play ?— a	https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/506/1905-06-01-The-Author-15-9.pdf	publications, The Author
507	https://historysoa.com/items/show/507	The Author, Vol. 15 Issue 10 (July 1905)	<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=%3Cem%3EThe+Author%3C%2Fem%3E%2C+Vol.+15+Issue+10+%28July+1905%29"><em>The Author</em>, Vol. 15 Issue 10 (July 1905)</a>											<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Publication">Publication</a>	1905-07-01-The-Author-15-10					281–312																		<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=89&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=15">15</a>											<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=76&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1905-07-01">1905-07-01</a>							10			19050701	Che Huthor.<br /> <br /> (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)<br /> <br /> FOUNDED BY SIR<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> JULY Ist, 1905.<br /> <br /> Von. XV.—No. 10.<br /> <br /> WALTER BESANT.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> [Prick SrxPEnor.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> TELEPHONE NuMBER :<br /> <br /> 374 VICTORIA.<br /> TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS :<br /> <br /> AUTORIDAD, LONDON.<br /> <br /> SS a oe ee<br /> <br /> NOTICES.<br /> <br /> —_+~&lt;— + —__<br /> <br /> 1. the opinions expressed in papers that are<br /> signed or initialled the authors alone are<br /> responsible. None of the’ papers or para-<br /> graphs must be taken as expressing the opinion<br /> of the Committee unless such is especially stated<br /> to be the case.<br /> <br /> Tue Editor begs to inform members of the<br /> Authors’ Society and other readers of The Author<br /> that the cases which are from time to time quoted<br /> in The Author are cases that have come before the<br /> notice or to the knowledge of the Secretary of the<br /> Society, and that those members of the Society<br /> who desire to have the names of the publishers<br /> concerned can obtain them on application.<br /> <br /> — oe<br /> <br /> List of Members.<br /> <br /> THE List of Members of the Society of Authors<br /> published October, 1902, at the price of 6d., and<br /> the elections from October, 1902, to July, 1903, as<br /> a supplemental list, at the price of 2d., can now be<br /> obtained at the offices of the Society.<br /> <br /> They will be sold to members or associates of<br /> the Society only.<br /> <br /> —1—~&gt;—+<br /> <br /> The Pension Fund of the Society.<br /> <br /> Tue Trustees of the Pension Fund met at the<br /> Society’s Offices in April, 1905, and having gone<br /> carefully into the accounts of the fund, decided<br /> to invest a further sum. ‘They have now pur-<br /> <br /> chased £200 Egyptian Government Irrigation<br /> Vou. XV.<br /> <br /> Trust 4 per cent. Certificates, bringing the invest-<br /> <br /> ments of the fund to the figures set out below.<br /> This is a statement of the actual stock ; the<br /> <br /> money value can be easily worked out at the current<br /> <br /> price of the market :—<br /> <br /> CO a £1000 0 0<br /> <br /> Hoeal Loans: 45 500 0 0<br /> Victorian Government 3 % Consoli-<br /> dated Inscribed Stock —.............. 291 19 11<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> War boen eo 201 9 3<br /> London and North Western 3 % Deben-<br /> (URE; BLOCK 200 0 0<br /> Egyptian Government Trigation<br /> Trust 4 % Certificates 200 0 0<br /> Hotal 3. £24439 2<br /> Subscriptions, 1905. £ 8. a.<br /> Jan. 12, Anonymous . : : 0 2.6<br /> June 16, Teignmouth-Shore, the Rev.<br /> Canon . : : : : 1 1 0<br /> Donations, 1905.<br /> Jan. Middlemas, Miss Jean 010 0<br /> Jan. Bolton, Miss Anna i) 50<br /> Jan. 24, Barry, Miss Fanny. 0. &gt; 0<br /> Jan. 27, Bencke, Albert 0:5 0<br /> Jan. 28, Harcourt-Roe, Mrs. 010 0<br /> Feb. 18, French-Sheldon, Mrs. 0-100<br /> Feb. 21, Lyall, Sir Alfred, P.C. Lt 06<br /> Mar. 28, Kirmse, Mrs. 0710-6<br /> April19, Hornung, HK. W. . 25.0.0<br /> May 7, Wynne, 0. Whitworth 508<br /> May 16, Alsing, Mrs. J. H. 0 5 0<br /> May 17, Anonymous . ‘ Tl 8<br /> June 6, Drummond, Hamilto B38 0<br /> Oe<br /> COMMITTEE NOTES.<br /> + —&lt;— #<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> HE June meeting of the committee of<br /> management of the Society of Authors<br /> was held at 39, Old Queen Street, Storey’s<br /> <br /> Gate, 8.W., on Monday, the 5th day of June.<br /> After the minutes of the last meeting had been<br /> read and signed, the committee proceeded with<br />  <br /> <br /> 282<br /> <br /> the election of new members and associates.<br /> Eighteen were elected. This brings the total<br /> for the current year up to 117, a number quite up<br /> to the average of former years.<br /> <br /> A difficult question arising out of Mr. Grant<br /> Richards’ bankruptcy, on which the committee<br /> decided at their last meeting to take counsel’s<br /> opinion, was then brought forward, and counsel’s<br /> opinion was read. As it strongly upheld the<br /> justice of the member&#039;s contention, the committee<br /> decided, with the member’s approval, to take up<br /> the matter.<br /> <br /> ‘A case that came before the committee’s notice<br /> at their last meeting was reconsidered owing to<br /> some fresh evidence which had been obtained in<br /> further explanation of the present position of the<br /> member whose property was involved. The com-<br /> mittee decided to obtain counsel’s opinion on the<br /> difficult points of law with a view to ascertaining<br /> whether or not it would be possible to support the<br /> member by taking action.<br /> <br /> The secretary laid before the committee, at<br /> some length, the present financial position of the<br /> society. He informed the committee that the<br /> income of the society at the present date from<br /> subscriptions was approximately £120 in excess of<br /> its income from the same source at the corre-<br /> sponding period in 1904.<br /> <br /> The question of the general lien claimed by<br /> binders again came forward for discussion, as fresh<br /> information and documents were submitted from<br /> the Association of Wholesale Stationers. The<br /> question, however, had again to be deferred, in<br /> order that the committee might have an oppor-<br /> tunity of perusing the opinion of counsel, which<br /> the ‘Association of Wholesale Stationers had<br /> obtained, but had omitted to forward for the<br /> committee’s consideration.<br /> <br /> A curious point then arose touching a question<br /> of infringement of copyright, in which it was alleged<br /> that an American had altered the names and locale<br /> of a story belonging to one of the members of the<br /> society ; had sold it to a magazine in America,<br /> who had again sold the English rights to a maga-<br /> zine in England. In consequence, the magazine<br /> proprietor in England had infringed the rights of<br /> the member. The committee decided that if they<br /> had clear evidence of the facts the matter should<br /> be taken up on behalf of the member. It was,<br /> however, resolved to ascertain first whether the<br /> proprietor of the English magazine was prepared<br /> to take such steps as might obviate the necessity<br /> for the society’s intervention.<br /> <br /> One or two other minor matters were con-<br /> sidered. In one instance a member objected<br /> to pay his subscription because the committee,<br /> in accordance with the strong advice of the<br /> society’s solicitors, had refused to take his case<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> up. It is well to note, in connection with this<br /> case, that the committee, in the discharge of their<br /> duty to the society, must in all cases carefully<br /> weigh the expressed legal opinion of their solicitors<br /> and their secretary ; but that if individual mem-<br /> bers should be dissatisfied with any decisions so<br /> arrived at by the committee, it is always open to<br /> them to test the soundness of the committee’s<br /> decisions, by taking action on their own account.<br /> <br /> —+- &lt;&gt;<br /> Cases.<br /> <br /> Tux secretary has dealt with ten cases since the<br /> publication of the last issue of The Author. Three<br /> of these referred to claims for MSS. which have<br /> been detained by editors. In two the secretary<br /> has been successful, the MSS. having been returned<br /> and forwarded to the members. One question has<br /> arisen concerning the settlement of an agreement,<br /> and the matter is still in course of negotiation.<br /> Four cases have been brought forward where money<br /> overdue for work accepted or published has not<br /> been forwarded to the authors. One of these cases<br /> has been placed in the hands of the society’s<br /> solicitors to settle in the County Court if necessary,<br /> one is still in course of negotiation, and in the<br /> other two cases the money has been obtained and<br /> forwarded to the members. There have been two<br /> cases where accounts have not been rendered nor<br /> the money due, if any, paid, and it is hoped that<br /> these two matters will be settled shortly.<br /> <br /> One of the cases referred to in a former number<br /> of The Author, which was placed in the hands of<br /> the Society’s solicitors, has been settled.<br /> <br /> The publisher, in the first instance, offered to pay<br /> a portion of the amount claimed ; he made, as is<br /> his wont, the offer direct to the author, and ignored<br /> the society and its solicitors. The author, however,<br /> referred the matter again to the society, and on<br /> the advice of the solicitors that the case was @<br /> thoroughly sound one, and that there was no reason<br /> whatever why he should accept the smaller amount,<br /> he instructed the solicitors to refuse the smaller<br /> sum on his behalf.<br /> <br /> Within three days of the date of the refusal, the<br /> full amount claimed was paid to the solicitors.<br /> <br /> ‘All the former cases mentioned in the previous<br /> number have been settled, with the exception of a<br /> dispute on an agreement, where the member resides —<br /> in Australia, The Australian case must take some —<br /> time before a final arrangement is arrived at.<br /> <br /> —-—&lt;&gt; + —<br /> <br /> June Elections.<br /> <br /> Aveling, Claud 105, Coleherne Court,<br /> <br /> S.W. a<br /> Barrow, Arthur G. 16, Drummond Street,<br /> Carlton, Melbourne,<br /> <br /> Australia.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> E<br /> <br /> edd<br /> OS<br /> Se<br /> <br /> a<br /> <br /> es<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Blair, Hugh, M.A. Osnaburgh House,<br /> Regent’s Park, N.W.<br /> Carstairs, R.<br /> Dodd, James J. 23, Scarborough Street,<br /> West Hartlepool.<br /> The Pool House, Astley,<br /> near Stourport.<br /> 27, Palace Street, W.<br /> Whitemere, Ellesmere.<br /> 39, Phillimore Gardens,<br /> Kensington, W.<br /> Meares Court, Mullingar<br /> West View, South Farm<br /> Road, Worthing, Sussex.<br /> 68, Oakhurst Grove,<br /> E. Dulwich, S.E.<br /> <br /> Viewhurst, Westerham,<br /> <br /> Everett, Mrs.<br /> <br /> Godfrey, Percy .<br /> Jebb, Miss Louisa<br /> Maitland, J. A. Fuller<br /> <br /> Moore, Miss Florence<br /> <br /> Naylor-Gobel, Miss<br /> Sarah (Harvey-Gobel)<br /> <br /> Nott, Frederick O. W.<br /> <br /> Robertson, J. M.<br /> <br /> Kent.<br /> Rose, Miss Ada M. Abbotsford, Ealing<br /> (Aveling Rose) Common,<br /> Rowe, Mrs. ; St. Anne’s, Surrey Road,<br /> Bournemouth.<br /> <br /> Pioneer Club, 5, Grafton<br /> Street, W.<br /> <br /> Rowlands, Mrs. Bowen<br /> (Robert Herriot)<br /> <br /> Teignmouth-Shore, The<br /> Rev. Canon<br /> <br /> Wilberforce, Basil, The<br /> Very Rey. the Arch-<br /> deacon of Westminster<br /> <br /> Athenseum Club, 8.W.<br /> <br /> 20, Dean’s Yard, S.W.<br /> 8<br /> <br /> BOOKS PUBLISHED BY MEMBERS OF<br /> THE SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> Sr ee<br /> <br /> (In the following list we do not propose to give more<br /> than the titles, prices, publishers, etc., of the books<br /> enumerated, with, in special cases, such particulars as may<br /> serve to explain the scope and purpose of the work.<br /> Members are requested to forward information which will<br /> enable the Editor to supply particulars. )<br /> <br /> BIOGRAPHY.<br /> THe LIFE OF Mary QUEEN or Scots. By H1LpA T.<br /> SKAE. 72 x 5. 207 pp. Maclaren. 2s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> THE LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL WAUCHOPE, C.B., C.M.G.<br /> By Sirk Gro. Doucenas, Bart. 8 x 350 pp.<br /> Hodder and Stoughton. 6s.<br /> <br /> BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG.<br /> <br /> THE HEROES of Moss HALLISCHOOL. By E. OC. KENYON,<br /> With seven illustrations by ALFRED PEARSE. 8 x 54,<br /> 383 pp. Religious Tract Society. 3s. 6d.<br /> <br /> DRAMA.<br /> <br /> HL<br /> Og:<br /> <br /> Manasena. A Play in Three Acts by MAURICE BARING.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 7% x 5. Simpkin<br /> <br /> 49 pp. Oxford: Blackwell. London :<br /> Marshall.<br /> <br /> Is. n.<br /> EDUCATION.<br /> <br /> AN ENGLISH CHURCH HISTORY CHILDREN,<br /> <br /> FOR<br /> <br /> A.D. 597—1066. By MAry E.SHIPLEY. With a preface<br /> by Wm. Epwarp Couuins, DD., Bishop of Gibraltar.<br /> 7% x 5.<br /> <br /> 235 x 40 pp. Methuen. 2s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> 283<br /> <br /> Der UNGEBETENE Gast, AND OTHER PLAYS. By E. 8.<br /> BUCHHEIM (Short German Plays, Second Series).<br /> 6% x 43. 91 pp. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 2s, 6d.<br /> <br /> FICTION.<br /> <br /> THE FLUTE oF Pan. A Romance, By JoHN OLIVER<br /> HOBBES. 72 x 5. 303 pp. Unwin. ‘6s.<br /> <br /> A VILLAGE CHRONICLE. By KATHERINE 8S, Macquorp.<br /> With illustrations by FORESTIER. (4 x 42 306 pp.<br /> Digby Long. 6s.<br /> <br /> A Mainsatin Haun. By JoHN MASErIELp. A oe<br /> 128 pp. Mathews. 1s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> A GRAND DUKE OF RussIA. A Story of the Upheaval.<br /> By FrReD WHISHAW. 7% x 4%. 305 pp. White. 6s.<br /> THE YELLOW WAVE. By M.P. Shinn. 7% x 5. 317 pp.<br /> <br /> Ward Lock. 6s,<br /> <br /> MAID MARGARET. ByS. R. CRocKErT, 8} x 5.<br /> Hodder and Stoughton. 6s.<br /> <br /> Don TarQuinio. A Kataleptic Phantasmatic Romance.<br /> By F.RouFE. 7% x 4%. 257 pp. Chatto and Windus. 6s.<br /> <br /> PoveRTY Bay. A Nondescript Novel. Illustrated by<br /> <br /> Bh<br /> <br /> 417 pp.<br /> <br /> Harry Furniss, and written by the Artist. 8 x 5g.<br /> 273 pp. Chapman and Hall. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE Day&#039;s Journey. By NETTA SyReErt, 7% x 48,<br /> 316 pp. Chapman and Hall. 6s.<br /> <br /> It’s a Way THEY HAVE IN THE ARMY. By Lapy<br /> HELEN ForBEs. 7} x 43. 309 pp. Duckworth. 63.<br /> <br /> THE MEMOIRS OF CONSTANTINE DIX,<br /> 7% x 49. 206 pp. Unwin. 3s. 6d.<br /> THE GRAND DvuxKeE. By CARLTON DAWE. 72<br /> 336 pp. Hutchinson. 6s.<br /> THE DoG FROM CLARKSON’S.<br /> <br /> By BARRY PAIN.<br /> x 43,<br /> <br /> A Vagary. By DESMOND<br /> <br /> F. T. Coke. 74 x 5. 268 pp. Illustrated. Jarrold.<br /> 3s. 6d.<br /> LAW.<br /> THE INDIAN ConTrAct Law. With a commentary,<br /> <br /> critical and explanatory. By Str F. Ponuock, Bart,<br /> Assisted by DIN SHAH FARDUNJI MuLLA, M.A., LL.B.<br /> 92 x 6. 623 pp. Sweet and Maxwell. 25s, n.<br /> <br /> LITERARY.<br /> <br /> CHAUCER; PROLOGUE TO THE CANTERBURY TALES. 6d.<br /> MILTON : SAMSON AGONISTES. 6d. MILTON: Comus.<br /> 6d. GOLDSMITH: THE DESERTED VILLAGE. 4d.<br /> Edited by C. T, OnIoNS, M.A., Lond., in The Carmelite<br /> Classics. 6 x 43. Horace Marshall &amp; Son.<br /> <br /> MILITARY.<br /> WITH THE RUSSIANS IN MANCHURIA. By MAURICE<br /> <br /> BARING. 9 x 53. 205+40 pp. Methuen. 7s. 6s. n.<br /> POETRY.<br /> MoMENTS. By DouGLAS AINSLIE. 64 x 4. 68 pp.<br /> Constable. 1s. n.<br /> <br /> THE LOVE SONG OF TRISTRAM AND ISEULT, AND OTHER<br /> Porms. By Cyrit EMRA. 7% x 5}. Stock. 3s. 6d,<br /> <br /> POLITICAL,<br /> <br /> THE FALL oF TsARDOM. By CARL JOUBERT. 8 x 5}.<br /> <br /> 255 pp. Nash. 7s. 6d.<br /> THe Paras NAVY IN THE Russo-JAPANESE WAR. By<br /> CAPTAIN N. Knapo. Translated by L. J. H. Dickin-<br /> <br /> soN. Hurst and Blackett. 5s.<br /> SPORT.<br /> Diversions Day By Day. By KE.<br /> Eustace H, Miues. Illustrated.<br /> Hurst and Blackett. 4s. :<br /> PoLo: Past AND PRESENT. By T. F. DALE.<br /> 515 pp. (Lhe Country Life Library of Sport).<br /> 12s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> F, BENson and<br /> 1% x 43. 282 pp.<br /> <br /> 94 x 5%,<br /> Newnes.<br /> 284<br /> <br /> THE EMPIRE’S CRICKETERS. Part III. From drawings.<br /> By A. C. TAYLER. With Biographical Sketches. By<br /> G.W. BELDAM. 153 x 104. 4 Plates. The Fine Art<br /> Society and Dawbarn and Ward. Is. n.<br /> <br /> THEOLOGY,<br /> <br /> Sr. PAUL’s EPISTLES IN MODERN ENGLISH.<br /> FENTON. 6th Edition (with new preface). 74 x 43.<br /> 69 pp. Partridge.<br /> <br /> A MouNTAIN PATH, AND ForTY THREE OTHER TALKS<br /> TO YOUNG PEOPLE. By JoHN A. HAMILTON. Cheap<br /> Edition. Allenson. 2s. 6d.<br /> <br /> THE TRUTH OF CHRISTIANITY. A Manual of Christian<br /> Evidences, by Lt.-CoLn. W. H. Turton, D.S8.0., R.E.,<br /> 5th Edition, seventh thousand. Carefully revised<br /> throughout. Crown 8vo., cloth gilt. 529 pp. Wells,<br /> Gardner, Darton &amp; Co. 2s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> PREACHERS FROM THE PEw. Lectures delivered at St.<br /> Paul’s Church, Covent Garden, under the auspices of the<br /> <br /> By FERRAR<br /> <br /> London Branch of the Christian Social Union. Edited<br /> by the Rev. W. H. Hunt. 74 x 43. 187 pp. Lord<br /> 2s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> TOPOGRAPHY,<br /> <br /> A Book oF SouTH WALES.<br /> <br /> By S. BARING GOULD.<br /> With 57 Illustrations.<br /> <br /> 73 x 43. 332 pp. Methuen. 6s.<br /> <br /> 4<br /> TRAVEL.<br /> <br /> PICTURES IN UMBRIA. By KATHERINE S. Macquorp.<br /> With fifty original Tlustrations (pen and ink). By<br /> THomAS R. Macquoip, R.I. 72 x 5. 319pp. Werner<br /> Laurie. 6s. n.<br /> <br /> LITERARY, DRAMATIC, AND MUSICAL<br /> NOTES.<br /> <br /> —_-—&gt;—+—__<br /> <br /> _ REACHERS from the Pew”? is the title of<br /> <br /> a series of sermons preached at St. Paul’s<br /> <br /> Church, Covent Garden, under the auspices<br /> of the London Branch of the Christian Social<br /> Union. They are published by W. H. Lord &amp; Co.,<br /> of 29, Wellington Street, Strand, W.C. Crown,<br /> 8vo., at the price of 2s. 6d. net. They<br /> have been edited by the Rev. W. Henry Hunt,<br /> and deal with a variety of subjects, from ‘Do<br /> we Believe” by C. F. G. Masterman, M.A., to<br /> “The Citizen, the Gentleman, and the Savage” by<br /> Gilbert K. Chesterton. Mr. Hunt, it may be<br /> remembered, has already edited a series of sermons<br /> on social subjects.<br /> <br /> “The Heroes of Moss Hall School: A Public<br /> School story,” by E. C. Kenyon, should be welcome<br /> to school-boys and also to their parents, founded<br /> upon and dealing with, as it does, the past history<br /> of a great west country school. The book, which<br /> is a large one, has seven, or rather eight, illus-<br /> trations. It is published by the Religious Tract<br /> Society.<br /> <br /> Miss Theodora Wilson Wilson’s novel, “ Ursula<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Raven,” which was serialised in the Daily News,<br /> will be published in book form by Messrs. Harper<br /> Bros. in September. It is a novel dealing with the<br /> Westmorland Dales and Royalty rights,<br /> <br /> We regret that in announcing the publication of<br /> Miss Mary Shipley’s “ English Church History for<br /> Children” in our last issue, we stated that the<br /> preface to the work was by the Bishop of Glou-<br /> cester. This statement, we understand, is incor-<br /> rect, the Bishop of Gibraltar contributing the<br /> preface.<br /> <br /> Miss Victoria Cross’ new story, “ Life of My<br /> Heart,” which the Walter Scott Publishing Co. has<br /> recently issued, deals with a marriage between an<br /> Oriental and an English girl.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Joseph Williams, Ltd., have just<br /> published, at 1s. net, a collection of Infant’s Action<br /> Songs for the School and the Home, by Miss L.<br /> Budgen.<br /> <br /> ‘Musical Studies,” by Ernest Newman, which<br /> Mr. John Lane has just published, include a study of<br /> Berlioz and the Romantic Movement, a fuli analysis<br /> of Programme Music in the past and in the present.<br /> Faust in Music, Herbert Spencer and the Origin of<br /> Music.<br /> <br /> Messrs. King &amp; Son have just published Dr.<br /> Reich’s monumental work, containing a selection of<br /> documents illustrating the history of medizval and<br /> modern times. The work, which runs to some<br /> eight hundred pages, necessitated the employment<br /> of four trained students of history in addition to<br /> the editor.<br /> <br /> Professor Dicey is publishing, through Messrs.<br /> Macmillan, a volume dealing with the relation<br /> between Law and Public Opinion in England during<br /> the nineteenth century. The basis of the book is a<br /> series of lectures delivered first in the Harvard Law<br /> School and afterwards, with modifications, in the<br /> University of Oxford.<br /> <br /> Mr. Henry James, who is travelling through<br /> America, after an absence of twenty years has<br /> amassed materials for a book, part of which will<br /> appear serially in the North American Review.<br /> <br /> Mr. Frank T. Bullen will publish in the early<br /> autumn a new book entitled “ Back to the Sunny<br /> Seas,” the outcome of his recent tour in the West<br /> Indies.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Constable have just published, under the<br /> <br /> title of “ Moments,” a collection of poems by e<br /> <br /> Douglas Ainslie.<br /> <br /> In order to avoid misapprehension, Messrs. Ward, -<br /> Lock &amp; Co. ask us to call attention to the fact<br /> that ‘‘ The Conscience of a King,” the title of a<br /> newly-published romance by A. C. Gunter, author of —<br /> “Mr. Barnes of New York,” is practically the same<br /> as that used for a sociological work, “The Con-<br /> science of the King,” by Mr. J. C. Spence, which ©<br /> still has a considerable sale.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> aenmeatnnacieimantts<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Mr. John Lane has brought out an Indian<br /> garden-book, “ My Garden in the City of Gardens.”<br /> The punning motto, “Nune Fortunatus Sum,”<br /> the despatch of Sir Colin Campbell’s A.D.C. after<br /> the Relief of Lucknow, indicates which the “ city<br /> of gardens” is. The work is illustrated with<br /> many original photographs.<br /> <br /> “The Love Song of Tristram and Iseult,” by<br /> Cyril Emra, published by Mr. Elliot Stock at the<br /> price of 3s. 6d.,in addition to the poem which<br /> forms its title, contains some twenty or so other<br /> verses dealing with man and nature.<br /> <br /> A second and revised edition of ‘Thoughts on<br /> Ultimate Problems,” by F. W. Frankland, described<br /> by the author as a synoptic statement of Two<br /> Theodocies, has been issued at the price of 1s.<br /> The publisher is W. J. Lankshear, of Lambton<br /> Quay, Wellington, New Zealand.<br /> <br /> “The Exploits of Jo Salis,” by Will. Greener,<br /> author of ‘A Secret Agent in Port Arthur,” is a<br /> novel of the Russo-Japanese war from the Far<br /> Easterners’ point of view. Messrs. Hurst and<br /> Blackett are the publishers.<br /> <br /> Mr. William Patrick Kelly’s new novel, “The<br /> Assyrian Bride,” illustrated by Mr. F. C. Tilney,<br /> will be published by Messrs. Routledge, early in<br /> July. It is ahistorical romance of ancient Nineveh<br /> and Jerusalem, based on the latest archeological<br /> discoveries, and the second of a series by the same<br /> author, of which “ The Stonecutter of Memphis”<br /> (Routledge, 1904) was the first.<br /> <br /> In Amsterdam a society of authors is founded<br /> (Vereeniging van Letter kundigen). The principal<br /> object of the society is to put order into the<br /> literary out-put of Holland. The society has a<br /> committee which studies the Berne Convention,<br /> with the intention of joining it. Another com-<br /> mittee deals with the matters of the stage and play<br /> production, and a third gathers money to help<br /> workers in the literary field.<br /> <br /> Mr. Desmond F. T. Coke, author of ‘Sandford<br /> of Merton,” claims in his preface to the “ Dog from<br /> Clarkson’s,” which Messrs. Jarrold have published,<br /> that this “ vagary ” is an attempt to amuse without<br /> employing puns, problems, dialect, or split<br /> infinitives.<br /> <br /> Another fresh volume of poems we note from<br /> the well-known pen of E. Nesbit, published by<br /> Messrs. Longmans, G. Green &amp; Co., of very<br /> varied interests. A strong religious spirit marks<br /> these verses, mingled with a deep love of<br /> Nature.<br /> <br /> We have received a small volume of miscel-<br /> laneous poems by Miss Ethel Neele, entitled “ The<br /> Ballad of Rosalie.” The volume is published by<br /> E. B. Gooderham, of 161, Holland Road, Kensing-<br /> ton, and copies may be had of the authoress at<br /> 23, Upper Addison Gardens. The verses are com-<br /> <br /> 285<br /> <br /> prised under four headings—ballads, dedicatory,<br /> miscellaneous and sacred poems.<br /> <br /> Mr. Bernard Shaw’s comedy, “Man and Super-<br /> man,” which was published in book form about two<br /> years ago, was produced—minus the third act—at<br /> the Court Theatre on the afternoon of May 28rd.<br /> The caste included Mr. Granville Barker and<br /> Miss Lillah McCarthy.<br /> <br /> Mr. W. 8. Gilbert’s fairy comedy, “ The Palace<br /> of Truth,” was revived on May 23rd at the Mermaid<br /> Repertory Theatre, Great Queen Street, under the<br /> personal direction of the author.<br /> <br /> 9<br /> <br /> PARIS NOTES.<br /> Be<br /> HE Académie francaise has awarded prizes to<br /> a the following authers :—M. Paul Decharme,<br /> for the “Critique des traditions religieuses<br /> chez les Grecs, des origines au temps de<br /> Plutarque”; M. Bossert, for “ Schopenhauer ” ;<br /> M. Dard, for “Le Général Choderlos de Laclog ” ;<br /> M. René Canat, for “Du sentiment de la solitude<br /> morale chez les romantiques et les parnassiens” ;<br /> M. Ab der Halden, for “ Etudes de la littérature<br /> canadienne francaise” ; M. Sturdza, for “La Terre<br /> et la Race roumaine depuis leurs origines jusqu’a<br /> nos jours” ; M. Derocquigny, for ‘‘ Charles Lamb,<br /> sa vie et ses ceuvres” ; M. Souriau, for a work on<br /> “ Bernardin de Saint-Pierre” ; M. Lauvriére, for<br /> “ Edgar Poe, sa vie et son ceuvre”; M. Doumergue,<br /> for “ Jean Calvin, les hommes et les choses de son<br /> temps’?; M. Edmond Biré, for a work on<br /> “ Armand de Pontmartin, sa vie et ses ceuvres.”<br /> Prizes have also been awarded by the Académie<br /> for recent works by the following authors :—Mme.<br /> Daniel Lesueur, M. Paul Adam, M. Paléologue,<br /> M. Paul Doumer, Madame Veyrin, M. Montégut,<br /> M. Martel, M. Buffenoir.<br /> <br /> Among recent books by well-known writers is<br /> “ Miroirs et Mirages,” by Madame Alphonse Daudet.<br /> The volume contains several stories which are all<br /> psychological studies. In‘ Grand’mére” the interest<br /> is centred in the feelings of the grandparents, on<br /> seeing their beloved granddaughter taken away<br /> from them, to be brought up by a step-mother in<br /> absolutely different principles and ideas from theirs.<br /> “Reminiscence,” ‘L’Accusée,” “ Automne pro-<br /> vincial.” In addition to these studies are two<br /> or three descriptions of voyages, “Notes sur<br /> <br /> Londres,” ‘Course rapide 4 Venise,” ete.<br /> There is also a new volume published by M.<br /> Léon Daudet, “Le Partage de ’Enfant.” This<br /> novel is in quite a different note from the books we<br /> have hitherto had from the son of Alphonse Daudet.<br /> Les Morticoles” and “La Déchéance’’ were<br /> ironical and bitter studies of certain systems,<br /> 286 THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> phases and abuses of modern life, whilst in this new<br /> novel there is more pathos than satire, and more<br /> pity than bitterness. It is the story ofa child who<br /> is the victim of the divorce of the parents—a child<br /> who suffers through the dissensions of father and<br /> mother.<br /> <br /> Volumes of souvenirs and reminiscences are very<br /> much in favour in France, and “La Cour et la<br /> Société du Second Empire,” by M. de Chambrier,<br /> gives an excellent sketch of many of the more<br /> prominent personages of that period. The author<br /> does not go into details, but just gives us an idea<br /> of the men and women he describes, and of the<br /> place they occupied in the Parisian world. He<br /> speaks of Veuillot, Barbey d’Aurevilly, Thiers,<br /> Jules Simon, Ollivier, Gambetta, Pasteur, Caro,<br /> Madame Adam, Madame de Metternich, Wagner,<br /> Gounod, Bizet, Sardou, Fonquie, Sue, de Musset,<br /> Feuillet Augier, Houssaye, Rosa Bonheur, Sainte-<br /> Beuve, Renan, Lamartine, Dumas, Georges Sand,<br /> Flaubert, Balzac, de Maupassant, Rachel Legouvé,<br /> Gérdme, Gréville, Alphonse Daudet, Jules Verne,<br /> and of many other well-known personalities.<br /> <br /> Another volume by Barbey d’Aurevilly has<br /> recently been published. It is entitled “ Roman-<br /> ciers d’hier et d’avant hier.” The chapters on<br /> Stendhal and on Balzac are particularly interesting.<br /> D’Aurevilly is an ardent admirer of Balzac. “A<br /> cette heure,” he says, ‘“‘le génie de Bazlac n’est<br /> discuté par personne... . Il avait dans le sang,<br /> et plus que personne puisqu’il était un génie<br /> francais, cette goutte de lait maternel, cette pro-<br /> pension au rire, 4la comédie, 4 la gaité qui touche<br /> aux larmes, tant sa force épuise vite la nature<br /> humaine!” He declares that the secret of the<br /> great power of Balzac was that he put into his<br /> work so much “ naiveté et bonhomie! Ni dans<br /> les arts, ni dans les lettres,” he says, ‘‘ pas de<br /> mérite supréme sans la naiveté et sans une<br /> bonhomie profonde.” D’Aurevilly declares that it<br /> was this “bonhomie” which made Walter Scott<br /> greater than either Goethe or Byron, and he con-<br /> siders that Balzac is superior in his “ Contes ” to<br /> what he is in the “ Comédie humaine.” There are<br /> chapters on Georges Sand, Erckmann Chatrian,<br /> Paul Féval, a scathing criticism of “ Manon<br /> Lescaut,” in which the author declares that,<br /> “&lt;«Manon Lescaut’ est tout simplement l’expres-<br /> sion du matérialisme du XVIII®. siecle rejoignant<br /> et embrassant au bout d’un quart de siecle,<br /> le matérialisme du XIX®*. siécle, qui avale le<br /> livre et le trouve bon.”” He compares it with<br /> novels such as ‘ Delphine,” “Corinne,” “ Atala,”<br /> “ René,” the ideal of which was as elevated as that<br /> of ‘Manon Lescaut” was low. He regrets that<br /> “la Manon del’ abbé Prevost a pondu les autres<br /> Manons dont regorge la littérature actuelle...<br /> elle a produit les Dame aux Camélias, les ‘ Bovary,’<br /> <br /> les “ Fanny ” et toutes ses sincéres qui suivent tran-<br /> quillement leur instinct comme un ane qui trotte<br /> suit le sien.” There are other chapters on Droz<br /> Le Sage, Marie Desylles and Paria Korigan,<br /> all written in the same brilliant, vivid style.<br /> Fortunately for the author and for lovers of litera-<br /> ture, these posthumous volumes of d’Aurevilly’s<br /> works are being edited with the utmost care and<br /> exactitude by the faithful friend to whom he left his<br /> manuscripts.<br /> <br /> Another curious retrospective book has just<br /> been published entitled “ Madame Atkyns” (Une<br /> amie de Marie Antoinette). The preface is written<br /> by M. Sardou. This volume is particularly inte-<br /> resting to English people, as Madame Atkyns is an<br /> Englishwoman, Charlotte Walpole, who made her<br /> début at the Drury Lane Theatre in 1777, and in<br /> 1779 married Sir Edward Atkyns. We are told<br /> that the young couple left England and went to<br /> live at Versailles. The Duchesse de Polignac<br /> introduced the bride into the circle of Marie<br /> Antoinette’s friends; she became devoted to the<br /> Queen, and the whole book is taken up with the<br /> efforts of this Englishwoman to be of service to her<br /> royal friend when adversity came. Madame Atkyns<br /> spent most of her life and fortune in endeavouring<br /> to save first the Queen and afterwards the Dauphin.<br /> M. Frédéric Barbey, the author of this volume, has<br /> spared no trouble in order to get all the documents<br /> on this subject, both in England and in France, and<br /> finally he discovered a huge collection of papers and<br /> letters which had not been opened for seventy years,<br /> all the correspondence addressed to Lady Atkyns<br /> up to the day of her death in Paris, Rue de Lille,<br /> in 1836. The whole story of her plots and her<br /> devotion and sacrifices is as interesting as a novel.<br /> Her chief accomplices were M. de Cormier, Jean<br /> Gabriel Peltier, the Baron d’Auerweck, and the<br /> Comte de Frotté.<br /> <br /> Among other new books, ‘‘La Soldate,” by<br /> M. d’Esparbés ; ‘‘Septiéme César,” a novel in the<br /> time of Christ, by M. Reepmaker. It isthe story of<br /> a wealthy Roman lieutenant, cruel and selfish, who<br /> is greatly influenced by the simple life of Christ.<br /> The story is dramatic and of great interest.<br /> <br /> ‘“‘T’Opprobre,” by M. Compain, is a book written<br /> with a purpose. The subject is treated thought-<br /> fully. It is the story of a young girl who is<br /> betrayed and deserted. The life and surroundings<br /> of the girl are well portrayed, and also the progress<br /> that is being made in so many ways, thanks<br /> to co-operation.<br /> <br /> “ La Conquérante,” by Georges Ohnet ; ‘ Leela,”<br /> by Mary Ghil; “L’Autre,” by Mme. Octave<br /> Feuillet ; “L‘Espionne,” by Ernest Daudet ;<br /> “Femme d’Officier,” by Pierre Maél ; “ A l’Aube,”<br /> by Myriam Thelen ; “ Hommes Nouveaux,” by G.<br /> Fanton ; ‘‘ Fatale Méprise,” by Henri Baraude ;<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THER AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> “Deux Meéditations sur la Mort,” by Henry Bor-<br /> deaux ; “ Heures de Corse,” by Jean Lorrain ;<br /> “Naples, son site, son histoire, son sculpture,” by<br /> Pierre de Bouchaud ; “ Le Livre ” historique, fabri-<br /> cation, achat, classement, usage et entretien, by<br /> Albert Cim; ‘Le Retour a la Terre,’ by M. Jules<br /> Méline ; ‘La Guerre contre |’Allemagne,” by<br /> General Baron Faverot de Kerbrech.<br /> <br /> In the June number of La Revue des Deux<br /> Mondes there is a most interesting article on<br /> London by Madame Blanc Bentzon, who is a keen<br /> observer and a great admirer of many of the<br /> English institutions.<br /> <br /> A new magazine on the lines of Country Life is<br /> to commence in France with the title of Hermes et<br /> Chateaux.<br /> <br /> In the Mercure de France there is an interest-<br /> ing article on the illness and death of Guy de<br /> Maupassant by M. Thomas.<br /> <br /> “Le Duel” still holds the bill at the<br /> Francais ; ‘‘ La Race” by M. Jean Thorel, at the<br /> Théatre Antoine ; “ La Variation” at the Odéon ;<br /> and “ Pauvre Fille” by Hauptmann, at the Porte<br /> St. Martin.<br /> <br /> The Académie francaise has awarded the<br /> Augier prize to Henri Bataille for “‘ Résurrection,”<br /> to Emile Fabre for ‘‘ La Rabouilleuse,” and to<br /> Georges Mitchell for “L’ Absent.” Another prize<br /> is awarded to Alfred Capus for “ Notre Jeunesse,”’<br /> and to M. Marcel Prévost for “La Plus Faible.”<br /> <br /> Atys HALLARD. —<br /> <br /> SLAVIC NOTES.<br /> <br /> N my article published in the May number of<br /> I The Author, 1 omitted the name of an eminent<br /> Russian novelist, Mereszkovsky, whose novels<br /> Ihave only read in Polish translation. I am puzzled<br /> to say why I regarded him as a Bohemian novelist,<br /> but I never suspected that he was a Russian.<br /> His novels, “The Death of the Gods,” ‘The<br /> Resurrection of the Gods,” and_ especially<br /> “Julian the Apostate” give the author every<br /> right to be included in the list of greatest living<br /> novelists.<br /> <br /> In the last few months the following works of<br /> English authors have been published in the Polish<br /> language. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, ‘Sherlock<br /> Holmes”; this is perhaps the fifth or sixth<br /> time that this work has been produced. “The<br /> Return of Sherlock Holmes” is also in course<br /> <br /> 287<br /> <br /> of publication in the Gazela Polska. Foster<br /> Fraser, “The Real Siberia”; E. Hopkins, “The<br /> Mothers and the Sons”; Rudyard Kipling,<br /> “Letters from Japan’’; E. G. Lancaster, “The<br /> Juvenile Age”; Sir John Lubbock, “The Pleasures<br /> of Life”; Rev. P. A. Sheehan, ‘ The New Vicar”;<br /> H. G. Wells, “Short Stories” and “&#039;The Vision of<br /> the Future.”<br /> <br /> A new novel of Sienkiewicz is running in serial<br /> numbers in a weekly paper, Biesiada Literacka.<br /> <br /> Baron Weysenhoff has just published an excellent<br /> novel, entitled “ The Prodigal Son.”<br /> <br /> T. Hall Caine’s “ Prodigal Son ” is published as<br /> a supplement to the Z&#039;ygoduik Ilustrowany, the<br /> Polish Jl/ustrated London News.<br /> <br /> Miss Wojcicka has published, in dramatic form,<br /> a powerful life-study of rare merit, entitled “ Eva,”<br /> which was well received on the Polish stage and was<br /> considered a great success. Unfortunately for the<br /> authoress, notwithstanding the value of the work,<br /> no English manager will accept it for production,<br /> as only five persons appear in the play.<br /> <br /> An eminent Polish novelist hidden under the<br /> nom de plume of W. Sclavus, has written a book<br /> dealing with the history of Russia during the last<br /> two-hundred years, bearing the title of “The<br /> Regicide.” It will be published simultaneously<br /> in Austrian Poland, in New York, and in London.<br /> <br /> Autumn being in Poland the real publishing<br /> season, no more works of interest and merit, are<br /> likely to be heard of for the present.<br /> <br /> A new American shilling Magazine The Tales,<br /> is entirely devoted to translations from foreign<br /> languages, and thus, many hitherto unknown<br /> works of Slavic authors will be brought before the<br /> English reading world. Not only does the litera-<br /> ture of Poland and Russia possess authors whose<br /> books are well worth reading, but the minor<br /> nations of this race can boast of some writers of<br /> real value. Bulgaria has one named Iwan Wazow,<br /> author of many novels and short stories, in the<br /> latter of which he excels. In these he not only<br /> depicts with great skill the life, so little known,<br /> led by Turks and Bulgarians, but he shows con-<br /> spicuous ability in observation. Some of his<br /> short stories are real snap-shots of life.<br /> <br /> T. Otto, publisher, of Prague, in Bohemia, is the<br /> only one to my knowledge in Slavic countries, who<br /> devotes himself to systematic publication of English<br /> works and novels. An eminent Bohemian author,<br /> Josef Bartos, writes of the English novelists :<br /> “Tn these days the English novel flourishes and<br /> flourishes charmingly, led by the uncommonly<br /> gifted deep thinker, Meredith, the gloomy Hardy,<br /> the cheerful Barrie, the falcon Kipling, and the<br /> good Bret Harte, Admiration and glory follow<br /> them throughout the whole world.” ‘he list of<br /> modern English novelists is headed by J. M. Barrie’s<br /> 288<br /> <br /> “ Sentimental Tommy,” and Meredith’s ‘“ Richard<br /> Feveral.” This book was received by the critics<br /> with unprecedented but well merited praise. The<br /> success of Feveral was partly due to the excellence<br /> of the translation by Dr. B. Prusik. Ian Maclaren,<br /> Kipling, Mark Twain, Th. B. Aldrich, Conway,<br /> Zangwill, &amp;c., are on the list of this publisher.<br /> The works of other popular English novelists are<br /> also adapted and published in the Bohemian<br /> language by other publishers of Prague as well as<br /> all the principal poetic and scientific works.<br /> <br /> Bohemian literature has not had a past of five<br /> hundred years of existence like the Polish, and is<br /> not even as old as the Russian ; but this nation,<br /> living under the conditions of a free country for the<br /> last fifty years, with no censor’s office to depress<br /> its energy, has in the last quarter of a century<br /> developed in a wonderful manner. It now<br /> possesses a number of very excellent authors in all<br /> branches, and has even its own opera and<br /> composers. The difficulty of learning the language,<br /> for which purpose a few seasons in Carlsbad or<br /> Marienbad are quite insufficient, makes the trans-<br /> lation of a selection of Bohemian works from the<br /> original a difficult task. The most eminent<br /> novelists are Cech, the Bohemian ‘“ Mark Twain,”<br /> Jelinek, Jirasek, Besnick and Svetla. Dr. Holub,<br /> who spent many years as explorer in Africa, wrote<br /> several books of a popular and scientific character,<br /> upon Africa. Dr. Tomek, is a_ well-known<br /> Bohemian historian, and Jirasek is the principal<br /> play-writer of Bohemia. There are several dramatic<br /> authors but a large proportion of the plays per-<br /> formed on the National Bohemian stage are adapted<br /> from French, Italian, Scandinavian, and Polish<br /> writers, with a prominent place for Shakespeare on<br /> the programe.<br /> <br /> The whole Bohemian literary movement, as well<br /> as the whole politics of Bohemia, is a struggle<br /> against German influence, and for this reason in<br /> the literary output of Bohemia, there is little or<br /> nothing taken from the German; Polish, English,<br /> and other literatures supply all that is wanted.<br /> <br /> There are also three other Slavonic nations, the<br /> Servian, the Slovac and the Croatian, all of whom<br /> possess some eminent writers, but these languages<br /> are so difficult even for members of the kindred<br /> races, that their works can scarcely find a student<br /> who can devote his life to study them, so as to be<br /> enabled to understand or read their books.<br /> <br /> J. ALMAR.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> LAW RELATING TO COPYRIGHT IN WORKS<br /> OF LITERATURE AND MUSIC, JUNE<br /> 49th, 1901.*<br /> <br /> TRANSLATED BY G. H. T,<br /> <br /> follows:<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> E, William, by the Grace of God, German<br /> Emperor, King of Prussia, etc., decree<br /> in the name of the Empire, etc., etc., as<br /> <br /> First Division.<br /> DECLARATION OF THE LIMITS OF PROTECTION.<br /> <br /> Section 1.<br /> <br /> Under this Act the following are entitled to<br /> protection :—<br /> <br /> 1. The authors of written works and of lectures<br /> or speeches serving the purposes of edification,<br /> instruction, or entertainment.<br /> <br /> 2. ‘The authors of musical works.<br /> <br /> 3. The authors of illustrations of a scientific or<br /> technical kind which, having reference to their<br /> main purpose, are not to be regarded as works of<br /> art. Plastic representations also come under this<br /> head.<br /> <br /> Section 2.<br /> <br /> The author of a work is the originator (Ver-<br /> fasser) of it. In the case of a translation the<br /> translator ; in the case of any other sort of adap-<br /> tation, the adapter (Bearbeiter) is defined as the<br /> author.<br /> <br /> Section 3.<br /> <br /> Corporate bodies with legal entity who publish a<br /> work as editors, when the author is not named on<br /> the title page, in the dedication, in the preface, or<br /> at the end, are regarded as authors of the work, in<br /> the absence of any stipulation to the contrary.<br /> <br /> Section 4.<br /> <br /> In the case of a collective work the editor<br /> is legally responsible as the author for the work as<br /> a whole. If no editor’s name is attached then the<br /> publisher is defined as the editor.<br /> <br /> Section 5.<br /> <br /> In the case of a written work being combined<br /> with a musical composition or with illustrations,<br /> then the several originators (even after such<br /> combination) still retain their separate rights as<br /> authors.<br /> <br /> Section 6.<br /> <br /> If several persons have collaborated in such a<br /> way that their work cannot be separated, then<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> * As some of the later sections refer merely to legal<br /> technicalities it has been deemed sufficient to print a<br /> summary only.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 289<br /> <br /> an author’s partnership exists amongst them, and<br /> their shares are apportioned according to the civil<br /> code.<br /> <br /> Section 7.<br /> <br /> If a published work contains the name of a<br /> writer on the title page, in the dedication, the<br /> preface, or at the end, the writer so mentioned is<br /> prima facie responsible as the author of the work.<br /> In the case of a collective work the writer whose<br /> name stands at the head or at the end of each<br /> separate contribution is regarded as the author of<br /> that contribution. In the case of works which<br /> have appeared under a name other than the real<br /> name of the writer, or without the name of a<br /> writer, the editor, or if such a one is not mentioned,<br /> the publisher is entitled to uphold the author’s<br /> rights.<br /> <br /> In the case of works that before or after publi-<br /> cation have been publicly performed or recited, the<br /> author is presumed to be the person who has been<br /> designated as such at the announcement of the<br /> performance or recitation.<br /> <br /> Section 8.<br /> <br /> Copytight passes to the heirs. But if the<br /> “ Fiscus” or any other corporate body is the legal<br /> heir, the rights, as far as they belong to the legator,<br /> lapse with his, the author’s, death. The right can<br /> be transferred with or without limitations to others ;<br /> the transfer can also be made with limitations toa<br /> specified locality (Gebiet).<br /> <br /> Section 9.<br /> <br /> In the case of transfer of copyright the assignee<br /> (in the absence of special agreement) has not the<br /> right to effect any abbreviations or alterations of<br /> the work, the title, and the description of the<br /> author.<br /> <br /> Alterations are permissible only in the case of<br /> those instances in which the holder of the copyright<br /> (Berechtigte) cannot reasonably withhold his<br /> consent.<br /> <br /> Section 10.<br /> <br /> Compulsory execution (Zwangsvollstreckung)<br /> against the right of the author or his work cannot<br /> take place without his consent. Such consent<br /> cannot be granted by the legal representative.<br /> Compulsory execution is only permissible against<br /> the heirs of the author, without their consent, when<br /> the work has been published.<br /> <br /> SEeconD Division.<br /> AuTHorS’ Riauts.<br /> Section 11.<br /> <br /> The author has the exclusive right of reproduc-<br /> ing and circulating the work. The exclusive right<br /> <br /> does not extend to lending (Verleihen). The<br /> author, as long as the essential contents of his work<br /> remain unpublished, is, moreover, exclusively en-<br /> titled to the right of publication.<br /> <br /> Copyright in a dramatic or in a musical work<br /> also contains the exclusive right publicly to per-<br /> form the same. The author of a written’ work or<br /> a lecture has the exclusive right to deliver the same<br /> publicly so long as the work has not appeared. *<br /> <br /> Section 12,<br /> <br /> The exclusive rights which belong to the author<br /> under Section 11 also extend to any adaptations of<br /> the work, or to any of the following rights :<br /> <br /> 1. The translation into another language or into<br /> another dialect of the same language, even when<br /> the translation is embodied in a metrical form<br /> <br /> gebundener form).<br /> <br /> 2. The re-translation into the language of the<br /> original work.<br /> <br /> 3. The reproduction of a story in a dramatic<br /> form, or of a stage play in the form of a story.<br /> <br /> 4. The setting up of extracts from musical<br /> works as well as arrangements of such works for<br /> one or more instruments or voices.<br /> <br /> Section 18.<br /> <br /> The free use of the author’s work is permissible<br /> without prejudice to the exclusive rights which<br /> belong to him according to Section 12, Division 2,<br /> if the result is an original work. Any use of a<br /> musical work is inadmissible by which a melody<br /> recognisable as belonging to the original work, is<br /> taken and made the basis of a new work.<br /> <br /> Section 14.<br /> <br /> In the case of the transfer of copyright the<br /> author’s exclusive rights remain with him in the<br /> absence of stipulation to the contrary ; that is to<br /> Bay °<br /> <br /> 1. The translation of a work into another<br /> language or into another dialect.<br /> <br /> 2. The reproduction of a story in dramatic form,<br /> or a stage-play in the form of a story.<br /> <br /> 3. The elaboration of a musical work so far as<br /> it is not merely an extract, or the transposition<br /> into another key, or an arrangement for another<br /> voice (Tonart oder Stimmlage).t+<br /> <br /> Section 15.<br /> <br /> Reproduction without the consent of the holder<br /> of the copyright is inadmissible, no matter by what<br /> means it is accomplished. The number of copies<br /> reproduced does not affect the issue.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> * Presumably in book or pamphlet form.<br /> + German musical authorities are doubtful as to the<br /> exact legal interpretation of these two words,<br /> 290<br /> <br /> Reproduction for personal use is admissible if it<br /> is not for the purpose of obtaining a pecunlary<br /> return from the work.<br /> <br /> Section 16.<br /> <br /> Tt is permissible to reprint code books, laws,<br /> ordinances, official proclamations and decisions, as<br /> well as other official writings prepared for official<br /> <br /> use.<br /> Section 17.<br /> <br /> It is permissible : :<br /> <br /> 1. To reproduce in papers or journals a<br /> lecture or speech, so long as the lecture or<br /> speech is a constituent part of a public<br /> proceeding. :<br /> <br /> 2. To reproduce lectures or speeches which<br /> have been delivered during the proceedings<br /> in the law courts, and at political, municipal,<br /> and ecclesiastical assemblies.<br /> <br /> But reproduction is nevertheless inadmissible in<br /> the case of a collection which consists mainly of<br /> the reproduction of speeches of the same author.<br /> <br /> Section 18.<br /> <br /> The reprinting of single articles out of the<br /> papers is permissible, so long as no notice is given<br /> that the rights are reserved ; nevertheless, a<br /> reprint is only permissible if the sense is not<br /> distorted. The source from which the article is<br /> taken is to be indicated clearly in the reprint.<br /> <br /> The reprinting of scientific, technical, or enter-<br /> taining matter in elaborated or altered form is<br /> inadmissible, even if there is no notice of the<br /> reservation of rights.<br /> <br /> General news founded on facts and current topics<br /> of the day may always be reprinted from papers<br /> or periodicals.<br /> <br /> Section 19.<br /> <br /> It is permissible to reproduce in the following<br /> CaKes :<br /> <br /> 1. When single passages or smaller parts of a<br /> written work, a lecture, or a speech are,<br /> after publication, quoted in an independent<br /> literary work.<br /> <br /> 2. When single essays of small compass or<br /> single poems after publication are included<br /> in an independent scientific work.<br /> <br /> 3. When single poems after publication are<br /> included in a collection, comprising the<br /> works of a great, number of authors, and<br /> specifically destined for the use of vocal<br /> recitals (Gesangsvortragen).<br /> <br /> 4, When single essays of small compass, single<br /> poems, or small extracts of a written work<br /> after publication are included in a collection,<br /> which embodies the works of a great<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> number of authors, and are specifically<br /> destined for the use of churches, schools,<br /> or education, or for a special literary<br /> purpose. In the case of a collection for a<br /> special literary purpose, as long as the<br /> author is alive, his personal consent is<br /> necessary. Consent is considered as granted<br /> if the author does not notify his refusal in<br /> the course of a month after the editor has<br /> communicated his intention.<br /> <br /> Section 20.<br /> <br /> Reproduction is permissible when small extracts<br /> of a poem, or poems of small compass after<br /> their publication are reproduced as text to a<br /> new musical work, and in connection with the<br /> same. For a performance of the work the poetry<br /> may also be reproduced by itself, if the reprint of<br /> the same is destined solely for the use of the<br /> audience. It is not permissible to reproduce<br /> poems which by their very nature are intended for<br /> musical composition.<br /> <br /> Section 21.<br /> Reproduction is permissible :<br /> <br /> 1. When single passages of a musical work<br /> already published are introduced into an<br /> independent literary work.<br /> <br /> 2. When shorter compositions after publica-<br /> tion are included in an independent<br /> scientific work.<br /> <br /> 3. When shorter compositions after publica-<br /> tion are included in a collection, which<br /> embodies the works of a great number of<br /> composers, specifically destined for use in<br /> schools which are not music schools.<br /> <br /> Section 22.<br /> <br /> Reproduction is permissible when a published<br /> musical work is transferred to such discs, plates,<br /> cylinders, strings, and similar component parts of<br /> instruments which serve for the mechanical repro-<br /> duction of musical pieces.<br /> <br /> This order is also applicable to interchangeable<br /> component parts, so long as they are not adaptable<br /> for instruments by which the work, in varia-<br /> tions of strength and durability of tone, and in<br /> variations of time (Zeitmass) can be reproduced in<br /> the manner of a personal performance.<br /> <br /> Section 28.<br /> <br /> Reproduction is permissible if single illustrations :<br /> <br /> out of a published work are added to a written<br /> work exclusively to elucidate the contents.<br /> Section 24.<br /> <br /> On the basis of Sections 19 to 23 reproduction<br /> of the work of another is only permissible if no<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> af<br /> <br /> ah<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> alteration of the parts reproduced is effected.<br /> Nevertheless, as far as the purpose of the repro-<br /> duction demands, translations of a work are per-<br /> missible, and also such elaborations of a musical<br /> work which represent only extracts or transposi-<br /> tions to another key, or arrangements for orches-<br /> tration, or arrangements for instruments ag notified<br /> in Section 22. If single writings, single poems,<br /> or small portions of a written work are included<br /> in a collection for the use of schools, then such<br /> alterations are permitted as are requisite for this<br /> purpose ; nevertheless, as long as the author is<br /> alive, his personal consent is necessary. The<br /> consent is taken to be granted if the author<br /> does not refuse his consent within a month after<br /> he has been notified of the intended alteration.<br /> <br /> Section 25.<br /> <br /> Whoever makes use of another’s work in accor-<br /> dance with the terms of Sections 19 to 23 is bound<br /> to give the source distinctly.<br /> <br /> Section 26.<br /> <br /> So far as a work under Sections 16 to 24 may be<br /> reproduced without consent of the holder of the<br /> copyright, so far is the circulation and the public<br /> representation, as well as the public delivery, per-<br /> missible.<br /> <br /> Section 27,<br /> <br /> The consent of the holder of the copyright is<br /> not necessary for the public performance of a<br /> musical work which has already appeared, if it is<br /> not for the purpose of trade, and the audience is<br /> admitted without payment. Moreover, such per-<br /> formances are permissible without consent of the<br /> holder of the copyright :—<br /> <br /> 1. If they take place at National fétes with the<br /> exception of musical fétes.<br /> <br /> 2. If the performance is intended exclusively for<br /> charitable purposes, and the performers receive no<br /> remuneration for their services.<br /> <br /> 3. If they are produced by societies, and only<br /> the members, as well as the persous belonging to<br /> their households, are admitted as audience.<br /> <br /> These provisions do not apply to a stage repre-<br /> sentation of an opera or any other musical work to<br /> which a text belongs.<br /> <br /> Section 28.<br /> <br /> For the organisation of a public representation<br /> it is necessary to get the consent of each holder of<br /> copyright if there are several concerned.<br /> <br /> In the case of an opera or work of similar<br /> musical character to which a text belongs, the<br /> organiser of the representation needs the consent<br /> only of the person who holds the copyright of the<br /> music,<br /> <br /> Turrp Drvisron.<br /> DURATION OF THE PROTECTION.<br /> <br /> Section 29,<br /> <br /> The protection of copyright endures for the life<br /> of the author and thirty years, or ten years from<br /> the first publication, whichever is the longer period.<br /> If publication has not taken place at the expira-<br /> tion of thirty years after the death of the author,<br /> it is then presumed that copyright belongs to the<br /> proprietors of the work.<br /> <br /> Section 30.<br /> <br /> If copyright in a work is held in common by<br /> several people, it lapses after the death of the last<br /> survivor, as long as the term of protection is<br /> regulated by the time of death.<br /> <br /> Section 31.<br /> <br /> If the real name of the author has not been<br /> announced at the first publication according to<br /> Section 7, Divisions 1 to 3, then the protection<br /> ends with the lapse of thirty years after the publi-<br /> cation. If the real name of the author is an-<br /> nounced within the thirty years term according to<br /> Section 7, Divisions 1 to 3, or has been announced<br /> by the holder of the copyright for registration on<br /> the register (Section 56), then the orders of Sec-<br /> tion 29 apply. The same rule holds good if the<br /> work is first published after the death of the<br /> author,<br /> <br /> Section 32.<br /> <br /> If copyright belongs to a corporate body accord-<br /> ing to Sections 3 and 4, then the protection ends<br /> with the lapse of thirty years after the publication.<br /> Nevertheless, the protection ends with the lapse of<br /> the terms prescribed in Section 29 if the work is<br /> only published after the death of the author.<br /> <br /> Section 33.<br /> <br /> In the case of works which consist of various<br /> volumes, which have been published at intervals, as<br /> well as in the case of reports or numbers in a series,<br /> every volume, every report, or each number is<br /> regarded as a separate work for the reckoning of<br /> the term of protection. In the case of works pub-<br /> lished in parts, the term of protection is reckoned<br /> only from the publication of the last part.<br /> <br /> Section 34.<br /> <br /> The term of protection begins with the lapse of<br /> the calendar year in which the author died or the<br /> work was published.<br /> <br /> Section 35.<br /> <br /> As far as the protection granted in this law<br /> <br /> depends on whether a work has appeared or been<br /> <br /> <br /> 292, THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> published in any other form, or whether the essential<br /> contents of a work have been communicated to the<br /> public, only those portions that the holder of the<br /> copyright has published or communicated to the<br /> public are taken into consideration.<br /> <br /> FourtH DIvision.<br /> INFRINGEMENT OF RIGHTS.<br /> Section 86.<br /> <br /> Whoever wilfully or unintentionally, to the<br /> detriment of the exclusive rights of the author,<br /> reproduces a work, circulates it in the trade, or<br /> publicly communicates the essential contents of a<br /> work, is pledged to render to the holder of the copy-<br /> right the damages resulting therefror.<br /> <br /> Sechion 37.<br /> <br /> Whoever wilfully or unintentionally, to the<br /> detriment of the exclusive rights of the author,<br /> publicly performs or publicly recites a work, is<br /> pledged to render to the holder of the copyright<br /> the damages resulting therefrom. The same<br /> obligation lies on him who wilfully or unintention-<br /> ally publicly represents a dramatic work, prohibited<br /> under Section 12.<br /> <br /> Section 38.<br /> <br /> The following cases of infringement are punished<br /> with a fine not exceeding 3,000 marks :<br /> <br /> 1. The person who wilfully reproduces or cir-<br /> culates in the trade a work without the consent of<br /> the holder of copyright, otherwise than in the<br /> legally prescribed cases.<br /> <br /> 2. The person who, otherwise than in the legally<br /> prescribed cases, wilfully, without consent of the<br /> holder of the copyright, publicly performs a dramatic<br /> or musical work, prohibited under Section 12, or who<br /> publicly recites a work before it has been published.<br /> <br /> If the consent of the holder of the copyright was<br /> necessary only because alterations were undertaken<br /> in the work itself, its title, or in the description of<br /> the author, the money penalty shall not exceed<br /> 300 marks. If the money penalty, which cannot<br /> be enforced, is turned into an imprisonment, then<br /> the duration of imprisonment, in the case of<br /> Division 1, may not exceed six months ; in the case<br /> of Division 2, may not exceed one month,<br /> <br /> Section 39.<br /> <br /> Whoever wilfully communicates the essential<br /> contents of a work without the consent of the<br /> holder of the copyright, before the contents are<br /> made public, is punished with a money penalty up<br /> to 1,500 marks. If the money penalty, which<br /> cannot be enforced, is changed to imprisonment,<br /> then the duration of imprisonment may not last<br /> above three months.<br /> <br /> Section 40.<br /> <br /> The Courts can declare, on demand of the holder<br /> of the copyright, a fine of 6,000 marks to be paid<br /> to him, in addition to the penalty.<br /> <br /> Those against whom judgment is given to the<br /> amount of this fine are assessed as joint debtors.<br /> A fine thus declared excludes any further demand<br /> for compensation or damages.<br /> <br /> Section 41.<br /> <br /> The Acts notified in Sections 36 to 39 are also<br /> illegal if the work is only partially reproduced,<br /> circulated, published, performed, or recited.<br /> <br /> Sections 42 and 43.<br /> <br /> These sections deal with the rights of the owner<br /> to obtain an order for destruction, or delivery in<br /> lieu of destruction.<br /> <br /> Section 44.<br /> <br /> Whoever, contrary to the provisions of Section 18,<br /> Division 1 or Section 25, neglects to give the<br /> source of which he has availed himself, will be<br /> subject to a penalty not exceeding 150 marks.<br /> <br /> Sections 45 to 53.<br /> <br /> These sections deal with the proper persons to<br /> take action and the method of procedure. The<br /> Power of Appeal to a Committee of Experts<br /> state-sanctioned and the Time limit — usually<br /> three years.<br /> <br /> Firra Division.<br /> Fina DEOREES.<br /> Section 54.<br /> <br /> All subjects of the Empire enjoy the protection<br /> for all their works equally, whether they have been<br /> published or not.<br /> <br /> Section 55.<br /> <br /> An alien enjoys protection for each of his works<br /> published within the Empire, as long as he has not<br /> published the work itself or a translation previously<br /> in a foreign country. Under the same supposition<br /> he can enjoy the protection for each of his works<br /> which he publishes within the Empire as a trans-<br /> lation; the translation holds good in this case as<br /> standing for an original work.<br /> <br /> Section 56.<br /> <br /> The register for the above-mentioned entries<br /> (Section 31, Division 2), is kept by the Municipal<br /> Council in Leipzig. The Municipal Council<br /> registers the entries without being bound to test<br /> the title of the person desiring registration or<br /> the correctness of the facts notified. If the<br /> entry is refused, then the person concerned has the<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> right of lodging a complaint with the Imperial<br /> Chancellor.<br /> Section 57.<br /> <br /> The Imperial Chancellor issues decrees concern-<br /> ing the management of the register. Everyone<br /> has free access to the register. Extracts from the<br /> register can be demanded; extracts must, on<br /> demand, be authenticated.<br /> <br /> The entries are to be published in the paper<br /> (Borsenblatt) of the German publishing trade<br /> (Buchhandel), and if the paper should cease to<br /> exist, they must be published in another paper<br /> named by the Imperial Chancellor.<br /> <br /> Section 58.<br /> <br /> Receipts, transactions, vouchers, and such like<br /> documents which concern the entries in the registry,<br /> are free of duty. A fee of 1 m. 50 is imposed for<br /> every entry, for every voucher of an entry, as well<br /> as for any other extract of the register. Besides<br /> this the person desiring registration has to defray<br /> the costs of the public notification of the entry.<br /> <br /> Section 59.<br /> <br /> This section refers merely to the conduct of<br /> legal] business.<br /> Sections 60 to 63.<br /> <br /> These sections refer to those unprotected cases<br /> which gain protection by the privileges granted<br /> under this new Act. These must necessarily be<br /> few in number and diminish year by year as the<br /> new Act continues in force.<br /> <br /> Section 64.<br /> <br /> This law comes into force on January Ist, 1902.<br /> Sections 1 to 56, 61, 62, of the law respecting<br /> copyright in writings, and so forth, of June 11th,<br /> 1870, become invalid (are cancelled) on the same<br /> day.<br /> <br /> Nevertheless these provisions remain untouched,<br /> as far as they can be declared applicable in the<br /> Imperial laws to protection of works of plastic art,<br /> of photographs as well as of models and patterns.<br /> <br /> (Signed)<br /> WILHELM.<br /> ——__—_—_—_-+—~&lt;_-____<br /> <br /> ABOUT LITERARY AGENCIES.*<br /> <br /> — ++<br /> <br /> R. HENRY FRANCIS in the last number<br /> of The Author wrote a very interesting<br /> article on Literary Agents, and I take the<br /> <br /> liberty of adding a few lines on a subject which ig<br /> of so much interest to authors.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> * The Editor desires to refer members interested in this<br /> subject to an exhaustive article that appeared in Zhe Author,<br /> April, 1904.<br /> <br /> 293<br /> <br /> It seems to me a mistaken opinion that the<br /> agent is invaluable to an author: an author may<br /> exist without an agent, and if he has dealt with<br /> American editors he may be sure that his work<br /> will be commissioned or bought in advance many<br /> times ; but even to him the agent is useful and<br /> certainly one who has many well known authors as<br /> his regular clients, need not concern himself about<br /> beginners. To deal with beginners is really hard<br /> work, for their name is “ Legion,” especially in<br /> England and America, where people who can read<br /> and write, and even those who probably can read<br /> but who cannot write an ordinary letter, think it<br /> their duty to send to the literary agent the pro-<br /> duct of their brains.<br /> <br /> This is the reason why many agents charge fees<br /> for reading, in order to avoid the influx of un-<br /> desirable literature, often only fit for the waste-<br /> paper basket.<br /> <br /> I happen to know an agent in England who may<br /> be the ideal agent according to the views of Mr.<br /> Francis, but his task is more difficult than is<br /> generally supposed. Not only is it necessary to<br /> classify and tabulate the contributions received<br /> according to the requirements of various publica-<br /> tions, but also to read them. First, for a good<br /> article a higher payment may be obtained than is<br /> usual; and, secondly, an agent having read the<br /> manuscript, may suggest some modification or a<br /> remodelling of the article or short story which will<br /> directly benefit the author by causing him to<br /> command a fair price, while if this is omitted the<br /> paper is often summarily rejected.<br /> <br /> 1. The ideal agent ought to be well acquainted<br /> with the requirements of the market ; and<br /> <br /> 2. Not only ought he to dispose of the material<br /> entrusted to him, but if he sees the fitting oppor-<br /> tunity, should inform his customers that he can<br /> dispose of contributions dealing with such and<br /> such matters if they send them to him.<br /> <br /> 3. He ought to endeavour to obtain the highest<br /> possible remuneration, and this on certain definite<br /> dates, not only on publication, which may be<br /> deferred for a year after the acceptance of the<br /> articles or short story.<br /> <br /> 4. He ought to be a good reader to judge of the<br /> quality or defects of the contribution.<br /> <br /> If the agent be really good the percentage which<br /> he will take for placing the article will be paid, not<br /> by the author, but by the publisher, who will give<br /> more to the agent than he would have paid to the<br /> author himself.<br /> <br /> In general, with a few exceptions, English<br /> editors are not accustomed to explain to the author<br /> if asked, what they want in the contribution, nor<br /> do they make suggestions to outside contributors ;<br /> but a good agent will invariably do so. Thus,<br /> before the arrival of the King of Spain, he will<br /> 294<br /> <br /> remind his clients that articles dealing with Spain<br /> will be in demand ; and he will inform them that<br /> for July and August papers dealing with French<br /> matters, owing to the visit of the French fleet, will<br /> command a sale.<br /> <br /> As an agent represents more or less a large<br /> number of authors, the editor, even if he refuses the<br /> article, will probably read the contribution placed<br /> before him by the agent. I am aware that even in<br /> London there are editors who, after keeping a<br /> manuscript for some time, will return it without<br /> having taken the trouble to read it, the fastener or<br /> thread confining the leaves never having been<br /> removed. But although the patience of editors<br /> may be abused by illiterate contributors they ought<br /> to be able to rely upon the matter sent them by an<br /> agent as real literature, and in rejection would<br /> therefore have some real reasons, and not a mere<br /> excuse. Again, an agent can make a better bar-<br /> gain with an editor for the price of accepted manu-<br /> scripts, as he knows the market value of such<br /> commodities, and he himself may be useful to the<br /> editor by being able to supply the materials<br /> wanted; he can also often obtain better terms<br /> than the author, and sometimes payment on<br /> acceptance.<br /> <br /> For these reasons an agent is strictly necessary<br /> to beginners and very useful to authors in general.<br /> <br /> Such agents exist in England, and even in<br /> London; their names may be found from the usual<br /> books of reference, but as there are among them<br /> those who seem to think their duty only con-<br /> sists in taking a few shillings in advance from the<br /> author, it is well to obtain the fullest information<br /> from the secretary of the society, or to ask the<br /> agent for his references before submitting a manu-<br /> script or sending him fees.<br /> <br /> Of course no agent can guarantee the placing of<br /> every kind of contribution, even if of real literary<br /> value, as the taste and requirements of editors vary<br /> from time to time; but short stories always com-<br /> mand a good sale, poetry seldom.<br /> <br /> As to the American market, to which authors do<br /> not as a rule pay judicious attention, it is good, if<br /> not better, than the English. A carbon copy of<br /> each intended contribution ought to be made and<br /> sent on approval to America. The expense is not<br /> large, and it may bring substantial profit.<br /> <br /> Everything from 50 words to 100,000 can com-<br /> mand a sale, and things which the author may<br /> consider worthless may find buyers somewhere in<br /> Colorado or Nebraska, and may even obtain a<br /> good price. The minimum price is $5 (five<br /> dollars) or £1 1s. per thousand words. ‘The<br /> agencies are numerous and excellent, the payment<br /> on acceptance and the dealing prompt, but as there<br /> is much “fake” among these agencies, I shall<br /> depart from the custom of non free advertisement<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> in the columns of Zhe Author and give a few<br /> American addresses of general high standing :—<br /> <br /> The American Press Association of New York,<br /> <br /> The Hearst Syndicate of New York,<br /> <br /> The Daily Story Publishing Co., and Sampson,<br /> Hodges, both of Chicago.<br /> <br /> All these agencies are practically purchasing<br /> syndicates, rather than authors’ agents in the<br /> strict sense of the term.<br /> <br /> As the number of publications in the United<br /> States is larger than in England, and all “ Dailies”<br /> publish a special Sunday edition with articles on<br /> various subjects and short stories, the possibilities<br /> of selling contributions on good terms are large.<br /> For those who do not object to spend a little money<br /> and especially for those who write much and do<br /> not care if their work be published unsigned,<br /> I can recommend The National Press Association,<br /> Baldwin Buildings, Indianapolis, Ind., the only<br /> placing agency which I happen to know in the<br /> States.<br /> <br /> This agency has for chief editor, Mr. Thornton<br /> West, a man of high repute. Contributions<br /> received and found to be saleable are published<br /> on syndicate sheets, and on payment of a sum<br /> from one shilling upwards, according to the length<br /> of the articles, are sent to many thousands of<br /> publications in various States of America, the same<br /> article, paragraph, poetry, or short story being<br /> published on the same day in many papers brings<br /> to the author a good deal more than if sold in any<br /> other way. The day of publication in periodicals<br /> may be arranged beforehand, as on the day of<br /> publication on syndicate sheet, the author has<br /> already secured his copyright.<br /> <br /> The knowledge of and acquaintance with<br /> American periodical literature would, of course,<br /> be of great assistance as it would give an idea<br /> of the wants of the market. Strange to say, in<br /> London there is no place or reading room where<br /> on payment you can see American publications ; ab<br /> least, I do not know of the existence of such a place.<br /> This is the greater pity as there are numerous<br /> competitions for articles and short stories, such as<br /> in last October that of the Boston Black Cat, where<br /> from ten to two hundred guineas were given in<br /> prizes, and no one in England heard anything<br /> about it.<br /> <br /> Whether an author has or has not an agent<br /> in England he should always send his contributions<br /> to America, and he ought also to remember that an<br /> average magazine uses only about two hundred<br /> articles and short stories in the year, and if the<br /> author is not a Kipling, Caine, or a star of equal<br /> magnitude, the editor will not publish more than<br /> one or two of his contributions during the year—of<br /> course, articles of exceptional merit, or those deal- —<br /> ing with special topics of the day and written by<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 295<br /> <br /> experienced authors are not bound by this rule ;<br /> the agent for his own interest will find the right<br /> people, and as he is not acting for many celebrities,<br /> his existence depends on large numbers of well-<br /> served customers.<br /> <br /> so<br /> <br /> “THE LIFE LITERARY.”<br /> <br /> —_— +<br /> <br /> HIS is an age in which philanthropists lurk<br /> at every turn. People, indeed—perfect<br /> strangers, for the most part—positively<br /> <br /> unite with one another in whole-souled endeavours<br /> to improve the moral and mental state of their<br /> fellow-beings. Perhaps the recent wave of “re-<br /> vivalism ” sweeping over London has had some-<br /> thing to do with it ; or perhaps it must be ascribed<br /> to some other cause altogether. Any way, for<br /> weeks past my letter-box has been deluged daily<br /> with missives from kind-hearted individuals whose<br /> one object in life is apparently to benefit my<br /> unworthy self. One bold spirit actually offered<br /> to ‘convert’ me “ by correspondence” ; a second<br /> has an encyclopedia on “specially easy terms” ;<br /> or, if I don’t want that, I can have a fountain pen<br /> instead ; and a third will array my manly form<br /> from top to toe “in West-end style (guaranteed)<br /> at City prices.” It was left, however, for a fourth<br /> to make the only offer of which I felt able to avail<br /> myself. As the experiment afforded me some<br /> innocent entertainment at the time, I will describe<br /> it briefly, in the hope that others may profit by it.<br /> <br /> The offer, like all those that preceded it, was<br /> embodied in pamphlet form. Entitled “The Life<br /> Literary,” it undertook—in return for “so much<br /> down now, and the balance at client’s convenience”<br /> —to “bring journalistic proficiency within the reach<br /> of everyone.” The prospect sounded enticing.<br /> I picked the envelope and its contents out of the<br /> waste-paper basket to which I had consigned<br /> it mechanically a moment earlier, and looked it<br /> over again. There was a distinct suggestion of<br /> “bustle” in the opening paragraph that pro-<br /> claimed an American inspiration, and a “ now-or-<br /> never ”’ in the final one that was almost irresistible.<br /> It was almost, however ; not quite. Looked at<br /> critically, and in the cold light of an hour later, it<br /> left something wanting. ‘There was too much<br /> promise about the prospectus, and the golden vista<br /> it opened up to all and sundry who availed them-<br /> selves of the course of instruction described therein<br /> had a suspicious glitter. I found it, also—despite<br /> the glowing assurances to the contrary—difficult<br /> to believe that “The Life Literary” was within<br /> the grasp of all and sundry provided they<br /> could put down so much ready money beforehand.<br /> <br /> Reluctantly accordingly, I abandoned the pleasing<br /> vision I had formed in the first flush of enthusiasm<br /> of seeing myself editor of the Times at the end of<br /> a fortnight, and put the matter from my mind.<br /> <br /> I had reckoned, however, without a full percep-<br /> tion of what my neglect involved. It was not long<br /> before I found this out. At the end of a week<br /> came a letter of enquiry, expressed in polite, but<br /> pained, terms, as to why I delayed taking advan-<br /> tage of the “ extraordinary offer.” Silence seemed<br /> the only answer. I tried it, but it did not succeed,<br /> for my would-be benefactors suddenly adopted the<br /> tactics of the proprietors of an American patent<br /> medicine, and bombarded me daily with “ follow-<br /> ups.” Of the first six I took no notice. The<br /> seventh, however, broke down my stony defiance.<br /> Couched in this manner, it was impossible to hold<br /> out against it :—<br /> <br /> ““My DEAR S1R,—Apparently you have not yet decided to.<br /> take up our initial course of journalism. We cannot believe<br /> your indecision is caused by the amount of the fee; especially<br /> when you remember that the lessons are such that they<br /> not only awaken the latent power of writing—which often<br /> sleeps unknown for many decades—and whet the ambition<br /> for a life full of scope and enterprise, but in addition to<br /> this, they place the student directly upon the road to<br /> success, showing him how to make money NOW. Any<br /> intelligent student will obtain sufficient practical know-<br /> ledge from our lessons to earn money as a “ Free-Lance,”<br /> even supposing he eventually decides not to enter the “ Life<br /> Literary.” Possibly the reason of your not having taken<br /> advantage of our offer is that you are in doubt as to the<br /> value of our system of tuition. Thinking this may be so,<br /> we will help to remove this doubt by making you an offer,<br /> of which you can avail yourself without incurring any<br /> liability. Send us one MS., either one which has been<br /> rejected or one specially written for the purpose, and we<br /> will revise it for you. We shall deal with it in the same<br /> way as we deal with essays, articles, and stories written by<br /> students under our instruction. We will return it to you<br /> with our notes, comments, and advice, and thus you will<br /> be in a position to judge of our methods for yourself. In<br /> conclusion, we will add that the instructor in our jour-<br /> nalistic branch is a practical London journalist, and the<br /> lessons he gives are not obsolete, mythical semi-lectures.<br /> —Yours faithfully.”<br /> <br /> This was a sporting offer, as a man and a Briton<br /> I could scarcely do less than close with it. With-<br /> out delay, accordingly, I picked out a manuscript<br /> from a large collection in my desk and dispatched<br /> it to the London office—somewhere in the Pimlico<br /> postal district—of Messrs. So-and-8o. Then I sat<br /> down to await the result.<br /> <br /> It came with exhilarating and business-like<br /> promptitude. Accompanying the promised return<br /> of my manuscript was a type-written document.<br /> I looked at it admiringly. In one corner was<br /> emblazoned the Stars and Stripes; in the other<br /> was the Union Jack. Hvidently the operations of<br /> the ‘Twentieth Century College of Journalistic<br /> Tuition” were widespread. In a neatly-framed<br /> margin running down one side of the sheet was a<br /> 296 THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> long list of “Fellows and Experts on the Instruc-<br /> tional Staff.” With surprise and disappointment<br /> (for the preliminary prospectus had distinctly<br /> stated that “all England’s literary men” were<br /> patrons of the college) I searched in vain for the<br /> names of either Rudyard Kipling, Thomas Hardy,<br /> George Meredith, or Conan Doyle. Strangely<br /> enough, they were one and all unaccountably<br /> absent. However, I was not going to let these<br /> omissions dishearten me. There were still plenty<br /> of names left, and it was my ignorance no doubt<br /> that made their fame in the literary world unknown<br /> to me.<br /> <br /> With a feeling of pleasurable excitement, I began<br /> to read the “notes, comments, and advice”’ that,<br /> in accordance with the kindly promise of Messrs.<br /> So-and-So, were to greet the bantling I had sub-<br /> mitted to their expert judgment. The result was<br /> a little disheartening. It ran in this fashion :—<br /> <br /> “ My DEAR S1rR,—Our instructor has carefully examined<br /> your MS., entitled He finds that, while it shows a<br /> certain definite promise, it is written in too amateur a<br /> style to be of any commercial value. We would suggest<br /> that you enrol yourself as a student of Course A. This we<br /> are prepared to extend to you on the specially-reduced<br /> terms of three pounds (payable in advance), on receipt of<br /> which complete handbook of instruction will be mailed<br /> you. As this grand offer is only open for a limited period,<br /> we would respectfully urge you to avail yourself of it at<br /> once. With best wishes for your success, we are, dear sir,<br /> yours obediently, ae<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> On mature consideration, I did not take advan-<br /> tage of “this grand offer” of making a successful<br /> début in “The Life Literary.” Perhaps the chief<br /> reason that influenced me in being thus wilfully<br /> blind to my own advantage was the fact that the<br /> article in question had already appeared in a London<br /> newspaper of admittedly high standing. a<br /> <br /> —————————<br /> <br /> MAGAZINE CONTENTS.<br /> oe eae es<br /> BLACKWOODS.<br /> Orpheus and Eurydice. By Alfred Noyes Coventry Pat-<br /> more. By Frederick Greenwood.<br /> BoOKMAN.<br /> Edward Fitzgerald. By Wilfrid Whitten,<br /> <br /> Book MONTHLY.<br /> Crossing the Bar. By James Milne.<br /> Writers of English.<br /> CHAMBERS’ JOURNAL.<br /> <br /> The Railway Bookstall.<br /> Artistic Incongruities and Anachronisms. By T C.<br /> Hepworth.<br /> <br /> CONTEMPORARY REVIEW.<br /> <br /> What is Christianity? By Samuel McComb.<br /> Ruskin’s Views of Literature. By R. Warwick Bond.<br /> <br /> CoRNHILL.<br /> <br /> A Glimpse of the Exiled Stewarts. By W.H. Hutton,<br /> From a College Window.<br /> <br /> FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW.<br /> <br /> In Praise of Anthony Trollope’s Novels.<br /> Bettany.<br /> <br /> Literary Associations of the American Embassy. By F.<br /> §. A. Lowndes.<br /> <br /> The Ethics of Don Juan. By Francis Grothwahl.<br /> <br /> The Times. History of the War in South Africa. By<br /> Militarist.<br /> <br /> Paris and Daomi. By Laurence Binyon.<br /> <br /> By F. E.<br /> <br /> LONGMAN’S MAGAZINE,<br /> <br /> A Distinguished Librarian. By M. E. Lowndes.<br /> A Tenant Farmer’s Diary of the Eighteenth Century.<br /> By W. M. Dunning.<br /> <br /> MACMILLAN’S MAGAZINE,<br /> <br /> Cathedrals Old and New. By Hugh B. Philpott.<br /> The Fellow Workers of Voltaire [V.Gremm. By S. G.<br /> Tallentyre.<br /> Monta.<br /> <br /> The Strange Story of the Abbate Sidotti. By the Rev.<br /> Herbert Thurston.<br /> <br /> An Error in Simpson’s “ Campion.” By the Rev. J. H.<br /> Pollen.<br /> <br /> The Apotheosis of Tom Moore. By P. A. Sillard.<br /> <br /> The Church of England and the Higher Criticism. By<br /> A. St. Ledger Westall.<br /> <br /> Alexander Neckam. By Arnold Caven.<br /> <br /> MONTHLY REVIEW.<br /> <br /> The Goddess of Wisdom and Lady Carolin Lamb. By<br /> Rowland E. Prothero, M.V.O.<br /> <br /> Edward Dowson. By Forrest Reid.<br /> <br /> Medizval Gardens. By Alice Kemp-Welch.<br /> <br /> Quaint Memories. By E. Hessey.<br /> <br /> NINETEENTH CENTURY.<br /> <br /> The Scandal of University Education in Ireland. By<br /> Sir George T. Lambert, C.B.<br /> Ought Public Schoolmasters to be Taught to Teach? By<br /> the Hon. and Rev. Canon Lyttleton.<br /> Some Royal Love Letters. By Miss Charlotte Fortescue<br /> Yonge.<br /> PALL MALL MAGAZINE.<br /> <br /> Pictures and the Public. By C. Lewis Hind.<br /> The Origin of Life. By C. W. Saleeby, M.D.<br /> <br /> TEMPLE BAR.<br /> <br /> The Philosophy of Aubrey de Vere.<br /> Barrington.<br /> <br /> Rooms that I have Loved. By Helen Choate Prince.<br /> <br /> Margaret Godolphin. A Saint at the Court of Charles II.<br /> By Dora M. Jones.<br /> <br /> By Michael<br /> <br /> UNIVERSITY REVIEW.<br /> The Free Churches and the Universities. By Professor<br /> J. H. Houlton.<br /> Study of Local History. By Ramsay Muir, M.A,<br /> ‘WORLD’s WoRK.<br /> Music in Lakeland. By Rosa Newmarch,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO THE PRODUCERS<br /> OF BOOKS.<br /> <br /> ———&lt;&gt;—+<br /> <br /> ERE are a few standing rules to be observed in an<br /> agreement. There are four methods of dealing<br /> with literary property :—<br /> <br /> I. Selling it Outright.<br /> <br /> This is sometimes satisfactory, if a proper price can be<br /> obtained. But the transaction should be managed by a<br /> competent agent, or with the advice of the Secretary of<br /> the Society.<br /> <br /> II. A Profit-Sharing Agreement (a bad form of<br /> agreement).<br /> In this case the following rules should be attended to:<br /> (1.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro-<br /> duction forms a part without the strictest investigation.<br /> (2.) Not to give the publisher the power of putting the<br /> profits into his own pocket by charging for advertisements<br /> in his own organs, or by charging exchange advertise-<br /> ments. Therefore keep control of the advertisements.<br /> ‘(3.) Not to allow a special charge for “ office expenses,”<br /> unless the same allowance is made to the author.<br /> (4.) Not to give up American, Colonial, or Continental<br /> rights.<br /> (5.) Not to give up serial or translation rights.<br /> (6.) Not to bind yourself for future work to any publisher.<br /> As well bind yourself for the future to any one solicitor or<br /> doctor !<br /> <br /> III. The Royalty System.<br /> <br /> This is perhaps, with certain limitations, the best form<br /> of agreement. It is above all things necessary to know<br /> what the proposed royalty means to both sides. It is now<br /> possible for an author to ascertain approximately the<br /> truth. From time to time very important figures connected<br /> with royalties are published in Zhe Author.<br /> <br /> IY. A Commission Agreement.<br /> <br /> The main points are :—<br /> <br /> (1.) Be careful to obtain a fair cost of production.<br /> (2.) Keep control of the advertisements.<br /> <br /> (3.) Keep control of the sale price of the book.<br /> <br /> General.<br /> <br /> All other forms of agreement are combinations of the four<br /> above mentioned.<br /> <br /> Such combinations are generally disastrous to the author.<br /> <br /> Never sign any agreement without competent advice from<br /> the Secretary of the Society.<br /> <br /> Stamp all agreements with the Inland Revenue stamp.<br /> <br /> Avoid agreements by letter if possible.<br /> <br /> The main points which the Society has always demanded<br /> from the outset are :—<br /> <br /> (1.) That both sides shall know what an agreement<br /> means.<br /> <br /> (2.) The inspection of those account books which belong<br /> to the author. We are advised that this is a right, in the<br /> nature of a common law right, which cannot be denied or<br /> withheld.<br /> <br /> (3.) Always avoid a transfer of copyright.<br /> <br /> —————__+_—~_ —_____<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS.<br /> <br /> SU eee<br /> EVER sign an agreement without submitting it to the<br /> Secretary of the Society of Authors or some com-<br /> petent legal authority.<br /> 2. {t is well to be extremely careful in negotiating for<br /> the production of a play with anyone except an established<br /> manager,<br /> <br /> 297<br /> <br /> 3. There are three forms of dramatic contract for plays<br /> <br /> in three or more acts:<br /> <br /> (a.) Sale outright of the performing right. This<br /> <br /> is unsatisfactory. An author who enters into<br /> <br /> such a contract should stipulate in the contract<br /> <br /> for production of the piece by a certain date<br /> <br /> and for proper publication of his name on the<br /> play-bills.<br /> <br /> (%.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to<br /> <br /> perform on the basis of percentages on<br /> <br /> gross receipts. Percentages vary between 5<br /> <br /> and 15 per cent. An author should obtain a<br /> <br /> percentage on the sliding scale of gross receipts<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> in preference to the American system, Should<br /> obtain a sum in advance of percentages. A fixed<br /> <br /> date on or before which the play should be<br /> performed.<br /> <br /> (¢c.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to<br /> perform on the basis of royalties (i.c., fixed<br /> nightly fees). This method should be always<br /> avoided except in cases where the fees are<br /> likely to be small or difficult to collect. The<br /> other safeguards set out under heading (4.) apply<br /> also in this case.<br /> <br /> 4. Plays in one act are often sold outright, but it is<br /> better to obtain a small nightly fee if possible, and a sum<br /> paid in advance of such fees in any event. I, is extremely<br /> important that the amateur rights of one-act plays should<br /> be reserved,<br /> <br /> 5. Authors should remember that performing rights can<br /> be limited, and are usually limited, by town, country, and<br /> time. This is most important.<br /> <br /> 6. Authors should not assign performing rights, but<br /> should grant a licence to perform. The legal distinction is<br /> of great importance.<br /> <br /> 7. Authors should remember that performing rights in a<br /> play are distinct from literary copyright. A manager<br /> holding the performing right or licence to perform cannot<br /> print the book of the words.<br /> <br /> 8. Never forget that United States rights may be exceed-<br /> ingly valuable. ‘hey should never be included in English<br /> agreements without the author obtaining a substantial<br /> consideration.<br /> <br /> 9. Agreements for collaboration should be carefully<br /> drawn and executed before collaboration is commenced.<br /> <br /> 10. An author should remember that production of a play<br /> is highly speculative: that he runs a very great risk of<br /> delay and a breakdown in the fulfilment of his contract.<br /> He should therefore guard himself all the more carefully in<br /> the beginning.<br /> <br /> 11. An author must remember that the dramatic market<br /> is exceedingly limited, and that for a novice the first object<br /> is to obtain adequate publication.<br /> <br /> As these warnings must necessarily be incomplete, on<br /> account of the wide range&#039;of the subject of dramatic con-<br /> tracts, those authors desirous of further information<br /> are referred to the Secretary of the Society.<br /> <br /> ee<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.<br /> <br /> 1—&gt;—+<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ITTLE can be added to the warnings given for the<br /> assistance of producers of books and dramatic<br /> authors. It must, however, be pointed out that, as<br /> <br /> a rule, the musical publisher demands from the musical<br /> composer a transfer of fuller rights and less liberal finan-<br /> cial terms than those obtained for literary and dramatic<br /> property. The musical composer has very often the two<br /> rights to deal with—performing right and copyright. He<br /> 298<br /> <br /> should be especially careful therefore when entering into<br /> an agreement, and should take into particular consideration<br /> the warnings stated above.<br /> <br /> —__———__+—___¢_______-<br /> <br /> HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> —-—&gt;— +<br /> <br /> ie VERY member has a right toask for and to receive<br /> <br /> advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-<br /> <br /> lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his<br /> business or the administration of his property. The<br /> Secretary of the Society is a solicitor, but if there is any<br /> special reason the Secretary will refer the case to the<br /> Solicitors of the Society. Further, the Committee, if they<br /> deem it desirable, will obtain counsel’s opinion. All this<br /> without any cost to the member.<br /> <br /> 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright<br /> and publishers’ agreements do not fall within the experi-<br /> ence of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use<br /> the Society.<br /> <br /> 3. Send to the Office copies of past agreements and _ past<br /> accounts, with a copy of the book represented. The<br /> Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new<br /> or old, for inspection and note. The information thus<br /> obtained may prove invaluable.<br /> <br /> 4. Before signing any agreement whatever, send<br /> the document to the Society for examination.<br /> <br /> 5. Remember always that in belonging to the Society<br /> you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you<br /> are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are<br /> advancing the best interests of your calling in promoting<br /> the independence of the writer, the dramatist, the composer.<br /> <br /> 6. The Committee have now arranged for the reception<br /> of members’ agreements and their preservation in a fire-<br /> proof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as<br /> confidential documents to be read only by the Secretary,<br /> who will keep the key of the safe. ‘I&#039;he Society now offers :<br /> —(1) To read and advise upon agreements and to give<br /> advice concerning publishers. (2) To stamp agreements<br /> in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep<br /> agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to<br /> agreements. Fuller particulars of the Society’s work<br /> can be obtained in the Prospectus.<br /> <br /> 7. No contract should be entered into with a literary<br /> agent without the advice of the Secretary of the Society.<br /> Members are strongly advised not to accept without careful<br /> consideration the contracts with publishers submitted to<br /> them by literary agents, and are recommended to submit<br /> them for interpretation and explanation to the Secretary<br /> of the Society.<br /> <br /> This<br /> <br /> 8. Many agents neglect to stamp agreements.<br /> The<br /> <br /> must be done within fourteen days of first execution.<br /> Secretary will undertake it on behalf of members.<br /> <br /> 9. Some agents endeavour to prevent authors from<br /> referring matters to the Secretary of the Society; so<br /> do some publishers. Members can make their own<br /> deductions and act accordingly.<br /> <br /> 10. The subscription to the Society is £1 1s. per<br /> annum, or £10 10s for life membership.<br /> <br /> THER AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.<br /> <br /> —+—— + —_<br /> <br /> HE Society undertakes to stamp copies of music on<br /> behalf of its members for the fee of 6d. per 100 or<br /> part of 100. The members’ stamps are kept in the<br /> <br /> Society’s safe. The musical publishers communicate direct<br /> with the Secretary, and the voucher is then forwarded to<br /> the members, who are thus saved much unnecessary trouble.<br /> <br /> A<br /> <br /> THE READING BRANCH.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> EMBERS will greatly assist the Society in this<br /> branch of its work by informing young writers<br /> of its existence. Their MSS. can be read and<br /> <br /> treated as a composition is treated by a coach. The term<br /> MSS. includes not only works of fiction, but poetry<br /> and dramatic works, and when it is possible, under<br /> special arrangement, technical and scientific works. The<br /> Readers are writers of competence and experience. The<br /> fee is one guinea,<br /> <br /> ge eee<br /> <br /> NOTICES.<br /> <br /> —_+—&gt;+—<br /> <br /> HE Editor of Zhe Author begs to remind members of<br /> <br /> the Society that, although the paper is sent to them<br /> <br /> free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a<br /> <br /> very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great<br /> <br /> many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest<br /> 5s. 6d. subscription for the year.<br /> <br /> Communications for “The Author” should be addressed<br /> to the Offices of the Society, 39, Old Queen Street, Storey’s<br /> Gate, S.W., and should reach the Editor not later than the<br /> 21st of each month.<br /> <br /> All persons engaged in literary work of any kind,<br /> whether members of the Society or not, are invited to<br /> communicate to the Editor any points connected with their<br /> work which it would be advisable in the general interest to<br /> publish.<br /> <br /> Communications and letters are invited by the<br /> Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on<br /> no other subjects whatever. Every effort will be made to<br /> return articles which cannot be accepted.<br /> <br /> ++<br /> <br /> The Secretary of the Society begs to give notice<br /> that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post,<br /> and he requests members who do not receive an<br /> answer to important communications within two days to<br /> write to him without delay. All remittances should be<br /> crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery Lane, or be sent<br /> by registered letter only.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ——_+——____—__<br /> <br /> LEGAL AND GENERAL LIFE ASSURANCE<br /> SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> ENSIONS to commence at any selected age,<br /> either with or without Life Assurance, can<br /> be obtained from this society.<br /> <br /> Full particulars can be obtained from the City<br /> Branch Manager, Legal and General Life Assurance<br /> Society, 158, Leadenhall Street, London, E.C.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> AUTHORITIES.<br /> <br /> $4<br /> <br /> E are delighted to see in the issue of<br /> Birthday Honours that Mr. Meredith, the<br /> distinguished President of the Society,<br /> <br /> and Mr. Holman Hunt, who has been a member<br /> since its commencement, have received the Order<br /> of Merit, the highest honour which it is possible<br /> for the King to render to these protagonists of<br /> literature and art. The members of the Society<br /> cannot help but feel the reflected glory shed upon<br /> it by the distinction thus conferred. It is not<br /> necessary to recall the fact that the late Lord<br /> Tennyson was the first President of the Society,<br /> and that on his lamented death Mr. Meredith was<br /> by vote of the Council elected to fill the vacancy.<br /> This was many years ago.<br /> <br /> We must all join in offering our sincerest con-<br /> gratulations that the Order of Merit, so well<br /> deserved, has been conferred on him who was by<br /> the vote of the fellow members of his profession<br /> nominated to the presidency.<br /> <br /> We are pleased to see also that Lord Tennyson,<br /> the son of our former President, also a member of<br /> the Society like his father, has been made a Privy<br /> Councillor.<br /> <br /> ALL advertising agents state that there is nothing<br /> like persistency in advertisement in order to attract<br /> the public notice. This, to a certain extent, is<br /> true ; but after a certain time repeated advertise-<br /> ments repel rather than attract.<br /> <br /> This remark will hold good with the standing<br /> matter in Zhe Author, and it is therefore fitting<br /> from time to time to stimulate the interest<br /> and call to the minds of members the fact<br /> that the information contained in the standing<br /> matter is useful and valuable, that it may be<br /> of great advantage to them before they enter<br /> into an agreement to read the standing matter<br /> referring to agreements as the first step. Another<br /> point in the standing matter to which we should<br /> like to call our members’ attention is the fact<br /> that all the agreements criticised and all the cases<br /> quoted in The Author are real agreements and real<br /> cases, and the secretary is willing to give the names<br /> of the firms involved to members of the society.<br /> <br /> Again, it may be of advantage to members,<br /> before they enter into an agreement, to make some<br /> inquiries from the secretary with regard to the<br /> cases taken up by the society and the agreements<br /> quoted. It is more than probable that the result-<br /> ing information will afford unexpected assistance.<br /> <br /> THE initial sessions of the Copyright Conference<br /> in the United States were held on Wednesday, Thurs-<br /> day and Friday, May 31st, June 1st, and June 2nd.<br /> <br /> 299<br /> <br /> We have heard from the librarian of Congress<br /> that it is not proposed to issue a formal report<br /> of these meetings, though a report was drawn up<br /> for the benefit of the members.<br /> <br /> The authors’ interests were represented by Mr.<br /> E. ©. Stedman, Prof. Brander Mathews, and Mr.<br /> R. U. Johnson ; the publishers’ by Mr. W. W.<br /> Appleton and Mr. Charles Scribner. Mr. George<br /> Haven Putnam would also have been present, but<br /> was not in the United States at the time. Other<br /> interests, such as artists’, typographers’, printers’,<br /> etc., were represented. But we fail to see any men-<br /> tion of the American Authors’ Society. Mr. Herbert<br /> Putnam, the librarian of Congress, was in the chair,<br /> and Mr. Thorvald Solberg, the registrar of copy-<br /> rights, acted as recorder, Mr. Montgomery, of the<br /> Treasury Department, representing the Government.<br /> <br /> The meeting appears to have been surprisingly<br /> unanimous in favour of comprehensive provisions<br /> and more exact definitions, and there was a general<br /> unanimity against the policy of a renewal term of<br /> copyright, and in favour of a fixed term. We<br /> regret to say that beyond a mere formal protest,<br /> there appeared to be no endeavour to disturb the<br /> status of the manufacturing clause. It is to be<br /> hoped that some fair time limit will be given to:<br /> those who desire to secure the United States copy-<br /> right instead of simultaneous publication. It<br /> cannot be repeated too often that the question of<br /> copyright, that is, the reproduction of copies, has<br /> really nothing whatever to do with the manu-<br /> facturers in the United States, and that a reason-<br /> able international copyright law can be gained<br /> without detriment to the printers’ interests.<br /> <br /> We have taken the following list of associations<br /> participating in the conference, with the names of<br /> delegates, from the United States Publishers’ Weekly.<br /> <br /> American (Authors’) Copyright League.<br /> R. BR. Bowker, Vice-President; R. U.<br /> Secretary.<br /> American Bar Association.<br /> Arthur Steuart.<br /> American Dramatists’ Club.<br /> Bronson Howard, President ; Joseph I. C. Clarke.<br /> American Institute of Architects.<br /> Glen Brown, Secretary.<br /> American Library Association.<br /> Frank P. Hill, Vice-President ; Arthur E. Bostwick.<br /> American Newspaper Publishers’ Association.<br /> John Stewart Bryan, Louis M. Duvall, Don C. Seitz.<br /> American Publishers’ Copyright League.<br /> Wm. W. Appleton, President ; Geo. Haven Putnam,<br /> Secretary ; Chas. Scribner, Treasurer.<br /> Architectural League of America.<br /> D. Everett Waid.<br /> Association of American Directory Publishers.<br /> Wm. H. Bates.<br /> Association of Theatre Managers of Greater New York.<br /> Henry B. Harris, Chas. Burnand.<br /> International Typographical Union.<br /> J. J. Sullivan.<br /> <br /> Johnson<br /> 3800 THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Lithographers’ Association.<br /> Robert M. Donnelson ; A. Beverly Smith, Secretary.<br /> Manuscript Society.<br /> Miss Laura Sedgwick Collins, Secretary.<br /> Music Publishers’ Association.<br /> Walter M. Bacon, Geo, W. Furniss.<br /> National Academy of Design.<br /> Francis D. Millet.<br /> National Association of Photo-Engravers.<br /> W. B. Wilson, junr.<br /> National Educational Association.<br /> George S. Davis.<br /> National Institute of Arts and Letters.<br /> Edmund Clarence Stedman, President; Brander<br /> Matthews.<br /> National Sculpture Society.<br /> Karl Bitter.<br /> New York Typographical Union, No. 6.<br /> P. H. McCormick, President ; Geo. J. Jackson.<br /> Periodical Publishers’ Association of America,<br /> Chas. Scribner.<br /> Photographers’ Copyright League.<br /> B. J. Falk, Pirie McDonald.<br /> Print Publishers’ Association of America.<br /> W. A. Livingstone, Albert Smith, President.<br /> Society of American Artists.<br /> John W. Alexander, John La Farge.<br /> Sphinx Club.<br /> W. P. Hooper.<br /> United Typothete.<br /> Isaac H. Blanchard, President.<br /> Librarian of Congress.<br /> Herbert Putnam.<br /> Register of Copyrights.<br /> Thorvald Solberg.<br /> Treasury Department.<br /> Charles P. Montgomery.<br /> <br /> We have once again to thank the secretary of<br /> the Library of Congress for a most useful publica-<br /> tion bearing on the United States Copyright Law,<br /> entitled “ Copyright in Congress, 1789—1904: A<br /> Bibliography and Chronological Record.”<br /> <br /> During the century there has been much copy-<br /> right legislation in the United States, and much<br /> more proposed legislation. As the compiler of the<br /> book states : “ More than 200 Copyright Bills have<br /> been laid before Congress for its consideration.”<br /> The work comprises a complete bibliography of<br /> all the Bills referring to copyright which have<br /> been introduced into Congress, with the laws that<br /> have been enacted, and those reports, petitions,<br /> memorials, messages, and miscellaneous copyright<br /> documents which have been drafted, together with<br /> a complete chronological record of all actions taken<br /> in Congress in any way referring to the subject of<br /> copyright, showing the manner in which each<br /> proposal has been dealt with.<br /> <br /> To the student of the evolution of copyright, the<br /> record must be of the greatest assistance ; and no<br /> person who is really interested in the future con-<br /> solidation of the laws, either in this or any other<br /> country, can afford to ignore the past evolution of<br /> copyright property. We must, therefore, thank<br /> the compilers of this work for the labour they have<br /> <br /> expended and the careful manner in which they<br /> have carried out their programme.<br /> <br /> We are, indeed, indebted to the Copyright Office<br /> for the foresight with which they deal with all<br /> questions likely to interest holders of this property.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE twenty-seventh congress of the International<br /> Artistic and Literary Association will be held this<br /> autumn at Liege, in Belgium, from Monday, the<br /> 18th, to Sunday, the 24th of September. The<br /> opening séance will be on Monday morning at<br /> eleven a.m. ‘The programme is as follows :—<br /> <br /> I, Annual report of matters concerning literary<br /> and artistic property, considered from diplomatic,<br /> legislative, and legal points of view: The general<br /> report.<br /> <br /> 1. New laws and the principal decisions of juris-<br /> <br /> prudence: M. E. Rothlisberger.<br /> <br /> 2. International conventions and projects of<br /> <br /> conventions: M. A. Darras.<br /> 3. Relations between Germany and the United<br /> States: M. A. Osterrieth.<br /> <br /> 4. Means of assuring the adhesion of the<br /> Netherlands to the Berne Convention:<br /> M. Van de Veld.<br /> <br /> II. Relations between artistic and industrial<br /> property, with a special reference to designs,<br /> models, and photographs: M. Taillefer.<br /> <br /> III. Practical means of repressing literary,<br /> musical, and artistic piracy, particularly in Eng-<br /> land and Italy, and of preventing the introduction<br /> of unauthorised publications: MM. Harmand,<br /> Poinsard, Iselin, and Clausetti.<br /> <br /> IV. The character of illicit musical performances,<br /> literary recitations, or dramatic representations,<br /> not authorised by the authors ; an examination of<br /> gratuitous and private performances and repre-<br /> sentations: MM. de Borchgrave, Castori, and<br /> Osterreith.<br /> <br /> VY. The publisher’s contract regarded from the<br /> point of view of artistic works: A report of the<br /> labours of the French Commission instituted by<br /> the Congress of Weimar.<br /> <br /> VI. The right of reproduction of works ex-<br /> hibited in museums: MM. Auquier and Grandig-<br /> neaux.<br /> <br /> VII. The protection of monuments of the past,<br /> of scenery, and of historical sites: MM. Charles<br /> Lucas and Raoul de Clermont.<br /> <br /> Thursday, the 21st, will be devoted to an excur-<br /> sion to Brussels. Friday, 22nd, Saturday, and<br /> Sunday will be passed at Antwerp, where the<br /> congress will close. A complete programme will<br /> be subsequently published. Persons visiting the<br /> congress will enjoy a discount of fifty per cent. on<br /> tickets of the Chemin du Fer du Nord, and can<br /> have circular tickets on the Belgian railways at<br /> reduced prices.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> eas RIDNiae:<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THER AUTHOR. 301<br /> <br /> BALLADE OF MINOR POETS.<br /> <br /> ——<br /> <br /> * Ah, would but one might lay his lance in rest,<br /> And charge in earnest, were it but a mill!”<br /> AusTIN DoBsoNn.<br /> <br /> OT painless is his path who strives<br /> To storm Apollo’s cloudy seats ;<br /> His heart shall know derision’s knives,<br /> And tough shall be the bread he eats.<br /> Not his to fondle the receipts<br /> Of novelists superbly Manx ;<br /> Yet all is well when he repeats<br /> “At least we fight within the ranks.”<br /> <br /> There is no noodle but contrives<br /> To giggle at our high conceits ;<br /> The purblind critic smokes our hives<br /> And votes our honey pilfered sweets ;<br /> Our noblest pangs are “ hectic heats,”<br /> Our verse is vile, our minds are blanks ;<br /> And yet—they said the same of Keats!<br /> At least we fight within the ranks !<br /> <br /> Appalling vices taint our lives ;—<br /> Debt, cigarettes, Parisian streets,<br /> French fiction, absinthe, countless wives,<br /> Strange vintages and monstrous meats ;<br /> Yet though this list but half-completes<br /> The total of our godless pranks,<br /> Such windy stuff one thought deletes,—<br /> At least we fight within the ranks.<br /> <br /> L’ENVOI.<br /> <br /> Brothers, this giant Art retreats<br /> Untamed of us ; yet give we thanks ;—<br /> Through each alarm, through all defeats<br /> At least we fight within the ranks !<br /> pr. J. lu.<br /> <br /> -—~&lt;_ +<br /> <br /> UNITED STATES NOTES.<br /> <br /> =o<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> FP \HE question of the day in American literary<br /> circles is, who wrote those “ Publisher’s<br /> Confessions,” which have now appeared in<br /> <br /> book form ?<br /> <br /> In some quarters it was assumed as a moral<br /> certainty that Mr. Walter H. Page was the out-<br /> spoken correspondent of the Boston Transcript, and<br /> one literary periodical has even published his<br /> portrait in that capacity ; but now it is said that<br /> the want of literary tone which is so sadly apparent,<br /> precludes this hypothesis ; and another candidate,<br /> Mr. Gregory, of Boston, is brought forward. For<br /> ourselves, we regret the hard things said of the<br /> critics and the literary papers, whilst acknowledging<br /> the shrewd sense and straight hitting of the<br /> <br /> writer; but we dare venture no guess as to his<br /> identity.<br /> <br /> Mr. Carnegie’s latest benefaction has been very<br /> generally approved. The provision of a pension<br /> fund for the hard-working and ill-paid teaching<br /> profession was an obvious desideratum, especially<br /> in a country like the United States; and its<br /> advantages, unlike those of the public libraries,<br /> cannot be held to be problematic.<br /> <br /> An able article in the Dzal, by Dr. Joseph<br /> Jastrow deals with the few objections that are likely<br /> to be raised, such as the exclusion of State univer-<br /> sities from the benefits of the bequest. The writer<br /> very wisely, in our opinion, expresses a hope that<br /> the new endowment will supplement existing pro-<br /> visions, rather than exonerate universities from the<br /> duty of supplying pensions, and will act as a<br /> stimulative force in other directions.<br /> <br /> Mention of the Chicayo Dial recalls the fact that<br /> it has lately celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary.<br /> Under the able conduct of Mr. Francis F. Browne,<br /> who has edited the paper during the whole period,<br /> it has undoubtedly been the best literary journal<br /> in America, and has fully held its own against<br /> younger rivals, who have called in the aid of<br /> illustration. It is the only purely literary paper<br /> which is not the organ of a publishing house, and<br /> has succeeded in avoiding dulness without making<br /> any of the usual concessions to popular taste.<br /> Long may it live to wave the banner of calm<br /> criticism over commercial democratic Chicago !<br /> <br /> The Copyright Conference assembled at the<br /> invitation of the Librarian of Congress, to make<br /> suggestions for improvements in the copyright law,<br /> has held some preliminary sittings. Artists and<br /> painters are represented as well as publishers and<br /> authors. Mr. Edmund Clarence Stedman and<br /> Prof. Brander Matthews are among those who are<br /> acting for the last named ; Mr. Herbert Putnam<br /> was in the chair. So far, things seem to have<br /> gone very smoothly.<br /> <br /> Messrs. D. Appleton and Co. have taken over<br /> the Booklovers’ Magazine, which is to bear their<br /> name from the July number onwards.<br /> <br /> We note that Mrs. Humphry Ward’s “ Marriage<br /> of William Ashe” headed the most recently com-<br /> piled list of best selling books here, and that<br /> another British work, “The Garden of Allah”<br /> figured among the six, though in the reverse<br /> position.<br /> <br /> Alice Hegan Rice’s latest story, “Sandy,” and<br /> David Graham Phillips’s ‘‘ The Plum Tree,” were<br /> the new American big sellers. The latter is a<br /> political novel, wherein some have found portraits<br /> of McKinley, Senator Hanna, and W. J. Bryan.<br /> The book has been realistically advertised by the<br /> Columbian Book Company, of Atalanta, Georgia,<br /> who displayed in their windows a six-foot plum<br /> 302<br /> <br /> tree in full blossom, with, it is said, satisfactory<br /> results.<br /> <br /> But by far the best examples of recent fiction<br /> published in the United States are the anonymous<br /> “Our Best Society,” which has just finished its<br /> serial career in the Oritic, and Dr. S. Weir<br /> Mitchell’s “ Constance Trescot.” The former is a<br /> sparkling and audacious picture of New York<br /> society from the point of view of a novelist and<br /> dramatist, who, with his wife, enters it for his own<br /> purposes. The latter, which was thrice re-written,<br /> is a masterly study of feminine temperament,<br /> which will rank high amongst the scanty collection<br /> of physicians’ novels. These, it may be recalled,<br /> include Warren’s “Ten Thousand a Year,” and<br /> Holmes’s “ Elsie Venner,” not to mention Sir A.<br /> Conan Doyle’s happy excursions into historical and<br /> <br /> detective romance.<br /> <br /> _ A very clever and readable book is, however,<br /> “The Orchid,” by Robert Grant, a curious social<br /> study, depicting, of course, the smart set.<br /> <br /> Howard Sturgis’s ‘‘ Belchamber,” is also a book<br /> quite out of the common by an unprolific writer.<br /> It has been well hit off as “The Tragedy of the<br /> Trivial.”<br /> <br /> Motor fiction is a new serial, which is well<br /> represented in “ The Van Suyden Sapphires,” by<br /> Charles Carey; “Charles the Chauffeur,” by<br /> S. E. Kiser; and Lloyd Osborne’s “The Motor<br /> Maniacs.”<br /> <br /> Mrs. Austin’s romance of old California, “Isidro,”<br /> should also be mentioned, nor should the bright<br /> little fantasia, called “The Opal,” which remains<br /> anonymous, be omitted here.<br /> <br /> A new novel from the pen of Mr. W. D. Howells,<br /> is being published, as we write. It is said to be<br /> in his best vein. ‘ Miss Bellard’s Inspiration” is<br /> the title.<br /> <br /> The fifth edition of the “ Dictionary of American<br /> Authors,” compiled by Oscar Fay Adams, has a<br /> supplement containing considerably more than a<br /> thousand newnames. It should prove more useful<br /> than ever.<br /> <br /> Four money prizes will be awarded next year for<br /> essays on certain economical subjects, the. donors<br /> being Messrs. Hart, Schaffner, and Marx, of<br /> Chicago. Two of these prizes are to be reserved<br /> for undergraduates of American colleges; the<br /> others will be competed for by those graduated<br /> in or after 1904. One of the subjects selected is<br /> “an examination into the economic causes of large<br /> fortunes in this country.”<br /> <br /> Among books other than novels which have<br /> appeared during the spring, perhaps the most<br /> notable is the Autobiography of Andrew D. White,<br /> some time Ambassador of Berlin and St. Peters-<br /> burg and President of Cornell. Not the least<br /> interesting part of the book are the Russian<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> reminiscences. Mr. White gives a highly curious<br /> account of Pobedonostzeff’s acquaintance with<br /> American literature, the Procurator of the Holy<br /> Synod’s devotion to Emerson being very singular,<br /> Mr. White also discussed his country’s literature<br /> with Tolstoi, who did not, however, display equal<br /> intimacy with it. He had talked with the present<br /> Tsar, and expresses himself as having been favour-<br /> ably impressed by the late M. de Plehve when a<br /> subordinate official.<br /> <br /> Mr. John Fox, jun., has described his abortive<br /> ttempts to follow the operations in Manchuria<br /> in his “ Following the Sun Flag” ; and another<br /> young writer, Mr. Jack London, has in his “ War<br /> of the Classes” indited an apologia for his own<br /> socialism.<br /> <br /> Another book well worth reading is “A Diary<br /> from Dixie,” written by the wife of Jefferson<br /> Davis’s aide-de-camp, and edited by Isabella D.<br /> Martin and Myrta L. Avary. It is a really im-<br /> portant historical document, containing not only<br /> an interesting description of social life in the South<br /> during the Civil War, but also revelations of the<br /> intrigues which were rife against the Secession<br /> leaders, and of the lack of enthusiasm felt by these<br /> last for their cause.<br /> <br /> Another historical work which is provoking<br /> some discussion is Agnes Laut’s “ Pathfinders of<br /> the West.” The author maintains that Pierre<br /> Esprit Radisson discovered the overland route to<br /> Hudson’s Bay, as well as the North-West. She<br /> also deals with the careers of La Vérendrye,<br /> Samuel Hearne, Mackenzie, and other pioneers,<br /> challenging accepted views.<br /> <br /> Mrs. Wharton’s “Italian Backgrounds” is a<br /> book of travels of rare distinction. Her discovery<br /> of the San Vivaldo pictures renders it especially<br /> noteworthy.<br /> <br /> James Huneker’s “Iconoclasts : a Book of<br /> Dramatists,” is likely to attract almost as much<br /> attention in Europe as it has here ; nor is Andrew<br /> Carnegie’s “Life of James Watt” likely to pass<br /> unnoticed in either continent.<br /> <br /> Finally, we may draw the attention of historical<br /> students to Professor Peck’s contribution to the<br /> English Men of Letters series, his volume on<br /> Prescoti.<br /> <br /> By far the most important name in our obituary<br /> list is that of the creator of Rip Van Winkle.<br /> Joseph Jefferson died on April 23rd at the ripe age<br /> of seventy-six. Howard M. Ticknor, who died on<br /> May 14th, was a man of varied accomplishments,<br /> having been in his time publisher, musical critic,<br /> editor, instructor in English at Harvard, and vice-<br /> consul in various cities. Charles Henry Webb, the<br /> publisher of Mark Twain&#039;s “Jumping Frog,”<br /> wrote excellent parodies under the pseudonym<br /> “John Paul,” as well as “The Wickedest Woman<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> in New York ” and several plays. He also invented<br /> a cartridge loader and an adding machine. The<br /> late Judge Tourgée, American consul at Bordeaux,<br /> will be best remembered by his novel “A Fool’s<br /> Errand.” Mrs. Livermore published various books,<br /> but was chiefly known as a lecturer.<br /> <br /> ee ——_—_o—__ +<br /> <br /> GERMAN NOTES.<br /> <br /> —— 9<br /> <br /> I AM glad that the first notes on German<br /> literature in The Author will be principally<br /> devoted to the memory of the greatest of<br /> <br /> German poets, Friedrich Schiller.<br /> <br /> Goethe, as the author of “ Herman and Dorothea”’<br /> and “ Faust,” is, and will ever remain, specially a<br /> German poet ; Schiller’s genius made him rather<br /> an international one.<br /> <br /> The 9th of May being the centenary of the death<br /> of the great poet, one of the most honest and<br /> noble characters in the history of Germany, it was<br /> found necessary to honour that anniversary by<br /> festivities which surpassed anything previously<br /> known, perhaps for the reason, as Maurice Muret<br /> remarks in the Journal des Debats, “the Ger-<br /> mans display their love for Schiller vehemently, in<br /> order to assure themselves that they are not true<br /> to his expectations, and to forget all that is<br /> unschillerische in the present German Empire”<br /> (pour faire oublier tout ce qu’il y a d’unschiller-<br /> ische dans l’empire Allemand de nos jours).<br /> <br /> Whatever may be the reason, this, as the Ger-<br /> man paper Literarische Echo says, is “nicht<br /> ganz unrichtig,” not without some foundation, or,<br /> perhaps, that ideas of the government are not<br /> altogether popular in Germany. The present<br /> Festival surpassed not only that of the centenary<br /> of Schiller’s birthday, celebrated in 1859, but any<br /> other festivities hitherto held in Germany. There<br /> were more than forty books published, dealing<br /> with him as a poet, dramatist, esthetic ; various<br /> editions of his works and letters appeared,<br /> and during April and May, hundreds and<br /> thousands of articles occupied pages of the Ger-<br /> man publications. Apparently there was not a<br /> single paper which did not devote a more or less<br /> long article to the great poet’s memory.<br /> <br /> The most noteworthy work was that published<br /> by the Goethe Society, which devoted Volume XX.<br /> of their splendid publications exclusively to the<br /> Manes of Schiller. This work contained a preface<br /> by Bernhard Suphan, Schiller’s last will, in his<br /> own handwriting, and his lyric play, “ Huldigung<br /> der Kiinste,” homage to the art ; then the mono-<br /> logue of Marfas from Demetrius, the last line<br /> written by Schiller, and at the end, the epilogue<br /> <br /> to the Bell, written by Goethe.<br /> <br /> 303<br /> <br /> _ The Kaiser, to the disappointment of his sub-<br /> jects, being in Strasburg during the Schiller<br /> Festival, did not take any part in the celebration,<br /> and thus missed an opportunity of making a<br /> speech ; but perhaps, on the whole, it was as well;<br /> for what has Schiller, the real Christian in his life,<br /> the idealist, in common with the present aggressive<br /> policy of Germany, the persecution of Poles, or the<br /> savage methods of repression permitted towards the<br /> negro population in German-African colonies ?<br /> <br /> As the Kaiser did not pose as the leading<br /> figure in the festivities, his part was eagerly taken<br /> and played by the King of Wurtemburg. He<br /> sent, as his representative, Major-General Albert<br /> von Pfister, to the United States, who, in the<br /> name of the king, presented a bust of Schiller<br /> to John Hopkins University in Baltimore, and<br /> also as representing the Schwabisch Schiller’s<br /> Society, took part in the festivities in Chicago.<br /> The King, with the Queen, have been present<br /> throughout the Festival in Stuttgart and Mar-<br /> bach, which commenced with the opening of<br /> the Schiller Exhibition on the 6th of May in<br /> Marbach, and the royal pair deposited a wreath<br /> before the monument of the poet. In Stuttgart,<br /> on the same day, the citizen society began their<br /> celebration, and on the 8th of May a splendid pro-<br /> cession of students with torches took place. On<br /> the 9th inst. all the church bells in Stuttgart and<br /> Wurtemburg were rung at the hour of the great<br /> poet’s death, and a long procession of the inhabi-<br /> tants, headed by the mayor of the city and various<br /> officials deposited a wreath; and speeches were<br /> delivered at public meetings where the memory<br /> of their great compatriot was commended. In the<br /> evening a gala performance was given in the Court<br /> Theatre, and illuminations of the royal castle and<br /> city, with bonfires on the surrounding mountain<br /> heights, turned night into day. The splendour of<br /> the Stuttgart festivities was only equalled in Ger-<br /> many by those displayed in Munich, where Prince<br /> <br /> ‘Louis Ferdinand and Prince Alphonse of Bavaria,<br /> <br /> with the Princesses, took an active part in them.<br /> In all other towns of Germany the day was<br /> observed with similar rejoicings, in which, with<br /> the exception of Baden, Hessen, Weimar and<br /> Anhalt, the rulers abstained from participating in<br /> them. The works of Schiller were distributed in<br /> all public schools throughout Germany to the<br /> children, with a few exceptions, as in Ravensburg,<br /> where the authorities gave sausages in place of<br /> books to the scholars; but in some towns, as in<br /> Eberfeld, the play, called “ The Robbers,” was cut<br /> out and suppressed, lest the influence of this work<br /> might be harmful to the children. In Berlin,<br /> according to Literarische Echo on the 9th May,<br /> on the place of Gendarmen Markt, Herr Studt<br /> the Gessler of academic liberty, deposited a wreath<br /> 304 THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> before the Schiller monument, with the inscrip-<br /> tion, “The Prussian Minister of Education to the<br /> Poet of German Idealism.” For years there has<br /> existed in Germany a special money prize for the<br /> best dramatic work, which is named the Schiller<br /> Prize, and is awarded by the King of Prussia. In<br /> the days of Wilhelm I., the prize was awarded<br /> according to the opinion of selected judges, with-<br /> out any interference from royalty, and the decision<br /> was regarded as just ; but with the present Kaiser<br /> all this arrangement has been changed, and, as the<br /> authors and the public were not altogether satisfied<br /> with the judgment of the high protector of the<br /> drama, another subscription has been collected,<br /> and the People Schiller’s Prize was established.<br /> On the 7th May the prizes were distributed<br /> to Gerhart Hauptmann, for “ Rosa Bernd,” to<br /> Karl Hauptman, for “ Bergschmiede,” and Richard<br /> Beer-Hoffman, for “Count of Charolais ;” each<br /> competitor receiving, from the fund mentioned,<br /> 1,000 marks (German).<br /> <br /> With the name of Schiller is associated the fund<br /> to support the widows and families of German poets.<br /> This society was started in Dresden, October 8th,<br /> 1859; the initiation of the idea is due to Julius<br /> Hammer, who published an article in Dresden, in<br /> 1855 which was reprinted in other German papers,<br /> proposing the collection of money for a memorial<br /> inscription on a house in Lochwitz, near Dresden,<br /> where Schiller wrote his Don Carlos, the surplus<br /> of the money subscribed to form the nucleus of a<br /> fund to assist necessitous poets and their families.<br /> The association selected Weimar as its head-<br /> quarters, and the reigning Prince became its pro-<br /> tector. Now the association has twenty-eight<br /> committees in Germany and Austria, and a<br /> capital of 1,987,327 marks, and 239,551 Austrian<br /> crowns. During the past year, 60,000 marks were<br /> distributed among families and widows of poets.<br /> On the 9th May, the German Ladies’ Schiller’s<br /> Society added 250,000 marks to the funds of the<br /> Society.<br /> <br /> Not only have festivities connected with the<br /> name of Schiller taken place in Germany, but<br /> also in the United States, where in many cities<br /> the German element is very strong. In Austria<br /> also, not only in Vienna but in the majority of<br /> towns of the Austro-Hungarian Empire; in<br /> Gmunden the Duke of Cumberland with his<br /> family attended the festival.<br /> <br /> Of course everywhere in Germany, Austria and<br /> even in Russia, during the month of May, Schiller’s<br /> dramas were produced, and it is a fact that outside<br /> Germany, Schiller’s plays are in many continental<br /> theatres on the list of their permanent repertoire<br /> with those of Shakespeare. In England, the late<br /> Wilson Barrett was the last to produce them, and<br /> during his management of the Court Theatre he<br /> <br /> adapted ‘‘ Kabale und liebe,”? and introduced it<br /> with success. I believe among others, Madame<br /> Modrzejewska, the great Polish actress appeared<br /> in Schiller’s plays as one of Wilson Barrett’s<br /> company before an English public. Yet, outside<br /> Germany, these plays can hardly be popular, some<br /> of them having a purely local interest, and others<br /> not appealing to the modern taste. Such plays as<br /> “The Robbers” would require an Irving to do<br /> them justice and in general a strong company to<br /> he properly produced, but these conditions granted,<br /> what a marvellous impression would this play<br /> produce, quite another Macbeth.<br /> <br /> Outside Germany, in the Italian Nuovo Autologia<br /> Guido Menascis wrote an excellent article on May<br /> Ist on Schiller. The Swedish and Norwegian press<br /> also devoted much space to the German Poet, but<br /> perhaps the best contribution was published in<br /> Stockholm from the pen of Oscar Levertin.<br /> <br /> In France more attention was paid to the great<br /> German’s memory than was expected. This<br /> can be accounted for by his defence of Jeanne<br /> d’Are, for which he was made an honorary citizen<br /> of Paris. Outside the excellent article by Maurice<br /> Moret in the Gaulois, there is a good contribution<br /> by Georges Goyou in the illustrated supplement<br /> of that paper. From the 7th May, we find many<br /> illustrations in relation to the life of Schiller.<br /> Paul Ginisty, director of the Odeon Theatre, writes<br /> in the Figaro on Schiller and the Weimar Theatre,<br /> and good. articles were in La Revue, Mercure de<br /> France, and many other papers.<br /> <br /> To those who may be interested in obtaining<br /> more details regarding the festival and Schiller’s<br /> recent literature, I may give the names of some<br /> publications where they will find a full report ; the<br /> Lnterarische Echo (Berlin), Leterarisches Central-<br /> Blatt, (Leipzig), Deutsche Literatur Zeitung (Berlin),<br /> and Oesterreichische Rundschau (Wien).<br /> <br /> Special numbers devoted to Schiller, were issued<br /> among others by Ueber Land und Meer (Stuttgart),<br /> <br /> ‘ Illustrierte Zeitung (Leipzig).<br /> <br /> Simplizissimus (X. 6.) finds an opportunity<br /> (thanks to Schiller) to write against the German<br /> authorities and to give an opinion on Schiller’s<br /> works by various celebrities as Bjornson, Max<br /> Halbe, etc. Even the monthly Uebersinnliche<br /> Welt, Berlin (XIII. 5.), devoted to occultism,<br /> finds something to say about Schiller.<br /> <br /> On the 29th of last April, the yearly meeting of<br /> the German Shakespearian Society took place in<br /> Weimar. Herr Hugo von Hofmannstahl read a<br /> paper on “Shakespeare King and Lords.” The<br /> members now number 560; the society awarded<br /> first prize in the competition on “The Stage<br /> Arrangement of Shakespeare’s Theatres” to a<br /> person who does not wish his name to be pub-<br /> lished ; the second prize to Dr. Phil. Bernhard<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Neuendorf, and honourable mention to Dr. Phil.<br /> Paul Moenkmeyer of Hanover.<br /> <br /> For the last few months no work of exceptional<br /> merit has been published in Germany; in fact<br /> except a few talented dramatic authors, Germany<br /> possesses neither poets of note or novelists; per-<br /> haps one of her best is Gabrielle Reuter, who under<br /> the title of “Wonderful Love” wrote a series of<br /> short stories, some of them really clever.<br /> <br /> English literature is represented by the “ Letters”<br /> of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “ Portu-<br /> guese Sonnets,” by the latter, and three volumes<br /> of other works also by Browning. Algernon<br /> Swinburne’s “ Poems,” George Moore’s ‘“ Earth<br /> and Heaven Love,” “Materials for Learning the<br /> Old English Drama,” 8th vol., “ Pendantius,” a<br /> Latin comedy formerly acted in Trinity College,<br /> Cambridge. 9th vol., Koeppel, “ Studies on<br /> Shakespeare’s Influence on Contemporary Dramatic<br /> Writers.” 10th vol., Ben Jonson’s “ Every Man<br /> in his Humour,” and a very interesting book by<br /> Karl Wenger, ‘ The Historic Romance of German<br /> Romantic Writers; or a Study on Sir Walter<br /> Scott’s Influence on German Authors.”<br /> <br /> The majority of the German Press has altogether<br /> forgotten that the 20th of May is the centenary<br /> anniversary of the birth of Georg Gottfried Ger-<br /> vinus, the father of German literary criticism and<br /> first historian of Literature.<br /> <br /> J. ALMAR,<br /> ——_————__——_+____-<br /> <br /> CONFESSIONS OF A BENEVOLENT AND<br /> HIGHMINDED SHARK.*<br /> <br /> oo<br /> <br /> HIS book has the double charm of infinite<br /> comedy and obvious authenticity. Most<br /> confessions are spurious. Blameless wives<br /> <br /> of country clergymen have a mania for writing<br /> memoirs of improper females: city missionaries<br /> write autobiographies of convicted cracksmen : the<br /> penitent forms of the Salvation Army are crowded<br /> with amiable creatures confessing the imaginary<br /> brutalities they did not commit before they were<br /> converted. Confessions, in short, as Dickens<br /> succinctly put it, are “all lies.” But this con-<br /> fession is genuine. The author is a real publisher<br /> from his bootsoles to his probably bald crown.<br /> There never was such a publishery publisher. The<br /> experienced author will read his book with many<br /> chuckles, and put it down without malice. The<br /> inexperienced author will learn from it exactly<br /> what he has to face when he meets that most dan-<br /> gerous of all publishers, the thoroughly respectable<br /> publisher.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> * “ A Publisher’s Confession.”<br /> Page &amp; Co. 1905.)<br /> <br /> (New York : Doubleday,<br /> <br /> 305<br /> <br /> Need I add that the confession is not a con-<br /> fession at all? It contains only one admission :<br /> that publishers do not know how to advertize, and<br /> can do nothing more for a book than the book can<br /> do for itself. This, so far as it is true (and it is<br /> not wholly nor exactly true) is so obvious that<br /> there is no merit in confessing it. And the rest of<br /> the book is quite the reverse of a confession. It<br /> is an advertisement, an apology (in the classical<br /> sense), occasionally almost a dithyramb ; and its<br /> tune throughout is the old tune “Wont you walk<br /> into my parlour ?”<br /> <br /> A few simple principles furnish our professing<br /> penitent with a solid moral basis. Of these the<br /> chief is that Nature ordains ten per cent. as the<br /> proper royalty for an author.* He makes no quali-<br /> fication as to the price of the book. It may be<br /> published at a shilling, or six shillings, or twelve<br /> shillings, or twenty-four. That does not matter.<br /> Nature does not fix the price of a book, though a<br /> dollar and a half is suggested as a desirable figure.<br /> She does fix the author’s percentage—at ten. ‘The<br /> penitent admits with shame that there are reckless<br /> publishers who offer more, and avaricious and<br /> shortsighted authors who are seduced by their<br /> offers. But bankruptcy awaits the former ; and<br /> remorse and ruin are the doom of the latter. The<br /> book itself must needs be starved by cheap manu-<br /> facture. The goose that lays the golden eggs (that<br /> is: the ten per cent. publisher) is slain by that<br /> thriftless and insatiable grasper, the twenty per<br /> cent. author.<br /> <br /> I shuddered as I read. For I too have a con-<br /> fession to make. I have not only exacted twenty<br /> per cent. royalties ; bat I have actually forced the<br /> unfortunate publisher to adorn the dollar-and-a-<br /> half book with photogravures. It is quite true<br /> that the particular publisher whom [ used thus<br /> barbarously actually did become bankrupt. But<br /> he broke, not because he paid too high royalties,<br /> but because his profits were so large that he<br /> acquired the habits of a Monte Cristo, and the<br /> ambitions of an Alexander. Jar be it from me to<br /> blame him or bear malice. I still believe in his<br /> star. Three or four more bankruptcies, and he<br /> will settle down and become a steady millionaire.<br /> <br /> But the exaction of twenty per cent. is not the<br /> blackest crime of which an author can be guilty.<br /> Our penitent is, in the main, kind to authors. I<br /> handsomely admit that authors are not angels—at<br /> least not all of them. Without going so far as to<br /> say that some authors are rascals,I yet believe that<br /> authors have been known to practise on the vanity,<br /> the credulity, the literary ignorance, and the business<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> * This view is strenuously combated by theatrical<br /> managers, to whom the Voice of Nature whispers five<br /> per cent. as seemly and sufficient.<br /> 306<br /> <br /> flabbiness of publishers to get advances from<br /> them on books that remain unwritten to this day.<br /> Every season brings its budget of scamped, faked,<br /> and worthless books, feverishly pushed, to prove<br /> that those eminent and typical publishers, Alnaschar<br /> &amp; Co., have again had their belly filled with the<br /> east wind by some duffer whose pretensions would<br /> not take in an ordinarily sharp bookstall boy.<br /> There are authors who make the poor publisher<br /> pay through the nose for nothing but their names<br /> in his list. For all these deceits and failures and<br /> oppressions our penitent has -not a word of<br /> reproach. He forgives us everything, except<br /> DISLOYALTY. That is to him the one un-<br /> pardonable and abominable sin. Loyalty, loyalty,<br /> loyalty, is what he asks before everything. ‘To<br /> change your publisher is to become “a stray dog”<br /> —his own words, I assure you. To bite the hand<br /> that fed you ; to turn on the man who raised you<br /> from obscurity to publicity ; to prefer another’s<br /> twenty per cent. to his ten: this is human nature<br /> at its worst. The pages of the confession almost<br /> blush as they record the shameful fact that there<br /> are viper-authors who do this thing, and blackleg-<br /> publishers who tempt them to do it.<br /> <br /> Here is a powerful pen-picture of the polyec-<br /> dotous author. ‘That man now has books on<br /> five publishers’ lists. Not one of the publishers<br /> counts him as his particular client. In a sense his<br /> books are all neglected. One has never helped<br /> another. He has got no cumulative result of his<br /> work. He has become a sort of stray dog in the<br /> publishing world. He has cordial relations with<br /> no publisher ; and his literary product has really<br /> declined. He scattered his influence ; and he is<br /> paying the penalty.”<br /> <br /> What an awful warning !<br /> <br /> Yet, now that I cume to think of it, I have done<br /> this very thing my very self. Dare I add that I<br /> would do it again to-morrow without the slightest<br /> compunction if I thought I could better myself<br /> that way. My publisher’s consolation is that<br /> though I have no bowels, at least I do not pose as<br /> his benefactor, nor accuse him of disloyalty because<br /> he publishes books by other authors. Granted<br /> that an author with two or three publishers may<br /> seem (in America) as abandoned a creature as a<br /> woman with two or three husbands, what about a<br /> Solomonic publisher with half a hundred authors !<br /> <br /> “Every really successful publisher” says our<br /> penitent (who is rather given to dark hints that<br /> the other publishers are not all they seem), ‘could<br /> make more money by going into some other busi-<br /> ness. I think that there is not a man of them<br /> who could not greatly increase his income by giving<br /> the same energy and ability to the management of<br /> a bank, or of some sort of industrial enterprise.”<br /> May I point out that this is true not only of pub-<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> lishers but of all criminals, as many a judge has<br /> remarked before passing sentence. Whenever I<br /> meet a burglar, I always ask him why he runs such<br /> fearful risks, and performs such prodigies of skill<br /> and enterprise in opening other people’s safes,<br /> when he might turn publisher and be just as dis-<br /> honest and ten times as rich for half the trouble.<br /> As to authors, I never yet met an author who was<br /> not convinced that if he put into business half the<br /> talent and industry he puts into literature, he could<br /> in ten years time buy up the Steel Trust that<br /> bought up Mr. Carnegie.<br /> The truth is, I suspect, that a publisher is an<br /> [inte book fancier who cannot write, and an<br /> author is an infatuated book fancier who can. But<br /> the Confession does not urge this view, nor even<br /> mention it. According to it “from one point of<br /> view the publisher is a manufacturer and a sales-<br /> man. From another point of view he is the personal<br /> friend and sympathetic adviser of authors—a man<br /> who has a knowledge of literature and whose judg-<br /> ment is worth having.” Yes: I know that other<br /> point of view : the publisher&#039;s own point of view.<br /> I have had tons of his sympathetic advice ; and I<br /> owe all my literary success to the fact that I have<br /> known my own business well enough never to take<br /> it. Whenever a publisher gives me literary advice,<br /> I take an instant and hideous revenge on him. I<br /> give him business advice. I pose as an economist,<br /> a financier, and a man of affairs. I explain what<br /> I would do if I were a publisher ; and I urge him<br /> to double his profits by adopting my methods. I<br /> do so as his personal friend and wellwisher, as his<br /> patron, his counsellor, his guardian, his second<br /> father. I strive to purify the atmosphere from<br /> every taint of a “ degrading commercialism ” (that<br /> is how the Confession puts it), and to speak as man<br /> <br /> to man. And it always makes the stupid creature<br /> quite furious. Thus do men misunderstand one<br /> another. Thus will the amateur, to the end of the<br /> <br /> world, try to mix the paints of the professional.<br /> <br /> I think I will give up the attempt to review this<br /> book. I cannot stand its moral pose. If the man<br /> would write like a human being I could treat him<br /> as a human being. But when he keeps intoning<br /> a moral diapason to his bland and fatherly har-<br /> monies about the eternal fitness of his ten per cent.<br /> on six shillings ; his actuarial demonstrations that<br /> higher royalties must leave his children crying in<br /> vain to him for bread ; his loudly virtuous denun-<br /> ciation of the outside publisher who publishes at<br /> the author’s expense (compare this with his cautious<br /> avoidance of any mention of the commission system<br /> used by Ruskin, Spencer and all authors who can<br /> afford the advance of capital) ; his claim that all the<br /> losses caused by his endless errors of judgment are<br /> to be reckoned by authors as inevitable and legiti-<br /> mate expenses of his business; and his plea that:<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> his authors should take him for better for worse<br /> until death do them part: all this provokes me so<br /> that it is hard for me to refrain from describing<br /> him to himself bluntly in terms of his own moral<br /> affectations. :<br /> However, I will be magnanimous, and content<br /> myself with the harmless remark that the writer<br /> of the Confession is a very typical publisher. Pub-<br /> lishers of a certain age always do go on exactly<br /> like that. The author’s business is not to mind<br /> them, and to be infinitely patient with their literary<br /> vanity, their business imbecility, their seignorial<br /> sentiments and tradesmanlike little grabbings and<br /> cheapenings, their immeasurable incompetence,<br /> their wounded recollections of Besant, their<br /> stupendously unreadable new book that is coming<br /> out the week after their timid refusal of the latest<br /> thing that does not reflect the chaos of secondhand<br /> impressions which they call their own minds ; and<br /> the dislike of steady industry, the love of gambling,<br /> the furtive Bohemianism that induced them to<br /> choose their strange and questionable occupation.<br /> As for me, all I ask on the royalty system at<br /> six shillings is a modest twenty per cent. or so, a<br /> three years’ trial, an agreement drafted by myself,<br /> and an unaffected bookseller. I dont want a<br /> compulsory partner for life. I dont want a<br /> patron. I[ dont want an amateur collaborator.<br /> I dont want a moralist. I dont want a Tele-<br /> machus. I dont want a pompous humbug, nor a<br /> pious humbug, nor a literary humbug. I can<br /> dispense with a restatement of the expenses, dis-<br /> appointments, trials, and ingratitudes that pave<br /> the publisher’s weary path to a destitute old age<br /> in a country house, with nothing to relieve its<br /> monotony but three horses, a Mercedes automobile,<br /> and a flat in London. I have heard it so often !<br /> I dont expect absolute truth, being myself a pro-<br /> fessional manufacturer of fiction : indeed I should<br /> not recognize perfect truth if it were offered to<br /> me. I dont demand entire honesty, being only<br /> moderately honest myself. What I want is a<br /> businesslike gambler in books, who will give me<br /> the market odds when we bet on the success of my<br /> latest work. No doubt this is a matter of individual<br /> taste. _ Some authors like the bland and baldheaded<br /> commercial Meecenas who loathes a degraded com-<br /> mercialism ; tenders a helping hand to the young ;<br /> and is happy if he can give an impulse to the<br /> march of humanity. I can only say that these<br /> benefactors do not seem to get on with me. They<br /> are too sensitive, too thinskinned, too unpractical<br /> forme. The moment they discover that I am a<br /> capable man of business they retreat, chilled and<br /> disillusioned. Not long ago one of these affec-<br /> tionate friends of struggling authors, representing<br /> a first-class American firm, proposed to bind me<br /> to him for life, not by the ties of reciprocal esteem,<br /> <br /> 307<br /> <br /> but by legal contract. Naturally I said, “Sup-<br /> pose you go mad! Suppose you take to drink!<br /> Suppose you make a mess of my business!” The<br /> wounded dignity and forgiving sweetness with<br /> which he retired, remarking that it would be<br /> better for the permanence of our agreeable rela-<br /> tions if we let the matter drop, are among my<br /> most cherished recollections.<br /> <br /> _ I hope I have not conveyed an unfavorable<br /> impression of what is—to an author at least—<br /> quite a readable, and not an unamiable little book.<br /> There are scraps of good sense and even of real as<br /> distinguished from merely intended candor in it,<br /> mixed up with some frightful nonsense about<br /> ‘literary ” books, our penitent being firmly per-<br /> suaded, like most publishers, that a really literary<br /> book is one in which the word “singularly” occurs<br /> in every third line, and in which “I dont know<br /> where he went to” is always written ‘“‘ I know not<br /> whither he is gone.” But perhaps the best feature<br /> of the little book is the testimony it bears between<br /> the lines to the continued and urgent need for an<br /> Authors’ Society.<br /> <br /> G. BERNARD SHAW.<br /> <br /> eg as<br /> <br /> THE RHYMER’S LEXICON.*<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> E have much pleasure in extending to<br /> Mr. Loring’s ‘“ Rhymer’s Lexicon” a<br /> <br /> hearty and unqualified welcome. This<br /> is a work for which we have been hoping, and<br /> looking in vain, for many years, and one whose<br /> solid value will be at once apparent to all who<br /> rightly understand the need which it is intended<br /> to meet.<br /> <br /> Whilst saying this we are not oblivious of the<br /> ridicule usually bestowed upon rhyming diction-<br /> aries, and upon those whd are bold enough to<br /> assert that they consider them useful. But we have<br /> the courage of our opinions, and are fully prepared<br /> to be laughed at—by those who have bestowed less<br /> consideration upon the questions involved. In the<br /> first place, be it remarked, that no one knows<br /> who has used a rhyming lexicon and who has not ;<br /> and next that the Abbé du Bos was probably not<br /> very far wrong when he replied to the satires on<br /> Richelet’s “ Dictionnaire des Rhymes,” “ quoiqu’<br /> ils en disent ils ont tous ce livre dans leurs arricre<br /> cabinet.” But apart from all that, the serious<br /> defence of works of this class is a simple<br /> <br /> * “The Rhymer’s Lexicon,” compiled and edited by<br /> Andrew Loring, with an introduction by George Saints-<br /> bury. London: George Routledge and Sons; New York:<br /> E. P. Dutton &amp; Co. 1904. 8s.<br /> <br /> <br /> matter. The universal testimony of poets pro-<br /> claims the immense assistance to composition<br /> <br /> afforded by rhyme, howsoever much rhyme may<br /> embarrass the tyro and the amateur. It is easy to<br /> see that the essence of this assistance lies in the<br /> suggestion of the rhymed and rhyming words.<br /> But to profit by this suggestion the words must<br /> be familiar to the writer. An unfamiliar word<br /> will not spring forth spontaneously in the heat of<br /> composition, nor one unknown present itself at all.<br /> Indeed, few phenomena of versification are more<br /> curious than the manner in which certain poets<br /> (and those not always poets of small reputation)<br /> are held in bondage by their habitual rhymes.<br /> Emancipation from such chains cannot be, how-<br /> ever, without familiarity with all the terminals,<br /> and with all the words that furnish a given termi-<br /> nation. And it is, to say the least, difficult to see<br /> how this familiarity is to be gained without a<br /> study of the various groups of rhyming words.<br /> But as soon as these groups are presented, they<br /> constitute a rhyming lexicon. No doubt the<br /> beginner takes up the book because he needs some<br /> mechanical aid that may eke out his own incom-<br /> petence. And the poet disregards it, because he is<br /> already master of more than the book can furnish.<br /> But the most accomplished was also at one time a<br /> beginner, and has passed through a stage when<br /> valuable assistance would have been afforded him<br /> by some analytical conspectus of the various<br /> groups of rhyming words. The contempt bestowed<br /> upon rhyming lexicons has always appeared to<br /> us indistinguishable from contempt of other<br /> mechanical aids to the acquisition of knowledge.<br /> Virgil and Horace undoubtedly learned Greek, and<br /> knew it uncommonly well, without the assistance<br /> of an adequate lexicon. But that is hardly a<br /> reason why anyone desirous of mastering the<br /> language should decline to make use of a<br /> dictionary.<br /> <br /> The difficulties involved in the compilation of<br /> an English rhyming lexicon will hardly be appre-<br /> ciated by those who have never bestowed any<br /> consideration upon the problems involved; the<br /> almost insurmountable obstacles in the way of any<br /> rational and lucid order, occasioned by the caprices<br /> of English orthography, and the hardly easier<br /> task of finding the way between the Scylla of<br /> inadequacy, and the Charybdis of columns of<br /> useless words.<br /> <br /> It was on the former obstacle—the orthography<br /> —that Walker made shipwreck. The imperfec-<br /> tions of his work are so familiar that it would be<br /> invidious to recall attention to them here. And it<br /> is pleasanter to dwell upon points too often over-<br /> looked. “The Rhyming Dictionary of the English<br /> Language,” a monument of herculean labour and<br /> perseverance, is a rough clearing of a jungle of<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> perplexities, which has after all done more than any-<br /> thing else to render the rhyming capacities of the<br /> language intelligible. And in principle Walker<br /> was on the right track. Had the orthography of<br /> the language been phonetic he would have produced<br /> a work in which every single word would have<br /> been presented accompanied by its rhymes of<br /> whatsoever kind, strong, weak, single, double,<br /> triple, or more, and that in the most conyenient<br /> order, and with the clearest definition. But the<br /> orthography being hopelessly erratic, “believe,”<br /> “conceive” and “weave ””—“few” and “sue”<br /> were flung far apart; and the “Index of Perfect<br /> Rhymes,” which stands at the end of the book asa<br /> kind of appendix, has been naturally left imperfect,<br /> seeing that to perfect it would mean to present all<br /> the words a second time. But Walker had seen<br /> so clearly what many of the needs of a rhyming<br /> dictionary are, that to follow him is often safer<br /> than to strike out a new line.<br /> <br /> Walker’s system was the simple one of arranging<br /> the words in inverse alphabetical order, beginning<br /> with the last letter and reading backwards, commenc-<br /> ing “a,” “baa,” “ abba,” instead of “a,” “ aaronic,”<br /> “aback.” The labour of arrangement must have<br /> been immense. But, as the words above mentioned<br /> show, the orthography rendered the result, for<br /> rhyming purposes, most inadequate. To elaborate<br /> other systems, that will bring together all the<br /> words that rhyme is neither easy nor impossible.<br /> (And any system would probably appear lucid to<br /> the man who had bestowed upon it the labour<br /> necessary to bring it to perfection.) But it is<br /> absolutely impossible to invent a system against<br /> which well-founded charges of confusedness cannot<br /> be brought. The critic who desires to make merry<br /> over an English Rhyming Dictionary shall always<br /> have as wide a field for his sarcasm as his heart<br /> can desire—that is the destructive critic. The<br /> critic who would propose something that shall<br /> ameliorate the book will probably discover that<br /> his suggestions, if carried into execution, would,<br /> whilst they remedied certain very patent imperfec-<br /> tions, simultaneously produce an ample crop of new<br /> inconveniences, and those possibly worse than what<br /> they were intended to cure. This is perhaps the<br /> reason why so long a time has elapsed without any<br /> work having appeared that represents any real<br /> advance beyond what had been done by Walker.<br /> Perhaps one and another enterprising spirit has<br /> tried one or another of the few rational systems of<br /> arrangement possible, and perceiving that to avoid<br /> confusion, whether in one way or another was out<br /> of the question, has thrown up the task in despair.<br /> For at least so far as we know nothing has been<br /> attempted that amounts to any more than an<br /> enlargement of Walker’s “ Index.”<br /> <br /> Happily at last Mr. Loring has boldly taken one<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> of the possible systems (and, in our opinion, the<br /> actually best of them) and has resolutely carried it<br /> through. We doubt whether the author himself<br /> realises how great a work he has accomplished.<br /> For in a task of this kind, ‘“‘ I] n’y a que le premier<br /> pas qui cotite.” When once the onerous enterprise<br /> of getting the mass of words into a certain order has<br /> been accomplished, subsequent amplification and<br /> elaboration are easy: and we wish Mr. Loring<br /> many future editions. The system adopted is a<br /> classification of the rhymes in alphabetical order,<br /> but in groups under the characteristic vowel, a, 4;<br /> e,%; etc. Mr. Loring distinguishes thus fourteen<br /> vowel sounds (explaining what he has done with<br /> the rarer additional ones), and then in the three<br /> parts of his work presents the single (oxytone),<br /> double or feminine (paroxytone), and_ treble<br /> (proparoxytone) rhymes belonging to each of the<br /> fourteen groups. It will be seen at once how far<br /> he has gone in advance of any previous compiler,<br /> if only in dealing with the double and triple<br /> rhymes. With the characteristic vowel for guide,<br /> to find any word is an easy task. In fact the<br /> <br /> problem of discovering the requisite word (one of<br /> the difficulties of any lexicon in which the words<br /> are arranged in classes) is completely solved. And<br /> the word being found, all the others that rhyme<br /> with it are in immediate juxtaposition. The words<br /> are ranged in columns, an assistance to the eye of<br /> <br /> the very greatest value.<br /> <br /> In collecting words Mr. Loring has spread out<br /> his net somewhat widely, but we think that here<br /> also he has been well advised. The lyric poet will<br /> no doubt find much that he will justly consider<br /> rubbish. If necessary he has only to draw his<br /> pen across what he considers useless. But a<br /> rhyming lexicon must be for all, and must cater as<br /> well for the needs of the satirist and the comic<br /> versifier, as for those of the troubadour and the<br /> tragedian.<br /> <br /> In venturing to make a few suggestions, we feel<br /> that the author has possibly already considered the<br /> points which we shall mention, and has arrived at<br /> a conclusion different from our own. If so, we<br /> would yet plead for a reconsideration of one or<br /> two particulars in which it seems to us that the<br /> author might in a future edition add to the value<br /> of his work. We think that different words that<br /> happen to be identical in form should be differen-<br /> tiated. Thus, for example, we find “lay ” standing<br /> alone to represent “to lay,” “he lay,” “lay” (a<br /> song), “lay” (direction), and “lay” (adjective,<br /> belonging to the laity). That all these furnish<br /> but one rhyme is true. But does the one group of<br /> letters, “lay,” sufficiently suggest all the words ?<br /> We doubt it. Inside each group the words are<br /> arranged in the ordinary alphabetical order,<br /> beginning with the first letter. This certainly<br /> <br /> 309<br /> <br /> renders addition easy. But it puts verbs and their<br /> compounds far apart, and does not keep identical<br /> terminations (which do not rhyme) together.<br /> Would not Walker’s inverse order have remedied<br /> both these things? ‘Taking a small group, the<br /> two arrangements work out thus :—<br /> Loring’s System. Walker’s System.<br /> asp<br /> gasp<br /> hasp<br /> clasp |<br /> enclasp<br /> unclasp |<br /> rasp<br /> grasp<br /> engrasp<br /> <br /> asp<br /> <br /> clasp<br /> <br /> enclasp<br /> <br /> engrasp<br /> <br /> gasp<br /> <br /> grasp<br /> <br /> hasp<br /> <br /> rasp<br /> <br /> unclasp<br /> <br /> Here Walker’s system immediately shows that<br /> <br /> though there are nine words there are only five<br /> <br /> rhymes, it also sets side by side verbs and their<br /> <br /> compounds. When the group is large and the<br /> <br /> orthography erratic there is certainly considerable<br /> <br /> difficulty involved in arranging the words in<br /> <br /> Walker’s inverted order, but we believe that it is<br /> <br /> the consonant preceding the rhyme and not the con-<br /> <br /> sonant commencing the word, that should rule the<br /> <br /> group. And we wish that the author had not been<br /> <br /> quite so modest in his preface, and had given us a<br /> <br /> little more of the results of the conclusions at<br /> <br /> which he must have arrived on many difficult points<br /> whilst engaged in this intricate labour.<br /> <br /> But with so much to praise and so much for<br /> which to be sincerely grateful, we are far from<br /> wishing to lay stress upon our own views respect-<br /> ing details. Mr. Loring has produced a Rhyming<br /> Lexicon immensely in advance of anything of the<br /> kind that has hitherto existed in English. We<br /> can unhesitatingly recommend his book, and we do<br /> recommend a serious study of it. It is a work<br /> that should be in the hands of. everyone who<br /> desires to have a clear apprehension of the rhyming<br /> capacities of the English tongue : that is to say, of<br /> everyone who writes or desires to write verse.<br /> Unless we are very much mistaken it not only<br /> ought to be, but very soon will be in every versifier’s<br /> library: for no compendium of English rhyme<br /> hitherto published approaches anywhere near the<br /> lucidity and comprehensiveness of “ ‘The Rhymer’s<br /> Lexicon.”<br /> <br /> —_——_————__1—__+—__<br /> <br /> THE COLLABORATION.<br /> <br /> ++ —<br /> <br /> T’ one time, not so very long since, I used<br /> A frequently to meet Matheson at the club.<br /> He struck me as a pleasant sort of fellow<br /> enough, and from exchanging a few remarks about<br /> the weather, to which he replied in a less banal<br /> <br /> <br /> 310<br /> <br /> manner than common, I had begun to conceive<br /> quite a high opinion of his ability. Soon we got<br /> to talk freely on subjects of a greater intrinsic<br /> interest, such as literature, and he let drop one<br /> day, in a casual fashion, the remark that he had read,<br /> and admired, my last book. In those days, such a<br /> statement meant a good deal to me. I admit that<br /> I was pleased with the man, and confirmed in my<br /> estimate of his talents. I think it possible now<br /> that he had merely read some reviews of it, for I<br /> recollect that he displayed a little uneasiness when<br /> I referred to one or two incidents in it that I<br /> thought might have impressed him favourably.<br /> However, at the time no such fancy entered my<br /> mind—my temperament is naturally averse trom<br /> suspicion—and when, one day, Matheson sug-<br /> gested that we should collaborate in a work of<br /> fiction, I assented readily. I had always rather<br /> liked the idea of collaboration : it seemed to me<br /> that a good deal of the preliminary labour of con-<br /> struction (to which I have a rooted antipathy)<br /> could in this method be settled with a minimum of<br /> personal effort. Instead of sitting down to a<br /> month’s hard thinking—a process that goes near<br /> reducing me to a skeleton—I saw myself talking<br /> things over amicably with Matheson, and in a few<br /> conversations arranging the whole matter to our<br /> mutual satisfaction. Frankly, ideas come to me<br /> with a wonderful freedom when I happen to be in<br /> the society of a congenial spirit: alone, in the<br /> solitude of my study, I am too ready, perhaps, to<br /> fall into trains of thought unconnected with the<br /> subject in hand. And, besides, Matheson was in-<br /> experienced in writing: it would be my part to<br /> revise the text and throw it into literary form ;<br /> surely it was only natural to suppose that he would<br /> cheerfully undertake the task of supplying raw<br /> material for the plot.<br /> <br /> I will do Matheson the justice to allow that he<br /> saw this as soon as I represented it to him. He<br /> was quite humble, and expressed himself as only too<br /> delighted to take any part of the work that I might<br /> suggest. I confess that I was pleased at the way<br /> in which he spoke of the honour of being asso-<br /> ciated with me, for mine was never one of those<br /> hard-headed, matter-of-fact natures that profess a<br /> distaste for flattery. And certainly Matheson had<br /> a facility in devising unusual incidents. We dis-<br /> cussed our plot almost daily for about a week—<br /> generally in the billiard room, which was not being<br /> much used at that time—and I have seldom en-<br /> joyed a week more thoroughly. Our meetings<br /> were always hilarious, for Matheson’s extraordinary<br /> schemes had their comical side, and at the same<br /> time, even while laughing over some preposterous<br /> suggestion of his, we had the pleasing sensation of<br /> being at work upon something definite. I dislike<br /> above all things feeling that I am wasting my time.<br /> <br /> TAE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> At last, however, everything was atranged, and<br /> it was decided that we should begin work imme-<br /> diately on the actual writing. Hitherto I have<br /> always shrunk from sitting down to a full-blown<br /> novel: the length of the task before me has a<br /> <br /> _ terrifying effect, and I can never work with convic-<br /> <br /> tion until I see the end in sight. Consequently<br /> the few attempts I have made at novel-writing<br /> have generally ended abruptly: I have gone on<br /> until I was tired of my puppets, and then dropped<br /> them, with the result of producing an amorphous<br /> tale, not long enough for a novel and too long for<br /> a short story. But, with a collaborator, I flattered<br /> myself things would be much easier, and especially if<br /> we arranged to write alternate chapters. A single<br /> chapter at a time I could manage as well as any<br /> novelist living : it was the deadening thought of<br /> having to continue indefinitely that paralyzed me<br /> when working alone. It was settled then that<br /> Matheson should send the initial chapter on to me<br /> as soon as he could get it done, and that I should<br /> reply, so to speak, with number two. It bade fair<br /> to be as easy a game as writing letters: we ought,<br /> at least, to do two chapters a week by this method<br /> without feeling it ; and I saw the whole thing com-<br /> pleted, in my mind’s eye, in something less than<br /> four months.<br /> <br /> I will concede, if you like, that I took my part<br /> of the work easily enough. Matheson was the<br /> younger man of the two, and the plot was his own<br /> —a double reason why he should work it out in<br /> his own manner. Besides, incident has never been<br /> my strong point ; I was always best—so my friends<br /> told me—at digression. I saw an opportunity here<br /> to brighten my collaborator’s steady, plodding style<br /> of narration with alternate chapters on things in<br /> general. Of course, I utilised his characters.<br /> Some of them I elaborated considerably, infusing<br /> life and vigour into their somewhat wooden limbs,<br /> differentiating them—they were all rather alike at<br /> starting—with a thousand quaint touches and deli-<br /> cate sidelights. As time went on, I got quite<br /> interested in the book, but I noticed that Matheson<br /> grew more and more reserved in his manner<br /> towards me. I see now that this was the result of<br /> an uneasy conscience. He was even then consider-<br /> ing the dastardly action that has dissolved our<br /> friendship. At the time I attributed his gloom to<br /> indigestion.<br /> <br /> The work progressed quickly, but the end did<br /> not come quite so readily as might have been<br /> expected. In fact, I left it very much to Matheson<br /> to develop his climax: I enjoyed my part of the<br /> writing very well, and was in no particular hurry<br /> to bring it to aconclusion. It rather amused me than<br /> otherwise to watch Matheson’s efforts to bring on his<br /> closing scene. In consequence of this, the book ran<br /> eventually to no inconsiderable length—something ©<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> like a hundred and fifty thousand words, I should<br /> say. However, it was finished at last, and I proposed<br /> to Matheson that we should entrust the manuscript<br /> to a certain publisher with whom I had had deal-<br /> ings before. Matheson seemed doubtful ; he hinted<br /> at the necessity of careful revision, and finally went<br /> off with the copy (as he said) to weld the whole<br /> together more effectually. I saw no more of him<br /> for a considerable time. When we did meet, and<br /> I tackled him on the subject, he seemed strangely<br /> nervous and ill at ease. He hinted vaguely at a<br /> want of homogeneity about the book, at the differ-<br /> ence between our styles, and so forth. I thought<br /> he was suffering from a sense of his own inferiority<br /> and endeavoured to console him.<br /> <br /> “My dear fellow,” I remember saying, “you<br /> really write very passable English. Of course, in<br /> your part—the narrative part—one does not expect<br /> to find that style which is proper to general<br /> reflections. Frankly, I think that your somewhat<br /> severe simplicity is an admirable foil to my own<br /> more ornamental method.” And I went on<br /> explaining my meaning to him at some length,<br /> until he seemed satisfied. This was just before my<br /> summer holiday. We went abroad, and circum-<br /> stances compelled me to remain away from town<br /> the best part of a year. I wrote occasionally to<br /> Matheson, offering suggestions, but received no<br /> reply. The man had not the courage to tell me<br /> what he was about to do. It was not until I<br /> returned to the club that I discovered the extent<br /> of his villainy. A parcel was awaiting me, addressed<br /> in his handwriting. I opened it, half expecting<br /> to find the first proofs of our joint effort. It con-<br /> tained, instead, the manuscript of my own chapters,<br /> and a short letter. Some friend, said Matheson,<br /> had advised him that the book, as it stood, was in<br /> reality two books—a story and a collection of<br /> essays founded upon the story. A publisher had<br /> offered him a certain sum for the story part, and he<br /> had closed with the offer. Perhaps I might like to<br /> do the same with my essays !<br /> <br /> Matheson’s book has not yet appeared, but I live<br /> in hope that I may get it for review. He has left<br /> the club.<br /> <br /> E. H. Lacon Watson.<br /> <br /> —_—_—_—__—_—_—___¢—______<br /> <br /> CORRESPONDENCE.<br /> <br /> 9<br /> <br /> THe PRINCIPLES OF COPYRIGHT.<br /> <br /> Sir,—The recent action of the music-publishers<br /> having raised certain issues in connection with<br /> copyright, in respect of which they ask for pro-<br /> tective legislation (after drawing attention to their<br /> “rights” by what looks very like an abuse of<br /> <br /> 311<br /> <br /> power), perhaps you will kindly allow me to<br /> exhibit the matter in a light somewhat drier than<br /> is usual in the pages of newspapers.<br /> <br /> 1. Copyright, being a monopoly, is, as such,<br /> properly subject to regulation by law for the public<br /> benefit. It is not for the public benefit that<br /> worthy authors should be discouraged ; nor is it<br /> for the benefit of authors that the public should<br /> be discouraged.<br /> <br /> 2. Copyright differs from patent-right in being<br /> self-conferred, in undergoing no test, and in the<br /> length of time it endures. It resembles patent-<br /> right in being valuable according to its suitability<br /> to the public requirements. ;<br /> <br /> 3. Copyright has been declared (by an eminent<br /> novelist) to be a ‘‘natural” right. But if a book<br /> fall flat, so that booksellers will not give it place<br /> on their shelves, of what value is the copyright ?<br /> Landor’s “ Pentameron” was such a book. And<br /> from this we see that the value of copyright<br /> depends on public opinion.<br /> <br /> 4, A book published to sell at (say) 4s. 6d. may<br /> be desired by members of the public who can only<br /> afford 1s. Nevertheless, the publisher will, in<br /> most cases, continue to maintain the higher price<br /> (on which his proportion of profit is much greater),<br /> because he fears that many who now pay 4s. 6d.<br /> would otherwise pay ls., and that the extra sales<br /> at 1s. will not make up the difference lost. That<br /> the well-to-do purchaser of the cheap edition might<br /> buy some three or four other books would not<br /> console the publisher of the favourite one. Look-<br /> ing a little further, we see that publishing would<br /> be somewhat more hazardous if cheap editions<br /> were a matter of course in certain cases, because<br /> the publisher’s judgment would have to he exer-<br /> cised as to which should be published ab inito at<br /> a low price, and which not. Obviously, books of<br /> a less finished or rough and ready diction should<br /> only properly be sold at popular prices; then<br /> competing, greatly to the public advantage, with<br /> the deleterious penny “novelette.”” As matters<br /> stand, the producers of the inferior kinds of litera-<br /> ture proper have a great advantage in respect of<br /> pecuniary profit, for those members of the public<br /> who are fond of such will buy even at the higher<br /> price. In fact, the price should be according to<br /> the quality.<br /> <br /> 5. Up to the present the tendency of all copy-<br /> right legislation has been to favour the inferior<br /> author unduly (and therefore, to a much greater<br /> extent, the publisher), and the reluctance of the<br /> Legislature has been caused by their not seeing<br /> their way quite clearly. The correct principles<br /> seem to be:<br /> <br /> (a) That so long as a work remains in manu-<br /> script it is private property, but as soon as it is<br /> published it becomes also public property and<br /> 312<br /> <br /> subject to the demands of the public, so far as it is<br /> worth anyone’s while to supply them. On the<br /> other hand, an author’s name or pseudonym is<br /> always his private property, and cannot properly<br /> be affixed to any publication without his consent.<br /> Other infringements of the author’s (common-<br /> law ?) rights are, to affix another name, pseudonym<br /> or initials to his work, and to publish under the<br /> same title a different work or defective copy.<br /> <br /> (6) Printed or other copies are the private pro-<br /> perty of either printer or purchaser, and it would<br /> seem that the wisdom of Parliament was seriously<br /> misled when it authorised the seizure and destruc-<br /> tion of such copies.<br /> <br /> (c) In equity, any one may print and offer to<br /> the public at any price he thinks proper any number<br /> of copies of a publication not bearing the author’s<br /> name or pseudonym ; but he must be prepared to<br /> prove that he sells them at a profit on the cost of<br /> production, without advertisements.<br /> <br /> (d@) The use of the author’s name or pseudonym<br /> should be a legal right on prepayment to the author<br /> or his assignees of a percentage (fixed by law) on<br /> the selling price of the number printed.<br /> <br /> (e) Printers should be prohibited from printing<br /> works bearing an author’s name, unless authorised<br /> by his counter-signature of the order, the genuine-<br /> ness of which they should be bound to ascertain.<br /> They should also be obliged to furnish exact quan-<br /> tities and descriptions to the author, on taking the<br /> work in hand.<br /> <br /> (f) It should be forbidden to offer for sale any<br /> copy bearing the author’s name unless the same<br /> also bear his private mark or monogram. He<br /> must also have the right to inspect the printer’s<br /> books.<br /> <br /> The result of an Act on these lines would be<br /> the solution of the American and Colonial diffi-<br /> culty ; the stoppage of “ piracy” (for the public<br /> would be very shy of buying or using nameless<br /> copies); and generally to place publishing on a<br /> footing precisely similar to the “ dry-goods” and other<br /> businesses. Authors need be under no apprehension<br /> as to not getting their works published. Printers<br /> would be responsible for the proper filling up of<br /> the title-page of works published without an<br /> author’s name. Publishers on their side would<br /> still have the advantage of priority and of those<br /> very numerous works which the libraries take, but<br /> which never become popular enough for cheap<br /> editions. In fact, the cheap edition from the<br /> beginning would only be issued on the strength<br /> of the judgment of an outsider, who might very<br /> possibly “ burn his fingers.” Short stories, articles<br /> and serials would be protected by (a).<br /> <br /> Such seems to be the correct basis for final copy-<br /> right legislation. Composers of course have, in<br /> addition, the advantage of performing rights, for<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> which, however, they will not find it to their<br /> interest to charge too highly.<br /> I an, Sir, yours faithfully<br /> (an old friend in fact),<br /> _Pro Bono Pusuico.<br /> <br /> +<br /> <br /> Tue following letter has been sent us with<br /> reference to a statement made by the author of<br /> thé article in our last issue, “A New Market for<br /> English Books and Editions ” :—<br /> <br /> “Why have you not mentioned “ Watkin’s<br /> English Bookshop,” Bolshaya Mosskaya, St. Peters-<br /> burg? It has been a flourishing and almost<br /> indispensable institution the twenty-five years I<br /> have known St. Petersburg, and probably much<br /> longer. Also, as one who has had actual experience<br /> of advertising in Russia, I found the returns from<br /> the Novoe Vremye and the Niva better than from<br /> any, or all, the publications you name.”<br /> <br /> We have much pleasure in printing the reply<br /> from the writer of the article :—<br /> <br /> “ Notwithstanding the fact that I have been in<br /> St. Petersburg very often, although while acting<br /> as correspondent I chiefly lived in South Russia<br /> or Warsaw, I am sorry to say I did not know of<br /> the existence of an English bookshop in St.<br /> Petersburg. The prices I quoted were from the<br /> catalogues of Messrs. M. O. Wolf, Ltd., similar to<br /> those of Kimmel in Riga, and Rousseau in Odessa.<br /> Idzikowski in Kief. All the Warsaw booksellers,<br /> issue the same catalogue, only with different<br /> headings.<br /> <br /> “As to returns from advertisements, as I am<br /> not myself in the trade, I cannot give facts from<br /> personal knowledge. The sale of the Novoe<br /> Vremya is not so large as it was, owing to the<br /> competition of liberal papers, especially the Russ,<br /> founded by the son of the publisher of the above<br /> named paper. Novy Mir, being the Russian<br /> Graphic, may be found in all aristocratic houses,<br /> that is among the class where buyers of English<br /> books are found. The Miva, which has perhaps<br /> the largest sale among Russian weeklies, is not<br /> suitable, as I think, for such an advertisement. It<br /> is read principally by the middle class and minor<br /> Government officials, who are not likely to buy<br /> English books ; but it might be a good advertising<br /> medium for the general trade. St. Pelersburgskye<br /> Vedomosty is read by the Tsar and the Russian<br /> upper class. All other papers are Polish, and<br /> represent 87,000 of the best Polish reading public<br /> which never reads either of the two Russian papers<br /> mentioned above.<br /> <br /> “ Advertisements of French publications appear<br /> in all the papers I have mentioned.”	https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/507/1905-07-01-The-Author-15-10.pdf	publications, The Author